Dungeon Born Read online

  She suddenly bounced in the air, “Oh! Oh! I forgot! Before we start with all of that, I have a present for you! When I was out looking for herbs I had just found a really secluded grove at the bottom of a crevasse a few miles from here. The walls were really sheer, so it wasn’t surprising that no one had been down there before. There, I found a tree in a clearing that was glowing brightly enough that it was noticeable even in the sunlight.” Dani was quivering in excitement, flying in sporadic zig-zags.

  Her excitement was exceedingly contagious.

  “Cal! I found a Silverwood tree!” She grandly announced.

  How amazing!

  “…Right.” She seemed to deflate a bit.

  <...What?>

  “Sorry, I forgot that you are still very young.” She apologized. “This tree has some of the most potent magic of any plant! It purifies the Essence of those around it.”

  I scoffed.

  Can a wisp get headaches? Most likely no, but she seemed pained as she told me, “Cal do you remember how shocked I was that you had removed the corruption you had pulled in while cultivating?”

 

  “Well most beings, which can only pull from their associated elemental Essence, gain corruption slowly but surely, no matter what they do. At the higher ranks, this corruption can block people from ascending to higher cultivation ranks.”

  That would be terrible!

  “Well, I took a seed. A single seed from a Silverwood tree takes years for the tree to make. Also, normally these will never grow outside of their groves, but I think that the Essence you provide might become a decent substitute for what it gets from the grove. If we can grow it, we can almost guarantee that people will come from all around to be here. It may even help to keep you safe, if people come for this instead of focusing on trying to get your Core.”

  Another layer of protection would be nice.

  She coughed, “Well… That’s the thing, if we want to give this its best shot, we will need to give it the most concentrated, pure Essence that you can give it. It will have to be in your Essence puddle with you. It might eventually take up a lot of room too.”

  Pertinent questions.

  “Since it will be growing from your Essence, it should act like your creatures and listen to you. But you have to be careful not to absorb it. I really doubt that you could make a dungeon born version that would do the same as an original.” She cautioned. “Also, I don’t think that we can ever get another seed…”

  I noticed her wince when she said this, as though she hadn’t intended to mention it.

  “No… Well, for one thing, they really rarely make seeds. They are basically super concentrated Essence that accumulate into seeds, actually similarly to how you make your dungeon ‘seeds’. The reason I don’t think you can make them is that it takes S-ranked spiritual energy to duplicate the effects they offer. I don’t know why; the trees are not S-ranked themselves. They have a very mysterious origin.” She was circumventing her real reason, I could tell.

 

  She slowly answered, knowing she had my attention and I wouldn’t be distracted. “It’s… Right after I left there, the earthquake buried the whole area. The grove is gone.”

  Another thing I had done wrong.

  She rushed to defend me, “It’s ok, you didn’t know, how could you? Should we try growing it?”

  I sent her an image of me growing hands and snapping my fingers at her.

  Startling a laugh with that, she floated over to me, and let go of a shining teardrop I hadn’t noticed she had been holding in her body. It fell slower than I felt it should have, like gravity was a thing it deigned to obey only when it so chose, and entered my puddle with only a small ripple. I tried to push Essence into it, but could not get the energy to pass through the surface. With a disappointed sigh I tried to collect the purest, most dense energy I had into an orb around the seed. Then, turning back to the other matters at hand I quizzed Dani on how to go about making a Boss monster.

  She hesitated, “Let’s move you to the last room, then we will talk.”

  I remembered how hard it had been to move myself the first time, and mentally winced. I focused on my pillar, and tried to start the process. To my surprise, I moved smoothly and soundlessly.

  I was having so much fun I started moving faster, zipping through the tunnels in an ecstatic blur.

  “Ha-ha!” She laughed, flying along behind me, “It’s due to you being in your body this time! Last time you were going along uninfluenced ground outside, and you were dragging yourself along. Now, in your influence, you control all of this!”

  Disappointedly reaching the final room, I slowed and put myself near the back, and with Dani directing me, I raised a small hill of stone around my pillar, leaving a hole in the exact center leading down to me and my puddle. My Core better hidden and protected, I listened to Dani tell me how to make my Boss.

  “Start by making the strongest monster you know how to.” Dani directed. Quickly forming a poisonous shroomish, I waited for further instructions. “Well, this process is pretty much the same as when you accidentally made your first monster. Basically you just feed it more and more Essence, until it reaches a point of evolution where it is as strong as you can make it. At your current rank, your Boss monster will become a G-rank nine if you give it everything it can take.”

  Her instructions seemed… Lacking.

  “I know, I know.” She sighed at her lack of clear explanation, “Well, when you get stronger, or learn more about magic or enchantments, even powerful creatures or plants, you will be able to direct the growth how you want it to go.”

