My avatar sat at the dungeon's entrance. The surface entrance. Being around other people, after having spent so long alone… To say it was overwhelming would be an understatement. I couldn’t have that. I needed to reign back my control. Meditate for a while, in a sense.
God, I wish I could sleep.
After a few days of this ‘meditation’ though, I’d finally decided I’d had enough. My boredom was finally starting to overpower the other feelings I had. I knew it had been a few days too, thanks to finally being able to see the difference between daytime and nighttime.
Time. What a novel concept.
The cardinal’s shadow appeared at the entrance of my dungeon every day at the same time. He’d stand there for a few hours, and then leave. Probably waiting to speak to me in some respect. I had to admit, I was starting to warm up to the prospect of just talking things out. That caused me a bit of a conundrum though.
See, in dreams I had a character to play. The hero, mostly, but also the innocent bystander, or the sidekick, or the thief, or the grunt, or whatever role the scenario had laid out for me. And unless I was feeling otherwise, I generally enjoyed playing along with whatever storyline my brain had cooked up for me at that moment.
In this world, my role was to be a dungeon. Now, I made an exception for Setterton, but typically a dungeon is supposed to kill things. Humans, if I could help it. That meant that I couldn’t just befriend every human I saw, but I also couldn’t upset my humans by indiscriminately slaughtering others. So I needed an antagonist if I was to properly fulfill my role. In this scenario, I’d chosen the church. A good, proper choice, given the way the scenario had developed.
However, circumstances had changed. My personal feelings had dulled. I’d spent longer in the dungeon space chasing Mercy than I had in this world as a whole. So the question arose: Did I remain loyal to the character I’d decided upon? Or did I betray it and open up talks with the church?
Despite the long time away, I still remembered the cardinal's words. Maybe not verbatim, but at least the gist of it. Something about meeting their God.
I had a few thoughts about that. Taking into consideration the fact that the outdoors was a dungeon, I could take it to mean that they’d found evidence for a deity on the surface, and that that deity was male, in some respect. At the very least, it wasn’t their Goddess. Secondly, they could have found a new source of worship, obviously centered around dungeons, judging by how they were treating me.
Or they could all just be quacks.
I considered my options, eventually coming to one that satisfied me. I could do something that encouraged the church to talk with me, without breaking character.
I marshaled the troops of the upper caves.
It was midday, meaning cardinal Garroway was standing at the entrance of my cave. Sounds of casual conversation drifted my way as the knights surrounding the cave talked with each other, and occasionally Garroway himself. To them, being face to face with my dungeon meant nothing. They felt no threat from me. No impending doom like they should. I was a dungeon for fuck’s sake! That needed to change.
Sounds of claws and flat feet slapped their way up from my depths. Garroway called for reverent silence, ordering the knights to specific positions. Others ran around the camp on the surface, passing messages along.
A glowing light swayed in time with the heaviest footsteps. It emerged from the darkness into daylight, revealing a ghostly translucent white bulb at the end of a dark blue stem. The stem led back into the darkness, but what it was attached to didn’t reveal itself first. Instead, what came out first was a jagged set of toothy jaws. Hundreds of needle-like teeth, inches long each. Then the rest of the head. A fishy demeanor, bulging eyes that narrowed to slits in the daylight. The massive muscled body that followed placed a hand on the wall, bracing it as it stood upright after having to practically crawl through the low areas of the cave. The stone cracked under its grip.
Behind it emerged dozens of smaller, but similar looking creatures. Humanoids, mostly, with slight variations between them. Extra arms, legs, and in one case, an extra head. One fish creature crawled horizontally, with hands instead of feet. More prowled around on clawed feet, growling like dogs at the sight of humans. Several centaur-esque creatures mixed within the group.
The largest humanoid, the pack leader, stood upright just at the entrance of my cave, standing eye to eye, matching Garroway on the other side. Most of the fish creatures stood behind him, forming a solid wall between my invisible avatar and the outside world.
Smaller creatures followed. The mimic crabs and some of the lesser evolved that I couldn’t trust on the surface. They snuck past the backs of the greater evolved, heading down the other branch of the upper caves. It’d been a while since they were cleared, and I wanted the cores the dungeons could provide me.
