Novels2Search
Greycore
Chapter 41: Mechanical Revelation

Chapter 41: Mechanical Revelation

--------- Giant Squisher Storage Room ---------

'Notice to all zombies! If you get attacked, stop whatever you were doing before and defend yourself!' The dungeon didn't want to lose another zombie. The mana cost was annoying, and it ceased his progress in getting rid of his cramped feeling that had been going on ever since he went in the cave. Right? No... it was after he put his own core in the small room. Maybe he'd move the core again into the main tower and that would help? He'd have to do it later.

The zombie got up from its crouching position, turned around, and lunged at the woman that threw the weapon still lodged in the monster's back.

Giant got a good look at the thing in the zombie's back, seeing that it was a small knife without a handle, carved to somewhat resemble a short, flat arrow. He tried to touch the weapon out of curiosity, getting a highly desired gump.

[Resource discovered: Arrow Dagger]

[Arrow Dagger added to Research Queue]

The arrow quickly disappeared, leaving a bleeding hole in the zombie's back. It very quickly became only one of its wounds, as the husband's ignited torch, or maybe flaming club, came down on the zombie's right shoulder. The wife pushed her mother to the ground behind her, and the grandma made an exclamation.

The wife then backed up and held the gnarled stick she had forward, causing some little dangling crystals on the stick to glow white. As the gems reached their peak in brightness, what looked like an icicle with a very slight glow to it appeared out of no where and flew forward, hitting the zombie in the neck near its left jugular.

Giant Squisher's monster didn't do very well, getting knocked sideways a few times from various attacks as its own hits whiffed, and the creature was on the ground quickly. The husband and father got on top of the zombie, straddling its chest, as he brought his flaming weapon down on its head over and over, making blood, shredded flesh, bone fragments, and brain matter splatter all around the man's face and chest.

The three children were still being held by their hand-rope, who had been trying to pull backwards and get away, and were sniffling, crying, and screaming, but it didn't seem to matter to the adults. Except for the grandma, who wasn't looking at the fight, but the tiny children. She was still sitting on the ground and had a vacant expression, but Giant couldn't really tell what she was thinking.

The man got up from the dead zombie, yelled something at his kids, and pulled the rope to get them closer.

The dungeon hated these people. If they were this ferocious against his monsters, he'd have to make something much worse. Something actually useful for fighting. As it was, he only really had one room that could provide that. A room that the six people started making their way to, a majority of them by force of the others.

The mother, who was apparently the leader of the group, stood at the edge of the Frog Room's mud pit, looking at various movements in the stinky, watery earth, illuminated only by her husband's firelight. She said something that didn't sound nice, but it wasn't as if Giant could understand anything any of these people said. No one responded to the woman, and for some reason this caused her to push the old lady forward, making her fall, nearly belly-flopping on her face, right into the mud.

She got up, and started looking around frantically.

The mother started saying something else, but the dungeon only cared that it gave him an idea. 'Every frog in here, listen up! Any time someone's talking in this room, start ribbiting! Only be quiet if they're quiet!'

Whatever the woman was trying to say was quickly drowned out by the many small animals popping their heads up out of the mud, making their commanded noises and disappearing again. It looked like she tried to retort to the monsters, but it was more like she was reenacting a cartoon duck's anger, but in a silent movie while an unrelated audio track played.

Both of the married people looked even angrier, but weren't able to yell over the squelching frogs. The man jumped into the mud, and pulled the children into the pit after him, but as they were a lot smaller, they were submerged. Luckily, the dungeon thought, the man pulled them fast enough while trudging that he made it to the other side and pulled them up, albeit disrespectfully and uncomfortably.by their bound hands. The women made it across and up as well, albeit not as quickly.

The dungeon went into the Termite Room before the gelflings did, and kept looking forward into the wood piles. 'If people get abused by other people in the dungeon, then kill whoever the abuser is!', the dungeon screamed out loud silently.

The dad walked through Giant Squisher's self image, and pulled the rope with the nearly drowned-in-mud starving children into the room. There were some sounds in the room, but they couldn't be heard over the delver yelling at his kids, making them walk in a cluster in front of him. The mom and granny came into the room too, walking through the dungeon's incorporeal avatar as well.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The man sounded confused and sounded like he was asking a question.

His wife caught up to him and looked down, seeing a ratfrog in the firelight. Then a rat ran out from under a table on the side of the debris-less path, and bit the man on the leg just above his lowcut shoe. He kicked, making the almost-entirely rat off of him. The monsters that moved like frogs jumped against the man, not doing anything, and the ones that moved like rats tried to swarm him. The ones with rat mouths bit, but the ones with frog mouths didn't do anything with that body part.

