Chapter 47
They arrived at their destination the next day. Rather than tunnel into it blind as they had Beta and Gamma dungeons, the party returned to the surface once Tom felt the Core growing closer, a core which Tom was already referring to as Delta. The dungeon itself was forty years old, or at least that was when it was first noticed. It occasionally released small parties of goblins. Because the goblins themselves were low level when they were released, and only one or two parties were released per year, the locals dealt with the problem by issuing a bounty for goblin ears.
The dungeon itself was mostly left alone, however, and if it had been fully explored there was no record or map of the expedition. Goblins were semi-intelligent monsters, and while the raiding parties they sent out were fair game, invading their home and pillaging them might trigger a small time war that would necessitate the destruction of the dungeon, or at least a full purge of the contained goblin population. It was never seen as being worth the effort or the risk, so until Tom decided to take Delta Core for his network the dungeon had never been delved.
It was dangerous, but as Jessica put it, they had a nuclear option. Antoine had no intention of getting involved unless the low leveled members of the party were completely outclassed, but they were all reassured by his presence and confident that, despite his insistence that he would only bodyguard Tom, his protection extended to the others as well.
Silva, Nolan, and Rebekah, the Winged Knights in their company, were also high leveled, and likewise planned to stay out of things unless the lower leveled party members became overwhelmed.
Once they found the entrance to the dungeon, a limestone cavern that opened up to the surface as little more than a hole in the ground, everyone dismounted and the stableboys Mark and Tony began making camp and tending the mounts. Tom sent Lo and the Korgoath inside while the rest of them ate a quick lunch. Lo’s team did not return for some time, and the decision was made to follow them inside.
Despite Tom’s certainty that they were inside of a dungeon, the area appeared to be a large, natural limestone cavern. They walked past large stalagmites, stalactites, and columns as they proceeded deeper into the hostile territory unimpeded. They saw no signs of goblins, nor the missing party of Korgoath.
Deeper they went. Through three different rooms, each the size of a cathedral. They encountered nothing until a terrified goblin came screaming past them. The bemused party watched it approached, ready to defend themselves, but the goblin ignored them completely.
Then, suddenly, a stalactite dropped on the goblin and bit its head off as it ran underneath.
The stalactite’s shape shifted, and it took a second bite of the monster as the party of humans and minotaur watched in horror.
“Mimics!” Silva shouted. “Keep the controller safe!”
Antoine stood next to Tom, sword drawn, perfectly calm. “I was wondering how long it would take the rest of you to notice,” he commented calmly.
“You knew they were there?” Silva demanded.
“We’ve walked past at least thirteen,” Antoine confirmed.
“Why didn’t you say something?” she challenged.
“I would have, if anyone had gotten to close to one,” Antoine assured her. “Otherwise I viewed it as a learning opportunity.”
“We turn back,” Silva said immediately. “There is too much risk to Tom for us to continue here. Mimics are fiercesome ambush predators, and by the time he is attacked it might be too late for the rest of us to interfere.”
“They will not let us leave,” Antoine predicted. “They have been guarding against things exiting this dungeon, not entering it. If we leave, we will be fighting our way out. On the other hand, if we proceed to the Core, Tom can simply make us an entrance. We just have to avoid the mimics.”
“Avoid a monster that can look like anything?” she challenged. “It is too risky. I forbid--”
“I can help,” Emil said. He unslung a satchel from his back and pulled out a book. He flipped through its pages as the others turned to him.
“Can you do to the mimics what you did to the spiders?” Sevin asked.
“No,” Emil said, “That spell only works on arachnids and insects.” He read as the others waited for him to explain his plan.
“So what can you do?” Silva prodded when he showed no signs of revealing it on his own.
“Just a minute, let me see,” Emil said. Once he reached the end of the passage he was on, he took out his chalk and began drawing on the ground. “There’s no attack spell that specifically targets their physiology the way that the pest control does. In fact, what I’m thinking isn’t even targeted at them at all. But it should at least help.”
“If it’s not targeting them, how is it going to help?” Silva challenged.
“It’s not targeting them, it’s targeting the rocks,” Emil explained. “There’s a spell in here that makes limestone shift colors through the rainbow. It’s a complicated ritual but it’s just seen as a parlor trick, so it’s taught in the early books as a way to practice the craft. But if I supercharge it, it should have a pretty wide area of effect, and if I’m right then it will make the mimics stand out like a sore thumb.”
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The others waited patiently for Emil to prepare and cast his ritual. They watched nervously as the mimic finished eating the goblin runner, then reset itself, ignoring the party as it disguised itself as a stalagmite once more, hiding in plain sight.
It took Emil several minutes of drawing, and then he had to chant for several minutes, before finally he empowered the magic circle with his mana, and a wave of light flashed out. It passed harmlessly through everyone and had no effect except to turn the limestone of the caverns a dull rust colored red.
Revealing the mimics, which did not change color. Aside from the one that had eaten the goblin, there were eight of them in sight, three posing as stalagmites, two as stalactites, one as a column, one as a bolder, and the third as a patch in the wall.
Silva cursed, as there were more than she had been expecting. “We retreat,” she ordered.
