Dungeon Deposed Read online

“Everything in the room for five gold,” Twitch offered.

  “One, because I’ll have to get a storage item to carry it all with me,” Ryker countered.

  “I’ll sell you a bag of holding for three and the whole room for two,” Twitch came back with.

  Ryker thought on that, then nodded his head. The price was a touch high on the bag, but he had other deals to make with this man.

  Duplicating the bag in the dungeon would make his life infinitely easier as well.

  He might get a better price later for letting this one slide now.

  “Done. I’d also like to see some other monsters as well. Preferably those that are naturally made with a physical disposition. And maybe a small magically inclined one.”

  Twitch paused in thought, then bobbed his head. Without a word he set off in a different direction entirely.

  “I think I’ve got a few things to show you,” Twitch said.

  A twist and a turn later, and Ryker was staring at two humanoid creatures standing at about five foot eight and five foot six.

  They had both had brown eyes that had a feral intelligence in them. Wherever clothes didn’t cover them, Ryker could see extremely short brown hair. It covered their skin thinly and lay almost more like fur.

  There were a Hobgoblins that ended up without that fur at all and looked eerily like humans.

  “Male and female Hobgoblin. They’d be about six gold for the pair,” Twitch said, indicating the two.

  “Can I see their cards?” Ryker asked.

  “Sure, sure. Should be right—ah, here they are.” Twitch flipped through the personal magical folio that he’d stored all the monster cards in.

  Ryker took them and inspected the first. They were exactly what the tamer said they were to a T.

  Not bothering to read the second one, Ryker nodded. “I’ll take them for four,” Ryker said.

  They sounded great. Hobgoblins didn’t normally appear in early dungeons. He could also train them to become an army down the road if he so chose. They made great soldiers. Hobgoblin society as a whole was fairly militaristic.

  Twitch eyed him and then nodded his head. “Alright. Four. I also have a minotaur. Nine gold.”

  A Minotaur? That’d be different. Very different. They only typically end up in very high-end dungeons. Nothing wrong with a giant bull man with an axe.

  “Monster type?” Ryker confirmed.

  “Yeah, want to see the card?”

  “No, I trust you. Three. It’s only one of them,” Ryker said easily.

  “Six.”

  “Four.”

  “Five,” Twitch said, folding his arms across his chest. “I’ll include his weapon.”

  “Done. Anything magical?”

  “Well. I have an aging Winged Homunculi. Looks like a flying lizard. It never bonded to anyone and it’s of the magical variety,” Twitch said without any emphasis.

  “Oh? What kind of magical affinity.”

  “All the basic ones. Fire, Water, Earth, Air. Monster type, of course.”

  “Mm. Price?”

  Twitch hesitated, then sighed.

  “Three, and I’ll not budge. His life is nearing the end, but he’s worth it. If you bind him to you, you’ll not be disappointed,” Twitch promised.

  Like I care. Going to feed him to the dungeon and make hundreds of them.

  “Done,” Ryker said. Pulling out the purse he had with him, he handed it over. It was every coin he had on him.

  Twitched gave him a smirk and took the purse. “Thanks for your business.”

  ***

  Pulling up to the home he now shared with Wynne, Ryker pulled the wagon up short. The oxen came to a lowing stop and began to immediately graze on the grass.

  He’d ended up only renting the wagon and would be forced to turn it in on his return trip with his next herb load.

  The sun was long since set and Ryker was tired. It’d been an all-day trip for him in the end.

  “Wow!” Wynne said, zooming in close to him. “You did great!”

  Her eyes were fixed on the wagon and the monsters sitting inside of it.

  “Glad to hear you think so. Can you speak with them? If they’re willing to contract with the core, that’d be easier than slitting their throats and dumping them in the dungeon,” Ryker said seriously.

  He was a practical man. He wasn’t above killing monsters. But at the same time it’d be a pain, and it wouldn’t sit quite right with him when they couldn’t even fight back.

