Chapter 72: Dire Tidings_Dungeon Apocalypse: Dragon Cosmos

Chapter 72: Dire Tidings

Wednesday, April 19th, 11:59 AM

Dungeon Ciara

By noon, I had a passable lagoon back where it was supposed to be, and the runoff from the mountains would likely fill it within a couple of days.

Two helicopters arrived from the carrier group. A naval officer rushed out with several sailors, then found his way to Admiral Winberg.

“Sir, we’ve located the source of the tsunami.” The officer held out a manila folder for the admiral, who took it.

“Let’s hear it, Commander.”

“It’s Hawaii, sir. The big island. Its southern half is gone, along with most of its height. The volcano’s pouring lava into the ocean in more than a dozen places. From our calculations, roughly 32,000 cubic kilometers of the island broke off and slid into the ocean—all at once.”

The admiral sighed as he opened the folder. “That explains it. We wondered if Hawaii had something to do with it.”

“There’s more, sir.”

“Continue.”

“Check the fourth image, sir. The place where the island was split is completely flat, like someone cut it with a knife.”

“Unreal. The President needs to see this.”

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More helicopters arrived from farther inland, unloading National Guard troops who bemoaned the loss of two of their number as they crossed the mountains. Despite the pilots circling around as quickly as possible and a subsequent, hours-long search of the area, no bodies had been found.

While listening in, I repaired the outer harbor so ships from the carrier group could dock.

There was also talk of fuel supplies running low and most helicopters being grounded until such time as more fuel was secured.

As the humans did their thing and worked to rebuild the surface, delved against my Dungeon, and performed experiments with mana, I shaped the square desert of my fifth floor.

With very few minion slots left, that floor would rely on inhospitable terrain, traps and, oppressive heat—which had been the intended theme from the start.

I was surprised when I felt a nudge against the 50-meter-thick layer of enchanted stone beside my current core room. In the manner of all my minions, the Snow Goblins sensed my concern and the entire tribe dropped what they were doing, grabbed their weapons, and raced toward my core room.

So did every other minion, save for the upper-floor bosses. There were a few confused faces from delvers as their quarry turned and fled at top speed toward my core room.

I tried to push back against the deformation of my enchanted stone, but I found my ability to alter the stone cut off in the same manner as was common when nonresident humans were near.

[Someone’s trying to reach the bottom of my Dungeon from outside!]

“What?” asked Mike, raising an eyebrow as he stopped pounding a chunk of steel.

“Who?” Joy stiffened.

“How?” asked Joe.

[They’re tunneling with magic—like Emmanuel did before.]

My residents all stopped what they were doing to gather at the top of my second floor.

Oh, no. That slavery thing Sven talked about. If they reach my core, I’ll have to fight them off. If that happens…

[Get everyone away from my minions if you can!]

The disturbance was headed straight toward the back of my core room.

Neko’s unblinking eyes glowed as he searched the walls, seeking the thing that made me uncomfortable.

If my core is captured, we’re all dead. I’ve never had to fight a person who reached my core. I should have added more minions near Neko! I need to defend myself!

With my mind racing and the area I could affect with my abilities encroaching on my core’s position, I made a snap decision. My new core room wasn’t complete, but I gave the command to shift my core anyway, into the top of the central pyramid maze at the center of my fifth floor.

Nothing happened.

Crap! Why isn’t it—shit… I need a ramp down!

Working as fast as I could, I roughed out a tunnel down to the desert of my fifth floor from the opposite end of my current core room. When it connected, I tried again. My core was transported with a few seconds to spare.

Floors: 6

Minions: 591/720

Residents: 12/22

Denizens: 2.94M

Traps: 10/30

Neko heard them approaching, and sprinted to wait just beside the spot where the stone was thinning.

I created another fake core to fill the empty space where my true core had been.

Before the Voice had finished telling me about my new situation, the stone opened to reveal a team of six humans—all wearing the same kind of armor as before. Of course, Marchant and Felt were among them.

Gaunt, with a black beard and eyes full of avarice, the man leaped from the tunnel and sprang toward the ceiling, where my core had been.

As tiny as I’d been while human, with a few wisps of platinum blonde hair spilling out the back of her helmet, she emerged next, pushing a wave of flames across the floor.

Her again.

Shit.

