Chapter 27: A Warm Welcome

Thursday, March 30th, 3:44 PM

Dungeon Ciara

Vijaya-Nicolas came swimming across the pavement in a serpent-like motion, from the direction of the harbor bridge. A few of her legs were missing, and there was damage to one of her dark-gray armored segments, but she was still in relatively-decent fighting shape.

Behind Vijaya ran a staggered group of eleven livid humans, half of whom carried melee weapons, while the other half brandished long firearms like clubs.

[Nicolas—report on the status of your task.]

[I killed Natalie.] His voice radiated raw anguish and savage loathing.

[The humans who followed you—are they allies of the One World Order?]

[Yes…] Nicolas hissed his reply.

[Good. Lead them in through the Crow’s Nest entrance, then disappear into one of the small tunnels and head to your own room.]

I sent an immediate return order to my Devilflies, and dispatched the Dire Widows to block the Crow’s Nest entrance, as before. My girls were down in the fruit grove with all my human residents, and I’d sealed it off.

Siobhán asked Nita for help, and her huge spider worked to prepare a nasty surprise for our guests. I was pleased to learn that Siobhán could communicate her intent to Nita from a distance, even through solid stone.

Vijaya-Nicolas streaked across the cleared parking lot toward the Crow’s Nest, with the closest human 100 meters behind her.

[Wait there a moment, Nicolas. Pretend to be injured. Let your centipede mind guide your acting.]

Vijaya slowed and began to undulate vertically and side to side, waving her head through the air as if she’d been stung by a massive scorpion. The tall, dark-bearded man who led the approaching traitors showed a brief, wicked smile as he swung his rifle around like a club. His closest ally was another man with short, red hair—nearly eighty meters behind the leader.

When the bearded man was twenty meters away, I ordered Nicolas to resume moving while still pretending to be injured.

The man gained and licked his lips, but when he reached ten meters distance, I told Nicolas to sprint down the ramp and head for the core room.

“Fuck,” the bearded man swore under his breath as Vijaya scurried down the passage ahead.

Good, he’s mad. Angry people do stupid things. These people killed Ryebean and Michael. No mercy.

“What the hell? Who said that?” The bearded man exclaimed after entering the Crow’s Nest. But he continued to chase Vijaya. “There’s a giant bug! Come help kill it!”

Of course, nobody responded to his plea for assistance, as the voice he’d heard was The Voice announcing his entry into my Dungeon.

By the time he reached the bottom of the curved stone ramp, Vijaya was nowhere to be seen.

Looking around in the gloom, he stepped in the direction of my three new caverns and trotted toward the light, then stopped and furrowed his brow.

Confusion shone on his face as he tried to lift his right foot. Nita’s glue had done its job, and he was too busy trying to free his foot to notice her as she descended from the silken highway she’d spun above the tunnel and wrapped him up with lightning-quick motions of her slender hind legs.

“Mmmfghghl!” The wide-eyed man screamed through sheets of spider threads that covered his mouth as his arms were tied against his sides.

He toppled forward in a vain attempt to flee, struck unconscious when his head bounced off the stone floor.

Nita showed impressive strength and easily pulled his shoe free from the single glue drop she’d placed. She dragged the unconscious man deeper while the next unsuspecting victim approached more slowly.

“Evan? Hey! You in there, man?” The tall, wide-shouldered man with red hair seemed more cautious, and he waited just outside the doorway.

Meanwhile, Nita stuffed her first captive into a side tunnel before closing it off with silk.

The last of them arrived, panting beside the others, nearly four minutes later.

“Evan… inside?” she asked.

“Pretty sure,” the red-haired man replied. “Won’t respond, though. Might’ve fallen and bumped his head.”

“Yeah, piss off. Shit. Moment. To catch my… breath. All the way… from the damn Boardwalk.” She leaned against an exterior wall.

Five others nodded wearily at the woman’s words, still breathing hard.

“Can’t believe we ran outta fuckin’ ammo and still couldn’t kill the damned bug that got Natalie. Damn thing must be made of steel.” A dark-haired woman shook her head.

They’re out of ammunition? That’s just awful. I chuckled.

“It’s a centipede, Rosa. Gotta be radioactive, though.” The red-haired man replied.

“It’s a bug if I say it’s a fucking bug, Craig!” Rosa flipped Craig off.

Craig flashed Rosa a look of contempt, and she walked over to stand on her toes and kiss his cheek, then smacked his crotch while he was distracted.

Craig relaxed his shoulders and grabbed Rosa by the throat. He lifted her off the ground with one hand.

“Fuck with me just once more, and you’ll never fuck again.” He brought her face close and smiled as she struggled, then threw her backward.

Rosa tucked and rolled as she hit the pavement, but her elbows were bleeding. When she stood and brushed herself off, her eyes shone with hatred toward Craig, but she said nothing.

