POV : WASTELAND
In the wasteland, Atlas headed out by himself. Well, not really by himself, but with the two baby trolls—now full-grown trolls—by his side.
“Let’s go hunt, Papa,” Portilla said.
“Smash,” Crushir agreed.
Atlas knew it wasn’t necessarily the safest idea to go out with just the three of them, but hey, he was OP and the main character of his own story. If anybody was going to find the dungeon, it was going to be him, and having a larger group would just slow him down. The trolls were fast and powerful, and now that they were full-grown adults, nothing less than a flame barrage would take them down.
As for him, his hot pink Frankenarmor was still holding up just fine.
They trekked through the wilderness from where the hordes had originated, and now, not having to move slowly, they crushed through skeleton stragglers. Ghouls fell before them, too. Atlas picked up the coins, but he left the remnants behind. ‘There’s no time for picking up corpses,‘ Atlas thought. ‘I really wish I had a ring of holding like they have in fantasy books,‘ but unfortunately for him, this wasn’t a fantasy book where rings of holding existed.
What did exist, though, was a dungeon, and he saw it. Purple energies pulsed from a pile of bones that had been mounded up. Skeletons were streaming out, like white cells attacking a virus.
“This is it!” Atlas yelled with excitement.
The three of them tore into the skeletons emerging from the bone pile. If there had been more people, it would have been quicker, but with just the three of them and nobody to keep an eye on, it was safer. ‘Almost safer.‘
Skeletons wailed in fury—or at least it looked like they did, because they didn’t make any sound. But it didn’t matter if they were armored skeletons, bestial skeletons, or regular ones. They were all prey, and they all fell to Atlas’s swords.
CRACK! CRACK!
Atlas’ swords cleaved through them all. The hunters had come, and they wouldn’t rest till their quarry was slaughtered.
Portilla and Crushir were having just as much fun.
“Smash,” said Crushir as his twin clubs flattened skeletons. Any wounds he took were laughed off easily. “Stop tickling me,” he said.
Portilla also did her share—a whirlwind of troll fury.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Skeletons fell left and right. After thirty minutes of hard fighting, all the spawns had been taken care of.
Atlas carefully walked his way into the bone pile, surprised at what he saw. Normally, a dungeon would have several rooms branching out from the first room, and this one did—but not several. It was just one long, straight passage. Skeletons trooped out in orderly fashion.
“Smash,” Crushir growled, fastening his grip on his clubs.
“Let’s go!” Atlas yelled, his two adopted children close behind him.
‘I probably should let them take the front lead,‘ Atlas thought. ‘They’re more tanky than I am. Whatever. Fuck it. What kind of dad lets his kids take the lead?‘
He annihilated the oncoming spawns, and the three of them entered the next chamber. The trio were the elite, the best of the best, and the wasteland would submit to them.
He was startled to see the dungeon heart pulsing frantically, spitting out skeletons. But they had no chance.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Atlas was excited. ‘This is it! This will be the end of the skeleton horde.‘ Fort Bone and his empire would finally be secure. But what surprised him wasn’t the ease with which they took down the skeletons—it was the fact that, floating above him, was a little fairy. Not the Red Fairy, and not the mini faeries. No, this was a completely different one.
“Stop! Stop!” The fairy shouted.
He had never seen anything like this before—not in this life, and not in his past life.
“What the—?” Atlas muttered.
The fairy, with a sad expression, said, “Stop crushing our skeletons.”
“Why? Who are you? What are you doing here?” Atlas demanded.
The fairy replied, “I’m the guide for this dungeon, and we don’t want you to crush all our skeletons. Our plan is working perfectly.”
“I’ve never heard of a fairy guide for a dungeon. What kind of fucked-up thing is this?” Atlas snapped.
“Well, I’m the first, really,” the fairy said nonchalantly. “I accepted a contract. I get paid in mana. My only job is to listen to the dungeon and help it.”
Atlas blinked. “What do you mean, listen to the dungeon?”
“The dungeons don’t make noises that you can hear,” the fairy explained, “but they do talk. He’s talking right now.”
