Pushing the door open a crack, Ethan braced for a rush of air. When the dreaded decompression didn’t come, he smiled and pushed the door open. With the lack of decompression, what he expected to see was his brother’s double sized cabin. What his eyes actually beheld, made him stop in shock so profound for a second, he believed he’d gone insane.
The back of the ship was completely gone, in its place was an extended drop into what was clearly a wooded valley. Ethan blinked in amazement as he looked down at the scene below. At first, all he saw was a valley, filled with trees, interspersed with large rock outcroppings. As he continued to look, however, details slowly began to show through. Like how the valley was actually circular and shaped like a bowl, and at the very bottom of the bowl, was the other half of his spaceship.
Ethan moved his eyes over the ship, it had ivy growing over the hull, as if it had been there for years, rather than a few days. At first, he thought it must be a different ship, until he saw the word ‘Luna’ painted in faded black on the gunmetal grey of the hull. After seeing that, he noticed the back of the ship sported mana engines and the broken section of the ship matched what was missing from his own pretty closely.
Dragging his eyes away from the other half of the Luna, Ethan looked around the rest of the bowl. There were several areas where he saw bits of metal, and from his location down to the other half of the ship was a deep trench he hadn’t noticed before due to all the trees. Frowning, he mentally removed the trees. What was left in his mental vision was an impact crater where the Luna crashed and broke in half. Part of the ship stayed put, while the other half, his half, dug a furrow in the ground as it slid up and out of the impact site. Where he was standing now was only five feet above ground level, at the very lip of the crater. His part of the ship half-buried in the trench it had dug during the slide.
Realizing if he jumped down, he would easily be able to climb on top of the hull, Ethan did just that. Dropping the short distance he landed with a puff of dirt, then moved quickly to the right, using the space between the hull and the dirt wall to climb on top of the ship. Once there he walked around, taking advantage of the higher view to get a better look at where he was in relation to the asteroid he’d crashed into. Looking to the right showed him a view of jagged stone, frozen ice, and large chunks of other spaceships. The view to the left took his breath away completely.
Looking out, all he could see was the asteroid field and the endless expanse of space in between. Turning towards the front of his ship, he walked that way, cautious to stay far away from the drop down to the void. He counted steps as he moved, until he reached the spot his cabin should be located. Getting down on his belly, he shimmied over to the edge.
He’d been off by a foot, but sure enough, there was the coffin he’d just glued to the side of the ship. From the doorway below, all he could see was the endless void. He’d never have guessed without coming up here that the ship had actually crash-landed on an asteroid. Crawling back away from the edge, Ethan got to his feet and continued forward, hoping to reach Luna’s domain. When he got within twenty feet of the front of the ship, and reached the spot he expected it to be, he saw a shimmer distorting the air.
Frowning, Ethan focused on the distortion. He couldn’t see anything at first, but after a full minute of staring, he saw the shimmer again. It had a red tint and looked like a faint wall in the air. He’d seen the shimmer because he’d nearly walked into it. Following it up with his eyes, he found it was huge. Like a giant dome centered over the crater. Bringing his eyes back down, he slowly waved a hand through the red tint. He watched it ripple and distort, but it didn’t obstruct his hand, nor did it move. Looking closer, he noticed that just at this point, the dome was bowed in.
Tilting his head to the side, Ethan continued to examine the distortion to the air. It looked like a balloon had been blown up, but had come into contact with a second balloon, and had just continued to expand around the obstruction. He frowned not liking the analogy, maybe it was more like a tree growing around a fence post? It didn’t matter either way, he supposed it was just his mind finding ways to delay what he knew had to happen next.
After several minutes of agitated staring, Ethan finally mustered up the courage to step through the red tinted dome covering the sky. What he found when he reached the other side, was a second shimmering distortion. This one was a familiar shade of blue and appeared to be connected to the hull below his feet. Butting right up to the red tint, the blue distortion covered the rest of the ship’s hull entirely.
Captain? I sense your presence, but I don’t feel you inside my domain. What is happening?
Ethan stopped walking, looking down with sudden realization as the words scrolled across his vision. He didn’t know when Luna had gained the ability to ‘speak’ to him without physical contact, but the red and blue distortions had to be the boundary lines of domains. The small blue one connected to the ship belonged to Luna, while the red one that engulfed more than half of Luna’s domain and covered the entirety of the mile wide crater… it was centered over the aft of his ship, around his brother’s cabin which told him it had to be the dungeon core Mark and his team had captured. Only, if that was the case, how did it get so big? The cores were supposed to suffer personality death and their domains reset when they were removed from their domain locations.
