[The Goblin’s Sewers: Cleared]

Callum sighed in relief. It was over. He expected something to happen, maybe he would get teleported to the surface, but nothing happened. He would have to walk there himself.

Before he moved on, he picked over the bodies of the slain goblins, but there was nothing worth taking. The notification had said that the sewers were cleared, but he still had a section of tunnel to clear, and he wanted to see what was there.

He settled into a light jog as he went through the tunnel. The notification lying to him seemed unlikely based on everything else he had seen.

In no time, he reached the end of the tunnel, which turned out to be the entrance chamber.

Well, that saves me from running down another tunnel.

As his gaze swept over the room, looking for his backpack, he saw a pedestal in the center of the room. It was made of stone, only four feet tall, and the top was angled to set a book on.

As Callum closed in, he saw that instead of being meant for a book, the top had something etched into the stone. He studied the writing, but it didn’t look like any language he knew.

He brushed his hand across the stone, and a menu appeared before his eyes.

[The Goblin’s Sewers: Cleared]

As the first to clear this dungeon, you have become its owner. As such, you have the right to decide what happens to it.

[Reset The Dungeon] Put the dungeon back in the state it was in before you conquered it and allow others to gain the experience of clearing it. You will still retain ownership. Warning: If the dungeon goes too long without being cleared or attempted, it will begin to leak.

[Claim The Territory] The dungeon and its surrounding territory will fall under your control, providing a safe zone where monsters cannot spawn. As one of the first 1000 to do this, the dungeon will become a pillar of civilization.

[Destroy The Dungeon] Eliminate the dungeon, and revert the land wherever it spawned to what it was before the dungeon formed. You will retain ownership of the territory.

Callum’s mind raced as he read through the menu. The information was a lot to take in, but he was growing used to these menus and deciphering what they meant. There was still a lot to this one, and it implied even more. He decided to start with what was there at face value.

He was now the owner of the dungeon, though that by itself didn’t explain how he could own a dungeon when it seemed to have popped into existence by chance. It did mean he had to decide what to do with it. This seemed like the kind of opportunity he couldn’t pass up.

The last option he quickly discarded. It seemed like eliminating the dungeon would remove a valuable resource. That left him with two options, reset it, or claim it. From the descriptions, both sounded rather permanent.

If he chose to claim it, he would be responsible for the territory in some way, though how responsible he would be wasn’t immediately evident. Resetting it could be a boon, but he had no clue how common these dungeons would be. If each building became a dungeon as this one had, it could become a chore to keep it from leaking.

He guessed from the context that a leaking dungeon meant the goblins would eventually leave the sewers and attack people, which was something he did not want to happen. That did sound like the worst-case scenario, but the worst-case scenario was a good way to evaluate things.

Decision made, he selected Claim The Territory. The stone pedestal began to glow with an ethereal blue-white light. As the brightness increased, it flowed outward from the pedestal across the ground and up the wall. In just a minute everything was glowing with light. Callum’s backpack was the only thing that told him he was still in the same place.

As the glow faded, he was left standing in the center of where the building was. Where the building had been was now flat dirt. The stone pedestal had transformed into an obelisk standing roughly six feet tall.

Callum breathed in the fresh air, not noticing how much he had missed it being inside the sewer tunnel. He frowned at the lack of rain, as it would have at least washed off some of the grime he was feeling.

Before he had a chance to interact with the new obelisk, Ryan’s voice rang out in his ears.

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“What the fuck is going on?” he yelled in Callum’s direction. Callum turned and saw Ryan running up to him. “Holy shit, dude, what happened to you?”

Callum looked down at his clothes and saw that his shirt was nearly torn to shreds, burned in a few places, and what was intact was covered in blood. His pants had shared a similar fate, though not as rough.

“Well, I cleared the dungeon. It wasn’t easy, but those goblins aren’t going to be attacking anyone anytime soon.”

“Goblins? Dungeons? What the hell are you talking about?”

Callum launched into his account of the events, explaining what had happened when he went through the door, and the things he had fought. He explained what he had learned about all the messages they had seen, and what he had learned through leveling up. He finally went over the options the pedestal at the end of the dungeon had given him and what he had chosen.

“You did all of that in a few hours?” he asked.