'I'm going to need to make more monsters, or make you guys better, or both or something, aren't I?', Giant asked himself, disappointed with the best he could do. For the time being, at least.

The healthy-looking adults easily killed most of the monsters that attacked, though one that was almost entirely rat, except for its scales, was able to scurry up the man's leg, making him dance while his woman tried to punch the clothing invader until she finally succeeded. The man slapped the back of his neck, not seeing what had bit him, but killing it anyway.

'Any other monsters in here, don't fight anymore! You need training!'

The six people, all still dripping mud and leaving footprints on the dirt floor between the broken furniture, made their way to the other doorway. The mother asked something, sounding angry instead of scared, but maybe the anger was at least somewhat confused? Giant could only hope.

The video on the cell phone in the wall started playing, and the two zombies in the room started dancing. No one seemed to understand the obvious puzzle, instead just shoving the old lady into the room. She asked something too, or maybe just sounded really confused. The zombies didn't attack her, or anyone else, and the delvers didn't attack them either, for some reason.

The wife went into the room, looking around, not understanding what she was seeing, and mostly focused on the thwomp. Seeing it not move, and just glare hatefully at her with eyes as big as her head and an even bigger mouth, she didn't bother it either. She said something, and the party retreated back to the cave mouth, being monitored directly the entire time, without them being aware of it.

--------- Giant Squisher Storage Room ---------

'Evil assholes! I'm glad they're gone! Alright system! It's time to make something mean. Something deadly. Something that can wipe out monsters like that! What do we have?'

Giant saw the dead zombie on the ground, with all of its new injuries it wasn't spawned with. A slightly-glowing piece of icicle still stuck in its neck got the dungeon's attention. 'What's this? Add this to the queue.' He touched it, and it disappeared.

[Special Resource discovered: Magical Ice]

[Magical Ice added to Research Queue.]

'She was a mage? Wait, then that stick was a staff. It isn't a sword, but I could use that. I think? I'm going to need to... heh, that'll work.' The dungeon was mostly talking out loud to himself, but it didn't make a difference whether it was a conscious thought or a scream in his current form.

He looked at the dead zombie again, its blood spilled on the dirt in a huge puddle. 'I got the water from outside before... can I get this?' To his own eyes, he dipped his finger into the blood, though its surface was still and no space was deformed from his imaginary presence. 'Add to Research Queue.'

[Resource discovered: Blood]

[Blood added to Research Queue.]

'That worked! Duh, it should have. Right. Uh, okay then. What about sweat? Or spit? Or piss? Or puke? Shit, I don't have anywhere to put these when they're done. Queue! Show me my Research Queue!' Giant Squisher took a look at it for only half a glance. 'I need more stuff in there. Like, a lot more stuff. Expedite the arrow knife! Sorry, zombie, but I'm going to have to make use out of you in another way.'

He paced back and forth, checking the queue until the dagger research was finally complete. The dungeon started to have another thought, but stopped himself. 'I've been able to breathe just fine for awhile. What's up with that? You know what? I don't care.' He took a breath, and spawned a new zombie to replace the one he'd lost. Though, he could tell that the amount of breath he had before spawning it, and how much he had when the delvers left was different.

'You, zombie. Here, pick this up, and start cutting up that guy.' The dungeon spawned a copy of the recently acquired "arrow dagger", and it fell on the ground. The zombie picked it up and held it like a normal knife instead of a throwing weapon. 'This is what you're gonna do. Slice the arms and legs off, and get rid of the muscle and feet from the legs and put it over there. I just want the big bones from the legs. Cut open the stomach, I wanna try something. Try to figure out what's an organ, and cut it off of the other ones. I'll figure out what they are later. While we're at it, cut off some of the skin. I'm not sure my idea will work, but do it anyway. The heart and stomach should be obvious. Those I really want. Cut off the hair too, but it looks like it might not be easy since it's almost as matted as that weird dog monster's fur was. Alright, you get started with that. I need to do something else. Take your time. I don't wanna be wasteful here. When we're done with that, you're picking up where he left off.'

The dungeon went into the Research Room, and made two water fountains. 'System! When you finish the blood, put it in one of these fountains. I'll figure out another liquid for the other one later. Actually, no I won't. Just make a fountain like this whenever I do a liquid and put it in there. Whatever doesn't fit, just turn into mana.'

Giant looked around, seeing his original smartphone sitting on the ground. He took a deep breath, seeing how much breath, or mana, he actually had. He found that he had enough, and so another zombie appeared. 'You. You're going to organize stuff in here like I keep meaning to do. But first, grab my phone. Is there anything else in it that I didn't copy yet? Let's look together, shall we?' The dungeon was really just talking to himself, but it made him feel a little better even though what he was talking to was effectively a single cell in his own immune system.