Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer

by Dante King

  Ben held out a torch in one hand and his scimitar in the other. With no other option, he plunged the torch straight into the face of one vine monster, scorching it and setting it on fire, the flames whooshing and illuminating the passage. The flame fizzled out, burning through the vine quickly enough to snuff itself out.

  Melody cast her lightning spell with a crackle and a boom. The bright blue light flashed through the doorway and scorched a second monster, leaving it charred and blackened.

  Imogen burned a third with her torch, and Lulu used her water spell to ensnare the head of a fourth vine. Using the water as a chain, she yanked back and heaved the vine’s head right off.

  The other two monsters were just out of range. They stopped short of the adventurers and snapped ferociously, springing back and forth to try and get closer.

  “The vines don’t seem all too bright,” Ben called out. “They’re rushing straight into our attacks. But let’s not relax our guard, we don’t know if they can learn from the mistakes the others make.” Ben knew this was how he would’ve designed the level, to learn from the dungeon divers and always present a challenge.

  The others nodded, and they all advanced through the doorway. Several more vine monsters appeared to detect them, but these ones did not lunge forward to attack. Ben had a sinking feeling they would wait for the adventurers to come within range. It looked like he was right. They learned fast.

  Using his scimitar, he made short work of one of the two vine monsters that were still close to them, carving them to pieces with well-aimed swipes of his blade. Green blood-like liquid sprayed against the stone walls and trickled down the length of his blade. Melody and Imogen together burned the other one until its screeching stopped.

  Ben looked at the women when it was all over. “Is everyone alright?”

  They nodded.

  “Be on your guard, the other monsters are waiting for us to get close. Melody, can you use your spell on the monsters from here?”

  She shook her head. “I need to get a little bit closer.”

  “Then we’ll get closer,” Ben said. He handed his torch to Imogen. “You take this, I need a hand free to use my Drain spell.”

  Imogen took the second torch.

  “I’m gonna cast my spell as soon as they get within reach,” Ben called out. “You three will need to draw them out. Get close enough to attack, then the vines will have to come closer. But be careful.”

  “Don’t you worry about us, Benjamin,” Lulu assured him. “The vines will be no match for our strength combined.”

  Ben simply nodded at her, and the three women advanced. He hung back, just outside the range of the vine monsters’ attack, but close enough to cast his spell as soon as the vines came closer. Nipper squatted on his haunches beside Ben, ready to attack.

  The three women advanced a yard inside the range of the vine monsters, but still nothing happened. One footstep at a time, they advanced another yard.

  Melody raised her wand, lightning crackling at the end of it. She took another step forward. Then with a loud screech, five of the monsters lunged.

  All turned to chaos in front of Ben, as the women cast their spells and ducked and weaved, dodging great snapping jaws. Lulu yanked and strangled with her water noose. Melody zapped monsters with her lightning spell, and Imogen burned faces with her twin torches.

  Ben quickly examined the vine monsters’ energy strands to see what he could extract. He was puzzled to observe that the monsters had no strands of mental or emotional energy whatsoever. How had they been learning from the adventurers’ behavior then? Perhaps that was all coming from the dungeon itself, which was rumored to be sentient.

  Ben could still see strands of physical energy, however. This time, instead of taking all of the physical energy, he located a specific portion, one that vibrated and bounced like collections of neon green pinballs. It wasn’t clear what those would do, but obviously the Drain spell could still be used to extract energy, even from non-sentient beings.

  Exactly what sort of creatures could he extract energy from, he wondered? And could he extract kinetic energy from a falling rock for instance? Or just from living beings? He made a mental note to research this later—but that moment wasn’t the time.

  Ben hauled on the strands of green energy from the remaining two vine monsters within range. He was able to drain them almost completely before his body filled up. The monsters slowed right down to a crawl, lazily bobbing their snapping jaws up and down in the air.

