Chapter 52: Magics

Wednesday, April 5th, 5:02 AM

Dungeon Ciara

“Brilliant work, my little Sinkhole of Sloth!” Sven snapped into focus beside my core.

[Ah! You could have waited until my mana filled up a little more. I know you’re always paying attention, Creepius Interruptus.]

“Have you looked at your core?” Sven waggled his scaly brows.

[I just gained a bunch of new abilities. Why would my core—ohh…]

My core’s exterior was the same, but underneath churned a sky-blue vortex. Its shape and motion resembled our Milky Way galaxy, if it could rotate twice per second.

[Sven… what is that?]

“It’s your core, silly.” Sven chuckled.

[No, I mean—what’s inside?]

“You are inside your core, my dear Mudbog.” Sven cocked his head to one side, his alien eyes radiating amusement.

[Oh? So, I’m a miniature galaxy of divine power?]

“Pfah!” Sven doubled over and cackled for a few seconds. “Oh, you are too much, Dungeon.” Sven smacked his reptilian cheeks, took a deep breath, and his smile faded.

“You’re E-Rank. That means the basic core you started with has upgraded to common rarity.”

[How is being common an upgrade?]

“Do you not consider gaining four times the power you had previously to be an upgrade?” Sven raised an eyebrow.

[That does sound pretty good,] I admitted.

“Waste no time enchanting your Dungeon’s interior. It will help prevent humans from reshaping your Dungeon to their whims.”

[Ah, so there will be more like Emmanuel?]

“Many more. You will only be safe from them if you remain ahead in Rank and follow your instinct.”

[I see. I’ll need a larger mana income.]

“Let the humans delve on their own and they’ll provide you with that income.”

“Magical minions are of particular importance for you as well, since you’re lacking in that area.”

[How do those work? I checked my interface but everything looks the same.]

“After fashioning a minion’s body, you will have the option to imbue them with mana. There are four possible augmentations you can make use of.”

Sven grinned.

He raised a claw. “Physical is self-explanatory. The creature becomes 100% tougher and stronger.”

Sven stuck another claw up. “Mental may be a little less obvious, since it augments intelligence and mana by 20%. Intelligent minions who receive this augmentation may gain the capacity to produce weak magical effects based on their natural abilities.

A third sharp, crystalline claw joined the first two. “Grace increases speed and agility by 50%.”

“Finally,” Sven held up his clawed thumb, “Stealth provides camouflage, similar to, but less effective than what you witnessed from a certain human in a recent battle.”

[Okay, everything sounds straightforward except Mental. What sort of magical effects can that have?]

“Hm. To give examples based on the types of minions you’ve made; venomous creatures could become more toxic, flying minions may send out gusts of wind, and, if you were to create an octopus with that augmentation, it could cast limited water magic.

“Each minion may only receive a single augmentation, and they must be applied before the minion’s initial spawn point is set, or the cost is multiplied by ten.

[Wait. You mean, I can augment minions I already have?]

“Far better to create new minions for now, and save augmenting your existing minions for later—ah, I should have known you’d do that.” Sven pinched the space between his eyes.

[What? It wasn’t too expensive, and I wanted a couple of Dire Widows and Canopy Crawlers that are special—ooh! Look. All four of their hourglasses turned green.]

“Your third floor lacks minions, Ciara.” Sven deadpanned.

[I—yeah. You’re right.]

“Never have I met a Dungeon so obsessed with its creatures. Take care to create strong minions for your third floor. Your existing minions are sub-par, and—”

Sven’s brow furrowed.

[What?]

His eyes grew wide as Sven’s image flickered. “It has begun.”

[What’s begun? Talk to me, Sven.]

“I sense an opposing source of mana on Earth. You must hurry to construct further floors, Dungeon. Time is of the essence. If the enemy’s mana overpowers yours, I will be unable to return and advise you.”

[Crap.]

Sven swelled to fill my new core room as his voice grew louder.

“Heed my words, Ciara O’Connor. Focus on your growth, and let humans and the surrounding environment sort themselves out. Your residents are immortal as long as you exist, so stop coddling them. If you remain overprotective, then all of you will stagnate and perish along with your world.”

Sven disappeared.

Shit.

[Everyone, it’s time to gather up. We need to talk.]

Ten minutes later, all my residents had gathered in the basement’s living room, except for Turd and Mocha. They were busy creating the next generation since their first litter had reached adulthood and filtered out into my Dungeon.

Siobhán and Joe seemed every bit as close as Michael and Rihelah after their tremendous night together. It made sense, since Auronox had granted Siobhán a cheat-like ability during their lovemaking that allowed the pair to share everything they felt.

