Chapter 12

Jack Muttered under his breath. Still fuming as since his apprentice was threatened. It had been three weeks since then and he had half a mind to send Aegisthal after that piece of shit turned to paste. Lucky for them Frizzy had talked him out of it.

For now at least.

Since then, Jack had been at work making his dungeon in earnest and if he was being honest with himself, it was actually REALLY fun!

Since his old down was surrounded by forests and mountains with the meadows having long since vanished, he decided to use that to his advantage. He started by setting his dungeon up in rings. To start he was going to make the first ring a five-mile-thick band. He made a divider to separate the outer most ring form the inner section. He had absorbed some pants and use the hem to make barriers to separate the sections. It was tricky of course since he still needed to gremlins to be able to go in and out of the dungeon if need be. To give them a clear and easy means of coming and going, he made hidden paths form them to take. Since they were short it was easy for them to remain hidden. He was also proud of the plant he chose to be rather nasty since some of them would give a bad rash if it touched bare skin. Not to mention he made it so there was enough spacing and paths to make game trails so animals could migrate. Be one hell of a pain in his boney ass if he and to worry about wild animals causing him problems.

Not that he didn’t enjoy puzzles and challenges. Hells, Jack loved a good brain teaser. He just didn’t like problems that repeated themselves.

“Frizzy!” Jack yelled in indignation. “That son of a bitch bear is back! AGAIN!!! Why?! Why does that fucker keep coming back!” Jack growled in frustration.

Frizzy, for the third time, sighed at her teacher’s antics as she was interrupted from her work. She had been repairing the self-winding pocket Jack had given her earlier to practice but was not placing the tools to the side.

“Teacher… I want to ask you a serious question.” She said with thinly veiled annoyance. “What, in the name of the gods, makes you think I can do anything at all about that bear?”

“I don’t know! Maybe you’d have an idea didn’t consider before!” Jack said, doing nothing to hide his frustration. “That walking floor rug keeps killing my undead dungeon monsters! WHY! There is plenty of food LITERALLY everywhere!”

“Teacher… is this really that important?” Frizzy asked exasperated.

“It is! What are the adventurers supposed to fight if I keep losing the mobs to the bear?” Jack said with blatant frustration. “I have is set so the mobs can response after a certain amount of time, but still! That pest will just keep making that area easier for anyone that wants to come in!”

Frizzy sighed while stepping away from her work station. Making sure all the tools and parts she had been working would not get lost and made a note where she left off.

Frizzy loved her teacher and had nothing but the upmost respect for Jack. He was her teacher and the patron of her clan on top of just being a good person. Sometimes though she really wanted to hit him on the head with a stick to knock some sense into him. Especially when he got like this. Of course, she wouldn’t actually do it. At least not this time. No, she’ll save that one for when he really needed it.

“Teacher. Have you tried to send Aegisthal after it?” she asked. Her head tilted ever so slightly with an eyebrow raised.

“I asked him to do it but his answer was-“ Jack quickly gestured to the Golem in question who stood at a rest stance not thirty feet from them.

“For me to leave and kill this bear, I would be leaving the vulnerable unguarded. By the time I reach the bear it would be long gone. My leaving the vulnerable would then be a meaningless risk. Will stay here where I am most needed, My General.” Aegisthal supplied.

“And I can’t disagree because he’s completely right.” Jack sighed.

Frizzy looked to Jack and then back to Aegisthal with a confused expression unsure of what to make of Aegisthal just refused an order. Something she never thought a dungeon mob was capable of doing. Then again this was her teacher and she saw him make a device that fits on the wrist and spews fire. A device he called the Crowd Control. Then there was the time he got bored and made a magic hammer that would make an explosion behind its head so it swung and hit harder. A weapon that he called… ‘Da Boomstick’. At this point she really shouldn’t be surprised anymore yet here he was, surprising her yet again without really trying to.

Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly before engaging her Teacher and risk a headache.

“Teacher, maybe you can coat your mobs in something that will make the bear not want to kill them?” She asked, while noticing the Aegisthal was tilting his head at her.

At the question, Jack froze in thought. Considered the idea before his jaw suddenly started to slacken. Why hadn’t he thought of it before? It was so simple and obvious now that she mentioned it.

