Novels2Search
The Tower
Chapter Four

Chapter Four

After several weeks of instruction and practice under Ravens watchful eye we now stood at the doorway of what will temporarily be the final boss room. Thankfully I didn’t start with just a hole in the ground with no resources or method of advancement, the universal frame (which I had just taken to referring to as system) had granted a small allowance of mana and dungeon master points (DMP) to kick things off. It was helpful, but I had actually earned more DMP from enthralling Raven than what system had initially provided. World firsts apparently had decent rewards, I wondered briefly if world firsts were broadcast somehow, but ultimately it had no direct influence on the here and now so I pushed the thought aside.

Mana is the currency used primarily for creating the structure of my dungeon and adding basic features like traps and furniture. I gain mana on a per minute basis for every person that is within my dungeon. Gaining mana is going to be a long slow process and a pain in the ass… I think. I gain one fifth of a point every ten seconds, for every challenger in the dungeon. I assume like most online games I have ever played, a standard party would consist of five people. A party should have at least one member that can absorb or mitigate a lot of incoming damage, or a tank as they are commonly known. A healer, that one speaks for itself. And finally three damage based classes. After questioning Raven and confirming her responses via my dungeon master interface, my hypothesis seemed to be correct as the maximum number of individuals in a party is five. Apparently many different parties can enter at the same time, but they will never meet each other in the dungeon. Some sort of system magic was involved and quite frankly way over my head, so for now I’m going to assume it will all just work in the background until proven otherwise.

All that adds up to a standard party being worth a very paltry six mana points every minute… assuming standard parties are used. The basic costs for creation of the dungeon are one mana per one square meter of material added or removed. Sounds decent, but there are no refund costs if I screw up, in fact it costs mana to back fill mistakes. Also, if I don’t want people crawling around or walking awkwardly through narrow, low tunnels they need to be at least three meters tall. Perhaps taller, based on new races that now populated Earth, but I would cross that bridge when I found it. So, three mana gets me a three meter tall one meter square chunk of room or hallway… I’m pretty sure things aren’t going to progress that quickly after the initial layout, but only time will tell I suppose. The only real control I have to ensure maximum mana gain is to ensure challengers always arrive in groups of five by creating the dungeon to be challenging enough to require it. Additionally, I need to slow them down, give them a reason to stay as long as possible.

The second, and perhaps more important currency I need to accumulate is DMP, or dungeon master points. DMP is gained when challengers die within the dungeon, or a special action is performed. Currently my only frame of reference for what may constitute a special action was based on my world first achievement earlier. Unfortunately Raven had no idea what else may constitute a special action, so I guess it’s just another thing I’ll have to figure out ‘on the job’. So far I have found only two uses for DMP although much of the purchase menu is hidden, I assume due to the level of my dungeon. The first use is to purchase various creatures to defend the dungeon, the second is to allocate a loot pool to either specific individual creatures, creature species, containers or floor level. After spending about half a day messing around with all the settings and doing some tests I decided on setting up a generic loot pool for the entire floor. I could add or remove items to the loot pool for the floor, these items would then be distributed for challengers to find in either locations, containers, or on dungeon creatures assigned to the floor at random. The only exceptions being the floor boss loot chest, the boss reward is always treated separately. I can also specifically mark containers as separate from the loot pool, makes sense as I don’t see the point in allowing the possibility of finding blacksmithing materials in a kitchen for example. But loot pool items could still appear in these containers.

I mentally prepared myself for the final test Raven had planned for me, that is to access the dungeons creation abilities remotely, as opposed to directly from within the control room. It was unusual for the pet to instruct the master, but we had been working well as a team, and the delineation between bedroom and work had yet to be crossed. She had explained that just as my consciousness would be split (involuntarily) when several parties entered the dungeon at the same time, I could choose to do this at any time. The benefit being that I could watch the material shift as I manipulated the essence of my dungeon core, allowing for finer control rather than having to work in what I had thought were standard one meter cubed… chunks.

“Concentrate.” Raven teased playfully, breaking my train of thought.

“I have no idea how I’m supposed to be both here and there at the same time.” I answered, the frustration evident in my tone of voice.

