Progress

Chapter 13

With nothing to do without adventurers, everyone took the day after New Year’s as a holiday except me. I spent the day working lightly but took breaks to play with the hounds and skeletons. Henry introduced me to what I saw as a variant of rummy. It was an odd game played with a deck of cards that featured dragons and dice.

While I was learning to play, I found out that they kept their winnings with the thought of using the chips as a pseudo currency. For what they weren’t sure, but it seemed to make them comfortable to have some features of a living community.

“I did say you guys should let me know if you have or want hobbies. I mean, carving supplies, embroidery floss, I can get that stuff and you can trade it for the things you make,” I offered during the third game that I was losing rather badly. The game made sense and I felt like I was playing well, but the skeletons seemed almost prescient about figuring out my cards.

“That might be good, I’d enjoy having some tailoring supplies,” Henry agreed, and I started a list of things they wanted. I didn’t send it off immediately though, still wanting to give Elim time to deal with the move and his other issues.

Het (NE) +2

I was surprised when the point award came through but didn’t need to spend any time searching out the cause. I was still concerned - someone had already tried to poison Elim - but it stood to reason that more conflict would follow. Instead of stewing in worry, I opened my panel and checked on him and his family. A quick look told me they were still doing fine but he was separated from his guardian. I found the earth elemental hound I’d assigned with his mother and daughter instead.

Seeing where the hound was I could only sigh. It was very much like Elim to prioritize them. They were in a camp a safe distance from anywhere potentially hostile while he was in the thick of a settlement. It wasn't my place to argue with him about his family’s safety, but I still felt annoyed. Particularly since he was dragging a corpse down an alley way when I checked on him.

Just as he made it around a corner the body appeared in the shared inventory and I felt relieved. I had only been able to see him and the body on the map as individuals. The local population density just showed up as a colored blotch over the top of the map. Guards could have been in hot pursuit for all I knew but he didn’t appear to be concerned and walked back out of the alley.

I wanted to be angry but only managed ‘annoyed’. Especially since I’d received points. I could have done without the associated anxiety, but accepted the win anyway. Data was data and I was curious about how his points would stack compared to mine. I already knew they were different but compared them with what I’d gotten before just to double-check.

I wouldn’t have gotten +2 for killing someone neutral evil. A strong point in favor of my hope that point awards were based on the killer’s alignment. I still needed to think of what to do about the guardian issue but didn’t come up with an easy answer. It was something I was going to have to table for the moment much like getting his mother communications access.

Distracted I wasn’t paying attention to my cards and noticed something a bit odd. Christopher looked above me briefly before placing down his bet which was rather large given how early in the game it was. Popping open my interface I checked the room and found a small mirror behind me where he was looking. Watching closely, I noticed that pretty much all of the skeletons except Henry were taking their cue from him.

Two can play that game, cocksuckers. My initial anger didn’t last long, though, once I actually started to cheat. I could look at all of their cards with the system and at that point, it wasn’t a game. By comparison, Christopher’s method of cheating was little more than a prank. I was just abusing my power as lord and master of my domain like an asshole. I lost the round on purpose after betting heavily as penance.

I scooped the mirror up into my inventory to level the playing field before the next round started. Playing fairly, it turned out I still sucked pretty hard at the game even without anyone cheating. By the end, I’d lost more than I won without help and forgot about my annoyance with Christopher. Despite getting hosed at the card table I had fun and left feeling good.

As a bonus, taking some time off proved valuable. On the second day after New Year’s, I had a minor epiphany. Instead of combining the Lorrel motif with the dungeon I bought land on the other side of the slope.

That became what I was calling ‘the Temple’, though it was just an entrance and a small chamber for the moment. Combining everything had been my first instinct but it was a holdover from when I’d thought that I could only build underground. It was enough that I owned the land between the two entrances for them to be considered connected.

I left the dungeon entrance a tile above the surrounding area and constructed a stone platform leading up to it. Over this went a roof on pillars large enough for two lines of cart track down the middle, a walking path, and side spurs. At the end of the spurs was a place to tip the mine carts into waiting wagons, and I added slight ruts in the stone to add to the idea.

The tracks ran along the length of the central shaft, dead ending at a large stone chamber where I placed enough alcoves for the return teleportation rings from the various safe areas of the dungeon below. This had been part of my original concept, but I expanded it. For dramatic effect, I carved a hole into the stone above to let a bit of sun in to fall like a spotlight on the stairs that lead down to the first stack.

I almost fucked up and didn’t include the return symbols for the last four safe-zones. They wouldn’t have connecting ones in the safe zones themselves, but they needed them in the return area for the trick to work. Now instead of a mine themed dungeon, I could do a mine that led to a dungeon. I felt relieved by the change, moving all the decor I’d already bought to populate the first layer.

To encourage lower-level gatherers, I added deposits of minerals, moss, fungi, anything I could think of that would be useful. I also set generous respawn rates so that they would be routinely available but not inexhaustible. When I was done my setting choices ended up costing me a little of my mana in upkeep costs. Five points would have to be dedicated to maintaining all the resources I’d made available, but that was fine.

