The rest of day 2 was spent testing out her spells. [Cloying Darkness] was very simple and so rigid and limited in its effects that no amount of mental imaging or imagination could really change what the spell did. Darkness covered her hand in the shape of a claw, then launched out in a straight line, hitting wherever she aimed at. Standard ranged spell attack.
[Manipulate Earth] was a different beast entirely, which was ironic since it was the lowered leveled spell of the two. Manipulate earth was very reliant on her intent when using it, mental imaging and imagination went a lot further with it. Firstly, she would spend the ten mana points to cast it. Then, it was like having a new Skill for ten minutes. She could raise earth walls, move rocks, and do pretty much everything the spell’s description said she could. She was a little surprised to find that gesturing with her arms and hands actually made it less mentally taxing than just trying to picture whatever she wanted done.
Using manipulate earth proved especially helpful with digging out a tunnel, as she had expected. It was a little annoying having to recast it every ten minutes, and she felt silly having to verbally speak the name of the spell every time, but it was worth it, especially combined with the pickaxe. She would use manipulate earth to destabilize and weaken the rock, swing the pickaxe to break it into pieces, and then continue to use manipulate earth to move the broken up rock out of the way. By nightfall, she had already started a tunnel near the back of the cave that went a couple strides deep. She also had to re-light another torch, as the first torch she had lit had gone out.
Her [Web Weaver] spiders had continued working on the webbed wall separating the room of the cave that would become the [Spider Graveyard]. A couple of hours before noon on the third day, they finished the project.
Notice! Minimum room requirements met. [Spider Graveyard] room created.
[Spider Graveyard]
Room Level: 1 Adaptive Room
A spider graveyard is a corpse dumping-grounds for colonies of spiders that are usually made up of many mixed races of different spiders and spider-related creatures. These spider colonies are often ruled by a spider queen or broodmother of some more advanced species.
Level 1 Effects: For every 1 spider-related corpses left in the graveyard, the graveyard gains 1 [Bone Spider].
This was interesting to her for several reasons. She wasn’t entirely sure what all of the requirements for adaptive rooms were, though this one seemed to just require the room to be an enclosed room and to have multiple spider corpses. Could there only be one spider graveyard? Would any empty room with multiple spider corpses become one? Was it ‘intent’ due to her ordering the spiders to dump corpses here? She wasn’t sure.
Also, the fact that the room leveled up? That was very strange. She had never even heard of rooms being Awakened. Was the room Awakened, or was it part of her class? She didn’t have a Skill or Perk mentioning anything about it so it made little sense. Unless it was possible for perks or skills to be hidden like Status Conditions could, but she hadn’t heard of that either. All-in-all this new room was a mystery for sure, or at least the underlying mechanics were.
It also seemed exploitable. Couldn’t she just summon web weaver after web weaver, kill them, and dump them in the graveyard? These thoughts filled her mind as she walked to the newly-created room.
The outside of the room was a large, flat, silky-white wall. It was fully opaque, just like the curtains covering the entrance to the cave, but probably flimsy enough that anyone could cut through with a sword. There was a single round opening that served as the door to the room a couple of feet off of the floor. A human could step over it and into the opening, though for her it took a little bit of climbing over. Inside was… boring. It still looked like a cave room, with four smashed-up and curled-up [Web Weaver] corpses just sitting on the ground in the center. Though she did notice the four newly-created [Bone Spiders] skittering around the room of their own volition.
[Bone Spider]
Level 1 Undead Monster
A spider-shaped undead construct built out of a mix of various bones from small creatures. Extremely fragile but immune to spells that turn undead.
They were incredibly small and basically useless from what she could tell, even weaker than the [Web Weavers], even though they had levels and the [Web Weavers] didn’t. Base stats just made up the difference at such low levels. From what she could tell, they were twice as strong as a [Common Spider], but both could instantly be crushed beneath an un-Awakened human’s foot so it made no difference. Without being able to actually see their statuses, she’d guess they had less than fifty health points.
Still, they were free monsters, and the graveyard was only level 1. It would theoretically get better.
By the end of day three, she had dug out more of the tunnel near the back of the cave, and had opted not to spawn any more monsters. She had no real use out of more web weavers or common monsters, and though the skith were strong, she wasn’t sure if she had some kind of hidden monster limit or something. Surely dungeons couldn’t just spawn infinite monsters and fill every square inch? Either way, she had made a turn in the tunnel after a few strides. She figured she’d make a twisting hallway back here and attach some rooms. A straight hallway may be easier to make, but a maze would be more defensible, and she wanted to think long-term. She’d either survive, and long-term would be important, or she’d die, and it wouldn’t matter.
Day four came and went, and then day five, and she had had no more visits from the lich since day two, no intruders since the first night, just days of digging and being alone with some spiders.
She was bored.
She was also starting to get nervous about the torch situation, as she had gone through four of them, leaving only three left. She had checked the backpacks and sacks that contained items, but there were no torches. Just random adventuring tools and traveler’s crap. Whenever she’d go to tunnel near the end of the cave, she’d take the torch with her, because it was pitch black back there, and then she’d bring it back into the main room when she’d finished. Something needed to change, though. She needed to get access to new torches, an alternative light source, or a new monster that could dig for her. Because once the last of the torches ran out, she’d be unable to go back there without being totally blinded by the darkness.
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It was day five when the situation changed suddenly and drastically.