Her instructions sounded simple if taken at face value. “Just imagine yourself in the control room without teleporting she says.” I mumbled in a playful mocking tone, wishing I was sitting in front of the TV and sucking down a beer.

Then a thought occurred to me. Before I could talk myself out of trying something new that probably wouldn’t work, I switched my viewpoint to the control room and moved to look down at the bench that contained the manual interface. The interface is like a computer screen… a funky one made of stone that magically projects what you wanted to see sure, but similar in function. Raven had previously shown me the copy/paste function of the dungeon interface to enable faster creation of passages and rooms… okay, so that’s not what she called it, but again, it’s a similar function. I’m relating all sorts of the things she had been teaching me to other, completely unrelated things but it seemed to be working for me so far. I concentrated on the work bench, willing a copy of the physical object to be stored in my mind.

I rotated the copy of the bench and mentally probed it in an attempt to view the details of the inner workings, primarily to see if I could miniaturise it into a portable version, but also out of curiosity. To my surprise there were no computer chips, magical items, or anything else that might indicate how it worked. It was just a lump of stone. I was about to delete the mental image when I felt a familiar… tug. The reason I had been unable to figure out how it worked was because of my own preconceptions, I was looking for a reason or methodology that might indicate function, but now the world has magic.

I investigated the sensation, running it like a fine thread through the immaterial fingers of my thought. The familiarity of the sensation was remarkable, I had never sensed or otherwise felt anything like it before. I’d been getting a lot of that lately, it was yet another new sensation of my current reality. I let my mind wonder, tracing the thread of imagination to its source, there was no denying my investigations, the familiar thread is an invisible tether to the dungeon core, to… well… me. The new me anyway. The ‘working parts’ of the manual interface are basically a focal point for the simple manifestation of intent, my intent. There are in fact no working parts to speak of, well, other than myself.

With that revelation I dismissed the mental copy of the manual interface along with the secondary viewpoint I had been maintaining. My fingers felt slick.

“I was not expecting you back so quickly master.” Raven lowered her head in embarrassment and released my hand.

I frowned at Raven in annoyance and held my fingers up into the darkness of her hood, pressing them against her hidden lips with a scowl. Raven, whilst without a doubt submissive in nature was more of an… equal. Yet another ‘new’ thing I had to deal with. I wondered if she was the jealous type? Ordinarily I would apply light punishment, but it wasn't something I could imagine myself complaining about anytime soon.

Once she had finished I smiled a comforting smile at my angel, light punishment time. I reached slowly over her shoulder and pulled on a single feather of her wing. She yelped at the unexpected pain. Ignoring her protest I pulled the feather to my right and turned, forcing Raven’s wincing body to follow the movement behind me least it be plucked. I released the feather and looked into her dark hood. The fallen angel immediately averted my gaze and looked at her feet in submission, her emotive wings ruffling slightly as she did so, an indication that she was content with my response to her actions. I had learned that she enjoyed pleasure and pain in equal measure, so I had little reason to second guess my actions.

I turned and squinted at the dirt wall on the other side of the partly formed doorway threateningly and… squeezed. Not with my hand of course, but my mind. A perfectly shaped square meter of dirt crumbled and disintegrated, the dungeon… myself (?) recognising the intent of my actions and removing the offending material from existence. Teach that dirt to fuck with me. My mood immediately lightened, all tension forgotten at my own idiotic thought as I grinned and I got to work shaping the final room that would deplete my available mana to almost nothing.

After fifteen minutes of intense concentration I was exhausted. The basic room had been cut into the earth but I really needed to sit. I paused my scrolling through the system menu. Chalk up another accomplishment for the day, it was the first time I had accessed the menu without using the manual interface in the control room. Things were quickly becoming second nature, now if only I could get to exactly what I wanted without having to navigate seemingly endless menus.

After another minute or so of searching and reviewing options I settled on a darkly stained wooden chair. It’s rather basic in construction but the intricately carved scene of a demon dominating a bent over woman on the back rest sealed the deal. The legs of the chair were four naked women bound in chains, standing facing outwards from each corner and supporting the base of the seat between them on their shoulders, each looking to the ground and struggling with the apparent weight, but with beatific smiles of contentment on their delicately carved faces.

