Rin entered the first monster chamber of the earth dungeon. Its walls of compacted dirt had a cloying scent that reminded him of rotting leaves. This dungeon was evidently of the mundane variety, just like the beginner dungeon Rin had explored before. Its low level meant it didn’t have enough ambient mana to teleport him to a different realm to battle titanic monsters with god-like abilities. Instead, it was based on the area’s natural geography, consisting of an underground network of earthen rooms.
The corners of the current room were steeped in shadow, causing Rin to raise Craven’s torch high. Then he remembered his collar and flared it bright, illuminating every inch of the dirty room and the five curious monsters within.
They were little more than great balls of dirt, as tall as his waist and rolling up to him as he entered, nudging him gently as if questing for food.
Level 15 Dirt Ball (Earth Type)
Oh, I forgot this dungeon is only level 15. That should make this easier.
The boy lifted a hand and gently patted one of the monsters. “Ooze a good boy? You’re a good boy, arnch you?”
You have charmed a Level 15 Dirt Ball (Earth Type)
Duration: 20 minutes
Twenty minutes! That’s the longest duration yet. My 30 Charisma points are totally gonna carry me here.
Rin made sure to charm all five monsters, just in case there was some secret reward for things like that, and looked around for clues. It didn’t take long to spot a section of the wall hanging slightly askew in the exact size and shape of the Dirt Ball monsters. It took several minutes of coaxing to get one of the creatures to ram the wall. When it finally understood what Rin wanted, it flung itself at the suspicious spot with far greater force than he expected.
I bet that’s how they attack. They probably have a Charge ability like the trundlers.
The wall exploded in a cloud of dust, revealing a circular tunnel the perfect size for a Dirt Ball. A howling wind poured from its entrance, blasting him with so much grit he had to step aside with his hands raised.
The monster that had performed the deed rolled to his side, oblivious to the gale in its face. It inspected the hole with interest before excitedly jumping up and down, its hefty body slamming into the ground and expelling more dust.
Rin clambered inside the tunnel and made it four feet before being blasted back out by the overwhelming wind, the blue torch flapping wildly.
Ugh. I’m going to have to do this as a ball of dirt, aren’t I? But where can I put the torch?
The boy extricated himself from the howling tunnel, then carefully prodded the butt of the torch down into the top of the nearest Dirt Ball. The torch’s metal tip sank deep, wedged securely in the monster’s earthen body. The creature didn’t seem fazed in the least.
Giving a helpless shrug, Rin dropped his monster pack and transformed. From all his practice with the stick devil, he was ready for the bewildering disorientation of the new monster and overcame it swiftly, rolling about the room for a few laps to get his bearings. As he suspected, the effect of the battering wind was practically non-existent in this form. He couldn’t wait to use this monster in a wind dungeon on his travels. A glance at his status sheet confirmed he’d gained modest boosts to physical attributes, nothing new or noteworthy, but under the Inherited Abilities section was a line that gave him pause.
Inherited Abilities:
Charge: Grade F
Encase: Grade F
Encase? What kind of ability is that?
He activated it, and his body became a hollow sphere of the same size, only with a more compacted shell around its outer rim.
What a strange ability. What would you ever need this for?
Rin deactivated the ability, preferring the sturdiness of the monster’s solid ball form, and rolled into the tunnel. The shaft snaked around like a serpentine burrow, with unpredictable blasts of wind jetting from odd-placed holes along its walls. Rin could barely feel the blasts of air, experiencing more of a faint breeze than a whistling gale. The boy charged forward unperturbed until he was dumped in a square room beside two dungeon flowers, and he hastened to turn human so he could gulp them down.
Nice!
+1 Charisma
+1 Charisma
The Mountain’s Footstool: 2/20 flowers acquired
He was about to retrace his steps when he spied a triangular iron grill covering the room’s upper corner where the ceiling met the walls. Inside the grill was a basket of coal.
Dammit. I’m going to need that torch after all.
He rolled back to the chamber as a Dirt Ball, reverted to human form, and plucked Craven’s Torch from the awaiting monster.
But how can I possibly do this?
