Chapter 4

Dorn raised his awareness back up to the first floor, at the base of his mountain. All that was left was the cave tunnel that used to lead to his throne room. He started by liberating the earth he had displaced during his move that now occupied the space where his lair used to be, increasing his DP's by a small amount. He widened the opening of the tunnel to be almost 100 feet tall and 50 feet wide by absorbing part of the mountain, carving backwards about 300 yards. At the entrance, he fashioned two enormous dragons out of stone, standing proudly and looking down upon the ground. From their mouths, he carved the representation of their breath attacks. The one on the left breathed an enormous stream of fire that bathed the earth in carved flames. The second one breathed a stream of ice into the ground, creating a frozen thoroughfare. He colored the fire dragon red and the ice dragon dark blue. Inside the tunnel, he placed orbs of fire on the walls, dimly illuminating the enormous tunnel. 20 feet into the entrance, he raised his first stele, about 10 feet tall. He gave it a simple greeting:

Welcome to A Dragon's Dungeon

Mentally stepping back, Dorn looked at his creation and realized it was too dark to be read easily. He then attempted to carve a Light mana spell onto the bottom of the stele, but his magic seemed to run into an invisible shield. He turned towards Emelia, “Why can't I get it to glow?”

Emelia said back, “Rules of the gods. You're attempting to circumvent a property from the store, instead of purchasing it. Just go buy Dungeon Lighting in the Dungeon Store.”

This of course begged the question, “How do I use the Dungeon Store?”

Emelia responded, “Oh right. Just say Dungeon Store, and follow the words on the screen.”

“Dungeon Store”

Dungeon Store

Resources

Creatures

Properties

Dorn clicked on Properties, which opened an enormous list. He started looking through the list.

Dungeon Properties

Dungeon Air Ventilation

20,000 DP's

Dungeon Alchemy (locked to level 15)

300,000 DP's

Dungeon Avatar (locked to level 25)

1,000,000 DP's

Dungeon Enchantments (locked to level 15)

200,000 DP's

Dungeon Strengthened Walls

100,000 DP's

Dungeon Floor Instances

300,000 DP's

Dungeon Path Randomizer (locked to level 20)

600,000 DP's

Dungeon Lighting

10,000 DP's

Dungeon Puzzles

Variable

Dungeon Re-spawn Devices (locked to level 10)

500,000 DP's

Dungeon Re-spawning Mining Veins

50,000 DP's

Dungeon Rules

100,000 DP's

Dungeon Stairs

1,000 DP's

Dungeon Teleportation Glyphs

50,000 DP's

Dungeon Traps

Variable

Dungeon Treasure Chests

50,000 DP's

Dungeon Weather (locked to level 20)

500,000 DP's

Dorn exclaimed, “Why the fuck is everything so expensive?”

Emelia just sighed and responded, “Now you know why dungeons don't waste DP's making Entrance Halls and decorating with giant carved dragons. I would also like to point out that if you plan on becoming a popular dungeon, the Dungeon Store Properties that unlock at level 10 are crucial. With Dungeon Instances and Dungeon Re-spawn Devices, you'll be able to accommodate large numbers of adventurer parties, without spending all of your time re-spawning individual monsters. They also cost 800,000 DP's together.”

Dorn said, “Well, my dungeon's not going to look like a piece of shit, a giant hole in the wall. As for the instances and re-spawn devices, we'll get there eventually. Hopefully this place doesn't become too popular too quickly.”

“Well then, let's hope your ideas for people living in your dungeon works, or else you're going to need another source of DP's.”

Dorn grumbled and bought Dungeon Lighting. After this, he paused, saying, “How come I was allowed to put the fire orbs on the wall?”

Emelia shrugged, saying, “It's an inconsistent system.”

Shaking his diamond head at the laziness and lack of product testing of the gods, he also purchased Teleportation Glyphs, Strengthened Walls, Mining Veins, Treasure Chests, and Dungeon Rules. “Well, there goes nearly half my DP's,” he said sadly. “Status”

Status

Name: Dorn'axial

Dungeon Name: A Dragon's Dungeon

Dungeon Level: 5

+1 for 1,300 DP's

Floors: 2/5

Dungeon Points: 439,567

Dungeon Rating: D0 – You have an entrance hall. Are you building a dungeon or a castle?

“Also, why did the gods make rules against building some of these things in my dungeon without using the Dungeon Store, like the Dungeon Air Ventilation? I am a master Air mage; I shouldn't have to waste the DP's buying Dungeon Air Ventilation.”

Emelia responded, “Just keep in mind that most dungeons have the intellectual level of children for their first few decades. They don't have the benefit of 3,000 years of being a master dragon mage. Further, any enchantments would eventually run out of mana and have to be renewed, and carving the runes into your dungeon body, something most dungeons wouldn't even know how to do, would prove you were sapient and knowledgeable about Spell Writing. If you purchase it through the store, it will be permanent and invisible. Regardless, as you've already discovered, you'll find yourself simply barred from doing them without purchasing the property in the store, first, by the gods.”

“They're just bleeding me dry, DP by DP.”

Emelia responded matter-of-factly, “The gods always demand their pound of flesh.”

