Chapter 9
The Binding Ritual
Jorn sat up once the potion had run its course. Looking around he could see Gen was resting against the wall and Byron was laying near him. “Have you searched the Goblins yet?”
Gen nodded, “The club cracked when it slammed against the wall, but your father may want the wood. The other one had some Rock Moss. I can use it to make a Skin Toughening Potion.”
"I thought the bosses usually have the best items or resources." Jorn pondered aloud as he hefted the remains of the club.
"Usually, but not for a young dungeon like this. But don't worry, after I work on it a bit this place will be a real boon to the town. Speaking of. Hey, lazy bones apprentice. You should be fine by now. Ready to get to work?”
With a grunt, Byron rolled to his side and pushed himself into a sitting position. “Yeah, just a little sore. But we can get started…” Byron trailed off, his eyes flicking to Jorn and then back to gen a questioning expression on his face.
“Hmm, yes.” Gen got the gist of what Byron was getting at. “Jorn, thank you for your help. But as we discussed this next bit is private.”
“Oh, yeah, no problem… But what about the monsters, don't they come back after a while?” Jorn took several lengths of rope and tied loops around the club so he could easily carry it back to town.
“Yes but not for at least half a day. We will be back to town before any monsters threaten us I assure you,” Gen said.
Jorn nodded and made his way to the exit of the Dungeon. But called over his shoulder before he left the two Keepers, “Make sure you stay to the side in the tunnel, there is still that one trap we avoided on the way in.” And with that, he was gone.
After waiting for several minutes to make sure he was far enough away Byron asked “So why didn't these guys drop anything good?”
“Because the Dungeon doesn’t know any better. We have to teach it. But before that, we need to bond with it.” Gen got to her feet and went to the rear of the room across from the entrance and began searching.
Byron joined her “What are we looking for?”
“Anything out of the ordinary. It will form the Mind of the dungeon. The source, some physical object, and Lifeblood fused into one. It is typically hidden in the boss room in the deepest part of the dungeon complex.” Gen started feeling around the wall and after a few minutes of searching found an area on the ground with soft loamy soil. As she brushed it away she found a red almost black crystal the size of her fist. “Here!” she exclaimed.
The two began digging and eventually uncovered the skeleton of a Goblin. The crystal was sitting on a fine cord looped around its neck.
“This is the completed Mind of the dungeon. It looks like the source was the goblin’s necklace and the blood was likely the goblin's own.” Eyeing Byron Gen asked “Are you ready?
“Are you sure we shouldn't just explain this situation to the investigation committee when they get here? It seems like a reasonable explanation as to why we wouldn’t have grown our own dungeon.”
“Yeah, but where is the fun in that? We can get this dungeon whipped into shape just as fast as any we planted, and we will report it when we return the writ of dungeon creation.”
“Ok, you're the boss," Saluted Byron. "So how do we do it?”
“The original bonding techniques were fairly simple, but keepers developed the ritual to grant a deeper bond and slightly more influence over the dungeon. I'll start drawing the rune sequence and walk you through it.” As Gen poured salt on the ground in an intricate pattern as she explained further. “If we were planting a dungeon this would be the second ritual. The first would force the dungeon to grow. It is much more complicated and taxing. This ritual is the second and will bond its Mind to us.”
Gen took the crystal from the goblin’s neck and held it up shining light through it. “Can you see inside the crystal? There is some sort of precious or semi-precious stone hung on the cord. The goblin’s blood crystallized around it when the ambient mana of the area pressed down upon it.”
“That's blood? Kinda gruesome." Byron shivered as he gazed into the crystallized blood. "Also is moving that thing ok? Doesn't the dungeon need it?”
“It's fine as long as we don't try and take it from the boss room.” Gen shivered as if a chill ran up her spine. “If you do that the whole dungeon collapses in on itself. And no one is fast enough to outrun that.”
“Would that kill the dungeon?” Byron asked, obviously weary of the crystal.
“Maybe… maybe not. I've read conflicting reports with contradictory evidence... If a regular Adventurer found the Mind and tried to take it they would get crushed and quickly, not realizing what was happening. The dungeon should be able to reset and move its Mind back to its hiding spot.” Gen stared at the crystal for a moment but then snapped out of her thoughts. “But we aren't here for that. Please place the Mind in the center of the circle.”
Taking the crystal from Gen by the cord Byron gently set it down. “Ok, where do I stand?”
Gesturing to her right “We kneel here, your spot is next to me.” They both got down on their knees. “Ok place your right hand on the ground next to the rune to your right with your thumb and index finger just touching the salt and I will do the same on the left.” Gen placed her hand on the ground as she instructed Byron. "With your left hand make a fist held high above your head. Extend your index finger and pinkie upward." After they were both in position Gen continued, "There is a short incantation but only I need to say it. We will both push a small amount of mana into the rune as I finish the incantation. The last word is ‘Veladictum’ so listen for it.”
