In a Dungeon, the Core is king/master/God.
That does not protect it from its greatest enemy…. Boredom.
"Waiting for floor seven is going to be a pain!"
I pull open my character sheet to see the damage.
Name
Bhaldor
Essence
17%
Race
Dungeon Core
CP
50(800) 7.3 phr
Level
6
Corruption
0%
Floors
6
Health
100%
My essence count was slowly increasing again but at a trickle compared to what it was. I looked at my skills.
Skills:
Mana Manipulation: 3 - 10%
Core Refining – 15%
Mana Sight: 8 – 12%
Aura Manipulation: 8 - 45%
Herb Lore: 2 – 0%
Spell Casting: 1 – 0%
Alchemy: 1 – 0%
Enchanting: 3 – 23%
Here, I had made some progress. Mana Manipulation had increased one level as handling the Ice mana and a few other Shadow motes that had appeared increased the skill. Core Refining and Mana Sight had improved slightly. Enchanting was the big winner. I had gained two levels from creating my sixth-floor Guardian and the experiments that followed from it.
Perks/Restrictions:
Godless
Affintyless (++ ERROR! ++)
Companionless
Limitless Monsters/Traps
Core Refinement max – 92%
Spell Casting (++ ERROR! ++)
No change apart from the Core Refinement max.
Mana Stored
Illusion – 80(80) / 0.01 phr.
Shadow – 80(80) / 1.1 phr.
Light – 80(80)/ 0.1 phr.
Earth – 80(80)/ 0.5 phr.
Ice – 80(80)/ 0.012phr
I had left the mana levels maxed out as I had other plans for them. Next to the Core, I had six mana stones, all glowing with the light of their mana type. The same colours glowed in my Core as specks of light. I had two empty bubbles in my Core to store any other types discovered. I felt happy with what I had acquired.
All was well with my sheet, so I turned my attention to the Dungeon.
Larry was watching the comings and goings. Recently, a few low-tier adventurers had taken a few shots at him and he was more alert now when they moved through his room. He was ready to bolt and the first sign of hostility.
"I hate to think what they will do if they find that they can get a gold coin from him."
I envisioned groups hunting him through the Dungeon every time they entered. It was not pretty.
The first floor was cleared, as a Tin group had just finished it and headed to the next floor. They were a regular group and knew their limits, so they would not move on beyond them. The third had the boards being harassed by Puck—or they would be if they were not just ignoring him.
The spiders on the fourth were waiting. I have seen a few people going there in recent days.
The fifth had attracted many groups of thieves and rogues who were fascinated by the traps. The groups tried all different ways to get around the traps, many of which failed, but a few succeeded. I was learning new things to factor into my later trap designs.
Finally, the sixth.
This floor saw more traffic than I thought and I quickly understood why—the silver node. The adventurers figured out the regeneration cycle and were now arriving to match it. Teams were coming that were only trying to clear the caverns to the node and no further. They were barely doing that often. There had been casualties.
"All good right now."
My latest floor was finished and was well received. Now, on to the seventh and its first concepts are…..
……..
"I have no ideas."
I was drawing a complete blank right now.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Inspiration was required, so I opened all my screens looking for it.
"I could… no, that would not work. I have these and I can…. That's just silly. What about a merge…."
I stopped as I read down the minion list to one. I had, but I was avoiding it due to the cost: Mountain Ogre.
I looked over the design and thought. Could this work now?
The longer I thought about mixing and matching ideas, the more appealing it became. However, I did see something that confused me. In the lists, it was classed as a "Demi."
Demi.
Demis are a subclass of monster. They are closer to the sentient races of the world, which is reflected in their cost, but they can develop skills faster than the standard monster.
The blue screen appeared and startled me for a second. I read through it and it made sense. I was unsure of the sub-class thing, but now it is more interesting. I dismissed the screen.
"I wonder if there are other sub-classes."
Ogres were the minion for the floor then, barring anything new appearing to change this. Now, this leads to the next problem: how many?
They were expensive, and the floor would not be able to handle many of them as I would run out of resources. A rough calculation: I could have a maximum of three. Any more would be beyond my CP pool to create.
"Two and a guardian?"
I was still flicking through my screens, thinking and not paying attention to them. I looked to improve them, but this would only hike the cost, lowering the number to two. I had to equip them, which added further to the cost.
"Outfitting them with good gear would reduce me to two on the floor."
I floated around my Core room just thinking. Then I spoke an idea.
"What if it's just one?"
I stopped and thought more about this. It was crazy, and as far as I could remember, I had never been tried before in the material I had read. What if the floor had only one minion on it?
A single Ogre that was the Guardian. Ogres are tough and strong creatures, but an adventurer team coming this far would be able to overwhelm it fast. Looking over the Ogres base stats, I was not so sure.
Name
N/A
Level/Class
1 - Dungeon Minion
Race
Mountain Ogre
Essence
0%
Health
350/350
Mana
70/70
Stamina
350/350
Corruption
0%
STR
25
25 Damage Base
DEX
10
AGL
10
END
35
-5 Damage
VIT
35
+10% Poison Resistance
PER
10
INT
7
WIL
7
LUCK
8
Skills:
Smash: 1 – 0% (+ 20 Damage) Cost: 20 Stamina
Perks/Restrictions:
Tough Hide: - 5 Dam from attacks.
Easily Confused (-20 % Resistance to Illusion Magic).
