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Core Collapse Chapter 22
🕑 Added 2024-03-27 03:59:38 +0000 UTCChapter 22
The party left for Torren the next day. It was a rather short trip, only about a day in the saddle before Tom was once more stabling his monsters in a temporary dungeon made using Alpha Core. Antoine rode ahead to alert the city council that their city would be getting a new dungeon.
Surprisingly, there was very little push back this time. The council had heard of the dungeons opening up in other cities and the boosts that those dungeons had given to their economy, so they were all for it, going so far as to give Antoine unsolicited advice on what sort of resources the city would appreciate. Which were mostly impossible or impractical, but Antoine passed them on to Tom anyway.
Tom leveled the Torren Core a few times to alleviate most of the stress that it was under before forming the dungeon, which took some measure of inspiration from his work at Irshen and Nashak. Torren was a more populous city than the other two had been, so Tom dedicated the top five floors to food production, with a Lake biome on floor one seeded with fish and mermen.
Tom was hoping that the mermen would be peaceful and do the fishing for the people of the city, but regrettably they were hostile and unintelligent. Lo had said that monsters take time after being spawned to develop a personality and sense of individuality, so before he left he instructed the city guard to try not to kill off the mermen unless absolutely necessary in hopes of eventually gaining an ally in them.
The second and third floor he dedicated to grasslands and set to seed Milnet, a popular grain, and oats. For monsters, he was able to select wild boars, providing the city with another popular food source. Although it was a dangerous one to harvest, as wild boars are ferocious when hunted.
The fourth and fifth floors he dedicated to forest, and he populated them with wolves. He set them to seed pine and oak, just as he had in Nashak’s dungeon.
On something of a whim, Tom decided to make this dungeon deeper than the other city dungeons, except for Caseville, going all the way to floor ten. The floors six through ten were cavernous, lit by the glowing crystals in the walls that lit many dungeons, as well as a mixture of luminescent moss and mushrooms.
Rather than Seed the lower floors, he set about a number of Treasure boxes.
He populated the lower floors with a mixture of gnolls, goblins, and, on the final floor, a minotaur. Tom didn’t give this minotaur a name, nor did he spawn it in person. He didn’t want to know it personally, in case it killed someone, or in case someone killed it. It did serve as a powerful final boss, however, and it allowed him to put in a boss level treasure box.
Just to be certain that the soon-to-be delvers were fairly warned about the risks they would be facing in delving this dungeon, he created a puzzle door at the entrance to floor six, and another at the entrance to floor ten. They weren’t terribly complex, just children’s riddles that Tom remembered from growing up.
Such as “I am blue and black, orange and red, but not at the same time.” Or “I have many heads, and a very long body, but only one foot.” Tom had never guessed that second one until he’d seen a map in Elder’ Lukan’s classroom and put it together.
Once satisfied with his dungeon, he retired to the inn to the night to refresh himself after a long day of riding and dungeon making.
The party didn’t stick around in Torren to monitor how the city reacted to their sudden subterranean extensions. They might have, but the morning after their arrival a winged knight flew through the city. When he learned of their presence – the rumor that Antoine the Vanquisher was forming dungeons was hard to squash – the knight came to them and knelt before Antoine.
“Sir Antoine,” the lady knight said. “Welsius turns to you once more in an hour of great need. A dragon has been spotted flying towards the lands of the north. At it’s last sighting, it was a week away. I fear that even if you depart today, you may be late in arrival to prevent the bloodshed that will occur, but I still beg you to try.”
Antoine cursed. In French. And he spat his not-tobacco chew onto the floor. “Of course there is. Do you know which dragon it is?” He asked.
The knight looked surprised at the question. “Well, it comes from Velund,” she said. “So Vorrand, Tokler, or Resh would be my guess. But I don’t have the entire description, only a missive to find you and formally request your aid.”
“Where was it seen, and what was it doing?” Antoine pressed.
The knight looked at the teens, frowned, and motioned to the back of the pub.
“They’re not children that need sheltering from the harsh truths of the world,” Antoine said.
“Maybe not, but some of what I’m about to tell you is classified information,” the knight explained. “Unless they’re all knights as well, and I don’t see their coat of arms on their armor to indicate that being the case, then their ears have already heard more than I should share to any who hasn’t sworn their lives to the knighthood.”
Antoine tsked, but followed the knight into the back rather than argue the point further. After twenty minutes of animated discussion, he returned to the party.
“I’m leaving,” he announced. “It would be easier if I could fly, but I never could convince a flyer to trust me. Probably because I didn’t trust them, and that is a two-way street. Anyway, Tom, I’m not your mother and I know you might not listen to me, but I’d prefer if you didn’t delve unknown dungeons without me there to protect you. As I’ve mentioned, you’re a summoner, not a fighter. You need to be protected, and you’re too valuable to risk without your front line fighters.”
Sevin scoffed. “Last I checked, you haven’t even unsheathed your blade in the last few weeks except to clean it.”
“You’re coming with me,” Antoine said. “You and Rory. You’re apprentice knights. My apprentices, specifically. Jessica, are you still interested in joining the knights?”