The greater evolved were not intelligent. Not nearly as much as the ones that interacted with the humans down in the cavern. So even when I asked for details about what they could see about the surface, they came to me murky. Dozens of perspectives simultaneously provided a general idea of what was going on, but not every detail. I knew the other cardinals were gathering around Garroway, but not exactly how. I knew there were knights surrounding the cave in a half circle, but not how many, or how well armed they were. I knew nothing about their body language, expressions, or anything like that.
Garroway spoke to the leader fish. Angler, I’d call him. He spoke of greetings, and general praise that I had so many wonderful thralls. I hardly listened to the empty platitudes. That wasn’t why I was here.
Once the adventurer parties had left for the other half of the caves, Angler took a step outside the dungeon, much to the surprise of the humans. He placed a hand on Garroway’s shoulder, shoving him out of the way. Angler was king of the pond, and he would not respond to someone lesser than him.
The monsters behind him followed suit, calmly walking out of the dungeon. The knights readied themselves, but Garroway stopped them. The fish monsters weren’t violent, so clearly I wanted something.
And it was true. I did want something.
The camp outside was enclosed, but even so I was informed about a number of creatures other than humans inside. Horses for riding, a small mess of chickens, and in one case, a slaughtered boar, halfway through the process of being butchered.
Angler gave the command.
The fish monsters gargled out their cries of excitement. They darted through the knights, startling many of them. Garroway and the other priests shouted commands, but Angler didn’t bother with them. His soldiers ran up to the animals within the walls, tearing through whatever structures were in their way as they did so. A large pile of them found food and gorged themselves on it, creating a mess as plates and bowls were up turned and scattered.
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The chickens were taken first. Alive. The fish monsters collected them in their hands, one or two each before they retreated back into the dungeon. The horses put up a fight, so in many cases, my monsters had to fight them, either knocking them out or just injuring them past the point where they were useful. Three of my monsters died in the attempt, and a few more were injured, but they managed to claim all five horses in the end. Several bodies were used to drag the horses past the parting humans. The corpses of the fallen monsters were picked up and equally brought back to the dungeon.
Angler stood at the center of all the chaos, daring the humans to make a move. None ever did.
With half of his forces now safely back in the dungeon, Angler commanded the others to gather at the gate out at the front of the camp. He moved to join them, when a hand held him back. Angler hissed, throwing off the hand and facing his challenger. Garroway, of course.
“We can’t allow you to leave.”
Angler hissed again, getting ready for a fight. His subjects did the same, startling the knights closest to them.
Garroway backed off, raising his hands. “There are civilians outside those walls.” He explained. “Everyone within these walls know about the true situation of things, but we’re not able to keep ourselves fed and housed just by ourselves. Blacksmiths, butchers, and other humans are outside, occupying the town. We can’t let you be seen by them, otherwise we’re going to have to do something we’re both going to regret.”
Angler hissed again, but internally, I heard his actual thoughts. Nobody commands the King! Nobody restricts Lucid!
Back off. I told Angler. Garroway’s words were unfortunately true. I couldn’t just send out monsters. That’d raise suspicions. Still, that didn’t mean I didn’t want to piss off the church.
I gave Angler a new command, and he passed it on to his subjects. The fish monsters hissed and gargled with glee, running around the camp chaotically once more. The knights stuck in groups, ready to fight but holding back at Garroway’s command. The monsters clambered all over the open spaces, collecting any item that caught their interest, namely anything shiny and unattended.
Weapons, armor, cutlery, anything they could get their hands on. A few of the bolder ones tackled some knights, taking off their helmets directly, just to piss them off. I approved.
Angler stalked back to my dungeon, taking nothing for himself. A King does not move unless he needs to. He commands. Just as Angler reached the entrance to my dungeon, the last of the monsters had made it in, scurrying down into the depths of my dungeon.
I directed mana towards two chosen individuals down in the cavern, Arianna and Tyler. The two older members of the Dungeon Rats. Today, they would grow their wings. Maybe then Damian would stop complaining about ferrying people up and down. They, along with the bombardier bats, would carry the stolen supplies and creatures down into the lower caverns for later use.
Angler turned around in the entrance, the only monster remaining in sight of the surface. He crossed his arms, glaring at Garroway.
Garroway mirrored Angler, confused, angry, and probably a little surprised by the sudden flurry of activity. He stumbled over the beginning of his words, trying to decide what would best be said first.
“Shpeak.” Angler commanded.
