I popped back into existence in front of the rickety cabin. Hoen was also there, once more in his tiny bunny form. Through my link to the dungeon, I could see the other creatures on my floor start to repopulate as well. There were only three rats in the first room, and a single plant creature in the room closest to me. Hoen assured me that with the last batch of adventurers coming through, Glenda would be able to speed up her recovery a bit.
As I had been told earlier, the upper floors of the dungeon were getting the most attention, but even a few more defenders in here with my team would be a big benefit. One interesting aspect was the fact that this was the first time I got to check out how long it took for my summoning figurines to regenerate. The fact I was in the dungeon might have skewed the results, but it appeared that the regeneration rate was around a few minutes per rank of the figurine.
First back were the hound and Rupert. I gave the pair a good inspection, and they seemed no worse for wear. If anything, they looked pretty good considering that even though they were Tier 0, Rank 0, my ability and the necklace boosted them to Tier 0, Rank 2. The hound looked like a regular, happy dog, and Rupert was a bit more filled out. The dwarf also seemed to handle the makeshift weapon that Hoen had given him, the pitchfork, with a bit more confidence.
“Hoen, when the adventurers that we’re trying to stop arrive, is there any way we can push all the creatures back into this room? Also, is room even the correct term, given that this place looks like a forest,” I asked.
“Normally, a dungeon is required to keep their minions where they are assigned. Only a few exceptions can allow the dungeon core to alter that strategy. Having a party actively try and hurt the dungeon core is one of those situations, and it was the only reason we survived. Once they attacked Glenda directly, every creature they had bypassed on their way to the core charged there as quickly as they could and attacked.”
“If that same party arrives, we’re able to do everything we can to stop them. I suspect that Glenda will order all of us to rally at the dungeon champion’s room when they show. The only potential problem is that if they stay away for long enough, usually a few days to a week depending on the damage they caused, the timer resets and we’re back to normal operations when they get here. If that happens, we’ll have to wait for them to threaten the core before we can react. As for your other question, yeah, room is the generally used term despite the décor and theme we have going on,” Hoen explained.
“If they stay away for a week, is that long enough for Glenda to heal up and respawn everything?” I asked.
“Probably not, but we’ll be in a lot better position than where we are now,” Hoen said. We discussed some different options for dealing with adventurers. Even with Hoen and I added to the first-floor defenders, we just didn’t have enough muscle to be a real threat to even a weaker adventuring team.
With the enemy potentially arriving at any time, we couldn’t count on any additional defenders respawning in here, so we had to get creative. Instead of waiting inside the cabin to ambush the adventurers when they charged in, we were going to hang back with the ghoul. I’d duplicate him, then our team would attack the enemy from the rear.
If the adventurers were behaving normally, their most heavily armed and armored team members would be the first ones through the door of the cabin. At the rear of their party would be any mages, healers, or ranged attackers looking to snipe the targets inside the cabin. If we gathered at the point in the forest closest to the cabin, we might be able to surprise the unarmored party members.
That wasn’t much time to close the distance, but while we ran, I could unleash a few magic missile shots and psionic jolts to keep them busy. With half their team inside the cabin, our forces should be able to get some damage done before we were inevitably defeated.
Sadly, our job wasn’t to stop the enemy, just to attrit them down so the heavy hitters at the end of the dungeon could do their thing. I liked spending time with Hoen, and while Glenda was mostly occupied with repairing her damaged core, she did pop in and talk with us on occasion. They were an interesting pair, and I didn’t want to see them killed just so some adventurers could harvest Glenda’s shards.
To that end, I contemplated using some of my consumables. I had a few that might even fit the forest motif. The tier zero, rank five razor wolf was a candidate, as were the two tier zero, rank zero dire rats. Other than that, I wasn’t comfortable burning up too many of my resources. The MESS key was my get out of trouble free card and I wanted to save it for the arena. It might also prove useful it I ran into something like that leech creature in Somhagen.
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I had almost forgotten about Fitzfazzle. He wasn’t truly a consumable; it was just that he was supposed to take a really long time respawn after I called him to help. He’d mirror my rank and tier as far as gear and abilities went, and I was pretty sure the necklace and my class abilities would bump him an extra two ranks since he was being summoned via a figurine. I’d have to play it by ear, but at least I had a plan, and a few consumables that I was fine with burning to help Glenda and Hoen.