What the fuck is wrong with me? Jack reprimanded himself. It’s so freakin obvious. Dumb Jack! Dumb!

“Frizzy you are a genius. I’d kiss you if I had lips.” Jack said as he then summoned one five pounds of bronze and copper. “Quick question. Did anyone in your clan bring chilies or maybe peppers?”

As he asked that question, Frizzy had a distinct feeling that if her teacher had a face, he’d have a rather evil smile. Bears in the past have attacked gremlin communities and raided their homes in the past. She didn’t like bears but understood they were animals trying to survive and eat. In this moment thought she felt a surge of pity for the unsuspecting bear.

“I can ask some of the clan to see if anyone has any. But I don’t think anyone has any since we mostly eat sweat things, root vegetables, and also meat from small animals. Not many of us like spicy food.” Frizzy said before holding her chin in thought. “I think there are some wild chilies you can find in the south. I don’t know if they are in season though…”

“Damn it…” Jack sighed before crossing his arms in frustration. “Well crap. There goes that idea. We’ll have to one day buy some but I rather not sound anyone from our community for something like that. We’ll just have to just deal with it… for now… fucking asshole bear.”

Jack turned his focus back to adjusting his dungeon. He might as well get something done while stewing in his frustration. No one said he couldn’t multitask while being thinking of petty revenge schemes.

“Teacher, can’t you make a trap to catch there bear?” Frizzy asked while interrupting his thoughts. Making his conscious mind become back to the body. “I heard there are jaw traps that work good on beats.”

“No.” Jack said plainly and sternly, all quirkiness now shoved aside as he planned. “My goal is to either drive it away or to kill it out right. Those traps are cruel and I will not use them. They maim and injury, they cause unnecessary pain. We are fabricators Frizzy. We do not take the easy way if it is not the right way. We do not take half measures when we solve a problem. We either do it right way or not at all. Do you understand my apprentice?”

Frizzy was taken aback at Jack’s sudden seriousness. He didn’t raise his voice nor was there any threat or the usual string of curses. The intensity though, the level of seriousness he had regarding the trap made it very clear that he was not going to use anything of that sort nor tolerate its use. Frizzy for her part at hearing her teacher’s words made her feel ashamed for even bringing it up.

“Y.yes Teacher.” She said nervously, unused to this level of seriousness from him. “I am sorry teacher.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He said plainly before shaking his head to regain himself. “Right! Let’s see it see if we can get some spicy stuff. Would you ask around to see if anyone has those chilies. Hells, a seed would be enough.”

“I’ll ask around teacher.” She said still a bit taken aback by the intensity he had but a moment ago. “Uhm… teacher?”

“Yeah Frizzy?” Jack asked with his head tilted. “What’s up?”

“When can I start learning to make magic items?” She asked, unsure if she was even ready to ask about it.

“Not for a while. You Still have to learn the foundations of what it is to craft something. There is a lot involved. For example, if you need to make something tough but at the same time light weight you need the right material for it. Use the wrong one and sure a you might have something that works but is it then you got a heavy bundle of weight to lug around. Or you need something that can bend and flex without warping. Pick the wrong one you have an ugly lump of metal or it just falls apart. At worst it can explode. Sorry Frizzy, but you are my first apprentice and that means I’ll be used as a chew bone if I don’t make you into a master fabricator.”

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“T.thank you Teacher.” She said with a slight bow of her head. “What should I be studying then?”

“Wellllllll. Seeing how we got those blank pieces of paper, those blank books and that ink. I think it’s time to give you some homework!” Jack said excitedly while clapping his boney hands.

“Home… work?” Frizzy asked, her large ears perking up and her head tilted.

“Not important.” He said with a dismissive wave. “Real question is, can you read the common tongue?”

“Yes. Yes!” Frizzy said, clutching to question as it was one she was able to answer with confidence. “I can read. Everyone can read the common tongue since everyone grew up with the System.”

“Perfect, in that case let’s see if this is going to work.” Jack said before thinking about the loot system and making a book.

