Chapter 27

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The Dungeon, Medea Island

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I’ve failed to make autonomous skeletons. I can insert a tiny piece of my consciousness in them, and move them myself, but there’s just something missing. So, I have a quite a few ‘avatars’ now; three human skeletons and three kobold skeletons. Let me tell ya, it feels strange to be able to interact with the world with more than just mana. Holding things in your hands and moving it from here to there feels so good.

Downsides: even though it is only a small portion of my consciousness, and in the grand scheme of things doesn’t impact my abilities whatsoever, it is still awkward to have to move every individual tendon and bone. Multiplied over six bodies, it’s worse. It doesn’t impact me at all, but it’s still annoying. Might try to find a way to streamline movement later.

Anyway, no matter what combination of skeleton and core type all it leaves me with is an empty vessel. Before I could get started on my golem experiments however, I heard some very worrying news.

The bounty on my head was doubled, which means a large influx of guilders in the near future. The Twins had been holed up in their room, an enchanted artifact in the room making sure anything said within doesn’t make it past the inside of the room. Even rats in the walls can’t hear a word.

Neo’s probably on the way towards a mental breakdown. I feel bad for the girl, honestly. Thrust into a position she obviously wasn’t prepared for, then having the dungeon she was assigned to regulate assaulted with the intent to destroy it. Isid and Jerrad having returned to the island was good for her, having someone on her side would help. For me it was a little worrying, but by now I know they don’t wish to kill me.

I also feel safer, in general.

I have six complete floors, with another half built. Platinum guilders are the strongest humans I’ve encountered and they’ve stalled out at the boss of the third. With the various environments and monsters, I feel their progress past there won’t be fast.

I have breathing room, but I know that won’t last. A large amount of guilders will soon arrive to delve me, likely composed of Golds and Platinums.

I’ve been trying not to be too lethal, since that would likely cause this exact scenario. No reason not to up the danger now, though. It’s the middle of the night, so now’s the time to do something I’ve been thinking about for a while.

There are two guards that stand outside the dungeon, just outside the crack in the wall that is my entrance. I can’t do anything about that unless I kill them but these ones have never tried to kill me, so I won’t do that.

Inside the first cavern, I do a bit of building. Sand rises up and fuses into a distinctive shape; Romanesque pillars rise up on either side of the tunnel, holding up a triangular roof. This structure extends a few yards out from the wall and sits on a solid slab of stone. On the three steps leading up to the slab, I carved words in the Phenoc language.

Beware, Beware

Enter with Intent to Harm the Core

And the Gloves Come Off

I set up braziers enchanted to emit a constant fire, making sure the carvings are easily visible. Just above the tunnel that leads off into darkness, I carve one final sentence.

You Have Been Warned

Warning delivered, I swept through the dungeon with a manic energy. Previously manual traps are enchanted to be self-resetting and intent-activated. What’s that you ask? Well, it’s been in development for a while. Mana is very sensitive to intent; It’s guided and shaped by it even. The Enchantment I’ve figured out reads the intent of the guilders who pass through an area and sorts through them. If it detects the ‘Intent to destroy the Dungeon Core’. Then It activates the trap connected to it.

From this day on Guilders who have no intention of shattering my core, killing me, will no longer trigger traps.

Guilders who do wish to kill me, will trigger what I like to call ‘Hard Mode’.

I’ve installed ‘gates’ on points where monsters enter the human-accessible part of the dungeon that regulate how many monsters are let through in response to those same intent-enchantments. ‘Hard Mode’ will let through double to triple the number of monsters the gates would otherwise.

Beyond just this, the traps are now far, far more lethal.

Spike traps deploy extremely quickly and over a larger area, making it very hard to dodge out of their area. Pit traps are deeper and will only deploy when the people above reach the middle of the floor above.

This has made my maze a nightmare, but It’s necessary.

The Jungle doesn’t have as many opportunities for traps, but I make sure to trap the hell out of the ruins. The Boss arena rock is also made more… nondescript. I scoured the surface of the rock of all the carvings I previously had covered it with.

The Kobold mini-boss fights I also ramped up. Every Kobold was granted metal weapons, armor and now fought in groups of four to six. They’re encourage to train amongst each other as much as they can, spreading their skills around as far as possible.

On my pass through the fourth floor, I realized I made a mistake in it’s design. I forgot how effective water mages were when surrounded by water. The Ratten would be slaughtered by any water mage in the waterways. To fix this glaring oversight I removed the water from the majority of the pipe systems, though I kept the pipes. I did keep some areas wet, and some submerged, but by and large it was dry.

That brought me to the rats. I wasn’t very confident in their success if I left them to themselves. They just weren’t tough enough yet. Easily remedied, though. A wave of mana infusions swept through the entire rat population with the intent to toughen their skin, increase their reflexes and strength in general without bulking them up.

