Chapter 34: Forest
Friday, March 31st, 1:51 PM
Dungeon Ciara
After Vijaya finished her grim work eliminating the traitors in Coconut Grove, I opened a pit to absorb the bodies, then left it to Joe and Mike to lead the salvage and burial operation for that place. They recruited six people, my pups, and all four of my human residents.
While they handled that, I gave my existing Dungeon a once-over, tweaking little details here and there—like making entrance and exit areas visible for each cavern.
Since I hoped the humans would benefit from training in my halls and I wanted them to start soon, I added side rooms to each of my three main caverns on the first floor—one each in the Twilight cricket and Nemesis crab areas, and three spaced along the length of my Devilfly domain. Each held a pair of bathrooms and two comfortable booth-like tables with wrap-around seating set against the wall between the bathrooms.
With what I’d learned from creating the harbor gate, I fashioned heavy doors that could be shut to prevent small minions from getting in while people were resting.
I tried something new with the lighting since some of my human denizens had already tried to pry out my lightstones in and around the fruit grove.
Regular quartz was shaped into long, winding threads spreading out from a single lightstone set a meter into the ceiling. The quartz allowed light into the room while keeping the lightstone away from greedy hands.
It was gorgeous and effective, so I altered every accessible lightstone I had into some variation of the same. The Crow’s Nest was a bit of a challenge with the mock light fixtures I’d made, but I managed to conceal lightstones inside walls and ceilings, while curved filaments of quartz to distribute the light where it was needed.
That worked beautifully, though old Mr. Stapp wore a look of disappointment when he came back with a larger knife only to discover the beautiful lightstone he’d been trying to take from the entrance to my Dungeon was gone.
No stealing my decorations! If you want things, you’ll have to ask. I silently chided him.
Remembering what Sven had said about heating water, I conducted experiments involving mana and iron pyrite down in my Devilfly domain. The results were two minor explosions that rocked the area, followed by the creation of a stable cube of pyrite that glowed red hot. It identified as a hearthstone.
With some experimentation, I found I could reach a sort of temperature equilibrium between the heat from a one-cubic-centimeter hearthstone and the energy absorption of stone surrounding a one-cubic-meter reservoir of water.
I fashioned a washbasin set into a stone counter inside each of the rest areas, then added separate, salvaged faucets for cold and hot water connected to their respective reservoirs. Once I restricted the flow rate, it behaved as expected.
Currently, I couldn’t add washbasins to the fruit orchard bathrooms or inside the houses, because non-resident humans were present.
Something for later. I’m sure they won’t mind.
All the while, I’d used my Dungeon mind’s impressive capacity for multitasking to continue excavation for my Redwood Forest.
It’s done.
Finally, my second floor’s enormous volume was shaped how I wanted. The single maze-like cavern, 110 meters tall, covered four square kilometers, curving to the west and slightly north beneath Capitola and Soquel.
A series of winding, empty stream beds meandered through the space after I’d deposited layers of soil mixed with ash six meters deep over most of the area, with dikes of stone pushing up halfway to the surface every few meters to help stabilize everything until the trees spread their roots properly.
It always fascinated me how the tallest trees on Earth tended to grow their roots horizontally, and the massive roots of 100-meter specimens rarely reached deeper than four to five meters into the soil.
However, Redwoods often intertwined below the surface, stabilizing each other even as they competed for sun, water, and nutrients.
With such a huge space, I needed a lot of light for my forest to thrive.
I crafted a new variant of lightstone using huge quantities of quartz I’d collected from natural veins that once occupied the spaces I’d shaped. Using the same ratio of mana to mass, I was able to avoid any explosions. Beyond one cubic meter, their intensity was comparable to sunlight and provided roughly the same degree of radiant warmth.
Each large space received one or more of those in its ceiling, spaced to spread the light somewhat evenly, while smaller areas were left dimly lit to serve as a refuge for denizens and minions.
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“Fuck me,” said Joe.
A cold chill ran through him.
In front of Joe lay the most gruesome scene he’d ever beheld. Thousands of flies covered the mutilated bodies of young people where they’d fallen, mummified in silk. Every face, neck, and crotch had been ripped apart; the flesh pulped and pulled until it hung by tendrils.
One woman’s right hand had broken free of the silk that held her, and she’d clawed against a nearby crate as she died, leaving streaks of blood that soaked into the rough wood where her fingers had scraped to the bone.
