If miners back home had access to drones I think the world would be a less polluted place. The little minion had devoured and clawed its way through the solid stone in record time. What would have taken people with power tools and blasting caps hours the little guy did in fifteen minutes. For some reason I got the vague sense the drones were all male so I figured I should start calling the drone a he. I whistled amazed at his progress and put a hand up against the wall.

“Well sir you can consider yourself on track to earn that minion of the month poster.” I said to him with a grin.

The drone put up a little hand to stop me before I went down the new tunnel and moved towards the entrance. Unhinging his jaw he vomited a goopy material around the entrance and a second later it solidified into a petrified wood frame. It was very disturbing but also good to know they could reinforce the walls on their own.

I picked up the pedestal relying on my crystal’s light to illuminate the way as we walked into my new bedroom. The bedroom was a nice open space with plenty of room to pace around or do my morning push ups. It was completely barren and I narrowed my eyes seeing the pop ups again. It looked like I was allowed to request a few things and mentally clicked a few helpful looking options.

The minion ran over to the far wall first, making strange growls and waving its hands around. The four clawed hands made little signs as black smoke rose from them and condensed in front of it. With an audible pop a simple mat came into existence. With it came a thin pillow and a scratchy looking wool blanket, not the most comfortable bed but better than a bare floor.

The minion ran around the walls doing the same song and dance. Each time he finished his ritual the walls were smoothed out or a shoddy piece of furniture appeared. By the end I had a desk, chair, dresser and chest. He even hollowed out a space behind my bed and put up a curtain making an improvised closet. Seeing no better safe space I waddled over putting the crystal safely out of sight.

Taking out my flashlight again I inspected the furniture and found a maker's mark. It looked like some goblin-like creature kicking back on a chair with its feet up on a stool. It read under it, “Tired Lad, when you need furniture cheap and we don’t care enough to put in the effort.”

I guess I was living back like I did during my ill fated college days. Grabbing it’s edge I gave each a slight push feeling them and getting the sense they were sturdy enough. As long as I didn’t put too much strain on them of course.

Returning to the central room I tapped my chin. I had used up one of my free furnished rooms and that was fine by me. Having a good space to rest made me feel more at home but I knew I should save the other for something important. If I had them hollow out a room or two did that still count?

Looking at the two other walls I mentally commanded the minion to dig out some space, two empty rooms for later use. One I would probably use for storage and looking at the list I sent off the command and watched the minion run over and set to work.

A new pop up appears informing me that I would require more minions to accomplish several tasks at once. Deciding it would be best to follow it I thought up two new drones. Several seconds passed and from the bedroom I saw a flare up of light flood the hall. The light died down and around the corner ran two new drones each with their own shirts and name tags. I would have to get it to stop making name tags to taunt me.

“Number 2 and number 3, Drone number 1 will be your manager. Try to do your best guys!” I ordered them, feeling a bit giddy. “Take breaks if you need them.”

The little minions saluted me and ran over to help Drone 1, the now lead drone stepped back and started to make small sounds ordering the other two. He seemed happier and stood straighter as he carefully managed them together and sped up their work.

Minion Management levelled up to rank II!

You can now give more commands and control more minions.

Scout minion unlocked!

+1 XP gained.

Well that was an interesting development, and I peered at the scout minion line. A pop up appeared having a cost of food and wood to it. Looking at the working drones busy with their current task I decided to return to the surface to scavenge for fallen sticks. At least it would be a small experiment to check the values of things I could fetch on my own.

Walking around the edge of the deserted little town I found a pile of old firewood and took an armful down to my new dungeon, if I could even call it that yet. As I set down the small bundle Drone 1 ran over and tapped each with fingers. As he made contact with each they vanished in smoke and after he cleared them away he ran into the storage room.

Peeking inside I raised the flashlight and saw him walk to a corner and do his little hand waves. The firewood reappeared in the air in front of him and fell into a neat organised pile. A pop up appeared in the corner and I saw we added one unit of wood to our storage.

Drone 2 and 3 ran out from the other empty room and looked to me for instruction. Drone 1 ran beside them and pushed his way to the front waiting to give out the instructions from me.

“Can you guys fetch a little bit of food and wood for me?” I asked.

They all rapidly nodded and Drone 1 turned to open his mouth. He raised his hand and stood up as tall as he could to look down at the other small minions.