I sat in the chair heavily and winced as the weight of my body crushed the delicate wings on my back, I bent forward awkwardly in minor irritation before dismissing them as Raven had shown me several days ago. With a sigh I leaned fully into the chair and relaxed. I pointed at Raven with an index finger indicating she should pay attention. I had been training her in the art of silent obedience, she watched my hand intently as she awaited her instructions. I circled my finger clockwise indicating she should disrobe, she immediately dismissed her clothing and made to move forward before freezing in place with wide eyes. She quickly glanced up to my face realising her mistake of assuming my intent, her eyes flashed back down to my hand, focussing more intently than she otherwise might have to avoid my gaze.

With narrowed eyes, but a smile on my face I pointed first to myself, then to the ground between my legs with two fingers. The fallen angel walked forward and sat naked in the dirt at my feet before resting her cheek on my thigh and looking up to me with an adoring smile.

I flashed her a circle with my thumb and index finger to indicate I was satisfied and instinctively began petting the hair on the top of her head as I smiled down at my angel. A suitable reward for a good pet. At my final hand signal she closed her eyes, nuzzling her cheek against my leg and sighing happily as she soaked up my undivided attention. I traced hungry eyes over my pet, appreciating the shape of her naked form for a moment, I’m almost certain about what’s going to happen in my ‘absence’. Raven is still exploring and discovering the limits of how long it takes for me to get distracted when working within the system interface, she’s particularly focused on discovering what she could get away with when I was.

Ignoring the situation for now I observed my status, I, or rather the dungeons… which I guess is me… I sighed internally. Despite Ravens approval at my progress, this was clearly still going to take some getting used to. So I had gained another two levels simply via the act of creating the dungeon, I didn’t gain any new skills during the process unfortunately, however I was incredibly surprised at the capabilities of the system that allowed me to create the space we now rested in. With the initial layout nearing completion I found that despite my earlier reservations I’m actually kind of excited at the prospect of having people test themselves against my creation.

I moved my point of view to what would become the dungeon entrance. As I gazed down the poorly lit corridor in thought it occurred to me that these… extensions of self were like camera drones. I decided to practice my apparently innate ability to multitask and opened another perspective into the room where Raven and I now sat. Okaaaayyy. So I was sitting, Raven was far more active, currently removing my clothing, or at least attempting to. I watched as she struggled to remove the pants from my seated form for a few seconds. She pouted up at my unresponsive body for a moment or two, then sat back into the dirt floor, her body sagging in defeat. I couldn’t feel the sensation of her movements, I suppose that’s a side effect of being in multiple places at the same time.

That’s pretty disappointing really. I briefly wondered if I would feel anything, pain included when my attention was divided like this. I focussed more intently, sure it felt weird watching me from this point of view but… hmm good. The sensations were there, just dulled somehow. I’m sure with practice I could experience the sensations of what my body experienced while I was occupied. Regardless, it would appear I didn’t need to be in full control for my body to do its thing.

I allowed my presence to linger, observing as the fingers my hand reflexively curled around the angels dark hair before tightening into fists, forcing her to obey my own subconscious rhythm. Over the previous couple of weeks she had become a very willing pet indeed, all to eager to please her master, submitting willingly to my various desires. Perhaps it’s because of her instructional nature I had been allowing her to slowly progress to equal status.

I dismissed the thought along with that particular perspective to focus on the task at hand, leaving Raven to her own duties.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Again in the hallway my eyes followed a shadow further along that briefly eclipsed a light source. Raven and I had spent several hours debating how best to present the dungeon… artistic wise. Yeah, yeah, sounds stupid on the face of it, but when you are in a world that has suddenly become a mishmash of magic and futuristic technology I wanted to make sure the dungeon was something that wouldn’t be out of place in either separate reality. Raven had initially suggested something akin to the design features of an old english manor. I did like the rich glossy woods and intricate wall paper, it just didn’t fit with the word dungeon, at least not in my mind. I did however save the patterns from that aborted attempt, certain I could find a use for them. No, english manor just wasn’t “dungeony” enough for me.

