I woke up, remembering my plan. I checked beside me and in the darkness I could see Lin was still curled up sleeping blissfully. The warm cocoon of wool was inviting me to stay inside but I knew I owed it to my hard working minions to check up on them. Carefully I untangled myself from the cute cat girl and snuck out as quietly as I could into the main room.

The moons and stars were bright enough to give me enough light to avoid hitting my foot off the table again. I put on my dry clothes and slid on my boots before making my way outdoors. As I shut the door to the house I nearly leapt out of my skin when a pop up appeared.

Stealth increased to rank I!

+1 XP gained.

I relaxed and held a hand to my hammering heart. Crouching low I made my way to the storage building and found Scout 1 waiting for me. The two of us went down the tunnel and I finally was able to stand up to my full height. As we reached the top part of the slope I stood amazed at the changes. A well carved and perfectly illuminated stairwell descended into my dungeon.

As we walked down the stairs I saw along the wall was a second set of stairs cut to a much shorter rise to accommodate the minions, there were even two handrails cut into the walls. Minion 1 might replace me at this rate if I wasn’t careful.

Builder increased to rank IV!

+10 XP gained.

A flood of notifications shot up the side of my vision and I waved my hand to quickly dismiss them. I rather the minions show me what they had done with their time alone. It didn’t take long to see, I could scarcely believe just a few days ago this had been little more than a cave.

The main room of the dungeon had been levelled out and shaped to give it a much cleaner look. Small channels were cut into the floor and went into small holes in the wall just above the ground. As I stared at them the walls seemed to fade and light blue lines appeared showing me a network of carved out pipes throughout the dungeon leading into the mines and to what I assumed was an underground river.

“That’s genius.” I said putting a finger on my chin. “If we flood again it will just route out to the river.”

Drone 1 appeared at my side and took me to a lever near the hall leading to my bedroom. He first bowed like a conductor and then pulled down the lever. A loud click echoed at the top of the stairs and a second after a deluge of water coasted down the stairs, at the base of the stairs two slabs of stone separated letting the water drop into a pit.

Looking at the pit opening the floor at my feet turned translucent and I saw a chute going down into a long fall that ended with cut outs to drain the water. A small ladder went down around the mid way point and it connected into the mine. The small tunnel going to the mine was tiny, only able to accommodate the drones.

“So they drop down, and either die or get trapped. After the water drains we go down and pick up the loot?” I asked to see if I was following along.

Drone 1 nodded and gave me a thumbs up. Scout 1 dragged on my arm for attention and led me to the mess hall where another lever was. After he pulled it I heard another click and at the base of the stairs a wooden log swung down from the ceiling. If anyone was my height they would be clobbered and at the very least dazed.

“So if the water trick doesn’t work we have good old brute force.” I said with approval.

We went around the rest of the dungeon finding each room had received a face lift, smoothing out the floor or cutting drainage channels. The ceilings were arched and reinforced, strengthening them far more than the old style. Clay tiles also covered the walls, from the floor all the way up to my hips.

“Where did you guys get all these?” I asked, tapping the tiles.

They were solidly set against the wall and the ceramic ting echoed in the chamber. It offered a bit of colour to the otherwise drab area and it gave me hope we might find a way to paint them later. The dungeon looked less and less like a random cave and more like a livable space.

As minions led me through the storage room, I was happy to see they had collected more scrap around town refilling our supplies. They looked nervous taking me into the workshop and I could see why. It was an absolute disaster.

Drone 2 and 3 were coated in rock dust, wood shavings and surrounded by mud. Drone 2 opened his mouth, unhinging his jaw and opening it to an impossibly wide degree. Drone 3 dropped into his mouth a cup of water, mud from the river and a few crushed bricks. Drone 2 then closed his mouth and vibrated violently shaking the floor. He then stopped and spat out a perfectly formed wet clay brick.

Drone 3 took a rusted flat trowel and sliced the brick into square tiles in the same style as the ones on the wall. There were stacks of clay tiles in varying stages of drying against the wall, going as high as my knee. I was wondering how they mounted them on the walls but I didn’t have to wonder for long.

As if sensing my question Drone 3 picked up a dry tile, moving to a wall that was only half done. He spat a black gooey substance onto the wall and slapped the tile onto it. Strange crackles could be heard as the goo let out steam and the tile was pulled into the wall and set.

I was rendered speechless. In fact I wish I didn’t know how they tiles came to be and I was fearful to learn how the minions biology even worked. I tore my eyes away and looked at the sad disaster that was the carpenter table.

