Chapter 28: Malvorik_Dungeon of Assassins [LitRPG, Dungeon Core, NPC perspective]

Dungeon heart Malvorik had found no peace since the underground battle to save the last duskgnomes. The underground city he had created for fun, and to test his builder skills, was suddenly full of life. Duskgnomes scurried through the houses, picked a spot and made themselves at home. Someone always had a request.

He was currently working on installing functioning hinges on the doors, which had previously only served as decoration. Malvorik only had a vague idea of exactly how a hinge was constructed and how it worked.

Selvara watched in the heart room using the mirrored walls that showed what the dungeon heart was looking at, "Are you kidding? You can't make that thing square. It has to be round, otherwise the hinge can't turn at all!"

"Anyone who uses doors?"

Malvorik ignored her and reformed the hinges according to her instructions. After a few more adjustments, the duskgnomes managed to open their doors with a squeak.

He created bandages, clean water and blankets. Then he came to the subject of food. That was a little more problematic. The only halfway edible animals he could make were rats. He created a summoning circle and made a few rats appear.

Selvara hovered a few steps above the ground and looked down critically at his activities: "Can't you create them dead? Butchering rats would be a lot of work for that little meat."

Malvorik paused and rummaged through his menus. As he had done before, he could also create dead monsters to use as bait, traps or decoration.

"Probably for dungeons with an undead theme. See if you can leave out the skin as well."

A few bloody rat carcasses appeared.

Malvorik and Selvara looked down at the pile, indecisive and slightly disgusted. The living rats that had been summoned shortly before reacted more directly. They immediately pounced on the food provided.

"Can you..." She made a vague gesture.

The carcasses that now appeared looked more appetizing. But they were still very recognizable as rats.

"What do you mean?"

A pile of vaguely cube-shaped chunks of meat appeared. Selvara flew down for the first time to take a closer look. "Yes, that works. No bones, no weird bits of organ, no fur. You got it right this time. Now no one can tell exactly what it was. Create a new summoning circle in the kitchen of Gnome City and then we'll see what the duskgnomes think of it."

A picture of the largest kitchen in the tiny village appeared on one of the mirrored walls. Malvorik had extended it considerably and equipped a large room next to it as a canteen with long tables and rows of benches.

Some duskgnome women were busy unpacking their few supplies. They familiarized themselves with the arrangement of the cauldrons, which could be swung over the hearth fire on a swivel arm. When the incantation circle burned itself into one of the stone shelves on the wall, they stepped back nervously at first. Then the chunks of meat appeared.

A short time later, a duskgnome chef had already mixed the goulash in one of the copper kettles together with the herbs she had brought with her and began to heat it over the fire. She fished out a spoonful and tasted it while three other duskgnome women watched her expectantly. She smacked her lips demonstratively and paused dramatically as she chewed and swallowed the morsel thoughtfully. Then she grinned broadly at her audience: "Excellent. I haven't had rat meat this good for years."

The duskgnome raised his head in surprise and banged against the top of the bunk bed he was putting together in a room. "What?"

Skorr waved it off: "It's all right. I just wasn't prepared for a voice in my head. What was that about meat?"

"Well, what we can get. On the surface, I personally like to hunt rabbits. In the tunnels of the underworld, there are a few types of lizards... and rats, of course. Lots of varieties of rats." He smacks his lips, "Dire rats are the size of pigs and have a similar flavor."

The next day flew by.

The dungeon heart let its gaze flit through its dungeon, but found no urgent problems.

He removed the water ingress he had used to keep the revenants out of the shaft, cleared the passage downwards again and lowered some duskgnomes down.

Two groups of five duskgnomes nodded and marched off. At the edge of Malvorik's sphere of influence, they found a pile of hammers, chisels and pickaxes. All created from the best tools they had brought with them. Tools that their people had transported over years of migration and hundreds of kilometers.

The image in the mirror wall followed the two groups until they were out of sight of the dungeon heart. The image switched to his play city. Although he liked to think of it as a city, he had to admit the term village would be more fitting to its size. He let his gaze wander from duskgnome to duskgnome. Some mourned fallen kin. Others just stared wearily ahead. Most, however, wandered through their new home like wide-eyed children.

