Holiday Dungeon Core: Novella 1-5, page 7
“No treasure chests? What are these—gifts?”
Annabella was wondering the same thing as well. However, since there wasn’t really anything else in the cave, Garth took the largest one and started to unwrap the shiny paper that seemed to be hiding a plain wooden box underneath. When he opened it up, Garth almost dropped it in surprise.
“This is full of copper! Not coins, but they can easily be melted down and sold that way.” The Warrior held out a few flat bands of copper that had been bent into different shapes.
After that, they tore into the rest of the “gifts” and each one was better and better. The smallest one actually held gold in the form of a ring, which was very unexpected.
“This is a fortune! I wonder if it’s because we are the first ones here? Is this what all of the other groups that manage to find a dungeon first manage to get?”
Annabella didn’t know, but she was almost tempted to see what other loot the dungeon possessed further in. However, given the state of their equipment, as well as the exhaustion that suffused their bodies after such intensive healing, even Garth was reluctant to keep going.
With hesitant steps, they left the dungeon for now, planning to camp out in the forest just outside of the cave. While they might be reluctant to go any further right now and risk another death, especially now that they had some stuff they could sell for currency, that didn’t mean they couldn’t farm the first cave of the dungeon again and again. It was the smart play, after all, though she knew they didn’t have long before other Adventurers found the dungeon as well.
Granted, they weren’t the smartest around, but now that they had something worth losing, they would play it safe. For now, at least.
Chapter 9
* I’m assuming that I put too much in those presents? *
“It seems that way. It is sometimes difficult to tell the state of the local economy until the first Adventurers venture through your dungeon,” Keebles said. “Thankfully, they explained away the large amount of loot they received as a bonus for being the first ones here, so it should be easy enough to reduce the value of the loot in those presents without it being out of place.”
As he watched the Minions he had in the room slowly form back up and take their original positions, now that the Adventurers had left, Elmer did exactly what Keebles had advised. The golden ring was out, and with his Helper’s assurance that it would be correct, the Dungeon Core increased the amount of copper cookie cutters while eliminating the silver bells as well. He left the fruitcake, something that the Adventurers had looked strangely at, but now the loot from the room was more balanced – at least according to Keebles and the statements from the Adventurers.
“They appeared to be either just starting out or lower Level, so your changes are perfect for the difficulty of that particular cave in your dungeon.”
Elmer remembered that his Elven Helper had mentioned that the Adventurers also got stronger, like he did with his Core Levels, and apparently they had Levels of their own. Despite the fact that these particular three were supposedly low-Level, Elmer was thoroughly impressed by them. Not necessarily their tactics or skill, because from what he had seen of the fight they were lucky to have survived, but because of the magic he had seen them wield. Sure, he used Mana to literally create things out of thin air, but that was different; he was a Dungeon Core with no other way to affect the world, so it sort of made sense. But to watch that woman create a ball of fire or shoot out lightning was nothing short of amazing. Added to that, the fact that the other woman could magically heal someone was probably the most wonderful thing he’d ever seen.
What also amazed him was the fact that he could understand them perfectly. For some reason, he was fairly certain they weren’t speaking English; in spite of that, he understood them as if he had grown up speaking whatever language they were speaking.
Just another strange quirk of this place, I guess.
Another thing about the fight with the Adventurers that he learned was that, apparently, his Inflatables were explosive. Nothing he had imagined about them when creating them in the first place had hinted at an explosive gas being inside of them, but now that he knew he wasn’t sure what to do about it. He considered taking them out of the first cave, but eventually decided to keep them in for now; instead, he finally added in a Defensive Obstacle to the room, though it wasn’t designed to necessarily hurt the Adventurers that came inside, but to put out the fire on his Inflatables before they could explode.
The Snowflake Storm would be activated as soon as someone walked in and would last for five minutes, creating a virtual snowstorm that magically appeared near the ceiling of the cave and poured down on those below. He was also able to give the snowflakes the ability to home in on the greatest sources of heat in the room – the more heat, the more snowflakes would congregate toward that heat. It was his hope that they would be able to snuff out any small fires that were lit on his Inflatables, though if it was a lot then there wasn’t much hope that it would work. Plus, the snowflakes flying everywhere would inhibit sight a bit, making the cave a little more difficult than it had been. Even better, he was getting his “polar bear in a snowstorm”, just like those gag pictures he used to make!
Keebles cautioned him not to make too many changes, because it could make Adventurers think his dungeon was erratic and therefore almost guaranteed to be a death trap (which usually ended up with a Core’s destruction). However, he thought the Defensive Obstacle was a good addition, and it could be explained away as something that simply hadn’t been triggered during the first visit.
While he hadn’t gained any Life Force from the three Adventurers in that first visit, he didn’t mind all that much. What he did gain was more valuable: Information. Even after all of the warnings his Helper had thrown in his direction about the danger of the Adventurers, he hadn’t really understood until he saw them in action. If these particular ones had been some of the weakest ones around, then he worried a little about what would happen if a group determined to destroy his Core arrived. His second cave with the gingerbread house was starting to look a bit underpowered.
