Jasper, still somewhat puffed up with indignation, glared at her partner’s core. “How come you managed to rank up so soon? I thought a dungeon core had to experiment on some denizens first. And we agreed not to fiddle with our mobs.”
« What about Red? And I fiddled with a snail that hitched a ride with one of the mouse spies. Hitched a ride? Do I have that right? »
“Oh right. I’d forgotten Red. ‘Hitched a ride’ is cool, all OK. Snails? Fair enough, why don’t you try frogs,” joked Jasper as she broke out laughing.
Vlad flickered slightly, showing his confusion and incomprehension but remained silent. He wasn’t sure how to get the mice to catch a frog but he determined to do so. Maybe he could make them grow too.
Jasper grinned as she thought to herself, ‘Silly Vlad, snails... well if he must experiment just as well it’s with something silly and useless. Keeps him out of my hair. Now for the second level.’
It took Jasper some time to sketch out what she thought they needed. Vlad for his part got to work starting with the spiral staircase under his current location that terminated in the centre of an hexagonal room. He added the five extra rooms Jasper wanted connected by corridors. But he threw in a swampy cave and made it look like he’d accidentally found an existing cavern.
Then while Jasper was investigating the ‘discovery’ he created a new secret door behind his core’s location in his new core room and recreated his experimental cave. He’d barely finished when Jasper flew in. She seemed irritated. Vlad sighed to himself and did his best to keep his thoughts calm.
Then they got down to creating new guardians. This ended up being very like the first floor, only greater numbers and a handful of stronger skeletons sprinkled around. In keeping with their prevailing scheme Vlad bought two ghosts for the marshy cave.
“Use a skeleton to make our floor boss Vlad, and open up our dungeon. I want to see what’s going on.”
Vlad watched Jasper fly off towards the entrance and summoned up one of their skeleton knights. He regarded it and found it uninspiring. Grumping he summoned up a ghost. He pushed darkness and fire at both, destroying several attempts before succeeding. And still they were underwhelming.
« Hey Vlad. C’mon, open up already! »
Vlad pushed his boss experiments away and reached out to open his dungeon. When he returned his attention to his core room he realized he’d pushed his potential bosses together and that they were partially merged. Curious, he reached out and forced them together forcing them to complete their merge.
He studied the result and noted that they could be upgraded again. So he added more darkness.
« Hey Jasper, look, what do you think. The skeleton is a bit more resilient and the wraithling is able to think and could learn a couple of minor spirit spells. And when the skeleton is destroyed the wraithling will emerge and fight its killers. »
« Wraithling? What’s a Wraithling? »
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« Well it is no longer a ghost, and it is not a wraith yet. It’s somewhere in between. »
« Cool, it’s a twofer. Looks good. Gotta go, got customers coming. »
« I name you Twofer, guardian of the second floor. »
Vlad prepared to rest when he started to worry. He hurriedly created a snaking tunnel to connect his two laboratory caves and then sealed the passage and secret door that had linked his first cave to his first floor dungeon. He felt happier with only one secret door to hide.
Not long after he had finished with his latest remodelling the first delvers to assault his new setup were in his core chamber. Twofer actually managed to wound a couple before they smashed his skull. But then wraithling Twofer emerged, and threw himself at one of the adventurers. On possessing the adventurer Twofer was able to backstab and kill one of the delvers. The ensuing brawl resulted in two more dead, another adventurer and the victim of the possession.
Vlad made sure to drop two gold and an iron dagger. He watched as the two survivors dragged out the body of the adventurer who had been possessed. He absorbed the other two victims and used his new templates to supply all the skeletons and zombies on his second level with decent bronze swords, leather armour and shields.
Jasper was beside herself with joy. She danced around and sang – badly. “Finally! Finally, we killed someone. We’re on our way up now. Yay!”
« Twofer surprised them. They were a very low level group. Don’t get your hopes up. And they might object to Twofer being able to possess his killers. »
“Don’t be such a glump Vlad. Let’s celebrate.”
* * *
Their next visitor was the duck. He strode up to the entrance of their dungeon. Knelt in prayer for a good twenty minutes then he strode into their dungeon in the centre of a black haze that greatly weakened their guardians. About half their skeletons simply disintegrated.
Jasper fled to the core room and hid in her cave up near the roof. The champion of Armalor, god of Death barely paused when confronted with Red, he banished the ghosts, destroyed the zombies and skeletons and arrived in Vlad’s core room in little more time than if he had had no monsters to deal with. Twofer and his skeletal minions didn’t last long. The Wraithling proved powerless against the divine aura that surrounded the duck.
Tarwin struck a pose, sword raised, in front of the core and declaimed: “I Tarwin Silverbeak Sword of Armalor am here to judge you. In the name of Armalor I strike all who glory in the perversion of Death.”
A dark wave flowed out from the small duck that somehow dominated the room. It flowed over Vlad’s core causing it to flicker slightly. When it swept over the hiding Jasper, Jasper cried out in shock and fear and vanished.
Tarwin swung round and looked at the shadowed corner of the room that contained Jasper’s hideout. He swung round again and glared at Vlad. He brought the sword down and tapped the core twice.
“Be more careful. Learn! Cease dishonouring the dead. Guide your companion. Choose a new path as soon as you may. Armalor showed me that you are not irredeemable. Yet! Your companion will be able to find her way back soon. I trust this will be a lesson to you both. Armalor will gather all in in the end. Be wary of his ire.”
Vlad watched as the black dressed small duck strolled out of his domain. His head still ached from the ringing that those two taps had caused in his being.
* * *
Jasper woke feeling dreadful. Her eyes hurt, everything seemed flat and harsh, the very light was stabbing into her eyes. Several shades were shuffling around near her. She closed her eyes and crawled in the direction she had seen some shade before she had been forced to close her eyes.
She collapsed and wept with exhaustion. She slept. When she woke again nothing had changed, except that she could feel her bond calling her. It seemed greatly weakened but it was there. She started crawling again as she followed it.
Twice more she slept before she found a hole. Her link seemed to be keeping it open. She felt around the hole and finally she reached into it. Then she was falling.
She slammed into an unyielding floor.
« Jasmine! Erm, Jasper you’re back! Where have you been? It’s been five weeks! Are you all right? »