Chapter 26: Proper Planning

Thursday, March 30th, 7:21 AM

Dungeon Ciara

[Nicolas, you are hereby forbidden to speak again until I tell you otherwise. You will obey every command I give, fulfilling each of them to the letter, and in the manner which I intend, without question. You will defend my Dungeon and its residents to the best of your ability at all times, but you may only attack humans either when directly ordered to do so by me, or if they are trying to cause harm to my residents or my core.]

I seethed with loathing at what this Natalie and her group of traitors had done to Rihelah and Michael in cold blood.

The Dungeon in me spoke of its own volition.

[Your friends killed two people whom I love, Nicolas. I will not forgive this crime. Your first task is as follows—in a few minutes, I will command you to leave the Dungeon. You will do your best to remain hidden from view and keep yourself from harm, making use of your centipede mind’s knowledge, as well as your human intellect. Find Natalie Maddow, and kill her. You are not allowed to harm anyone who is not allied with the One World Order. When you have finished, return to the Dungeon.]

I gave him a moment to let the gravity of that command sink in.

“Uh, Professor…” Ryebean’s voice called out to me, and I turned my attention to her.

[Yes, Ryebea—AH! Rihelah Najibi! For the love of—don’t talk to me while you’re—]

“You can see us?” Rihelah squealed, yanking a blanket to cover her and Michael. She got it on the third try, but of course, I’d seen much more than I wanted to. Again.

[I can see anywhere in my Dungeon if I focus my attention, and I’d rather not be “here” while you’re being intimate! So please—]

“Okay! I won’t!” Rihelah hid her face up to her eyes beneath my mom’s quilted comforter.

[Right, so what did you need, Ryebean?]

“You just told Nicolas to go and kill Natalie Maddow? Why would you say something like that? Natalie can be obnoxious, but she’s not a murderer!” Rihelah’s voice wavered, and I saw confusion and betrayal behind her eyes.

[Yes, she is.]

“What?”

[Did you see the faces of the people who killed you last night?]

“No.” Rihelah and Michael answered in unison.

[Did you hear their voices?]

Rihelah looked at Michael. Both frowned and shook their heads.

“Only some, but I didn’t recognize them,” said Rihelah.

[Nicolas confessed. Natalie was the leader of the group that attacked you. She recognized you, Rihelah. Natalie was the one who gave the order for you to be shot and killed.]

“She what?” Michael and Rihelah shouted.

Michael leaped off her brandishing his fists. Michael’s glistening anatomy sprang proudly into view, though Rihelah blessedly closed her legs.

[Damn it, Michael! Keep that thing to yourself while we’re talking.]

“Oh, shit,” Michael swore. He dove to the bed to cover himself again.

Lord Auronox, please grant me strength.

I got the sinking feeling that a certain Dragon was laughing somewhere.

I’ll need centuries of therapy if we ever get out of this mess…

Michael and Rihelah explained in greater detail how they’d been gunned down in front of the Coconut Grove while they ran.

Dungeons shouldn’t have to send minions out to make war, that’s what my instinct says. But I don’t see much choice.

Sighing, I turned my attention back to Vijaya.

[Go, Nicolas. You have your orders.]

---

While Vijaya-Nicolas headed out to complete her task, I sent my Devilflies to collect seeds and Redwood cones from the mountains.

Turd and Mocha were finally doing something other than mating. Both raced through tunnels to stuff their cheeks with seeds from places where they sniffed them out on the surface. A quick check of Turd’s little home revealed that they had gathered quite a larder, along with some down feathers to line their love nest.

Despite spotting my rodent residents, Nino and Hanzo seemed unwilling to waste energy chasing after them.

Looks like the food-service thing via my crabs is working out.

I smiled.

The cats were sunning themselves atop the Crow’s Nest after the fog lifted.

Sunny and Sandy swam happily through the clear waters of the harbor while Siobhán and Joy watched.

“I wanna go swimming, too.” Joy sighed.

“Yeah, but those bastards in my basement ruined our swimsuits.”