Fia had been back near the tunnel, torch in one hand, and using her cantrip to clear out loose rubble and stones with the other hand when she heard the voice of the System speak into her mind, before the window even popped up.
Warning! An intruder has entered your dungeon territory!
Immediately, she dropped the torch, activated [Spider-Climb] and skittered up the wall and along the ceiling. She hadn’t been expecting the lich, and if it was another [Brown Bear] or worse, she no longer had her invulnerability. Caution would be important.
Notice! A [Web Weaver] under your control has died!
Fuck.
It definitely wasn’t the lich. It was an enemy. She slowly felt her way through the dark middle of the cave, making her way back to the entrance, though it was a bit harder since she was navigating the cave upside down and backwards from what she was used to. She opted to leave the torch where she had dropped it, not wanting the approaching light to notify the enemy.
It was a good thing she did, too. The enemy was human, or a similar-looking race, it was hard to tell as it - he - was moving around in combat, engaged with the skith. He was an enemy, so manners immediately went out the window, and she identified him.
[Scout]
Level 11 Awakened Half-Elf
A half-elf teenager with the Scout class. Moderately dangerous to you at your current level.
The half-elf scout twitched and looked around, before dancing back away from a lunge from the skith. She thought back to what the lich had told her before; “Human scouting parties have been scouring these woods every couple of weeks. I even told you before, I was expecting a new dungeon to emerge here, soon. So are they.”
This revelation filled her with dread. She knew the skith could defeat him, but if he went missing, more would come looking. If she let him go, he would tell people. The dungeon core was in the same room as him, there’d be no mistaking this cave for just some random cave. Plus a skith, this far inland, in a random cave? It’d be too suspicious even without the core being plainly obvious.
Not only that, but the core was no longer immune to damage. She knew the skith would defeat this enemy easily, but she would not give it even a fighting chance in the Nine Hells.
“[Cloying Darkness]” She whispered under her breath and pointed her hand at the [Scout], a claw of darkness mixed with dark cyan and purple smoke enveloped her hand, making the same claw-like gesture her hand was making, before it slid off and flew at the half-elf.
Notice! Your spell has hit [Scout], dealing 518 Death damage.
Immediately the half-elf began screaming as solid, physical shadows enveloped his eyes and face, the purple-and-cyan smoke leaching into his skin and rotting it. The skith hadn’t even managed to land a hit in the few seconds they were engaged, so her spell had one-shot him. Not that it was surprising. At low levels, you were basically un-Awakened, or slightly sturdier. A sword stab to the gut or a spell to the face would both kill you just as well.
She thought about dropping from the ceiling, but she reconsidered before doing so. This was just a [Scout] after all. He was probably an adventurer with a party behind him. They’d be here soon. Instead, she quietly ordered the remaining five [Web Weavers] to all cover the dungeon core, causing it to look like an ominous green-glowing ball of spiders floating in the air. Then she ordered the skith to immediately attack any further intruders and not allow them to get close to the core. Only then did she drop from the ceiling and slink back into the shadows, where the first room of the cave connected to the rest of the cave, and she kept watch, waiting for anyone or anything to come through.
It was about fifteen tense minutes of waiting before the curtain flaps were pushed aside. Immediately, the human woman in robes was hit in the face with a claw of darkness, and she went down screaming just as the scout had. The man in gambeson with a spear and shield behind her was taken aback by the skith rushing towards him, before it used its powerful tail to leap off of the ground and attach to his face. He went down before he could even scream, the skith skittering away leaving bloody pinprick footprints from each of its limbs.
Ding! Congratulations! You have defeated a level 11 [Scout]! You have gained 156 experience points in the [Sorcerer] class. You have gained 312 experience points in the [Dungeon Master] class.
Ding! Congratulations! You have defeated a level 14 [Mage]! You have gained 162 experience points in the [Sorcerer] class. You have gained 324 experience points in the [Dungeon Master] class.
Ding! Congratulations! A monster under your control has defeated a level 17 [Warrior]! You have gained 537 experience points in the [Dungeon Master] class.
Ding! Congratulations! Sufficient experience gained for you to reach level 8 in the [Dungeon Master] class. +20 Health +15 Stamina, +50 Mana, +1 STR, +2 CON, +1 DEX, +3 AGI, +5 SEN, +5 INT, +2 WIS, +4 WIL, +0 CHA, +1 SOU
Ding! Congratulations! Sufficient experience gained for you to reach level 2 in the [Sorcerer] class. +30 Health +5 Stamina, +25 Mana, +0 STR, +3 CON, +2 DEX, +1 AGI, +1 SEN, +2 INT, +3 WIS, +4 WIL, +4 CHA, +5 SOU
Ding! Congratulations! Sufficient experience gained for you to reach level 3 in the [Sorcerer] class. +30 Health +5 Stamina, +25 Mana, +0 STR, +3 CON, +2 DEX, +1 AGI, +1 SEN, +2 INT, +3 WIS, +4 WIL, +4 CHA, +5 SOU
Notice! For defeating [Half-Elf] inside your territory, [Half-Elf] has been added to your list of available monster spawns.
Notice! For defeating [Human] inside your territory, [Human] has been added to your list of available monster spawns.
After about another fifteen minutes of waiting, Fia finally relaxed a hair. Three intruders. A half-elf and two humans. They’d found her, and though she left no survivors to tell of her location, more would come. It was inevitable. Someone would know the general area they were in or were going to go to. They probably weren’t the only party out looking.
She was fucked.