“Luna, I’m here, only outside the ship. I think I’ve discovered why you feel like your expansion is being restricted… because it is, big time. There is a dungeon out here, I can see the domain boundaries… and it’s at least a mile across, maybe more.” She didn’t answer, and Ethan moved forward a little further, reaching the very front of the ship. He looked down at the part of the bridge that had crumpled in on itself to seal the hull where it had been blown open. The damaged nose of the ship extended out into space over the lip of the asteroid. He swallowed at the sight; the ship had come within yards of being sent flying off into open space. Well, not too open, as everywhere he looked there was a massive debris field floating around, bits and pieces banging into each other silently in the vacuum.
Turning around, he looked at the red distortion again, realizing part of his ship was inside the domain of another dungeon, a potentially hostile one. Whose monsters could reach all the way to the bridge without ever leaving their domain.
“… Luna,” he said, not sure if she could hear him. “I think we’re in trouble.”
Taking a deep breath of stale, filtered air from inside the helmet, Ethan looked around some more. Doing his best to commit everything he saw to memory. It was easy enough to do, considering there wasn’t much here. A tree filled crater with half his ship buried at the center, the other half on the lip. A lip that just so happened to be right on the edge of the asteroid before the broken chunk of rock dropped away out of sight below. An asteroid covered with chunks of broken ships and expanses of ice. All surrounded by an endless sea of debris. He shuddered when he imagined what it would be like for one of those chunks to smash into the Luna.
“Yea,” he whispered, so quietly he doubted it could have been heard outside his helmet even if there had been oxygen to carry the sound. “We are in trouble all right.” Looking back the way he’d come; Ethan really didn’t want to reenter the red tinted dungeon’s domain. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a choice. In order to get back inside the ship he had to go back the way he’d come. Unless he wanted to climb around outside the hull, looking for a way into the cargo area. Something he did not want to do, not without a magnetized cable.
On the bright side, domains provided gravity. At least, it did out here. Frowning, he thought about Lesa and the others’ rooms. They hadn't had gravity when he’d gone through them, but how long had he slept after putting Mark to rest? Were they outside the red dungeon’s domain, or did it just take a while for the domain to reach them. For that matter, was the domain even done growing, would he wake up tomorrow to find that Luna had been completely surrounded and snuffed out by the stronger dungeon core?
Before his imagination could run away with fear, Ethan shook his head to clear away the unwanted thoughts and pushed his way back through the red shimmer. This time, unlike when he walked out, he felt a tremble from the domain. The hair all over his body rose, and he had the distinct impression someone, or something, was watching him. It only lasted for a second, but it was enough.
He didn’t know why it hadn't happened before, but he knew, knew without being able to say why, the red dungeon was aware of his presence now. It knew he was here, and he had the feeling it wasn’t going to let his trespass go unpunished. Grinding his teeth together in apprehension, Ethan took off towards the hatch. He didn’t know what the red dungeon would do, but whatever it was, he didn’t want to be caught outside when it happened. The bone chilling howl that crashed through his helmet speakers a moment later told him clearly enough he wasn’t going to be so lucky.
Reaching the back of the ship, Ethan looked down into the crater. He instantly spotted movement, in the form of a large, shaggy furred, black dog that raced up the slope towards him. Sitting astride the black dog, was a small, grey, green figure, wearing tattered rags and holding a spear above its head while shrieking for all it was worth.
“Is… is that a freaking goblin?” He asked no one in particular, as three more dog riding goblins appear behind the first, coming out of the trees at a dead sprint. Not waiting to see if any more of the creatures were coming, Ethan threw himself down the slope he’d climbed to reach the top of the ship and ran towards the hatch he’d just exited.
Risking a look over his shoulder as he reached the hatch, he saw the lead rider was going to catch him before he could get into the ship. That didn’t stop him from trying however, and he hooked his fingers onto the hatch’s bottom edge and pulled with all his strength. He wasn’t sure if the gravity here was lighter than normal, or if it was pure adrenaline, but he managed to pull himself over the lip in one fluid motion. Expecting to struggle he fell flat on his face just inside the hatch.
A mistake that proved to be fortunate, as at that moment, the dog riding goblin soared right over his head and clattered into the passageway. It skittered forward five feet before slamming face first into the blast door in front of James’s room. The goblin dog combo had been dazed by the impact and were only now shaking it off. Realizing there was no way to fight past the goblin in such tight quarters, Ethan did the only thing he could think of, and slammed the hatch closed and spun the wheel, reaching up with one hand and slamming downwards with a foot, he engaged two of the emergency locks. Now, even if the goblin knew how to open the hatch, it wasn’t going to be able to get to him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to be able to get back to the bridge this way either, he realized with dread a moment later. When a trio of howls ripped through the air behind him.