His new ability, Encase, provided the answer. When he transmuted into the monster this time, the torch he’d been carrying was helpfully wedged in his surface, holding it steady. He triggered Encase, and his protective shell wrapped around the torch, where it burned pleasantly all the way back to the secret chamber. When the coal inside the corner grill ignited, Craven’s Torch flickered out, its job done. An instant later, the wall rose with a deafening grind that shook the floor.
Come on, let there be an epic treasure chest!
Secret Treasure Chest
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The craftsmanship of the chest wasn’t quite epic quality, but his heart pounded just the same. Inside he found a small black bag containing ten gold coins. The boy’s jaw hit the ground.
TEN gold?
It was more wealth than he’d ever seen; more than anyone he knew possessed. In his parent’s stories, they’d regaled their adventures in great detail, including the rewards. As far as he knew, they’d never encountered this much gold in a dungeon, let alone a single treasure chest.
He placed the bag of gold on the ground, returned to monster form, and rolled over it while triggering Encase. The ability worked like a treat, and he wheeled his way back to the room containing the other Dirt Balls. His hoard of gold went into his patiently waiting Monster Pack, and he pressed onward.
The next dungeon chamber contained several level 16 Mud Monsters. They smelled like rotting offal and looked just as gross. He charmed them effortlessly, then transformed into one, finding that becoming the monster was even more unsavory. Simply moving around as the thing created a slurping, sucking sensation that made him want to vomit.
Nevertheless, he found three more dungeon flowers at the bottom of the mud pit. He put off eating them, not having an effective way of rinsing off the rancid mud, and instead tucked them into a newly imagined side pocket of his monster pack. He almost went so far as to create the pocket lined with a special dirt-repelling material, but it was easier to dismiss and reconjure the pocket entirely rather than striving to keep it clean.
The following chamber contained an impressive river of moving earth, rushing left to right and down across the room’s sloped floor. The river must have been powered by magic because it seemed a physical impossibility. It swept by with crashing waves of dirt that behaved more like a liquid than a solid. Unlike the previous cavern, this form of earth wasn’t mud but a sandy, loamy soil that undulated in waves as it moved. And it was unending—Rin didn’t know its source, but he watched for several minutes, and the river didn’t slow or diminish.
An earth-type fish startled the boy, leaping from the river and diving back down, throwing a splash of the sandy soil in a wide radius. Rin charmed one without hesitation, a level 17 Fangfish, then plumbed the river’s depths as the monster. Three dungeon flowers lurked along the river’s floor, which he plucked free with his fanged teeth and fetched to the surface. The flowers went into his pack, tucked by the others in their dedicated pocket.
His newly acquired fish form wasn’t strong enough to carry his pack, so he changed into the level 32 Scout of the Undead to ferry it across the rushing river, then reverted to human form to continue exploring.
The following chambers contained an assortment of earthen monsters, from four-foot grubs burrowing in the walls to something called a Bog Squirrel that jetted about with hyper-fast dexterity. Each chamber contained one or two flowers, sometimes hidden in obscure places, other times only appearing when all the room’s monsters were charmed. It was nothing too challenging, and he started recognizing a pattern to the secrets. He could almost anticipate where flowers would materialize from the first moment he entered a room.
He enjoyed discovering new monsters, too. It was far more exciting knowing each one he Charmed would be added to his list. One elite type called a level 25 Dungeon Digger resembled an oversized mole. It was his favorite monster of the dungeon so far, with an ability to dig impressive craters with a few quick swipes of its massive paws.
The chamber with the Dungeon Digger also hosted a water source, a burbling creek that flanked one side of the room before disappearing into the wall. The water was a welcome relief—he could finally rinse the mud from the dungeon flowers and scarf them down. Any grit remaining on the flowers was almost a welcome distraction from their usual bitterness.
+1 Charisma
+1 Charisma
…
The Mountain’s Footstool: 18/20 flowers acquired
Nice!
He refilled his water skin and checked his supplies, preparing for the worst before setting off into the chamber’s exit tunnel. None of the monsters so far had given him any trouble because of his high Charisma, and none had exhibited the inflated levels typically associated with a dungeon break. He’d yet to meet the Dirt Stomper in his explorations and wondered if it still terrorized the nearby forest.
