Holiday Dungeon Core: Novella 1-5, page 11
Chunks of Play-doh rained down on the fighters as Santa threw out a handful of the shapeable substance, knocking a few more of them down and adhering to anything it touched, hardening until they were harder than stone. A trio of little dolls floated down using their dresses to slow their fall and landed among the battered and beleaguered sword-and-shield bearers, though “little” was a relative term; in reality, they were about the size of toddlers.
“Mama!” They shouted in unison, so loudly that the sound burst the eardrums of the fighters, which caused them to scream in pain; however, the Adventurers were used to pain and they fought through the blood seeping out of their ears to cut down the dolls before they could cause any more damage.
There were only about a half-dozen of the Adventurers alive at this point – excepting Lance and the women with them. They were standing in the entrance to the room, watching everything happening with shocked and worried expressions on their faces, though the arrogant man was searching around the room for something. It didn’t take long for Elmer to realize what he was looking for, especially when his eyes locked onto his Dungeon Core hiding at the top of the giant tree. The fighter whispered to the archer woman and pointed up at Elmer’s Core; a second later, the Dungeon Core was staring death in the face as an arrow was pointed at his vulnerable form.
Thankfully, the archer’s aim was fouled as she released, as a neon green yo-yo in Santa’s hand whipped out and slammed into Lance, sending him flying into the gathered women. The arrow that was released sunk into the Christmas tree about 5 feet below his Core, and his brush with death shook Elmer more than he liked to admit.
A 12-foot wide metal Slinky slammed into the hardwood floor of the Workshop, which was heavy enough to shake the floor, sending everyone over as they lost balance. The coiled metal toy extended itself in the direction of the remaining fighters, who attempted to use a few special skills that Elmer had seen before to cut through the toy, but it wasn’t enough; a few metal shards were cut away, but the weight of the rest was enough to slam them into the floor, squishing them and practically cutting them in half.
Looking around, Elmer saw that all of the Adventurers except for Lance and the women were dead. As they picked themselves up from where they had fallen, Santa Claus seemed to notice the same thing – and knew exactly what they were going to do. As befitted cowards like this particularly nasty Adventurer, Lance took off back toward the entrance of the dungeon, leaving the women behind in confusion.
A metal race car hit the floor at Santa’s feet, approximately the size of a Power Wheel, followed by a red wagon that was four times as large as the one Elmer used to own when he was a kid, as well as a bicycle that was a little bit bigger than a Harley. As soon as they were all down, they started to rock back and forth, as if some giant invisible kid was revving them up in anticipation of flinging them forward.
Which is exactly what happened. They took off like they were rocket-powered, running over or pushing out of the way a few corpses of Adventurers before slamming full-force into the women staring at Lance’s retreating form. As if they had been hit by actual cars on the highway, the result of the impact wasn’t pretty, and none of them survived more than a few seconds after being hit.
The red wagon and bike were damaged horrifically in the process, as they had taken the brunt of the impacts, and were basically heaps of metal after the crash. The race car, however, barely clipped one of the women on its way past, so it was able to continue onward.
It still had another target.
Being a race car, it was fast. Elmer watched it shoot through the tunnel, catching up to Lance as he was running through the snow in the third cave. The fighter heard it coming and held out his shield as if to block it, but the toy wasn’t going to be denied its purpose. Approximately 5 feet before it reached Lance, it hit a bump in the snow that caused it to lift into the air. As the fighter had been crouched to block the car down below, his head was sticking out above the barrier; unfortunately for him, he couldn’t adjust fast enough to block the airborne toy, and it crashed right into his head, the front portion of the race car sharp enough that it cut through his neck, decapitating him instantly.
As his body fell to the floor, Elmer felt his mind start to work again; it had been frozen in a state similar to as if he was holding his breath, and with the death of the last of the hostile Adventurers, it felt like taking a deep breath.
He had done it. He had survived.
Chapter 14
Of course, the deaths of 30 Adventurers in Elmer’s dungeon didn’t just save him from being shattered and his Core shards used as some sort of powerful magical component. It also served to give him a lot of Life Force – enough to raise his Core Level a few times, in fact.
He felt the necessary Life Force collected in his Dungeon Core condense and harden, enlarging his outer shell quite a bit while also expanding upon what he could access. At the end of the transformation, he looked to see what had changed.
Dungeon Soul:
Elmer Robbins
Dungeon Helper:
Keebles
Dungeon Theme:
Holiday
Core Level:
7 (325 LF to next Level)
Current Life Force (LF):
114
Reach:
400 Units
Dungeon Mana:
250/350
Mana Conversion Rate:
7.0 per minute
Minions:
60/100
Defensive Obstacles:
11/17
“That Santa Claus of yours is amazing, Elmer. But don’t get complacent,” Keebles warned. “These were very low-Level Adventurers without too much experience in dungeons, and it showed. An experienced group of even middling-Level Adventurers would likely be able to handle your Boss without too much trouble.”
