For the most part, Northridge was happy with his efforts. An influx of new people eager to find themselves in a growing city with opportunities. They wanted to set down roots—so he encouraged those roots tangled appropriately with those of his citizens.
Even his avatar had caught the eye of an appropriate female.
The dim touch of another city, of an acknowledgment, stirred Northridge to reach out to its greatest ally. "Dungeon Travis, Far Reach has agreed to help!" It liked the way Travis gave his full attention when it called out to him. Northridge liked Travis, considering him a very sensible dungeon.
"Elanor got through to it? That's great news! I'll let Stephan know so he and Howard can move forward with their plans."
Northridge worked through the words as best he could. From what he could divine, Travis didn't know before being told. "I am at a loss for how you didn't notice it, Dungeon Travis. I could sense the magic clearly."
"I'm—" Travis sighed mentally and imagined himself slumping a little. "I am not good with magic. Katelyn has been trying to teach me, but the only magic I can use is dungeon magic, and that's not built the same way. At least, that's what she told me. Maybe I don't have the aptitude for it."
"We are yet young, Dungeon Travis. We have many centuries to grow strong and learn all our abilities. You will learn this skill, in time, because it only takes determination for us to overcome something." Northridge liked the sound of that. Tight focus was a city trait, after all, and was one thing it believed it had in common with a dungeon with so few floors.
"I don't know if I'll ever be able to think in those terms, Northridge, but I'll keep trying. What else is there to do, after all?"
"What indeed!" The joke amused Northridge perhaps more than it should. It did a slow examination of its population as a whole, and found them both content and excited. "You did know your smith and one of my smiths are interested in each other?"
The topic caught Travis by surprise. "Axel and Portentia Silversong, wasn't it?"
"Yes. I believe they would complement each other. They would also have a high chance of producing children likewise skilled at a forge. To say nothing of it stabilizing his bloodline." It added up, to Northridge, like the ideal pairing. Better yet, it wasn't one it had needed to push. "Do you know someone who would pair well with my keeper of knowledge?"
"You, uh, think this is important?" Travis asked.
"Of course. If not the city, then who else would ensure future generations come to be?" Northridge asked. "It is within a city's power to encourage its population to come together."
An idea came together in Travis' head, but first he needed to check with Northridge. "What other things can you do? When you were young, you made Tannyr leave."
The subject jerked Northridge up short. It was one of the city's greatest mistakes, and one it could never take back. "I did that."
"Can you also stop people from wanting to come together? Something like you did with Tannyr. Could Far Reach do this?"
The questions halted Northridge in its self-pitying tracks. He couldn't help himself, and started laughing. "We will have to send another missive. If Far Reach hates its current rulers so much, it can help us remove them!"
"Exactly. You're the best one to teach it how."
It had a poetic rightness to it. Northridge mused on how to best explain his former enmity for Tannyr and put that into words that someone else could say on his behalf. "You have given me a great gift, Dungeon Travis. Thank you."
"You're welcome!" Travis was relieved to hear that Northridge had something else apart from playing the part of matchmaker to keep him occupied.
----------------------------------------
Breeze was having fun. The humans didn't get scared, even when they created new creatures. Rather than livestock for them to farm and hunt, they were creating a mix of beings. Dryads for the forests, to grow timber of all kinds; tall and strong. They'd also made satyrs to tend to the animals. The last was the little undines that plied the waterways in Breeze.
The undines weren't there to look after anything in particular. They normally took care of beguiling invaders and distracting them from their work and, Breeze had to admit, they were doing an admirable job of that, but it was far more playful than their purpose in a wilder dungeon—to lure people to their streams and drown them.
What Breeze liked most about them was the flow of warm energy that arrived whenever one distracted someone from their work. It wasn't fair, though, so they came up with a way to make up for it.
The first time an elf woman had been distracted and spent two hours staring in rapt attention at the undine dancing, she'd clearly been upset at losing valuable work time. The second time it had happened, and she'd turned away from the water to find all her work done, Breeze could hear her laughter.
A reward, then, to the satyrs for helping with Breeze's own harvest so that the workers would never stop coming back. And, if sometimes the satyrs did more work than the beguiled person could have, Breeze wasn't upset about that. Breeze spent resources strengthening the satyrs, giving them both physical and magical prowess.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
In all, Breeze was very happy with how things were going. Animals were dying, yes, but animals always died. The trick, Breeze had realized, was to have more floors than the city of Northridge would ever be able to farm, leading to an ever continuing growth downward. Growing was good, so Travis had told them. Growing meant more food which meant more growing.
One of Breeze's fondest memories was their first encounter with Travis. The warmth and strength in him had woken Breeze from a torpor that had seemed endless. With no other verdant dungeons to compare themselves to, Breeze didn't know if that ever-sleeping state was the norm for their kind or if the other verdant dungeons that they'd heard about were just being lazy. Why only produce a little food when you could make an entire kingdom worth of food, and use it to grow?!