If a fish could blush, he probably would. I could tell he wasn’t proud of his ability to speak ‘human’.
Garroway straightened up. “This was a transaction?”
Angler nodded. We took some stuff from the surface, and now he was allowed to say his piece. However he wanted to justify my actions, I didn’t really care.
Let’s just see what he had to say.
Garroway cleared his throat. I could tell he was already running through his words in his head. He opened with the diplomatic approach. “What would you like to know?”
Angler growled. He really didn’t want to speak again.
Garroway nodded, raising his hands. “Would you like to hear about our God?”
Angler waited for my response. I nodded, and thus, so did he.
Garroway’s smile beamed. “Wonderful! But where to begin? I suppose we could start with what you already know. As you can no doubtedly feel, the outside is a dungeon!”
Angler gave no reaction. Unperturbed, Garroway continued.
“The outside world, and indeed the world itself, was once created by the Goddess. She created the animals, and she created humans. She gave them a home, on the surface, and she would protect her creations!”
He sounded like he was quoting directly from scripture. I wondered if he had said these words before in church or something. It wouldn’t surprise me.
“But with the creation of humans, came the creation of Will. And with Will came conflict. Some humans desired the things that others had, giving birth to the first Great Dungeon. Humans fought each other, and the dungeon grew in power. Eventually, the dungeon broke out onto the surface, and upon witnessing the Goddess’ splendor, hated her with every fiber of its being. It declared war upon the humans, and the humans perished.”
“Other humans worked together, and eventually, they were able to overcome the trials of the dungeon, slaying it. But it was there that they discovered more dungeons. More cores. Only by working together were they able to defeat dungeons, keeping themselves safe. Thus began the age of civilization!”
Garroway’s tone changed. He no longer quoted something. “It wasn’t enough, of course. Peace returned, and the humans found themselves wanting again. For food, shelter, precious resources. Humans waged war for any number of reasons. We’re a violent race.”
That’s life. Suffer with it. I thought.
“But then a solution was presented to us. A God Core. A dungeon so powerful that it can enthrall any human it encounters! And it’s growing more powerful by the day! All there is to do is wait, and perhaps to find more like it. Powerful dungeons, able to work with humans to properly pose a threat to the Goddess!”
I raise an eyebrow. Garroway’s tone grows ecstatic.
“The Goddess gave us life and cursed us with free will in the same breath! This will that allows us to become our own individuals while enslaving us to our desires! The Goddess is two-faced, and has cursed us humans to an eternity of war and strife! It’s all her fault that we will never know peace!”
Garroway steps into my dungeon, happily crazed. “Work with us Lucid! Work with the God Core! Help us take down the Goddess! Consume the surface and enthrall us to your will! Create peace across the human race!”
I’ve heard enough. I tell Angler. You may return to the pond. Kill anyone who follows. And on second thought, kill anyone who enters the upper caves without my permission.
Angler growls happily, turning away from Garroway. I teleport down to the cavern level with the villagers. Apparently, some things had happened in my absence.
For one, the buildings within my castle walls were basically done, only missing a roof. Without my active assistance, they couldn’t ‘glue’ the stones together to enclose the tops on. Glowing moss decorated most of the walls and floors, especially around the corners.
It seemed like my core room had become the defacto storage room for things. Many pacified dungeon cores sat scattered around the room, and stone weapons in various states of ‘intact’ laid against the walls. A path was cleared down the middle for the villagers to wander through. I passively watched a few of them walk by. A handful of them even waved to Mimi, who cradled my core in a corner of the storage room. I felt bad for her. Maybe I should do something similar to Grant for her, so she could get up and walking again.
I decided to watch her for a little longer. She looked peaceful, just holding my core. A number of her children wandered over to her, seemingly for no other reason other than to make sure she was still there. It was odd, watching normal mimic crabs, humanoids, and combat oriented evolutions and thinking of all of them as just ‘Mimi and Rab’s children’. It was a very nice thought to have, I decided.
I would do what I had to in order to ensure this dream didn’t turn into a nightmare.
Gather a council. I broadcast. All of my thralls perked up as one. It was the first time they’d heard my voice in days.
Felecia Bellamy was quick to react. Who would you like to attend?
Quite a few of them. Owyn, Damian, yourself, the human thralls, and anyone else who wishes to attend. We have a lot to talk about.