A shoddy table had been hammered into the wall and crude looking tools covered it. The only tools that looked like they actually functioned were rusted out pieces, holding onto dear life on little more than a prayer. Half finished chairs dotted the floor, some with the legs mounted on the wrong sides. The only one to blame was myself really, my lack of any crafting talents meant that the minions had no such skill either.

“It’s…a valiant effort. Maybe we need to hire someone to make the chairs…” I said as politely as I could.

Drone 3 shrugged and went back to making clay tiles with Drone 2. The strange sight made me question the sanity of whatever god made these things. I told them to keep up the good work and continued the tour with the other two minions.

There was little to show in the mine except that Scout 1 had placed a glowing dungeon light beside each visible vein of ore. It seemed to me that despite the fact the minions could carve through solid stone, different rules applied to ores. I guess they didn't come across any pickaxes which was odd for a mining town.

Finally they took me to the back hallway, it had been extended, breaking off into six rooms now. Each of the new rooms were left intentionally blank, with no additional shaping, smoothing or tiling done yet. Drone 1 stared at a room and a pop up appeared asking me what I wanted to be built there.

“Let’s not worry about that just yet.” I said.

My room however did receive a bit of extra work. It had been extended into the rocks and made into a series of rooms. The first one had a curtain at the back, and had been changed into something of an office. The Tired Lad branded desk was still here off to the side, but now beside it carved into the rock where shelves. On the opposite side was a wooden table with the legs either shortened or broken, with two sad looking pillows on either side.

I had an official office now. They had even taken time to lay out a dusty old rug they found, giving it a much more lived in appearance. I nodded in appreciation and pulled back the curtain. The next room was my bedroom, a bit smaller than the office but had the rest of the Tired Lad furniture or what they had found intact above.

One last curtain was at the back and I began to feel my heart race. Yet it wasn’t my heart, as I focused on myself my senses dulled and I heard a distant beat. The beat of my second spirit heart, my connection to magic. Tentatively I reached for the curtain and dragged it aside, finding a room just for the crystal.

The crystal itself was still the same as I had last seen it, clear and resting on the silver pedestal. Underneath the pedestal thick black tree roots stretched out into the floor and pulsed with energy. As I tried to slip back into that focused state the floors and walls became translucent and I could see the roots spread all around the dungeon. It connected to the levers, the traps and all the lights.

As I walked within reaching distance of the crystal the hairs on my arm rose and in the back of my mouth I tasted ozone. A pop up appeared in my vision next to my crystal.

Keeper crystal, tiny size, Level 1 crystal

25/100 XP

Skill bonuses…

None

Current Mana Power Generation : 5

Current Mana Power Consumption : 4

This all raised more questions then gave answers, but the mana power thing made a bit of sense. It was like some alien form of electricity and the crystal’s roots must be powering the levers, allowing the traps to work. As if to answer my question a blue ball of energy travelled down a root and I watched it go through the floor, into the walls and up to the lever for the water trap.

Around the crystal room they had a stack of scavenged boxes and chests in rough shape. It was good for keeping material on hand so if I tried another minion summoning it wouldn’t tear apart all the nice new work on the floors and walls.

“Well guys, I have to say the level of progress here is…astounding.” I said, wiping a tear from my eye. “You have been doing a great job managing Drone 1, and make sure you tell everyone they are doing a good job too.”

Scout 1 and Drone 1 clasped hands and circled around each other, hopping along in a happy dance. They then separated to stand before me excitedly awaiting their next task.

“I think you guys all deserve a day off honestly, and I’m going to be heading out to load up on treasure to bring back tomorrow.” I said.

A thought then occurred to me, I could keep some of the treasure I found today here. I put down my backpack, opened it up and started to drop the trinkets and coins onto the floor. The minions snatched it up and ran around putting them into neat piles inside the chests and boxes.

Current treasure hoard value : 5 gold 50 silver

No notable items

No magical items

Well we were chipping progress into affording the shrine. A small pile that could fit in my backpack however was only a drop in the bucket for what was needed. Either I needed a lucky break on this adventure with Lin or I needed to find a way to start selling bricks and tiles.

As I watched them reorder the boxes I knew what I would be willing to expend some resources on. I sent a request to the minions to start bringing in supplies and I double checked the special minion sheet.

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 seven minions.

Drone - 1 food and 1 wood

Scout - 5 food and 5 wood

Guard - 15 food, 10 wood and 5 metal

The guard was expensive but we did have a good built up stockpile and a new bulkier addition could buy time for the traps to work their magic. It also felt thematic, my dungeon finally had treasure so to go with the traps I needed at least one guard.