“Meep, mep, murrrr hmph!” he said with a commanding tone and the two others ran off to do his bidding.

With the task delegated successfully he took my hand to show me the new empty room. The blank space was a void willing to be shaped into something useful, and I let the possibilities run through my head of what I might need the most.

Builder levelled up to rank II!

New recipes unlocked, basic dungeon life rooms and traps.

+1 XP gained.

Drone 1 bounced with anticipation, probably wanting to build more but I held up a hand to stop him. It was hard not to feel the same excitement but I had to keep a level head with our current situation and our non-existent supplies.

“Hey, take a little break. I’m going to take a seat and relax to think about our next move.” I said.

Drone 1 was all too happy to sit down and wait for the others to return. I headed to my new bedroom and sat down on my new bed. The mat had just enough cushion to it that I could at least feel like I wasn’t sleeping on the hard floor.

I narrowed my vision wondering how I could see my own personal sheet again and just like that it popped into my vision. Looking at the skill page I mentally flipped to it.

Skills

Skill points : 0

Physical skills…

Melee 1

Athletics 1

Unarmed 2

Mental skills…

Perception 2

World 1

Divine 1

Arcane 1

Other Realm 1

(Knowledge boost : +1 from keeper crystal)

Keeper Skills …

Minion Management 2

Builder 2

Years of sports, martial arts on the weekends and schooling had earned me these skills, and I felt I might be lacking. I had nothing to compare to but I felt a trained adventurer should have more than just this. I had to shake out of that train of thought and look at the bright side. I had only been here for hours and was already pulling in experience and skill levels which meant I could do a bit of catching up before I got into danger. Perhaps in the next few days I could round these out into a more respectable spread of skills.

Looking back to my character sheet I wondered how to look at the scout pop up and a new sheet appeared. This one had space to list my current minions and my ability to get more.

Minion Management

You can currently command an amount of minions from your crystal equal to the Minion Management skill and your Charisma bonus. Currently you can command five minions.

Drone - 1 food and 1 wood

Scout - 5 food and 5 wood

Curious, I wondered what my current amount of supplies were and flipped around until a new page appeared listing our supplies. Of note we had that strange Icharian stone and the counter for food and wood was slowly ticking up. The drones must have just returned and I waited until the counter reached five for each one.

Waving my hand the required food and wood vanished and black tendrils erupted from the crystal. The long writhing appendages shot down the hall and out of view at a blinding pace. They continued to snake past me until they reached their destination and like a measuring tape being let go, returned with a slight whirring noise.

Bundles of firewood, berries and mushrooms swung wildly around my room, nearly crashing into the new furniture. I threw myself to the floor putting my hands over my head and prayed I wouldn’t get slogged by the flying blocks of wood as the chaos continued blocking my view of the ceiling.

The air cleared as the material was placed at the base of the pedestal and the tendrils vanished into the crystal removing any trace of their existence. The material evaporated and in their place a new minion was born. This one had a wide brimmed hat on its head and a small walking stick. It’s black and red shirt was paired with a little satchel to complete his look of an explorer.

Dungeon Scout 1, small size, minion

Strength 6

Constitution 4

Dexterity 6

Intelligence 5

Willpower 4

Charisma 4

Skills

Minions rely on dungeon keepers abilities.

Scout class has +1 to perception and stealth.

It was a tiny bit stronger than the others and even had a small skill boost to boot. The new minion ran over to me and helped me back to my feet. After shaking the hand of the new hire for the aid we returned to the main room to find the drones in a state of panic.

“Don’t worry guys it was me, sorry about all that. Meet our newest friend, the scout.” I said, presenting the newest addition to our troupe.

The drones surrounded the scout and I could see the scout was a touch taller. Drone 1 stood on the tip of his foot claws to meet the scout eye to eye. A spark of understanding passed between them and the scout slouched a bit to be shorter than him.

The minions raised their four arms and started to dance around in a circle and open their mouths to sing. The impromptu dance party had a charm to it and I leaned against the wall watching them. My flashlight illuminated the dark space and glinted off something down the exit hall.

In unison we all looked towards its source as a strange critter entered our sight. The bottom of my vision was flashing and a red exclamation point appeared.

The dungeon is under attack!