I have no idea how Not-Pete had not only found, but captured, one small and incredibly dirty lamb. The animal hung limply in Not-Pete’s arms, but I knew it wasn’t dead as soon as the pair entered my Domain.
It’s probably either playing dead in a hope that Not-Pete would leave it alone, exhausted from struggling against the monster, or some degree of both.
Not-Pete brought the lamb as close as it could to the core room without messing up the cave spider’s work and dropped it. As soon as the animal’s feet touched the ground, the lamb was spiriting directly away from the skeleton. Straight into several rather large spider webs. It burst through the first web quickly, followed by running through the second. The Lamb stumbled going through a third and fell down. The small animal flailed about on the ground, trying to stand back up. Its actions only tangled it up even further. That the Cave Spider was now actively shooting more web at it didn’t help either. It didn‘t take long for the lamb to become completely immobilized. All it could do was fruitlessly kick at the webbing while screeching. The cave spider tackled the small creature and pierced its neck with its fangs, ending the lamb’s suffering.
I gained six Essence from its death, bringing me up to nineteen total, and the schema for sheep and wool from it. More Importantly, I’ve also learned where the entrance to the mine is. Unless Not-Pete stumbled across an underground farm. But that would also be worth expanding towards, if only to secure the tunnel that lead towards civilization. And that is exactly what I did. I dumped ten of my remaining essence into expanding in the direction Not-Pete came from. It was possible there were wild sheep nearby, but I need to assume that there was a managed flock around and the lamb had wandered away from it. Meaning it’s not unlikely for someone to come by looking for their missing livestock.
I tasked the cave spider with replacing the webbing lost to the lamb and I position Not-Pete further up the tunnel while I placed Pete down near the spiderwebs. Neither of them were standing up currently. I didn‘t want whoever came by to see a clearly not completely dead skeleton and go running off to gather a mob or something. I’m not exactly ready for visitors. Instead, I had them collapse on the floor, hopefully looking like they’d been there a while.
Finally, I spend four Essence to expand further into the rock right in front of the core room and dig a ten foot deep pit in the same spot. I spend the last of my essence placing a Sticky Web trap right in front it. The hope was that the sudden change in footing would trip them up.
This is all I can do at the moment. Hopefully, anyone that comes to investigate is just a simple farmer and not some retired uber-strong adventurer.
I tried not to think about the fact that I was actively preparing to kill someone. I completely failed at that. Distracting myself with experiments or preparations was impossible without any Essence, and my collection of adventures and stories just wasn’t cutting it. All I could do was stare down the shaft towards the outside and wait.
You’re going to have to get used to this, Marc. People will come from all over to test themselves against you. Some of them will fail and in that failure, they could die. And not everyone will be content to just grab their loot and leave. Some will come to crush you. You have to be ready for that.
Every time an hour passed, and I gained Essence, I put it towards expansion. I debated putting up more Sticky Web traps but decided that, if the person coming was strong enough to get through them easily, more wouldn’t make a difference. And if they weren’t, then two slightly beefier skeletons and a spider should be more than enough to finish them.
Almost four hours had passed. I was waiting at the edge of my Domain and I was wondering if anyone was actually gonna come when a sound carried down the tunnel. It was a whistle.
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POV - Jamison
Jamison sighed
“Of course this is where the fool animal went.”
Jamison stared down into the dark mineshaft. Sure, his [Tracking] wasn’t the highest level, but it hadn’t steered him wrong yet. Jamison sighed again. They were already struggling. Losing even a single lamb could make for a lean winter. If he went back without checking inside? He shook his head. He didn’t have to go in far. Just enough just to see if [Herd Keeper] could pick up the missing lamb. Jamison sighed a third time.
“Gods damn the little bastard.”
The young man steadied himself, both physically and mentally, and took in a long breath. As he breathed out, words of power flowed from his lips. Tiny motes of light quickly gathering into a fist sized glowing ball above his head. It didn’t put out much light, but Jamison was thankful that the spell took at all. Despite his practice, it still failed twice out of every three attempts.
“Gid shield me and Fortas guide me steps,” he prayed before stepping stepped into the mine.
While the entrance to the mine was spacious enough, Jamison was glad he took more after his mother than his father when he reached the main shaft. While the tunnel was wide enough to fit two ox carts with room to spare on the sides, the ceiling was low enough that, if he stood up straight, his hair would occasionally brush it.
“The elder said that the area used to belong to the dwarves before the kingdom moved in, rather than being untamed wilderness. Maybe there’s something to that,” Jamison muttered.
