Chapter 28

Pan’s mind was in a flurry. He had no idea how long he had before his enemies showed themselves, nor how many he was facing. But he needed to prepare, and he needed to prepare for the worst. He would work under the assumption that a mage guild was planning on capturing or destroying him. He had no idea why, but that was unimportant. For now, he placed the surviving mages under constant surveillance, in hopes that he might learn more, but it was a longshot.

A guild was not an insignificant enemy, and judging by the skill of the initial scouting party, it was a large one. If they had even ten battle mages, mages who had specialized in combat magic and reached the rank of advanced in their respective element, he would have trouble. These men hadn’t been combat mages, but he could tell that they were training, and close to completing it. Killing the two was satisfying, and if he wanted to continue to add bodies to the pile he would have to focus on his strengths.

The mages would expect a normal dungeon, not a fully sentient ex-human. The adventurers and forward scouts might know he was different, but that wouldn’t necessarily mean the mages would expect much more out of him. The token system, inn, and payment for items would alert them to his intelligence, but they would have no idea that he was capable of so much more. For now, he would have to set up the initial skirmishes, and hopefully not have to waste any of his own resources to do so.

First, he needed to weaken the mages in the town before the main forces reached him, without alerting them, or disturbing the local guild. He could use monsters, but he did not want to waste mana creating specialized assassins to operate outside the dungeon, at least not yet while there was an easier way. No, he would use the most unscrupulous adventurers in the dungeon to do his dirty work. Especially since the most powerful had already had an encounter with the mages. It would be good to have pieces in motion while he prepared the rest.

The rogue leader, the one who called himself John, was currently in his rented room, waiting on his female companion who had just left to take a bath. He was lazing around the room, having just taken care of a few menial tasks like equipment maintenance. The only way to contact him would be through the chest in the room. Or writing on the wall, but Pan preferred the former. Inside the chest, Pan created a note telling the man what he wanted to be done. He placed a five gold bounty on every mage in the city. The bottom of the page had a map that roughly told where the less likely to wander mages were, as well as an exact count of them.

To get the man’s attention, he caused the lock on the chest to cycle, making an audible click. The noise immediately gained his attention, and he carefully walked over to the chest, checking it for anything suspicious. Slowly, the adventurer opened the lid, ensuring that nothing surprised him. The man seemed genuinely shocked to see the missive and gifts Pan had left for him, rather than something deadly. He quickly scanned the document, and smiled when he reached the end. He nodded, and Pan was surprised when he received a notification that he had never seen before.

Quest Accepted

Drake has accepted the quest: Mage Bane

Mage Bane

The mages of the town have threatened the dungeon. He would like you to kill as many as possible before the main forces arrive.

Type: Repeatable

Reward: 5 gold per mage killed, ???

Special options: Recruit others to kill mages. Both you and the killer will receive full payment for each mage they kill.

Time limit: Uncertain

Failure: Death, Mages discover you, the dungeon’s involvement is discovered

Pan had never given a quest before, but this was incredibly convenient. It seemed that as a sentient dungeon, he had a few more abilities that he had never heard of a dungeon having. It was also nice to confirm that the man had been using a fake name. He only hoped that the man was as capable as he hoped. The gifts he had given him should help level the playing field even more, and Pan was sure that there would be at least a couple dead mages by the morning.

He had used his knowledge of alchemy to create a refined version of the anti-mage poison that Drake had used. Pan’s version was much more potent, and would evaporate in a much colder environment than Drake’s. It was more volatile as well, and could cover a much wider area. He had given Drake five vials of the stuff, as well as the recipe. He would never be able to match Pan, but if he could produce his own it would be a boon during the defense of the dungeon.

Drake began to equip his gear, and left a note to the healer that he would be out for the night. Healers were not on Pan’s list of targets since the mage guilds didn’t control all of them. A few were affiliated with the organizations, and Pan offered rewards for their deaths. There were a few mages in the dungeon, and Pan had given their location to his new assassin, trusting that the man would take them out as needed.

There were a few all mage parties in Pan’s inn, probably scouts from the main force. He had never considered them a threat, but after the earlier revelations, every mage was an enemy. Mages were required by law to be part of a guild after all, and since he didn’t know which guild was his enemy, they all were. Drake’s first mission was to kill these mages, and Pan provided him with all the help he needed. No door was an obstacle for Drake, and with Pan’s perfect vision of the interior, he killed all seven mages that were in the third floor “safe” rooms without a single issue. Sure, Pan could’ve used his own monsters to do the job, but having monsters in a safe area was just asking for trouble. Besides, if the man got caught, Pan’s involvement would never be suspected. Pan would make sure of that.