“Got it, I’m ready” Byron prepared his mind and summoned his mana to his hand prepared to push it out as he listened to Gen recite the words of power.
As Gen finished they both pushed a small amount of mana from their hands into the runes. The runes flared brightly and Byron tried to shield his eyes but his hands were stuck where he had positioned them as if held in place by a giant hand.
As the mana pushed out from his hand on the ground he felt more mana pour into his upraised arm. It cycled through him and into the runes and toward the Mind of the dungeon. The glow faded and Byron realized he could move. He lifted his hand to his face. “That was pretty bright.” He commented as he rubbed his eyes.
“Yes, I wasn't expecting it to be quite that bright.” Blinking Gen looked around. “Well, it worked!”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“What do you mean?”
“Take a look at your notifications.”
Byron sighed he hated checking them. It felt like work. But he did as his master bede him.
You have learned the skill: Dungeon Keeper. You have reached rank 1 (trained)
You have bonded to Unknown Dungeon. Dungeon Status Unlocked
Dungeon Status:
Name: ?
Type: Subterranean Forested Mountain
Creatures: Goblin, Mountain Goblin (2 variants), Dire Pheasant
Non-combat creatures: Rabbit, Deer, Squirrel, Racoon
Rooms: 3
Traps: Pit, Rolling Boulder
Drops: Caredanil, Rock Moss, Great Club
“Wow. That’s a lot to take in… but it doesn't seem like much information that we didn't already know. Why is the name blank? And I don't remember seeing any Dire pheasants except the one we dropped in.”
“As your keeper skill goes up you will get more access. The Name is something we will be able to pick later. I am pleased to see the dungeon absorbed the pheasant, shoving monsters in the door doesn't always work, but basically, Jorn taught the dungeon about them when he dropped it in. It's why I asked him how strong the pheasants are. If you concentrate on the separate entries you should be able to pull up more information.” Gen took the Mind from the circle and held it up. It now had bands of white and blue running through the red crystal. She gently placed it back around the goblin’s neck and reburied the remains. Then she stood and walked around the room to a blank area of the wall. “Come and see this.”
Gen’s words brought Byron out of his dive into the details about the dungeons' status. “It’s just a wall...” Byron said but as he approached the wall began to shimmer. A bit stunned, he course-corrected “Nevermind... What is this?”
Gen smiled with a small chuckle “Heh, What you are experiencing is Dungeon Sight, It shows you information about the dungeon you can only get while inside.” Gesturing to the wall “But this specifically we keepers refer to as The Collection.” Placing her hand on the shimmering surface the stone began to flow away and to the sides exposing three gems set about 2 feet apart. Each round gem glowed softly with an inner light. Each had glowing lines of power spreading away from them across the wall. There were two smaller gems, one was green and the other brown. The largest was Grey.
“What is this? These look like monster heart crystals.” Byron took a step forward to examine them closely.
“They are. I mentioned it before, this is the biggest secret the Keepers have, and the reason for the tongue binding ritual. The green is for the base goblins, the grey is for the Mountain variety, and the brown is for the dire pheasant. This area of a dungeon is protected almost more fiercely than the Mind itself. Without these, the dungeon couldn’t defend itself or entice any adventurers to enter its depths. Almost no loot could be dropped either.”
“But everyone knows about monster crystals. They are highly coveted by crafters and mages. They are even sometimes seen as drops in dungeons.”
“Yes but this is a secret use and a secret source that we keepers have. I am sure other professions have special uses for them but if people knew they were here, just out of sight in all the dungeons of the world… they would be stripped by power-hungry nobles or madmen. Some dungeons, the older ones, have hundreds of monster crystals in their collections. They are extremely rare to find as a drop in a dungeon and only slightly more common when natural monsters are slain. If we sold these three, weak creatures mind you, we could live comfortably for a year. Every new dungeon will get two or three to start. As they age they may generate more based on what they experience. You can also get lucky and feed a monster to a dungeon and it may retain the pattern. That’s doable but dangerous because you have to catch natural monsters and kill them in the dungeon. Or you can buy more crystals and manually install them. Some keepers will occasionally trade crystals, but never with outsiders. A keeper even caught carrying a monster crystal around is usually questioned harshly by the council.”
Byron took a step back now weary of even being near the crystals. “Ok… The crystals you bought, are you going to install them now?”