It was a beast, just the base design with no alterations or upgrades.
"Bronze teams would have trouble fighting this thing when outfitted."
The downside was that Ogres only had one skill, along with a single perk and restriction. Now, Tough Hide was nothing to sneeze at and was the most common perk amongst my minions. The restriction of Easily Confused was annoying, but it was on brand for the type of creature.
Anything addition from weapons to armour and any other upgrades had to be supplied by me.
"A single pimped-out Ogre? Long hall? Maybe different lighting?"
Things that all needed to be thought about. I was starting to warm to the idea of a single-decked-out Ogre waiting to challenge anyone who approached.
I thought I noted that the Tin group was on its way out. They had stopped just short of the floor Guardian. I had thought they might take a run at it today, but it seemed it was not that day.
I waited to see who the next group was. If it was one of the regulars or another low-grade group, I would go back to thinking about Ogres. I did not wait long.
Six figures entered.
Four melee fighters, an archer and some healer type. It's a good mix, all well-armed and equipped. What drew my attention was the crest they all were wearing. I had seen it before….
"It was on that dumb slaver bastard!"
I checked them over with my Mana Sight. They carried a fair amount of magical gear, matching the last group. This was concerning me. Why, I did not know, but there it was. Were they here for revenge?
I watched them walk straight to the stairs and go down. The first three floors were ignored and they entered the fourth. I thought they were capable of going lower, but starting here was not a bad idea.
The floor had a decent amount of coins to be made and the webbing was worth the effort of collecting. I watched them sweep aside the first spiders, ignoring the coins and webbing. Surprisingly, they were burning the webbing to allow easier access.
"Right, that's odd. What are they after?"
What less would they be after if not for the resources and coins? I thought over the floor and history as I warred Queen of the group's approach. In her cavern, it became obvious.
"The bodies!"
"What was that, Bhaldor?" Queen asked.
"Your decorations of the three bodies of the slavers. I think the group coming is going to collect them."
"I will be ready." Queen began positioning herself for the group.
I watched the group move from to room. They burned the webbing as they walked through each room and killed the spiders. The webbing burned quickly and the fire swept through the rooms.
I went in closer to the group, looking them over. The collars were evident on five of the group. One of the melee fighters was without one. He was wearing the best armour with the most enchantments. I bet he was the slaver; the crest was the largest and most elaborate on him.
The eight spiders slowed them; the numbers pressed them, but not for long. The spiders were cut down and they moved on. The last room's spiders tried and were cut down.
The group entered the Guardian room. The Queen launched her attempt at a surprise attack. The group reacted fast and scattered as she dropped from the ceiling. The melee fighters engaged her as soon as she was down, with the archer supplying support fire.
The queen was defending herself from multiple attacks, failing to stop all of them. Wounds began to appear as attacks got through. She desperately used her tricks to break the initiative of her attackers. Each was overcome with no slowing in the assault. Her health bar was falling at a frightening speed and before she could trigger her [Charge] skill, it emptied.
She collapsed to the floor, dead.
The cavern was searched and when found, the slaver's body was recovered. They wrapped it and picked up the remains. The group left the cavern and returned to the stairs. From here, they went up and left the Dungeon.
I was left with a Dungeon resetting from the group's rampage through the fourth. The coins left on the floor were all reabsorbed as the floor reset. I watch all of this thinking on the group. They were at least bronze-tier and the fourth floor was no match for them.
I went back to thinking about the seventh floor. The sixth had not been thoroughly tested, as the floor had few go through the caverns. I had only seen one group fight the Guardian and needed more data from those battles. A single monster on a floor will require more abilities than the enchantments I could integrate into their designs. The Guardian had one and has been working with no issues so far.
Another new group entered and was a tin-tier. I watched them moving through the first. The group was young and found the first floor was a challenge that they could barely handle. They finished the floor but were blooded and weary. They to leave the Dungeon and it reset after they walk out of the doors.
I opened the screens again. I reviewed several options, looking for different options for the floor. A single monster looked more attractive, but I needed to make it worthwhile for any adventurers, as the beast would be a horror to fight. I knew this would be the case, as the base design had quieted the status screen and even with a few upgrades, I could predict the effects of most.
The cost of the Ogre would increase with every upgrade. In addition, I will need to outfit it with weapons and armour, adding even further to the cost. I had to remember this as I did not want to get caught out again, as on the sixth.
"I need to experiment more before I can commit."
I had integrated one enchantment into the sixth-floor Guardian. I could not be sure that this would work on the Ogre. I had to factor the armour and weapon into this as I might enchant them. Also, I still had not figured out how to make the enchantments hold their own mana and not need to be powered by the monster they were integrated with.
"This is getting complicated."
Another team had arrived and went straight to the third floor. They were fighting the boars and they had the advantage. The group was taking its time stripping each kill of every resource they could use.
"I could create a supersized boar instead of an Ogre?"
That was an amusing thought and I ran with it in my mind, creating different scenarios. I then went through several other minions. The most entertaining I came to was the titanic toad squashing adventuring teams.
The third-floor Guardian beat them somewhat before dying. It seemed the fight was too hard on its hide and it could not be salvaged in its entirety. They took what they could and left the Dungeon.
The miners and their escort were next to arrive. It was getting later in the day.
The silver node was still regenerating, so today's supply would only be copper and tin. That was a shame, as I would like to see more adventurers try their luck on the sixth.
I sighed mentally.
"Back to waiting."