Jamison let out a whistle and stopped to listen for a response. He got nothing but an echo. Jamison frowned. The sheep had learned to let out a call of their own when they heard a whistle, but the lamb may have been too young for the training to take. He checked his Mana.
Mana: 21/42 (+2/hour)
“Enough for two uses of [Herd Keeper] than. But if it’s stuck or injured, I’ll need to use [Bolster] or [Tend]. So one use of [Herd Keeper] than. Do I use it now or go deeper?”
Jamison looked into the darkness of the mine. After a moment, he whistled again. Still no response. He strained his ears to pick out any noise a distressed lamb would make. There was nothing.
“The rock could block [Herd Keeper]. I should go deeper before using. Just a little deeper.”
The young shepherd continued down the shaft for several more minutes. At one point, a shiver passed down his spine. Like something watching him. Jamison held his crook at the ready and strained all of his senses, but couldn’t find anything.
“Just a little further.” Jamison said through gritted teeth, “Then I’ll use it. Father won’t be able to say I didn’t try hard then.”
Only another dozen steps further, Jamison found a body. It was a skeleton. Maybe a bit shorter than himself. It was collapsed on the ground, a miner’s helmet and a pickaxe nearby. He tapped his heart thrice and prayed for Noct to protect him from evil spirits. He took only three more steps before stopping. Something didn‘t feel right.
“Dad always said to trust your instincts. Especially in caves and such. Never know what might be watching you.” Jamison muttered, then grimaced. “I still need to find that lamb, though. I suppose I’m deep enough for [Herd Keeper]. If I don’t find the lamb, I’ll run back and let dad and the elder know that there might be something in the old mine. Yeah. Let’s do that.”
Jamison touched his crook to the ground, closed his eyes, and concentrated. A pulse of Mana erupted from him and race off down the mine. Concentrating on his skill, Jamison missed the soft scraping of bone against rock as the skeleton he’d just passed slowly pulled itself together. The pulse of Mana returned to Jamison, and he opened his eyes just in time to hear the scraping of iron on stone. His sigh turning into a yelp of surprise as he whirled around to face the source of the noise, coming face to face with a grinning skull in a miner’s helmet.
The skeleton lunged at Jamison, who stumbled away and instinctively stuck out with his crook. The longer crook caught the undead in the chest and pushed it back. Before he could capitalize on his off balance foe, however, Jamison heard a noise from behind him, from further back in the mine. Whirling around again, Jamison could only make out the dirty bones of another skeleton before something white barreled towards him from the gloom behind the skeleton. He dove out of the way, but quite fast enough. Something impacted his crook. A moment later, it was wrenched from his hand.
Jamison jerked to the side, no time to think about his missing crook, as a rust pick slammed into the stone where his head used to be. He launched himself to his feet and almost leapt out of the way of a swing from the second skeleton. The tip of the pickaxe skimmed his side, tearing a hole through his clothing and a gash in his side. Jamison turned to run, and barely got a few steps when something caught his foot for just a moment. He went down hard and saw black from a moment. Jamison tried to get back to his feet but was knocked flat by a spike to his back. He didn‘t feel the second to his head.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
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I wanted to hit something. I wanted to hit something over and over and over until it broke. But I couldn’t. The only thing I could do was stew in my own head.
He didn’t have to die. I didn’t have to kill him. I could have just let him go. But then he would have run off and told someone about me being here. Even if he didn‘t know what was up, I can’t count on anyone he would tell being as ignorant. I don’t know how the people of this world treat dungeons. If I let him go, I could have had a team of people on my doorstep ready to crack me, or enslave me tomorrow. I need time. And killing the boy should be me at least a couple of days. Fuck. Fuck all of this. And fuck that glorified office worker and the divine rod shoved up the holy ass.
I flickered by viewpoint back and forth between the core room and the spot the young shepherd had died. I stopped after a moment and watched the body disappear.
This is what dungeons do, Marc. You don’t have to like it, but you need to get used to it. But just because I’m a dungeon now doesn’t mean I have to become a murder hobo. I don’t have to care about what other dungeons, what “proper” dungeons, do. This is my damn dungeon, so I can do whatever the hell I want with it. People will come and risk their lives for wealth and glory or whatever, but they should at least know what they're doing. And I should give them an honest chance.
The boy’s body finished disappearing.
The moment it did, my Essence skyrocketed up by two-hundred and ten. TWO. HUNDRED. AND. TEN. Almost a day’s worth of Essence. Pete, Not-Pete, and the spider all returned to their pervious positions to wait for more invaders. Moments later, an immense pressure knocked me out of my contemplation. It was the same pressure I experienced when I learned the schema for Skeletons, and Cave Spiders, only greater. I feeling of being split open returned, as did the feeling of having information shoved directly into my head. And the information just kept coming. Far past the point of the skeleton and spider schema. Just when I felt something would break, the torrent stopped, and the pressure disappeared.
