Ethan was stunned at the casual statement Luna had made about him learning to kill goblins. It was so far outside of what he’d expected her to say that he hadn't even been able to respond for a while. The argument that followed would have baffled any outside observer greatly too, considering all they would have seen was Ethan throwing a tantrum and screaming at an empty room. It seemed pretty ridiculous to him too after the fact. Ethan, yelling at an orb while pages of text floated across his vision like the intro to an ancient space movie.
That argument had been some time ago, and to his chagrin, Ethan had come away the loser. Try as he might to convince her otherwise, he just couldn’t make Luna believe that his feelings, outweighed the facts, she’d laid out before him one after the other. Until eventually, he was forced to concede, lest he openly admit he was just being a coward. His new armor scraped against the floor with a gentle rasping noise as he knelt down in the corridor outside the bridge. He’d made the armor with his own hands… granted, with step-by-step instructions being spoon fed to him by the ship core. Still, it was one of the reasons he had relented in the end and agreed to this crazy plan of hers. His mind went back, unbidden to her explanation of how to craft his armor while he patched the emergency panels into place over the hole in the floor.
Your body is far sturdier than you believe it to be.
Luna had said when he brought up how dangerous it was for him to be out in the field. After all, who would protect her if he was killed.
But if bodily harm is that great a concern to you, we will just equip you with a set of armor to protect your life while you gain combat experience. It will take much more than a goblin or war dog to damage you if you are properly equipped.
Ethan, it turned out didn’t have a creative bone in his body, because he never would have come up with the idea she had. Not if he’d been given a decade to think about it. Even now he didn’t know how she came up with it. When he told her there was no armor to hand, she’d simply replied they would have to make it.
Perhaps you are unaware, but the emergency panels are constructed with a carbon fiber infused polymer with a net of woven steel cables inside to strengthen the entire piece. Most shuttles are constructed from this material and if it wasn’t for the fact it can’t hold up to impacts from small, fast moving asteroids, it would be used in all ship construction, and there is quite a difference between asteroids, and goblin axes. What’s more, it’s easy to cut with the right tools, which we have, and when the adhesive is applied it can be molded into new shapes. It will take a little work on your part, but a little work is a small price to pay for protection, is that not so?
The process ended up being quite a bit more involved than her simple description, but it had been doable. Ethan had spent the better part of the day cutting and sanding on the emergency panels before applying a thin layer of adhesive to one side and molding them onto his frame where they hardened into plates that fit the contours of his body perfectly. The adhesive made the panels quite hot while they were pliable, so he’d been forced to raid his former crew mate’s rooms for clothes to protect his body with, but Luna absorbed them anyway, so it wasn’t like he was actually ruining anything.
Once the plates hardened, he had drilled holes in them around the edges so they could be sewn onto a skinsuit they’d been able to craft with their larger mana pool. It hadn't been easy, and he’d actually burst into tears on one occasion because he accidentally cut a completed piece in half before Luna had absorbed it and he’d been forced to make it over again. Still, once he’d finished sewing the last piece into his skinsuit, he couldn’t deny the feeling of accomplishment that washed over him when he looked down at the work he’d done. The grey panels looked very dashing over the pitch-black skinsuit, even if he did say it himself. Though he still didn’t know why Luna had insisted on the four, hard sided pouches mounted to his lower back. All she’d told him was he’d need them.
“Admire yourself later Ethan,” he muttered as he turned his attention back to the task at hand. “Got to finish sealing this gap, then we can move on to the next part of Luna’s plan.”
They’d talked for hours while he worked. She’d told him several ideas she’d been working on, and he had been forced to admit that, memory loss or no, she was far smarter than he was. Not only that, but she seemed to be getting smarter, and more confrontational, as time went by. Even as they’d talked and he worked on his armor, she’d been steadily creating pots filled with soil and a miniature white oak tree. He’d had to stop every so often to put shelves up for the plants. Unless he was missing something, she got smarter with every plant she made.
“How are you able to make so many plants?” He’d finally asked after they’d filled an entire wall with the things. “I thought you could only use the mana in your dungeon creatures, and that only replenishes hourly.”