“Our exit is cut off,” Tom argued. “I think that Antoine is right. If we just keep going we can sneak past them to the core, and then I can--”
Screaming from down the cavern interrupted him. The others turned and watched as a small clan of goblins came running out from the depths of the dungeon, jointly terrified of the suddenly revealed mimics within their midst. The others prepared their weapons. Brutus, with his medium-sized tree, stepped forward alongside Sevin and the other two minotaur to meet the charge, but the goblins stopped running before colliding.
The goblins were collectively disarmed, and several of their women had young children clinging to them. A leader stepped forward, a goblin taller and more muscular than a human, but still shorter than Tom.
“Did you change the walls red?” he demanded.
Tom looked around at the others, and Emil stepped forward. “I did. It is a magic spell, it will wear off in about an hour. Before then it will--”
“How did you know? We never saw them! So many missing, so many eaten, and we never knew! They were right in the middle of us the entire time!” the elder exclaimed.
“You’ve been living with the mimics since the dungeon formed, haven’t you?” Tom asked. “It makes sense, natural dungeons often have a predator and a prey type of monster. I don’t think that goblins are typical prey, but—”
“Please save us! If we go outside the humans will slay us. If we stay here, then the mimics will continue to hide in plain sight and hunt us!” the goblin leader pleaded.
“Why do you think that we’d do that?” Tom asked.
“You have shown us the dangers of our own homes,” the goblin leader explained. “And you travel with monsters, so you may listen to reason instead of slaughtering us. We just wish to live in peace, we do not want to be slain for our ears or eaten by monsters we cannot see! Please help us!”
The others turned and considered.
“They’re just monsters,” Sevin argued. “We don’t have to help them.”
“The mimics eating them is this dungeon’s natural ecology,” Silva agreed. “It is too dangerous to stay here. We must leave and find a dungeon that is easier to claim.”
Tom shook his head. “I’m not sure if we can save them or not, but I need this Core. Maybe if I claim it, I can teach this core to Spawn something other than mimics, and the goblins can kill that instead of being eaten.”
“There are goblin communities that live in harmony with humans,” Antoine pointed out. “We’re not natural enemies, even if we do seldom get along.”
“Do you think we could get them to mine for us?” Emil asked. “Tom, if you could Seed this dungeon with coal, then the goblins could sell it to the humans nearby. Everyone would win.”
“Why are you so hung up on coal?” Jessica asked him. “It’s dirty and causes pollution.”
“We need coal if we’re going to spark an industrial revolution,” Emil explained. “Fenard is already working on prototyping steam engines based on my designs. Once they manage that, there’s so many technologies that they can spread out into from there. Locomotives, water pumps, generators. The list is extensive.”
“It seems stupid that we’re in a world of magic and nothing runs on magic,” Jessica argued.
“I could make a steam engine that ran on magic,” Emil explained, “But I would be powering the spell myself. Most people don’t have the magic to do that. The majority of people in Welsius are non-magical, so we need to provide them with non-magical options for whatever technologies we introduce.”
Tom stepped forward, ignoring the two who began bickering about pollution versus progress. “If I try to help you, do you promise not to attack humans?” Tom asked the goblin leader.
“We just wish to live in peace,” the muscular goblin confirmed. “And not be eaten.”
“Would you allow me to Claim you?” Tom asked.
“If that means that you will protect us, then yes,” the goblin leader confirmed. Tom looked to the others, who mostly shrugged, before stepping forward.
With his Core network powering the ability, it was a simple matter for him to claim all thirty of the goblins, including the children. He took it a step forward and Customized each of them, placing a small but noticeable tattoo of a his crest on their chests. He had done the same to his korgoath and minotaur minions at Silva’s suggestion. His crest was simply a black circle with a blue core stone inside it.
He hadn’t exactly asked for permission to tattoo them, but none of the goblins complained.
“Are there any other goblin communities down here?” Tom asked once he had finished the task.
“No,” the leader said. “Sometimes others spawn, but they often left the safety of the caverns and were slain by the humans outside.” The goblin paused, then shook his head sadly. “They were the smart ones, I see now. Better to take the chance against the humans than live with these monsters.”
Tom nodded. “Right. Silva, would you, Nolan, and Rebekah guard them while we find the Core room?”
“We are here to guard you, Tom, not these monsters,” Silva objected.
“I’ll have Antoine with me if things go wrong. He won’t let anything hurt me,” Tom reminded her. Tom turned back to the goblin leader. “Can one of you guide us to the Dungeon Core while the rest of you wait here?”
“Yes,” The leader agreed. “Orsin, you know the way?”
A smaller goblin stepped forward. “Yes, chieftain,” Orsin said.
None of the goblins had any particularly distinguishing features aside from the leader being more muscular than the others. Orsin was likewise plain looking. His gray skin was a slightly different shade than the others, but there was enough variation in their skin colors that this was not enough to make him unique. He was wearing a loincloth, just like the others.
“Show them the way,” the chieftain ordered, and Orsin grunted in agreement.
They followed their goblin guide deeper into the caverns, giving any rock that hadn’t been turned red by Emil’s magic a wide berth. They passed a number of mimics that were covered in the blood of the goblins which had gotten too close during their flight from the depths of the dungeon. They carefully strode around the gore-covered areas.