The powerful reek of piss and shit with a sickly iron tang of blood impacted Joe as he stepped through the doorway.
He shielded his nose, but it didn’t help.
“What the fuck did this?”
“What are you talking ab—oh, cripes…” Mike entered behind Joe, then went wide-eyed and covered his mouth as he took in the scene.
“Michael, Rihelah… you don’t want to see this,” Joe said, turning to wave them off as the couple approached.
“What are you talking about, Uncle Joe? We’ve already seen so much—oh, God!” Rihelah had ducked under Joe’s arm but she turned to flee. She stumbled a bit, then dropped to empty her stomach on the sand.
“Sorry. I tried to tell you.” Joe frowned.
“Professor O’Connor,” Rihelah cried after vomiting. “What did you do to those people?”
[They murdered innocent people, Ryebean. Tore families apart, killed boys and men, and enslaved little girls for breeding. I’m sorry that it’s hard to look at, but they made me mad. So, I let Vijaya kill them all.]
“That’s not mad, Professor. It’s madness! Promise me you won’t do that ever again!”
[I’m a Dungeon, Ryebean. Because of my values, I don’t even think I can show mercy to people who do horrible things to innocent people. Especially not while there’s no law and order to keep them in check. But okay, I won’t have Vijaya bite people to death again without using her venom.]
“Ugh. You didn’t have to tell—myuahh…” Rihelah dry-heaved while Michael kneeled beside her, gently rubbing her back.
“Rihelah? Are you okay?” Siobhán came running across the beach from where she’d been helping carry bodies into the Dungeon’s pit that somehow absorbed them.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little sick, is all,” Rihelah called out.
“O-okay.” Siobhán didn’t look convinced as she quirked an eyebrow, but she turned and headed back to Joy and the others.
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After she recovered, Rihelah called to Joe and Mike, “Ciara had her giant centipede bite them all to death, without venom.”
“Jesus, that’s FUBAR.” Joe shook his head.
“Fucked up beyond all recognition,” Mike replied stiffly.
“She promised she won’t let it do that again, but… are you guys okay if I sit this one out? I don’t think I can—”
“That’s what Joe was trying to tell you, dummy!” Mike shrugged.
Joe added, “You two go help the others. Oh, and ask the Dungeon to make a separate pit for us. Over by Beach Street if possible, so the others won’t see this.”
While Michael and Rihelah walked away, Joe met Mike’s eyes. They shrugged, sighed, and chuckled bitterly—their mutual signal for, “Here we fucking go again.” But Joe knew neither had seen anything to match this.
That damn Dungeon… I wonder if we can trust it. This is beyond fucked up.
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Experimenting with the redwood trees proved somewhat challenging since they were massive, and each required a huge amount of nutrients and water to grow.
I had to add around two hundred tons of soil as I grew the first tree to a height of ninety-five meters, and due to its magically-enhanced growth rate, it rapidly desiccated the surrounding soil. I worried that might kill the native microbes I’d been so careful to spread around via bits of native soil carried in by my Devilflies.
Fortunately, redwoods were hardy, and I had plenty of time to restore the proper level of moisture to the soil. However, creating just one massive, mature redwood took almost three minutes. At least my mana income was so high by then, that I never dipped below sixty percent despite the huge amount of mana it took to grow the tree to that size.
I shouldn’t be complaining, since it normally takes thousands of years for a tree to get this big. But with four square kilometers of forest to plant? I’ll be working on this for weeks!
With a sigh, I decided to place the saplings and be done with them. Planting the entire second floor took over an hour at a rate of around twenty saplings per minute, and by the time I finished near where my new core room would go, the first trees I’d added were already three meters tall, up from two.
Whoa. That’s an incredible rate of growth. I guess I won’t need to accelerate the growth of each individual tree after all.
But I’d need to add soil as they got bigger.
I sighed.
At least I’ve got hydrology figured out. I think.
At first, the prospect of keeping the forest watered worried me, but the water table was my friend. I didn’t need to tap into a distant lake or reservoir. I just had to create channels of hardened stone for groundwater to filter in, then regulate each flow to prevent my large, horseshoe-shaped pond from overflowing near the bottom of the cavern.
Above that sizable body of water, I fixed a large lightstone, close enough for its radiance to cause a small degree of evaporation. Below the surface, I added an array of hearthstones nestled beneath some large rounded rocks to help warm the water.
Throughout my growing redwood forest, I’d added small waterfalls at key positions. It was gorgeous until I noticed things eroding much faster than I’d intended, and I lost a few hundred saplings.