“You’re still a low Core Level yourself, you know,” Keebles mentioned. “Give it some time and you’ll be able to defend against just about anything. Right now, though, you just have to hope that what you have is enough to discourage anyone from progressing that far.”
Hope. It wasn’t something he relied on too much, but he would believe in it if it helped him survive long enough to release Mary from her imprisonment.
After he was done adjusting the loot presents in the first cave, he slightly altered what was inside of the second cave presents – though not by much. For now, the first group to complete it would get the nice reward, and only then he would reduce the value of the items inside.
As for his third room, now that he had some time to think about it, he knew exactly what he was going to create. The journey through the Christmas wonderland started with an outdoor scene, then a gingerbread house, and would eventually end up in his Core’s cave, where Santa was set up in defense. For his “Core Room”, he was thinking of creating Santa’s Workshop, though he hadn’t gotten to it yet. He was planning on having Elves there to assist Santa and pretend to be creating toys for good little girls and boys, but that would have to wait until he could create more Minions.
For the third cave, just before Santa’s Workshop? Well, what better than to recreate the outside of the North Pole, an ice block fortress that the Adventurers would have to penetrate to get to Santa. To begin, he started using his Mana to cover the ground once again with snow, before he started to build a fort made from frosted ice. It was 10 feet tall and 30 feet wide, with an arched space left in the middle covered by thick bars of ice that led to the Workshop. That was about the best he could do as far as a barrier, because Keebles warned that any more blockages would result in unpleasantness for his Core as ambient Mana was trapped and could explode.
On top of the mini fortress was a walkway, which at the moment held 6 North Pole Elf Defenders. That was it for the moment as far as Minions went, because he didn’t have much more to work with. Once he was able to stock it with more, he was planning on putting Santa’s Reindeer all over the snow-covered ground and a Snowmage up top – while keeping the Elves to act as extra long-range offense. He was thinking of even putting a Little Drummer Boy to work against the wide field of battle – mainly because he discovered that the loud drumming that caused physical damage didn’t actually affect his Minions, only Adventurers.
But that would all have to wait until he increased his Core Level. Instead of more Minions, he utilized some more Defensive Obstacles to make the room a bit more dangerous than it currently was. From the side of the cave, he created an Obstacle that would create a Mana construct made to look like a sleigh; when the Adventurers passed a certain point, the sleigh would become a Runaway Sleigh and shoot through to the other side of the cave like a freight train, slamming into anything in its way.
On the ceiling, Elmer placed thousands of white Christmas lights made to look like stars in the night sky. However, instead of them being connected in long lines, they were actually arranged in net formation and could drop down on the Adventurers below. Taking a cue from the wizardly woman that shot out lightning, he made it so that the three Christmas Light-ning Nets would electrocute anything they wrapped around. He wasn’t sure how powerful these Adventurers were if they were able to get this far, but any normal person would probably be killed by how much magical electricity would be passing through their bodies.
By the time he was finished, approximately 12 hours later, there still wasn’t any sign of any more Adventurers. Therefore, he started on Santa’s Workshop, beginning by creating a place for his Core to go. Right now, it was magically floating near the back of the cave, fairly vulnerable; to fix that, at least a little, he found that he could shift his vertical location by using his Dungeon Mana to create something underneath him. In this case, he created the largest, most beautifully decorated Christmas tree he could imagine, rivaling the tree at Rockefeller Center in New York. At the top of the tree, surrounded by a few branches acting as a screen of sorts, was his Core, acting as a tree topper.
That took another 6 hours to finish, because it was a lot of work and had a lot of details like garland, tinsel, lights, and of course, ornaments; it was the latter that took the longest, because he tried to recreate every ornament that Mary used to hang on their tree back on Earth, as well as many more that he remembered having in the past, like when he was a child.
As for the rest of the workshop, he spent some time transforming the walls into what appeared to be a wooden frame painted in a riot of reds, greens, and whites, as well as “windows” that looked out on a scene of the North Pole during the daytime, with the sun shining along fields of white snow, with reindeer frolicking in the distance. It was the hardwood floor that transformed the cave from just a strange room in his dungeon into a Workshop, especially as he started to add workstations filled with half-assembled toys and abandoned tools, along with a stack of wrapped presents piled up neatly in the corner. Unlike the loot presents, however, these ones were all empty; for the reward for clearing this room – which he hoped didn’t happen – the Adventurers would have to check under the Christmas tree at the back.
In the center of the Workshop, the area was clear of any obstruction – and this was where Santa Claus sat on a padded throne, similar to the ones he would see in malls where children would visit Santa; he had memories of visiting as a child, and a few years ago he had actually gone back to watch the newer generations’ children do it just like he remembered. He didn’t go by himself, of course, because that would be creepy, but he had enjoyed a few hours with Mary experiencing the joy on their faces as they got to see Santa – as well as the frightened cries of kids too small to understand why their parents were leaving them on the lap of some old guy with a white beard.