Moments after the new friend, the gnoll, had left—Breeze added a new floor.
Breeze mused again on their nature, as they had many times before. Travis had asked if they were a she or a he. Breeze knew what the difference was, but it was hard to feel much attraction toward either. Not that they minded being called by either—Travis had seemed most comfortable calling Breeze a she.
Looking around, letting out a happy sigh that poured through her like a breath of wind, Breeze added another floor. It was a nice day.
----------------------------------------
"She's grown a lot more." Travis didn't say the words to anyone in particular, but he needed to say them. Breeze wasn't slowing down with her growth. He had counted floors. He wanted information, and reached out to Northridge's Keeper of Knowledge. "Excuse me, is this a good time?"
Leaning back in her chair, Llewellyn let out a sigh. "You gave me an unlimited line of credit to buy and share out whatever books I wish to anyone in the city. If I don't have time for you, who would I have time for?" When the exasperating dungeon was silent a moment, she added, "Yes. I can talk now."
The librarian (he no longer considered her a bookseller) always spoke with a measure of dryness that Travis was having a lot of trouble discerning from her sarcasm. "Right, cool. I need to know how big dungeons, particularly verdant dungeons get."
"You'll probably want this book when I'm done copying it." Standing, Llewellyn walked from her desk to the boxes of books she'd ordered and sorted, that had come in within the last week. She had to lift out several before she found the one she wanted. "Good, it's in here. This is a dry old thing to read, but it was updated as of two years ago. Dungeon Statistics. Lots of numbers and details, but if you're fine not getting the latest—it's also refreshingly cheap. Don't worry, you're not in this one."
Curiosity piqued, Travis asked, "How do they get the data for these? That inspection group that came through months ago?"
"I wouldn't know. Weren't we dealing with a siege then?" Flicking through the book to the first appendix, she began looking for a list of the tables and found it. "List of dungeons and floors: page six hundred and sixty-two."
Travis took to counting the pages as she ran past them, rather than look at the tantalizing stats on each—otherwise he knew he would go mad. When she reached the appropriate page, though, he whined. "Why isn't it sorted most to least?"
"Because not many people need data like that. Most adventurers don't care about getting to the bottom, and those who are good enough to need the challenge of deeper levels already know the names of the dungeons they would attack."
The way Llewellyn rattled off the explanation made Travis wonder. "Are you an adventurer?"
"No."
"Parents? Family?"
"No."
"So, how did you know—?"
"I already read the book. Look, when a city tells you you're their Keeper of Knowledge, you don't take that lightly. Then you start asking for help too, and throw gold at me to make sure I can get the answers you need…" Closing her eyes for a moment, Llewellyn took a deep breath. Arguing with one of her patrons wouldn't be a good idea. "You worked hard to protect the city. I never thought I'd be talking to you, but thank you. You know how, but why is more important to me. I read this thick, horrid book on statistics because I thought it might be useful."
Travis spotted a little smile on Llewellyn's face with one of his lizards that was, he realized, laying on a cushion that was balanced on the windowsill—sunning itself. "Well, thank you. I didn't realize how much you'd dedicated yourself to this. If I can do anything—and I mean anything—to help, just tell me."
It was a terrifying thing to be told, from Llewellyn's point of view. Thanks to extensive documentation provided by Stephan, she knew that Travis had paid for the titles that their three council members now held, and that he was building funds to pay for a railway. Reaching for her mug of hot soup, she took a long sip to steady herself. "This building was fine as a bookshop, but with people borrowing books and returning them, I am not exactly moving them out. I might also need to hire someone to assist."
Travis would have happily thrown a huge pile of gold at her and told her to have fun, but Stephan had been a good example of accomplishing more than one thing at a time with a little planning. "So a bigger building, an assistant, and a wage befitting a Keeper of Knowledge. If you get a much larger building, you'll also need to fill it with books. The first I can easily arrange. For the second, I'll ask if anyone here would be interested in the job, but if not you can hire someone. Next time, order the latest version of books and pass the bill to Stephan or his assistant."
"Just like that? How much is my budget?" Llewellyn quickly held a hand up to fend off any answer. "No, I don't want to know. If you want me to buy high-quality books, I'll also fetch a book copying jig to make this easier. Thank you."
"Now," Travis said, getting back to the original topic, "since you've read it, do you know what the average amount of floors is for a verdant dungeon?"
"Most don't get beyond thirty. There is one that's got fifty, but it's over two hundred years old, and is part of the capital." Llewellyn didn't even bother to look at the book. "If I may, how many floors does Breeze have?"
Only managing to hide his nervous giggle because he'd gotten used to talking to no one on occasion, Travis replied, "As of today? Eighty-three."
Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions
This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.