  “I can take care of that. How about you go eat dinner, then cozy up in bed,” Wynne said soothingly.

  “You made dinner?” Ryker asked curiously. Getting down from the driver’s seat he stretched his back.

  Wynne came over and hovered in front of him, her wings fluttering slowly.

  Her flight is clearly magical.

  “I did. The stew you had put together for yesterday… I’ve had it going all day. I added all the things you did. I think you’ll enjoy it? Shoo, off with you,” Wynne said, making a dismissive gesture with her small hands.

  Grinning, he bowed his head to her. Even if it tasted like mush he wouldn’t care.

  “My thanks to the chef then. I’ll take you up on your offer. See you in the morning.”

  Ryker went inside and did exactly what she told him to.

  He was beat. Dead tired.

  Besides, as his partner, he had to expect her to carry her weight, too.

  Right?

  ***

  Peering down into the dungeon he could see the corpse of the male hobgoblin.

  “Someone didn’t want to agree?” Ryker asked Wynne.

  “He wanted what he couldn’t have. Just because he’s first here, doesn’t mean he’ll be their leader. I had the Minotaur take care of him,” Wynne explained.

  Ryker shrugged.

  “Works just the same,” he said.

  Focusing on the link to the dungeon core, Ryker called up one of his control spells.

  “I’m still thinking we go with the original plan. Build a simple dungeon, start to finish, normal stuff, nothing out of the ordinary. How long do you think we have before we run the possibility of being discovered?” Ryker asked.

  “Chances are we already have been,” Wynne admitted. “The good news is that it’ll take them a very long time to get here. They also won’t probably rush here since the amount of power was rather low.”

  Ryker felt like there was a “but” coming and that he wouldn’t like it.

  Instead of asking for it, he decided to wait. Her own life was on the line as well, so he doubted she’d do anything that would endanger them.

  Utilizing the control spell, he began to work on the dungeon layout.

  The entrance, when he made it, would be from the base of the south side of the hill. The entry point would back up into where the inn was going to go. Therefore the entrance would be more like walking down into a cellar than a doorframe.

  From the entry point there was a decently sized empty cavern. Suitable for gathering your party and making final preparations. It would also serve as a destination station down the road.

  Ryker had plans to have multiple dungeons with varying degrees of difficulty. Not just one never-ending one.

  That’d be dull. And boring.

  Ryker grinned as he forced the soulless dungeon core to work. The first dungeon would be a testing ground. The first several rooms were made into open spaces. Hobgoblins, or Hobs as he thought of them, would roam here in ones and twos, letting adventurers test their mettle in a fight.

  Learn the ropes.

  He connected those rooms, then set runes beneath the surface of the floor. These runes were how dungeons had an endless supply of creatures.

  Having killed the Hob, and bound the second one, the dungeon now knew the pattern for them. The runes simply made that pattern, and filled it with magic, essentially making a magical construct of a random Hob. Random always cost less mana.

  And mana was his budget to manag
e.

  It dictated how much he could build, gearing up his monsters, and give in loot. It all had to be finely balanced in such a way that he was also gaining mana.

  Mana that they’d need to store up. To hold in reserve if they needed it.

  Wynne had beat it into his head. So long as he followed her guidelines, they’d be fine.

  I hope.

  Ryker quickly added a few more runes, setting it into the Hob rune so that it would spawn with a random weapon.

  Letting the runes be, Ryker built out the next room.

  He made it large, and then began working on the landscape of it. He gave it the appearance of the abandoned outskirts of an underground ruin. In and amongst those broken huts and shattered walls, he began laying more Hob runes. Some he gave the possibility of having armor, or simply more weapons to work with. There were even a few that he designed to be unarmed, and unarmored. He wanted to play with those later on. See if he could make his dungeon truly unique.

  Near the rear of the open room, he put down six closely knit runes. This would be the checkpoint, as it were.

