My luck had finally run out.
Unfortunately, it made sense that it finally would. Despite my disadvantages in not knowing how to be a proper Dungeon Core I had been lucky from the very beginning. Sunflower basically did all my digging for me when it came to shaping up my first tunnel, and she had even made my first room for me as well. It was because of her that I was able to figure out how to cheat the system to gain new skills without buying them, and because of her and Basil simply existing in the dungeon I had been able to get stronger much faster than I would have otherwise.
Despite all my mistakes and missteps I continued to stumble into good luck, things consistently working out in my favour one way or the other, so it was fitting that the biggest gamble I had taken would turn around to bite me right in my metaphorical ass.
Making an entrance in the ruins hadn’t been smart, I had known that much when I had decided to do it, but somehow I had managed to convince myself that I would have enough time and luck to make it work out in my favour. I had imagined that I would flawlessly finish up my first floor, fill it with traps and monsters, and be more than fully prepared to face my first real threat when I was good and ready to do so.
Obviously, I had been wrong. I only had the most basic layout done and the enemies were already at the door. I had no time left to do anything.
I could only guess that the giggling voices belonged to humans, because if my luck had finally run out then I could only assume the absolute worst would happen. From the sounds of it, there were several of them, though not so many that I couldn’t pick out individual voices just by listening, so it was a small group at the very least. However many of them there were, they were growing closer and closer by the second.
They were in the ruins now. The voices were louder, echoing, drifting down through stone and the holes in the floor to reach me in my dungeon. I could only assume that they would eventually make their way down to the bottom floor where I was, though I could hope that they wouldn’t.
Even though I couldn’t make out the words yet I could recognize that they were talking to each other. The sounds were familiar enough that it was hard not to imagine them as just a bunch of kobolds.
It was highly unlikely that humans looked exactly like kobolds, but all the same, that was what I was imagining. Three? No, four of them. Brightly coloured with patterned scales, the ridges around their heads all wiggling and flexing as they laughed, tails swishing from side to side. Maybe one of them would have tiny wings like Cobalt? Maybe another would have longer claws like the badger family did?
It was doing me absolutely no good to imagine them looking like my kobolds. Not only was that going to make me think of my enemy as something adorable and friendly, but I was just going to be disappointed when it turned out that they were actually something hideous and ugly.
“Do you really think there might be morels down there?”
The first words I could make out from humans and it turned out that apparently they were here to hunt for mushrooms, not that I could blame them. Based on my mushroom [Appraisals] the morels were my favourite of the bunch, so I could understand why they would come down into the ruins to search for them. I still didn’t like that they were here and invading my territory the way they were, but I could at least understand why they were doing it.
“There should be! Last year there were tons by the one break in the wall!”
The first voice had been high in pitch, a bit like Cobble’s but without the same sort of underlying roughness that hers had. Somehow, someway, the second voice was even higher than that. It sounded almost like one of the strange singing creatures had learned how to speak.
“It’s really weird that they were all gone,” This third voice was a sharp contrast to the first two, or rather it was a much softer contrast. Lower, more gentle, the kind of voice that felt instantly soothing. It was hard to imagine anything with a voice like that would be my enemy. “Do you think someone is hoarding them all?”
The rest of their conversation faded into background noise for me, because finally the first of the humans had made it into my vision, and I found myself feeling pretty disappointed.
Where were the claws and fangs? There was no thick fur or rough scales, no tails or horns, nothing that made them look like they were strong enough to be considered an enemy of mine at all. They had some strange loose skin dangling off of their bodies as if to try to hide themselves, but other than that? Humans were extremely underwhelming, almost frustratingly so.
They looked weirdly smooth with squinty eyes, and the only decoration on them other than the skin they were wearing was the hair on the tops of their heads. Unlike my kobolds they weren’t very colourful at all, almost everything about them being shades of earth. How was anyone meant to tell the difference between various humans? They almost all looked alike. Two of them had hair the colour of soil with skin almost as white as quartz! If one weren’t taller than the other I would never be able to tell them apart!
