Chapter 14: A Dungeon’s Best Friend

Date and Time Unknown

Dungeon Ciara

Sven popped into existence while I fawned over my pups as they played near the shore. “Not too bad—for a problem child. You’ve actually managed to get a few things right!” Sven wore a half-smirk.

[Has anyone ever told you that you’re obnoxious?]

“Outside my own kin and aside from you—none who have lived to tell the tale.” Sven grinned.

[I seriously doubt a cat-sized lizard can cause serious harm to anyone.]

“Ah, it’s easy to forget that you lack perspective. Since you have no qualms about creating landmarks that call attention to your presence, I see no reason to hide mine. Look to the sky above, young one.” Sven smiled sweetly.

[What am I supposed to watch for? You gonna tackle some poor, unwitting hermit crab and have your way with its chitinous little holy CRAP!]

The fog rapidly retreated as if burned away, revealing the stars in all their glory. But that wasn’t what caused me to shout in surprise.

Sven’s black-red, ghostly form hovered above the beach.

The entire beach.

His tail waved slowly side-to-side above the east end while his head loomed high above my new entrance by the Harbor. Sven’s wings flapped slowly and powerfully, distorting my vision with every stroke as his entire body cast a glow of deepest red across the entire area. His light made it seem like the nearby mountains were smoldering. But his tremendous wings were silent and didn’t stir the air.

“Behold the true scale of your Spirit Guide, young Dungeon.” Contrary to Sven’s body, which had no physical effect on the world that I could see beyond its appearance and luminance, his incredibly deep voice shook the entire area. The words settled hillocks of debris among the destroyed neighborhoods, kicking up dust and ash to form a low-hanging fog of filth that rolled slowly downhill to the ocean.

Sven arced his long neck to grin down at me, his head four times the size of the original Crow’s Nest restaurant, with teeth twice as tall as a man’s body. Then he vanished back to his usual form, floating with an amused expression near my core.

[How did you do that?] I failed to conceal the apprehension in my voice.

“I merely revealed my true size. I have already told you that the Universe is a much more dangerous place than you know.” Sven shrugged.

[Yes, but you said it was a Dragon who changed me into a Dungeon Core. You’ve repeatedly insinuated that Dragons are much more powerful than you. How can your voice shake everything in the same way?]

“Ah, He most certainly held back, while I released my everyday speech for your listening pleasure. His visage was likely meant for you alone.”

[You’re actually serious? The voice that almost shook me to death… just before I died… was holding back?]

“I never tell lies, young Ciara. A drake’s worth among the Pantheon of Lord Auronox is measured by our integrity.” Sven looked and sounded dead serious.

[Well, if you’re actually trustworthy, then I think we’ll get along well—eventually. But don’t think that it’s gonna change our relationship just because you’re huge and intimidating in some galaxy, far, far away. You winged dinosaur!]

Sven shut his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, shaking his head. “Lord Auronox put His faith in this incorrigible child. I dare not question His wisdom.”

[Okay, okay. Wisdom and faith. Righty-O. So, did you come here just to insult me, or was there some actual reason for your visit?]

After gripping the space between his tightly-shut eyes for a moment, Sven said, “it is nearly time for your debut.”

Sven’s eyes opened to stare intently at me. “Humans will soon explore this area, and you must welcome them properly if you seek to thrive.”

[I see. I’d hoped to have a bit more time.]

“If that was your desire, then why construct a conspicuous entrance, child? Every other structure in the vicinity was annihilated.” Sven gave a slight shrug.

[Oh, right… I can just take it down!]

“It is much too late for that. Many have already caught sight of what you created this day, and many more surely saw and heard my projection above. Humans are inquisitive creatures. Some will likely arrive to investigate in the morning. Do everything in your power to keep your core safe.

“I recommend that you create minions and ore deposits. Guard yourself while distracting the humans with things that they desire. Enlarge the areas you want humans to explore, and remember—while they are near, you will be unable to alter your Dungeon.

“The humans will soon form their first impression of you, and that will determine their reaction to your presence. I suggest you welcome them properly. If you’re too murderous and indiscriminate, you will become a target for annihilation. Too welcoming, and they’ll move right in to take over the place, likely enslaving your core in the process. Balance in all things—that is what our Lord teaches.

“This shall become your first great test, Dungeon Ciara.”

Sven disappeared before I could respond.

Well, crap. I was hoping to collect some additional critters, first.

I sighed.

Time to get started with minions.

I wanted an array of minions that could be intimidating and deadly, useful and beautiful, with each filling a logical niche in my Dungeon’s food chain. As a Biologist who’d been gifted the ability to create and manage ecosystems, I had plans.

