Chapter 54: A Proper Dungeon

Wednesday, April 5th, 11:50 AM

Dungeon Ciara

“You may transfer a cursed soul to any minion in your Dungeon at will, though you must pay mana each time, according to the strength of the minion to be possessed.” Sven appeared.

[Perfect.]

“It’s rather expensive for such a soul to inhabit a boss creature. If you swap the soul out from Vijaya, you will likely need to complete your fifth floor before your mana will be sufficient to return the soul to that creature.” Sven tapped a claw against his chin.

[That’s not a problem.]

I made the transfer immediately, and it was cheap.

“Oh, now that is true punishment.” Sven snorted.

I’d turned the fur of a rabbit minion on my first floor pure white so that it would stand out against the dark stone of its surroundings.

While it bounded away to hide, I issued an order.

[To the soul of Nicolas inhabiting the white rabbit doe, you are forbidden from contacting or affecting your new host’s mind or body in any way.]

The white rabbit stopped fleeing and loped back to its assigned region near the front of the cavern.

[Nicolas, you are to remain a silent, unnoticed passenger and nothing more. You will never contact or respond to anyone except me, and you will only speak when I give you explicit permission. Unless I address you by name, you will understand that any order given to the minion you inhabit is for its mind alone.]

“You are on the right path. Continue to experiment with materials and strengthen your defenses.” Sven disappeared.

“Professor, did you really just shove that guy’s soul into a rabbit?” Rihelah asked as the column of hundreds from the wharf neared the harbor bridge.

[Yes.]

“That sounds kinder than a centipede.” She furrowed her brow, looking thoughtful.

[Are you certain? You know how often those rabbits are going to die when groups pass through, right?]

Rihelah tilted her head to one side. “But you said minions don’t recall their deaths.”

[They don’t. But his soul isn’t a minion. He’ll remember everything.]

“I don’t know how to feel about that, ProfCon,” said Siobhán, twisting her mouth to one side.

[There’s nothing to discuss, Soybean. Nicolas murdered people, he tried to have Joy killed, and he shot at my puppies.]

“I know, it’s just…” Siobhán looked down and Joe took her hand.

[You’ve always been kind-hearted, Soybean. But this isn’t a situation where mercy makes sense.]

“Isn’t there something else we can do?” Siobhán barnacled against Joe.

[I understand your misgivings, because I also wish Nicolas could be better. But my instinct is clear about something, ‘bean. If someone’s willing to kill others to satisfy their greed, they can never be trusted.]

“Ciara’s right,” said Mike.

“But—” Siobhán began.

Joe held up a hand. “Think about it this way. Would you ever trust someone who’s murdered or cheated?”

“Huh? Of course not! I… Oh.” Siobhán locked eyes with Joe and the corners of her mouth curled downward.

“All people have terrible thoughts at times, and, believe it or not, we’re all capable of becoming monsters,” said Mike.

[I’m evidence of that.]

Joe and Mike snorted as Siobhán furrowed her brow.

Mike held up a fist. “The point is—once someone takes the step of doing something awful for a selfish reason, it’s easier for them to do that thing again.”

Siobhán looked askance at Joe. “Men have strange minds. You don’t even feel bad for Nicolas.”

“You’re right. I don’t.” Joe shrugged.

Siobhán covered her mouth and shut her eyes.

“I’m not going to lie about that,” Joe hugged her.

“I know. It’s just… foreign to me. Even my feelings don’t seem to affect you on this.” She sniffled.

Joe sighed. “There’s no logic in shedding tears for someone who would murder for greed or pleasure.”

Siobhán nodded. “I know. I just wish there were a better way.”

“Hah. So do I,” Joe replied.

She stared at him.

“You do.” Siobhán searched Joe’s eyes, then stood on her toes to kiss him.

“That went better than I expected,” said Joe.

With an emphatic shake of her head, Siobhán said, “It would have been a hell of an argument if I couldn’t feel what you do.”

“I can tell. I had this discussion many times with Anna.” Joe’s lips tightened as he said his late wife’s name.

Siobhán hugged him.

“I’ll be okay,” said Joe.

“You don’t feel okay.” She frowned.

Joe gave a half-smile. “You’re not wrong, but I’ll manage.”

“You two trying to give an old man diabetes?” Mike snorted.

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I chuckled when one of the students ran the white rabbit through with her short spear and it dropped a minor essence.

Todd and Jeffrey worked long hours to provide weapons and armor to small parties that sought to challenge my Dungeon, though Todd had a much easier time of things.

“I need some damned leather to make anything decent,” Jeffrey complained. He frowned at the tannery I’d helped him set up near his armorer’s workbench.

“Take it up with Ciara,” said Todd.

A simple matter.

I sent six of my largest Palomar tigers from the third floor to roam the countryside in pairs. Their orders were to seek out and retrieve any other quadrupeds I didn’t currently have. I’d opened a tunnel to the burned remains of DeLaveaga park, and the big cats had explicit orders to avoid contact with humans if possible.