“Bastards,” Dorn grumbled.

“Yeah, yeah, just go finish your entrance hall and build your first housing floor, or else someone is going to show up and be very confused at who built an elaborate, half-finished tunnel into a mountain.”

Dorn turned back to his entrance chamber. All along the sides of the chamber, he carved stylized dragons, all glowing with different colors, using his Dungeon Lights. Blue, Red, and Green dragons stood opposite the metallic dragons, in Silver, Gold, and Black. As he watched his DP's start to plummet, he stopped and built another stele, mid-way through the tunnel. This one was a simple list of the floors:

Floor

Danger Level

I Entrance Hall

0

II D-Housing

0

III D-Mining

0

IV-X Dungeon

D4 – C0

Emelia looked annoyed again, “Do you really need to give them a list of what the floors are? Isn't it better to keep them guessing, feeling that they are exploring new territory? Shouldn't they always be wondering what's around the next corner? Isn't this too much hand-holding?”

Dorn shook his head. “No, it's important that, as an obviously sapient dungeon, I establish trust with the adventurers. The humans put up with the dangerous nature of dungeons because they believe it's impossible to communicate with them. If they know I am sapient, they will at some point attempt to 'reason' with or bargain with me. If not simply try to force or destroy me. I will be allowing some concessions to the people that come here; that is why I am offering danger-free housing and mining. The dungeon floors stele is so that people understand the dangers they are being exposed to; then, no one can complain that they were unaware of the dangers they would face.”

“I think you underestimate the capacity for humans to whine. Maybe the elves, dwarves, and beast-kin will understand you, but the humans are another story. Panicky and conservative, I believe that not only will they whine, their churches will attempt to destroy you at all costs.”

Dorn simply responded, “We'll just have to see. I believe that by building the church in the D-level housing, they will be able to understand my intentions. And without Celestial mana from the gods, they won't stand a chance; all the SS-ranked priests are on Central Fantisa.”

At the end of the hallway, Dorn placed an enormous teleportation glyph, large enough for 100 people to stand upon at the same time. Immediately before and to the right of the glyph, Dorn raised his last stele. This one simply said:

The Purpose of A Dragon's Dungeon Is to Train the Masses in the Fighting of Demons and Devils. Only A-Ranked Floors and Higher will Feature These Monsters. No Demon or Devil will Ever Escape this Dungeon.

Afterward, he checked his DP's:

Status

Name: Dorn'axial

Dungeon Name: A Dragon's Dungeon

Dungeon Level: 5

+1 for 1,300 DP's

Floors: 2/5

Dungeon Points: 404,237

Dungeon Rating: D0 – You have built an accessible floor! There's no danger, so you suck as a dungeon, but there's a floor now!

“Well, I guess that's about it for the first floor. And look, my subconscious is becoming more and more dickish.”

Emelia snickered, but quickly became bored. “Would you just get to the housing floor, I'm interested in seeing what it will look like. Oooo, can I work at the inn?”

“Sure, we can offer you as a party favor to the first guests, and I can finally be rid of you.”

Emelia, remembering his joke, about not needing her from before, zoomed back off to the former monster and animals room and played on the burnt out tree husks. Jeez, what is it with her and trees, anyways?

Looking back over his first floor, he felt good, but also that something was lacking. He examined the outside of the entrance hall. The two 100-foot, twin dragons gave an imposing and grandiose feeling to his dungeon. The walls inside the tunnel were filled with relief carvings of glowing dragons. His three steles introduced A Dragon's Dungeon, explained the meaning behind the safe floors, and presented the dungeon's ultimate purpose. The teleportation glyph marked the end of the tunnel. All the walls and floors were made out of polished travertine. All that was left untouched was the ceiling. Ah, the ceiling, Dorn thought, the ceiling is lacking.

At this point, Dorn became a little bit whimsical and placed little faint lights on the ceiling of the dim hall. From the darkness of the hall, these lights mimicked the stars in the sky. It was commonly thought that each star in the night's sky represented one of the gods, and that there were more gods than people could ever know. Dorn felt that his dungeon would be watched over and approved by the gods, as they saw his dungeon become something of a base for all people.

Good, now I just need to make the next few floors while leaving enough DP's to buy instances.

Dorn got back to work.

Kiera had a problem. The managers from the okra farm kept tracking her. She had moved through a dozen farms in Duke Hallowedlash's lands. She had spent a few weeks at her latest farm. She knew that soon enough, they would come for her again.

Strangely, she found herself missing Coyne and Therese. In her life, Kiera had never made many friends, and now two of that small group were dead. She remembered what they had said about the silver dragon. It made her smile. How amazing would it be if they had been right? This thought, coupled with her innate curiosity, led her to a decision she knew she was going to make a long time ago. It was time to go find out if there really was a silver dragon living in the Khal kingdom.

Kiera, watching the trackers from her farm head towards the field manager's house, she promptly turned around and ran into the forest. She knew that her features were simply too recognizable. Now being wanted in the east of Khal, along with all the other parts, she was in a sticky situation.

I guess it's time to go to Kendra. I will have to finally leave this gods-forsaken nation. Hopefully I can find work there. But first, I'll stop and check to see if there really is a dragon here in Khal.