They were taller than Cobble, though, that much was for certain. The shortest of the four who made their way into the room was still taller than her by a good badger’s length, which meant they were the only would who wouldn't need to crouch to make their way through the dungeon. That was annoying enough all on its own.
Apparently, I would need to dig down to expand my size to accommodate how big humans actually were. I could probably do a bit of widening in places as well, but hopefully for now it would act as a good deterrent.
If I weren’t big enough for humans to explore then they would hopefully leave me alone for a while. If I wanted to put the traps in place then I would need to lower the floors first so things would be the proper height, but hopefully I would have a bit more time to work on my layout. Maybe I could lower the floors the furthest in and slowly work my way towards the entrance, adding traps as I went? That would make it the easiest for me to handle, while hopefully keeping them at bay for a while.
“Hey, what’s that?” The tallest of them, the smooth-voiced human, was pointing directly at my entrance so there could be no mistake what they meant by their question.
Ah. So it was going to be one of those days.
The three other humans paused what they were doing, which seemed to be snooping around the mossy corners for mushrooms, to all look my way. One of them, with hair that made me think of sunlight, ventured closer slowly, despite the fact one of the other humans had reached out to try to stop them.
“Looks like a hole to me, Luka! Maybe there was another room back there and there was just some dirt covering the entrance?” It was the human with the highest voice, the one that sounded like the singing creatures. Luka must have been the name of the tall one…
Wait. Could I [Appraise] them from where I was, or did they need to be inside the dungeon for that to work? I hadn’t thought to try yet, but since I could see them maybe it would work?
I focused [Appraisal] on them, expecting to get back nothing since they were beyond the reach of my tendrils, but to my surprise, it wasn’t like when Cobble and Cobalt left the dungeon. Apparently [Appraisal] didn’t work the same as my other skills, though given it never had one would think that wouldn’t surprise me anymore.
I started with the tallest one, the one I assumed to be named Luka. So far they stood out the most from the group of humans, having skin that was a pleasantly dark shade of earth and a voice that matched. No one else in the group had skin quite as dark, so it made them easier to tell apart.
> Luka Soto [Human] Lvl. 4
> Male
>
> HP: 25/25
Well, it turned out his name was in fact Luka, but was that really all I could see? That was less information than I had been given on the badgers when I first got [Appraisal]! Were humans just too difficult to [Appraise]? At the very least I could see that he had more HP than Cobalt, which could potentially mean that he was stronger, but then again I had no idea what exactly affected the scores yet. My only hope would be to level up [Appraisal] more and see if it would explain eventually.
Next, I took aim at the one with the sunlight coloured hair. They also stood out from the humans, having the lightest coloured hair and the highest-pitched voice. They were almost the opposite of Luka, in a way. Everything about them was sharp, the way everything about him seemed rounded.
> Yulia Garner [Human] Lvl. 1
> Female
>
> HP: 10/10
So weak! Cobble could easily beat her in a fight! Either humans were much weaker than I had expected, or they were very young humans. Given my luck of the day, it was more likely the latter than the former, but I could still hold out hope.
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The next to be [Appraised] was the smallest of the two with the soil coloured hair. Out of all of the humans so far they were the cutest, with the biggest eyes and the roundest face. They still weren’t anywhere near as adorable as my kobolds, of course, but they were the nicest to look at.
> Nicol Knight [Human] Lvl. 1
> Female
>
> HP: 8/8
She was even weaker than the other one was! This one at least had to be a young human, right? It didn’t make sense any other way! Even I could probably win against her just by falling off my shelf and landing on her head!
Finally, there was just one human left, and one I didn’t have any strong opinions on. So far they hadn’t said anything in my presence, so they didn’t really stand out one way or another… They were simply there, existing.
> Leone Knight [Human] Lvl. 2
> Female
>
> HP: 15/15
Part of her name was the same as the smallest human, which was strange to me. Did that mean they were related somehow? Or was it just a coincidence? Actually, why did they have two names anyway? What was the purpose of it?