Turning around, he saw the other three riders were almost on him. Glancing around frantically, Ethan realized trying to get on top of the ship the way he had before would only trap him in a corner, he decided to attempt a repeat of the feat he’d just pulled instead and reached up to grab the broken edge of the hull. The cabin ceilings had been eight feet tall, and since he was standing in what had once been a cabin, he didn’t even have to jump to reach the lip. Hoping beyond hope that whatever force had propelled his strength before would carry him through one more time, Ethan hauled himself upward, while simultaneously kicking off the floor with his feet.
To his delight, he found himself airborne, propelled smoothly up onto the roof. The ease at which he managed the feet confirming it in his mind this must be in a low gravity area, as there was no way he could have managed the move in earth standard gravity. Not that it brought him much comfort a second later, as he tumbled over himself and slid directly towards the far edge of the ship that overhung the void.
Scrabbling wildly at the hull as he slid, his fingers found purchase on a small puncture point in the armor. He slammed to a halt, body whipping around to point his face back the way he’d come. Just in time to see the first of the three goblin riders launch itself up onto the ship. Like him, the shaggy black dog had been overly ambitious with the leap, unlike him however, it didn’t find a handy puncture hole to use as a stop. Ethan watched with fascinated horror as the dog and its rider slid right across the ship’s hull and out into space beyond. Being inside the red domain there was gravity, so instead of floating away into space, the creatures dropped like a rock over the side and out of sight.
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Ethan got to his knees as the second rider followed after the first, howling in fear and rage as it too plummeted out of sight. The third, and final rider, however, had seemingly learned from its predecessor’s mistakes, and landed on top of the ship just as Ethan regained his feet. They stared each other down for a second that felt like an eternity. Up close, he got a better feel for size.
The creature was greyish green, with a dirty mop of hair so filthy he didn’t know what color it was. It was seated, but he guessed standing, it would be three feet tall at most. He estimated the dog’s size to be on par with the largest mastiffs of earth. He took that all in during the second it landed, and threw himself to the side the next, as the goblin kicked the dog forward, swinging a primitive looking axe horizontally towards his chest.
Throwing himself down succeeded in taking him out of the axe’s range, however it stole his balance and left him wide open for a follow up attack from the dog. Ethan screamed in agony as the massive jaws snapped closed around his left leg, just below the knee joint. With a move that was blind reflex more than anything, Ethan did a sit up, curling himself in to try to protect his leg. During the move, his closed fist slammed into the side of the goblin’s head. It was a glancing blow at best, but the momentum behind it was enough to send the rider tumbling over the back of its mount. A motion which pulled at the collar on the beast’s neck, forcing it to let go of Ethan’s knee.
Panicking, now that blood was leaking down his leg, Ethan scrambled forward, reaching for the axe the goblin had dropped as it fell. He needed to end this quickly, or else the more experienced goblin rider was going to tear him apart. It seemed like the goblin had a similar thought, and its filthy hand darted forward, grabbing onto the axe handle at the same time Ethan grabbed it.
What followed couldn’t really be called a tug of war, considering when each of them pulled on the axe, it was the goblin’s grip that was broken. Not waiting to see what would happen next, Ethan brought the axe up and around then smashed it down on the startled goblin, who was still looking at its empty hand in shock.
Ethan hadn't taken the time to aim, or even reorient the axe, so it was the blunt side of the weapon that impacted the goblin’s skull with a dull thud. Not that it mattered, he’d swung the axe with as much force as his adrenaline flooded muscles could bring to bear, and Ethan fought back bile as the child sized head caved in on itself like a rotten tomato.
Before he could congratulate himself, or get properly horrified at what he’d just done, Ethan was fighting for his life again as the black dog had reentered the fray. It launched itself at Ethan’s center of mass and sunk its teeth into the forearm Ethan raised to defend himself. The pair of them crashed backwards onto the hull, the dog firmly on top as it worried his arm like a chew toy. Shaking its head from side to side so violently Ethan was afraid it would tear his arm clean off. With no other thought in his mind than to get the dog to quit shaking its head, Ethan reached out with his left arm and grabbed the dog around the neck.
Hugging it tightly to himself, he tried desperately to get it to let go. Unfortunately, the dog wasn’t having any of that, and the harder he hugged the dog’s neck, the harder it bit down. In a panic and unsure what else to do, Ethan hugged the dog to himself with every ounce of his strength. He even wrapped his legs around the wildly flailing animal, doing his best to ignore the flames of agony shooting through his right arm and left leg as he squeezed. The flailing continued to build, until with a loud cracking noise, the dog went still. Ethan continued to hang on for several seconds, not realizing at first the fight was over. Then, when it became clear the dog wasn’t moving anymore, he let it go and pushed it away.