  The women turned to Ben to see what had happened. He took a step forward, and with lightning speed, he dashed right up to the women. His vision blurred as his feet sped along the stone surface so fast he could barely feel them moving.

  He skidded to a stop in front of Melody and the nymphs, who stared at him for a moment with their mouths open.

  “Uh, it looks like I can drain speed from the vine monsters.” Ben laughed. “And they seem to have a lot of it.”

  Nipper scampered after him, giving chase, and nipped at Ben’s ankles when he caught up.

  Melody turned back to the two sluggishly bouncing vine monsters behind them and zapped them both, causing their giant green heads to explode.

  “Can you do that again?” she asked.

  Ben looked inside himself, checking his mana. “My mana’s recovering quickly. I think I can give each of you a dose.”

  Melody grinned. “Then let’s finish these monsters.”

  There were still more vine monsters appeared, waiting out of range, ready to lunge and attack the adventurers.

  Ben divided up the speed energy he had absorbed between the three women. He found he was able to give a tiny amount to Nipper as well, though the kitten’s capacity for energy was still quite low.

  “Keep an eye on him,” Ben told the women. “I don’t want Nipper running in with super speed and getting himself killed.”

  Melody smiled confidently. “Nipper is learning quickly. But yes, we will keep him safe.”

  “Alright then, draw the monsters out, so I can absorb some more of their energy.” Ben waited a couple of paces behind the women.

  Melody and the nymphs now took turns dashing toward the vine monsters and casting an attack, then dashing back out of range.

  Ben had to be swift, but he’d had a lot of practice now. As soon as a monster came close enough, he drained as much of their speed as he could. The monster would languidly bounce about like a yoyo on the end of a string, and the women would finish it off.

  The women used up their speed quickly doing this, and it was all Ben could do to keep them fully supplied. The monsters also recognized what was happening before long. With the monsters now aware of their ploy, the women had to start creeping slowly forward together, acting as though their speed was all used up. They had to kill some of the monsters before Ben even got a chance to drain them. They burned, zapped, decapitated, and stomped on monster heads.

  Even Nipper joined the fight. He was cautious, but with his super speed he was able to dart inside the range of the monsters, who didn’t seem to consider him a threat. That is, until he sunk his tiny, razor-sharp teeth right into their vines, ripping through them like wet paper.

  He managed to kill several monsters by getting right to their roots at the wall and severing their long necks before they realized what was happening. Of course, the monsters learned quickly and started targeting him, but he learned as well.

  With a dose of speed from Ben, he was able to dart in and draw the attention of the monsters, then drag them back out, exposing them to the women’s attacks.

  Finally, they got down to the last half dozen vine monsters at the end of the hall. The monsters might not have been sentient, but Ben was sure the way they cowered in a corner together was a sign of fear, or at least of caution on the part of the dungeon.

  Ben decided he wanted to get his hands dirty for the last part. He and the women still all had enough speed energy to last another round. Ben gripped his scimitar in both
hands, and waited as the others prepared their attacks.

  Lulu had her globule of water poised above her head. Melody’s wand crackled with blue lightning, casting lurid flashes around the bright green glowing hall. Imogen had a surprisingly bloodthirsty grin on her face as she held both torches in front of her. And Nipper pranced impatiently at Ben’s feet. He was spoiling for a fight, but obviously wise enough not to go in alone.

  On Ben’s signal, they all dashed forward. The six vine monsters lunged to meet the adventurers as they came well within their range. Ben and the women each went on the offensive and began the slaughter.

  Yelling the closest he could think of to a warcry, Ben swung his scimitar forward and up with all his strength. The blade sliced into gooey plant flesh, instantly cleaving the monster’s head in two, spraying sap and goo all across the hall ceiling. The vine the head had been attached to swung limply and dropped to the floor.

  Imogen attacked two vine monsters at once. She made no sound as she thrust the two torches into the monsters’ faces, setting their heads ablaze. She had a grim but satisfied smile on her face as she did her violent work. Ben kept his eyes on the flames, realizing with relief that the fire was burning through the vine monsters before spreading to the rest of the plants on the walls.