  I started pushing Essence into the shroomish, and watched as it was greedily absorbed. Watching carefully as it started changing, I continued putting in energy until I suddenly felt like a wall had popped up between my power and what had previously been a simple shroomish. It began growing at an exponential rate, the power funneling into different areas of the plant in ways I would have never expected. The process slowed down, but spiky thorns began protruding from the stalk. They dripped with poison, and the gill-like ridges under the cap were holding spores that would be released in clouds when it was fighting.

  “Ok, that looks cool. Can I name it?” Dani excitedly pleaded.

  I cheerfully responded.

  “How about ‘Dire Shroom: Bane’?” Dani offered.

  Even if it were just for us, I still liked the name.

  “Well, cultivators can use analysis magic to study things, similar to how we can, to check a Mob’s information and what it can do. When they do so, it will show the name of the monster, and any abilities that they know about. If they were to analyze it before it was dead, all they see is a name and its cultivation rank.” Explained Dani.

  That was a handy tidbit to know! I peered at the rustling form of Bane.

  Dani puffed up with pride, “Yup, and he’ll only get stronger the longer he is alive, Bane is strong enough to cultivate on his own. By the way, the title ‘Dire’ is applied to a really strong version of a creature, I didn’t come up with that. Anyway. Let’s move on to the other Mobs, and then the traps, shall we?”

  moving as fast as we could, we evolved several new creatur
es. One of the mushrooms with healing benefits grew barbed spikes, but on the inside. They didn’t attack, but if stepped on they would send the spike right through the top of the plant, jamming into the foot. Once there, the healing properties would kick in, sealing the spike into healthy meat. If someone tried to pull it out, or step away, it would tear their flesh, creating a much larger wound.

  Even the moss turned into tiny grasping vines, which would snag onto any objects moving by. The barbs on them would scratch and tear at whatever they connected to, hopefully dragging prey down. While not very dangerous by themselves, if someone were to fall into the other Mobs nearby, it could become very deadly. More of a support style Mob, I guess.

  Switching to traps, we lined the tunnels with pitfalls, very thin stone that would crumble when stepped on. When fallen through, spikes at the bottom made from quartz would penetrate the flesh and shatter, dealing even more damage and causing wounds to become infected. I also put spikes in the wall, similar to the pitfalls. If someone leaned on the wall, they would fall through and into the spikes. Rock falls in the ceiling would be triggered when people stepped on certain areas that were pressure sensitive. On a whim, I made mushrooms grow around the base of the spikes in the pitfalls, hopefully adding a poison effect when people fell onto them.

  Dani sounded tired when she finally called it a night for us. “Well, I think that will do for now. I don’t think there are many more things for us to do except, well, how about you do some decorating. Let’s add some inlay and embellish the entryway. We are still at the bottom of a crevasse, but I think that we should start to make ourselves look good before people find us.” Dani looked around with a critical eye. “Eventually, we will make stairs down to where we are, when we are really confident that you can protect yourself.”

  Making things ‘pretty’ didn’t matter to me so much. I’d help her decorate if she wanted though.

  “However it is appealing you, maybe some geometric patterns, or loops or knots.” She trailed off into silence for a moment. “Whatever you like.”

  We worked out a few basic ideas, and within an hour had some basic patterns surrounding the entrance. It looked nice and with the soft blue glow coming out the door, it would be hard to mistake the entryway for a regular cave.

  ~Five~

  “Well something had to cause it!” broadcasted an angry bearded man. “I lost half my flock. Maybe some meteoric iron is laying around? The whole damn mountain nearly fell over.”

  “Stop whining! We all lost part of our herd.” A swarthy man walking beside the bearded one firmly demanded. “You know the dangers of living in the Phantom Mountains. Death is everywhere.” This drew nods from the people around them.

  A small group of sheepherders were walking along a sloping mountainside, sunshine streaming around them as they searched for the source of their sudden misfortune. The grass they were walking through was waist high, and while the day was beautiful and clear, the forest around the base of the mountain range visible from this lofty vantage, the mood was ruined by the incessant yammering of the bearded man named Tim.

  A fresh faced young man decided to input his thoughts, “Well, we are on a plain currently, right? Maybe when we get to higher ground we will be able to see where it hit.”

  “Maybe you’ll learn to keep your mouth shut when your betters are talking.” Tim sniped nastily.

  “Elder, maybe.” Murmured the swarthy man. “Better...?”

  “You got something to say?!” Snarled Tim, turning aggressively on the man standing next to him.

  “I think it is late, and we grow hungry.” The swarthy man appeased the bulky form that was Tim. “Let’s set up camp and return to our search in the morning. The sun will soon set as it is.”

  “Fine,” Tim grumbled, “Why not just give someone else the treasure while you are at it?” Throwing down his bag, he pulled out a bedroll and lay on the ground while the others set up camp.

  The swarthy man eyed Tim, “Since you decided to rest while we worked, you can have the ‘pleasure’ of taking first shift this evening.”

  “Eat shit.”

