The group arrived at the starting location with no fanfare, but received the typical message which Duke had already selected “Yes” to before anyone could even finish reading.
***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, 4 days, 3 hours, 12 minutes, 17 seconds
Uncompleted for 0 years, 4 days, 3 hours, 12 minutes, 17 seconds.
Dungeon Ranking: Novice to Adept
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? ***
The group spread out on top of the single building, taking stock of their situation when the next notification appeared.
*** 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! ***
All of them looked to Duke for an explanation. He looked back, confused. “What?”
“You didn’t mention having to protect a clay vessel full of water.” Greslarnier remarked.
“Oh, that’s right. I cheated last time and encased it in stone so nothing could get to it. Can you do something similar, Baslin?”
“I suppose I could, but had I known, I would have been more prepared for this.” Baslin started his casting while others moved about the platform getting their bearings. It did not take long for Greslarnier to find the purchasing controls.
“I have found the purchasing function of the dungeon. It allows you to purchase defensive structures to aid in killing and there is one that will reinforce this base. I could reinforce this base to its maximum for only 1,100 credits. The most expensive structure costs 10,000 credits while the least expensive costs just 20. They all seem to have three levels of upgradability.”
Duke muttered “freaking tower defense” under his breath which got him an odd look from Axis. Dude has ridiculous hearing. Have to remember that. “May as well use the system to reinforce this place and see what else we can do. Is there any indication of what the structures do?”
“Only their names, but they are fairly descriptive. Our options are: Archery, Slowing, Energy Blast, Acid Spitter, Armor Breaker, Enhancer, Dragon’s Breath, Heaven’s Wrath, and Base Reinforcement. From what I see, there are a total of twenty places we can put these structures along the road. With the credits you accumulated from your last run, I can purchase one of each tower and complete the base reinforcement. I think that will give us a great head-start and allow me to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each tower type.”
“That just sounds awfully convenient. Just enough credits to buy one of each tower. I feel like the dungeon is fucking with me somehow. I say go ahead and do it. Anyone disagree?”
Axis and Jablach had already descended to the ground and were discussing their gameplan. Instead of an answer, Duke received a question from Axis. “Will the foes truly stick to the road?”
“From what I observed, yes. They seem unable to depart from it, but it is a ten-meter-wide path so it will be hard for the two of you to contain anything coming down the road in great numbers.”
“That’s why the rest of you are here, to provide support and let’s see what those towers can do for us. I say spend the points and see how it goes.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The rest all agreed and Greslarnier got to work. First came the Base Reinforcement which changed the starting tower platform into a dense crystalline structure and surrounded the water container in the same substance. Baslin looked a bit miffed but continued to cast his protective spells around the newly protected container.
One by one, towers started raising along the winding road. They all had similarities in dimensional structure but there were unique features to each of them that made them stand apart from the others. The Archery tower was made of wood and stood about ten meters tall. On top of it was a single large ballista that was mounted on an elevated gimble that allowed it to rotate around completely and cover the road except for the portion right next to the tower.
The next tower constructed was the Slowing tower. This tower was built of dense blue ice and was nearly completely smooth-sided. On its top stood a single two-meter-wide blue orb the emanated a palpable cold.
The Energy Blast tower consisted of what appeared to be a heavily inscribed steel lattice that culminated in a red orb of energy floating above the tower. It gave off a sense of deadly menace that caused some concerned looks amongst the group.
Next was the Acid Spitter tower which grew up like the trunk of an ancient tree with dark bark encasing its wide trunk. When it reached what now seemed to be the standard height of all the towers, sickly green veins began to worm their way through the tree from the ground up, culminating in a disturbingly green flower sprouting from the truncated top of the tree. All the green veins seemed to feed into the flower like some sort of parasitic vines infiltrating the tree. Duke couldn’t help the feeling that it was a sinister construction.
As Duke watched, the next tower rose from the ground. It was a stone construction that radiated a silver glow. The ground around it trembled and cracked, sending cracks radiating outward across the ground in a sixty-meter radius and throughout the structure of the tower. This was the Armor Breaker tower. Duke supposed the cracks made it easy to distinguish.
