The morning light bathed Lydia’s face. She groaned and buried her face in her pillow trying to stave off waking.
Clang!
Lydia’s eyes shot open. She recognized the sound of a hammer striking metal. The rhythmic sound indicated a blacksmith was at work. She threw back the sheets and ran downstairs. Her heart throbbed in anticipation. It had been over a year since the kingdom recruited Gordon and their sons to man Fort Cadarn’s forge. She had seen her boys off with a smile, but finally she could say goodbye to those long, lonely days.
Clang!
Lydia pushed open the door to the forge, “Good morning,” she smiled but it faltered when she saw the man at the anvil.
It wasn’t Gordon. He was dead, alongside their sons. The man at the forge was one of the summoned heroes, and yet he didn’t look it. Heroes were said to be brimming with charisma that made them shine, and that it was impossible to mistake them for another person, but that didn’t describe Nathaniel. He had dark circles around his eyes, and his skin lacked a healthy color. He looked like an overworked village blacksmith.
Nathaniel set down the sword and hammer and turned to her, “Morning ma’am,” he said with a tired smile, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Lydia wiped at her eyes, “It’s fine,” she said, “Truthfully, I missed hearing the sounds that came from here.” Nathaniel nodded as an uncomfortable silence filled the room. “How about I make breakfast?”
“I’d appreciate it,”
Lydia walked into the kitchen. She stood at the counter and held her face in her hands. The tears wouldn’t stop flowing, and once again her heart was breaking. After a few minutes, she wiped away the tears and walked outside to grab a few eggs.
----------------------------------------
Nathaniel stood at the anvil and stared down at the remade sword. A simple shield sat on the workbench along with a gambeson coat. He shoved the sword on the rack to cool and hung the leather apron on the hook by the door. Nathaniel rested his hand on the wall and walked to the rain barrel to wash up.
The cold water and morning chill helped burn away the guilt. Nathaniel wiped his face with a worn cloth. For the first time, he noticed how bare the forge was. Crates marked with different ores sat empty, and flakes of arcanum powder coated an empty spot on the shelf. However, next to it sat a finely decorated case for engraving tools.
“Breakfast’s ready!” Nathaniel went back to the house with a sad smile.
A simple breakfast of eggs, bread, preserved meat, and cheese sat on the table. Nathaniel took a seat across from Lydia. She bowed her head and muttered under her breath. After a few seconds, she started eating.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen anyone pray here,” Nathaniel said before starting.
“Most people do it at the church,” Lydia said, “But…I felt like doing it now.”
Silence fell over them.
“Do the people of this world worship any gods?”
“Not gods per se. It is said that everything was created in a single moment. The land, the ocean, everything. And the last thing to be created were the Archons.”
“Archons?”
“The Archons are no longer around, but they are the ones who created all intelligent life and bestowed skills and talents upon us.” Lydia took a sip of tea.
“What happened to them?”
“No one knows. Of course, sister Rose teaches that the Archons left to prepare another world for us and left this world in our custody.”
Nathaniel scratched his chin, “Did they make the monsters and demons too?”
Lydia nodded, “It sounds like it, but the Church teaches that the monsters and demons were corrupted by their own hubris, and that they are going against the Archons’ will.”
Nathaniel cleaned his plate and cleared off the table. He started cleaning the dishes when he turned back to Lydia.
“I noticed that the forge is low on supplies. Is there someplace I can go to restock it?”
“The dungeon will be the best place,” Lydia said, “Otherwise you’ll have to go to the town of Rumand which is a day away. I’ll get Gordon’s mining gear ready for you, but you’d better be prepared for combat.”
“Is it that dangerous,” Nathaniel wiped down the last plate and put it up.
“No, not since the dungeon core was extracted fifty years ago. But you’ll still have to contend with weak level monsters while exploring it.”
“Thanks for the heads up.”
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[Treante Dungeon. Warning: dangerous monsters inside. Core removed]
Nathaniel stared at the sign standing next to the entrance of a cave. It sat at the base of the Black Iron mountains. Truthfully it was at the base of a hundred-foot cliff. Nathaniel shifted his backpack and lit the small lantern on his belt before entering the dungeon.