The minions ran out the room to grab the requested items. I watched as the stock count on berries and mushrooms plummeted. The worst part of my idea really was we only had five metal in total currently. I either needed to find more scrap, or learn how to help the minions mine the ore.

The drones arrived back in the room and waved their hands causing all the items they were holding to magically appear into a mound in front of the crystal and they all quickly backed away. Scout 1 came in carrying the last chunk of scrap metal in his hands and unceremoniously tossed it to the floor.

Starting at my crystal I sent the command and watched the black tendrils rise out of the crystal to grab the needed resources. The pile of valuable resources vanished before my eyes and in its place was a shimmering purple portal.

The sounds of battles, war cries and ear shattering screeches came from the portal as it rumbled with aura of menace shaking the dungeon floor. It was a doorway to some far off hell and through it I smelled sulphur and brimstone. A vague black shape approached the portal and we all readied ourselves as the thing entered our room.

An extra tall minion stepped out of the portal with a wide grin. He dragged behind him a short spear and buckler along with a backpack with his equipment. The moment he passed the threshold of the portal it collapsed behind him returning our dungeon to normal.

With the hellish landscape gone I was finally able to take a good look over the equipment he had. He wore a cooking pot strapped onto his head for a helmet and on his body he had a thick packed gambeson. Over the gambeson he had a light cloak to protect him from the elements.

The new minion waved his free arm at the group, losing his grip on his bag in the process and scattering his things onto the floor. On his black and red armour was a name tag denoting his name, Guard 1.

Dungeon Guard 1, small size, minion

Strength 8

Constitution 6

Dexterity 4

Intelligence 4

Willpower 4

Charisma 4

Skills

Minions rely on dungeon keepers abilities.

Guard class has +1 melee and +1 dodge

Talents

Toughness I

A new screen was present and I flicked over to it seeing his load out.

Short spear - Mediocre quality

Buckler - Mediocre quality

Reinforced gambeson - Low quality

Guard kit…

The spear might have claimed it was mediocre but the razor sharp iron point on it filled me with confidence that if another stag hare came it would meet its fate skewered on it. The guard minion was several inches taller than the rest of them and stronger too, giving him an advantage in combat.

Scout 1 was the first one of us to approach the new addition. He grabbed onto one of Guard 1’s biceps and was amazed at his heightened strength. Guard 1 happily flexed for the rest of the minions and they all clapped with joy seeing their new tough guardian.

I would have to think up names for them at some point, calling them guard this and scout that was starting to get tiresome. Deep down I knew it was also because they earned it, they had worked incredibly hard to secure this place up and once I had a chance to rest down here I could give them names.

“Ok everyone I’m heading back up, I’m really proud of all of you.” I said, giving each of them a pat on the head. My hand came off Drone 2’s head covered in muck and I wiped it off. “However, let's try to be a bit less messy.”

As I reached Guard 1 he tore off his helmet and bounced around ecstatically, excited for his first head pat. After scratching him between the ears I pointed out Drone 1.

“That’s going to be the manager while I’m gone, he has a good head on his shoulders so listen to him and he can help you do your job.” I said.

Guard 1 saluted Drone 1 and stood at attention. Drone 1 opened his mouth to speak but paused, he ran off to grab a box and put it on the ground to jump up onto first. Now that he was an inch taller than the guard he started to yap and explain…something to him.

Guard 1 grabbed his gear and followed me, taking time to run ahead and make sure each room was clear. I assumed he was guarding me from any dangers but it felt more like an energetic dog was running around my heels. Once we reached the stairs Guard 1 tugged on my sleeve and held out his arms.

It took me a moment to figure out what he wanted. I knelt down on the ground and gave him a hug. His tail wagged behind him and he wore a goofy expression as he let out a sound to say goodbye.

“Merp!”

“See you later buddy, keep them safe for me.” I said. I turned and called out over my shoulder. “Everyone behave for Guard 1’s first day please.”

I did my best to sneak out of the trap door and returned to the house listening out for any sounds. The only thing I heard was the occasional owl howl in the distance or Lin’s peaceful snores. After returning to the room and stripping down I lifted the covers to get back into bed.

The squeak of the frame was like a gunshot in the still night and Lin groggily woke up to mumble something to me. I scratched between her cat ears and whispered an apology. She pushed her cheek into my chest and fell asleep again in seconds, soon after I joined her excited for tomorrow's adventure.