I was so happy at my creation of my swordsman’s belt that I didn’t even stop to think what the wording of it meant. When I brought up the Ladies’ belt next, I saw how I had made a mistake but perhaps one that I could work with later.

Item core created

World first!

Ladies’ Work Belt (Cluster)

As your Ladies’ Work Belt core core is the first it is uncapped in level

Normal Ladies’ Work Belt cores will be capped at level 4.

As your Ladies’ Work Belt core levels its helpfulness increases.

So clearly, this one had to go to Blink, which meant that I was running out of time to get something that would help Kasidy. My single hour that I was giving myself was almost up. I had been in the safe room for going on 16 hours. I needed to make a second belt because I needed Kasidy to be able to not die when a fight started.

I thought that I was squishy. However, she was super squishy since I had better equipment. If I made her the belt, however, I might not have enough time to deal with the problems at the goblin cave dungeon. That being said, I think I would rather answer questions about how a dungeon got into our thicket than leave her an easy target.

The second time making the belt was much easier since I was just copying what I had done before. There was no creative work, just copy work. It took me right at four hours to get it made. Then I had the ring that I was going to work on, but I could do that at another time.

It wasn’t going to be that complex for me to make her a ring that made her a bit tougher. I had been thinking about the wild cores we got from the giant wolves and figured that it could be a kind of common thing to have a ring that gave a boost like this.

I had four hours on the inside left for the one hour that Kasidy would still be asleep. I had been awake for almost a day. It wouldn’t be fun to go on another whole day without sleep, but I needed to get over to the other dungeon first.

I called out. “Okay Dave! I’m out of here. I need to get to that other dungeon and see how best I can help it.”

Dave, who never left from behind the bar, waved as I brought up the transportation door. It opened into one of the safe rooms. If the directions I gave it were right, I should be in the lowest one. Which I would think, after just a couple of days, would be level 3.

I stepped through. This was the first time that I had been in this dungeon’s safe room. As I came, I saw Dave’s eyes light up a bit. He looked a bit worried.

Dave bowed his head slightly. “Dungeon Master it is good you are here. We have many gremlins and goblins that have attacked us. We are hard pressed right now to beat them back.”

I nodded. “I thought that might be like this. How close to falling are we and what level are you now?”

Dave smiled a little. “The dungeon has grown to level 5 because of the fighting. The problem is that we have grown more and more goblins keep coming in. They have forced their way into level 3. We keep trying to overwhelm them but they keep coming. I just can’t create enough goblins to get higher.”

I scrunched up my eyes. “I thought that they could only send in groups of 5 or less.”

Dave shook his head. “That is if they weren’t already in the area. That’s the problem as we level more of them are caught in our zone of expansion and so we have to deal with them.”

I nodded. “The dungeon is just growing in the easiest path of growth correct?”

Dave grimaced and nodded. “Without you guiding us that is what we do. I know that it is causing a problem but the heart just grows as it was told to.”

I pulled up my connection to the heart and started to adjust how it expanded. The first thing I did was adjust the entrance of the dungeon to only come from the outside of the cave. I wanted to walk through the entrance in either direction to pull people into the dungeon. My hope was that the cube trees would help thin out numbers.

Then I stopped the expansion down the cave. I wanted it to dig its own cave system. Which meant that it would level slower but also wouldn’t be sucking in more dark ones. Then I pulled up what I was looking at as far as enemies’ numbers.

There were over three hundred goblins running through the dungeon, and they weren’t my targets. They were true dark ones. I started to make adjustments to the fourth level since they weren’t there yet. I wanted a defense-type arrangement, but I reversed it. I was going to be at the stairs, and they would need to come at me. The floor adjusted to a long set of walled-off paths where I could face them in a series of doorways.

From the stairs down, they would come into a ten-foot-long hall just wide enough for a single goblin to come. This narrow passage would then dump into a series of traps. Simple floor plates that would drop to spikes. I wasn’t working with much time and so couldn’t make it do much more. I could only trap the first half before I ran out of points. After that, the halls would be what I used. My plan was to kill as many as I could with my bow. Which is why the halls were narrow and long.

I grinned at Dave. “Okay I need to get out there to finish this. Once they are defeated then we should be set since we are digging our own dungeon now and not just using the current cave.”