The book he imagined was the average size for a hard cover book. The cover was green and after imaging all the basics of metallurgy, the book in his mind became seventy pages thick. For good measure he imagined images to demonstrate certain concepts. That made the book in his mind become one hundred and thirty pages. After imaging the book and looking it over in his mind and finding it rather plain looking. Jack decided that it should have thin sheet of silver over the cover with copper bands to bind it so that it would look nicer.

Once satisfied, the willed the book to come into existence.

That was when he felt a huge draw of mana that felt as if he just got punched in his non-existent gut. He felt the mana being drawn from so drastically that it felt as if that all the energy he had in himself was just suddenly pulled out of him. Leaving him to actually drop to his hands and knees to regain his composure when the mana draw stopped. A the every book he had imagined now sitting on the ground.

The moment he fell to his hands and knees, Aegisthal was standing over Jack. Using their massive bulk to shield their creator with their body while Frizzy ran to Jack’s side and clutched his arm with pure panic in her eyes.

“Teacher! What’s wrong?! Are you ok?! What happened?!” She asked not giving him a change to answer her when she turned her head to face Aegisthal. “Aegisthal! Teacher is vulnerable! If anything attacks while he’s vulnerable you crush them! You crush that villain to paste!” She barked, taking the lead while jack was very winded from the recent ordeal.

Lucky for him he picked the upgrade for the Arcane Nexus upgrade when he did. Already he could feel the mana recirculating back into his area of influence as it steadily restabilize and refilled his dungeon core’s reserves. Despite the stead refill, he was done for the day. There was no way he could realistically work on his dungeon with so little mana to work with.

While it touched him that Frizzy was so protective of him and that Aegisthal already stood over them both with a menacing mace in hand. Jack really wanted to know what the actual fuck had just knocked him on his boney ass.

“Heeeeeey.” Jack said awkwardly while dusting himself off and started to sit up. “Not that I don’t love the attention. But I promise I’m not going to fall apart.”

Both Aegisthal and Frizzy stared at him almost in sync. Aegisthal’s face was of course unreadable since it was basically a faceless featureless angular helmet. Thanks to link of him being Jack’s dungeon sentinel, he was able to feel that Aegisthal felt incredulous at hearing what Jack just said. Frizzy on the other hand was an open book with her worry and agitation.

“My General. The event that has left you rendered incapacitated, no matter how brief it may be, was one of utter surprise that we do not yet understand. It is advisable that you remain here until it is certain you have recovered.” Aegisthal said with that same level of calm directness he always had.

“Teacher… Jack. Aegisthal is far too polite to actually say it so I’ll say it for him. You are sitting fucking down and staying still until we figure out what flattened you out like a fully loaded runaway wagon.” She growled while jabbing his chest with a finger from the prosthetic arm he made her. “If you try anything before we figure out what happened, I swear that I’ll steal your legs and not even Aegisthal will be able to stop me!”

Aegisthal turned to look at her and was about to say something. That was until Frizzy, who wasn’t looking in his direction, held up a finger.

“Don’t not a word Aegisthal!” She barked, making the giant guardian back down.

Slightly annoyed, but also kind of impressed that the tiny woman was able to make an immovable force take a step back. Jack lowered himself down and just accepted his fate since he didn’t want to fight with his apprentice. Honestly, he liked that show of confidence. Any self-respecting fabricator needed to have a strong sense of self-worth and certainty in their choices and words. After all, there was always that one asshole customer that tried to cheat a crafters hard work. Demanding discounts or how something ‘conveniently broke’ and wanted a refund.

“Alright fine. I’ll sit still.” Jack said while mumbling the last part. “before that, I think you should study that book I made. It’s a good start for you to understand the nature of materials I’ll be teaching you to use.” Jack said still sitting exactly as he was when he surrendered to his apprentice. “It’s the basics but it’s important to know. Once you can answer any question I give you from that book, we’ll move on to actual crafting and making simple magic items.”

As he said that, Aegisthal eached over for a chair and brought it closer for Jack to sit on. Frizzy turned to the book and quickly picked it up with her ears perking up in excitement. Clutching the book close to her chest to fend off any invisible thieves that might try to steal it from her.

“What’s in the book?” he asked while she continued to guard her new treasure.