The entrance looked more like a mine than a natural cave with wooden supports and evenly paced lanterns, the oil long dry in them. A lone, rusted pickaxe sat along the wall.
[Iron vein: depleted. Respawn: 20 years:13 days:8 hours]
“Looks like I’ll have to go deeper,” Nathaniel said.
Nathaniel dove deeper into the dungeon. The tunnel branched off into three directions, the two tunnels on either side looked to have been carved out more recently. Strange clicking noises came from the left tunnel, and a beetle the size of a large dog scurried out of the darkness. It clacked its mandibles and charged at Nathaniel.
Nathaniel quickly drew his sword and blocked the attack with his shield. The bug’s pincers tried crushing him, but the metal shield kept the mandibles open. Nathaniel stabbed the bug in the mouth multiple times and drove the blade up into its head with the final stroke. Sticky green blood seeped onto the ground. Nathaniel wiped off the blood on his blade, but stopped when he heard more noises.
Swarms of giant cockroaches appeared from both side tunnels, and they screeched angrily at Nathaniel. They charged forward, and Nathaniel fled down the central tunnel. The monsters scurrying echoed down the tunnel as they chased him, and eventually it ended in a large central chamber. A loud crash came from behind.
Nathaniel turned and saw a giant centipede dive into the swarm of roaches. The roaches crawled over the centipede and tried biting into it, but the centipede’s shell blocked most of the attacks. The centipede tore through the swarms. Its claws and legs easily broke through the cockroaches soft shells. A few roaches were able to get past and charged towards Nathaniel, but they were easily dispatched with a single strike.
Nathaniel felt something strike against his side. He rolled to his feet and found the centipede staring down at him. It dove towards him, but Nathaniel dodged it and slashed at the bug. His sword bounced off the hard shell. The centipede turned and encircled Nathaniel. It continued to lash out, but Nathaniel kept it at bay with a stab towards its face. Nathaniel desperately looked around and saw a piece of the centipede’s shell was missing. Probably from the roaches. Nathaniel dodged the next attack, and stabbed his blade into the exposed flesh. The centipede screamed as Nathaniel twisted and dug his blade deeper. The centipede screamed and retreated, but its back legs no longer moved. The centipede’s back half got stuck on an outcropping of rocks, and in haste tore itself in two. A trail of sickly green blood disappeared into the cavern.
Nathaniel wiped the sweat from his brow and approached the but remains. He struck at the centipede’s shell, but it bounced off without leaving a scratch.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“It’s not iron, but it’s pretty durable,” he said pulling the carcass free, “What’s that?” a small shining blue crystal sat in the middle of the outcropping. He reached out to take it.
[Dungeon Core Bulb. Warning: Bulb has insufficient energy to awaken. Extracting bulb will result in its destruction]
“So, this will become a dungeon core?”
Nathaniel leaned down to look at the bulb, but his weight caused the carcass to touch it. Right before his eyes, the centipede carcass started to disintegrate into the bulb. The bulb flashed brightly and a slim blue crystal about three feet high stood before him.
[Dungeon Core Bulb awakened. Dungeon Core Lv. 1 established. Claim or extract?]
“I wonder what I can make with a dungeon core,” Nathaniel said, but his eyes fell to the last part, “Wait…claim? What does that mean?”
[Claim ownership. Owners of dungeon cores become Dungeon Masters]
Nathaniel scratched his chin, “Claim ownership.”
[Selection acknowledged. Establishing connections]
Nathaniel fell to his knees as pain ran through his head. He closed his eyes tightly, but the pain wouldn’t subside. After what felt like an eternity the pain ceased, and a new menu appeared in his vision.
Dungeon Master Menu
Dungeon Core Lv. 1 (Energy: 100/100)
• Functions
• Minions (00/30)
• Domain
“More menus to explore,” Nathaniel scratched his head. He opened the minion option.
[Select minion race to spawn]
Nathaniel’s eyes widened as a list of races appeared. He recognized many of the standard fantasy races as well as a few he had heard while being here. Human. Elf. Dwarf. Orc. Goblin. The list went on and on.
“This must be how the Archons created the other races,” Nathaniel said scrolling through the list, “There’s an option to create a new race.” He selected the new race option.