What the fuck was that?
The body of the young man had disappeared, to be replaced with a screen announcing my new acquisitions. I scanned the list of new schema. I got two new materials, three new items, and a Class. I quickly dove into the class.
Dungeon Management System
Schema: Class - Shepard [Incomplete]
A herdsman specialized in the keeping of sheep.
Completion: Absorbed Class Holders - 1/10
That must have been the big one. I don’t know if I want to do that another nine times. I doubt I’ll be given the choice and I am certain that will happen for every delver that I kill. At least until I’ve gained all the information about their class. What can I even use it for? Will I be able to create the perfect incarnation of the class? Maybe I’ll be able to give my monsters classes? I have Skeleton Miners, though I still don’t know how I got those. Skeleton Shepards don’t sound all that useful, but Skeleton archers or warriors do. Could I give a class to my spiders?
An image of a massive, heavily armored spider charging down a group of delver popped into my head. I shelved the class schema for the moment and examined the rest of what I got. For materials I got linen and leather. For Item schema, I got linen shirt and pants, wool tunic, and a Shepard’s crook. I did not see a schema for whatever species the boy had been.
So, If I kill a monster or an animal I learn how to summon them. But if I kill a person I get a class? But not their species? Is it an intelligence thing? Or a souls thing? Or are the gods running interference?
I shifted my viewpoint back to the core room to help clear my head.
I just don’t have enough information, so let’s put that to the side for now and move on. I bet I got a Milestone from this so I should check on that. But let’s deal with my windfall of Essence first. Clearly, I need more monsters. I got lucky this time. That guy had absolutely no idea what he was doing, and it still took all three of my current guys to take him down. Someone who actually knows how to fight would just go right through them. I have the Essence right now, so let's just double everything. Two more Skeleton Miners for ninety and one more Cave Spider for thirty. That’s one-twenty down, so I should have ninety left. Let’s use forty to expand, five for another web trap, and save the last forty-five for an emergency. Someone is gonna come looking for the boy and if I want to stay hidden, I’ll need to do my best to make sure the next one doesn’t leave as well. I probably have no more than three days. Now, let’s see about that Milestone.
Dungeon Management System
Milestone: First Delve
Have a member of one of the mortal races enter your dungeon
Reward: 1 Schema, 1 Trait Point
Dungeon Management System
Achievement: First Blood
Kill the first member of the mortal races to enter your dungeon.
Reward: 2 Trait Points
Mortal races? I guess now I know there are more than one, but what makes them different? A soul maybe? Favor of the gods? That aside, I think I’m seeing a pattern with the Milestones and Achievements. To complete Milestones, probably all I need to do is keep developing and improving my dungeon. Achievements are probably rewards for being creative or doing something unusual or remarkable. If that holds true, I could probably think of a few ways to grind out some achievements. Let’s see what I can get.
I started with the Traits this time because it was a quick decision. With four Trait Points, I could upgrade Essence Gathering to rank two. Other traits could definitely be useful, but I need all the Essence I could get right now and I wanted to see if the trait would keep doubling my Essence or if there were diminishing returns. Before I spent the points, though, I double checked the list for anything new I could get. Lo-and-behold, there was.
Dungeon Management System
Trait: Malevolent Aura
Your monsters gain a dark aura that increases in strength with every delver they kill, strengthening the monster. The aura resets on death.
Requirements: Achievement: First Blood
Cost: 2 Points
Well, that’s definitely an interesting Trait. And rather dark. I don’t know if I want a trait that so blatantly encourages makes the dungeon as deadly as possible. And for all I know, choosing this could put me on some watchlist for dangerous dungeons that may need to be dealt with. I’ll need to think about this one.
Dungeon Management System
Trait: Essence Gathering
Rank: 2
Increase the efficiency of your Essence gathering by an additional 200% (300%)
Essence: 45 (+15/hour)
So the Trait had diminishing returns then. That’s unfortunate, but not it’s not surprising. I don’t think it’ll be worth it to save up for the next upgrade so soon. Next will probably be Randomized Containers and a Monster Mastery unless something else interesting pops up.
For schema, I was having some difficulties deciding what to get. The first thing I did was check the list for class schema. There were a lot. I saw everything from Blacksmith to Menagerie Keeper, from Apprentice Mage to Hero. I also took a quick look at Necromancer.
