Untitled Dungeon project 7-8 (Patreon)

Author note: I know I owe you guys a Chrysalis chapter, it's coming! Thought I'd put a (very simple) image of the Dungeon together to make it clear what's happening.

Wallace waited and thought as his three remaining defenders began to heal and rest. The fight had left them with severe injuries and it would take hours before they'd be in a state to fight. So, he could do something about this dangerous vulnerability, and at the same time, he wanted to improve the lives of the creatures who fought so hard to protect him.

He waited until the taint he had collected from the fallen monsters had been cleansed, which was a nervous time, to be sure. His core lay essentially unprotected, nothing standing between it and the entrance. He knew that the beastlings would rush to his aid the moment they detected the scent of danger, but the idea of his core being exposed rankled his knew existence. Like an itch he couldn't scratch, the fact his core was so vulnerable was an incessant irritation. When the essence announcement finally came through, he was sore tempted to shift his core immediately, just to rid himself of that nagging feeling.

But no, Wallace had formed an enduring resolve to reward his badger-people and he would see it through! He had thirteen Essence to spend and the whole lot was going to be spent on the Lair. Naturally, he didn't discuss this with the beastlings, since they'd probably object, he just went ahead and did it. He floated into the Lair to find his warriors slumped on the ground, soaking up the passive healing boost they received in the Lair. With a thought, Wallace conjured up the options he had available for the room.

[Beastling Lair improvement options:

Increase capacity. Allow two more Beastlings to reside in this Lair. 10 Essence.

Nourishing Flame of Wodra. Enchant the fire with a blessing of the nature goddess to enhance the strength of those who rest in its light. 10 Mana, 10 Essence.

Assign Den Mother. Appoint a den mother to care and provide for her burrow mates. Beastlings of this Lair will be better organised and fight harder. 5 Essence

Healing Spring. Create a trickle of Mistras holy waters to create a small spring within the Lair. The waters can be used to increase the speed of healing. 10 Mana, 15 Essence.

Homeliness improvements. Improve the comfort level and amenities of the Lair, improving happiness and sense of belonging for the beastlings assigned here. 5 mana, 3 Essence.]

He'd love to be able to buy the healing spring, but he just didn't have enough to pay for it. Instead, he chose two upgrades. First he selected the increased capacity upgrade, then the homeliness improvements. His reasoning was simple. With two more beastlings, they'd be able to operate in shift more effectively, and be able to cover each other if one happened to fall in battle. If he summoned two more warriors to defend him, the regenerating beastling wouldn't be forced back into duty shorty after recovery, therefore avoiding the risk of permanent death. The homeliness upgrade was cheap, and sounded nice. If it made them happier and more comfortable, then it would be well worth the three essence it cost him.

With the two upgrades selected, Wallace took a step back with a smile on his face as he felt the power in the core flooding into the room. The beastlings themselves, sensed it as well. Looks of surprise were shared between them as they rose, steadying themselves within the shifting space. The changes began almost immediately. The room expanded, dirt vanished to the left and right as the burrow extended further, tree roots growing to encompass the new roof and walls, nestling softly onto the floor. Two new beds appeared, one on either side of the new Lair, but even as they came into being, those same beds began to change. 

The crackling fire grew larger and sank down into the ground as a well formed fire pit appeared beneath it, lined with warm stones that reflected the glow of the flame around the room. The beds also changed, the rough straw and blankets replaced with fresh herbs and softer fabrics that smelled sweet and earthy. From the roots above, small flowers budded and bloomed in moments, their blue and yellow faces peeking from amongst the wood like shy children. All in all, the room was much more comfortable and inviting than before, which left Wallace feeling quite pleased with himself. 

Happy with the results, he opened up the menu for the room to see what had changed.

[Beastling Lair improvement options:

Increase capacity (II). Allow two more Beastlings to reside in this Lair. 20 Essence.

Nourishing Flame of Wodra. Enchant the fire with a blessing of the nature goddess to enhance the strength of those who rest in its light. 10 Mana, 10 Essence.

Assign Den Mother. Appoint a den mother to care and provide for her burrow mates. Beastlings of this Lair will be better organised and fight harder. 5 Essence

Healing Spring. Create a trickle of Mistras holy waters to create a small spring within the Lair. The waters can be used to increase the speed of healing. 10 Mana, 15 Essence.

Homeliness improvements (II). Improve the comfort level and amenities of the Lair, improving happiness and sense of belonging for the beastlings assigned here. 8 mana, 5 Essence.]