Jessica shook her head without hesitation. “I was thinking about it when I first arrived in this world and was worried about making money. Now that I know that I can make enough to make ends meet just by blowing up one of Tom’s dungeons for the bounties, I’m not worried about that anymore.”
Antoine nodded, respecting her decision. “Grant? Emil? Aisha?”
“While a part of me wants to come with just to see what a dragon looks like, the wiser part of me advises that I might be happier to have that curiosity never satisfied,” Grant said judiciously.
“I’m perfectly happy to not be in the same province as a dragon, myself,” Emil admitted.
Aisha frowned a moment. “People will be hurt, won’t they?”
“People have already been hurt, Aisha,” Antoine informed her. “The dragon attacked what was either a refugee train or a small army as it was making its way to Welsius from Petosh. I guess either way they’re refugees now. The army is evacuating the villages in the region that it’s expected to travel through, but until the dragon makes a lair we can’t predict it well enough to predict the casualties.”
Aisha nodded and turned to the knight who delivered the news. “I have no interest in joining the knighthood, but helping people who’ve been attacked by a dragon is another thing. I would like directions to the sights of the dragon attacks.”
The knight nodded. “If you come with me, I’ll guide you half the way. I have business in that direction anyway.”
“Just let me pack my things,” Aisha said.
Antoine turned to Tom. “What will you do?”
Tom considered for a few moments. While he could replace Rory and Sevin with monsters and continue conquering dungeons, especially now that he had his Conjure skill to arm them with Conjured weapons, he thought that perhaps it was time to take a step back from his quest.
“I’m going to return to Weaver Estate until you return,” Tom decided.
“It might take months,” Antoine pointed out. “What about your quest?”
“I think it will be alright,” Tom said. “I have the shipment of Command Cores from the other nations coming in to prepare for. I need to do some research into those lands to see what sorts of dungeons to build them. I’m pretty sure that building a dungeon that is actually delved is as important to my quest as just linking the cores. I think that’s what’s wrong with the other networks. They didn’t have dungeons, and nobody was delving.”
“Oh, people were delving,” Antoine argued. “But perhaps not enough of them.”
“Yeah, well, I’m hoping to change that,” Tom said. “I want delving my dungeons to be an important part of life in every town. For the resources, for the experience, and for the conjured items.”
“A lofty goal,” Antoine admitted. “I need to get on the road. Rory, Sevin, pack your things. We leave as soon as you’re ready.”
The two teens, visibly nervous over the prospect of riding off to face a dragon, got out of their seats at the pub and went to obey. Aisha had already left with the knight, leaving just Tom, Jessica, Emil, Grant, and Tom’s parents.
“Are you coming home with us as well?” Tom asked the two heroes from Earth.
Grant and Emil exchanged looks.
“I will, unless the invitation has been revoked,” Grant said.
“I think I’m responsible for you for three years or something,” Tom admitted. “I mean, the king said something about taking on that responsibility, but for the most part, yeah, I’m supposed to make sure you adjust to this world or something.”
“And you’ve been doing a superb job of it,” Grant agreed. “If you don’t mind, then yes I will continue to accompany you.”
“I need a place to sit down and compile my notes,” Emil admitted. “A bit of downtime right now would do me a world of good. I’ve got so many new ideas and insights. Both ideas for engineering, and for my new class. I’ve been wondering why rituals are confined to two dimensions, and I need a place to do some experimentation. I think Weaver Estate will do as well as anywhere else.”
“I think that I’ll continue on my own for a while,” Sue said, turning to her husband. “Norman, you’re terrible in negotiations. Why don’t you return to your workshop and put out a few more samples for me to work with, while I try to establish a few more contracts for us?”
Norman sighed. He knew that he lacked business acumen, it was why he’d married a trader. Well, that and love. Mostly the latter, if he was being honest, but the former was the reason they worked so well together. They each had their specialties, two halves of a whole.
“Ma, Pa, um, you know that you could retire, right?” Tom said. “I mean, I’ll be making so much money from my Seed income that I can probably support you for the rest of your lives.”
“I don’t think either of us would be satisfied with that arrangement, Tom,” Norman said, glancing to Sue to make certain they were on the same page.
Sue nodded and continued. “We’re both proud people, Tom. Proud of our past, proud of our work, proud of our son. We’ll help you manage your fortune and try to steer you onto the best future that we can direct you to, but I can’t imagine retiring at age thirty-five. Perhaps in twenty years.”
“Perhaps in thirty,” Norman agreed.
“Tom, could you imagine simply hanging up your class and being done with it, now that you’ve got an income?” Grant asked.
Tom shook his head. “No, I really can’t.”
“I suspect it’s the same for Sue and Norman. I’ve noticed since I’ve come here that classes are more than just something written on your status screen. They’re a part of you. I could never have imagined delving dungeons before coming to this world, but since I’ve unlocked Hero, I can’t imagine not doing something heroic. I suspect that it’s the same for a Weaver or a Trader.”
Tom had never really thought about it, but he supposed that Grant was on to something.
They spent the rest of the evening talking about things less consequential than the approaching dragon, and set out for Weaver Estate the next morning.
Comments
Frank Moore
Poor untrusting Antoine, no flying mount (sadface). TFTC!!