While my tigers hunted, I created thousands of small minion highways across the nearby hills to boost ecosystem recovery and denizen acquisition.

It didn’t take long for the first pair of Palomar tigers to return with a goat and—

Ooh! A black bear.

Inevitably, ten massive, 1200-kg Schwarz bears were added to the caves between the main portion of my third floor and my core room. They received the Grace augmentation to make them faster and more agile than anyone might expect.

Those plus the big cats were effectively overkill, considering how weak most of the humans were, but my instinct desired the strongest minions I could make, and I could always move the creatures down to my next floor if necessary.

While my new bears were settling into their big, cozy dens, another pair of tigers each carried a feebly-struggling Black-tailed deer into the temporary DeLaveaga entrance.

Defense seemed okay for the moment, so I added ten normal-sized deer minions to the deeper part of the huge first-floor cave that had been my Devilfly domain. That way, Jeffrey could have his leather if the parties remembered to carry the carcass with them instead of leaving it to disappear on the Dungeon floor.

The first party to encounter one had an interesting time after their leader spotted the buck and called out to his companions. He cocked his head to one side as the rest of his group pointed and yelled for him to dodge, receiving a full charge from the deer against the cloth armor he’d acquired from Jeffrey.

With the wind knocked out of him, the man was lucky three of his friends leaped to his aid and slew the buck before it could do further damage. Of course, they didn’t think to bring the carcass with them, so I retrieved its body to my inventory as they rushed the injured man out of the Dungeon.

I can’t blame them. Nobody told these people there’d be aggressive deer, but word should spread quickly enough.

“ProfCon!” Siobhán hid behind the door to her room, staring at the massive cat that lounged on her bed. Even Joe seemed a bit apprehensive, staring at the Palomar tiger who had mountain lion colors.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[Yep! He’s a minion of mine, and now, he’s yours. Give him a name, and he’ll follow your every command.]

“Wow. He’s huge,” she mused.

“Now, that’s an enormous pussy,” said Joe.

Siobhán snickered.

“Let me name this big guy and I’ll have him wait outside so you can have my pussy. We don’t have much time,” Siobhán whispered and winked at Joe.

[You two… Make sure you tell him not to kill other humans, or he might follow his instinct.]

“Uh. ProfCon…”

[Yes, ‘bean?]

“Do you see and hear everything in your Dungeon, like, all the time?”

[Ah. Yes, I do—to some extent. Don’t worry. There isn’t much you could do that I haven’t seen already. Besides, before you and Joe started, Michael and Rihelah had already cured my squeamishness.]

“Heh.” Joe frowned.

“Uh, yeah. That’s embarrassing.” Siobhán turned bright-red.

Siobhán snapped her attention to Joe.

“Don’t worry, she won’t say anything about you being able to feel what I do physically, right ProfCon?”

[That’s your business.]

“I’d appreciate that,” Joe grumbled.

[Well, have you chosen a name for your new pussy?]

Joe snorted.

Siobhán rolled her eyes with a smile, then said, “Um… Your sense of humor is different from before. Have him stand up for me?”

I did. The cat was almost tall enough to look Joe in the eye.

“Wow. He’s enormous.” Siobhán walked around the tiger, then stopped when she was behind him and tapped her chin.

“Kiwi.”

The cat glowed slightly, and I gave him an immediate order to remain docile until told to do otherwise by Siobhán.

“Let me guess—” Joe chuckled.

“Yup, they’re the size and shape of kiwis,” Siobhán grinned. “Kiwi, wait for us in the hallway.”

After Kiwi left, Siobhán shut the door, then stripped as she stared hungrily at Joe.

I left them alone.

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“This is unreal,” said a man to his friend near the harbor, as he gazed into the crystal-clear water to watch the fish while hundreds of seagulls and several pelicans dive-bombed for a meal.

The other man replied, “It’s gotta be the Dungeon. Otherwise, there’s no way everything could be so clean. We should learn to fight and start delving. I hear some folks already have magic weapons.”

“No shit?” the first man asked.

His friend nodded, locking eyes with him.

Outside my castle, two sizable groups were arguing over who had the right to claim the structure.

On one side were students from the campus, and the others were refugees from the ships.

[Mike, I hate to take you away from your work, but…]

“Are you sure, Ciara? You want us to live in your castle?” Mike asked as he looked up after placing a crucible in one of the smelters near the construction site.

[You’re my residents. The basement can be like it was before the war—a place you can retreat to, in case we’re attacked. But the castle isn’t there for random people to fight over. It stands where my house did, so it feels… personal.]

“Well, hell—I won’t complain. But those bedrooms are massive. You could fit twice as many on that floor and they’d still be larger than we need.”

[I like my castle the way it is. But mostly, I don’t want these groups who’ve just arrived thinking they can seize and claim whatever they want.]

“Understandable. But it’s gonna be a pain in the ass getting their attention.” Mike glanced at the mob from his location, and shook his head.

[Not really. Head to the north end of Schwan Lagoon and I’ll have a minion meet you there.]