Close. I can forcibly pull mana from my creations beyond what they naturally produce when the need arises. However, during normal operations, a dungeon makes do with the passive amount generated by their creatures. As of now, everything in my domain is collectively generating approximately two mana units every few seconds. One of those units is being produced by you, Captain. In either case, if I first create the pot, regenerate mana, create soil, regenerate mana, then create the white oak, I can pump out a steady supply of mana producing entities. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough carbon dioxide producing creations here, so some of the plants will die soon. However, their deaths will also provide me with a burst of mana that I can use to create more stoats…
He’d just let her spam his mind with words as he worked on his armor, but she had continued on to talk about some scientific theories that he didn’t even begin to understand. It scared him, and he would have tried to limit her in some way if he could. Unfortunately, his life was in her… orb. Since he was pretty sure as her dungeon boss, she could drain the mana out of him until he died if she wanted to. With that happy thought, he glued the last panel into place over the gap in front of Dale’s room and walked back into the bridge to begin the next part of the plan.
“I’m done patching the floor,” he said picking his way into the bridge. It was so packed with potted oak trees and tiny rodents now; Ethan had a hard time working his way inside. “Are you sure you want me to lure them in here?” He asked, looking around at the mass of items she’d created now that she had an uninterrupted stream of passive mana units to work with. “Your plants are going to get wrecked if I do that.”
That is fine Captain.
She said, words looking impatient to his mind’s eye.
I already told you that death energy supplies more mana than what passively collected mana does. If a few of these plants die, so be it. Odds are we will need all the mana we can get when the time comes. Now, quit stalling and go get them.
“…fine,” Ethan muttered as he picked his careful way back out into the corridor. Not worried about being vented into space anymore, he left every door behind him open as he went towards where the goblin and the war dog, as Luna had called the shaggy black dog, had been confined for nearly two whole days. He could still hear them banging around inside, but the noise had grown fainter as time went by.
Doing his best to be silent, lest he tip them off, Ethan crept forward the last few feet and came to a stop outside the hatch that locked in the hostile dungeon creatures. With a deep breath, he prepared himself for what was about to happen, before twisting the wheel with all the speed he could muster. With a swift kick of his foot and slap of his hand, Ethan undid the emergency locks and pushing the door open a crack, turned tail and sprinted back down the corridor towards the bridge.
A loud howl split the air before he’d even finished turning the wheel, and the door slammed shut again even as it opened. It seemed the war dog had seen the gap and tried to force its way through. It took a few seconds before the goblin managed to back the dog up far enough to open the door completely. Ethan knew all this because he’d already reached the hatch into the bridge and had turned to watch the show.
Any desire to laugh was instantly killed when the goblin threw itself onto the war dog. It brought the spear up and locked it in place under its arm. Reminding Ethan for all the world of a knight on horseback, preparing their mount for a joust. It would have been comical if he hadn't been so scared, and as soon as he was confident he’d gotten the creature’s attention, he stepped back into the bridge and got out of the way.
“They’re coming Luna,” he said as he ducked off to the side to hide behind a crate filled with ration packs. He’d argued extensively about letting the goblins out before they starved to death. In the end he’d agreed, but only because Luna had told him she would take care of them herself. Ethan, not realizing the ship core had any means of combat, agreed out of curiosity alone. Only curiosity, it had nothing to do with his fear of goblins and their war dogs.
With a shrill cry, the goblin rider burst into the room and, just like Ethan had anticipated, crashed right into several shelves filled with potted oak trees. Ethan frowned as the mount and rider went down amidst a pile of potted plants. It was conjecture before, but he’d seen the war dog riders in action enough times now to form a theory, and that was that the goblins, their mounts, or both, really weren’t that smart.
What happened next happened so quickly that if he’d blinked, he would have missed it. As the mount and rider went down, the previously still room exploded into angry motion. Something like fifty stoats burst from where they had been hiding to converge on the intruders, and they were vicious. Ethan couldn’t believe it when they struck, faster than he thought critters their size could move, and they went right for the vitals. Before the goblin could so much as bat the first one away ten more had latched onto its neck. There were several more that had clamped their tiny jaws onto the goblin at wrist and the inside of the thigh. They targeted the arteries that pumped the most blood and ripped into them with abandon.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
The war dog wasn’t spared from the attack either. A little more than half the stoats swarmed all over the shaggy black dog and, in a repeat of what they’d done to the goblin, went for its vitals. Unlike the goblin, who was already down and dying two seconds into the attack, the dog had thick fur. It didn’t save it in the end, but it held on long enough to bite, claw, or crush over a dozen of the hand-sized rodents before it finally bled out.
The moment the hearts began to stop, Luna made her move. She’d absorbed the axe wielding goblin and the war dog he’d brought back earlier, telling Ethan that her passive mana was getting high enough that the conversion rate into stoats or plants just wasn’t worth the waste, and she instead wanted to add their blueprints to her bank. What she was doing now was a time sensitive exercise where she used both the death energy from the kills, and the biological materials from creatures of the same species as the blueprints she was trying to make, in order to reduce the costs enough for her to… yes.