  The swarthy man blew out some air in frustration, closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths. “Tim, contribute or we’ll leave you to search on your own.”

  After staring at the other man for a few moments, Tim finally conceded with poor grace. “Whatever.”

  After dinner, the small camp wound down. The other men talked for a while, mainly about sheep, weather, and life in their semi-nomadic village. Slowly they fell into a light slumber, with a still-angry Tim keeping guard.

  Walking around the campsite to stay awake, Tim kept up a low grumbling complaint until the light had faded to darkness, in that peculiarly rapid way which seemed to happen on mountains. Shortly after twilight had faded to true darkness, Tim was making his way around camp for what ‘must have been the hundredth time, those heartless bastards’, when he saw a soft gathering of light emanating from the edge of the plain they were sleeping on. Moving to examine it, he found light flowing from a crevasse just past an unmarked grave that seemed to give off an unnatural chill.

  “Well, would you. Look. At. That.” His eyes were gleaming with the light of greed, “Looks like I found me some treasure.” He set about searching for a way to the bottom, but the sides were simply too sheer for him to scale. With mounting disappointment, and a realization that he was going to have to wake up the others and share his find, he returned to the group and roused them from their slumbers with kicks and curses. Furiously they started yelling at him, but quickly calmed when he pointed out the glow. Anger turning to excitement, the group moved toward the hole in the ground and looked for a safe way down, but with frustration decided they would need to wait till morning if they wanted to survive the descent.

  Hours later, when the sun achieved its lofty placement on the horizon known as dawn, the men reeled out the rope ladders that highlanders always brought into new areas. Slipping the ladders down the side, they found that after only thirty feet or so they reached the ground once more. Securing the ladders as best as they could, which was very well, they started their own descent. One by one they got to the bottom, the first down trying hard to hold his enthusiasm in check as he waited for the rest. A total of five men stood before the cave entrance and deliberated about what to do.

  “What is it?”

  “You think it is a Beast lair?”

  “Don’t be foolish, they would never make that kind of art around the edges. It's some old city ruins!”

  “Well,” began the fresh faced young man excitedly, “Do you think it might be a dungeon?”

  Turning to face him, Tim condescendingly talked down to him, “No you moron, you think we would be the first to find a dungeon? The Adventurers’ Guild pays a huge amount of money to scouts who find them, how could they miss this? It freaking glows. Keep your mouth shut when your betters are talking.”

  “Looks like the best way to find out what it is would be to enter it, don’t you think?” The swarthy man supposed.

  “Looks like.” The group walked through the entryway, noting the abundance of mushrooms immediately.

  “Are those redcaps? Those are good eating, never seen ‘em so big before.”

  “Careful not to mix ‘em with those white ones, they are poisonous I think, I know the medicine man wanted some to make an antidote a few years back.”

  “Do you feel that?” prompted the young man.

  Tim growled, rounding on him, “What now?”

  “The air, it is so… clean. I feel healthier than I have in years.”

  “Me too. The ache in my bum knee is fading fast too.”

  “My shoulder feels nice.”

  “Hey look, even Tim doesn’t look like such a sourpuss.”

  The men laughing at his expense of course had the sneer right back on his face, and Tim’s glare shot daggers at the young man, like it was the young man’s fault the group was la
ughing at him. They decided to explore the cave a bit more, as it seemed well-lit, and to collect some ‘shrooms on the way out. By chance, they walked past each of the Mobs without rousing any of them, and had gone through the tunnel far enough that the second room was visible before tragedy stuck.

  “Ahh!” Screamed one of the men as his foot went directly through the floor. He fell forward, his body vanishing for only a few moments before a wet crunch and a whimper floated up from below.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Can you hear us?”

  “Where are you?!” The men clustered around the hole in the floor, trying to establish contact with their fallen comrade. They lit a torch and held it over the opening in time to see and smell their friend void his bowels in his death throes.

  “Disgusting.” Tim sneered.

  Shocked looks were thrown his way as the remaining men discussed what to do. The words ‘heartless asshole’ were heard a few times as well. They had very little extra rope, and no way to lift him from the crevasse. The decision was made that they would need to come back with rope the next day to lift him from his resting place, after informing any family he might have. They turned to leave, when Tim’s voice reminded them that they were here for a reason.

  “You can all turn and run from a weak floor if you like, but I’m going nowhere empty handed. If you leave, you forfeit any right to your share, I tell you right now.” Tim announced firmly. These were practical men, and life was hard in the mountains. While they were shocked at the death, they knew Tim was right. Each of them hardening their hearts, they moved more carefully, unknowingly following Tim deeper into terrible danger. Death was everywhere in the Phantom Mountains.

  Tim moved carefully, testing the floor with each step, hand against the wall for balance. Once, the floor crumbled, and the men laughed with nervous tension as Tim yelped and jumped back. Making their way into the second room, they saw it was similar to the first, filled with mushrooms and other plant life.