Chapter 17: Clean-up Operation

Tuesday, March 28th, 11:47 AM

Dungeon Ciara

“Good. I recommend that you avoid taking on further sapient residents until you see how this pair handles it. Other humans will certainly notice the changes in them, so it’s time for you to work on more minions and traps in case any of them make a run at your core.” Sven pointed at me.

[Thank you for talking me through all of that, Sven. I probably would’ve forgotten to caution the girls about telling others.]

“Ah, you’re still learning, and I was here to assist, so it’s fine. But take care for the future, in case I am not around to guide you. Survival above all else.”

Sven grinned.

“Listen to your instinct.” He tapped a claw against his scaly temple.

[Right…] I dreaded allowing my inner glutton to make decisions—because it would likely result in the slaughter of innocents, and worse, that idea was disturbingly tantalizing.

“Our Lord has Blessed the human, Joe Schimpf. His gift is exceptionally rare for one so weak, as humans must typically reach D-Rank before they can access healing magic. Take care to foster a good relationship with him.”

[I intend to. But first, I need to learn more about him and the others.]

Sven smiled. “Create a boss as soon as you are able. You must first reach your minion capacity. That will also allow you to start your next Floor.”

[I’ll keep that in mind.]

Sven raised his eyebrows. “Remember—it may not seem so at present, but your first few floors are a race against time. Distractions are important, but you must also put as much distance and deadly force between your core and danger as you can, as soon as possible.”

[Okay. I’m going to get back to work on that.]

“Farewell!” Sven disappeared.

As soon as he’d gone, I returned to work on my layout while my pups and minions worked to bring more food.

My denizen count breached 7,000 and I noticed a small boost to my mana income from them as the horde of insects, arachnids, and rodents I’d amassed ate, bred, and died throughout my Dungeon.

I enlarged the exit above my old basement so my resident beans could come and go. The rest of the humans were shocked and full of questions when Rihelah and Siobhán returned, but that was an issue for them to handle.

Joe Schimpf and his group of humans left across the harbor bridge a few minutes afterward, carrying four bags of fruit and several chunks of pyrite. As expected, Siobhán and Rihelah accompanied them. I hoped the pair would serve as ambassadors for my Dungeon.

After witnessing the excitement on their faces over the food and having reaped the benefits of their harvest for myself, I set to work.

My expansion of the tiny fruit grove had begun the moment the humans were out of range. The three glass panels I’d already installed were joined by forty-two more, in a five-by-nine pattern, bathing the entire cavern beneath with a considerable amount of sunlight. That operation took an hour—mostly because I had to shape the panels, but the result was stunning beneath the midday sun.

Once I’d properly reinforced that ceiling to an absurd degree, I shifted soil and sand to expand my small planted area.

I doubled the number for each variety I already had, to four trees of each type, planted in neat rows. Six additional varieties of fruit trees—peach, lime, grapefruit, mango, avocado, and loquats joined my cherries, oranges, and lemons.

Owing to the mana expense of fast-tracking their growth and, because fruit trees were particularly expensive, it took nearly three hours to grow forty-two more. Most of the time was spent doing other things while I waited for my mana to recover.

The tide pools I’d made were already starting to attract local wildlife, and since they were technically part of my Dungeon, those creatures all became denizens.

In-between plantings, I reshaped my existing tide pools to add convenient foot paths for humans to collect food, and I strengthened the old security doors installed by my father above the basement.

When the trees were finished, I planted grasses to form a lush, subterranean meadow around them. I also relocated some of the initial shrubs I’d made to the outer edge and added a few dozen more, to provide hiding places for denizens and minions. For good measure, a mixture of herbs joined the shrubs.

Satisfied with my fruit grove, I turned my attention to my core room. To be specific, I fretted over how close it was to my entrance. Something in my Dungeon mind screamed every time I thought of it.

Sven said to trust my instinct.

I spent the next two hours hollowing out an expansive network of tunnels and caves of various sizes. The main path to my core was redirected entirely for a second time, and routed through six different caverns, each with a few side tunnels ending in unique subterranean rooms.

The passage that had led from my old basement to the core room was filled in with solid stone, leaving that as a special area connected to the rest of my Dungeon only via my vast network of rodent highways and the dog tunnel from the main entrance.

I planned to add a couple of locking doggy doors, in order to prevent unauthorized entry by humans, but that could wait. Right then, I needed minions.

Since most wildlife that had survived near my location was in the ocean, I designed my first aquatic minion.

The body of a Dungeness crab had a Giant Green anemone’s mouth and tentacles suspended beneath. Its back received a coating of sharp urchin spines, the claws were maxed to five times normal, and I tripled its overall size.