Ethan couldn’t ‘see’ anything exactly, but he’d been getting a feel for what mana manipulation felt like, and he knew it when the plan succeeded. The bodies scattered across the floor, not only the goblin and war dog, but stoat, and white oak too, began to shrink and vanish. At the same time, he could feel his own pool being drawn down. Apparently, what she had wasn’t going to be enough. Still, new forms were taking shape in the overcrowded room. Before long, the dead bodies were all gone, used for their mana and their bio matter, and were replaced by the start of Luna’s own private army.
Looking down at the stoats as they plopped onto the floor from where they’d been attached to their prey that were no longer there, Ethan noticed something odd.
“Hey, Luna.” He said, not taking his eyes away from the stoats as he talked, doing his best to ignore the dizzy spell his mana pool being drained imposed on him. “A few of these stoats are bigger than the rest. Why is that? I was under the impression you could only make direct duplications.” He frowned at the sight, they weren’t much bigger, but there was definitely a difference. Even their fur looked different, sleeker somehow. It was odd.
As I believe I have said before Captain, when a dungeon creature is killed the one who kills them absorbs some of the kill energy, making them better than they were before. The larger stoats are the ones who got the killing blows. They even produce more mana now, if I were to drain these ones, I would get one unit of mana instead of the half unit of their smaller brethren.
Doing his best to ignore the increasingly sarcastic ship core, Ethan pondered over what she said. Something occurred to him then that caused his face to light up and he turned his attention to the orb still resting in his normal chair.
“Then, how about you have the stoats fight?” He asked excitedly, already seeing visions of horse sized stoats, ripping through the goblins’ ranks. “You can use the mana their deaths supply to make new ones, and the winners will just keep getting bigger and stronger. What’s more, we wouldn’t need so many creatures to reach a higher passive mana level…” He was really getting excited now, and if Luna’s text hadn't started flashing in his vision, he would have continued to ignore it while he daydreamed about the end of his part in the fighting.
I’m sorry Captain, but it doesn’t work like that. I would still get the burst of mana that the deaths would generate, but the stoats wouldn’t get anything out of it as they are all made from the same mana source. If that were a possibility, I would have had you killing stoats instead as you are still the biggest supplier of mana I have.
Ethan frowned at the ‘tone’ of the words. Well, more like the feeling they gave him as he read the words. If this was one of his VR games, he’d be the hero and the ship core would be his loyal sidekick. It was feeling more and more like Luna was the main character in this story and Ethan was only here to do her dirty work. His mind flashed through different ways to course correct the situation, but unfortunately, every one of them required him to take charge in some way, and taking charge really wasn’t in his nature.
“No need to get personal,” he eventually said in a sulky tone before changing the subject. “So, tell me about your new creatures. How helpful will they be to us?”
The pair of them have a passive output of half a mana unit every few seconds. The goblin has an active pool of ten points, and the war dog has fourteen. To purchase the goblin again with mana would cost one hundred units of mana, the war dog would cost two hundred units. If biological materials are used to offset the cost, and if they are from the same species then that price can be halved. Even draining your entire pool of thirty units, we wouldn’t have had enough mana if some of the stoats hadn't died. I was about to start draining the oaks dry, but thankfully that wasn’t needed.
“Oh, ok that’s actually not to bad…” Ethan trailed off as something she said registered completely. “Wait, thirty units, I thought I only had twenty-five?”
You killed a goblin and war dog all by yourself, remember Captain. And as I have said at least a few times now, when a dungeon creature is killed the one who killed it absorbs some of their power.
“… I see,” at this point Ethan was torn between face palming in embarrassment because she had said something like that a few times already and throwing the damned ship core out into the debris field and taking his chances on his own. “Well, with their mana, both passive and active pools, added in, will you have enough to start fixing the nose of the ship?”
I have already started repairs to the bridge, it is going to take a very long time, likely months, to restore the bridge, and the nose of the ship to its former state with the mana I currently possess, however. Fully half the bridge was destroyed, and if I hadn't used the last of my mana to seal the tear in the hull as the ship broke apart, I’m certain you would have died instantly. To answer your question though, no, at this point, your presence won’t actively help unless I drain your mana pool continually, and even then, the results will be minimal. At least not nearly as much as you being out in the field, killing and collecting more goblins.