“It feels like it was much longer, but yes, I guess it has only been a few hours.”

“You know that was pretty suicidal, running in there like that. I’m just glad you made it out safe.”

“It does sound suicidal, but I have a feeling that what I went through is just the beginning.”

“It probably is.” Ryan turned back toward the crowd of people that had fled out of the building, most were just staring at where their homes had been. “These people aren’t going to be happy that their houses are gone.”

“Honestly, I had no clue what would happen when I picked the Claim option. I do feel bad about the building disappearing.”

At that point, a person in the gathered crowd found their voice and yelled at Callum. “What the hell did you do to our homes! Bring them back!”

The yells made Callum freeze for a moment, he hadn’t considered how it would look from the outside. His pause gave them room to start hurtling more obscenities, some even threatening to attack him.

Ryan leaned in to whisper to Callum, “Probably best you don’t mention the Destroy The Dungeon option. Also, these people all have classes now, so be careful.”

Callum realized he needed to take control of this crowd before it turned into a mob. While he did not feel threatened by them based on pure ability, he did feel bad for accidentally destroying their homes. Rallying himself, he quickly prepared a short speech.

“Unfortunately, the building could not be saved. When I entered to clear out the goblins, the creatures that attacked you, the entire inside had changed. I believe this was the work of whatever force caused them to spawn in the first place. With the goblins gone, I was forced to take control of what it called a dungeon. I did not want the building to vanish, but it was the cost of dealing with the goblins. However, I am committed to helping you find new homes as recompense.” At the end of it, he glanced over at Ryan and saw him give an approving nod.

He knew that mobs were not rational things, but hopefully, these people would see some sense. He could only watch as they weighed his words, hoping that the promise of helping them find new homes would persuade them. However he had no clue how he would find them homes, and he wasn’t willing to displace people that already had somewhere to live.

The blood and tattered clothing must have given Callum some credence as the crowd seemed to take his words to heart. It was good as it meant he wasn’t going to need to make his point forcefully, but he needed to figure out how he would house all of these people. Hopefully, the pillar of civilization would hold some answers.

Finally able to interact with it, Callum touched the obelisk, and a series of menus opened, including a map. The menus showed him some basic information about how many citizens there were, how many buildings there were, and the natural resources contained within its borders.

He checked the map first, curious how much land was associated with this dungeon. It showed him a small chunk of the city, with his territory measuring five square miles, according to the map. It formed a shape resembling a triangle, with the point towards the center of the city and widening as it went further from the cities.

He could also see the territories that bordered his. They looked like they weren’t claimed yet, which made sense as he was one of the first 1000 to claim a territory. Moving on, he saw that it showed there was only one citizen, him. It also said there were no buildings in his territory, even though he could look around and see them. This was curious, but he concluded that those must not be recognized for some reason.

The next thing that caught his eye was the shop. There couldn’t be anything or anyone to stock the shop, so it must be that the items were being magically generated. He found several more menus, but they were grayed out to the point he couldn’t read what they said and had a lock icon over them.

He ignored those for the time being and focused in on the shop. There wasn’t much and the costs were listed in gold. The options listed included some basic weapons and tools that would probably be useful if he needed to arm anyone, but as it stood at the moment he didn’t trust giving the people in the crowd weapons.

Continuing to look through the options, he saw that there were buildings included in the shop, though these had a cost in wood instead of gold. Curiosity got the better of him and he checked the pouch he had grabbed from the chest. He had thirty pieces of gold and a woodcutting axe only cost five.

He purchased it and felt the pouch lighten and an axe appeared in his hand. Some murmurs came from the direction of the crowd, but he ignored them and jogged in the direction of the closest tree.

His grip tightened on the wooden handle of the axe, and he put everything he had into his first chop. Even though his strength had been the slowest increasing attribute, he wanted to know how much it had changed.

There was a resounding crack as the axe connected with the tree. His first blow had sunk a quarter of the way in. It was quite the feat as the tree was nearly three feet wide. Callum grinned wide and swung again.

In only a few swings, Callum had nearly felled the tree. He looked around to make sure that no one was going to be in the path of this falling tree. Satisfied it was safe to do so, he struck again and the tree dropped to the ground with a crash.

Callum sprinted back to the obelisk and found a new resource pool had opened. He was going to need more wood.