It seems as though the upgrades he'd purchased were not one off buys, but instead could be bought multiple times! There had to be a cap, perhaps once he'd upgraded the Lair to a capacity of ten Beastlings he would no longer be able to buy it. He did wince at the price. Twenty essence?! He wouldn't be able to purchase that anytime soon. The second level of homeliness improvements was far more accessible, though it was a significant investment for no real gain in security. With no essence remaining, there was nothing further he could do in the Lair, so Wallace dismissed the menu and turned to other business.

Since he had enough mana in the bank, he went ahead and dashed to the core, charging up the glyph and summoning a brand new beastling on the spot. Behind him, the three resting warriors snuffed the air and cast their eyes appreciatively around their new burrow. The small creature comforts were welcome additions to their home that livened their spirits. The first beastling to be summoned could only shake their head. As pleasant as it was to have a nicer place to rest, it was a waste of precious resources. The core still lay exposed and should it fall, then all of them would suffer a horrible torment.

For his part, Wallace was feeling good. The beastlings had a nicer home, he had a brand new, fully healthy defender pacing the core chamber and soon enough there would be another to join them. Once a day had gone past, he felt confident that he would have a full complement of six warriors and his core would be nestled away, safe in the currently vacant back room. It took an hour or two, but once the required eight mana was generated, he conjured another warrior who promptly joined the other in their patrol. Drained of both Essence and Mana, there was nothing more that Wallace could do to effect change in his Dungeon. So he retreated to the empty core room to be and thought.

It hadn't been long since he'd been awoken to this new mission. Perhaps only a few days. The Conduit, whatever it may be, had rather bluntly shunted him here and he'd been on his own trying to work things out since then. It was frustrating that their remained so much that he wasn't aware of. Still, he was learning. Piece by piece he was starting to figure out how to improve and upgrade his Dungeon. He'd fought off some minor incursions, some of them only barely, but he was still alive. So long as he lived and continued to improve the Dungeon, himself, then he had the chance to learn and grow.

What was more frustrating, and more difficult for him to understand, was how he himself felt. He didn't remember anything before being awoken by the Conduit, his entire past was a blank canvas. He was an odd bundle of instincts that didn't seem to fit his current life. His 'sense' of the Dungeon as 'himself' still felt strange and uncomfortable, as if he were more accustomed to a different type of existence. It was irritating, but there wasn't much he could do about it right now. Perhaps when he was able to create another floor, he would be able to learn more. The Conduit had certainly suggested as much.

So what did he need to do to create the next floor? Would it become available once his first floor was large enough? Was there a room limit for floors? The only way for him to find out would be to keep expanding. Focus on the short term goals, then worry about the bigger stuff later. He'd me much happier when his core had been moved.

CHAPTER 8

It ended up being a day before the big move happened. When his mana ticked up to eight, Wallace summoned another beastling to join the fully healthy warrior defending his core as the others continued to recuperate from their injuries. With his mana once more sitting at 0/20, he engaged in the only activity available to him, sitting in the core and waiting for his mana to return.

One mana an hour was pretty darn slow and without critters creeping into try and nab the core, the natural regeneration the Dungeon provided was all he had access to. After the three dogs had invaded, there was a lull for almost ten hours. The peace was welcome, obviously, but the complete and total lack of essence was not! At this time, Wallace had a grand total of two mana in the bank and a crippling case of impatience. He was almost relieved when he felt an intruder slither into the Dungeon.

Though not quite fully recovered, all six beastlings leapt to the defence of the core and the unfortunate creature who'd invaded was quickly destroyed by the savage little creatures. So quickly, in fact, that Wallace didn't even see it before it was reduced to little more than bloodstains that the badger warriors began to clean from their fur.

The injection of mana was welcome, if slight, but the amount of essence received was pitiful, a single point. Another ten such monsters would be required before the core could be moved… After another five hours, more incursions had taken place, two to be precise. Each proved to be less threatening than the rats or dogs, which was good, but provided substantially less essence. At this point, Wallace had a meagre six essence, but found that he now had a full twenty mana.

The Conduit, limited in its communication as it was, had made it clear that his current capacity was twenty. So, he was full, in a sense. What would happen to any mana he earned from this point, he wasn't prepared to hazard a guess. Would he be able to store the surplus? Would he get some sort of fabulous overflow bonus? He was tempted to try and find out, but ultimately reasoned that he couldn't afford to waste any resource at this perilous stage of his existence.

So he leapt to action, quite pleased to do so after a solid fifteen hours of kicking his heels. As it always did, the thought of expanding the Dungeon, himself, in a sense, filled him with a giddy energy. Perhaps Dungeons just liked to grow? Who knows?! Probably the Conduit… He had so many questions for that damn thing. In order to expedite that process, he needed to expand!