Minutes passed while Nita worked, and the last of my nine Dire Widows arrived from across the Dungeon to hide inside the stone above the Crow’s Nest doorway.

“Fuck it. This must be the place Nicolas rambled about.” A dark-haired young man with a scraggly beard stood up straight.

“Hah. Dungeon? That’s just bullshit—what… who the fuck? Not fucking funny, asshole,” Craig replied, his tone changing when he stepped through the doorway.

“The hell are you babbling about, Craig? Nobody said anything.” The scraggly-beard man rolled his eyes.

“Bullshit! One of you just spouted some shit about some Dungeon Kee-ara. What the fuck is—”

“Alright, whoever’s—” The dark-haired man strode past him while cutting him off, then stopped dead and turned. “Son of a bitch. It’s true! Nicolas really did find a dungeon! Amber, get your ass in here, babe.”

“Robert, you’re not fooling—ho-ly shitballs, it’s true. Let’s go find out where Nicolas is hoarding all the magic shit!”

“Fuck yeah!” Craig and Robert followed her in, and the others shrugged, pausing briefly to look around as they also heard The Voice. Altogether, they numbered three women and seven men, aside from the man Nita had already subdued.

Nita hid in a dark crevice beside the sealed entrance to the fruit grove while the traitors moved into the hallway where their companion had fallen.

Above, my Dire widows worked like eight-legged ants, building a single web across the doorway.

“There’s a light ahead! Evan! Where are you, dick?” Robert called out, chuckling. He sounded nervous.

The only reply was his echo, reverberating through the Dungeon.

“What if this place has creepy shit inside? You know, monsters, like in a game?” A woman with ratty dreadlocks asked in a mock-spooky voice.

“Then we feed your tight little ass to it, Denise!” Craig smacked her behind, and she turned to punch his arm.

Craig took the hit with a grin and grabbed Denise’s chest through her clothes. “Play-time is later.” She smiled with a wink as she pushed his hand away.

My Dire Widows started a second web across the top of the ramp while Nita slipped silently behind them to close off the bottom.

I watched in anticipation as Robert reached Nita’s tripline first and stepped over it with his right foot, but it caught his left and he collapsed onto a trio of glue drops.

“Fuckin’ Robert.”

“Clumsy ass.”

“Get the fuck up, man.”

“You’re blocking our path, bitch.”

Robert’s “friends” failed to notice that he’d hit his head until Craig tried to rouse him. “Yo, Robert. Stop dickin’ around, man. We got shit to see. Robert?”

Rosa screamed from the rear, startling her companions as Nita webbed her up, spinning Rosa around in place before racing away on her silken highway and disappearing into the gloom.

I loved how quickly Nita could immobilize prey by throwing sheets of clingy silk out from her wide spinnerets.

Orb weavers are amazing…

When her friends turned and saw Nita retreating and Rosa wrapped with silk, they panicked and fled deeper into my Dungeon.

I brought my minions to bear as they stumbled into the first major cavern with mushrooms and Twilight crickets.

Back where Rosa struggled with impotent fury to free herself, a Dire Widow descended onto her head.

It climbed down her wailing face for a fatal kiss, sinking its sharp fangs deep into the cartilage of her nose while its hourglass glowed ominously in front of her eyes. Her screams grew ragged as she strained against the silk that bound her, but Rosa failed to free herself as a second Widow leaped, sinking its fangs deep into her left temple to deliver a second dose of neurotoxic venom.

The rest of my Widows raced swiftly along the silken highway Nita had woven. One descended to seal Evan’s fate with a dainty bite to his chin before following the rest.

Robert was still unconscious as another Widow abseiled from above like a tiny wraith. It sank its fangs into the back of his neck, then hurried up its dragline to resume the hunt.

By then, Rosa had devolved to babbling rather than screaming—she sounded like a drunk about to pass out.

A few seconds later, she did.

Halfway through my Twilight cricket cavern, I gave an order and all sixteen crickets leaped from their hiding places atop the boulders, just as the traitors passed.

Hands roamed to find what had landed on them and screams followed as flesh was bitten. Most of my crickets were swept aside by panicked hands and two were trampled as the humans fled, but the effect was perfect.

My prey continued their panicked rush into my depths, still unaware that death was the only possible outcome.

Since my Devilflies were busy harvesting outside and the humans were tiring, I opted to let my spiders run them down.

While the humans slowed, I erected a sizable building out of hardened stone just north of the roundabout where 5th Avenue intersected East Cliff Drive. Its eight-meter interior was bisected with a second story. A wide staircase and railing ran up against one wall, and I fashioned privacy skylights for the entire A-frame roof via the same method I’d used above the fruit orchard.

The natural light bathing that upper level was gorgeous, so I added dense, resilient windows around the outside of its first floor.