To start, I went with the danger aspect. Selecting the body of a Blue Darner dragonfly, I modified only its head and hindquarters. 300%-enlarged chelicerae and fangs from a Black Widow spider could now bite down to deliver potent venom alongside the dragonfly’s normal mouthparts. At the tip of its flexible abdomen, the spinnerets from the same spider were maxed to 500%, to produce extremely strong silk.

The Mana cost for each was steep, consuming around one-sixth of my total. But a few strong minions were better than hordes of fodder, according to Sven. With a limit on how many minions I could have in total, his logic was sound.

I added three spawn points to the ceiling of my old basement.

The Voice chimed in before my new minions appeared, asking me to name the new species I’d created. After a moment’s thought, I had my answer.

Devilfly.

<New minions created: Devilfly x 3. Spawn points set. Respawn timer: 30 minutes.>

My shiny, striking new Devilflies flashed into existence against the ceiling, my Mana dropped by half, and the hunger hit me like a truck.

Oof!

[Girls, it’s time to go hunting. Mommy needs food.]

On the beach, my girls ceased their playful romp and charged into the waves.

They’d broken and scattered a fair amount of the glass crust, revealing familiar sand that I’d occasionally struggled to expunge from the dogs’ fur.

Eager to see how my new Devilflies would fare, I ordered them to collect more arthropods from the nearby mountains. They took off at the first hint of my intent and flew as I expected—with all the incredible agility and grace of “real” dragonflies. The Devilflies exited through the dog door I’d fashioned above and stopped to hover two meters above the ground. For a long moment, they did nothing but turn in place as if looking for something.

What are they doing?

That moment passed, and they flew back down, into my Dungeon.

Huh? Why aren’t they listening? I thought minions would always obey my commands! Did I make a defective species?

I tried again—with the same result.

Crap.

Sunny and Sandy returned with food, which helped ease my frustration. Two more Striped bass, and their mana was delicious. Once my hunger was sated, I decided to build something a little different in my minion interface.

<New minion created: Twilight cricket. Spawn point set. Respawn timer: 30 minutes.>

Only one-tenth of my Mana drained away this time, allowing my hunger to remain in check.

A rude but purposeful juxtaposition of hind legs from a Bush katydid, jaws of a Jerusalem cricket, and the whole head and body of a Tiger beetle along with its powerful running legs, my new Twilight cricket was a little over four times the beetle’s usual mass.

At seven centimeters in length and sporting two large, intimidating sets of jaws, the unique cricket also proved reasonably fast running across the floor, and its jump covered a distance of just over one meter.

Its head was abnormally large to accommodate the musculature necessary to power its twinned mouthparts.

Okay. Moment of truth. I hope this one’s not defective like the others.

[Go and collect new species for the Dungeon!]

It took around ten times as long for this new minion to reach the entrance as it had for the Devilflies. Once outside, my Twilight Cricket charged into some nearby wreckage and disappeared from my sight.

Well, at least it seems to be doing… something.

I waited until Sunny and Sandy brought another round of seafood, then summoned more minions just before my girls did their business of dispatching the catch.

<New minions created: Twilight crickets x 4. Spawn point set. Respawn timer: 30 minutes.>

Having sent those four off after the first, I ordered them all to work together.

It took a while for my cricket squad to return, and I began to worry that they might have run into trouble. But the results of their triumphant return were impressive if a bit gruesome.

Two had caught and subdued some weakly-struggling mice. One carried a writhing Scolopendra centipede by its head, another had a sizable June beetle, and the last hefted a half-dead Black and Yellow Argiope spider.

Wow… these little guys are gonna be helpful.

For now, I resisted the urge to create huge orb-weaving Widow/Argiope hybrid minions. There was one particular local arachnid that I wanted to combine with those two, and I had hope that my crickets might come through with that delivery before morning.

Instead, I focused on my other task—creating ore deposits for the humans.

Creating minions was a disconcerting drain on my mana, but the cheapest ore deposits I could summon required two-thirds of what I had. The other options caused my mana ball to flash red, which I assumed meant that I lacked the mana capacity to summon them.

Before I began, I hollowed out some larger spaces near my “rebuilt” Crow’s Nest. Three winding passages each led from the entrance to their own caverns.

The first passed beneath the beach, toward the ocean. A full round of feeding from my pups later, I had a rough space nine meters across and twenty meters in length, with a low, two-meter ceiling.

Since I had a tide pool theme in mind, I drilled a few tennis-ball-diameter holes to connect it to the ocean, allowing it to fill halfway with seawater. Then I opened up its top in a few places to form an alternative entrance to the Dungeon while letting in sunlight. That also allowed some sand to drop in, which was perfect.

Hm. It needs a bit more circulation from the tide.