Ethan got to his knees and looked around, hand reaching out for the only weapon he had access too. He felt better the moment the axe was in his hand, and only relaxed when he realized there weren’t any more enemies nearby. He waited another few seconds to be sure of that before he took the time to look at his injuries.
To his shock, neither of the bites were particularly bad. They had felt much worse, but looking at them now, he didn’t know why he had been so worried. His knee in particular, looked like the bite had happened weeks ago. Confused, Ethan thought back on the fight. His memory caught on the moment he’d landed the killing blow on the goblin. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he remembered feeling a rush of energy entering his body from the dead goblin. Thinking harder, he was almost certain the same thing had happened when he broke the dog’s back.
“Is this the healing Mark talked about?” He muttered, as he felt his wounds. Only then realizing his skinsuit was damaged, and he was leaking oxygen. He panicked, reaching for the patch kit every skinsuit had before realizing he could still breathe just fine. The goblin and dog didn’t have any issue breathing either. So, inside the red distortion that designated the red dungeon’s domain at least, he didn’t need to worry about asphyxiation.
After another minute, where he convinced himself, he wasn’t about to die by attack or by suffocation, Ethan decided he needed to get back inside the ship. It was right as he made that realization, that he remembered there was a goblin rider and black dog locked inside the ship. He let out a loud grown when he thought about them blocking his path back inside. It didn’t take him long to decide the better part of valor would be to find an alternative route inside.
A few minutes later, Ethan lay on his stomach, looking over the broken edge of his ship. At the hatch right next door to his cabin; he hadn't bothered opening it after he looked inside his room and realized it was also open to space, so he hadn’t engaged the safety locks. This doorway though, unlike his, had a five-foot chunk of flooring still attached. Not sure if he should trust it to take his weight or not, Ethan decided to test it first.
With a thunk, first the body of the dog, then the goblin dropped the distance from the top hull of the ship onto the section of floor. Ethan, who’d kept a close eye and ear on the bodies as they fell, was happy to note the floor held up perfectly. Even so, he decided not to just jump down there. No, he was going to slide over the lip while holding onto the edge with both hands. That thought firmly in mind, he looked down at the primitive axe he still clutched in one hand. He didn’t want to let the weapon go, but he needed both hands. With a shrug, he decided to slip it into his belt, right next to the…
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” he said, as tears of frustrated shame spilled from his eyes when he looked down at the replica 1911 holstered at his side. “I had a freaking gun on me the whole time. One trigger pull each, and bang-bang, problem solved. What did I do though? Fought them both bare handed, that’s what I did.” In his panic, he’d forgotten all about the gun and gladius strapped to his belt. Either one of them would have gone a long way to make the fight less one-sided… though, if he were being honest with himself, both the goblin and the dog seemed pretty weak. Apart from the dog’s jaws of course, nothing weak there.
Unable to wipe away the tears he’d shed out of frustration since he was still wearing his helmet, Ethan blinked several times to clear his eyes. He then slipped the axe into his belt and dropped down onto the ledge. Not wanting to test his luck on the potentially unstable floor, he rushed inside and made to slam the door behind him. He forced himself to stop though. Luna had been bugging him for biological material at every turn, he’d be a fool to leave these creatures out here when they could be put to good use inside. So, against his better judgment, he went back out and dragged the bodies inside with him. Doing his best to ignore the sound of the goblin slamming itself against the hatch leading aft, Ethan maneuvered the hole and engaged the emergency lock on the inside door as well, effectively sealing the goblin and its mount inside the corridor from both ends.
That done, he made his way back into the bridge, promising himself to fix the floor that opened into the cargo hold as he struggled to get the bodies through. He dropped them in a heap beside the door and slumped into his usual chair, picking up Luna’s core out of habit as he sat. It had been a very long morning, and he had a lot to tell her. He just hoped they’d have enough time.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, Ethan had cleaned and dressed his wounds, scarfed down a pair of ration packs and finished bringing Luna up to speed. They’d also experimented a little bit with the core. As long as they were both inside the domain, they could communicate with each other without physical contact. They also learned that if any part of his body was in contact with her domain she could sense him, but if his head was outside the barrier, she couldn’t hear anything he said.