With twenty mana to spend, there were options that he could indulge in. Should he attach another room? If so, where? He considered attaching a tunnel to the empty room behind the Lair, then putting a new room at the end of it, just to extend the distance between the opening and himself, but he discarded the thought. If the end goal of the intruders was to get to the core, then he didn't want them charging straight through the beastling lair. It was clearly intended as a place of rest and recovery for the little badger folks, not a place of combat. Wallace decided he'd branch a new tunnel off to the right of the current core room with the aim of eventually creating a path that didn't pass through the Lair.

Five mana spent to charge the glyph and in a matter of moments, a brand new corridor was born! The same dimensions as the others, it terminated in a solid, smooth wall of solid dirt. But Wallace wasn't done. Much as he had in the Lair, he reached with mind to try and upgrade the tunnel and 'lo and behold, the voice of the Conduit rang forth in his mind.

[Corridor Improvement Options:

Change Dimensions, cost determined by scope of change.

Shift Corridor, 5 mana.

Remove Corridor, 5 mana.]

Interesting! He could actually remove corridors in the Dungeon!? Without pause, Wallace flew to the entrance of the Dungeon and immediately tried to remove the corridor connecting the core to the outside world. 

[There must always be a valid path to the core.]

Damn you, Conduit! Could you just let him lock himself away for a little while? Let him flood the place with traps and rooms until his core was many kilometres from the entrance?!

Wallace sighed. As much as a disembodied ghost body could sigh. Well, at least he learned something new. There must always be a valid path to the core, apparently. This must be one of the 'rules' that applied to his existence that he had heard about from the Conduit. He was allowed to defend the core with monsters, traps and goodness knows what else, but he was not permitted to block access to it. He supposed this was an attempt to keep the contest 'fair'. Still, he felt disgruntled by it. What other restrictions was he going to discover on his own? Why did he have so little help? The last thing the Conduit had told him was that his side was losing this unknown contest. Perhaps that was why he was made to begin his existence with so little information?

Well, he was still alive and learning, so he could be happy about that. Now he had fifteen mana to play with and he knew just what to do with it: Traps!

It was time to fire up the heretofore unused and idle glyph of ambush traps! Somewhat eager to begin, Wallace dove into the core and pumped mana into the mystic design. Just as a corridor did, it required five mana for him to activate, which felt reasonably priced. Once it was ready, he returned to the Dungeon and tried to find a place to create his first ambush trap. He had no idea what it would be like, but he was hopeful it would be something useful. A part of him regretted not choosing one of the more lethal trap variants, but he was here now and had to work with what he had.

He chose to create the trap in the entrance corridor. If it was going to be useful then it needed to be between the entrance and the core, and currently this corridor was the only thing that fit that definition. About halfway down the corridor on the left side wall, he activated the glyph and felt the surge of power from the core as the glyph activated and began to transform the solid wall.

At first, it almost appeared as if nothing had changed. The wall appeared as much as it had before and for a moment Wallace wondered if the glyph had misfired. But then he noticed something, a shift in the light perhaps, and he stepped forward, into the wall, where he found himself standing in a small hollow. Turning around, he could see that where once a solid wall had stood, was now replaced with a interlaced weaving of branches with solid dirt packed to the outside to give it the appearance of a wall. With a little bit of work, it was a simple task to smooth the dirt out and blend the edges together. Ingenious! So this was an ambush trap then? 

Wallace could see it would have its uses. A beastling hiding inside would be able to creep out strike from the rear as the rest of them charged from the front. Envisioning the process made him pause for a moment. Would the beastling have to lock itself inside that tiny space for hours on end? Could they even breathe in there? How would they know when it was time to come out? There were still a few problems to iron out. First, Wallace created a new tunnel from the core room that connected to the back of the trap. This was his first use of the corridor modification process and he found it was fairly intuitive. He didn't want to create another way for large enemies to enter the current core room, just for the beastlings to be able to access the trap without having to open it from the front. Since the beastling were much smaller and far more lithe than a human, he shrunk the corridor down into a narrow round tunnel that the badgers could squeeze through fairly comfortably. Pleased with his work, Wallace replicated the design on the right hand side of the entrance as soon as his mana allowed.

When he showed off his creation to the beastlings, they didn't seem as impressed as Wallace had hoped, but nonetheless they were happy to make use of them, scurrying through the tunnels to inspect the small hollowed out areas. The warriors found that if they opened the door of the trap fractionally, it was almost impossible to detect and would allow them a much better sense of what was happening in the corridor.

His work complete and mana exhausted, Wallace sat back to wait for the essence to pile up. There were probably a number of upgrades on the traps themselves he could buy, but he deliberately avoided checking the menu in order to avoid temptation. There were more invaders in the hours that followed, animals of varying levels of corruption that provided the precious essence Wallace needed to finally move his core. A full twenty four hours to collect ten essence! Upgrading his Dungeon was going to be slow going indeed if things didn't pick up.