As is the nature of dungeons, they amass great amounts of resources and magical energies over time. These, of course, attract the interested eyes of people, looking to earn a living. But it is not just people who are interested in dungeons. Wild monsters can also be drawn to the magical forces emanated out into the world by a dungeon-core.
Dungeon-cores are keenly aware that their very existence serves to draw threats towards themselves. So they instinctively establish defenses, in order to protect their domain, shortly after their birth.
Typically, these consist of an array of traps, underground chambers and tunnels, as well as swarms of various monsters. In general, these are consistent with the elemental attribute of a dungeon. Nobody really knows how a dungeon is built and by what, as nobody has ever seen the process in action and returned to talk about it.
A water dungeon will generally have water monsters and a fire dungeon will generally have fire monsters. Some crossover can be seen with closely related elements, such as stone-golems sitting down in a fire dungeon or an ice-serpent at the bottom of a water dungeon.
In the wild, monsters will often fight each other to the death to protect their territory and assets. However, curiously, a dungeon's monsters behave differently than wild monsters, in that they will harbor no territorial disputes amongst themselves, even against the most contentious species, as long as they are inside or around the dungeon that is their home.
Truly, nothing unites a tribe like a common enemy.
~ An elven wanderer’s take on dungeons, page two.
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There is a large wall now surrounding the very-big-tree. In one direction, it spans out into the forest a little ways and in the other direction, it goes all the way to the edge of the wild river.
The wall itself looks a little crude, being made up out of logs and stones and things of that nature, which were simply lying around the forest. The uthra are fairly strong and have little trouble carrying an old log or a big rock, especially when they team up to do it together.
“It’s too big, I’m telling you,” says the gatherer, with blue wings.
The yellow winged one, the builder, rubs its head. “‘Big’ was the order. So we’re making it big,” it explains, shrugging.
“There isn’t enough dead wood around the area, let alone good stones. We need to start digging down soon, now that the entrance area is done,” replies the blue one, looking around at the somewhat haphazard looking, but actually very sturdy construction of a perimeter.
“Yes, I do agree,” says the yellow one. “We’ll have an easier time when we start going down and just digging out tunnels,” it states. The entity places its hands on its hips. “We’ll have all the stones that we need then.”
“We’re not going underground,” says the red one, flying in from the side with a bushel of berries it has been gathering. “We’re going up. We’re building a tower, if you two didn’t notice.”
The other two look at it and then at Isaiah.
“A tower?” asks the blue one. “Dungeons go down beneath the ground though,” it explains.
“It’s true,” says the yellow one, nodding. “I have never seen a dungeon go above ground for more than one floor for the entrance.”
Isaiah points up towards the sky with a jagged finger. “Up. Very-big-tree.”
The two of them look at each other. “Are you sure?”
“Up.”
The red uthra points at Isaiah. “It’s some freaky bird-monster, you geniuses. Of course it wants to go up,” it snarkily explains. “You think a bird wants to live underground?”
The blue one lifts a finger. “I don’t think Isaiah is a bird. I think it’s a lovely representation of something angelic.”
“Quite,” affirms the yellow one, nodding in agreement.
The red uthra rolls its eyes. “Stop brown-nosing and get back to work.” It points at the walls. “Those shitty walls aren’t going to hold up a tower. Start over and make them right this time.”
“Excuse me? I’ll have you know that these are excellent walls. They’re absurdly stable!” argues the yellow one. “This is prime dungeon crafting right here!” it argues. “Besides, since when are you in charge?”
Isaiah closes its eyes, trying to think for a moment. There is an argument that it wants to make here, but the words aren’t all there yet. It lifts a taloned finger, pointing at the bottom of the very big tree. “Very-big-tree,” it says. “Very strong tree,” it adds on, tapping against the wide, thick base of the thing. “Walls must be strong for tree to get big!”
The other two uthra look at each other and then shrug. “Okay. But we need better materials then,” says the blue one. “We need quarried stone, if you want to make an actual tower.”
“Get.”
The blue one rubs its head.
“You heard the horrible monstrosity,” says the red one, leaning in with its hands on its hips. “Go make a quarry.”
“As if it's that easy…”
~ [Isaiah] ~
(Isaiah) used: [Summoned Worker {1}] x 2
Cost: {8} SOUL
SOUL: 04/12
Two more workers appear. One has purple wings and the other has pink wings.