“Ew. Don’t remind me.” Joy grimaced.

[I might be able to help with that.] I rummaged through the clothing I’d salvaged from all the wreckage and deposited a large pile of bikini pieces next to them.

“This is—” Siobhán’s eyes went wide.

“Amazing! Thank you, Professor.” Joy shook with excitement as both reached for the pile.

At that moment, I heard Michael and Rihelah cry out in ecstasy from the basement.

I sighed.

It’s natural and healthy. Just look the other way.

Doing my best to ignore the couple’s continued moaning and subsequent pillow talk, I said to Joy and Siobhán, [Well, go ahead and pick some out.]

“Okay!” they replied in unison.

Nita had orders to guard Adrian inside the Crow’s Nest entrance. Her solution was to string the already-wrapped man up against a relatively-obscure corner of the interior, attaching him to the walls and ceiling behind the passage down with hundreds of silken strands, each strong enough to hold his weight.

I had a feeling the humans from Genomics would be moving closer to my Dungeon soon, so I looked around the cleared plots and empty streets that had been my neighborhood. Tiny green shoots had sprouted all over, and it made me smile to see that life was recovering.

Grasses surrounding Schwan Lagoon were already up to twenty centimeters tall in places, and insects buzzed around that area. Mice that had taken refuge in my Dungeon scurried along tiny pathways through the weeds. The lagoon’s waters were cleaner than I’d ever seen them, even at the opposite end.

Native iceplant succulents were springing back to life here and there, along the edge of the beach where sand turned to soil.

What bothered me was the lack of trees. So, I took half an hour to plant three hundred of them around the lagoon, and another five hundred throughout the Twin Lakes district.

I didn’t grow them to maturity in seconds as I had with my orchard, so the mana cost was low. Most of the saplings weren’t much taller than Nino with her tail in the air, but I raised a few dozen to full size around the lagoon, along with twice that number throughout the old neighborhood—especially near the beach. The rest would mature with time.

The result was that I’d restored a splash of greenery to the area’s scenery.

Afterward, I looked at finalizing the layout of my first floor. Sven had said that whenever a Dungeon started another layer, the areas above would require ten times the mana to be altered.

Additionally, while it was possible to just add a small addition and declare it finished, my core could only move automatically once per floor that was added. With that in mind, I needed to be certain everything was laid out properly and made sense before I squeezed the trigger.

Otherwise, I’d have to send minions to move my body for me, and during that time, I’d be unable to alter my Dungeon or change minions’ orders.

Yeah, let’s not do that.

[Soybean and Joybean! I need your input for something important.]

“Hai,” they said in unison, making anime-girl poses they’d shown me over winter break as Sandy and Sunny ran circles around them on the sand. Thanks to them and the anime series they’d pigeon-holed me to watch, I knew that hai was a respectful form of yes or okay in Japanese.

I was pleased to note that the crust atop the beach had been trampled away, thanks to everyone running and walking around so much.

[Michael and Ryebean, I’ll need you two as well.] I made certain not to look their way.

“Sure! Just—a few—minutes!” Rihelah panted amid the sound of skin smacking urgently against skin.

Auronox, preserve me.

Thankfully, I hadn’t looked.

---

Sunny and Sandy lay beneath Nita and her captive, sleeping off a sizable fish meal.

My beans and Michael had just finished gathering to discuss my first floor’s layout in the fruit orchard below, when Sven made an appearance.

For the first time since I’d known Sven, he didn’t try to startle me. He just hovered behind my human residents as they ate fruit before we began.

“Your layout is chaotic.” Sven scratched his scaly chin.

[That’s exactly what we’re here to discuss.]

Sven just smiled.

Of course, he knew.

The sarcastic lizard always seemed to be listening, somehow.

After some discussion, I made a few adjustments to my tunnels. The orchard and iron deposits remained directly off the main entrance, while the primary path to my core meandered through the tunnel where I’d captured Nicolas, below the harbor inlet, under Seabright Beach, then back up through the neighborhoods and around my basement to the current core room.