“What kind of minion?”

When Mike spotted the Palomar tiger lying camouflaged on the grass by the lagoon, he froze for a second, gripping his bow, then he shut his eyes and laughed.

“You shittin’ me? That thing’s big enough for me to—”

[Ride on its back. Exactly.]

Mike gaped for a moment, then chuckled through his nose.

“This is gonna be quite a show.” Mike showed a wry smile.

When Mike showed up outside the castle on the back of a 450-kg tiger, the crowd squealed and cowered. Some tried to flee inside, but I’d kept the doors locked.

A few who had weapons made by Todd drew them in fear.

“Whoa, now.” Mike put up a hand.

“What the hell is that thing?” a woman asked. She sounded terrified.

“This is one of the Dungeon’s new creatures. A Palomar tiger. Don’t worry, it’s not going to attack anyone right now.”

“Right now? What about later?” a man asked.

“Those kids got mauled by a mountain lion,” said someone else in the crowd.

“The Dungeon wants you to know the castle isn’t up for grabs. It’s hers, and she’s keeping it for her own use. You’re free to keep arguing if you want, but I don’t recommend trying to get inside.”

“How in the hell are you riding that thing? Is it tame?” One of the sailors looked askance at Mike.

“No, it’s not tame. It’s under the control of the Dungeon, like every other creature she creates.”

“You said she. The Dungeon’s female?” a middle-aged woman asked.

“Yes. Well, she was a woman before she became a giant hole in the ground. Don’t ask me how that happened because I don’t understand it myself.”

“Why can’t we live here? I haven’t seen anyone go in or out of it. There are hundreds who need a place to sleep, and this castle is huge.”

“I don’t make the rules, since I’m not the Dungeon.”

“I thought you were the leader?” asked another woman.

“Only when it comes to humans, and that will change whenever the government arrives. The Dungeon is the one who controls this place. I want to make something clear for anyone who’s new—be careful around the Dungeon’s dogs and cats. Don’t even think about harming them or any other people, if you want to stay alive.”

“The Dungeon’s underground,” a man said dismissively.

Mike stared him down and explained how I also controlled much of the surface, and what had happened to the last group who attacked my pups.

Some among the crowd paled, while others appeared skeptical.

“There’s plenty of space for everyone to claim a section of floor in the housing that’s been built already, like most of us have done at times since the bombs fell. But if you really want a proper place to live, come and help us build. We’ve got materials and a special carpenter who’s guiding our construction efforts.”

Some people grumbled.

“Bitch and moan if you want, but this place provides relative safety, keeps you clean, and has easy access to good food. Anyone who doesn’t like that is free to go elsewhere.” Mike shrugged.

The crowd got quiet for a moment as most looked down but some still appeared defiant.

“Follow me if you want to help, but don’t try to break into the castle. The Dungeon’s got minions in there, and they can kill.”

Mike wasn’t lying. I’d relocated ten of my Devilflies and a few Dire Widows to the castle’s interior, with orders to subdue any person who found a way inside unless they were a resident.

Two-thirds of the mob followed Mike as he rode slowly back to the construction area, while the rest remained and glared at the castle. Some pounded and pushed at the door, as if they had a right to the structure simply because they wanted it.

But I’d made it strong enough that they couldn’t budge or even scratch it with their mundane pocket and survival knives. Everyone who had weapons imbued with mana had followed Mike.

I took note of everyone who’d ignored the opportunity to help build homes as they gave up on trying to break into my castle and headed back to the housing area to loaf about.

Maybe I should relocate the entrance to the fruit orchard. If those people have to work for their food, maybe they’ll stop expecting others to do everything for them.

After a quick look around, I found Steven in Rachel’s room, having a threesome with those two other girls from before.

I can’t believe I was ever attracted to that man. He’s not helping at all, despite being in good physical condition.

Rachel tried to seduce Bruce away from what he was doing but he rebuffed her in favor of his work.

She stormed away to join Steven and the other two women.

The DeLaveaga area surprised me. Despite being mostly-burned, the number of tiny arthropods and small invertebrates who took refuge in my Dungeon from that place was staggering.

In an effort to keep as many as possible, I added thousands upon thousands of small side-tunnels leading to chambers they could live in.

Despite the relatively steep mana cost, my income had increased so much with the addition of my third floor and its aquatic denizens, that it didn’t strain my mana at all to grow all those additions in just a few minutes.

My new saltwater lake’s inhabitants also increased in number as more continued to enter along with the small waterfall from the sea floor, and the redwood forest showed much greater signs of life as the first round of insect eggs hatched.

All told, my denizen count had nearly doubled in less than a day, increasing my passive mana income.

Siobhán and Joe finished their vigorous romp and returned to the surface through the castle. Kiwi followed, though he barely fit through the old doors my father had installed.

At that moment, the first delving party of the day approached Vijaya’s lair…

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Floors: 3

Minions: 311/360

Residents: 12/16

Denizens: 329113

Traps: 6/15