Chapter 3
There are a total of 12 dead bodies lying in front of me, definitely too much to absorb in one go. With a quick look in my status, I see that I have only 2 mana left which means 4 mana for the chainmail armor. So I am going to absorb the bodies one after the other, and expand my territory with each one of them.
with only 10 mana I was able to add about 25m² to my territory so with this much to absorb I will really have some growth and may be able to get my mana pool higher somehow…
…
About 10 minutes later I have absorbed the first 6 bodies and made some area extension. I got 15 mana for each person so 90 mana + the 2 remaining mana from before. It seems to be the case that every unit of mana I use for expanding my territory results in 2,5m² of new territory, which means with my newly invested 92 mana I got a whole 230 m² so now I have a perception range of 280m² in form of a radius around my core.
In this newly acquired area I find a few interesting things, which are of course tombs,skeletons and more bushes and thorns, but also a few interesting shiny things, and even with the bigger radius I am not able to get anywhere close to the town, so no getting dead people by myself…
Before I absorb the remaining 6 people, I clear the bushes near the area I’ve already cleared, which gives me a total 18 mana.
Because I think size is not everything, and in Afghanistan we have been honouring our deaths I want to make their resting place a bit nicer, so some flowers, maybe restoring nearby standing broken tombs this kind of thing, so concentrate…
What kind of flowers do you want to grow ? red helast the red helast flower can be used for healing purposes only blue manos the blue manos can be used for mana regenerating purposes only violet rasha the scent of the violet rasha flower makes you feel happy, but has no other purposes
I seem to be able to choose from these 3 flowers, but to be honest, why should I choose? flowers look the nicest when they grow between differently coloured flowers, so let’s try and concentrate on all 3 of them…
Ohh nice flowers, before my imaginary eyes (I’m a Dungeon core remember?) the flowers come sprouting from the earth, and are now filling the places between the graves.
They might have grown a bit too quickly to make me believe that they are normal flowers, but might be my magic, right?
From the 18 mana I had from the thorns, this cost me only 6 mana, so I use the remaining 12 mana to repair the tombstones in the nearby vicinity.
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So back to absorbing, 6 boys remaining which means a lot of area increase …
After absorbing 4 bodys and making the gained mana into dungeon territory something strange happen
You have gained a new skill through absorbing an mason Masonry your buildings can be build much bigger, and are sturdier
So with absorbing someone with a special skill, I gain the skill? So I just need to absorb as many educated beings as possible right? No, better not, I don’t know if there are any strong guys out there, and hey that was not something I as an Afghan boy would think, must be these ‘evil aspects’ the stupid goddess added to ‘my soul’. I really must be careful with the things I do…
After absorbing the last guy and expanding my territory with the gained mana I have a total of about 510m² dungeon territory, my vision has really expanded.
So what to do now? Until the guys with some new dead bodies return, it’s still some time…
I’m know absorbing the remaining bushes and thorns in the area, and mostly on the places near the way. Making the whole area look cleaner, and at the same time easier to traverse. Because of this the guys should have it easier with their carriage full of new mana, ehh dead bodys of course, poor people...well somehow I’m happy that there is this kind of disease.
So with the first 18 mana I absorbed I made the road, or should I better say path more easy to walk on, so putting gravel on top, making some gutters on the side of the path who are leading in the earth all 10 meters, so something like a gully. That cost me a whopping 15 mana, and of course that was only the way till the end of my territory.
I want more people at this place, I want them to come here and help me, so I need to make it more comfortable to live here.
Back to absorbing the last remaining thorns and bushes… with the gained mana I restore the tombs, and grow some more flowers, then fill the smaller paths that are all over the graveyard with gravel, because they are leading to the bigger path, I make it so they bring the rain water -if there comes some- to the main path.
Finally the soldier and his helpers come back, with a new carriage of dead bodies, faster this time…
At the moment they see the changes, the gawk in awe even if there is still not much grass on the ground, so you see much brown between the flowers,tombs and paths.
The soldier seems to be the first one to recover and comes to my core followed by the other guys -who haven’t really seen me before- and kneels before me.
“My lord, we have brought the requested dead bodies, do you have any further orders?”
“Yes, bring me every dead person in this town, so I can use their energy to help the remaining ones.” I say, somehow I really like this kinda ‘Lord play’.
“As you wish my lord” the guard says and stands up, to move out of the chapel, but gets stopped by the other guys, who are eying me curiously.
“What is this, Gerad ?” one of the man asks the guard, to which he answers “this guys is the Dungeon Core of the Royal tomb, the one whom I swore my allegiance to.” With this he bows to me an leaves the room.
The remaining man are dumbstruck, till the one who asked Gerad the question comes up to me and says “ I don’t know who you are, but I have never seen the graveyard as beautiful as now, as a man who honours the dead, and now can see some hope for the future, I want to swear my allegiance to you like Gerad did” he finish and drops to one knee, followed by his 5 companions who repeat his swear of allegiance.
Troubling things, but I have to see the good sides, some new servants for my dungeon.
“I’m glad that people like you live in this area, serve me and obey me, then I will protect and feed you.” with that I absorb the first of the dead bodies on the carriage and make the first of these guys the ‘standard armor and sword’ like the ones Gerad is wearing.
“wear these and do your duties” I command them.
““As you wish my lord”” answer the man in one voice, take their new equipment and after a last bow leave to room to put the remaining 9 dead bodies on the ground.
I absorb them body after body and use the gained mana to further expand my territory. Sadly I do not get any skills...
With this last expansion I have now the ‘ownership’ of the entry to the churchyard, sadly not the complete path to the gate because of some curves in the path, but that wouldn’t take this much longer with now 7 servants bringing dead bodies to my place.