Duke arrived in an empty section of the dungeon he had set aside for privacy. It resembled Baslin’s library from the tower. It was filled with bookshelves stuffed with books that stretched on into the distance. The books were essentially blank pages, but they looked good surrounding the pair of overstuffed chairs and gave the library an air of infinite knowledge that really appealed to Duke. Right now, however, the only knowledge he was interested in was the real book he held in his hands.
It took him a matter of minutes to fully absorb the book and incorporate its magic into his own. The notification was brief and to the point.
*** Congratulations! You have absorbed the Spell, Implosion. You may now use IMPLOSION as an Ability at will. This Ability allows you to exert extreme gravitic and compressional forces to squeeze a target down to a single point. This will kill most living beings. Care should be taken as some things react violently when compressed. As this was learned from a master-level spellbook, you gain the ability at the Initiate Rank. ***
Duke nodded his head in appreciation at the new Ability but wondered what was meant by the warning. Maybe it is talking about things like diesel fuel that combusts when it is compressed. That’s my best guess and I’m sticking with it. Anyway, time to go practice!
Duke stepped through a door that he created in the library into another large, empty cavern. The cavern did not stay empty for long. Duke flexed his DUNGEON ENGINEERING Ability to create all sorts of “test subjects” to practice his new Ability on. He had considered using DUNGEON MONSTER CREATION but felt that those creations were a bit more alive and potentially sentient. He could create unthinking shells easily with his DUNGEON ENGINEERING and considered that just a bit more moral.
And just like that, I’m thinking about morality and dungeons. Like the killer level I had Sam create that I hope has never seen use. Damn, I want to check in on things back on Teldin. I left them with so much to do and so few to get it done. The Legions are all but destroyed – thank God I left some behind. But I need to focus on the here and now. Time to kill some meat puppets.
The first creature Duke attacked with IMPLOSION was a human construct. The Ability was merciless as it pulled the creature into its effect. It started with a flash of energy bursting outwards from the creature’s center, slightly below where their navel would be. In a split second, the entire body was consumed and smashed to a sphere about the size of a softball. The sphere struck the floor with considerable impact and a splash of gore that had not compressed with the rest of the body.
Duke approached the sphere cautiously, unsure if there would be any further reaction but it remained as it was for now. He picked it up, having trouble judging its weight as his Strength was too far over the charts to determine weights with any accuracy. A second later a bathroom scale appeared, and Duke placed the sphere on it, showing about 37 kilograms. He shrugged, figuring that it was about half of the creature’s mass preserved.
His experimentation continued for several weeks, leveling up the Ability about once a day in the process. It now sat at Initiate 27, but he was just too restless to continue practicing a singular Ability. His mind still conflicted with the overwhelming sense of urgency of the Contest potentially ending at any time and the knowledge that he was in a massively time-dilated dungeon. He found himself heading over the mech area and ignoring every other crafter in his path. The stream of minotaur crafters he left behind was growing longer and increasingly unhappy.
When he arrived in the mech area again, Zarna was waiting for him with an unreadable expression. She spoke before he could, “You really should see what else has been crafted for you. Some of these crafters have been waiting years for you to provide even the most basic direction on where they should take their craft.”
Years? What the hell is she talking about? I’s only been a day or two at most…and with time passing over one thousand times faster in here, that could be years. Shit. I’ll have to take care of the crafters then.
“You are quite right. Once I am done with Barney here, I’ll meet with each of the crafters waiting for me.”
“Excellent. Then you are done working with the Barney mech.”
“Oh? Really? I’ve graduated to the next mech?”
“Well, yes. Fred is ready for you. But you did say that you would meet with the crafters once you were done with Barney.”
“I did. Didn’t I? Very well, but I’ll be back afterwards to take Fred through his paces.”
“Of course, Emperor. We will have him ready for you.”
Duke nodded absently as he left the area to meet up with the other crafters. It did not take long to find them lined up and waiting for him. What did take long was to go through all of their offerings and decide what he wanted to keep, what he just didn’t want to use, and what he needed them to rework. It took eight weeks to go through all the crafters. Duke was exhausted afterwards, and his INVENTORY had a considerable amount of random items of varying utility.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
There were some stand-outs that he especially liked and he pondered them as he found his stateroom in the dungeon and laid down for a good sleep. He had pushed himself to the limit of his endurance maintaining not only wakefulness, but alertness through that entire period and his body and mind were overjoyed to get some sleep.
When he awoke, he was not alone. The Overmind’s avatar stood before him, startling him right out of bed.
“You actually slept in your armor. That’s not good for your back, you know.”
“My back will heal itself.”
“I suppose it will. I bet you are wondering how and why I am here right now.”
“Well, since you told me that this wasn’t possible, I am definitely interested in hearing about it.”