“Good. Now, you may have noticed after naming your first boss, that your mana capacity increased to twice what it was initially. Furthermore, you cursed that Nicolas boy and added his soul to Vijaya, which doubled your mana capacity a second time.”

[I…]

No, I didn’t realize, but it makes sense.

“You were scared of allowing your mana to run low, weren’t you?” Sven snickered.

[Try being a Dungeon around people you care about, you Egotistical Ectotherm.]

“Drakes are warm-blooded, Mudpie. Try again.” Sven grinned.

Michael chuckled through his nose.

Traitor.

Rihelah smacked Michael’s shoulder. So did Siobhán. Joy gave him the side-eye.

I love them.

Sven winked at Michael. “Right, back to business. The good news is, while you were wasting ninety-seven percent of your mana as your crab minions brought in far more than you could spend at a time, now you could technically waste less than ninety percent!”

[You always have a way to make things sound negative.]

“I would never do that!” Sven batted his eyes at my perception.

[Can we please focus on the task at hand?]

“Ha! Now, you’re thinking like a Dungeon.”

We resumed working. While Sven often grated my nerves, at least he’d managed to make my residents smile. Of course, the acidic drake made himself scarce, roaming the Dungeon while I worked.

While they were gathered and before I could forget again, I finished blessing my human residents. Michael received Alacrity, while my Soybean and Ryebean received Acumen.

Sven wasn’t kidding about my mana capacity. I could now handle two blessings at a time without any issues.

Seven hours later, the basic layout of my first floor was complete.

Along the path to my core were three main caverns, twenty-four side chambers, and more than a hundred dead-end paths.

The first cavern became a mushroom grove with a low ceiling. It held a mix of edible and toxic fungal varieties grown in segregated clumps amid a field of boulders. That cavern had no lightstones inside. I’d chosen to light that space with only the deep red glow of poisonous Dream Stalk mushrooms. This was where my sixteen Twilight crickets would make their stand, once the Dungeon became a proper training ground. Thus, I moved their spawn points among thousands of little hideaways and tunnels that connected throughout the cavern’s floor, walls, and ceiling.

Second came a grand, open space similar to my ‘test’ area. But this massive, irregular hallway was more than 1700 meters long and twenty to forty meters wide, with a six-meter ceiling. Rising gradually from below Seabright Beach to follow the terrain above, it arced around my basement to below Schwan Lagoon.

Sven showed me how to divide a lightstone into minuscule fragments by carefully squeezing the mana inside until it separated on its own into 1,000 pieces. As a result, 120 lightstones became 120,000, twinkling lights that adorned the cavern’s ceiling from end to end. The effect was stunning, almost like stars on a moonless night—but bright enough to shame the full moon. This became the den of my forty Devilflies, whose spawn locations I moved to randomly chosen pockets in the walls and ceiling.

The floor of my Devilflies’ long, meandering domain received ferns and lichen, along with several pools of water that I connected to Schwan Lagoon via thin pipes of stone that poked above the lagoon’s bottom, with a basket-like covering. Sven suggested that to prevent frequent clogs. The freshwater pools drained to the ocean via another series of stone pipes.

Third along the path to my core room came a subterranean set of tide pools, connected to the ocean via hundreds of tunnels, each large enough for my Nemesis crabs to squeeze through one at a time. Of course, the crabs had their spawn locations relocated to that place as well.

The ocean flooded in, and it was only a few minutes before the first small fish arrived to explore the new space. The ceiling received enough lightstones to make the space as bright as outside in most places.

The maze-like tide pool cavern stretched 360 meters, from east of my basement beneath Schwan Lagoon to the hallway that led to my core room, under Twin Lakes Beach.

The core room would become Vijaya’s Boss arena once my core moved after I started my second floor. I expanded the space to around thirty-six times its original volume by adding thirty-five near-duplicate semi-spherical rooms that connected in a maze-like fashion.

Some rooms had spike pits like the original, while others required delvers to climb over obstacles or crawl beneath low ceilings. Other rooms had lightstones in their walls or ceilings, while the rest received their light from adjacent spaces.