Gen shook her head, “No, not yet. A new dungeon with too much variety in mobs would be highly irregular. Irregular dungeons get people killed, and an irregular dungeon will be frowned upon by the guild. I was going to put one more in, but with the dire pheasant, I need to wait. I wouldn't want to add more than one new monster per month. That is including any monsters the dungeon develops on its own. I might be able to squeeze a low-level monster in…”
Byron nodded, “I also noticed deeper into the status of the dungeon. Non-combat creatures, no crystals for the rabbit or deer? And it only has 3 drops. Is that normal?”
Gen gestured at the wall covering the collection. “Excellent questions. We aren’t sure why but dungeons will be able to create food for their mobs, small wild animals are usually what they can do, but this one must have been feeding on wild animals for years learning their patterns. But drops, that is going to be our next step.”
Gen pulled out her pouch of coins. “We have to teach the dungeon what money is and which is the most valuable.” She plucked several coins from her pouch and set them on the ground. “This part can get expensive…” she slowly arranged the coins into piles. 10 iron Rolls sat with 1 copper Wheel, 10 copper Wheels sat with 1 silver Ox, 10 Silver Ox sat with 1 gold Eagle. Each coin had the image of its namesake stamped onto one side of the coin with the kingdom's crest on the other. It used to be you could buy a roll of bread for 1 iron coin or an ox for a silver. But that was Long ago.
“What no platinum Crowns?” Byron said sarcastically.
“I wasn't done.” She said as she pulled a separate purse from her bag. And set 1 Platinum Crown next to 10 Gold Eagles. This should be enough for the dungeon to get the idea. Hopefully, we won't have to repeat this too often to reinforce the information. But for now, it should understand that Rolls and Wheels are the most common and shouldn't waste too much energy making the other denominations till it has more power.”
“They are all the same size. Does it really cost more energy to make silver?”
“That is the prevailing theory, we can only guess but mages seem to think the value on coins is set magically either by divine intervention or by a collective belief of the masses. We treat gold and silver as more precious so it inherently becomes so to the world, that or… it always had an innate magical value and the intelligent races subconsciously feel its value. In either case, the dungeon will spend more energy creating 1 gold than it will on 5 silver so it will naturally want to drop more coins rather than individual more valuable ones. But we want to teach it the exchange rate the intelligent races expect to see.”
“Ok so we teach it commerce, what else can we do to strengthen it?”
“Have a seat.” Gen patted the ground and pulled a small wooden puzzle box toy from her bag. Handing it to Byron, she said. “The Dungeon watches everything we do. Solve this puzzle.”
“You're kidding…” Byron took the puzzle toy.
“Watching us solve puzzles and listening to us discuss complex topics trains the dungeon's Mind. It gets smarter and grows. Just spending time in the dungeon gives it power. Adventurers doing things in the dungeon generate activity points that the dungeon can spend to improve itself. That is its primary source of experience. But just like our skills can improve independently of our level, a dungeon needs things to learn as well. We will leave the money so it can learn to reproduce it.
As Gen spoke Byron was working on the puzzle box. It was a tough one, it even had a false solution path that would allow you to see what is inside but not get it out. It took Byron over 2 hours to solve and he had to stop and rest his hands several times. But when he finally opened the box he got his reward.
Byron has persevered in solving the complex puzzle box Intelligence increased by 1.
Milestone: Byron has practiced fine motor control with his hands for 25/25 hours Dexterity increased by 1. Next Milestone Unlocked: Practice fine motor control for 100 hours. Reward +1 Dexterity, Current Progress 25/100.
Byron pulled out the prize inside the box. “What is this?” He asked, holding up a small cloth bag.
“That is the prize for the dungeon. Open it up and place the contents on the ground.”
“I did all the work and the dungeon gets the prize?” Byron said ruefully.
“I want the dungeon to know that watching us is important, so although there isn't anything else to watch they get a reward for paying attention.”
With a sigh, Byron opened the pouch and pulled out 3 small herbs. “What are these?”
“Stronger and more rare herbs. The first is Koric bark, a better healing herb than Caredanil leaves though it can’t be used raw. The second is Mage Root, the basic ingredient in Mana potions. And the last is Ironbark shavings, a necessary component in Stamina potions.” Gen stood up and dusted herself off. “Lay those on the ground for the dungeon to consume. Speaking of, we should head back to town for dinner.”
“We can’t watch?”
“Some quirk about dungeons, they can't or won’t absorb anything near people in the dungeon.”
"Can't or won't?"
"Certain things don't happen in dungeons. New monsters don't show up, the layout doesn't change and items won't disappear while people are near. Monster corpses are the only exception to that. We believe this because it hasn't ever been recorded. But just because it hasn't happened doesn't necessarily mean it can't happen. At least that's what I believe."
As the pair walked out of the boss room chatting about the nuances and intricacies of dungeons the herbs and coins vanished.