  This band of Hobs he gave full leather armor to, as well as a sword, spear, and shield each.

  He imagined a number of adventurers would underestimate this group and perish.

  Such is life. I’ve done the dive myself, I knew the risks. No one goes in blind.

  Checking how much room he had left to work with, he realized he hadn’t even gotten into five percent of what the dungeon core could reach.

  Opening his eyes, Ryker collected his thoughts.

  “The size limitations feel larger than they should be,” Ryker said, looking to Wynne.

  “They are. As I said, I’m quite strong. Adding your own magic to that, and your control, has given the dungeon a size unequal for its age,” Wynne said, puffing out her chest.

  Grinning, Ryker nodded his head. “Alright.”

  Closing his eyes, he focused back into the dungeon core.

  Well, if we’ve got the size to work with, let’s use a third of the current size for this dungeon.

  Getting comfortable, Ryker began to build an intricate city on the verge of flying apart. He put in inns, shops, homes, military posts, streets, parks, everything that made a city a city.

  Runes went in wherever he felt it would be logical for Hobs to come to be. Whether living there, or simply being there.

  And in this very large city zone, he began adding in the animated objects. Tables, chairs, desks, candles, bookshelves, beds, mats, rugs, everything. As they were technically items, he had the pattern for non-enchanted versions of each one, too.

  Soon, the city was full of objects that were both mundane, and animated. They’d be dormant until he wanted them to attack

  Focusing on the keep at the center of the city, he moved into the throne room he’d made. He set a rune for a Minotaur there. One with a good weapon, and full armor. With that Minotaur was a squad of Hobs equipped with solid sets of gear.

  At the back of the throne room, he dropped in a chest, but no loot.

  Loot would come later once he actually got some, and had more mana to spend. Right now, this was the extent of his budget.

  He’d also probably have to begin modifying certain runes to bolster or weaken the summoned monsters in each area.

  But that was all work for another time.

  Right now, he was primarily interested in getting the rough shape of it all.

  On the opposite side of the city from where a group would enter, he built an exit. That exit would go straight through to the north side of the hill, where Ryker planned to put up the exit shop.

  Then he reconsidered it. If he didn’t put in some type of stop gap, people would try to enter from the exit.

  Thinking on it for a moment, he decided to do what he did best.

  Be as direct as a sharp knife.

  Planting a sign down right there he stuck a simple warning on it. Violators would be killed. He knew dungeons occasionally got to a point where signs existed, but they were uncommon.

  Then he trapped the entire area. From the exit point on the city side, all the way to exit of the actual dungeon, it was now a massive rockfall trap.

  Rocks fall, everyone dies. Don’t mess with me.

  Deciding to stop here, he camouflaged the herb garden just in case he got curious adventurers.

  Then he created a space for the dungeon core to rest, just beneath his basement. There was only the smallest sliver of room for the core to interact with the dungeon.

  It’d be enough for him to work through it, but if it were a normal core, it would have probably gone insane due to the lack of contact with its dungeon. Or so Wynne told him.

  No one would know the core or the herb garden was there without being told.

  Sighing and exhausted, the wizard shook out his hands and lifted his head. Opening his eyes, he found it was early evening, and the sun was starting to set.

  “Goodness,” Ryker said softly.

  Small hands pressed into his neck and patted him softly.

  “Good work, Ryker. I was watching. That’s fairly ingenious. I don’t think I’ve seen a similar dungeon. Most are a series of rooms simply connected together to kill as many people as possible. That or they do silly things, like fill it with slimes,” she said, a strange tone in her voice.

  “Slimes? I dunno. Those can be pretty terrifying. Especially the larger versions,” Ryker said. He’d researched monsters quite a bit while he waited for the core to awaken. “I wouldn’t underestimate them.”

  “So…” Wynne started. Her hands pressed at the base of his skull. She was trying her hardest, even if the maximum pressure she could exert was minimal.

