Expansion was going a little too well. Not that it was a problem. In fact, the exact opposite. I was growing bored. I relished conflict, not because I like suffering, but because it was at least more entertaining to watch. It’s partially why my dreams always had some exciting storyline going through them. I couldn’t stand routine.
I needed to do something!
Good news was, I had mana to burn! Time to decorate!
First thing first, it was time to make my core room into an actual boss room!
Mimi, Rab, you two are going to help me. Rab, I want to move the core. Right now, we’re sort of around the corner to the human entrance. I want them to enter the boss room head on! So let’s move the core alcove over to that wall. Punch a hole for me. Mimi, if you wouldn’t mind cleaning up after him?
Rab rose up out of the water, causing a vacuum to be formed beneath him. Dozens of guppies got sucked into the void he left behind. Rab crawled over to the back wall, right in the center. He held up his giant shield claw, nearly making it reach the low ceiling. When he brought it down, it crashed into the wall, carving a deep gash into the stone. Mimi crawled around him, picking up loose stones with both her human hands and crab hands. She threw them all into the rock fort that had been long forgotten.
Rab threw a number of more powerful hits, deepening the area he dug out. With his angle of attack, the alcove he dug took on a specific shape. I didn’t know the name for it, but it looked sort of like that shell shape the sydney opera house was made of. I quite liked it. Needed to be wider though. Rab happily obliged.
Faux returned then, watching the carnage taking place in the back wall.
Did you find any moss while you were out? I asked. After he gave the letter to the Baroness, I wanted him to collect some cave moss on the way back. Hopefully I could make some use out of it? I doubted it, but there wasn’t harm in trying.
Faux showed me two handfuls of different mosses. I particularly liked the carpet one, just from my experiences as a human. My lawn back home had a moss patch that took over some of the grass. It was great, because I didn’t have to mow there.
Throw it all in the second room. We’ll let it grow there and deal with it later.
Faux walked over to the other room, just tossing the moss inside randomly. He returned to the core room, still watching the mimic crabs work. I waved him over to my core, despite the fact that he couldn’t see my avatar.
C’mere. I’ve got questions, and I’m not willing to wait for you to write your answers.
Faux waded through the shallow waters. As I watched him, a thought came unbidden to me. What was he going to look like if his corpse started bloating? I didn’t want to see it. I think it’s about time we turn Faux into a proper skeleton.
Actually, before you touch my core, take off your clothes and weapons and stuff. Then take my core into the water and lay down. We’ll let the guppies pick you clean.
Less of the crawler guppies evolved further than they were before. A few dozen still only had their front arms and not much else. About the dozen fastest were able to crawl ashore to lick the dust off the ground where the cores broke. Some of them grew a second pair of legs, some grew larger, some longer, some a mix of all the above. One of the guys that didn’t grow in size actually grew a third pair of legs. I had plans for that one. The rest I would just let evolve randomly in the direction of ‘dragon’ until something interesting caught my eye.
Faux picked up my core and took the steps back into the water. He laid down on his back, letting the hundreds of guppies swarm him. He didn’t feel pain from letting the fish eat his flesh. It was definitely a good thing, as a number of the stronger ones fought their way into his various wounds.
How’s dungeon conquering going? I asked to open the conversation.
Some images replayed in my mind's eye, like a memory played as a movie. At first, Faux fumbled against a pair of dog sized rats. They clawed him up pretty good before he killed them. That was the first core he brought me. The green sphere. Interestingly, his image of the core was green the whole time. His vision wasn’t restricted like mine. Even more interestingly was the fact that he could still see at all. I hadn’t thought of it before now, but now that I knew how magic worked, was Faux able to see just because I assumed he would be able to? And by extension, my will when reanimating him gave him the ability? I asked him if he could still smell things.
Apparently not. He only had sight and hearing. No touch, taste, or smell. Possibly not by coincidence, those were the only senses I experienced when dreaming. I asked him if that was a feature of all undead, or if I influenced that in any way.
He didn’t know.
The second core, the purple shard looking thing, had five monsters. Two snakes, much larger than normal ones, one of the giant rat things, a regular bat, and a mimic crab. He found this core in a tiny pond full of half eaten fish skeletons.
Aw man, if I knew there was another mimic crab, I would have tried to convert it over to my side!
That got me thinking. At least according to my pet dungeon, normal dungeons would naturally evolve their own monsters using mana. If I assumed I could consistently overpower the will of the other dungeons to convert their monsters into my monsters, couldn’t I just farm evolved monsters? Hells, if I set up farms and let the other dungeons remain self sustaining, I could theoretically have monster producing machines! What a wonderful idea!
It would probably remain as a far away goal for now. Right now, I still needed to know more about the outside world.
Ok Faux. What’s the outside world like?
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Standard fantasy setting, it seemed. Medieval levels of technology, monarchy, a church, blah blah blah. None of that really interested me much. Faux could rattle on and on about the monarchy though, since he was a spy for the King.
Why would a King need to spy on a Baroness? Faux taught me the levels of hierarchy, since I didn’t know anything about that, and he informed me that it wasn’t the Baroness that needed spying on. It was Setterton. The fact that the Baroness acted as the town's government was simply the easiest way to spy on the town as a whole.