I re-sculpted the environment to include more natural chambers and trickles of water to allow a greater level of diversity. The image I was going for was a mine in the midst of an expansion that had shut down when a dungeon was found. Reading up on the resources I’d placed, I moved them around and created areas that would look like their natural environment. Something a little hard to do with metals, but ‘it’s magic’ was sufficient explanation for self-replenishing surface veins.

More used to my interface and the store, I started creating some repeating elements like stone lamps that I placed glowing magic crystals into for lighting. These went into the dungeon proper, while the mining section kept its empty oil lamps. I decorated the rest areas with stamps to create repeating boards carved into the stone and roughed in murals. The elements were different, but the style was the same as the one I used in the temple.

Since I wanted to encourage adventures to keep going once they were in, I added water fountains with purifying crystals in the base. Food would be easy to bring down, but bringing enough water was a pain in the ass and the thing they’d run out of first. With that concern taken care of, they’d be able to descend with fewer cares. I felt good about how things looked and considered the top three stacks complete aside from aesthetic work.

When it was one day before Agony would arrive, I felt chill unlike when the notice arrived. Instead of hurrying to decorate I was laying out my work plan for the middle three stacks. It would take time to finish and I was feeling confined by my current mana output. Unfortunately, that upgrade would cost ten points and I only had six total. Not far off the mark, but still unavailable.

I was genuinely tempted to ask Elim to bump a couple of evildoers off, but gave up on the idea with a sigh. I didn’t know what his situation was like, but I doubted it would be improved by committing random murder on my behalf. It was also a cop out to have him do my dirty work instead of getting used to it myself.

I needed to stop focusing on my limitations and work with what I had. Clearing my mind of unfortunate thoughts an idea occurred to me that would work as a middle ground. Opening up my interface, I took a picture of the exterior map and that of the top layer of the dungeon. Stitching the two images together in my editor, I created a less than accurate pen copy and added that layer to a large parchment sheet. With the map in hand, I added it to my inventory before starting a text to Elim.

Elim,

I made a map leading to my dungeon. If you find any adventures you think deserve it, give them a copy. Preferably a party of lower-level assholes.

I was about to send it when something occurred to me. I went into my management interface and found him under a new tab labeled employees. Since I wasn’t sure how the system categorized things, I thought he might be editable like the skeletons. I was wrong, but not by a wide margin. Things like his appearance were locked and I couldn’t enable respawning.

I could, however, look at his build and for an exorbitant mana cost could change a couple of things. They included ‘change class’, ‘remove flaw’, ‘add blessing’, ‘spend stat points’, and ‘reset’. I looked at ‘reset’ suspiciously, but all it said was that it would reset the class level to zero and return all spent experience.

Checking the class change option, I found that unlike with the Skeletons it wouldn’t erase prior levels. It would just start with the next time he earned a level. That combined with the rest made it seem like a fairly straightforward two-step process, but I didn’t even think about trying it out. Instead, I deleted my original text and started over.

Elim,

When you leveled up before, how did it work? Did you receive a prompt and choose feats and things, or was it an automatic progression?

It wasn’t long until he replied.

Mistress 42,

Only the highest grade of magic produces prompts as far as I know. Only special equipment can determine levels, but few people have it. I’m only aware of my level because the garrison had a crystal that detected it. Earl Savex was very particular about that.

I looked at his build curiously. Going by what he said it made sense. Everything went along the basic tree for the class. There were points where he could have changed over to specializations, but those would likely have required a teacher he didn’t have access to. He didn’t have any blessings or flaws, so I looked at the blessings. They all cost my full days’ worth of mana and I flinched back when I saw it.

Once I recovered from sticker shock, two stood out to me.

Magus Eyes

The recipient can perceive mana allowing them to see if an object is magical, a spell is being cast, or a spell is in effect. By concentrating, they can see spirits, the flow of mana in the natural world, and detect Ley Lines. With practice they can come to see them at will.

Linguist

You pick up languages more easily than others. Choose one language you have encountered before to know immediately. Learn others you encounter passively at a rate of 1% per day or 3% per day if pursued actively.

I sent the full list to Elim for consideration and he agreed that they would have the most utility for him. I went with Linguist since I didn’t know if Magus Eyes would make his look weird or something. I didn’t really know if it was common in this world but on my own, having a special feature could cause people to want to buy said body part. Unfortunately, that demand led to a supply and I wasn’t interested in him being hunted for his eyes.

Okay!

I bought things today so it will have to wait a bit before I buy that. I’ll give you a heads-up before I do and let you pick the language if that pops up on my side. On a side note, I could use some points, so I made a map leading to the dungeon. Give it to a deserving group of good-aligned adventures. Preferably low-level assholes.

Thanks,

42

Elim’s reply was quick and made me laugh as I read it.

Mistress,

It’s lucky that you thought of this now. I know just the deserving souls to give it to.

Your grateful servant,

Elim