“Good day.”
“Hello!”
Isaiah points at them and the blue one. “Quarried stones. Get.”
“You got it!” says both the purple and the pink one at the same time, flying off right away. The blue one zooms after them, after a second’s delay.
“Strong walls. Build.”
“Sure thing,” says the yellow one, returning to its work.
Isaiah points at the red one. “Food. Get.”
“Yeah, yeah,” replies the red one, dropping the bushel of berries that it has in its hands into the stockpile.
Isaiah nods, watching them all get to work. It’s going to be a very productive day today.
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“POOK-POOK-POOK!” chirps Isaiah, sitting up high on its tree.
Something is moving outside of the walls.
“Huh? What? Oh,” says the red-uthra, flying by to see what the commotion is.
- [Dungeon Breached!] -
Intruders: 01
Average Level: 01
Difficulty: Very Easy
Something grunts and snorts as it runs around outside of the walls, sniffing the area.
Isaiah looks down from its perch, staring at the large creature. It has four short legs and a mane of bristles on its muscular back. It continues to grunt and tear up the dirt, as it tries to get into the walls for some reason. The animal sniffs around the area, before entering through the opening for a doorway, which is unsealed because of the reconstruction efforts.
~ [Feral Spineback Boar] ~
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Class: None Element: None Type: Forager Category: Beast Rank: F Level: 01
A dangerous wild hog. Spineback boars bridge the gap between animals and monsters and there is debate to this day about which category they belong to. They have an extremely keen sense of smell and are dangerously strong for such a wide-spread creature.
HP: 20/20
SOUL: 03/03
The boar strides on inside of the four walls, sniffing the ground and looking around. It sees the heap of food that the red-uthra has been collecting and makes a line straight towards it.
“POOK-POOK-POOK!” cries Isaiah.
“This is a good learning experience,” replies the red creature. “Stop chirping and look,” it says. Isaiah watches as the boar begins devouring the stockpile of berries at a terrifying pace. “See, when you’re a dungeon-core, you need materials to build your dungeon, right?” asks the red creature. “Well, it turns out that having a bunch of magic and expensive stuff in one place will attract other things that want them too.”
Isaiah nods. That makes sense. It’s like having a nest, full of eggs. That is when one must be most watchful for snakes and other birds, who would come to steal them. In this sense, the boar has come to steal its nest full of berries.
“Looks like it’s just a boar, so it’s fine. It’s the humans who you gotta worry about.”
‘Humans’?
Isaiah blinks. It knows this word. It has heard it before, felt it before, known it before.
Ah. There’s a memory. It itself was a human once, right? Somewhere around the time after it had hatched from its egg?
— Or was that the other way around?
Either way. It vaguely remembers and it vaguely knows what they are. But that doesn’t help against the boar.
“- So, you have to defend your dungeon.”
'Defend'?
Isaiah lifts its arms. “POOK-POOK-POOK!”
“Will you stop chirping?!” barks the red-uthra. It flies up and lifts Isaiah’s hand, showing it its own taloned fingers. “Look, either you go and kill it, or you get your monsters to do it. But it isn’t going to leave by itself and I can’t keep working while it’s messing everything up.”
‘Kill’?
Isaiah blinks.
It also remembers killing. It had killed a worm once. Now that worm will never see the beautiful spring that has come.
What an odd thought.
Oh well.
Isaiah points at the boar. “Kill.”
The red-uthra rises into the air. “Fine. But we’re not fighters, we’re workers,” it says. “You need to get stronger monsters to defend the place soon.” It whistles and four heads pop out of various trees and bushes. “Let’s go, people.”
The five uthra fly out of the bushes and zoom straight towards the boar, which is eating its fill of their food. Their bodies shift away from the humanoid shapes, which they have taken, back into the smaller spheres of light as which they had arrived into this world as. They begin to pelt themselves against the boar.
The feral animal cries out, rearing back and lashing out at them with its tusks.
(Feral Spineback Boar) has taken {5} damage from (Uthra) HP: 15/20
As it lashes out, the blue one, unable to change its arc of flight, flies right through the sharp spines on its back and is cut in half.
It screams as its legs fly one way and its torso the other and then it is quiet.