  The two vine monsters thrashed about, fanning their own flames, until the sap inside them boiled, and their heads popped, green blood erupting like a geyser. The scorched vines fell to the ground motionless.

  Melody ruthlessly and efficiently dealt with her opponent, frying the vine monster in an instant with a heavy dose of magical voltage. The lightning strike boomed through the hall, rattling the green glowing growths on the walls. The vine monster’s head fell smoking to the ground.

  Lulu yelled a high-pitched battlecry and ensnared the neck of the nearest vine monster with a liquid noose. Manipulating the noose with her hands, she flung the monster’s head as far as she could, until the head was yanked right off its neck with a pop.

  Nipper took out the last monster. The plant creature was busy trying to attack Ben, snapping its jaws, just out of reach of his scimitar. Ben’s skill with the weapon was slowly increasing, but he still couldn’t get past the monster’s defenses.

  Nipper used the opportunity to gnaw right through the stem of the monster, unnoticed. As the monster made a final desperate lunge at Ben, Nipper severed the vine, and the whole monster collapsed to the ground.

  Everyone clapped and cheered for Nipper, who stood by the wall spitting plant juices out of his mouth, an expression of total disgust on his tiny face.

  “We did it,” Ben said, relief in his voice.

  The women came to stand beside him, and he and Melody embraced, both a little exhausted.

  Ben turned to Lulu and Imogen. “You both fought well. Your use of magic was really impressive.”

  The nymphs looked slightly puzzled.

  “That’s totally normal of course,” Ben hastened to add. “I just mean that you both used your skills very well.”

  Nipper bounded over to the group and rubbed himself against Ben’s leg. Ben stooped to scratch his ears.

  Melody used her wand to absorb the vine monsters’ essence for mana purification, since Nipper wouldn’t touch the monsters. Ben took one of the mana crystals Melody had already refined. He needed to keep his levels high for whatever faced them below.

  Ben also tried smashing one of the glowing lights on the wall with the hilt of his scimitar, to see if they contained anything of value. Glowing green goo spilled out. In the cavity lay a small glowing crystal. Ben scooped it out and held it up.

  “What are these, Melody?” he asked.

  Melody shrugged. “I have never seen these crystals before. I would assume they have some sort of power, since they give off light by themselves.”

  Ben dropped the crystal back into its cavity. “We can gather these up on our way back out of the dungeon. They might be useful later.”

  “Well, time to see what the next level holds in store for us,” Ben said, as soon as they had all recovered their breath.

  A winding flight of stairs spiraled downward at the end of this hallway. They descended to the next level, which was guarded by giant rodents. Melody said the rodents were earth-based creatures. They had far more physical strength than any other attribute. Nipper appeared to find them far tastier than the vine monsters.

  The level after that contained more gravel ghouls. Ben continued periodically taking mana crystals to supplement his own regeneration. He was cautious not to overdose and make himself sick though, as he didn’t know how much harder the levels might get before they rescued Vinata. If he had to overdose, it had better be before facing the most dangerous dungeon guardians, not regular mobs like these.

  Curiously, they encountered no traps. This was a mystery that gave Ben a little pause since he would have certainly installed traps throughout such a place if given the chance, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Still, he thought it too good to be true. No doubt that if he would’ve designed the place, it’d be full of traps.

  Ben may not have been able to take part directly in the fight just yet, but his use of Drain provided invaluable support to the women as they were fighting, so it became essential for Melody to keep refining enough mana crystal to replenish Ben’s supply. Ben stowed a chunk in his pocket for later in the fight as well.

  They made short work of the gravel ghouls this time as well. Nipper feasted on their gelatinous corpses, although Melody made him leave a couple of corpses, allowing her to refine some more mana crystal.