“The basics of metallurgy. The founding principles for the study of the basic metals, their purification and production.” He said dismissively. “More or less, why metal works for beginners.” He snickered at his joke.

At the news of what the book was. Frizzy guarded it jealously, spending every free moment she had to study it and going so far to ask him for sheets of paper with ink for notes. Again, making Jack proud to have her as his apprentice since she was going above and beyond in her studies. In just a few days since getting the book she made dozens of notes. He tried to look them over once before she chased him away saying they weren’t ready yet. Which was fine since everyone had their right to their own secrets.

Once he had regained all his lost mana and made the finishing touches to his first level only to be… disappointed by the results.

The first level of his dungeon was basically a forested area that moved into the abandoned farmlands. The homes were partially collapsed and decapitated to give the appearance of age and neglect, most of the area was had his skeleton rats with tin crabs lurking about. For esthetics Jack decided that he was going to age the appearance of the tin crab. Giving it a nice ancient look because why not. There were also some changes he made like when he got rid of the some of the bramble. He ended up making paths with the remaining ones and also made some notes and clues within the farms. All that was left was the boss and then the wall.

From what he learned from the books the gremlins were able to bring back for the quest he gave them. Each level of a dungeon needed to have a boss. It also said each level boss had their own unique abilities. The biggest thing that stuck out to Jack though was that the boss for each level were made to a similar theme to that level. After checking his mobs list he studied what his options were for a boss could be.

Dungeon Mobs Available:

Level 1 Mobs:

Zombie Rats

Skeleton Rats

Tin Crabs

Level 2 Mobs:

Skeletons (elves, dwarves)

Zombies (elves)

Level 5 mobs

Osteal Ferrum Golem

Notice!

All mobs crossed out are mobs not available until certain dungeon level requirement is met. Found/made mob options that have been absorbed will be saved until requirements are met.

Jack looked over the mobs and too a moment to think while still making more changes. He’d by lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed to see the notice. But he’ll find a way to make it work. He made four clearings with thick sections of brambles surrounding his territory just behind the clearings. With a clearing the north, south, east and west of his territory.

To give each one some extra taste and flavor. If he was going to make a dungeon, why not one that tells a story?

Within each clearing he created a singular tree that sat in the with grasses all around along with some flowers. Resting against the tree was an elven skeleton dressed in battered armor with a fist sized hole in the belly. A quiver of arrows, a rusted knife along with a broken bow rested at its side. Next to each skeleton was an old journey journal bound in dried leather to give it an aged look and feel. Each journal was made to make it sound it belonged to a young hopeful looking to come to the city to strike their fortune. Only for it to end implying that they have been betrayed and attacked from behind. Using the last of their strength to make one last entry before dying at the tree.

By the time he was done, he actually quite admired the work he had done. The scene and setting were both beautiful and sad. It actually made him kind of eager to see the what people would think when the visited his dungeon.

Except what would a good boss be for this kind of boss area?

He took some time to think it over and considered the setting he had made. After a few minutes, a far distant memory came to mind. He remembered some time ago he once had a person visit his shop. They wore light leather armor and they were human like him. They were had just become and adult by age but had a boyish face. they were young and thinking more on the memory, they also had a knife and bow… Yeah, that was it. They were a ranger was staying in town for a while to resupply. And they weren’t alone. They have a large wolf with them.

That’s right! Jack though internally as he snapped his fingers after pinning down the vague memory that had just became, at least partially, clear. His name was Silas. He was a hunter and his wolf’s name was Mose. He came looking for some arrow heads and bow enchanted. He was a good kid too, bright and sunny. Always had a big smile. He said he wanted to be famous hunter and make a name in one of the big cities.

Jack looked at one of the clearings in thought once more. This time with greater consideration. Taking a moment to consider what he had just done without even realizing it. Taking a second, Jack reabsorbed the journals for clearing and made some last adjustments. Jack took one last look at the skeleton with some last notes of melancholy to allow himself a small moment of reflection he gave himself one last private thought on the matter.

Well Silas, it looks like you’ll be famous after all. If only it was the way you intended instead of this…

With that, Jack decided exactly what he wanted for the boss of this level. Once he had that his dungeon would be officially open.