  “Mm?” Ryker asked. He imagined this was what she hadn’t wanted to say earlier.

  “It’s likely an adventurers guild party will be here in maybe four days. But it won’t be an official dive. Not one that’ll count,” Wynne said cautiously.

  That’ll speed up my timeline on building the inn and the store.

  Speed up my timeline on everything, really. Maybe I can expand the dungeon zone a bit and have summoned Hobs help out? That’s the only way we’ll get this done quickly.

  There goes the budget though and the mana bank.

  I’ll need to send off that letter to the queen with my offer. Sounds like I’ll be taking that wagon back sooner than I thought.

  “I felt a wizard probing the area this morning. They might have felt it and are planning an expedition. If they can report it, they’ll get a finder’s fee,” Wynne said.

  “How exactly would they have found it, by the way?”

  “It’s how the dungeon powers itself. It draws all the mana from the area. This is a dead zone.”

  Ryker only nodded his head. He vaguely remembered a class about that.

  He needed to prepare.

  And prepare we shall.

  Chapter 3 - Unexpected Guests -

  Ryker looked up from the counter he was polishing in the entry way.

  It’d been a busy three days.

  Day one had been spent in town. There had been a number of things to do and chores to take care of.

  Like getting his original land grant paperwork copied. One copy, which he had officially notarized, turning it into a duplicate of the actual paperwork, he put into a bank account for safekeeping, and the other he included in his letter to the queen.

  A letter about the dungeon, and promising her thirty percent of the proceeds if she could send some guards to protect her investment.

  At the same time he sold another crop of herbs, though it was not nearly as large as the first.

  That money he used to buy a single item of everything he needed to build the inn and the store. They only needed one wooden board after all, the rest could be provided by the dungeon.

  Same with nails, saws, hammers, everything.

  Throw in a hundred summoned Hobs as a workforce, and the inn went up in two days.

  Standing up,
Ryker was confused. A group of five people were standing just outside the doorway, peering in at him.

  “Can I help you?” Ryker asked. “Are you here for the dungeon?”

  He’d decided a while ago that being upfront about the dungeon would be best. Wynne had agreed.

  Though she did disagree with his idea of him being alone. Instead, they’d filled the inn with the original Enchanted Items. Then she had the original Minotaur and female Hobgoblin act as guards for the inn.

  Only after he promised to buy more guards on his next trip did she relent. In fact, he was planning on traveling back to town today.

  Until now.

  The visitors had the look of a hard life.

  They were all dressed the part of adventurers. Most were in leather armor, though one was in chainmail, and the sole woman was in dark black robes. Weapons of many origins were attached here and there to their persons.

  “Yes,” said the man in the lead. After a pause, he stepped into the inn and walked up to the counter Ryker was standing at. “We are.”

  He was middle aged, and one of the few members of his band without a helmet or a hood on. His hair was a smooth black and his eyes matched. Muscular and lithe, he looked much like an athlete.

  A sense of unease filled him from Wynne. Unease and distrust.

  The Minotaur and Hob stepped out from a backroom and stood quietly, watching. The lead man’s eyes flicked to the two creatures, then back to Ryker. Smiling, Ryker shrugged his shoulders.

  “I found the dungeon. I plan to benefit from it. One has to defend themselves from the wolves in the world, right? Our queen has of course been notified. I would imagine her Royal Guards are on the way now to protect their future investment,” Ryker said neutrally.

  Best to lay it all out on the table now, lest they get any ideas.

  Smiling, the man spread his hands out in front of himself. “Of course. I would do the same. It’s a tough world out there. Tough world. So, how does one get into the dungeon? And have you explored it?”

  Ryker shook his head. “I’m afraid I haven’t. I’m trained for dives, but not by myself. No, that life is behind me. As to how to get in…” Ryker paused, considering the situation. “I’ll show you through. Once the guild shows up, I plan on charging an entry fee. For you, we’ll just call it fair if you tell me what you find out.”