Ah, good times.
Once that was all complete, there wasn’t really much else that he wanted to do – though there wasn’t much chance to, anyway. The same trio of Adventurers that had nearly perished in his dungeon were back, so any other potential projects were put on hold.
Knowing what to expect, since Elmer hadn’t changed its setup from when they had been there before, there was a lot less danger to them this time around – despite the Snowflake Storm being active. They had obviously devised a plan, because as soon as the sword and shield-bearing Adventurer ran into the room, he immediately stabbed into the snow-covered Inflatable Polar Bear on the right of the entrance.
His weapon sliced easily through the waxed cloth of the Minion, tearing a small hole in its side. Elmer’s defender reacted immediately to the attack, however, as it shook off the snow that covered it and whipped around until it was facing its attacker. Meanwhile, the wizardly woman was already forming what appeared to be a whirling vortex of wind in between her hands. Just as the other Polar Bear shook off the snow and turned toward her, she released whatever magic she was creating; a ball of barely visible blades made of air slammed into the face of the large Minion and practically tore its head off – which was a bit of a mistake, the Dungeon Core found.
Just as he had learned that they were filled with explosive gas, Elmer (along with the Adventurers) now discovered that opening up a large wound on the Inflatable Minion all of a sudden was a bad idea. The release of so much air from inside of them was like what he had seen them do deliberately when they blew out air with extreme force.
The sword-wielding man was using his shield to block a paw being swung in his direction by the Polar Bear when a huge gust of air punched into him, sending him flying sword-first into the Minion. The damage expanded the hole that had been created from his first attack, opening up a massive rent in the top side of the Inflatable’s shell. As he kept flying over the Minion, he managed to avoid its blowout as it was “killed”, as it was pointed straight up.
The other two Adventurers were also tossed away from the death-“blow” of the Polar Bear the wizard had essentially decapitated, landing in the snow about 15 feet away from their original position. Shaken up and obviously confused at what just happened, they appeared for the most part unhurt – until Elmer saw that the magic-wielding woman was holding her broken wrist as she landed.
“She needs her hands to cast her spells, so she’s essentially out of the fight until she can get healed by the Cleric,” Keebles supplied him as he was watching.
That was some good information, and Elmer wondered if he could use that to his advantage in the future.
Thankfully for the Adventurers – though not so good for the Dungeon Core hoping for some more Life Force from their deaths – the fighter guy managed to pick himself up and put himself in front of the two women, protecting them from the long-range attacks by Elmer’s North Pole Defenders. His wooden shield was showing a few cracks in it as it was used to block starlight peppermint candies propelled at high speeds, and there were a few shards of glass stuck into it as the Adventurer also managed to block most of an ornament grenade one of the Core’s Elves had tossed out.
Once the wizard was healed by the miraculous golden-colored light created by the other woman, the fight was basically over. Elmer’s Toy Soldier Troop charged out as the trio advanced on the Elves, but the wizard created the same lightning spell she had used the day before, and all of the Soldiers were basically reduced to slag in a matter of seconds. A half dozen of them managed to make it through to the man, but he easily bashed them with his shield and sliced through the rest with his sword.
As for the two Elves, one of them was basically smashed into a pulp as a rock the size of a basketball was formed between the hands of the wizard and sent spinning like a giant musket ball toward the Minion, who was in the middle of reloading its pop gun. The rock hit the Elf so hard that it was almost ripped in half in the process, and Elmer once again got to see its green blood smeared all over the snow. He had asked about it the first time he had seen it, because he was expecting it to be red, but Keebles told him that it was due to his unique theme; the word his Helper had used, as he had chuckled, was that the green was more “festive”.
Whatever the reason, it actually made the Dungeon Core feel better about his Minions dying, because they didn’t seem as “real” as he had previously been considering them. He wasn’t sure why not having red blood mattered, but that it did probably said something about him. What that was, he had no idea.
Regardless, the Adventurers took out the last Elf by simply stalking it and stabbing it with a sword; his Elves didn’t really have any strong combat abilities, so it was relatively defenseless when forced to fight an Adventurer at close range. When it was dead, he hoped that they might advance further into his dungeon, but they had other plans.
Despite being disappointed that their “loot” wasn’t nearly as good as the first time, they seemed happy enough with the copper cookie cutters and the fruitcake – and then they left. There were a few looks at the tunnel leading to his gingerbread house cave, but in the end they all exited his dungeon without challenging the second area. He was slightly disappointed, but he figured it was probably a good thing; the longer that these Adventurers stayed away from where his Core was located, the better.
As all his Minions in the first cave started to reform and reset into their original places, there wasn’t much that Elmer could do but wait for the next time the Adventurers came through – and to hope that they might make a mistake and provide him with some much-needed Life Force.