While I was pondering that question Nicol, the tiny one, made an exaggerated shaking motion and rubbed her hands against her arms. “Feels creepy. Like something is watching me.” Her voice was just as cute as she was, an oddly round sort of sound, but her words left me feeling uneasy. Could they actually tell I was watching them? Could they feel [Appraisal]? I had no way of knowing which one it was, and not knowing was pretty annoying.
“I know what you mean. For a minute there all the hairs on my neck stood on end.” It was Leone who spoke this time, and I recognized her voice as the first one I had heard, high like Cobble’s but softer. It was certainly more pleasant than Yulia's voice.
Yulia stepped closer again, bending so that she could peer into the entrance of my dungeon. This time Luka stepped closer as well, reaching out to physically pull her back as if I might actually have the power to affect them somehow. “Careful, Yuli, I’m getting a weird feeling from that hole. Could be full of snakes.”
Maybe they really could sense me somehow? I knew they couldn’t hear me, but maybe because we were natural enemies they could somehow tell that I was here? Inner Voice seemed to have no input on the matter, so all I could do was wait and watch.
“I’m gonna go check it out.”
“No!” Not only had all three of the other humans yelled it at her, but I found myself wanting to yell it as well. In fact, I was fairly certain that I actually had projected the words, judging by the way my kobolds stirred slightly in their sleep. I was somewhat relieved that I hadn’t managed to wake them yet, but I was also slightly annoyed by that fact.
What if something was actually attacking? I’d be all on my own!
Yulia moved a hand to her side, reaching into the skin hanging off of her, and pulled out a small stone roughly the size of her fist. “I’ve got a magic stone to see with, I’ll be fine! Besides, if there are snakes or something we need to find out, right? It wouldn’t be safe to gather berries and mushrooms around here anymore if there’s a whole den of snakes!”
Luka made a face that seemed to mirror what I was feeling, a complicated expression that was both horrified but also reluctant in acknowledging that Yulia had a point. It was rather smart of her to want to check out the situation, though I also hated the idea that she might come crawling inside.
What if she figured out I was a dungeon? What if she woke my kobolds? Or worse, the badgers? There were so many reasons I didn’t want her to come poking her way inside!
“Gimme the rock.” Luka held his hand out as his face shifted to a determined expression I recognized from Cobble.
Yulia immediately clutched it to her chest, turning her body away slightly as if to shield the magic stone from his reach. She made a hissing sort of noise, an expression like a snarl taking over her face. “No! It’s mine!” She yelled, her voice screeching up several octaves to the point where my ears would hurt if I had any. As it was, the vibrations made me want to shudder.
Leone moved forward now as well, crowding around Yulia so that the smaller girl had to turn even more to keep the stone hidden.
“Yuli, listen to Luka. Give him the stone.”
“No!”
“Yulia, really. Give it to Luka.”
“You just don’t want me to go in here!”
She turned in just the right way so that Nicol, who had been sneaking around behind Luka where she wouldn’t be noticed, was able to dart in and snatch the stone out of Yulia’s hands. As the taller girl shrieked high enough to make rocks crack, Nicol threw the stone to Luka, who snatched it out of the air easily.
“I’m the oldest, so if anyone is going to risk getting hurt to investigate then it’s going to be me,” He said firmly, a note of finality in his voice. It was the kind of tone that seemed to imply there was absolutely no arguing with him.
Yulia, it seemed, hadn’t gotten that note. Her face puffed out as she turned to him, stomping one foot on the stone floor. “You’re too big! You’d have to crawl! What if you run into trouble, huh? You couldn’t move fast enough! I’m the second shortest and it’s my rock and it’s my idea!”
To his credit, Luka didn’t explode from the sheer pitch of her voice alone, and he also didn’t seem to be inclined to argue with her. He looked at the stone in his hand, and then his eyes moved back to the dungeon entrance, squinting even smaller. It almost felt like he might be able to see me he was staring so hard, even though my core was tucked far away and the rest of me was intangible. As far as I could tell he seemed to be thinking very hard about the situation.
Everyone was silent as they waited, looking up at him, and even I found myself nervously awaiting the decision that he would make.