Floor one - Monsters Remaining: 04
Isaiah blinks.
~ [Isaiah] ~ (Isaiah) used: [Minor Heal] on (Uthra {Blue})
Cost: {4} SOUL
Failure: Target is dead.
SOUL: 01/12
The remaining four uthra make their next assault, hammering away against its body as if they were stones being violently thrown by a forceful hand.
(Feral Spineback Boar) has taken {4} damage from (Uthra) HP: 11/20
They don’t seem to be able to get away quick enough and the pink one is snatched out of the air by the boar and screams as it is violently crunched between its yellow teeth.
Floor one - Monsters Remaining: 03
Isaiah winces. This isn’t going well.
The last three, the red, purple and the yellow ones, make their next assault, not too bothered by the horrific deaths of their comrades.
(Feral Spineback Boar) has taken {3} damage from (Uthra) HP: 08/20
The boar lashes out and misses, all of them managing to avoid its counter-attack and then return for one more hit.
(Feral Spineback Boar) has taken {3} damage from (Uthra) HP: 05/20
They misjudge however and the purple uthra crashes, recoiling from the impact of its attack and it is quickly stomped into a broken, dead mess. The yellow one is impaled on the jagged tusk of the creature and just hangs there, limply.
The red one flies back up to Isaiah, leaving the fight. “- So, like I said, we’re builders, not fighters,” it says, looking over its shoulder, down at the bloodied mess below.
Floor one - Monsters Remaining: 00 FLOOR ONE - CLEARED
Isaiah stares and tilts its head.
This did not go well.
Can it just resummon the others?
~ [Isaiah] ~ Failure: Not enough SOUL SOUL: 01/12
Apparently not. It needs more soul-points. But to get more soul-points, it has to eat the very same berries that the boar is eating.
There’s only one thing left to do.
“POOK-POOK-POOK!”
The boar is not impressed with its chirping and neither is the red-uthra, Red.
Isaiah frowns. The chirping never works. What the uthra did though, that seemed to be going… decently well. Maybe it could try that?
It flops down from its tree, using the last soul-point that it has to land on the ground, where it does not like being.
Lifting its hands, it awkwardly charges towards the animal, that is eating the bodies of the dead uthra. Isaiah lets out a hawkish squawking shriek as it strikes with its talons, digging into the soft side of the intruder.
(Feral Spineback Boar) has taken {4} damage from (Isaiah)’s talons! [Applied Status: Bleeding 2] HP: 01/20
The boar stumbles, blood pours out of its surprisingly deep wound. Isaiah’s talons scrape against its bones. It falls over onto its side, trying to get up again to make its counter-attack. But it never manages to rise upright again.
(Feral Spineback Boar) has bled out! HP: 00/20
It dies.
- [Dungeon Breached Concluded!] -
Killed Intruders: 01
Average Level: 01
Fled Intruders: 00
Killed Defenders: 04
Difficulty: Very Easy
~ [Isaiah] ~ +10 EXPERIENCE POINTS. EXP: 10/10
Level Up! ~ [Isaiah] ~
You are now a level {02} dungeon-core!
Level: 02 ↗ Experience: 0/25 Attribute: HOLY
Soul-Points: 15/15 ↗ Presence: 0.5 km Obols: 000
~ [Isaiah] ~ Please choose an ability from one of the following trees.
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- [Expansion] - Focuses on spreading the roots of your dungeon for as far as you can. The further a dungeon’s reach extends, the more resources you will be able to collect and the larger your dungeon will become.
[Tunneling] : Allows your workers to efficiently dig deep tunnels to collect basic resources, such as higher quality stones and metals in the process.
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- [Holy] -
Focuses on your core attribute and imparting as much of this essence onto your dungeon as possible. Each attribute offers its own benefits and perks.
[Hallowed Ground] : Your dungeon is a sacred place. All friendly monsters will passively regenerate SOUL and receive a +1 DMG boost to all of their physical attacks.
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- [Bastion] -
Focuses on the physical and magical defenses of your dungeon. Allows access to sturdier walls, tricks and traps and mazes and mechanisms, as well as higher level monsters to defend your floors.
[Traps] : Allows your worker minions to develop simple traps and snares in your dungeon, in order to hurt enemies before they can get too deep.