  Ben shook his head at Nipper, wondering how such a small creature could eat so much. Where was it all going? The little kitten ought to have expanded like a balloon after consuming so much flesh, but he remained as tiny as ever.

  Melody insisted their child’s carnivorous habits were cute. She cooed over him like a proud mother as he chewed up and swallowed chunks of flesh. Ben wasn’t so sure. He’d always had a strong stomach for gore, but watching a kitten do this took some adjusting.

  Ben also found in this fight that his range had increased slightly. He was able to drain the strength from the gravel ghouls at four yards now, and the women received more strength when he transferred it to them. The attrition was growing less problematic.

  As they were walking down the hallway after slaughtering the gravel ghouls, Nipper let out a groan. His face took on the disturbing expression common among cats before they cough up a hairball.

  Ben turned to look at him, convulsing. “Are you sick, buddy? Just a thought—maybe don’t gorge yourself until you puke next time.”

  Melody shook her head. “I don’t think he’s sick.”

  Nipper was shaking by this point.

  “Well, what’s making him do that then?” Ben thought he ought to have felt sorry for the kitten, but it was difficult to have any sympathy when the child had been so greedily consuming monster flesh.

  Melody stared at the kitten, her eyes wide with wonder. “I think he’s--”

  “He’s changing!” Imogen burst in, waving the torch she carried with excitement.

  Nipper’s fur started rapidly falling off in certain places, leaving bald patches of skin on his shoulders, back and head. He opened his mouth wide and yowled, as his front teeth popped out.

  “Shouldn’t we do something?” Ben asked, starting to feel a bit worried.

  But the women stared at him like he was an adorable kitten. Technically he was, but he didn’t look that way anymore. For some reason the women seemed to find this transformation normal.

  Nipper arched his back, and his bones made a crunching and popping sound. His frame expanded, and he grew in height, until his head reached Ben’s knee.

  Then the skin on his back burst open like a ripped paper bag, and a huge bony plate jutted through. Another one appeared on his head, and a third on his shoulders, each one locking together.

  The empty sockets in his mouth spurted blood, then clear l
iquid. A grinding noise sounded in his jaws, and two enormous teeth grew into place. When Nipper was finally able to close his mouth, the giant fangs rested on either side of his lower jaw, like the teeth of a saber-tooth tiger.

  He was a great cat now, covered in armor that appeared to be made of stone. His bright purple eyes blazed with new energy. He growled, loudly. His growl was lower than before, but still with a high-pitched note, like a teenager’s breaking voice.

  He looked up at Ben and padded over to him, nuzzling his hand.

  Bewildered, Ben scratched Nipper’s ears. Nipper purred loudly.

  “You better not try nipping me now,” Ben warned. “I’m not into losing fingers.”

  Melody and the nymphs oohed and ah-ed over the growing cat and bent down to pet him.

  “How did this happen so fast?” Ben wondered out loud.

  Melody looked up at him. “His armor is made of stone. I think that must mean it comes from the gravel ghouls he was eating.”

  “So, he changes depending on what he eats?” Ben scratched his head. “It’ll be interesting to see how much he changes in the future.”

  They set off down the hallway again. Nipper, as large as a tiger by now, padded alongside Ben.

  Finally, they reached a great door, larger than any entrance they’d seen prior to this point. Above the doorway, a large frieze was carved into the dark gray stone, depicting a knight riding on horseback. The knight stared up at a figure who looked like a lord, riding a winged monster.

  The stone still had flecks of paint adhering in places. The knight was evidently wearing golden armor, while the lord he faced was clothed entirely in black. His monstrous steed was also black as night.

  The knight’s pose looked heroic as he brandished his sword threateningly. The lord’s face was disfigured and distorted, anything but attractive. Ben wondered who this evil lord and his opponent might have been.

  Imogen let out a cry of recognition.

  Ben turned to look at her.

  “I know this artwork,” she said. “It is believed to have been carved by the first priestess of the Oreads.”