At half the mass of one of my pups, my odd new Nemesis crab minions were enormous.

And costly.

Each summons required sixty-five percent of my total mana.

I set a spawn point in the tide pools and sent my first Nemesis crab to hunt. My hunger writhed and churned, increasing my anticipation for my next meal.

My Labrador girls were wonderful, amazing, and superior in every way versus normal dogs. But ultimately, despite their impressive speed and prowess in water, they were land animals.

Returning to my tide pools less than a minute after it had set off, the Nemesis crab bore a writhing young Leopard shark in one massive claw, an undulating starfish in the other, and a clump of mussels in its anemone mouth.

The boost to my mana income as it slew its catch was impressive, though not enough for me to refill entirely.

My girls returned a few minutes later, and I asked Sandy to wait while Sunny killed her catch. I summoned another Nemesis crab and refilled to ninety percent mana in short order.

My mana income increased dramatically by the time I reached twelve Nemesis crabs.

Eager for better habitat near my Dungeon, I extended a few more tunnels to the harbor, split them open along the surface, then widened them out to create additional tide pools. Looking into the harbor’s waters, I spotted wreckage and trash littering its bottom and I frowned.

Oh, no. That won’t do at all.

Claiming the Harbor inlet proved a daunting task, as the space was enormous, and I could only assimilate a few meters of its length at a time.

But it allowed me to clear away decades of trash that had piled up.

I thought I already knew how bad our pollution was, but the sheer scale and variety of crap people had tossed into the harbor was truly staggering. I absorbed everything from full-sized cars and sunken boats to fishing tackle, soda cans, and plastic.

Oh, Lord Auronox, so much plastic!

Wait. Did I just—

<Congratulations! For your first expression of faith in your Lord, you have been gifted a Divine Blessing! All of your residents now gain a permanent 10% bonus to their intelligence.>

Wait… really? My pups and beans and everyone just got smarter? That’s amazing! It feels a little odd to be praising some Dragon-deity from another world, but I’m starting to like this Auronox guy.

As I moved, additional wildlife gradually filled the space behind me, which felt good. The materials added to my inventory from the process were plentiful and extremely varied. While I was unsure exactly what to do with them, there was zero indication that my inventory had volume or mass limits of any kind.

A problem for another day.

[What doing?] said some male voice that I didn’t recognize.

[Who said that?]

[Answer.] The voice sounded annoyed.

[I’m cleaning the Harbor. Who’s asking?]

I didn’t get an answer, but Hanzo was sitting near the Harbor, washing himself and eyeing fish as they jumped above the areas I’d cleaned.

[Hanzo, was that you? Can you talk, now?]

No response.

Hmm. If it is him, perhaps I should establish a rapport.

I ordered a Nemesis crab to bring him a fish. Less than a minute later, the crab walked onto shore in front of Hanzo, whose ears turned slightly backward.

Hanzo ogled the fish but seemed reluctant to approach the huge crab.

[Hanzo, if you answer me, I’ll let you have the fish.]

[Am Hanzo.] His voice sounded eager.

[Thank you, Hanzo. If you work with me, I’ll make sure you have plenty to eat.] My crab dropped the fish and Hanzo snatched it up before darting away.

Yes! That means…

[Nino-kitty! Where are you, love?]

[Dog-mom.] [What want?] Her voice was high and absurdly cute. Despite her pompous tone, I writhed with glee when I heard her.

Of course, I found the cat resting in a perfect loaf on the arm of my basement’s sofa.

[Would you like some fish, pretty girl?]

[Not hungry.] [Go away.] She shut her eyes.

Cats… I shrugged.

[Turd! Mocha! What are you two—Oh, for the love of Auronox, you’re still… Gah! I’ve done it again!]

“I heard that, Dungeon! Perhaps you’ve come to accept the truth?” Sven waved his scaly brows at me.

[Oh, blow it out your scaly backside! I was just… I meant—]

“You uttered those words without being prompted.” Sven cut me off with a grin.

If I still had cheeks, they would have been aflame. [I—yeah. But just so we’re clear, I’m just grateful for the fact that I survived, that I was able to save my girls, and… the powers I’ve been granted are incredible.]

“Indeed. Your Dungeon looks better, if sparse. You need more minions and some subterranean flora.”

[Such a thing exists?]

Sven sighed. “Fungi, and if you infuse quartz with mana, it becomes lightstone. They can provide light for plants that require photosynthesis.”

[You mean, I didn’t have to make all those windows?]

“Ha! No, but they add a pleasant aesthetic. I suggest you leave them as-is. You can also create lights that trigger when invaders come near—just be certain that is your intent while infusing the mana, and the lightstone will function as such. Normal lightstones automatically cycle their brightness to match the sky above your Dungeon.”