Instead I went with a more sinister atmosphere that would just scream ‘dungeon’ at anyone that cared to enter. I patterned the walls from memory of an old bunker on one of the many military training areas I had visited in my previous life. Rough concrete that looked as though it had been poured behind a wall made of wooden boards lined the walls of the dark, damp surface. The hardened ridges of concrete appeared to have oozed between the long ago rotted wooden structure that held it in place as it cured. Moss had gathered at strategic places on the walls and floor along rivulets of water seeping through the ceiling, collecting the offered sustenance. Crude, rusted electrical fittings with barely glowing globes of light hung down at random intervals along the hallway, occasionally there would be a small electrical pop with the light fading out completely. A few seconds later the bulb would slowly attempt to reestablish dominance over the dark within its sphere of influence. A fitting metaphor.

I willed my perspective to the end of the five meter long hallway, looking around the first bend to the left. This was the minimum required safe distance, a hard limit placed by system to ensure challengers were not simply wiped out when entering the new environment. I took a cue from the hard limit implemented by system to protect my own minions, and made sure to bend the access hallway to prevent challengers from being able to see and therefore prepare (or take pot shots at), what lay ahead. Challengers would have no option but to proceed, as the elevator at the entrance was unable to travel back to the surface, it was a one way trip.

I blinked forward six meters from the corner and placed my first trap. I created a simple pit fall two meters deep and lined the floor with thin finger length metallic spikes. I placed a basic trap door matching the appearance of the concrete floor to conceal it. With my main priority to slow down challengers, wear them down, and make them spend longer in the dungeon, the trap would be painful, but not fatal. The reasoning is simple, I gain mana to spend on improving the dungeon based on how long individuals stay within. I gain DMP from their deaths, nonlethal traps therefore would also wear challengers down, hopefully forcing them to make fatal mistakes closer towards the end of the dungeon. Killing them here would be a waste of potential resources.

I observed the trap intently, although very well hidden it was unfortunately both detectable and able to be disarmed by anyone with the appropriate skill and level. Being the first floor of the dungeon, the level requirements for doing so are quite low. System wont allow me to place a trap that requires a high level to disarm in a low level area. I blinked my perspective forward two meters past the trap, and with a juvenile grin etched a warning in blood on the right hand wall. ‘Beware of traps.’

I tilted my perspective to face the partially open doorway two meters further along on the left, a steady bright yellow light spilling through the crack into the hallway. I double checked the grime covered window in the wall by the door, ensuring it would conceal what lay in wait within the room. I nodded in satisfaction as muted red flashes silhouetted the body that was seated, observing those approaching within the hallway itself, but no additional detail could be gleaned without entering the room.

I shifted my presence through the wall, ignoring the rusted metal door and observed with an unobstructed view the figure seated in the chair. Long blonde hair flowed down covering the first few centimeters of the chairs back rest, the likely female figure faced the window in the wall unmoving. From the doorway challengers would be unable to see the face or any other detail of the figure as its hands were in its lap under the table. I had placed the body in such a way within the cramped quarters of the room to ensure there was no real way to see the face of the mummified woman without turning and rotating the chair towards the viewer. There was of course a surprise waiting, a large forty centimeter long rat was currently curled up in what used to be the woman’s stomach. As though sensing my presence it poked its head through the hole it had gnawed open just above the belly button of the corpse, only to sniff in my general direction before disappearing back inside. The giant rat happily continued gnawing away at its feast as I took in the rest of the room.

Measuring eleven by five meters and just as grungy as the hallway, rather than concrete however, the walls were covered in swollen, holed and torn drywall. Wooden filing cabinets in various states of rot and disrepair lined the walls of the room. I opened the loot pool to confirm that searching the cabinets or the desk might grant a few copper coins and a single low level skill book. If anyone were to bother searching and the items ended up being looted they would regenerate in different and random locations within the room. I looked to the steel portcullis blocking entry to the hallway in the far right hand corner of the room, this could not currently be opened by any means and was simply a placeholder for access to any further extensions I might make in future. In the left hand corner of the room, at the halfway point on the same long wall as the door challengers would enter through, was an unlocked simple wooden door and the only true exit.

