Dungeon fairies were among the worst fighters to use; beyond their ability to cast non-lethal damage, it was rare to use them for fighting. They could die, and while they wouldn’t stay dead the player character, and by extension Jacob, would be crippled without it. No terraforming, no creating traps or structures, no versatile damage.
If he had a lot of soul points, or he had time to build up the dungeon, then it wouldn’t be such a perilous situation. If the dungeon fairy did die in the past attack though, that was it. There would be nothing he could do but wait for his dungeon to be attacked and the dungeon core to be destroyed.
The only way he can survive was by keeping the dungeon fairy alive. However, this meant that the dungeon lost its only protector. He opened his status screen to see how many soul points he managed to get.
Dungeon Status —
Dungeon Core Rank: 1
Dungeon Core Health: 64%
Soul Points: 14
Abilities: [Status], [Map], [Mark], [Projection]
Attack Spells: [Thunder Shock], [Cave-In]
Creature Spells: [Enthrall Creature], [Engineer Dungeon Organism], [Heal]
Dungeon Spells: [Possess Dungeon Creature], [Call to Arms]
F…fourteen soul points?! That’s it! What version of Dungeon Heart was this; was there a secret shop menu full of microtransactions? If around seven or eight rats gave only fourteen soul points, then how weak were they?
Jacob was furious for being obviously cheated, yet when he thought about it he realized that it did make a little sense. In the game, the dungeon fairy wouldn’t have lasted a quarter as long as it did here. He had believed that this was because the dungeon fairy was able to dodge and use strategies. Now, he realized that it only survived because the enemies were incredibly weak.
Meaning that the next enemies would be stronger than the rats. Most likely. He felt himself gain a headache despite the absence of a physical brain from the mental strain of calculations and planning. He then forced his mind to stop overthinking; which he felt was going to become a habit.
He would need to create a substitute for the combat role of the dungeon fairy, but right now he needed to work on the dungeon itself. One of the most important parts of a dungeon was its layout and features, even more than the monsters or treasures it housed. Tunnels controlled the directions and movements of invaders and adventurers, and traps are a mostly safe way of handling and killing them. They weren’t efficient though, but that was something to think about later.
One step at a time. Right now, he needed the dungeon territory to expand so that he no longer would need to bring dangerous creatures in front of the vulnerable dungeon core. In the game, it was possible for the dungeon to expand by itself, but that was slow. It was only useful for claiming forgotten or unimportant tiles that the player didn’t care much about.
“Dungeon Fairy, prioritize increasing the dungeon’s territory while I create a plan. Ignore all blueprints until I say so.”
“As you wish, Dungeon Master.” The dungeon fairy, covered in its cloud-like wounds, floated out of the core room and into the caverns.
The most important thing was to discover where this entrance to the surface was, as that was where almost all enemies would come from. The only thing he knew was that this cave system, with its web of interlocking tunnels and caverns, was connected to the overworld at some place. As for where that was, he had no clue. He hadn’t explored enough to fill in the map.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
He looked at the map and started to explore, phasing through walls and tunnels in a maddening attempt to find this cave entrance. However, no matter where he looked, there didn’t seem to be an entrance.
These caves were weird. He wasn’t a geologist or whatever scientist that studies these things, but it was almost like the cave was purposely made to get people lost. Maybe that was a common thing in this world. He had no clue, but he had a map that showed him where the dungeon core was.
It soon became obvious to him that the only way anything could attack the dungeon core was through a supernatural sense. The rats showed it when finding the dungeon fairy, and the games displayed this, but it was unsettling to realize just how monstrous and dangerous of an ability it was. He didn’t think it was possible for him to hide the core.
He kept searching, but he felt the inaudible tick of his mental clock. Without some form of clairvoyance, he wasn’t sure he would manage to find the entrance before another attack. Right now, he needed to ensure the safety of himself, and by extension the dungeon fairy and dungeon. Right now, he needed to set up the basic defenses.
While he was searching for the, apparently, elusive dungeon entrance, the dungeon fairy had claimed the majority of the caves around the dungeon core. Looking at the map as a basis, he found areas where he could set traps, create obstacles, and try his best to obstruct enemy progression and movement.
The most important thing for him to do was to prevent the larger and often stronger animals from making it too deep into the dungeon. Flying enemies were annoying, but they were usually weak unless they were magically. Burrowing enemies that can dig through stone were a high threat, but he just didn’t have anything to counter them. In the game, the majority of the enemies were simple, terrestrial animals unable to go through stone — it was these that he needed to target the most.
However, he couldn’t just kill them. An important part of the game was creating ecosystems, and one of the most important parts of that was a spell called [Enthrall Creature]. This spell will cause a mental or psychic attack on an organism or monster that has a nervous system (or magical equivalent) that will enslave the creature to the will of the dungeon if it succeeds.
The issue was that its success rate was often low. That was where the dungeon fairy and its non-lethal attacks came in. By harming them with the non-lethal attacks, the target will become weakened and their mental fortitude will be reduced. Status conditions like sleep can also help. Once weakened enough, the spell's success rate will reach moderately good, though this will still often require multiple castings. Thankfully the spell was cheap.
With complicated mechanisms this would be alright, but he didn’t have the power to do that yet. All that he could do was create basic traps to help isolate the animals he would want to use to create this dungeon’s ecosystem and defenses. These traps would also allow it to kill the animals or monsters and gain more soul points.
There weren’t many strategies like that from the game, and even then he wasn’t exactly sure how to translate those ideas into something he could do with his new powers. The only way that he can filter is with size and roughly by its type.
Right now, he wasn’t sure about the food side of the ecosystem, so the sort of animals he wanted needed to be small and easy to maintain. With that in mind, he began creating a brand new type of blueprint, covering the walls, floor, and ceiling of this particular tunnel with large spikes of wavering lengths.
Using one spike as a template, an ability he didn’t realize he had until he used it, he created a jungle of spikes, with the spike in the middle almost reaching each other. However, at the bottom of the spikes were paths that let smaller animals through without too much injury. This trap stopped flying animals and large animals and allowed the smaller animals to go through.
Only one way though. Shark teeth, from what he remembered from the internet, were shaped in a way that fish can only move further into its mouth without getting torn. There were spikes along the path that, hopefully, will make it so that any fleeing rat or weasel would get sliced and pierced apart.
He created multiple versions of this trap on the other tunnels that led to the core room, and closed off the others when he realized that he was far too lazy. Behind the spike barrier he added large pits to prevent the smaller animals from marching straight towards the core room.
“Fairy, work on these spike barriers first, then the walls, then the pits. Do it as quick as possible, another wave of animals will be coming soon.”
“As you wish, Dungeon Master.”
OUUuuuuuuu. Through the walls and the slightly stale air, there was an awesome, horrifying animal call. The sound seemed to pierce through the stone without any echoing. Jacob felt his soul turn to ice, and silently prayed that whatever thing made that sound wouldn’t attack the dungeon.