He had saved all these children and their parents. Now he would make sure that they could grow up in safety. No one would ever harm them again. Not without defeating his dungeon first. Down to the last monster.

The leader of the duskgnomes came into his field of vision. He stared unfocused in front of him and wiped his hands through the air in annoyance. Was he just managing his last level up? What had he done to have to move so many menus around?

"Not quite. As the nominal leader of the duskgnomes, I'm now the mayor of a village. I really have no idea what to do with all the menus. There's so much to do..."

Legal reassessment...

Congratulations. Malvorik is now mayor of [insert name of village]

Current number of inhabitants: 241

(Note: monsters are not counted as inhabitants).

His field of vision filled up with messages and new menus.

Insufficient living space: population growth -60%

No hospital or comparable facility: risk of epidemics: +20%; wound healing -20%

No designated latrines: risk of epidemics: +20%; morale -10%

No designated training areas for military personnel: training time +50%

No school or comparable center for teaching: Learning times for knowledge skills +50%

No cultivation areas available, food supply unclear, supplies still sufficient at the moment: morale of the inhabitants -20%

No defenses: Morale of the inhabitants -40%

Check... Objection accepted.

Sufficient defenses: morale of the inhabitants +30%

No established trade routes: Trade income = 0

Please select a form of government:

Monarchy, dictatorship, oligarchy, chieftaincy, gerontocracy, magocracy...

Chosen form of government: Dictatorship

Malvorik went through the individual points in more detail. When he focused on one of the messages, a control menu for the development and control of the village opened. Each entry branched out into numerous options. Numerous buildings and resources were necessary for the village to survive. A number of positions had to be filled. Military leader, healer, architect, master builder, teacher and many more. There were also a number of trades and activities.

Depending on the quality of the building or the skills of the person, it had an impact on the productivity, morale and loyalty of the villagers. It also affected population growth, general health and a number of other values.

Skorr read through a message from the world voice, grinned and wandered off, whistling happily.

He scrolled through menus, read the few explanations and began to write an overview. One of the walls in his heart room filled up with notes and cross-references. Some of them developed into full-blown equations. Selvara flew through the heart room on her way to her room, hovering in the air to watch.

"Ideal living space coefficient? Building regulations? Consolidation? Development planning? Efficiency deductions for mixed use? Supply and disposal statistics? What exactly are you doing right now?"

"Why? Food, accommodation, fun. Done."

"Stop it! Eww. You can solve that on your own. Why don't you start with the most urgent problem first? Food."

"Did you pay attention to how much astral power that cost? You can't feed the duskgnomes permanently with that."

"We don't have any mushrooms in the dungeon. The duskgnomes have brought some bags of spores, but it will take weeks for them to grow. We’d also need special soil or bales of straw."

Malvorik drew a plan of the dungeon on the mirror and then selected an area into which he could drive several tunnels:

Selvara flew through the dungeon. She looked around frantically and pounced on Skorr as soon as she found him. She flew in tight circles around him while talking at him. He thought for a moment and then spoke up into the empty room, "Growing mushrooms isn't hard if you can control the humidity and temperature. But you'll also need to put in a little light. The duskgnomes used small solium crystals for this. People often think that mushrooms don't need any light at all. But that's wrong."

He was silent for a few minutes, then the heart crystal flashed:

Selvara floated to the crystal and placed her hands on it: "You feel tense. Is something wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"This is only temporary. We'll find more resources over time."

The dungeon fairy flew up and looked around: "What do you mean? Are we being attacked again?"

"That's right. Some of the new ones seem to be really vicious."

"They need proper equipment for that. Magic weapons, armor, artifacts and elixirs."

"Theoretically?"

"How about we buy weapons cheaply and then you enchant them?"

"What about elixirs?"

"That sounds more complex than I imagined."

"Couldn't we buy normal equipment, you learn the patterns and improve them?"