Dungeon Management System
Schema: Class - Hero
A beacon of good. A wall of light against of the darkness of the world.
Requirements: Defeat a great evil, Be recognized as a force for good, Don’t, through action or inaction, aid a force of evil.
Dungeon Management System
Schema: Class - Apprentice Mage
A practitioner of magic that has just taken the first step on their journey.
Requirements: Learn one spell
Dungeon Management System
Schema: Class - Blacksmith
A craftsman specialized in the shaping of metal.
Requirements: Create a metal object of at least D tier
Dungeon Management System
Schema: Class - Menagerie Keeper
A keeper of rare, exotic, and dangerous beasts
Requirements: Collect ten wild animals or monsters not native to your region.
Dungeon Management System
Schema: Class - Necromancer
A practitioner of dark magic practiced in the creation and the control of undead
Requirements: Summon 10 Undead (5/10), Access to Black Magic
None of the class schema were available, not even miner. For that one, I had to mine one ton of ore.
I wonder if absorbing the ore would work or if I had to actually extract the ore? Another thing to test, I suppose. And what happened to that other skeleton I summoned? It still hasn’t returned.
While I still didn’t need more monster type right now, I was curious if I could get the scheme for monsters with classes, with having the needed class. More specifically, I wanted to know what I needed to get a Skeleton Necromancer or something similar.
Dungeon Management System
Schema: Monster - Skeleton Necromancer
A skeleton of a necromancer animated by the dark magics they practiced in life
Requirements: Class - Necromancer OR The body of a necromancer
I guess that explains how I got Skeleton Miners. Does that mean, if I find a delver with a class I want, I should not absorb them but raise them as a skeleton instead? I wouldn‘t get the class itself, but I would get a monster with it. That probably wouldn’t work for other monster type though, and I don’t want to just be stuck on undead. We’ll see.
I skipped plants again. Still didn’t have a use for them and I didn’t want to waste a schema to test if getting the plant also gave me whatever material they produced. As for traps, they were still not all that interesting. There was a new variant of a spiked pit trap that used metal spikes instead of stone ones. I could choose the type of wood I wanted for swinging log trap. I bet people would trigger it on purpose if I used Ebony for the wood type.
If I got the Net trap, could I make the net out of steel wire? Maybe later floors for that.
There were a lot more item schema available this time, courtesy of all the new materials I’d gotten my hands on.
What should I do for loot? Money is an option, but filtering for currency brings up more than just coinage, of which there is a lot. If I want to do currency, I might as well make my own. Just dropping money is boring anyway, and I doubt many of the miners carried much on them while they worked. The miners probably would have only had their professional equipment and maybe a keepsake or good luck charm. The people who would have come in after breaking into the nest would have had weapons and armor, maybe some potions or enchanted items?
A quick search revealed that yes, enchanted items were a thing and no, I could not get them yet. Some of the weaker enchantments only required that I have access to some form of magic. Others required certain materials or having the Enchanter or Artificer class. Sometimes it wanted both. Potions were similar, requiring the ingredients for the potion or the Alchemist or Artificer class. Or both. Unlike enchanted items, though, there were a few of potions without any requirements to get.
Dungeon Management System
Schema: Item - Healing Potion - Least
A weak healing potion capable of sealing small wounds or healing light injuries
Requirements: None
Dungeon Management System
Schema: Item - Mana Potion - Least
A weak a Mana potion that restores ten mana,
Requirements: None
Dungeon Management System
Schema: Item - Stamina Potion - Least
A weak stamina potion capable of relieving a slight amount of fatigue.
Requirements: None
I have three unused schema, so I could get all three. I wouldn’t be able to pick up anything else, but I seem to earn schema at a good rate. It’s likely that I’ll get another one or two by the time I claim the entire mine. Let’s get the healing potion now. The other will come later.
Last up was materials. I wanted to pick up silver and gold, but both needed either the ore, a connected material, or a connected crafting class to get them. Metal-wise, copper, tin, and zinc were available So were crystals and sand.
Let just go with the Mana Potion. I don’t have any plans that need any of the currently available materials, though they could unlock more stuff. The basic stuff will probably get dropped by people at some point. I find it unlikely that I’ll be killing anyone fast enough that they couldn’t use their potions or just escape with them.
Once I had picked everything, I wanted to resume my experiments, but I held off. With the possibility of someone, maybe even a group, paying me a visit soon, I wanted to keep an Essence reserve. So I had to wait for my stockpile to build back up. In the meantime, I went through “Dungeons for Dummies”. I didn‘t have much hope for it, but information was information, and I was sorely lacking much of that.