I opened a second set of water holes to the Harbor, then adjusted the entrance tunnel’s height to prevent the ocean from flooding the rest of my Dungeon. I knew I could absorb and relocate water if it became a problem, but I preferred a more “natural” approach.

The second new tunnel headed inland from below the entrance; and my idea for its space was a subterranean woodland beneath the Crow’s Nest parking lot. Some of the glass crust on the beach was translucent, so I gathered and worked a bunch of that, shaping it into large panes as I compressed it for strength, which helped remove some of its pigment.

My grand idea came to a grinding halt when I realized how long it would take to finish what I had planned. So, I dug out my intended cave for that area, then installed the three two-by-two-meter panes I’d made in its roof. While the effect wasn’t quite what I’d been going for, the opaque glass was translucent enough to let some moonlight in, so I figured that would do, for now.

Unfortunately, the massive thirty-by-sixty-meter space with its four-meter ceiling that increased to eleven meters tall at its farthest inland point was much too large for three ceiling panels to properly illuminate. Thus, with the seeds provided by Turd, I planted only a sextet of small fruit trees and a few shrubs along with some grasses, directly below the skylights set into the stone ceiling.

Topside, I surrounded the windows with scattered ash and dust, providing surprisingly-effective camouflage when viewed from above. At least, it looked good beneath the moonlight. At the far end of that cave, I placed an iron ore deposit.

With two-thirds of my mana gone in an instant, the hunger was maddening. I felt like I could eat a human. Or ten.

[Girls, food!]

Damn it, I can’t be forgetting that. I’ll end up doing something awful.

But it would be so tasty…

Stop that, me.

Of course, my Labs came running in, excited and empty-mouthed.

Crap. I used the same wording as I had before the war when it was feeding time for them.

[I’m sorry, babies! I meant to say that Mommy needs food. You can have some, too. But I’m super hungry.]

A pair of sideways looks greeted me as they cocked their heads. The Labs locked eyes with one another, then entered what I knew from experience would be an inevitable competition to see who could catch the most impressive fish.

I occupied myself by looking over the ore deposit I’d made. It was larger than anticipated at six meters long and around a meter in thickness. Instead of the rusty wall of rock that I’d been expecting, cube-shaped crystals of iron pyrite grew in aesthetically-pleasing clusters.

I took a moment to admire the gorgeous, perfectly-transparent quartz crystals that grew between sections of pyrite.

Ogling the surprisingly-photogenic deposit was nice, but it didn’t help my hunger. Barely able to think of anything aside from food, I played around with my minion creation interface.

Scolopendra centipedes were one attractive option, along with the spider idea I had before. Combining the two, I ended up with something fun after making it as large as possible.

A highly-venomous centipede, as long as a person’s forearm with the ability to spin super-tough Argiope silk from its hind legs rotated slowly in my vision. For the average person, it was proper nightmare fuel. For me?

Pretty! I want one—or ten.

I’d always been a weird girl who loved crawly things that most people despised. But I was short on mana, hungry as hell, and I didn’t dare to dip any lower for a craving.

A few minutes later my Labs returned, each carrying a single Halibut nearly as large as themselves.

Sandy’s was larger, and her strut showed that she knew it. Sunny didn’t let that bother her too much, but her ears and posture weren’t quite as perky as her sister’s.

Mm… food—it’s a Dungeon’s best friend!

Those wanton words coursed through me like an addictive drug while the corpses were absorbed. That singular concept and the delicious feeling of mana entering my core became nearly as satisfying as the vigorous ministrations of the mysterious visitor who’d pumped my petite human body halfway to oblivion before my evolution.

Not long after I had those thoughts, the feeling ebbed, and I felt horribly guilty. My two best friends in the world were providing food for my gluttonous, self-absorbed new existence, and I’d just silently declared that food was my first love.

But the Dungeon in me smiled and purred with purest satisfaction despite my discomfort, indifferent to the values and cares of my human mind.

This time, following my meal, I waited patiently for my dogs to collect more fish before creating a second iron ore deposit beside the first.

I knew I had only a few hours left until sunrise, and I was nowhere near ready to welcome visitors to my new, cavernous depths.

At first light, I learned the trouble with my Devilflies. They could only see in darkness while inside my Dungeon. Once outside, their eyes became effectively useless in low light.

Feeling better about my investment in them, I sent the Devilflies out to begin collecting for me, and they were worth every bit of mana I paid.

I started gaining new arthropods so quickly, I didn’t know what to do with them all.

By mid-morning, I spotted several humans as they appeared through the thinning fog, along Seabright Beach just beyond the Harbor.

Well, here we go.

I created two extra Devilflies to guard my core room.

Sven claims that a Dungeon can never be too careful, and I’m not about to risk enslavement to test his word.

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Minions: 5/100

Residents: 6/10

Denizens: 3762

Traps: 1/5