Finally, he nodded slightly, seemingly deciding what it was he wanted to do, and then he turned towards Leone. “Do you want to go in? You’re not much taller than Yuli, and you’re the second oldest. It’s up to you, Lee.”
I couldn’t hear Leone’s answer over Yulia’s pouting and protesting, but I could see her nod her head as she reached out to take the stone from Luka’s hand.
She moved closer to the dungeon entrance, close enough I could almost feel the mana coming off of her body, and then she began to do something very odd with the skins that had been previously hiding her legs. She reached down, pulling them up and between her legs, crossing and tying them together in a knot at her side. It looked odd and strange, and the sheer act of it sent the only male of the group turning away as if it were something he shouldn’t see.
Once she was done with whatever that was she crouched down and stepped into the dungeon, and I got my first dose of human mana.
She was a stronger source of mana than the badgers were, and interestingly enough I got a point the moment she stepped inside. I was curious about that, but there wasn’t any point in trying to puzzle that out at the moment. No, I had an emergency.
I had hoped that she would just see it was dark, hit the back wall, and decide that it was a shallow hole and that she should turn back. I wasn’t sure how or why, but I seemed to innately know that, unlike my kobolds, humans couldn’t see very well in the dark. Maybe it was like my odd semi-knowledge of badgers after I had [Appraised] one for the first time? There was no way of knowing.
Regardless, her turning back wasn’t what had happened. Because of course it wasn't. No, my luck had really and truly hit zero. The rock in her hand, the so-called magic stone, flared to life with light the moment she stepped into the darkness of the dungeon. Leone could see, which meant that she could tell the hole was bigger than they had expected.
“Woah! There's a whole tunnel back here!”
That brought Yulia moving even closer, leaning in despite the protests of Luka, who tried to stop her. The moment her head entered the dungeon I got another point. Did I get points when things came into the dungeon for the first time? That would certainly explain a couple of things about how my points had gone up while I was asleep when the badger family first arrived.
“So cool!” Yulia called out, her voice echoing down the tunnels even as Luka was grabbing her by the middle to pull her back out.
Thank you, Luka, I couldn’t handle having her voice physically inside my walls. It was louder than ever and I hated it.
“It doesn’t look like part of the old castle at all. Come on, Leone, we should head back to town and let someone know what’s going on. It looks like it could be a dungeon.”
I changed my mind. Screw you, Luka. You’re too damn smart for your own good. What part of me even looks like a dungeon to you, huh? I mean, I am a dungeon, but still! Obviously, I’m not big enough since dungeons are supposed to be human-sized, right?
Leone laughed, which was a shockingly pleasant noise. “Don’t be silly. Who’s ever heard of a dungeon appearing in the same place twice? It might be part of the old one, though? A part that didn’t collapse after the war?”
Now that was interesting news. There was a dungeon here before? Right where I was now? I didn’t like the sound of that at all. What had happened to the old dungeon? Did humans break the Dungeon Core? Just the thought alone was enough to make my core shudder.
“All the more reason to leave. Who knows what could still be in there, or what traps there are,” He replied, proving that he really was the smartest of the bunch.
Leone looked down at the stone in her hands, glowing with a light that didn’t seem to burn me the way sunlight did. She looked down the tunnel on her right side, the tunnel that would eventually lead to the main room and my kobolds, and then she looked back at the other humans crowded around the outside of my entrance.
I could pinpoint the exact moment she made her decision to not listen to Luka. There was a sudden hardness to her eyes, a sudden determination, and without saying a word she took off running down the passage.
The other three yelled out her name, and both Luka and Yulia tried to run in after her, but it turned out that Yulia had been right from the beginning. Luka was too tall, and since he couldn’t stand upright he couldn’t move fast enough to catch up. Leone had to crouch to move, so she wasn’t very fast herself, but she was still able to move fast enough to get away.
She turned a corner in the tunnel and disappeared from sight, leaving them in the dark as all three of the other humans called out “Lee” and “Leone” after her.
Now I really did have an emergency.