“He’s talking?” Atlas asked, incredulous.
“Yes,” the fairy replied. “He’s saying it’s really mean of you to keep killing his skeletons. He worked hard on those. And without adventurers dying in the dungeon, it’s hard to bring enough mana back in to keep it up.”
Atlas looked around. The dungeon remained silent in his eyes.
The fairy continued, “I’ve been sending out other skeletons to collect remains from adventurers, but it’s a lot of work.”
A clattering sound came from behind Atlas. He spun around to see three bone-armored skeletons holding the remains of dead adventurers and soldiers.
“Those are my soldiers,” Atlas growled, fury blazing in his eyes. He got ready to take these new mobs down.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop!” the fairy cried out.
“I’m not stopping,” Atlas said, his voice hardening.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop!” she repeated.
The skeletons with the bodies froze. Like skeletal anatomy models. If he hadn’t seen them moving beforehand he would have thought these weren’t normal mobs.
“It’s not fair! We’re just newborn dungeons and fairies. You guys have been around forever,” the fairy whined.
“Why is that my problem? As soon as I link this dungeon, it’ll be nice and peaceful,” Atlas said, his hand reaching out for the dungeon heart, ready to link it.
“Stop! We can help!” the fairy pleaded.
“What?” Atlas raised an eyebrow.
The fairy paused, thinking.
“Yeah, I’m ignoring you,” Atlas said coldly, placing his hand on the dungeon. He started linking. With his achievement for dungeon linking, it would take no more than fifteen minutes to pacify this threat to his empire. The relevant achievement popped up in his vision. As usual Atlas ignored it, the achievement worked if he paid attention to it or not.
TITLE: Dungeon Master
*Ooh, you’re fast! You’re the first to clear a dungeon. From now on, linking and delinking takes half the time.*
***
The fairy broke out in tears. “Please stop! Please! You’ll kill him. He’s screaming in pain.”
Atlas said with disdain, “You seem to think I care about that.”
“What if we help you?” the fairy offered, her voice shaky.
“You’ve got thirteen minutes to convince me,” Atlas replied, his tone indifferent.
The fairy thought for a moment. “The dungeon said he’ll help you control the wasteland.”
“How?” Atlas asked, skeptical. There were only twelve minutes left now. He wasn’t falling for any tricks. He had linked enough dungeons to know how to subdue a dungeon. But it did surprise him. He’d never seen a fairy and dungeon combination before.
‘Stupid butterfly effect,‘ Atlas thought. ‘It’d be so much easier if everything stayed exactly the same... but I know it can’t with all the changes I’m making.‘
The fairy began sobbing again, weeping piteously. “Please, we can help you. All we can do is talk, right?”
“Let’s crush them,” Portilla said eagerly.
“Smash! Smash!” Crushir echoed, his voice full of energy.
“No, look!” the fairy cried. “Why do you want to subdue the dungeon?”
Atlas pointed at the bodies of his soldiers. “Look at them! Those were men of my empire, and you’ve killed them. For what?”
The fairy stammered, “Adventurers provide mana...”
Atlas continued, “What do you mean, adventurers provide mana?”
The fairy sighed. “The more you use mana, the more it sticks to you. So, there’s not a lot, but it’s enough for us to keep pumping out skeletons.”
Atlas narrowed his eyes. “Great. Another reason for me to kill you and subdue the dungeon.”
“No, wait! You asked for the explanation. I didn’t say we’d keep doing it,” the fairy replied.
Atlas cocked his head. “What would happen if you got no adventurers?”
The fairy’s cute little face fell. “Then... I guess we’d only have the mana in the atmosphere to use. Eventually, the dungeon would become tiny. Our goal was to become the biggest dungeon in the wasteland.”
Atlas said. “Look, I don’t care about you, Mrs. Fairy, or the dungeon. My job is to protect the people of my empire. And I’m definitely not feeding you my soldiers.”
The fairy looked desperate. “Isn’t there anybody in your empire you don’t need?”