Duke’s next stop was back to Lady Hargwaetch’s office. She seemed underwhelmed to see him there yet again. “What can I do for you this time? You do have other ministers, you know.”
Duke couldn’t keep from laughing at the annoyed look she gave him. “I do have other ministers, but none of them have spent several days with Lord Greengold. You have. Tell me everything you learned about him.”
“He is frighteningly quick-witted. I saw him cut through a merchant’s entire ten-minute rant and cut to the core of the problem in fifteen seconds. I know that he is originally from the Ansky Empire and there are some residual loyalties there. But he is brutally efficient in his role. I do not want to wind up on the opposite side of the negotiation table from that man. I am ever thankful that he is on our side.”
“Is he truly on our side? Not a spy for the Empire?”
“I believe he is, but he hides a lot of his true thoughts. Is this why you left me in his care for nearly a week?”
“No, that was not my intention at all, but things happened that needed to be addressed. I don’t trust his loyalty just yet. My Intuition is telling me there is more to him than we have seen so I am going to make sure he has some time alone with the Ansky delegation and see what comes of that.”
“You need a spymaster, don’t you?”
“It would seem so, but I don’t have anyone for the job, so we are still fumbling around in the dark.”
“Speak with Madrigal. Perhaps he knows of a candidate.”
“A good thought. I’ll leave you to your work but if you think of anything else about him, let me know.”
She smiled as Duke left her office. Again. “If this keeps up, I’m not going to be prepared for this evening at all. Does he have any idea how many trade deals I have to negotiate through the course of the night? No, he probably doesn’t.”
Duke spent the rest of the day running around checking in on all the preparations. With each check in, his annoyance at having to do it himself grew until he felt like he was at his limit. Things were properly arranged, and he still had a few hours before things were to begin. He left the kingdom, arriving at the Thirsty Scorpion Inn.
“Welcome back, Duke. Did you miss me?”
“Um, sure. Did I miss anything, Dagny? Any groups of adventurers delve the depths of your dungeon and claim the initial completion prize?”
“No, I doubt anyone will for some time.”
“How many levels is it?”
“Oh, I only have a single level constructed but it is a siege dungeon so it likely won’t get a second level for quite a while. Would you like to try it?”
“I would but my time is limited. Would I be able to leave it without completing it?”
“Certainly. You don’t need to make it through all fifty waves. You can leave after any single wave.”
“That sounds like just what the doctor ordered. I can blow off some steam and get some experience and Ability progression at the same time. Let’s do this.”
“Excellent. The entrance-“ The shift in Dagny’s stance and demeanor was dramatic and Duke was sure he was about to have a conversation with the Overmind.
“Overmind, I presume?”
“Indeed. Sorry I couldn’t speak with you earlier. I’ve been busy fending off the Twin Entities’ attempts at intruding upon our link. They are being far more persistent than I had anticipated. That’s not to say they will triumph, but it is distracting. Regardless. One of my presences is here now. As to your earlier question about instant notifications with the combat modification, I’m going to say yes and we’ll see how it progresses.”
“Thanks, that will be helpful. Any issues with me delving into this dungeon?”
“No, none at all. Having you test each new dungeon is something that is quite a good idea. It gives the dungeon a gauge of how strong their dungeon is while allowing me to provide you with goodies.”
“Goodies?”
“Yes, experience, Advancement, and loot. All the good things.”
“All things I love myself. Although, loot is hit or miss for me since I tend to absorb magical loot over time.”
“Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it could be a rather nice backdoor to allow me to grant you additional Abilities.”
“I hadn’t thought about that. I don’t suppose you can avoid giving me any swords. Swords and I don’t exactly have a good relationship.”
“That might be a bit out of the rules as even I have to allow some true randomness into the loot generation. To make it fixed will stagnate the dungeon. Having randomness allows the cosmos to introduce new items, quests, goals, and other related things.”
“OK, anything else I need to know?”
“Not at this time. Grow in power. You are going to need it.”
“That’s not ominous at all.”
“What’s not ominous?” Dagny asked.
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it. I think it’s time to delve into this dungeon. Are there any objectives other than just survive?”
“Of course there are, but you’ll have to figure them out for yourself. Telling you would be cheating.”