Throughout, I added tunnels made for Vijaya. Many of her exits were hidden in places that would be difficult to spot. They connected the space in an even, logical way that would allow my centipede Boss to reach any room quickly, while humans seeking to pass would need to find and follow the correct path.

Dire Widows received spawn points throughout my Dungeon so that they could make appearances just about anywhere. Their silk had proved four times as strong as what my Devilflies made.

“I still can’t believe you did this in one day.” Michael shook his head, gazing at the starry sky of my Devilfly cavern.

[If I were still human, I’d be pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. Of course, I could say that about countless things that have happened since the bomb fell.]

“Professor, there’s still plenty of human in you.” Rihelah smiled as she walked with her arm around Michael’s waist.

[There’s still the question of whether I’ve done enough to call things finalized for this floor. My main concern is if Joe and the others decide to move here.]

“They will,” Siobhán said without hesitation.

[You think so?]

“Yes. You have food, you can protect people, wildlife is returning, you’re cleaning up the harbor and the lagoon, and even the ocean near this beach is clearer than before.” Siobhán ticked items off with her slender fingers.

“Not to mention, you’re setting yourself up as a training ground for humans to grow stronger. Once people realize that, they’ll move here in droves.” Rihelah nodded.

“That’s true. If word gets out and communications come back, this place will have tens of thousands living around it in less than a year. It’ll be like the gold rush of 1849, but people will be even more rabid about it.” Michael shrugged.

[Okay, you guys are worrying me. That’s a lot to deal with.]

“Think about what Sven said,” Michael began. “We’re not just helping this community. We need to defend the whole world, Ciara.”

[Ugh. Don’t remind me. I need to take things one step at a time.]

Michael replied, “Okay, but keep the long-term in mind while you plan each step. That’s what my dad always says.”

“Papa Mike is amazing. I’m so glad he’ll be my dad, too!” Rihelah whispered to Michael.

[You two are engaged?] I exclaimed.

“What?” Siobhán shouted, leaving her mouth hanging open.

“Since when?” Joy’s eyes grew wide.

“Uh… isn’t it obvious?” Michael scratched the back of his head, chuckling.

“You all said yourselves you’ve been wondering when we’d finally get together. Well, Michael sorta… blurted out the question the first time we uh—you know, and I said yes!” Rihelah laid her head against Michael’s shoulder as he pulled her closer.

“That’s… disgustingly cute.” Siobhán folded her arms across her stomach. “I love it, and I hate it.” She breathed a sigh through her nose and shook her head with a pained smile.

“I wanna find something like that…” Joy muttered. She frowned and deflated.

“Oh, Joy…” Siobhán hugged her tall friend.

Joy picked Siobhán up. “Look! I caught one, and she’s adorable!”

“Hey! What the—Jo-o-oy?” Siobhán laughed as Joy spun her around like a kid beneath the faux stars of my Devilfly domain.

Beside them, Michael picked Rihelah up, and two short ladies were swung gently about as they all laughed.

[Loud humans,] said Nino.

[Obnoxious.] Hanzo and Nino glared at everyone as they sauntered past, exploring the new areas.

“You’re such a little grouch, Nino! Come to my room for pets after bedtime, okay?” Siobhán grinned at the retreating cats.

Nino raised her tail in the air to show off the pink symbol of her affection.

I wish more moments could feel like this.

My residents finished the walkthrough of my first floor after hopping from stone to stone above the tide pools.

I created a temporary staircase so they could climb out, then sealed it off behind them. Despite how much I trusted them all, the Dungeon portion of me didn’t want any sapient beings near my core, and, per Sven’s words, I listened to my instinct.

High above the beach, the seagulls squawked loudly as my human residents walked toward the Crow’s Nest. When I looked closer, it was my Sentinel gull trying to warn me about something.

---

Minions: 100/100

Residents: 10/10

Denizens: 27301

Traps: 1/5

 

Bonus: First Floor Map!