Mike glanced at Joe and Siobhán while they held hands and gazed into each other’s eyes. “Huh, you good there, Schimpf?”

Joe smiled. “Roger that.”

“I had a feeling about you two,” Mike winked.

Joe nodded. Siobhán beamed up at him, and they kissed.

Michael and Rihelah stared, open-mouthed. Joy’s gaze went to her feet, and Mike rolled his eyes.

“How did—you guys seem awfully close all of a sudden,” Rihelah inclined her head and considered the new couple from beneath a furrowed brow.

Siobhán shrugged with a radiant smile. “You won’t believe this, but…”

She explained her new ability to them, glossing over the fact that she and Joe had also experienced each other’s physical sensations while they made love.

“Are you kidding me? I want something like that…” Rihelah seized Michael and pressed the side of her face against his chest as he stroked her hair.

“Okay, Ciara. We’re all here. So, what’s got your tunnels in a twist?” Mike rubbed his eyes after the novelty of Joe and Siobhán’s pairing had ebbed.

[The enemy has arrived on Earth. We don’t know where, or what it is. But Sven felt what he called foreign mana. It’s time for all of us to play hardball.]

“What do you mean, ProfCon?” Siobhán yawned as she clung to Joe’s side.

[That I need to stop being so protective. You’re all intelligent and immortal. I’m going to trust you to keep yourselves out of harm’s way for the most part.]

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“What about situations like what we had yesterday?” Joe rubbed his chin.

[I’ll help when it makes sense. But most of the students from UCSC… they’re not doing anything aside from eating and screwing.]

Joe and Siobhán shared a glance, as did Michael and Rihelah. Mike chuckled.

[We need the people above to get in gear and start producing. Sven says I’ve been coddling people in a way, and after thinking about it, he’s right.]

“Yeah, he is. Just like raising children, if you’re overprotective, they never learn to fend for themselves,” said Mike.

Joe nodded solemnly beside him. He and Siobhán had droopy, tired eyes, which was hardly surprising considering the connection they’d made.

“You coddle people and they’ll expect you to do everything for them. If we continue like that, society won’t be able to rebuild,” Mike’s eyes narrowed.

[Yeah. With over a thousand people converging here, I need to let them build a proper town.]

“A Dungeon town,” Joy mused with a frown.

[I’ve provided enough for everyone to survive, but they’ll need to work if they want to thrive. To that end, instead of providing extra housing for everyone who will arrive today from the wharf, I’ll provide materials they can build with.]

I noticed Joy shrinking further back.

[Joybean, are you okay?]

She shook her head, and my other two beans rushed to crouch and hug her.

“I’ll be fine,” said Joy.

“Joy, what is it?” Rihelah cupped Joy’s cheeks and searched her eyes.

“I’m…” Joy’s eyes shut and tears ran down her cheeks.

Siobhán hugged Joy tightly. “You know we love you,” she whispered.

“I know. But…” Joy frowned at Joe as her eyes glistened, then looked down again.

Oh.

By the twitching of their eyebrows and widening of their eyes, it was clear Siobhán and Rihelah had noticed, too.

“Joy… you never said anything,” Siobhán keened as she buried her face in her hands.

“It wouldn’t…” Joy trailed off as she drew her knees in tight and sniffled. She leaned into Siobhán and rested her head against her friend’s. She whispered, “He likes you, Siobhán…”

Joy stood with her hands covering her mouth and shuffled to her room. She tried to shut the door behind her but Rihelah and Siobhán followed.

“We’re not letting you suffer alone, Joy.” Rihelah entered after Joy let go of the door handle and embraced her again.

Joy wiped snot away from her nose, then half-smiled as she cried aloud and stared at the ceiling.

Siobhán stared up as well, then covered her mouth with her hands.

Oh. My message for Joy… Ah. Well, I suppose that cat’s out of the bag. I sighed.

As she sobbed alongside Joy, Siobhán stammered, “I can’t—just let two—of my best friends—suffer. I love you, Joy—and Prof.”

The men appeared in the doorway, and Joy hid under her covers.

I discreetly wiped my message off the ceiling before anyone else noticed it.

“Hey. You girls wanna hear a story from an old man?” Mike asked.

Siobhán stared at Rihelah, who nodded rather vigorously back at her.

“O-okay,” Siobhán tilted her head sideways, then climbed onto the bed. “Hey, you,” she embraced the poorly-hidden lump that was Joy and convinced her to peek over the blanket.

Mike took out his wallet and showed them a picture. The woman standing next to Mike and his son was taller than both.