[Opening Minion creator. Attention: Minions that draw energy from Dungeon Core have limited functional time outside of domain. Minions not drawing energy from Dungeon Core will need to acquire energy from outside sources]
A screen appeared in front of his eyes. It reminded him of modeling software he used when he was an engineer. He smiled. Whatever he thought appeared on the screen. Its body consisted of a four-foot-long sled with a three-foot basket on the back. A three-foot column with four arms, two with claws and two ended with thin barrels, and an eye that allowed it to see in every direction. He finalized the creation by having it draw energy from the core.
[Name new race category. Name new subrace]
“Robot,” Nathaniel said as the name appeared in his window, “Extractor bot.”
[Name accepted. Robot category added. Extractor bot added]
The extractor bot materialized right in front of him. It hovered off the ground by a few inches. Its arms articulated and its eye scanned the surroundings. Nathaniel noticed that the core’s energy dropped by one.
“Can I give it commands from the ‘Minion’ menu,” Nathaniel said. I wonder if it accepts voice commands. His gaze fell to the cockroach bodies, “Extractor, collect those cockroach bodies at the entrance.”
The extractor moved towards the entrance and started gathering the bodies into the cart. After it finished, it stayed at the entrance. Nathaniel scratched his cheek then looked towards the dungeon core. I wonder.
“Extractor, deliver those bodies to the dungeon core,”
The bug carcasses dematerialized, and Nathaniel noticed a small yellow bar appear under ‘Dungeon Core Lv. 1,’ but not much. Looks like I must feed the core to level it up, but will it take anything? Nathaniel reached into his pack and started riffling through it. There wasn’t much in it save for a lunch, a few bandages, and…his purse. Nathaniel pulled out the coin purse and noticed that it was heavier than he remembered. There was about twenty silver coins in it. Lydia must have filled it. Nathaniel looked at the coins then at the core. He pulled out three coins then placed them onto the core. The core absorbed the coins and the bar filled up to about halfway, but the core’s level increased to three.
[Dungeon Core level increase. New function acquired: Warp. Energy increased to 150. Minion count increased to 40.]
Nathaniel opened the ‘functions’ menu. ‘Command’ and ‘Warp’ were the only functions in the menu. He selected command and a separate menu appeared with the extractor bot on it. So this is how I give it commands. He commanded the extractor to start gathering any metals in the domain. Then he selected ‘Warp.’
[Where in the domain would you like to warp?]
A map appeared with a light shade of purple covering a small section on it. This must be the dungeon’s domain. Nathaniel opened the domain map. Besides showing a map of the dungeon, it also had a few extra functions. The ‘Build’ option caught his attention.
[Warning: Minion requires rest area to recharge.]
“Guess I better build one of those,” Nathaniel said picking the ‘rest area’ from the build menu.
A ghostly image appeared before his eyes, and it moved wherever his gaze went. Nathaniel could even rotate it merely by thinking. When he selected a spot, the rest area materialized out of thin air with a vein of blue energy connecting it to the core. Nathaniel stared in amazement.
He looked through the other options in the ‘Domain’ section. He stared at the dungeon core as he took a deep breath. What have these people been doing? He started laughing.
“They’re completely wasting these dungeon cores,” Nathaniel said, his laughter turned to crying, “Damn it! If only…” Nathaniel took a deep breath as he looked to the dungeon core, “I’m not going to waste this.”
Nathaniel opened the ‘Minion’ menu and created two more extractor bots. He created another minion, the sentry bot, a small floating sphere that would shoot lasers at enemies and explode when it took damage. He made twenty of these to patrol the dungeon. Apparently smaller minions used less energy. Lastly, he created two maintenance bots, a floating robot with twelve arms and a head that looked like a tesla ball. He commanded the maintenance bots to start building fortifications.
They started removing the stalagmites and stalactites while materializing concrete to create walls throughout the cavern. Nathaniel also used the ‘Build’ menu to construct storage units for the extractors to deposit their finds. The last thing built was a door at the cavern entrance to keep out the unwanted. Thankfully, the minions could operate the doors.
“I think that’s enough for today,” Nathaniel said heading to the door, “I’ll check back tomorrow.”
