Chapter 4

“Erin. Erin. ERIN!”

His cries were ignored. The fairy’s emotions were a mixture of rage and sorrow. What have I done?

“Look, Erin, I’m sorry.”

“You’re vile. How could you? Only evil souls choose darkness or chaos.”

Chaos? So there are seven. Ryan made a mental note to ask Erin about that one later on, when she wasn’t extremely mad at him.

“Look, Erin. I’m not evil, I promise.” He tried to convey his sincerity through the bond. “Something came over me. I couldn’t control myself. Pull the other elements back up, and I’ll switch back to fire. Having fire-breathing lizards seems so cool.”

Tears fell from her eyes as she shook her head. “It can’t be undone.”

What? “But—”

“Once you pick your affinity, there is no going back. You’re stuck with a dark affinity.” She said it with disgust. Was darkness really that bad?

“Oh.” Why had he acted so impulsively? What strange force had come over him to make him chose the dark energy? What had the church ever done to him?

“It doesn’t matter.” Erin was fighting hard to get her emotions back in order. “I’ve let the Goddess down.”

She broke down again.

Poor girl.

“Erin, you haven’t let anyone down. You’ve been a great help. It’s not your fault you got stuck with a stupid dungeon core.”

She looked up, a small smile starting to form. “The dumbest.”

“Yup, that’s me, dumbest dungeon there ever was.”

She laughed; it was light and musical. Ryan could feel himself smiling.

“Now, then, how about you help this dumb dungeon try to work past his mistake?”

She flew back onto him, wiping her eyes as she landed. “Well, thanks to you, we are stuck with darkness.”

“Nothing we can do?”

“Nope.”

“Well, then, I guess it’s time for the next step in becoming a dungeon. You mentioned something about mobs?”

She sighed but pulled out two crystalline triangles. They grew until they were each just a tad smaller than Ryan and floated in front of him. They appeared to be inversions of each other.

“Your affinity helps us decide what type of mobs you are able to create. Those,” she pointed towards the triangles, “show us your current level, as well as the amount of experience you have towards the next level.”

She flew to the first triangle. “This is the level gauge.” She pointed at the triangle’s wide base. “The bottom is the Bronze tier and consists of eleven levels. Next is Silver, with nine levels. Then it’s Gold with seven, Platinum with five, Diamond with three, and at the top, is God tier.”

“Hey, awesome. I’m made of diamond. Am I a one, two, or three?”

“You’re made out of idiot.” She laughed again. “All dungeon cores are made of diamond. Besides, what your stone is made of doesn’t determine your level, silly.” She pointed to the bottom left-hand corner of the triangle, where a single, much smaller triangle, glowed black. “This is your level. You are currently a Bronze Eleven darkness dungeon.” Oh, so he was at the very bottom. Ouch.

“And this shows you are about halfway towards the experience requirement for your next level.” She pointed at the other main triangle – the inverted one – which had the narrow bottom portion partially filled with a black glow. “This triangle is split into six levels.” Ryan could see six different lines cutting across it, each creating a larger section. “For Bronze, you need to fill the bottom portion to level one. For Silver, you’ll have to fill the second. To reach Gold, it’s—”

“—the third level, Platinum the fourth, and so on?” Looking at that, it meant each level would grow increasingly more difficult to progress past. Ugh. Being a dungeon is going to be hard.

“You caught on to that quickly.” Erin waved her hand, and the two triangles sank to the ground. “If you absorb these, you will be able to call them forth whenever you choose, to check your stats.” She didn’t have to tell Ryan twice. He instantly absorbed them both. Unlike the previous objects he had absorbed, though, these weren’t broken down, and a rush of knowledge didn’t fill him regarding them. Darn, they seem interesting. He wondered how they worked.

“Now, call your level triangle back out,” suggested Erin.

He looked at her, wondering how he would do that. “How?”

“Just… think of it?” Erin didn’t seem to know either. Awesome.

“Fine.” He imagined the triangle he had just absorbed, and on cue, it appeared shimmering before him. “I did it!”

“At least you can do some things right.” She seemed to still be a tad upset about the darkness thing.

Oops.

“So, the mobs you can summon depend on multiple factors. First, your affinity. Second, your level.”

“And mobs get stronger as I do?” He was liking this whole ‘interrupt Erin with thoughts of his own’ game. She had seemed happy with his guesses earlier.

“Not quite.” Drat, he was wrong. “Mobs are assigned a point value. Based on your level, you have a certain amount of points available with which to create mobs.”

Ugh. Does this mean I have to do math?

“At Bronze Eleven, you are allotted fifty points.” She pointed to the bottom leftmost triangle, and a white ‘50’ appeared over the darkness. That’s helpful. “As you increase in levels, you will be allotted more points.”

This all seemed simple enough.

“So, I can create fifty points’ worth of mobs right now?”

Erin shook her head. “They would have nowhere to go.”

Ah, right. They were still in a single sphere-shaped room.

“So, we have to expand first?” Ugh. Expanding took forever. Ryan wanted to see what else he could do.

“Correct. Before you summon any mobs, you need to create the first level of your dungeon.”

“Just one level?” He tried not to sound disappointed. He wanted to be big.

“Yes. Your allotted points apply across all your floors, so I don’t think expanding out to more than one floor would be wise at this time.” Oh, valid point. He wasn’t sure how much different mobs cost yet, but he had a feeling fifty points wouldn’t go very far.

“Try to make three rooms for now. A boss room right before this area, and then two other rooms. That seems to be the basic setup for most low-level dungeons.” Erin flew atop him again, patting his head. He sent a pained groan through their bond.

“The sooner you get this done, the sooner you get to summon your first mobs,” she told him, sending a wave of distaste through their bond. Yup, she hadn’t forgiven him at all.

He silently set to work spreading his influence out. Perhaps if he worked hard enough, Erin wouldn’t hold onto her obvious grudge. Besides, darkness couldn’t be that bad.

***

???

The deep reverberation of bells woke him from his slumber. His eyes opened slowly, and as he sat up, he scanned the room. The skeletons that surrounded him as he slept stood silent and unmoving.

He paid them no heed as he stood, calling on the surrounding gloom to cover him. He emerged from the room riding a wave of darkness, heading to the heart of his castle

The walls he passed were adorned with ancient paintings, relics from times long forgotten. He recalled ‘acquiring’ the castle from his master and smirked to himself as he remembered that sniveling fool. He hadn’t even been worth bringing back as a minion.

He passed patrolling zombies and skeletons on his way – his loyal servants, all humans too weak to stand before him in life. At least they were useful in death. He grinned again as his eyes passed over his pets. Every undead face reminded him of a battle, of death. He did so enjoy killing. Perhaps that was why he had so readily accepted his calling and embraced his dark powers.

His thoughts paused as he reached his goal: a massive underground chamber, with a single pedestal resting in the center of the room. Atop the pedestal sat a crystal, the only one of its kind in existence.

It was able to determine when a dungeon of darkness affinity had awakened. And clearly, it had detected something, for the crystal was glowing with a dark light. Beside it, an acolyte, the only other living being in his castle, was clanging the bells. As he entered, the acolyte faltered, and stepped away from the bells, bowing in his direction.

“Contact your master,” he growled to the acolyte. “There is a new darkness dungeon.”