Bah.
I restricted the flow of each waterfall and replaced the soil in my stream beds with river rock and sand. When I turned the flow back on, erosion was minimal.
Should have thought of that before.
Within a few hours, I had excellent humidity in the cavern. An hour later, it became too much, and I dialed back the water’s flow rate and removed hearthstones one by one until things stabilized.
Managing this micro-climate is a pain in the Dungeon-hole.
Heh. I sound like my dad.
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Bella hid behind a bush inside the warm, subterranean garden. The ground hadn’t shuddered since hours before, but Bella didn’t dare come out.
The world wasn’t supposed to do that. The last time it shook so hard was right after she smelled and heard her family burning to death above the basement when the house was knocked down.
The other dogs came down and found her with their tails wagging. They gave her the slow blink, and Bella did so in return.
How so brave?
Bella was grateful to have them around, and she thought perhaps, if she went with them, things would be okay.
They smelled sure that things were fine, so Bella chose to trust.
A short while later, she ran along the beach, playing the chasing game with the stronger and faster dogs who were gentle and kind to her.
Bella was free, and she was home. She had humans and other dogs who cared for her. She had delicious fish for food, and clean water to drink at the pretty pond.
Everything felt wonderful.
Bella cowered when another loud sound pierced the sky. She’d heard one like it before but this was much closer. And much louder.
The good sensation disappeared.
Bella peed.
Just above the water, following the coast, three enormous birds with flames shooting from their butts streaked past at a speed that seemed impossible to Bella. Even the fast-rolling small-homes that her first family sometimes carried her in were slow by comparison.
With a terrified yelp, Bella raced toward the security and warmth of the below-ground meadow.
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A familiar sound shook Coconut Grove as Joe and Mike finished their cleanup near the roof-access stairwell. They raced onto the roof just in time to spot three F-22s in formation, disappearing as they climbed through the cold, low evening clouds beyond Lighthouse Point.
“Dungeon’s been seen for sure,” Joe remarked, rubbing his chin.
“No question. With all those trees, we’re gonna have company soon, but thank God they’ll be ours,” Mike replied.
Damn right.
Joe grinned. “Oorah, Master Guns.” He bent to open a weatherproof case they’d found.
“Oorah,” Mike answered.
“Oh, you gotta be fuckin’ kidding me!” Joe rolled his eyes as he reached into the box.
Mike looked at Joe. “What are you—aw, hell. Hah! Ain’t that how it always goes?”
“The minute we find a damned radio…” Joe muttered. He turned the volume knob, and it crackled to life, but as he flipped through the channels, there was nothing but static. Two seconds later, the battery died.
They shrugged, sighed, and chuckled.
Joe shivered in the ocean breeze.
Damn, it’s cold for this time of year.
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Since I had all the redwoods I wanted, I considered other plants and trees I’d seen growing alongside them and added a few dozen each of tanoak, California laurel, and Bigleaf maple trees.
Sword ferns began as tiny, cute little things. Miniatures of the sizable plants they would become. Huge patches of redwood sorrel formed moss-like carpets with tiny, clover-shaped leaves.
Hoping to keep people well away from the end of the floor until I could move my core deeper, I added several lines of manzanita to force a more roundabout path through the already-large cavern. Nearby, I added more nickel, tin, and sulfur deposits against the walls as a distraction.
The Dungeon inside me had some ideas, and I listened. Handsome trails were crafted with stepping stones and wooden footbridges, encouraging delvers to follow them. Further beautification came from fireweed with its unique pink flowers and lovely blue California lilac bushes.
Every path led to one of many hidden groves, glades, or meadows inside the winding, cavernous floor.
I added slightly heated, stone-clad bathing pools with benches and sunning areas beside a couple of the smaller streams with nearby restrooms that had stone shelving. But no washbasins.
All bathing spots were set relatively close to the first-floor entrance, to entice people to remain far from my core. For good measure, two ore deposits for copper, silicon, and iron were nestled near each of those easy-to-access locations.
With a gorgeous, colorful forest beginning to take shape, I needed more wildlife. I extended a few hundred minion tunnels down through the walls around the forest floor, then sent my Devilflies out to collect live insects and anything else they could carry from the mountains.
While they worked, it was time to shape the final piece of my second floor—a new core room.
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Minions: 100/100
Residents: 10/10
Denizens: 43551
Traps: 1/5