Dave nodded. “Stay safe Dungeon Master. I wish that you had brought that little terror with you. She would have been able to finish this off with joy.”

I laughed and headed out of the safe room. It would have been nice to have had Blink for this, but it couldn’t be helped. I needed to stop the goblins now, and transport from the first dungeon wouldn’t have reset as of yet. So I wouldn’t be here to stop the attack.

I ran through the fourth floor. I had with me just over a hundred arrows for my short bow, but as the dungeon master, I could get more from wherever I was in the dungeon. It would just take a few moments of thought. Which is why I dropped some as I ran.

When I got to the end of the traps, I called up the interface and got my arrows back up to 100. Then I set the boxes of them out and got ready. The name of this game was to outlast the goblins. The traps, while not resettable once used, would still slow them down until the pits were filled.

I was nervous. There were just over 300 hundred goblins of various levels coming at me, and who knows how many gremlins. The interface couldn’t figure out their numbers because of how they moved in groups. The rough guess was around 500, but I just didn’t know.

I heard some noise as the interface told me they had broken into the fourth floor. I smiled. Unless everything went wrong, I should have about another five minutes before they got to me. Perhaps a bit longer since the traps should slow them down. I hoped.

I took a deep breath. “I have no real reason to do this. Even if this dungeon falls its not like it would slow me down returning this way. But I want to and having this blocked off can’t be bad.”

I took a moment to check everything. My bow was ready my knife and throwing spikes were where they should be. I had my standard and my totem ready. Then I smiled and walked down to where the hall would shrink down. I placed the totem and backed up to my firing mark. Then I checked my most recent item.

General

Arn’s Swordsman’s belt

Level 12

Type item core

Class Ultra Rare Magical

Durability 300/300

Arn’s swordsman’s belt is made with the idea that a sword should be worn and drawn. As all good belts it helps to keep the wear put together. This belt is not meant to identify or draw attention but is utility. A sword is only as good as the man using it and so this belt provides help in use.

>Growth

To level your item core you must use it for its purpose and provide for it material to level to the next level.

Leather 0% Mana 0% Metal 0% Gems 0%

>Traits

These are the abilities or traits that your pack has.

Durable- This container is durable, it will not wear out from normal use durability will only decrease with targeted attacks. Mana reservoir- 20 mana unlinked 100 mana linked to traits. Recharges at a rate of 10 mana per hour can be forced charged. Water Proof- No weapon attacked to this belt will suffer from water damage. Nor will this belt. Self cleaning- Swords get messy when used. This belt will ensure that mess is removed from the belt and the sword. True fit- What good is a belt if it doesn’t fit. This belt will always fit. Swordsman’s focus- All mental and spiritual attacks must overcome a 150 point barrier. This turns on at the first sign of attack and will last 5 minutes till depleted. Room to draw- The swordsman needs room to draw. When the swordsman reaches to draw a stone air pulse will move out 3 feet in front. When triggered Stone skin- A swordsman must endure. This takes 5 mana per minute to keep up plus 1 point of mana for every 10 points of physical damage inflicted on it, 1 point for every 2 points of magical damage.

As I finished reading the last line, the first of the gremlins came into view. I grinned just a little too much as my totem fired. The hot poison smoke started to spew out. It still wasn’t the fireballs that I wanted it to be, but it would cause a lovely mess.

The first gremlin made it out and past the smoke before it fell down. In the second one, I saw just its shadow before it, too, went down. I knew that it would be a while before the totem gave up; I was just hoping that we could end quickly now.

The hall going both ways was filling up with smoke as it was choking off the gremlins’ approach. I checked the dungeon interface, and it thought that we might have dropped the total number by a hundred gremlins. That was after all the traps had been triggered.

The totem stopped with the smoke, and slowly it cleared. Because the doorway was blocked with the bodies of the gremlins, they were stacked high on both sides. It was a complete mess, so much so that I started to laugh.

I bent over laughing. “They can’t get through their own bodies right now!”

I needed the laugh after how long the day was, but my laughing stopped when the packed-in dead gremlins went flying forward, and I saw an armored goblin on a boar charging down the narrow hall.

* * *