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It was two weeks since Nathaniel took ownership of the dungeon. The dungeon now looked more like a modern-day warehouse than the mountainside mine. The core stood eight-feet tall and three-feet wide. Magic lights powered by the core kept the room well-lit. A refiner and smelter were tucked in the back so that the ore the extractors brought in could be turned into proper ingots, and a third storage unit was placed along the wall that stored the materials that were fed to the dungeon core.
Nathaniel stared at the ‘Dungeon Master’ menu. The core was now at level nine, thanks to the small amounts of precious metals and gems that the extractors brought back. The new levels made it so that the domain extended to the dungeon’s entrance and gave him a function showing him resource nodes within the domain.
He was finishing up a new defense robot. It was a seven-foot-tall bipedal robot with two massive claws that could fire power energy blasts. Its head was tucked into the top of the torso with a singular telescopic eye and laser sight. Due to its size, it took up twice the amount of energy than the extractor and maintenance bots, and four times the sentry bots. It was necessary though, as stronger monsters were appearing, and the sentry bots were having trouble keeping them away. The guardian bot slowly walked out of the central room and into the tunnels. An extractor bot returned and deposited its score.
“Please let there be something good,” Nathaniel said opening the crate. He smile when he pulled out several fist sized chunks of silvery-white metal, “Platinum, this should get the core to level ten.”
He ran to the smelter and threw the platinum ore into it. Unlike the smelter in Gordon’s forge, the smelter used the core’s power to turn ore into pure ingots. The downside though was the time it took to refine it. More valuable metals took longer to refine. That didn’t bother Nathaniel. He spent the time commanding the extractors to mine out new tunnels, and the maintenance bots would reinforce with concrete.
Nathaniel was pleased with how the dungeon was coming, but it was taking a lot of his time. If only there was a way to automate the process. He turned back to the smelter. A small platinum bar sat in the catch basket at the smelter’s base.
Nathaniel took a deep breath, “Let this be enough,” he said. His [Intuition] told him that he would get a valuable function when the core reached level ten.
Nathaniel pushed the bar into core, and watched the yellow bar slowly increase. Then the yellow bar disappeared, and the core’s level increased. Nathaniel sighed in relief, but then shouted as an unbearable pain ran through his head. It forced him to the floor and curl up in the fetal position. The lights flickered wildly and then shut off completely. Slowly, the lights returned as Nathaniel’s migraine disappeared.
[Dungeon Core level increased. New function acquired: Dungeon Assistant.]
“Dungeon Assistant?”
“That’s correct master,” Nathaniel jumped as a voice came from the core. “I apologize for scaring you.”
“No, it’s fine,” Nathaniel said sitting up, “I was just surprised.” Nathaniel took in the core, “So, what are your functions?”
“My purpose is to support you in running the dungeon,” the assistant said, “As dungeon master, your time is extremely valuable. You shouldn’t need to deal with the mundane operations.”
Nathaniel couldn’t help but laugh, “That’s amazing,” he said, “I was wanting to automate the dungeon, but can you run it the way I want.”
“No need to worry master,” the assistant said, “The core scanned your neural pathways when it created me. I would be a poor assistant if I went against your designs.”
“That explains the headache,” Nathaniel rubbed his head, “I should give you a name then.”
“Whatever you desire.”
Nathaniel rubbed his chin then smiled, “Seneschal.”
The assistant was silent for a time, “Acknowledged,” it said, “I shall refer to myself as Seneschal.”
“Glad to hear it,” Nathaniel said standing up, “You understand what I desire for this dungeon.”
“Yes,” Seneschal said making the dungeon map appear, “Right now, gathering resources should be the top priority, but I’ll have Extractor One focus on expanding the dungeon,” Several box outlines appeared alongside several tunnels, “I recommend digging out rooms here. To plan for future expansions.”
“You really do know what I’m thinking.”
“You’re wanting to make this dungeon a base,” Seneschal said, “One that is prepared for any possible event. Am I correct?”
“Yes,”
“Understood,” Two maintenance bots appeared in the room, “Leave the dungeon to me master. You should focus on developing your skills and creating new inventions. I’ll see to it that you have everything you need.”
“Thanks Seneschal,” Nathaniel said turning to the doors, “I’m leaving everything to you.”