That was a sobering thought. Santa Claus seemed almost indestructible and all-powerful, but if these were some of the weakest Adventurers, he supposed that made sense.
*Thanks for the warning, Keebles. For now, I’m just glad that we survived. I’ll make sure to keep improving my defenses, because I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of that guy. Next time, he’ll probably bring— huh? *
Something caught his attention as he was speaking, though it wasn’t coming from his dungeon. Instead, it was seeming to come from inside of his Core.
* El… mer? Is… that… you? El… mer? *
He recognized the voice immediately.
* Mary? Yes, it’s me, Mary! Where are you? Can you hear me? *
He looked internally at his Dungeon Core and saw that the barrier keeping her soul trapped inside had weakened momentarily, but it appeared to be only temporary. He attempted to mentally batter his way through, but it resisted all of his efforts. Sadly, he didn’t hear any more from Mary despite his attempts to contact her again, and he railed a little in frustration.
* Mary! I’m going to get you out of there and we can be together again! *
He wasn’t sure if she could hear him, but the fact that he had heard her voice meant that he was getting stronger. It also gave him encouragement that he was on the right track, and that he would eventually be able to break down the barrier entirely in the future.
“I’m sorry you weren’t able to free her yet, Elmer,” his Elven Helper said apologetically. “But you’re getting closer.”
* I know; it’s just frustrating. *
“It’s only a matter of time – but you have to stay in one piece to get there,” Keebles added. “Speaking of that, what are you going to do with your new Core Level?”
After turning away from the current futility of trying to batter down the barrier keeping him from his wife’s soul, he considered what he wanted to do. While he had originally thought about adding another Christmas-themed cave, he saw that his maximum Minions had increased more than he expected. A quick answer from Keebles let him know that every 5 Core Levels there was an increase to the jump in the maximum, so instead of just 10 more per Core Level, it was now 20. With an extra 40 Minion Cost available to him, he was beginning to think of a different direction.
* Tell me something, Keebles. Have you ever heard of St. Valentine’s Day? *
The End
Valentine Core
Chapter 1
Elmer Robbins watched the group of Adventurers entering his dungeon, seemingly oblivious to what had just happened a short day ago. The unfamiliar quintet of men and women entered the first room and gasped at the snow blanketing the entrance’s floor, the delight on their faces at such an unexpected discovery bringing a little joy to his soul, as it mirrored his own love of the holidays.
The 6-foot-tall male Adventurer up front was wearing some serious protection, with a full set of stiff leather body armor with plates of what appeared to be thin steel covering his chest, his stomach, his groin, his entire back, his upper and lower arms, and his upper and lower legs. On his head he wore a helmet that reminded Elmer of a movie for which he’d seen a trailer a few years ago… or was it more than a decade ago? 15 years ago? It was so hard for him to remember Earth as much as he used to, especially with all that had happened later.
Regardless, the movie was about the Spartans of Ancient Greece, and this guy’s helmet reminded the old soul of that movie. In that movie, a very small force of Spartans, something like 300 or so, held back a massive army of… whoever they were fighting. He had never actually watched the movie, and history had never been his forte, so he wasn’t sure who they were actually fighting. Anyway, while the helmet looked like the props in the movie, this Adventurer didn’t look anything else like those who were wearing the helmets; he wasn’t half-naked and glistening with sweat, after all, which seemed as though it was the only state in which these Spartans were inclined to fight.
Also unlike that movie, this Adventurer was holding a long-handled, double-bladed battleaxe in his hands, as opposed to a small shield and a short sword. His ensemble was completed with some impressive steel-toed boots, though they were sharpened to a point in the front so as to make them almost like another set of weapons. In fact, when Elmer looked at the man’s elbows, he saw some sharp steel caps on the outside of the joint; he could only imagine how the Adventurer could elbow something and do a significant amount of damage. While the armor hid a lot of the guy’s body, he was large enough that it wouldn’t surprise Elmer if he was as well-defined as a bodybuilder.
Behind the axe-wielding man at the front was a very short woman, no taller than 4-and-a-half feet, wearing a tightly wrapped black cloth outfit that even covered most of her face. The only reason he assumed it was a woman was the fact that her long, bluish-black hair was pulled into a ponytail above her head, where it was neatly wrapped in black ribbons to keep it contained. It certainly could’ve been a man wrapped entirely in cloth, but there was something about the exposed eyes that just told Elmer that it was a woman.
She was holding a pair of unsheathed swords in her hands, the right one longer than the left, and each of them seemed to be painted a matte black. No light reflected off of them, as they practically absorbed any nearby illumination; neither did the belt of knives he saw strapped around her waist, to the point where it was difficult to see that they were actually there. On her back were two empty, black, leather sheaths that appeared to be where her swords were normally stored. All in all, she looked like some sort of ‘70s martial arts movie ninja.