[They sound amazing!]

“They are useful, to be sure. As a bonus—or detriment, depending on how you look at it, they produce very little heat—which means they won’t affect your climates.

Be certain your mind is focused while infusing mana. Intent is of utmost importance, and it has a dramatic effect on any magical objects you create. I also recommend that you exercise caution while creating lightstones—or anything else that is mana-infused. Too little mana, and the effect will be minimal. Too much, and materials can… disassemble.” Sven offered a wry smile.

[You mean, they’ll explode.] I said, dryly.

“And Taeryn claimed humans lack a sense of humor. Ha!” Sven snorted.

[I wasn’t amused, Sven.]

Sven snickered. “Oh-ho… Ha! You are too much, Ciara. Have fun tinkering with materials! Until we meet again.” He disappeared.

[There’s something wrong with that damn lizard.] I sighed.

Still, I had to admit that Sven’s advice was always helpful.

I gathered quartz from my iron deposit, marveling that it was already replenishing, albeit slowly. Of course, I gained no mana—only the crystal, since I was the one doing the gathering.

Because the large cavern adjacent to my basement only had a few Dire Widows, I sent them out and used that space to experiment with lightstone creation.

My first attempt was an utter failure. The quartz didn’t react at all.

Too little mana.

Second attempt—double the mana—still nothing. I’d wasted three percent of my mana.

On the third try with four percent, the stone lit up and glowed with tremendous power before it detonated and shook the entire area. The shockwave traveled through my Dungeon, killing nearly a quarter of my smallest denizens and injuring or startling the rest.

My vision swam red, and I strained against the brutal urge to send my minions off to slaughter the rest of my denizens.

[Stupid Dog Mom.]

From her perch atop the water heater, Nino winced and glared toward the cavern where I’d done my testing.

My anger needed an outlet, and I channeled it toward the Spirit Guide who’d set me up for this failure.

[Damn you, Sven! You could have just told me how much mana to use, you Pretentious Pygmy!] I knew he wasn’t there, but I yelled at the world anyway.

I felt like I could still hear Sven laughing and I wished I could slam my fist into a wall. If I still had a fist. I’d known anger before the change, but this was a whole new level. I longed for blood.

So that I wouldn’t forget in case something like this happened again, I immediately necked down the place where that cavern connected to my basement’s storage room. I wasn’t sure if a smaller orifice would help in the event of another explosion, but I didn’t want to take chances.

Unable to calm my fury, I had my Nemesis crabs go on a rampage in my stead. They caught and slaughtered around half the marine wildlife that had settled in the cleaned-up portion of the harbor, while the rest fled or hid in terror. Most of the fish got away, while many slower-moving creatures were crushed and torn asunder by powerful claws.

My Dungeon absorbed the bits that settled to the sand and rocks below, but some portions floated slowly away. The sight of so much carnage and death was cathartic—and that elicited a whole other kind of discomfort.

Bah. I shouldn’t be happy about throwing a tantrum.

…

At least my mana’s full.

Three percent of my maximum mana turned out to be the proper amount to create mana-infused quartz.

My first functional lightstone went into the Crow’s Nest against the ceiling inside the entrance. I shaped a wide, faceted cone from mundane quartz to help disperse the light, and the effect was dazzling.

I repeated the process, trying different methods to diffuse or refract the light based on light fixtures I was familiar with. Every one of them made me smile. Best of all, I was no longer killing hapless creatures out of anger.

Okay, now I feel better.

Lightstones made a world of difference inside my Dungeon.

After my experiments, I placed some in my core room to distract from my core’s glow in case anyone ever got that far.

Three roughly spherical lightstones were set into the back wall, below my actual core. The middle was the largest—similar to a softball, flanked by two half its size in a horizontal arrangement. The outer pair were the triggered-type of lightstone, to better aid with redirecting the attention of invaders. Each protruded via a three-pronged stone pedestal to make them seem more valuable.

My basement received illumination next, and that was simple. I stored the light bulbs and replaced them with normal lightstones that fit perfectly in the sockets.

Well—it’s more that I made the quartz flow into the socket and formed it to grip the threads before sculpting the rest into something bulb-like. But the result was glorious and more impressive than typical electric lights.

[Cruel light.] [Bad Dog-Mom.] Atop her favorite perch, Nino sounded less than pleased as she hopped down with narrowed eyes and trotted briskly through the dog tunnel toward the Crow’s Nest.

[Nino, would like a special place of your very own?]

[Go away.]

Cats…

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Minions: 48/100

Residents: 8/10

Denizens: 4778

Traps: 1/5