FINAL CORE - Chapter 55 (Patreon)

Dungeons are engines of prosperity.

Just like a great manufacturer will draw in people from all around the region to work for them, just like a trade-hub on the ocean will draw in ships and merchants from distant nations — so too, will a dungeon draw in adventurers.

There is incredible wealth to be found in dungeons.

Traditionally, ‘adventurers’ as they are colloquially known, stem from lower socio-economic tiers of society. While the noble and the wealthy certainly have the same capacity to become adventurers, there is simply no need for them to do so.

If you have blood or money, you can live much more comfortably running mercantile businesses or enterprises of trade and politics.

Only those who are desperate enough to need to claw through mud and bones for coins and scraps become adventurers. Yet, paradoxically, they are, by some measures, the most productive members of our society.

After all, a mine will only generate specific kinds of metals and minerals for its limited lifespan. A forest will only provide wood, meat and fruits until it is harvested bare.

A dungeon, however, provides everything, forever.

Meat, metal, bones, potions, equipment and tools — literally anything, ranging from raw materials to prefabricated, completed items can be found in the dungeons of the world and they are harvested by none other than adventurers.

Adventurers provide our societies with a broad, very wide base of limitless raw materials of very diverse origin and use.

A mine could not run without tools and equipment crafted from a dungeon’s resources.

A port of harbor could not function without the wealth that it has to offer in trade to foreign merchants, which stems from the dungeons.

The armies, guided by noble-blooded officers, could not be fed without the incredible masses of food that are earned with the wealth of the dungeons.

Our society is built upon these simple, easily obtained resources. Without dungeons and the adventurers who plunder them, our civilization as we know it would collapse.

~An elven wanderer’s guide to dungeoneering, chapter sixteen — The economical considerations of dungeon diving

____________________________________________

Water barrels through the channels in the dirt, the crushing pressure of the stream brought in by the rising tide having finally found the strength to push in towards the land and to remove any debris and obstacles that might have once hindered it.

As the tower grows, so does the territorial radius of the dungeon-core, Isaiah. At the time of ascension, when the island left the land, this radius was two and a half kilometers worth of land towards the ocean to the south, which left with it.

Since then, the territorial radius has grown more and as such, so has the size of the elevated land.

Towards the south-west, this was a problem because of the village that Red had been sent to appease. They had already suffered greatly during the initial ascent and with every increasing level-up and every new treasure-chest constructed, this diameter of influence expands out further and further, stealing more and more of their land.

It is hard to appease the humans for a past mistake, when in the present, the same thing continues to happen.

— As for the waters, trickling through the landscape south of the tower…

Isaiah hovers there, looking down towards the world below.

Because of the drastic shift in the landmass, several channels have opened up and the ocean, which was once held at bay by formations of strong rocks, sediment and plant-matter, has begun to creep in towards the heart of the world.

Salt-water now runs through the grassy meadows, past the roots of trees that are not able to survive its presence. Hills sink into the softening ground and loose, crumbling cliff-sides of compacted soil crash in on themselves, as they soak full of the briny water.

The landscape here is irreparably changed.

It is hard to say what will happen within a short span of time, other than that most things here will likely die, before other things that are more fitted to life in this new biome come to fill the gaps left behind. A brackish swamp, likely, will emerge in some time from now.

But for right now, for this instant, it’s just kind of a mess.

Isaiah looks towards Black, who it has tasked with maintaining this area as best as possible, to avoid angering the humans further. Thankfully, this region near the ocean was uninhabited. But that does not mean that this creeping salt-water will not affect the surrounding regions beyond the immediate area.

— Especially the massive crater left just beneath the island. If that were to fill up with the water of the ocean, the landscape all around the tower would be changed dramatically, even with the influence of holy-magic radiating down over the area.

_________________________________________ 

[New Area Added]

Floor {81}

The eighty-first floor of the tower dungeon. It is currently empty.

Capacity: {164} Monster-Points / 08 TRAPS

(The next sub-boss/challenge room will be available in {04} floors!)

(The next boss arena will be available in {09} floors.)

The roost shakes, as the tower begins to move up another floor in height. The boughs of the very-big-tree quiver, the verdant leaves rustling as the minor quake moves through the stonework.

Isaiah stares out over the land.

The tower has grown significantly in power since its early days. But especially ever since the ascension, which has given it a substantial boost in height and therefore, strength.

However, at the same time, the adventurers who raid the dungeon on a daily basis have also gotten stronger. Many of these people, these outsiders from the city, Isaiah has begun to recognize, simply because they are here every single day, fighting their way up the tower.

While during the initial onslaughts on the tower, even the inspection teams had trouble fighting their way just to floor ten. These new-comers however, are far more practiced in scaling the tower and in fighting its significant challenges, as they essentially do this for their daily-bread, day in, day out.

Some groups have fought floors one to ten easily a few times each. They could go higher, but they stick to this lower segment in hopes of obtaining some form of complete mastery over it. The items and the materials that they plunder seem to be far more than enough to satisfy their ambitions.

Other, more adventurous collections of people have pushed hard and deep to fight to be the first ones to beat further significant sections of the tower.