Neko launched himself at the pyromancer, and caught both her and Karen at once. They died instantly—the small woman to his bite, while a powerful rake of his claws snapped Karen’s neck.

The savage lord raised his hand at Neko, who slowed and shook his head and growled before pouncing on the man and tearing him to pieces.

Neko rushed at Marchant, who screamed, standing stiffly in place as the huge cat neared.

A spear of dark liquid snaked out, gathered from the three dead bodies. They pierced Neko’s left eye, and he roared in pain. But the cat’s momentum carried him into Marchant and crushed him against the frozen wall.

Neko turned and snarled at the bloodmage, who was already sending another spear of blood at the massive feline. The spear stopped as the man fell to one knee and clutched his throat. By the time he looked up again, Neko’s claws were already slamming into the side of his head. The snakelike spear of blood splashed to the ground as the man’s head was separated from his body.

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I focused on the first man, who somehow clung to my ceiling while touching every fake core in sight.

Dungeon Master? I don’t like the sound of that…

That was enough motivation for me to open new channels of stone and send my flying minions from the upper floors to the fifth. The man with the Dungeon Master class saw. He looked down, then leaped from the ceiling onto Neko’s back, and the cat collapsed to the floor.

The Dungeon Master spoke. “It’s sending minions along new channels, and… There’s another floor. Marchant! You said the fucking core was here!”

Tony coughed and staggered to his feet. “It was!”

“It’s fucking cold. This damned place… Move out. That damned cat will follow once it’s mine.”

“Right…” Tony stumbled along behind the other man as they passed down the tunnel I’d made.

I necked it down in front of them and enchanted the stone, forcing this Dungeon Master to work against me if he wanted to reach my core.

Behind them, my goblins arrived in the old core room. I ordered them to finish Neko off before he could be taken. Bigs didn’t hesitate. He sprinted at the cat and slammed his metal-tipped spear through Neko’s good eye.

My Snow Goblins set about skinning Neko’s corpse as soon as he was dead.

“Fuck. Something killed the damned cat.” The Dungeon Master complained as he worked bit by bit to force open my long tunnel through the enchanted stone.

“All we need is the core, right?” asked Tony.

“This was supposed to be a smash-and-grab operation, but it’s fucked. You’re all too weak. We’re four people down because of a single cat.”

When I added a desert climate for my fifth floor, I was surprised that it took time to activate. Rather than a huge amount of mana draining away all at once, the process took almost a minute and drained mana steadily, seeing my total ticking down at around 1% per second.

The desert grew brighter as an actual sky appeared above the floor. It was an illusion, but quite convincing until you neared the cavern’s ceiling. Cacti, succulents, and sparse grasses erupted from the sand and soil. Some of them were native to Earth, but at least half were varieties that I’d never seen.

Wind kicked up, blowing sand across the dunes.

The water table I’d maintained for this floor raised a bit on its own, allowing deep roots from some of the grasses to reach it.

There was more to the climate, but I needed to stop the invaders, so I designed truly lethal traps that could skewer entire hallways full of people with a series of long, titanium-alloy spikes. On top of that, I’d use arcstone to electrify the spikes after deployment, turning them into a lethal human-zapper.

I was so focused on stopping the invading bastards, that I didn’t notice Sunny and Sandy until they raced down the tunnel from my fourth floor like a pair of canine missiles, running sideways across the walls of the passage until they knocked both men down and tore into them. Until that moment, I had no idea that my sweet pups could crush their way through tough armor and shake hard enough to rip even E-Rank bodies to shreds. The men’s surprised screams were silenced after just a few seconds, but my dogs ducked and shredded armor until they had access to the men’s throats and tore them out.

[Girls! You—]

[Sunny will protect Mommy,] she said flatly with blood dripping from her muzzle.

[Nobody hurts Mommy,] growled Sandy, baring her teeth. There was ragged neck flesh stuck between them.

Their harsh tone was almost unrecognizable to me, but the love in their eyes was unmistakable as they left the bodies to walk back the way they’d come, licking at their snouts and jowls to clean them.

“That is precisely the reason I push you to grow stronger.”

[Sven! It’s good to see you.]

“What’s this? No anger over my sudden appearance? Who are you, and what have you done with my little Mudhole?” Sven failed to keep a grin out of his snarl.