To be certain it could withstand the elements, I thickened the hardened stone walls to fifty centimeters, and added minion tunnels throughout.

The house had also received its own spacious basement, just because I could. I connected it to the fruit orchard via a tunnel and doorways. As always, my minions received highways for access, and I had those double as a form of ventilation, facing downward to the outside.

Down in the Dungeon, Rosa died, refilling my mana. I used that to add a second building near the first and planted a variety of fruit trees between them before enclosing a shared courtyard with a three-meter wall, and shaping a door from there into each home.

Evan and Robert died in quick succession, and I built a third structure that I’d been pondering for a couple of days—a tall lighthouse, where the old Walton Lighthouse had stood out on the breakwater before the war. At its top, I added a series of lightstones to help attract humans to my Dungeon.

I was ready, and my instinct told me it was time to advertise.

Down in the Devilfly domain, the fleeing humans had slowed, their plodding steps and wavering stances making it clear they were exhausted. I gave the order, and six Devilflies that had just returned with prey descended upon them like wolves among sheep.

Once they’d been immobilized, two Widows bit Amber’s outstretched arm while I held off on the others.

My instinct said this was correct—to stagger my feeding so that I could work faster.

She served as the first mana source to supplement what my crabs were bringing in.

One by one, my minions finished off the rest of the eleven murderers who’d come running after Vijaya, and I added house after spacious house until nine dwellings with open floor plans stood in an offset double-line surrounding a large courtyard.

The housing spanned most of what had previously been two city blocks across the roundabout from the Crow’s Nest.

The sky threatened rain, and I smiled.

I’d always loved the rain since it typically left the beaches empty for my former self to roam in peace.

With the danger past for my residents, I opened the fruit orchard again.

[Nita can tear those webs down, Soybean.]

“Okay,” Siobhán replied as she stretched where she’d been asleep on the grass.

“This place is cozy while the sun’s out.” Joy smiled.

[I’ve made some homes for people to set up and live in, but I’m not certain they’re done yet. Will you all check them out and tell me if anything’s missing or needs changing?]

My four humans reached the new dwellings and looked around the first structure while Sunny and Sandy raced one another down the beach.

When Michael and my beans finished looking over the first house, Michael said, “Toilets.”

Rihelah nodded.

“Professor, how do you keep forgetting that?” Joy asked.

[Uh. I have no excuse.]

That’s embarrassing.

I added private bathrooms to each dwelling, starting with the one they were in.

“Tables,” said Joy.

“Chairs,” Siobhán added.

“Shelving,” Rihelah mused.

I worked on those things. The tables and chairs I made from metal, while the shelves were hardened stone.

“It’s so weird how whatever you’re working with just flows like modeling clay when you shape it.” Rihelah started at one of the new rooms as it took shape over a couple of seconds.

Rihelah’s blue jeans, while clean, were looking a bit worn around the knees, crotch, and bottom hems.

Joy’s gray jeans looked a bit worse for wear as well.

They need new clothing. Another item for my list…

“So, there is one other thing.” Siobhán quirked her mouth to the side. “I know your Dungeon technically cleans us while we’re inside, but… I really miss hot showers.”

“Oh, and bubble baths,” Rihelah said with bright eyes while they neared the front door.

“Yes!” Joy hugged Rihelah away from Michael for a moment.

Michael smiled.

[Right. There’s just one problem. I can’t make hot water.]

“Actually…” Sven grinned, appearing next to Michael. “Like with lightstones, try feeding mana into a chunk of pyrite. I’m surprised you haven’t tested that, yet.”

I had a sinking feeling when I spotted a mischievous twinkle in Sven’s eyes.

Nino, who’d been sauntering nearby with Hanzo as they observed the new housing, launched herself violently without warning. She held her sharp claws out to grasp Sven as she passed through his ethereal visage, then twitched her whiskers in confusion. Her eyes grew wide with surprise as she sailed toward the wall behind him.

[Bird-lizard.] [Not real?] Nino stammered.

With a classic feline scream of terror, she turned herself in the air to land feet-first against the wall before kicking off to slide across the smooth stone to the middle of the room.

Sven and Michael erupted with laughter, which spooked Nino. Her ears lay flat against her head as she tried to bolt for the front door. The drake laughed even harder, clutching his scaly belly as Nino scurried in place, scratching and clawing for traction against the glass-like surface.

Even my beans giggled at the sight before Nino finally made her way outside and toward the Crow’s nest, raising a small rooster tail of dust and ash behind her.

I quietly altered all the floors to have a bit of texture.

“Ah, I daresay that sight alone was worth saving your Earth. Its creatures are marvelous!” Sven continued to snicker.

“Poor Nino.” Rihelah was still chuckling.

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Minions: 100/100

Residents: 10/10

Denizens: 28970

Traps: 1/5