FINAL CORE - Chapter 28 (Patreon)

“Using a bathroom in the dungeon?

Well… it’s kind of awkward.

I mean, as an adventurer, you kind of just do what you have to do, you know?

But it’s also a real problem in a way that’s hard to explain. I’m not a shy person or anything, mind you. But… I don’t want anyone watching me when I ‘take a break’.

I think that’s a fair want, right?

But the thing about being in a dungeon is that you just kind of… always feel watched. 

One time, I had to work and I had a bad stomach issue that week. I was in the central beginner’s dungeon. Fairly standard-fare, right? Level one spriggans, things like that.

Well, I had to make a quick stop after clearing floor three and, hand to the gods, the moment I was ‘in the middle of it’, I heard footsteps coming up from below.

— You need to understand that the central dungeon doesn’t have patrolling monsters. It’s literally the easiest, most friendly dungeon there is.

So here I am, leaving my mark on history and there comes this huge, hulking behemoth of a dryad stomping her way up. Dryads don’t come until floor ten! Let alone ones this big.

Now, was I just particularly unlucky and was part of some sort of cosmic happenstance that day? Maybe.

But what I think is that the dungeon took particular offense to my, uh, difficulties and decided to catch me, literally with my pants down.

It almost worked too. I made it out of there, but not with my pants or my dignity and let me tell you that there was no worse feeling in my life then stepping out of that dungeon portal and being seen by a thousand people on the busiest marketplace in the world as ‘the guy who shit himself in the easiest dungeon there is’.

Nobody ever believed me. But I swear it's true. Hand on my heart.”

~Conversation with an adventurer who is having trouble finding a party

_______________________________________

[Rorate]

Rorate holds onto the reins of the anqa as she rides down the road, towards the west.

People have been gathering outside of the tower and not really an insignificant number of them. It seems that word of the place has spread, at least to the nearby villages around and inside of the forest.

— She supposes the giant bell did play a noticeable part in that. But the twenty story high tower -

She turns her head around for a moment, looking at it.

— Twenty-five story high tower, she corrects herself, is a bit of an eye-catcher.

It’s amazing, just how fast it’s being built. She’s seen houses take years to make and here, the tower is just sort of… sprouting, rising up towards the heavens like a budding tree, pressing out of the soil.

A holy dungeon.

Why would the gods put such a thing here, such an obvious, fantastic spectacle, if they didn’t have some grand plan in mind?

Rorate simply does not know.

But she knows that people are fearful creatures and that they do rash, thoughtless things when they are afraid. Just like she herself had done only a little while prior.

She whips the reins and the anqa runs faster, the other one behind them, speeding up to keep pace.

She is a simple woman. She’s not very smart or talented or lucky or beautiful or anything really exemplary. So the fact that she’s gotten this chance to be here, to be a part of a divine will is something so incredible that she can’t help but to have a deep, whole desire to simply do her best.

Nobody has ever had faith in her before.

She rides off to the west, towards the city.

_____________________________________________________

“White,” says Isaiah.

“Hallow,” replies White. Isaiah looks around, it is down at the bottom of the tower, in the tunnels. It is a place where it very much dislikes being. “How is the work?”

“Substantial,” replies White. “I can sparsely keep up with the demand for stone. The stockpile is about depleted.”

[Pilgrimage]

The tower gains ambient magic from the arrival of strangers.

+03 EXP

400/750

[Prayers]

Prayers have been given at the shrine.

+01 EXP

401/750

Isaiah nods. “You will have more help soon,” it says. “Once Bulah begins, I will summon another uthra.”

“Looking forward to it,” replies White. “It gets lonesome down here.”

Isaiah tilts its head. “Why not speak with Red?”

White lifts its hands. “All life is sacred. But Red is adverse to that concept. We have our differences.”

Isaiah thinks. It seems a little sad, actually. White has been down here for days now, just digging by itself. Herself? Himself? All of the uthra appear to have a gender, it really ought to get to learning them. They are a ‘team’, after all, yes?

“White, continue your tunneling beneath the graveyard,” instructs Isaiah.

“I believe that would cause problems,” replies White. “With the bodies.”

Isaiah shakes its head. “Go get Black. You two are to tunnel beneath the graveyard and make a series of catacombs together.”

White perks up. “Oh. Of course!” it says, flying off.

“- Wait,” says Isaiah, pointing at it with a talon. “Are you male or female?”