Isaiah is not really sure why, as there is no reward for this; at least not one bestowed by itself or by the tower. But the adventurers hold great merit in being the first teams to fight and beat a boss monster or a challenge room that nobody else has managed to do before.

It closes its eyes, looking out through the eyes of a statue.

________________________________________________

Murjin

Dwarf, Male, Merchant

Murjin hums to himself, shuffling piles of coins from one side of the table to the other, as he counts his very strong daily profits. Some other merchants have finally come here to the grounds of the holy tower too, to set up their shops and stalls off of the sides of carts and carriages. So he has some competition now.

However, given that he was the first one here, he’s already established a strong rapport with the adventurers. They tend to go to him first, even if the others offer a better deal now and then on odds and ends.

— Location and a loyal customer-base is everything to a merchant.

This place is likely to last a while. A dungeon like this? There’s no way that the church won’t be crawling over themselves to be the first to declare this entire place a sacred site. If that happens, he won’t be able to get a foot in the door anymore because they’ll claim the land for themselves.

So he needs to set up shop soon in a physical, real way. He needs something bigger than this stand. He needs something more permanent, that they can’t just kick him out of.

— Murjin slides another few gold coins to the side.

He should be able to have a structure built here with this money, easily. He’ll stick it out here for a few years up on this weird island and then he’ll retire like a king.

This place is a gold mine.

And he’s struck it deep.

_______________________________________________

Rorate

Dark-Elf, Female, Fighter

Rorate struggles against the reins of the anqa, pulling it up the staircase. “Come on!”

The bird squawks in annoyance. “It’s just this one flight!” she argues. Anqas are not fond of stairs, which makes sense, she supposes. They’re not exactly natural things for them to traverse.

The anqa snips in annoyance with its beak, but relents, walking after her. The second anqa, seeing the first one take the lead, simply follows them up to the top of the roost.

Rorate looks around the area, seeing Isaiah up on the tree. She waves. “Isaiah!” calls Rorate, pulling the anqa after her and over the top of the roost, towards the very large tree that Isaiah always sits on.

The entity turns its head, looking down her way from its perch.

“Good news!” says Rorate, leaning in towards the anqa and stroking its front. The anqa clicks and hisses with its beak. “It took a while to get them settled down. But they managed. The anqa is gonna lay some eggs!” explains the dark-elf.

___________________________________________________________

Gray

Male, Uthra, Worker {2}

“I’m so sick of all of this stupid, worthless gold!” groans the uthra, throwing a bar of it over his shoulder. “- White!”

“…Yes?” asks White from the side, popping his head out of a tunnel.

“Do you really have to keep digging this stuff up?” asks Gray. “I’m drowning here!”

White shrugs. “I haven’t gotten new orders. So… yes.”

“Have you asked for new orders?” asks Gray.

“I have not.”

Gray gestures hopelessly towards the underground room, stacked high with mounds of gold ingots.

White shrugs. “I believe that if Isaiah had new orders for me, it would say as much.”

“That’s dumb,” says Gray. “It probably just doesn’t know that we’re good on gold. Go talk to it and ask.”

White shakes its head. “It is not my place. I was told to find gold. So I will do so, until told otherwise.”

Gray sighs. “Fine! I’ll go do it instead. Sheesh.”

“Why not distribute the gold to the humans?” asks White. “They seem to enjoy it, for whatever reason.”

A color of light flashes by, flying in from the tunnels. Red. “— Uh, hell no?” she says, planting her hands on her hips and leaning in towards White. “Do you know how many of them that would attract?!” she snaps. “They’re like roaches. You throw out one piece of fruit and suddenly they’re everywhere! We’d never get rid of them!”

Gray lifts a finger. “…But… I thought we don’t want to get rid of them?” he asks. “Isn’t the whole idea to lure them in, so they make the tower stronger?” He looks towards White. White nods.

“Sure, sure,” says Red. “That’s the plan now.” She shakes her head. “But what about later on, when the plan changes and we have to kill them all? Then what?” she asks. “Then we’re gonna have a thousand of them, living inside of the dungeon like grubby, disgusting parasites.”

“I don’t understand. Why would we have to kill them?” asks White. “I believe Isaiah is not fond of this idea.”

“Please,” says Red. “You guys know what humans are like,” she says. “How many dungeons have you guys worked for before this?” she asks. “They all go eventually. Do you want the tower to go out like Emerald did?” Red looks at Gray, who shakes his head. She points at herself. “I’m second in command and I’m telling you to batten down the hatches,” orders Red. “There’s gonna be a day soon when the humans change their mind. We’re not getting surprised again.”

“I am unsure,” says White tentatively. “I believe that we should talk to Isaiah about this.”

Red turns towards him. “I believe you should shut your yap!” she barks. “If you go to Isaiah, it’s just gonna tell us to be nice and give out free hugs and blah-blah-blah. The chief can’t get over its whole mother-instinct from when it was a bird.” Red looks at them. “We need to take some self-initiative here, for the worst case scenario.” She looks at them. “You guys know what humans are like. You know this won’t last.”

Gray and White are quiet for a while, exchanging an unsure look with each other.

Gray nods.

White is quiet for a time and then nods back.

“- What do you want us to do?” asks Gray, looking towards Red.