“Michael’s mother, Brooke. She hid away from social interaction because she thought nobody wanted her.”

Joy let go of the fuzzy blanket as she gazed at the photo. She crossed her arms over her stomach.

Mike nodded at her. “I only met Brooke by chance. Her vehicle got stuck in the snow while I was stationed in Germany, and I had a shovel in my car. Two days after we met, I knew I wanted to marry her. You wanna know what my reason was?”

Joy cocked her head, then whispered, “Yeah.”

“Brooke was a good woman. She treated people well and cared about others.”

Joy sniffled hard behind the blanket as Siobhán hugged her.

“You’re an honest, kind girl from what I can tell. Don’t underestimate how important those traits are in the eyes of men.”

Joe and Michael nodded as Mike put the photo away.

“But I never get the guy.” Joy’s frown trembled.

Mike scratched his cheek. “Yeah. Everyone has their preferences, and these two happen to be each other’s type. That’s life.”

Joy furrowed her brow. “I’m not pretty.”

Mike shook his head. “You don’t get to be the judge of that for others, Joy. None of us do. More importantly, not everyone’s attracted to the same features.”

“Who’s going to chase a tall girl with no figure?” Joy muttered, shaking her head.

Mike took a deep breath and his voice grew unsteady. “I married a tall girl who believed she wasn’t pretty. For me, Brooke was the one—the love of my life, and I adored her. She was beautiful in my eyes.” His eyes glistened when he raised them to meet Joy’s. “You’re a wonderful young woman. If you hide away from the world, how is the right guy ever going to find you?” His lips tightened.

Joy looked away. “But it can’t—”

“It can happen,” Mike said firmly.

“Hmph,” Joy grunted.

His voice became gentle. “But only if you let it.”

“You’re my best student. Don’t sell yourself short,” said Joe.

Joy brought the blanket up too late to hide her screwed-up smile following his praise.

The others nodded.

“You matter to all of us,” said Michael.

“Come on, Joy.” Rihelah offered Joy her hand. “We can’t face what’s coming without you.”

“You guys…” Joy got off the bed and joined an awkward, six-person hug.

“Besides,” Rihelah pulled back to look at everyone, “we’re immortal, so there’s plenty of time.”

[Right. So, about that—I finished my third floor, and that means all of you should have advanced along with me.]

I focused on Joe and the others.

[That’s odd.]

“What’s odd, Professor?” Rihelah asked.

“You and Michael have an extra blessing like we do, but it’s hidden,” said Mike, answering before I could.

[Yeah, that.]

“Yeah, but we don’t have any special magic like the rest of you.” Rihelah stared at Michael and cocked her head.

Michael shrugged.

[Well, I’ll leave human matters in your hands. I deposited materials in some vacant lots by the lagoon, and one of the rooms by Mike’s workshop has a massive pile of metals from the buildings I’ve absorbed, along with thousands of salvaged hand tools.]

“Perfect. We’ll figure that out and get some new homes built.” Mike grinned. Then he stared at the others and handed out orders.

For the first time in days, as the sun rose, I allowed myself a moment to take in my surroundings and think about how I could increase my mana income.

The number of seagulls along the coast near my Dungeon increased to ten times what it had been. Despite the gulls and relentless harvesting by my crabs and Hellmouth bass, the density of nearby ocean life had skyrocketed.

The waves were cleaner and clearer than I’d ever seen, and my tide pools churned with life.

I need something that can hunt larger prey.

A singular creature design that I’d been sitting on came to mind. I smiled wickedly because I could afford it at last.

Taking care to ensure that my crabs and bass had victims ready to be consumed, I created a spawn point for my new creature inside the tide pool cavern I’d sealed off from the main entrance to my Dungeon.

I avoided a rampage, but it was close.

However…

This new minion possessed an intelligent mind, skin that could change color, a ten-meter radial span, and a sharp chitinous beak. At three times the mass of a Giant Pacific octopus, my first 250-kilogram Capitola Kraken also received a Mental augmentation.

[My Creator.] The huge octopus turned its body white and bowed low against the bottom of the deep tide pool, facing my core.

Oh, he can speak. That’s convenient.

[My, you’re a polite one.]

[I live to serve.]

[The Dungeon requires larger fish. Disable your prey but do not kill until you have brought them home. Go now, and hunt.]

[Your will is my command.] The huge octopus changed color to match the water and jetted smoothly out from the tide pools before disappearing into the deep.

Right. If I want to do things right and keep my core safe, I have to start thinking about traps as well.

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Floors: 3

Minions: 251/360

Residents: 12/16

Denizens: 169222

Traps: 6/15