“An unprofessional question,” replies White. “Male.”

Isaiah nods, waving him off.

The graveyard needs to expand underground anyway, or it will simply take up too much space on the surface. Plus this gives White a chance to spend time with another uthra. Comradery is a good development. It will make them more effective.

[Dungeon Breached!]

• Intruders: 04
• Average Level: 09
• Difficulty: Challenging

Ah. It looks like the humans are back again.

Isaiah considers looking for a moment, but then, it decides not to, as Red had advised.

— There is too much else to do.

___________________________________________________

Isaiah holds the small, blue stone in its hands, looking at it.

— A sapphire.

White had extracted it days ago, but it had been sitting in the stockpile ever since.

The stockpile is a problem of its own. Currently, it is simply sitting outside, in the open. But nobody seems to have bothered climbing around the towers of bricks there yet, lucky enough. The gold and iron that they have been collecting are all nested there, in the center of it all.

FLOOR TWO - CLEARED

Intruders Remaining: 04

Isaiah looks around the underground area. Staring at the forge, that it had never been inside of before. “Gray,” it says, looking at the uthra at work, smelting iron ore into a usable state. “What should I do with this?” it asks.

“Huh?” asks Gray, looking over from its work. “Oh. Uh… Crystal and Red could probably tell you more. They spent time at the Emerald. She was all gems,” says Gray. “But if I understood it right, rare stones are usually full of condensed ambient magic from the core of the world,” explains the creature, returning to its tasks. “You can use them for special monsters and traps and things like that,” it says. “A sapphire will let you do water or ice stuff, I guess,” says the uthra. “It’s blue. So it makes sense to me.”

Isaiah nods, looking back down at the stone in its hands.

[New Area Added]

Floor {27}

The twenty-seventh floor of the tower dungeon. It is currently empty.

Capacity: {56} Monster-Points

2 TRAPS

(The next sub-boss/challenge room will be available in {08} floors!)

(The next boss arena will be available in {03} floors.)

What a pretty thing.

____________________________________________________

…A kitchen.

Isaiah looks around the room. It’s… honestly kind of nice? It’s a small, but well furnished room, lined with sturdy, wooden cabinets and an iron stove. A door leads to a deeper cellar, where the perishables are likely stored. A table sits against the wall, with a red checkered tablecloth that Teal had likely made. It honestly looks like any other quaint human kitchen. One would never know that it’s beneath a dungeon, if not for the full lack of windows.

Like a fish out of water, Isaiah wanders through the room, maintaining a curious, harpyish posture as it examines the space. It remembers kitchens from its human life. It had always liked kitchens. Red cooks really great food.

Isaiah rubs its face, remembering the concept of shared meals, of get-togethers and events of such a nature.

— Perhaps, when times are less dire, there will be opportunities to break bread with the uthra, Rorate and any others there will be by then?

That would perhaps be… nice.

The crackling of the fire gets its attention. Isaiah turns to look at something moving inside of the stove.

A monster?

It doesn’t recall summoning a monster down here. Isaiah bends down, looking into the oven.

[Fire Spirit]

A small, raging spirit of flame, born out of sheer happenstance. It isn’t particularly strong or useful, but it does have a fighting spirit.

• Class: Monster
• Element: Fire
• Type: Trickster
• Category: Elemental
• Rank F
• Level: 01
• HP: 00/00
• SOUL: 10/10

*Elementals do not have health-points. Instead, their soul-points act as health.

Oh. This must have come from the special effect of this room. Isaiah recalls seeing something about it having a rare chance summoning a fire-spirit every day. Huh…

The small creature bounces around. It looks like the burning head of a matchstick, if it had arms and legs.

An interesting development, if not very useful.

…Or?

Isaiah looks down at the blue gemstone in its hands. Hmm…

Perhaps a token gesture of helpfulness from its own part would be an appropriate act of reciprocity towards Red and the others?

Isaiah holds a hand out. The fire-spirit runs onto it, crawling around like an excitable pixie. But it doesn’t burn Isaiah.

FLOOR FOUR - CLEARED

Intruders Remaining: 04

“Here,” says Isaiah. “Take this,” it orders, holding out the small sapphire.

The fire-elemental stops on Isaiah’s shoulder, staring down at the other, adjacent hand with the gem in it.

Like an excited child with too many legs, it scurries down his arm, new appendages growing from its fiery body so that it can move faster. The tiny elemental wraps itself around the stone.