“Then I’m leaving,” without another word, Ethan picked up the bag he’d filled with supplies ahead of time and headed for the door. He’d had enough of Luna’s attitude, and at this point, he welcomed the idea of a battle to the death with goblins, if only to relieve some of his feelings of inadequacy.
Wait, you might need these.
Luna said, as four stoats, all slightly larger than the rest, darted up his legs and vanished into the four pouches Luna had made him attach to his armored suit.
You can direct them with your mind but keep them in reserve until you need them.
With a nod, Ethan left the room. He was touched by the gesture she made, by sending him out with protectors. Far more touched than he would have been if she’d have told him what the pouches were for before he watched the little terrors murder the goblin and war dog in seconds. Though, in all likelihood she just wanted him to let them absorb kill energy to grow their mana pools. That was ok though, they could get stronger together. Get strong enough to reseal the red dungeon core and get the ship’s mana engines back online so he could get away from the damn ship core before she drove him insane.
Walking down the corridor, Ethan left the doors open behind him. He intended to open them all the way to the end, before doubling back around to climb out of the cabin he’d entered from. He had too, considering he’d locked the hatch closed from the outside to keep the goblin in. Reaching the final section that had contained the goblin and war dog, Ethan was forced to hold back his gag reflex at the smell. The pair of dungeon creatures had been trapped inside the tiny space for the better part of two days, and they hadn't been shy about relieving themselves in that time. Pushing the door open all the way, he idly wondered if he could get Luna’s goblin to clean up this mess.
The door now open between the exit and the bridge, Ethan turned towards the hatch he planned to use to climb out from. There was a ladder leaning against the wall he’d made the day before during a break in his armor construction. He could hoist himself up over the lip, true, but this close to the void of space, he didn’t want to take any chances on an accidental slip sending him floating away to his death.
Slipping the ladder into place and sealing it to the wall with foam adhesive, Ethan took a minute to scarf down a ration pack. His head was still spinning from the mana drain and he really shouldn’t be leaving like this, but he just couldn’t stay cooped up with Luna any longer. With the glue dry and his ration pack empty, Ethan climbed onto the top of the hull. Looking around carefully for goblins. Thankfully, there were none to be seen.
“Figures,” he scoffed when he realized that Luna, who told him the dungeon wouldn’t bother keeping a guard, turned out to be right yet again. She told him the dungeon would be able to sense death in its domain, but that death was a normal part of dungeon life. As, when there were no outsiders present, the creatures inside acted just like they would in the wild, and in the wild, animals hunted one another all the time. “I just hope I can do this without getting caught in another group attack.” Ethan muttered, angry enough at Luna to come out here alone, but scared… no, cautious, enough to not want to fight any more than he had too.
Reaching the back of the ship, he once more looked around for enemies, before dropping down in front of the door and unlocking it from this side. Turning the wheel, he pulled the door open, just to make sure it worked properly, before closing it again. If he needed to make a quick getaway, the last thing he needed was to find out at the wrong time that the goblin had managed to wedge the door shut or something. Satisfied he could get back in if he needed too, Ethan walked away from the ship.
From his vantage point at the lip of the crater, he had a good view of everything below. At least in general, he couldn’t see any living creatures inside the forest itself. What he could see, were the bits and pieces of broken ships that dotted the crater. After their ship crashed down, another ship, or pieces of several, must have crashed into the bowl, and gotten stuck in the broken rock. He kept a sharp eye out for goblin riders as he moved towards the forest below, mind wandering back over what Luna had suggested he do once he entered the red dungeon’s domain.
The dungeon core is always located at the very center of the domain. Normally it is all but impossible for adventurers to know where that is, but you have a few advantages. First, as my dungeon boss, you can see the distortion that marks the boundaries of a core domain. Second, the domain is clearly centered on the crater, making the location of the dungeon core rather obvious. The reason this is important is that, despite the core being your end goal, you need to stay far away from it for the time being. The closer you get to the core, the stronger and more intelligent the dungeon creatures will be. If you stick to the lip of the crater, or within one hundred yards of it anyway, you shouldn’t run into anything stronger than a goblin or a war dog.
He tried to remember what else she’d said, there was so much information conveyed while he worked on his armor that he found it hard to keep track. Doubly so as he actually had to read the words in is vision and couldn’t just listen to her speaking. Still, staying near the lip was an easy enough order to follow, and it just so happened there was a large chunk of spaceship debris in the safe zone she had marked out for him, and Ethan intended to check it out.