“… so, what do you think, Luna?” Ethan asked once he’d finished. “Do you think there’s an army camped outside the ship right now? Are the goblins smart enough to figure out how to get in here… or worse, smart enough to just dig around the ship until it slips off into space. I nearly died out there Luna, I don’t think I can go back out there if there are hostiles everywhere. They might be able to snipe me the moment I open the door… I’m too weak for this, it’s not supposed to be me in this situation, this is what Mark was good at, not me…” He was rambling and he knew it, but he wasn’t trained for any of this. Just a few days ago he’d been on his death bed from illness and thought there wasn’t anything his brother couldn’t handle. Now, he was healthier than he’d ever been, and his brother was dead.
First, I do not wish to lie to you. We are in trouble. Our location, in relation to the ‘Red dungeon’ as you called it, and the edge of this asteroid is not ideal. Fortunately, in our experimentation, it seems like it cannot sense you entering the domain, as long as you do so through my domain. Otherwise, you would have felt its attention on you when we experimented with our communication range. Also in our favor is that the dungeon is unlikely to grow much larger in the short term. However, since most of my remaining hull is currently inside its domain, we are going to be quite limited in how we can move.
Ethan’s face paled at those words. He’d poked his head in and out of the red dungeon’s domain several times over the last few minutes. Not to mention the trip he took into Cherry’s room to confirm there was gravity in there now, the temperature had risen as well. If those trips had tipped off the dungeon, he would have been swarmed by now. Luna’s text continued to scroll, so he put his thoughts on hold and continued to read.
With that out of the way, I want to give you some good news. You are not the same human you were. You are now a part of me, a contracted creature filled with mana. The gravity outside is earth standard. In fact, to my knowledge earth standard gravity is the default for all cores, both dungeon and ship alike. My point is that it wasn’t adrenaline or low gravity that propelled you so high, it was your own strength. As time passes you will only grow stronger, as my domain grows so will you. Also, as you kill dungeon creatures and absorb some of their mana you will gain strength as well. Now, the goblins are…
“Time out,” he interrupted before she could move on from that particular nugget of information. “What do you mean I’m no longer human? Contracted creature, you called me a dungeon boss, what exactly is that? As far as being filled with mana… isn’t that normal? You pulled mana from me, the creeping figs, and the stoats. I don’t understand what you’re saying right now… how can I be that strong, I’m a damn cripple…” Ethan had known Luna had altered him… somehow, when she made him a dungeon boss. Though he hadn’t known what that meant, and honestly hadn’t wanted to ask.
A dungeon creature is a being created by a dungeon core, or a ship core, as in this instance, there is no difference. They are created with mana and are bound to the core. They produce mana that is compatible with the core that made them, and they can be drained to death by the core if the need arises. They can leave the dungeon domain, but the core rarely allows that to happen because any mana they generate while outside the domain is lost. A dungeon boss is a dungeon creature, only more so. Each dungeon can typically only support one dungeon boss, as they have been imbued with much more of the core’s mana than a normal creature and their main function is to protect the core. They will always be bigger, stronger, faster, and smarter than a normal member of their species, and are functionally immortal, as long as the core they are attached to remains alive.
“And if the core is destroyed, or sealed?” Ethan asked, knowing there was no such thing as a free lunch.
Then the dungeon boss dies as well. As they are now a creature whose life force is no longer tied to biology, but mana. If the source of mana is removed, they, along with all a core’s created creatures will die. More than a fair deal when you think about it. Becoming better in every way and gaining immortality, the only cost being to keep their benefactor alive.
Her words were feeling increasingly annoyed to Ethan, who’d already been sitting, and he fought the desire to slump further into his chair. Instead, he found himself fiddling with the axe he’d taken from the goblin he’d killed. It looked primitive as could be. Roughly forged metal head, untreated and not even sanded handle that still had bark sticking to it in places, and what looked like sinew or gut holding the head in place. He only knew it was more than that because he’d asked Luna to absorb it and she’d told him she didn’t have the mana reserves to create a duplicate if she did, meaning it was more than it seemed.
“I didn’t know any of that,” he said softly, still looking at his war trophy. “But let’s say for the sake of argument that I’m ok with it.” He wasn’t, not at all. Sure, the benefits sounded good, but if it meant he had to constantly fight to defend Luna, considering their current situation, fighting would be unavoidable. “I’m supposed to keep you safe but… I don’t know how to fight. I don’t know how to make things, I’m not sure how I’m going to move you without accidentally launching us into space without engines to float around forever… I’m lost here Luna; I don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to do now…” He picked up the glowing blue glass orb, cradling it in his hands, and waited for her to tell him what to do. When the letters finally scrolled across the screen, all he wanted to do was cry.
Simple, You learn to kill goblins.