I blinked through the paint peeled wooden door to observe the small three by three meter kitchen area. On the right were floor to ceiling shelves that would yield a few low level crafting ingredients for those that bothered searching. On the left there was a depression in the wall, that would perhaps one day become a doorway, but for now housed a small bench with a metal tub to act as a sink. On the opposite wall in the left hand corner of the room was a secret door. Challengers would need to locate the switch hidden under the metal tub on the bench to my left, for those of the dungeon it would simply open when approached… assuming they were here in physical form. I could just make out the darkened burrow hiding behind items stacked on the shelves. I’d never heard of Ankheg’s before finding them for purchase on the system interface, needing defenders for the dungeon I made an investment with my very meager initial allowance of DMP. Ankheg’s are cheap, look suitably menacing, and relish ambush attacks, so I’m happy with the purchase and will likely get several more in future.

With everything in place I ignored the secret door and the winding hallway behind it, pausing only briefly to observe the decorations. Much like the rest of the dungeon so far, the floor is covered in discarded trash, office papers, and concrete rubble matching the walls. The general rubbish scattered around the place not only added to the grunginess of the dungeons atmosphere, but was also an excellent location to have the key for the door randomly spawn, hidden at the end of the one meter wide hall within the junk. I blinked through the heavy metal door to enter the armoury.

The five by seven meter room is mostly filled with broken or severely degraded armour, weapons and ammunition drops. I was initially apprehensive when placing the loot drops for this room, Raven assured me that system is complicated enough that if someone was using, for example a bow; then arrows would be the form of ammunition collected. On the other hand if the looter was more technological in nature and required bullets or energy packs, they would be provided. It was a similar situation for body armour, and quite frankly a bit over my head at this early stage. So I again just checked that the room was suitably grungy in appearance, and with a final glance at the hollowed out, not yet door on the other side of the wall, hovered my perspective towards the final unlocked wooden door in the far right hand corner of the room that led to the boss room.

Of course the ‘boss’ at this point in time meant me. I will admit I’m more than a little concerned, having not died before and all, but Raven has assured me many times that I will simply re-spawn within the dungeons control room. Likewise after any challengers have left the dungeon all traps will reset, with loot and creatures respawning ready to defend the dungeon against any further intrusions. I’d discovered during asking the many questions on my mind about death and reincarnation, that the creatures in the dungeon would remember everything that had happened between resets. So basically death was a learning experience that only helped them to be better at killing. These revelations of course sparked off my questions about sentients, and if they ever really died. Raven wasn’t exactly forth coming with the details, apparently sentients can be resurrected, but she couldn’t specify how or by whom, sighting that the majority of Instance Earth will be low in level so no one had yet achieved the skill to bring back others from death.

Of course the next line of questioning at the time lead me to ask about the denizens of my dungeon leveling. Apparently system restricts the level of creatures based on the ‘floor’ they are spawned into, so for example the Ankheg’s (or any other creature on the first floor), would never reach anything above level five. I would be able to see any excess experience points they achieved after this however, in case I decided to promote them to a named monster – and therefore potentially becoming a floor boss, or I could elect to promote them to the next floor of the dungeon and they would level with the experience points held in reserve.

At this point the dungeon was relatively small, as I didn’t have the mana available to create additional rooms. The temporary final room would be where I confronted any challengers, this is the flip side to the benefits of having my own avatar.

I looked over the nine by three meter long room as ideas began forming for what I might do with the space. First on the list I added the same pattern to the floor as the rest of the dungeon, an ancient looking, stained and mostly smooth concrete texture. Raven froze in place responding to the changes around her, her tongue stuck solid as she looked up to my face as though caught red handed. She waited several seconds before continuing, managing to smile up at me around her mouthful as she awaited my return.

The current primary focus of the room is to provide an exit, so next I added a set of elevator doors, setting the default position to closed and placing a lock that would only open either at my command or if the boss was defeated. I looked at the elevator and felt the random desire to go old-timey, on a whim I changed the elevator to a cage design with a pull down door, reminiscent of a caged freight elevator. I changed the floor texture to old wooden floor boards, before adding a similar tongue and groove timber texture to the walls with exposed supporting beams at regular intervals across the ceiling.

Observing my progress the room reminded me of a large empty warehouse, I continued working with the mental image and added lots of small and inexpensive decorative items, the largest expense being several rows of sturdy shelving and the shipping crates of various sizes I had spread around at random throughout the room.