When I told him my plan, Hoen seemed genuinely touched that I’d risk using some of my personal items to help them. It went above and beyond the scope of the summoning, but maybe that would be reflected in the rewards I received at the end. If nothing else, it would give me a better shot at a higher ranking at the end, which meant that even if I lost the consumable, I’d at least have a bit more cash.
As the hours passed, I had the team practice a few times. Hoen seemed a bit surprised that I wanted to have multiple practice runs. He was used to the dungeon minions doing exactly as he commanded. My minions would follow my orders, even if it was reluctantly on the part of the ghoul, but I was the one that needed the practice at managing them in this particular environment.
In his combat form, I could tell that Hoen was at least as powerful as the ghoul, but he lacked any special abilities or debuffs like the ghoul possessed. He wasn’t too tanky either, but another body with sharp, gnashing rabbit teeth was always a plus. As time passed, I finally felt we had a handle on the next fight. There was no way our little force would stop the hostile adventurers here on the first floor, but I was confident that we could at least force them to burn up some resources.
My floor of the dungeon didn’t get much attention from Glenda as she correctly focused on the upper levels where the defenders were more powerful. We did eventually get another of the plant creatures in the room before mine. Since I was able to cast Empower Minion anywhere in the dungeon, it made me rethink fighting a last stand here on the first floor. It was something I’d want to confirm with Hoen and Glenda.
“Glenda, sorry to bother you, but I had a question about where you want me to fight. If I stay here on the first floor, the adventurers will take me out early. Do you want me to retreat when they appear? My minions would stay and fight, but if Hoen and I fall back, we could help support the dungeon with my magic. Empower Minion isn’t all that exciting, but if everything in your dungeon gets bumped a rank, that should help, shouldn’t it?” I asked.
“Yes, that does seem like a better use of your presence, but the restrictions on a dungeon are a bit rigid. Since you’ve been summoned as the floor champion for the first floor, you’re locked into that role and typically cannot leave,” Glenda said. It was silent after that, and I got the sense that she was pondering the situation.
“If the adventurers trying to kill you show up, we’re allowed to call all the defenders inside the dungeon to come and protect my core. As long as the system tags the intruders as hostile to the core, we should be able to reposition everything if we wanted to,” Glenda postulated.
“I think you’re right, why don’t we try it that way. If they show up as hostile, we head back to the second floor with everything here,” Hoen offered.
“Even better, I think the third floor will be where we make our stand. We risk the enemy reaching us with full resources, but we’ll also be at our most powerful,” Glenda decided.
“That works, I’ll buff everything I can, and oh, I had another thought. Let’s see if my duplicate spell also works on your defenders,” I said as I focused my attention on the third-floor champion. The dungeon champion still hadn’t respawned, so I’d have to wait to try the spell out on an elite defender. Despite not being an elite, the third-floor champion was still a force to be reckoned with. I hadn’t seen them in action, but an elf archer riding a giant dire bear seemed like they could hold their own in a fight.
Starting to cast the spell, the connection to the dungeon made my targeting feel strange, but the connection was there and as I pushed more mana into the spell, a second bear and rider appeared. It was more draining than usual, but I wasn’t sure if that was because I was in the dungeon or if it was because I was casting it on a veteran minion. At the end of the spell, my mana tanked hard, leaving me with just two points remaining. At least inside the dungeon, it seemed to regenerate faster than I had experienced before.
“Impressive, this will be a boon to our defense. How long will the duplicate remain?” Glenda asked.
“As far as I know, indefinitely, but I can only have one duplicate out at a time, and there is a short cooldown when this one is killed or unsummoned before I can use the spell again. I should also point out that while the duplicate has the same skills and abilities as the original, it’s more vulnerable, and takes double the damage from any attack,” I advised.
“This is still excellent. I believe we have a plan and the only thing that remains is to see how much time our foes allow us to have,” Glenda said.
“Sadly, I don’t think they’re going to give us any longer, boss,” Hoen said as a system message appeared.
Hostile adventurers are approaching the dungeon. This party has recently attacked your core, all defensive restraints placed upon your dungeon are removed.