“Right. OK, let’s do this!”
Duke armed himself and, on a whim, created armor similar to Aurelia’s out of dungeon essence. The biggest difference being that his was not golden but instead in the kingdom’s livery. With a smile, he drew his tonfa out of his INVENTORY and set off to delve into the dungeon.
***
Upon approaching the dungeon in the dungeon, Duke was greeted by a familiar message as he placed his hand on the portal to activate it:
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
***You have activated a Dungeon Portal! You may choose to enter or flee this Dungeon. Dungeon Information:
Dungeon Name: Desert Fortress of the Amber Sands
Dungeon Vintage: Newborn
Unentered for 0 years, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds
Uncompleted for 0 years, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds.
Dungeon Ranking: Novice
Maximum Party Size: 50
Minimum Party Size: 1
Dungeon Type: Singular
Dungeon Style: Siege
Would like to Enter or Flee the Desert Fortress of the Amber Sands? ***
Duke, of course, selected to enter but there was one thing that gave him a moment of pause – the maximum party size was 50. If the dungeon didn’t scale to the size of the party, this could be a lot harder for him than he expected. Not that that deterred him, he was ready to cut loose for a while. He made careful note of his system clock, allocating himself two hours before he would have to leave.
He arrived on the top of a singular square building made of adobe bricks, sealed over with dried mud. It was not a particularly tall building standing about three meters tall. Duke’s DUNGEON SENSE told him that the building was filled with adobe bricks. He wanted to call it a solid structure, but he suspected that really was not the case. Next to him was a large clay tub filled with water. A notification appeared giving him an idea of what to expect.
*** In this dungeon, there is but one single source of water. That is the sacred vessel next to you. It is your task to defend this source of water from all attackers. The attackers will come in progressively stronger waves up the road. After each wave, an exit portal will appear. You may depart after any wave is completed and will receive rewards based on how many waves have been completed, how long it took, and how much water has survived. Good luck. You have ten minutes to prepare, or you may “call the next wave” at any time, even if you have not completed the current wave. Good luck! ***
Duke took stock of the area. It didn’t take long as there were essentially barren desert sands surrounding him with a single stone block road meandering through it, ending at the foot of the building.
“OK, so the environment isn’t going to be much help. The only question is just how much do I want to cheat?” Duke thought about it for a minute or so before coming to a decision. “As much as I possibly can!”
Duke immediately set to work at making things as far in his favor as possible. Using DUNGEON MANIPULATION, he first encased the tub of water in steel. His first thought was to armor the tub but found that he was limited by his Ability. Before long, the tub was encased in a three-meter thick cube of stone which now took up most of the roof of the structure he stood upon. Chuckling, he began to expand the building, adding layer upon layer of dense stone. He now stood upon a much larger structure with crenelations and spiked walls. After a moment’s consideration, he reshaped the spikes into sharp blades coated in steel.
“Try climbing up those, fuckers.” He then created a deep trench a few dozen meters away from the building and lined it with spikes as well. It was while building this that he ran into his first problem. No matter how much effort he put into the Ability, or Mana, for that matter, he was not able to affect the road itself. It remained suspended over the trench like a bridge. Duke shrugged and went back to work. Checking his time, he only had thirty seconds before the wave started.
“OK, time’s up, I guess. Let’s see what comes down the road.”
On cue, Duke spotted creatures slowly marching up the road towards him. They marched in single file and fairly well spaced apart. Duke watched them approach, counting 20 creatures approaching. They were bipedal and wrapped in cloth. Each carried a curved sword. From what Duke was able to see, they could have been human, or elven, or demons, or bipedal lemons for that matter. All their features were covered with loosely wrapped cloth, so it was nearly impossible to discern any features. He IDENTIFIED the first in line.
*** You have encountered a Desert Raider. This is a Tier one, basic dungeon creature.
Tier: 1
Level: 10
Health: 927
Mana: 216
***
Duke chuckled at the lack of challenge in the first wave. He called for the second wave while sending an arcing bolt of LIGHTNING to fry the raiders.
The second wave had twice as many raiders but seemed to be no more challenge. Before he called an additional wave to speed things up, he was interrupted by a message.