I should be nearing the boss room soon.
Confirming the boy’s guess, the enclosed passageway opened up into a grand sweeping cavern, hundreds of feet wide and long, littered with oddly placed mounds of compacted dirt. On the cavern’s far side was an exit in the form of a dark passageway.
Rin entered stealthily but couldn’t find a single creature within, even after double-checking with the raven’s Life Detect ability. He swooped around the chamber, memorizing its layout before eventually settling on one of the earthen mounds and returning to human form.
Time to lay a trap.
He hid his monster pack behind a boulder and turned to the swatch book, skipping straight to the water types. There, he found a fabric called Rainmaker’s Friend, a material made from lotus blossoms that converted raw mana into water. According to the description, the conversion rate wasn’t nearly as efficient as the typical water spells mages employed, though it had some creative applications in desert zones.
Rin stared at the small square sample for several seconds.
Dang, I wish I’d found this earlier. I can make a waterskin from this stuff and never be thirsty again.
He shook the idea off for later experimentation and changed into the undead raven once more, ascending to a narrow cleft high on the wall above the room’s exit and where the Dirt Stomper should enter. There wasn’t enough room for him to use his new Dungeon Digger form, so he struck his talons repeatedly into the compacted dirt wall, digging as best he could. Before long, there was a ledge large enough for his turtletan form to nestle into. He tested it immediately.
I was wondering when I’d be able to use this monster.
The camouflage of the turtletan’s shell appeared to work, mottling with various brown hues to match the surrounding wall. The best part was that Rin could see clearly through the turtletan’s barrier. The thin carapace was more like a transparent netting when viewed from the inside looking out. The monster didn’t even have any other abilities. The natural camouflage was simply part of its natural makeup.
Neat.
With the turtletan hideout created, he returned to the ground and transformed into the level 25 Dungeon Digger. He activated its Dig ability to excavate an enormous hole, fifty feet wide and twenty deep. He then returned to raven form—his monster with the greatest mana pool—and imagined an enormous cloak made from the Rainmaker’s Friend material covering every inch of the hole. Over the next hour, he emptied his mana pool into the cloak’s material several times, generating enough water for a shallow pool to gather at the bottom of the hole. This was the riskiest part of his plan because the Dirt Stomper could return at any minute and his trap would still be incomplete. When the pool was filled to his satisfaction, he breathed a sigh of relief.
His least favorite part of the plan came next. Rin became the level 16 Mud Monster and spent several minutes slathering a slick coating of mud all over the cloak. After some additional concentration, he reimagined the cloak to be made from Thorn Fish scales, keeping the concept of a garment firmly established in his mind so it wouldn’t dematerialize.
His hard work resulted in a pit trap targeted at earth-type monsters. The idea was that the Dirt Stomper would slip into it, unable to escape and injure itself over time on the Thorn Fish material.
I only hope it works.
His trap set, he changed into raven shape, flew to his hiding spot above the exit, and waited in turtletan form.
Now, all I have to do is sit back and wait.
It was a good time to check over all the new monsters he’d added to his list of available creatures.
Secret Ability: Craven’s Transmutation: Grade F
Available Creatures:
Level 4 Ratback (Stone Type)
Level 4 Lesser Cave Wriggler (Stone Type)
Level 5 Greater Cave Wriggler (Stone Type)
Level 5 Quad Bat (Stone Type)
Level 6 Turtletan (Stone Type)
Level 7 Lemur (Stone Type)
Level 11 Lesser Trundler (Water Type)
Level 15 Dirt Ball (Earth Type)
Level 16 Mud Monster (Earth Type)
Level 17 Fangfish (Earth Type)
Level 20 Wall Grub (Earth Type)
Level 22 Bog Squirrel (Earth Type)
Level 24 Whirling Stick Devil (Wood Type)
Level 25 Dungeon Digger (Earth Type)
Level 32 Scout of the Undead (Death Type)
Damn, the list is getting big!
Right on time, the thunderous echo of stomps filled the cavern.