At first, he spied on everyone, getting to know them and their stories and such, but when he discovered that many of them were just as they seemed to be, he turned his attention to the people that caused the most waves. Namely, the Baroness.
It still didn’t answer my question though. Why was a small village like Setterton being spied on? Faux didn’t have an answer for that one. He just made reports and sent them to his handler.
Mysteries, mysteries…
Perhaps the most surprising things I learned had to do with Abby and Owyn. Apparently they weren’t newbie adventurers?! Somehow, they were the best, most experienced adventurers in Setterton! What!?
I also learned something rather unsettling. The fact that they found me when I was weak, with only my two thausens and two mimic crabs wasn’t by accident. Much like how Faux encountered low population dungeons to conquer lower down, adventurers, kids no less, would conquer young dungeons in order to claim and convert their cores for their human magic. Abby and Owyn had a cycle going such that they were able to fully clear the Setterton cave system of all its dungeons before they could grow to a point like me where we actually posed a threat.
Had I been a normal dungeon, with violent normal dungeon intentions, Setterton would no doubt have been evacuated long ago and knights would come charging in, ready to kill anything and everything I had.
Much like these five humans right now.
Wait.
“Anyone see the core?” The leader asked.
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He had a triangular hat on, with a now familiar symbol decorating the front. Various shapes, nested within one another. A hexagon, followed by a square, followed by a triangle, circle, and finally a diamond in the center. He dressed like a paladin, complete with plate armor, mace, and flowing white robes, all adorned with the symbol of the church.
“Not yet.” Said a second paladin.
“What’s with the clothes?” Asked the archer, gesturing to Faux’s discarded items. Including his weapons.
The other two stayed silent. A crossbowman, and a swordsman. All of the humans wore the church's symbol, even if their colors seemed random. Reds, greens, and blues. the archer wore yellow. Point in fact, most of their clothes seemed rather odd. There was a certain similarity between them all, not not to the point where I could call it a uniform. Still, this was interesting!
More adventurers! More friends! Welcome! I teleported before them, waving my arm extravagantly. Would you like a tour?
Faux rose up from the water, picked mostly clean of his flesh. He clenched my core in a skeletal fist, glaring with empty eyes at our new visitors. Rab and Mimi halted their construction on my alcove, now basically complete anyways. Mimi hid slightly behind Rab, rocks held in all four hands.
The non-leader paladin whistled at the sight of Faux. “It enthralled a human.”
“Not to mention the size of those crabs!” The leader practically beamed. “You think those really are mimic crabs? Wow! It must be feeding them well! How many other dungeons do you think it conquered?”
My avatar blushed. Aw, stop, you’re embarrassing me!
“They really aren’t attacking either.” Mentions the archer.
“Indeed.” The leader gets serious again. “That means we need to make the proper first impression before the others get here. It needs to know that the church means it no harm.”
Really? You’d be the first.
Faux doesn’t believe them. He walks over to my current alcove and places me up on my pedestal. After that, he returns to his cloths, though he ignores the cloth entirely, just picking up the leather straps of the belt that held his hidden throwing knives beneath his shirt when he still lived. His normal knives used to be sheathed directly into his pants, so those he just held.
I rested my chin on my hand, watching his actions with curiosity. You don’t trust the church. Why?
A large problem with questioning Faux was that he only answered what I asked. He didn’t elaborate on details I didn’t find interesting, which means apparently I missed out on some juicy details here. Did the church hold some sort of dark secret I didn’t know about?
“Small core.” The swordsman muttered. If he wasn’t in my territory, I might not have heard him. Alas, within my domain, I was God.
“Oh great dungeon! The Church of Will greets you warmly! We come bearing gifts of good will!”
A sixth human walked into my domain. A teenager, perhaps only a year younger than Abby and Owyn. She walks with her head held high, a smile on her face.
Very obviously a sacrifice.
Aw. I pouted. You’re bad guys.
Only after I had the thought did the sentence fully register.
You’re bad guys… you’re bad guys! You’re bad guys! My grin grew wildly. You’re bad guys- you’re bad guys- you’re bad guys!
This was getting interesting! They were feeding a dungeon! They were assisting a being that would normally would indiscriminately slaughter everything it encountered! I laughed maniacally.
Excellent! Every good dream needs a story! And every good story needs a villain! You shall be mine! Entertain me!
The girl wandered deeper into my dungeon. At my whim, Faux, Mimi, and Rab approached her at a walk. Her smile grew as they got closer. So too did the lead knights smile.
“Yes…” The girl whispered. “Take me! So that I may become one with the dungeon!”
Does she have any weapons? I asked, my eyes squarely focusing on the knights with a rapturous grin.
Faux patted her down, much to her confusion. Nothing. Just the scrap of cloth you see here.
Excellent.
All three of my monsters continued their advance, ignoring the sacrifice girl entirely. She whipped around, watching my monsters seemingly abandon her. Distraught, she called out to anyone who would listen.
“No! Wait! Please dungeon! Don’t ignore me! Take me!”
The lead knight raised a hand, stopping her before she could run after my monsters. His grin did not fade, despite my approaching monsters.