A soft, blue glow shines out of the gem, piercing through the red, licking flames. The lights merge in Isaiah’s palm, coming together into a new entity that is denser, calmer, quieter.

[Ice Spirit{2}]

A calm, heavily defensive spirit that prefers to be alone in quiet darkness. It emanates an icy aura out from itself in all directions.

• Class: Monster
• Element: Ice
• Type: Tank
• Category: Elemental
• Rank D
• Level: 04
• HP: 00/00
• SOUL: 26/26

*Elementals do not have health-points. Instead, their soul-points act as health.

The changed elemental, a quivering mass of ice-crystals, comes to a slow, as it then simply sits perfectly still in Isaiah’s hand.

Isaiah heads to the door of the pantry, opening it.

A small staircase that leads down to a room below, stocked with vegetables and meat that hang in the darkness from rafters.

[Pilgrimage]

The tower gains ambient magic from the arrival of strangers.

+02 EXP

403/750

“Here,” it says, holding its hand downward. “You may stay here.”

The calm, lazy ice elemental lifts up into the air and flies into the pantry, leaving a trail of ice growing in its wake. Isaiah exhales, seeing its own breath before its face already.

With this, their food will stay perishable for a lot longer. A critical investment, if they want to keep more humans and elves and the like here, at the tower.

[Upgraded Area]

Kitchen {Level 2} to Kitchen {Level 3}

A simple cooking area, offering the utility to allow preparation of more complex foods that can be used to attract monsters with a more refined taste. It has a functional ice-cellar that will greatly extend the shelf-life of perishable foods.

 THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA. NO HOSTILE INTRUDERS ARE ALLOWED INSIDE OF THE KITCHEN AREA.

• Level {3} Effect: Perishable durability decay rate lowered by 85%
• Level {2} Effect: Allows the preparation of complex food items.
•  Firepit: 01% chance of summoning a FIRE-SPIRIT every day
• {Holy} Beauty in simplicity: Basic, simple meals cooked here are more restorative.

Now if only it could find something interesting to do with their gold.

____________________________________________________

Isaiah sits atop the roost of the tower, watching as a crowd gathers below.

[The incursion is over!]

• Killed Intruders: 00
• Fled Intruders: 04
• Dungeon Casualties: 18
• Average Level: 09
• Difficulty: Challenging

+100 EXPERIENCE POINTS

EXP: 503/750

It closes its eyes, looking through the eyes of a statue on the grounds below.

____________________________________________________

Four people stumble out of the dungeon, one of them being dragged out by the others. All of them are gasping for air, as if they had run for their lives as fast as they could.

“What the hell was that?!” yells one of them, falling down to the ground and leaning against the wall.

A crowd of people has gathered outside of the tower. Many of them are just looking around, but some seem to be here to study the area and the situation.

“- They just got stronger out of nowhere, didn’t they?!” asks the man, who had been carrying his friend.

“You folks good?” calls a stranger from down below the entrance.

They give a tentative thumbs-up. “Dungeon shifted levels,” says the man, who had to be carried. “We trashed floors one to five and we were fighting an encounter on six when…”

“- It was fucked!” interrupts their caster. “You should have seen it. There’s a golem and a fake, right?” she asks. “Well, they just boosted right in the middle of the encounter. There wasn’t a trigger event or anything!”

The people below mutter to each other.

Oh… right.

Isaiah had forgotten that it had been underground the whole time. The tower must have been ridiculously easy to challenge. Then when it had gone up to the top again, they must have been in the middle of the floor six fight, so it powered up because of its grand tower ability.

Ah…

Isaiah comes to a terrible realization, perhaps far too late.

— Why didn’t it just… go downstairs while the inspection team was here?

“I would have sworn they got smarter too,” says the man. “That look in her eyes… it changed. That wasn’t normal homunculi shit. There’s something wrong with this place!”

A group comes up to help them down and carry them to the hot-springs to heal.

However, their 'successful' incursion seems to be what another group was waiting for and now, they make their entrance.

___________________________________________

Isaiah returns to its body and tilts its head.

…Perhaps it would be prudent to lure them into a false sense of security?

It rises into the air, flying down to the ground again, just as the new party intrudes.

[Dungeon Breached!]

• Intruders: 05
• Average Level: 13
• Difficulty: Fairly Challenging

It will maybe wait a little while, until they’re in a good encounter, like floor five before flying up again.