“Quite simply, I am cheating. Well, technically, we both are, but that is not my concern. No other entity can see into this dungeon as it is wholly my domain, and I reinforced the protections for it while you were crafting its Core. It was very savvy of you to make this place on the way to the Contest. A simple dungeon of crafters would have sufficed, but instead, you made this marvel of time-dilation. That was a great idea.”
“Thanks, but I am guessing there is more to this visit than a pat on the back.”
“Indeed. This dungeon’s location will be discovered somewhere within the next five days. Mind you, that’s like thirteen years in this place but you aren’t going to gain any real points in here. You need to be able to bring your…how does that phrase go in English? Ah, yes, bring your biggest guns to bear on the competition before they find this place. Once they find it, you will have to shut it down. You do not want anyone else getting in here and looting the place.”
“But I can’t even pilot my biggest gun yet and it will be too costly for me to take out of here with my current level of DUNGEON ENGINEERING.”
“Then you have your next priorities. Take a year or two in here if you need it. You are going to need that mech to hunt the top teams. You are ranked in the 700s and that is fantastic, but in order to break into the top 100, you are going to have to at least triple the points you have earned. And no one is going to come at you unprepared again. The sight of you atomizing Maku has made everyone who watched wary of you. They are going to come after you with everything they have and in groups. Do not be hesitant to flee if you are outmatched. The dead claim no prizes.”
“Whatever you say, Mr. Brightside. Oh, and now I have that freaking song stuck in my head. Wonderful.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about, but you need to be fully alert the next time you leave this dungeon and be prepared to collapse it back to its Core when you do leave.”
“So do everything I need to do before leaving. Got it. Anything else I should be aware of?”
“Time will run out before you run out of opponents. Kill as many as you can. Do not concern yourself with reputation. Survival and victory is all that matters while on this world.”
“Understood.”
With that last exchange, Duke found himself alone again. He performed his waking CLEANSE and RESTORE routine and set to work. He altered the door from his stateroom to take him directly to the mechs and got started with Fred.
Fred was a bit larger than Barney but more maneuverable and blessedly…armed. Duke quickly learned how to control the weaponry. It reminded him significantly of his life as a fighter pilot and found it easy to transfer his targeting skills. He did not wait for the dungeon to generate targets or opponents, relying on his DUNGEON ENGINEERING Ability to produce more than enough challenges as he practiced.
Days bled into weeks as he committed to memory all the various types of weaponry and how to use them while moving in 360 degrees of combat. This was the most fun he had since he could remember in this world. He finally felt at home again, strapped into a cockpit that moved as he moved his controls, unleashing death in any direction he desired. It was fully six months before he was told that his time in the Fred mech was complete.
Duke smiled as he checked his gains. His Mechpilot Skill had risen to Initiate 37, and his DUNGEON ENGINEERING Ability had risen to Adept 84. He was close to ranking up to Practiced in Mechpilot but still was only halfway to the Master rank in his Ability. He knew he had to push both and that had been his focus so far. But now, Zarna had interrupted his practice.
“What is it, Zarna?”
“You have graduated from Fred to Wilma. It is time for you to push your Skill to the point needed for Bloodstorm!”
“What does Wilma add that Fred didn’t already? Fred allowed me to do just about everything I have ever seen a mech do.”
“Wilma will allow you to focus your other Abilities through the mech and integrate them into your combat as well as into the very weapons of the mech. This is the true enhancement that Bloodstorm is designed to provide.”
“Well, let’s fucking get this party started already!”
Duke leapt down from Fred and hurried over to Wilma’s waiting form. He found the mech was smaller by a significant margin. While Fred had been nearly ¾ the size of Bloodstorm, Wilma was about half the size of his true mech. This mech was not all that much larger than the suits of powered armor that the Syndicate soldiers wore. Still, Duke enthusiastically climbed into the mech and got started.
His first few attempts to channel his Abilities through the mech were spectacular, but not in the way he was hoping. He alternately fried the entire runescript with enhanced LIGHTNING misdirected through the mech and burnt his left side from FLAME that got out of control, setting the mech itself on fire. He and Zarna alike were decidedly thankful for his RESTORE Ability and his REGENERATION. Between those two Abilities, he reduced downtime to nearly nothing.
In time, he got the hang of using his Abilities through the mech and even combining them with using the mech’s regular weapons. It was another six months before he made the breakthrough of being able to channel his Abilities through melee weapons held in the mech’s hands. It was after that feat that his Skill broke through to the next rank, Practiced.
Duke beamed as Zarna informed him that his basic training was complete and that he was ready to finally begin training for real. He followed her for a few steps before simply opening up his own massive doorway to where he knew Bloodstorm waited for him. That caused a panic in a few of the mech technicians, but he didn’t care. It was time to fire up his baby for the first time. Nothing would get in his way of this!