Bringing up the rear were a trio of other Adventurers, two more men and another woman. One of the men stood taller than all of the rest, topping the armored man up front by at least 6 inches, though where the axe-wielder was bulky and built like a truck, this guy was thin-yet-athletic, wearing a light-brown pair of leather pants and dark-green cloth shirt. On his back, sticking up over his head covered in long, dark-brown hair was a quiver of arrows, which just so happened to go with the bow he held in his hands. He was obviously an archer of some sort, and he definitely looked the part.
The third man of the group was wearing light-blue and white robes, cinched at the waist with a fancy-looking silver belt. His short blond hair was arranged neatly atop his head, though his face had a pinched look to it that made him look perpetually constipated. In his right hand he held a spiked mace that looked more like an aluminum baseball bat with sharp protrusions at the head, and it appeared worn but well taken care of. While it wasn’t exactly obvious what he was just by looking at him, Elmer knew that this particular Adventurer was a healer of some sort.
The last member of the group was a woman with long, striking red hair that almost appeared to glow from within; he had seen some people with that shade of hair back on Earth that had dyed it to look that way, but never had he seen it practically illuminate like that. It was strange, though; it seemed as though the red was the woman’s natural hair color, which was unusual to Elmer.
She was wearing a crimson-colored robe cinched around her waist similar to the healer; instead of a silver buckle, however, hers appeared to be made of a dark stone. In her hands was a staff made of what appeared to be a very dark wood, or else stained to be nearly black. The top of the staff seemed to branch off into smaller slivers of wood, straining upwards and curling back on itself, creating a cage of sorts. Inside of the cage, as if the staff were a long arm clutching it in its fist, was a glowing, red, oval-shaped crystal with a black center, as if the reddish color were the only thing keeping the darkness in the middle of the crystal from escaping.
Overall, this group of Adventurers was unlike anything he’d seen thus far in his dungeon. Since he had first arrived, the quality of the individuals challenging themselves inside of his different rooms wasn’t, to put it simply, the most put-together. They hadn’t all been like that, of course, but there were plenty that had beat-up and rusty armor and weapons, as well as threadbare robes and patchy leather. Almost as if they were just barely getting by and were doing everything they could to survive, using their magic to the best of their ability and competency. Frequently, their best wasn’t necessarily enough to keep them alive; these people, on the contrary, appeared to be very competent and confident.
* Is this what you meant by high-Level Adventurers? *
The voice of his helper echoed through his mind even if Elmer’s attention was somewhere else. “Yes, it appears so. Thankfully, they seem to be more curious than anything.”
Elmer pulled his attention back to his helper, observing that the small North Pole Elf seemed more relaxed than the Dungeon Core was at that moment. It had only been a few short days since the events that had nearly led to his destruction, and powerful Adventurers made him a little nervous.
* I guess that makes me feel a little bit better, Keebles. *
“They were bound to show up, eventually,” the Elf continued. “These Adventurers appear prosperous enough that they likely aren’t here to obtain Core shards from destroying you. Instead, I’d use this as an opportunity to see why I have been pressing you to continue expanding, adding more rooms to your dungeon with a higher difficulty.”
* I would think that my Boss was difficult enough. *
Elmer had upgraded his Boss after he had recently gone up a few Core Levels, and where it had been extremely powerful before, now his final protector was nearly invulnerable. Or so he thought.
“We’ll just have to see, won’t we?”
* We certainly will. *
* * *
Having his soul transported to this strange world named Bershia had been an unpleasant experience for Elmer Robbins, considering that he had to die for it to happen. Electrocuted while hanging up Christmas lights in his office, the older gentleman’s next stage of life came in the form of a Dungeon Core; however, he wasn’t alone. His wife, Mary, had passed from the world of Earth approximately a year before Elmer’s untimely death, only for her soul to wind up in the Dungeon Core meant for him, all because they were “Soul-bonded”, or soulmates of sorts. In order to release her soul from where it was buried deep inside of his Core, Elmer needed to increase his Core Level to the point where he could release her, and they could be reunited once again.
With the help of Keebles, who was an appointed Core helper in the shape of a Christmas Elf, the new Dungeon Core had picked “Holiday” as his dungeon theme, because of his love of decorating for the holidays back on Earth. Since it had already been Christmas time back on Earth, and as it was one of his favorite holidays for which to decorate, Elmer ran with the theme in his newly-formed dungeon. By hollowing out rooms using the magical Dungeon Mana to which he had access, he decorated a quartet of spaces with as many Christmas-type objects as possible, including Minions and Defensive Obstacles.
The first of which the powerful group of Adventurers had just entered. Powdery snow filled the entire space, even as Christmas lights hung around the perimeter, as well as on the Christmas trees growing from the ground along the walls. Two large humps were located right near the entrance, and a small hill was located approximately three-quarters of the way to the exit, which led further into Elmer’s dungeon. Other than that, the room was fairly innocuous-looking, just a pretty landscape with a Christmas theme.
“See! I told you, Maron. This is unlike anything we’ve seen before.”
Elmer listened to the group’s conversation as they stood at the threshold, looking inside. The one who had spoken first was the blue-and-white-robed healer, whom the Dungeon Core thought was addressing the battleaxe-wielding Adventurer up front.