“You were right about one thing.” Sven tapped his scaly chin with a claw. “Dogs truly are a Dungeon’s best friend.”

[We have a problem. There’s a Dungeon on a large island. There was a huge tsunami, and—]

“Yes, I saw. Despite my inability to appear while foreign mana is too close or too active, I am able to read your memories. We have less than an hour before that group of enemies will revive, although the Dungeon Master will take a full day to respawn. But these people were from a different Dungeon. There are at least two, and if that’s the case, it’s likely there may be up to two dozen enemy Dungeons on Earth.”

[Two dozen? How is that supposed to be a fair contest?]

“Sapient Dungeons like you are far more capable. Once you reach a certain threshold, even a thousand non-sapient Dungeons will crumble before your might. But you must continue to grow and expand downward. That is the key to success. Help your humans to become powerful as quickly as possible.”

Sven looked up, toward the beach. “This scientific research of theirs is fascinating. So long as you keep them alive, the humans’ ingenuity may prove quite useful.”

[How do I combat someone who can tunnel past my Dungeon and just pop into the core room?]

“For now—enchanted stone. It will slow your enemies down enough for you to amass forces near your core to deal with this kind of thing. But that is not ideal. Reaching a higher Rank than your opponents will make it impossible for them to breach your defenses in that way, and force them to deal with your entire Dungeon instead.”

“That said, you must station more minions close to your core for the foreseeable future. Even after you Rank-up again, don’t ever leave yourself vulnerable to attack.”

[That makes sense.]

“But you should take note of the difference in your understanding of Dungeon capabilities versus theirs. Sapient Dungeons gain abilities that normal Dungeons simply lack.”

[Such as?]

“I am forbidden from naming specifics, but if you pay attention, you will figure it out. While those six knew how to get in, they were completely unprepared to deal with a boss as powerful as Neko. Their Dungeon Master can manipulate stone and see what you are doing, out to a certain range. But you heard yourself that he cannot identify your core unless he comes into contact with it. That other man… Tony Marchant. He is a danger because of his ability to locate your true core.”

[What do we need to do?]

“You are on the right track with denizens. Soon, your mana income will be great enough to sustain quicker expansion. Climates will help as well. They optimize environments much better than you can, and free you from that extra micromanagement. I recommend setting every single floor to a specific climate type. You will need to replace any specific features, such as the heating for your bathing pools, but everything—including soil, will be furnished properly without your intervention.”

[The desert of my fifth floor is still drawing mana, Sven. It’s not much, but—]

“Yes, there is a cost. But your denizen count will increase dramatically and more than offset that long before your enemies can make it back here. You will be stronger, so do it. But there is one other thing you should know…” Sven grinned wickedly.

[What’s that?]

“Normal, non-sapient Dungeons tend to appear near seismically-active areas—especially where there is volcanic activity. The larger and stronger the volcanic system, the more favorable the environment.”

[So, things aren’t as bad as I thought?]

“No. They’re worse. With twenty-four Dungeons arrayed against you, the next few months are going to be a living hell. Now that the enemy has located you, you can expect attacks to come from other Dungeons as soon as those who know of your existence manage to contact their allies. Prepare for the worst siege your world has ever known.”

[What about the other Dungeons? If they can attack my core, shouldn’t I be able to attack theirs?]

“Ah! You’ve asked the right question. I was forbidden to give such information unless you asked on your own. The answer is—not directly. But this is why Joe Schimpf is so important. A resident with powerful healing can keep a group of delvers alive through challenges that would otherwise send them to an early grave. He is the key to your allies growing strong enough to initiate a successful battle of wills against other Dungeon cores to bring those places over to your side.”

[I appreciate your help, Sven.]

“I would help anyone whom our Lord has blessed, but I will admit it’s a pleasure to assist a Filthy Furrow of Froth such as you.”

[There’s no better Vestige of Virulent, Viper-like Vermin than thee, O, Sven.]

“Hah! You almost sound like an elf. The heir to their throne finds you amusing. Ah—foreign mana has begun to cloud my sight once more. As enemy Dungeons grow and produce attackers who seek you out, there may come a time when I cannot return at all. Take my words to heart. Oh, the elven heir asked me to pass you a message. She will do her best to search for Michael and Rihelah. She says, ‘Dragonspeed, Ciara of Ear—.’”

Sven disappeared.