The Fifth got a decent number of traps installed and it’s monsters buffed, too.

The Sixth, lava-filled nightmare that it was, didn’t need many traps. There were a few ledges I rigged to collapse into the lava and sections that would periodically flood and drain of lava. Honestly the lava I have here doesn’t act like lava on earth. It’s more flowing and liquid-like, even sitting in lakes like this. I didn’t do anything to make it like this beyond keeping it heated, so it must just be how lava is here.

The monsters on the sixth floor still weren’t lava-proof, despite my best efforts. They still got another boost in general power and effectiveness.

The Seventh, I’ve decided, will also be inhabited by Kobolds. Well. Upgraded Kobolds. The Kobolds that live on the third floor, the tribesmen specifically, are weak. The ones on the seventh will be an ‘evolved’ form, the Drake-kin. They’ll be in generally bigger, stronger, bulkier and rougher than normal Kobolds. I set them to mine the Ore, and equipped them with modified pickaxes forged by Tear. One side of the pick was as expected, pointy and tough enough to dig into rock. The other side was bladed, like a battle-axe. I’ll call them battle-picks.

Ah! The first rays of sunlight have pierced the sky. Time to watch the minds of the guilders explode.

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Outside the Dungeon

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Haythem stood in the line with the rest of the raid group. This group was composed of four remaining gold parties who had been in the first wave to arrive at the island, and it showed. They still didn’t trust each other completely, but there was a sense of comradery they shared in being the ones who had delved this dungeon the longest.

They were in the first slot of the day, to be followed by couple of raid group of silvers from the second wave. Behind those were a few parties who were still delving alone. about halfway down the line he spotted the Platinum Isid and her husband Jerrad. Their re-appearance on the island had been the hot topic of discussion in the taverns last night.

Though they had left the island before he could meet them, they were known to be the first guilders to reach the second floor. In this dungeon? a feat worthy of respect.

As the sun crested the horizon, their group was granted entrance. Normally, they could expect to encounter six or seven crab monsters in this first cavern. Today wasn’t a normal day. there were no monsters, and a new feature on the other side of the cavern. The light provided by the mana-light in the cavern ceiling lit the structure ominously, the pillars casting deep shadows. The braziers filled with teal flames did little to help

They approached the new building cautiously, keeping an eye out for an ambush. They’d learned time and time again in this dungeon that something new or different was something to be feared.

Haythem, was at the head of the raid and the first to spot the words. Written in Pheoncian.

“Beware, Beware? What in the five hells is this?” The man beside him spoke.

“A Warning.” Haythem answered, his eyes memorizing the text. “Enter with intent to harm the core and the gloves come off.”

“What does that even mean?” A scruffy man asked, looking confused.

“It’s a noble thing.” Vert answered. Haythem scowled reflexively at the sound of the pompous man’s voice.

“They wear gloves to prevent dirt and such from dirtying their skin,” the annoying man continued in a knowing tone. Haythem prepared to disregard what he was about to hear. “If a noble shakes your hand with a glove on, it’s because they consider you dirty. If a noble takes their gloves off in front of you, then they’re showing you respect and that they’re taking you seriously.”

Huh. That didn’t sound like total bullshit.

“So what does it mean, then?” The confused man asked.

“It means the Dungeon is taking us seriously.” Haythem answered, gravely. “And that is a terrifying thought. After all, if it’s taking us seriously now, what was it doing before?”

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The Dungeon, Medea Island

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The next day was bloody.

Seven golds of various parties lost their lives to traps and two died to an overwhelming force of monsters. In most cases the parties teleported out when one of their group died. One party of Golds was annihilated completely in the fire-trap on the second floor. The only Golds that got out almost completely unscathed were the Trio. They were incredibly cautious and wary. When the rogue became injured they left before that injury led to a death.

In the case of the Silvers, it was a massacre.

Four parties were annihilated, three lost most of their members, five lost one or two of their number. the rest were forewarned enough to leave at the first sign of becoming overwhelmed.

When Isid, Jerrad, Lione had entered with three new members in their party, it was a true test of my adjusted traps. When they triggered a trap I was shocked. Did they want revenge or something?

It was on the second floor that I realized the truth. They had been informed of the changes to the maze and it’s various traps, but the separation trap activated too fast for them to just avoid. Four triangular slabs rushed inwards, prompting them to jump backwards or forwards. Jerrad and Isid jumped ahead, but Lione and the other three were too far back. From that point on, it became obvious.

Jerrad and Isid triggered no traps. It was one of the other four who harbored ill-intent.

The rest of the traps on the floor were easier to avoid or dodge at Platinum level, and soon enough they all met up again at the entrance to the boss room.

Time for a long-overdue fight, huh?

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