*** You have earned 20 credits for defeating 20 Desert Raiders. Would you like to add some defenses?
Your defensive options include:
* Archers – 5 credits each
* Melee combatants – 3 credits each
* Additional Tower – 15 credits
* Upgrade tower 20 credits
***
Duke looked at the options and shook his head. “I’m in a tower defense dungeon. Cool, but I think I’ll save my points for later.”
Duke called the next four waves in rapid succession, each easily dealt with by a simple application of his LIGHNING Ability. He didn’t even need to use anything beyond the base power of the Ability. Frustrated by the ease of the dungeon so far, he hopped down from the tower and marched up the road, calling for the fifth wave. The next wave of Desert Raiders came up the road towards him, moving yet faster than the previous wave. He IDENTIFIED one of them.
*** You have encountered a Desert Raider. This is a Tier one, basic dungeon creature.
Tier: 1
Level: 50
Health: 20,043
Mana: 9,180
***
Maybe they will hit Tier two with the next wave. If the pattern keeps up, they could near the top of Tier four at the fiftieth wave. That could actually be a challenge. And their numbers keep increasing. If it kept up at this rate, I would be facing more than two hundred of them at the fiftieth wave. That might just be able to take me out.
Duke checked the time, seeing as he had more than an hour and a half left. His DUNGEON SENSE told him that the dungeon was running in real time, so he called the next few waves to keep the party going, wading into their number with his tonfa.
Half an hour later, Duke was back on his small tower having just finished the 115 raiders of the twentieth level. His armor was in sad shape with dents all over it and several slashes and punctures showing where attacks had landed that Duke had not been able to counter. He absently activated RESTORE and CLEANSE to bring his armor back up to par and wipe away the gore of smashed raiders. He nearly shuddered at the amount of grey matter he’d had to CLEANSE off his tonfa.
He caught his breath as he evaluated the situation. He still had thirty waves to survive, and it was starting to become a struggle. The Desert Raiders had started adding in magic around wave fifteen and it was starting to strain him to deal with all the attacks coming at him rapid-fire. The next wave he knew would be 120 raiders as the pattern had held true. They would only be level 60, but they would be full Tier three individuals. And that he realized was what was making the difference. These raiders were not leveling like monsters, but like people with classes and Abilities. One had used an Ability similar to Aurelia’s FLASH CHARGE that had nearly done him in. Only a TELEPORT triggered by his COMBAT SENSE had kept him from being splattered. Hence, his rapid retreat back to the roof of his tower.
The twentieth wave began while he was evaluating things from the tower, the one hundred twenty raiders swarming up the road. Duke rained down Abilities on the approaching raiders, hoping the one thing he had learned about their own Abilities held for a bit longer – they had significantly limited range in their magical attacks. He, on the other hand, had plenty of range with his Abilities. Ultimately, they did make it to the tower but Duke’s cheating with the tower structure and liberal application of TELEPORTATION to remove the raiders from the battlefield (at least until they plummeted to the ground) allowed Duke to barely finish the level unscathed.
Duke knew he had a three-minute break before the next wave and debated getting into the “tower” aspect of this tower defense dungeon. Checking his time, he had about half an hour left in his allocated time. He decided to step out of the portal before the next wave and call it a day. It had been a good run and he had learned a few things about this particular dungeon.
As he stepped through the portal, he received a message:
*** Do you wish to exit the Desert Fortress of the Amber Sands? ***
Duke indicated “yes” and received an additional message:
*** You accumulated 17,620 unspent credits in your run. Would you like to cash your credits in or save them for a future attempt? ***
Duke didn’t hesitate to indicate that he wanted to save them. An instant later he was standing outside the dungeon entrance with Dagny waiting for him with a glass of Scotch.
“Did you enjoy the dungeon?”
“It was a definite challenge. I would have liked to continue but I don’t have the time.”
Dagny’s expression changed as Duke saw the Overmind take over again. “You have experience and other increases pending from that delve. Would you like to receive them now or wait until you have more time to deal with them?”
Duke thought about it and decided to accept it all now and have it ready for the evening’s activities. “Let’s have it now and see where things go from there.”