“The dungeon has chosen you, young one. It wishes for you to serve it as this undead does now. Will you accept its call?”
Her smile returns. “I have been chosen! Yes! I will answer its call!”
The lead knight fearlessly approached my monsters. “See, oh great dungeon? The Church of Will is your friend! If you work together with us, we can help you grow!”
The sacrifice girl fearlessly wades through my pond, trying her best to quickly reach my core.
Yeah, not happening. I wanted to be entertained. I didn’t want to die. And without my big guys protecting my core, I didn’t want to risk her somehow being a trap. With just a thought, the rear part of my perch dipped, encouraging my core to roll backwards.
It fell off the pedestal, splashing in the super shallow waters below. From there, it followed the slope I made with my escape mechanism, rolling back towards the wall where a core sized hidey-hole awaited me.
Or so I thought.
My core stopped at the entrance, too large to fit inside.
Suddenly, I panicked. Uh…
This wasn’t supposed to happen! We measured super carefully! We even gave it some room for error! What happened? Did my core grow somehow between the time I made the emergency exit and now?
“Lord Dungeon!” The sacrifice shouted in panic. She splashed up the staircase, racing after my hidden core.
I grit my teeth and grinned. This was getting exciting.
Yes! Plans SHOULD go wrong! There should always be life and death hanging in the balance! This is the story I wish to witness! Go, my minions! Kill them all!
The water erupted with activity. Crawler guppies swarmed out of the water after the sacrifice girl. Their much larger and further evolved brothers and sisters led the charge, crawling on the land faster than the lessers ever could. They chased after the girl, who had begun to kneel next to my core behind my pedestal.
Simultaneously, Faux, Mimi, and Rab began their attack. With his superior reach, Rab swept his lance arm in a wide arc. The lead knight reacted almost without changing expression, bringing his mace up to his side. Rab’s lance struck the metal, but did little damage. Still, the knockback sent the leader in the direction of the pond. Without hesitation, my monsters charged the remaining four knights.
Mimi, still atop Rab, used her rocks to distract the ranged knights while Rab engaged with the swordsman. Faux took his chances with the second paladin, deflecting the first blow before striking at his vitals. The paladin blocked it with his shoulder, lowering it to charge into Faux, creating distance.
The sacrifice girl collapsed on my core, clutching it close. She screamed in pain, and through the contact, I experienced it in the second person. I felt as if I should be feeling the pain of teeth tearing through my legs. As if I should somehow know the pain that this girl experienced as she did. Through the contact, I understood her pain. Her confusion and her pleasure and her hope that she would somehow become a part of my dungeon.
I smiled sadistically. I will take your mana, but you will not taint my dungeon with your presence.
The decision was made on a whim, and it seemed to have the desired effect. She finally began to struggle and fight back, but at this point, it was nearly too late. Most of the most vital muscles were already either destroyed or gone entirely, feeding my hungry denizens.
Faux’s life signature faded. I returned my attention to the larger fight to see that the leader had rejoined the fight, and together with the other paladin, they were overpowering Faux. All it took was another second, and the leaders mace struck downwards, carrying through Faux’s skull. His signature faded entirely, and he collapsed in a pile of bones.
Mimi screeched, opening her hatch to do so. She leapt off Rab, slamming into the leader and bringing him to the ground. Her legs wrapped around the human, pinning his arms against his body. Her clawed, crab hands went for the exposed face of the human, while her human hands struggled to maintain balance against the floor.
The other paladin raised his mace to strike at her, but Rab was faster. His shield claw slammed into the ground between them, isolating Mimi from the rest of the knights. Rab had already dispatched of the swordsman. His lance was bloodied from the tip to halfway up, where the remains of the knight hung limply.
The remaining paladin looked around, taking a glance back at the exit while the archer and crossbow user occupied Rab.
“Retreat!” He called.
Rab took advantage of the distraction, swiping wide with his lance. Although he couldn’t quite reach the ranged users, the corpse dangling on his lance could. It ragdolled, swinging its legs wide. By some miracle of luck, it clipped the crossbow man, causing him to stumble. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to make him properly fall over. The three remaining knights ran backwards for the exit of the dungeon, turning around at the last second to sprint away.
And all went quiet.
I did a mental tally. Two dead guppies. Unfortunate fatalities from the sacrifices struggling. Faux was also dead. Well, more dead than before. It hardly mattered, Mimi could replace his duties rather efficiently if I needed her to, since she had hands. She might struggle through some of the doors within the caves, but for the most part she could manage.
Injuries were also minimal, for the most part. Rab was perfectly fine, but Mimi’s carapace wasn’t as thick as his. Her shell was cracked in various places. Her human half had it the worst, with multitudes of cracks going around her arms and lower torso. I hadn’t noticed before that the human half was actually partially a shell! Cool! A thin shell, but nevertheless.
I clapped my hands once. Excellent! Clean up time everyone! Strip them of their armor and clothes, and then let's get back to work! Mimi, you should rest for a bit first. Rab, I think the alcove is a good size now, and I have an idea about extending the pond. You think we can dig a perimeter around the edge of the room?