Next came the Enhancer tower. It rose as a black metal obelisk with large crimson runes written down its sides. The runes glowed and radiated power that came off in pulsing waves. Baslin had just finished casting his protective spells on the area and chuckled as he saw the tower take shape. “Oh yes, that’s a good one. I recognize those runes. They will make any one of us stronger when under their influence. I suggest building more of those around wherever our front line will be.”
Greslarnier smiled in response. “Noted. It will have to wait for a while as we will be close to empty on credits after building all these towers. Hey, Duke, how quickly will we accumulate credits once this thing gets going?”
“It will be slow at first, not really picking up until after around the tenth wave. I wasn’t really paying attention to the credits last time, but we are starting this run with twenty or so waves of credits so that should give us a good gauge. I expect we can call the first ten waves quickly and not really have any issues. If I remember correctly, it was after wave fifteen that I started seeing tier three foes.”
“I see. Well, two more towers to go and then we can all get in position and get this thing started.”
The next tower seemed to be more massive than any of the others as it rose from the ground. It was the head and thick neck of a red-scaled dragon. It rose straight up to a full forty meters tall and then the neck relaxed allowing the head began to look around, methodically turning left and right, as if seeking a target. Its eyes fixed on Axis and seemed to consider him for a moment before resuming its seeking behavior.
“OK, that was creepy as can be. I was sure it was about to roast me. Maybe less of that kind of tower as we go.” Axis called back. Duke could swear he saw the dragon head smirk in response.
“Yeah, I think one of them might be all we need and let’s not get to close to it.” Duke answered.
Greslarnier smiled as the last tower rose from the surface, it was a glowing pillar of brilliance. This was the Heaven’s Wrath tower and it was rising from the nearest tower spot to the defensive structure. It was hard to look at and glowed with a pure white light.
“That’s hard to see past. I think I made a mistake placing it so close to us.”
“Can it be moved?” Eihlen asked.
After checking the interface, Greslarnier answered, “It can, but it would be expensive. 5,000 credits. We have 150 left.”
“Allow me.” Baslin responded as he cast a spell. Several long and intricate arcane gestures and words of power resulted in the light of the pillar dimming to a comfortable level.
“Will that decrease the pillar’s effectiveness?” Greslarnier asked.
“Possibly, but only in the direction of this tower if at all. In all other directions it’s still as bright. All I did was interpose a mostly opaque barrier immediately around it from this perspective. It shouldn’t interfere with the functionality of the tower significantly if at all.”
“That’s a whole lot cheaper than moving the thing for sure. Thanks, Baslin. Greslarnier, is that all you can do with the towers right now?”
“I could upgrade the Archery tower twice or the Slowing tower once, but that’s all I could accomplish with 150 credits. With another 10 credits, I could max out the Archery tower to its third upgrade. Unfortunately, there is no indication of how the upgrades will affect the capabilities of the towers. A natural assumption is that they will hit harder or otherwise have some greater effect, but we don’t even know what the effects of the towers we build are yet.”
“True. Perhaps we just get things started and see what effect the towers have on the first few waves. We likely can rely on the towers to eliminate the first several waves without us even having to intervene at all.” Duke suggested.
“You think so?” Jablach asked, intrigued.
“I do. The first wave only gets you 20 credits – enough to purchase a single basic Archery tower. We have purchased one of each tower, including the heavenly glow stick in front of us. I expect them to overpower the low-level waves easily.”
“Then, maybe we should all get into position and get this started.” Axis suggested.
“Standing around for the next four minutes will do us no extra good. Let’s all take our positions and get this started.” Aurelia added.
With salutes, handshakes, and, in Duke and Aurelia’s case, a hug and kiss, they all moved into their positions.
“Are you ready?” Greslarnier’s voice rang through all their minds simultaneously. Verbal responses were not necessary as it was able to read their responses easily from the eager responses. “Then we shall begin!”