I drew back my perspective and observed the room in its entirety from a position above and behind the location of my wooden throne. It was difficult not to observe Raven and her antics. She was now standing between my open legs with her own legs closed and facing away from my seated body. Ignoring the quietly moaning angel I began looking for whatever it was that was missing, something didn’t feel right. The room was suitably grungy and definitely had an oppressive atmosphere about it, but there was just no… life!

It wouldn’t feel very boss like if I didn’t have minions, so for a final touch I began searching the system store for the cheapest available monsters I could find. I wanted something with sentience, something that could follow orders rather than its own nature like the Ankhegs. I bypassed all the various creepy crawlies that might have otherwise been at my disposal, unfortunately most humanoid races such as elves, humans and the like were beyond my means at the moment. So with no other options I began perusing the creatures classified as ‘lesser races’. The lesser races apparently include things like goblins and demonic imps but what caught my eye were the hobgoblins.

Standing at an average height comparable to humans, they are heavily muscled grey skinned humanoids with no necks. I had initially wanted to hold around 500 DMP in reserve but ended up spending forty points on eight of the creatures. Before summoning my posse I equipped them with back combat boots and pants, sleeveless black combat vests and long bladed combat knives with belt sheathes. I had initially looked at various hand guns but had reconsidered, according to system they were more suited to hand to hand combat and were typically armed with swords, shields, and leather armor.

With a smirk on my face at the mischief I was about to cause I set the spawn point for the hobgoblins to a semicircle around my throne and spawned all eight into the room before quickly dismissing my drone perspective.

Raven squealed in surprise as her her body tightened with the shock of now having an audience. With shaky hands, and her body quivering as though she were suffering a fever, she lifted herself using the arms of the chair for support.

“M…m… master?” Raven managed still twitching, torn between embracing the sensation and the embarrassment of the situation.

“Quiet girl! You will speak only when spoken to in the masters presence!” One of the hobgoblins admonished my angel, stepping forward with intent.

Rather than responding I pulled roughly on the lower feathers of her wings, her twitching was replaced with a quick shiver and yelp of pain as she lowered into a kneeling position briefly before sitting back on her heels between my legs facing the hobgoblins.

The grey skinned humanoid that had taken charge of his own accord nodded in satisfaction and leered at the kneeling angel. He was careful to replace his expression with one of neutrality before focusing his small beady eyes on my own.

“Master, we look forward to obliterating enemies in your name!” He stood to attention, the remaining five male hobgoblins followed his lead, the two females followed Ravens example and knelt in submission amongst their compatriots, eyes focussed on the ground in front of them. Hmm, I didn't specifiy sex, perhaps something to keep in the back of mind for the future.

It felt… weird having a male call me master. I frowned at the hobgoblin. They are clearly a militaristic race, I could have them call me sir… but again, it rubbed against my dominant nature of owning women and didn’t feel right. I have no interest in dominating men, or adding them to my personal stables.

“Just call me boss.”

“Very well… boss.” His beady red eyes narrowed, not in suspicion but in fear, at least that’s what I assumed from the questioning tone of voice. He was acting as though I had just performed some sort of test and he had risked failing by addressing me as something less than master.

I spent the next half hour or so going over my expectations with the hobgoblins, at least the males anyway… Raven and the two female grey skins remained kneeling and sitting on their heels during that time, mostly ignored. I made sure to receive almost imperceptible nods of acknowledgement from each of the hobgoblin females before proceeding onto the next topic.

With my orders in place I dismissed the hobgoblins, initially the women had remained when their male counterparts began exploring the dungeon. At a brief command they smiled broadly and thanked me for including them in my earlier briefing before leaving to follow their companions with a skip in their steps.

With the dungeon now as complete as I’m able to make it for the moment it was time to see why Raven had asked to design the entrance. I attempted to teleport to the control room, my vision blurred and was filled with stars as usual but I remained in place, with a mild headache to boot.

“Ahh Raven?”

“Yes master?” I could hear the smile on her voice, despite the fact she had just been humiliated in front of strangers and was still naked and kneeling, she was content.

I stood and moved to her front, holding out a hand to help my angel to her feet. She looked up at me with a broad grin on her pouty red lips.

“I can’t teleport.” She looked up into my eyes with a smile.