Pan would have Adul take care of any more mages who entered the dungeon, allowing Drake to operate outside the dungeon. That’s where the real threats were. The main targets were the two survivors from earlier. Pan’s spies had seen them send off their report through some sort of magical device, and Pan was certain that the device would need at least a day to recharge before it could be used again. He wanted them dead before then. The coming forces needed to be blinded.

While his employee took care of stuff aboveground overnight, Pan would focus on creating new troops to combat the coming forces. He had a good assortment of creatures to use, but what he needed was subtlety. The assassin spider was perfect for that, but they were too slow to do what he needed. He would still use them for sure, but he had other plans in mind. The spy flies were perfect because flies were everywhere, and his minions blended in perfectly. Now, he needed to create something like them that was also able to bring the fight to the enemy. He had two plans for that, and decided to try them both.

The first plan was to take a regular honeybee, and swap out it’s weak venom with the improved assassin spider variety. They looked exactly the same, but they packed a serious punch with reusable stingers. Their modified venom worked quickly, and was designed to put the target to sleep. It was a powerful combination, and he hoped it would serve him well.

His second idea was to outfit his flies with a poison delivery system. He didn’t want to make them like the bees, so instead of a stinger, he gave them a special organ that could secrete the poison. They would be able to poison food or water supplies, as well as any targets of opportunity.

The poison itself wasn’t deadly, but he wanted it available. It could be a useful resource in the coming days, and he figured it was better to have ways of delivering the substance outside his dungeon than to not have that option at all. It was cheap to make, and potentially tide-turning if he used it correctly. The main fight would need to be handled by his monsters that could kill, and he needed ways to neutralize the mages enough to allow his minions to get close and kill them.

The other issue with mages would be their ability to pool their spells, especially ones of the fire element, to easily crush his dungeon. He had not faced anything like that so far, and had never expected to, an oversight on his part. An entire guild could easily wipe floors of his dungeon. The masters could draw power from the apprentices, who would drink mana potions allowing for a nearly endless barrage of spells. If he found no way to counter this, his forces would be destroyed easily.

Pan could easily think of a few solutions, but the problem was his fix needed to be future proof. If he did something massive to counter the mages, he would have to tear it all down once the problem was gone. No, he needed to be creative, and find a solution that would fit seamlessly into his dungeon. Something that could counter issues like this in the future. To be sure, he would prepare a few backup plans as well, but if he could stop them in an efficient way, he would prefer that.

What he came up with was something he wished he had thought of long ago. It wouldn’t just counter groups of mages, but single mages torching large areas as well. There was a certain kind of fungus that he discovered in the dungeon store, one that formed a mycelium network that could grow to incomprehensible sizes. They produced specialized pods full of spores, that when subjected to a rapid temperature change, burst violently, filling the air with the particles in a last ditch attempt to continue their gene line. This species was often the first to repopulate an area after a wildfire, due to the vast number of spores in the air giving them a fresh start in the nutrient rich ash of the devastated forests.

With some minor tinkering, he could turn this property into a deadly weapon that was triggered when people didn’t follow his rules. He made a modified version of the species, mainly focusing on the spores since the rest of the organism was nearly perfect for his purposes. He had never tried modifying that sort of living thing before, and he found that the things he could do with them were incredible. After hours of work, and the deaths of dozens of test subjects, he thought he had gotten a little carried away. But the final effect was well worth it, and he was quite proud of the disturbing effects he created. It would surely deter anyone from burning or freezing large areas of forest.

The spores, when inhaled, didn’t do much in small quantities. But if a large amount collected in someone's lungs, say when the air is filled with spores after a large fire, they would begin to activate. The spores would quickly sprout, sending fungal tendrils throughout the victim's airways and clogging their lungs. He had specially modified them to draw on the host's internal mana to speed their growth, allowing them to take over mages in mere minutes. Even better, the parasitic fungus couldn’t be cleared by normal dispel spells, only by more advanced healing magic. Once they had grown enough, the fungus would spread further, sending its tendrils through the body of the victim, freezing their muscles and joints, immobilizing them.

Sometimes this would kill the host, but more often than not, the half-alive body would be preserved, kept alive by the parasitic fungus so it could continue to drain the mana. The victim may remain alive for a few more weeks or months, Pan wasn’t sure, before eventually dying and being digested by the plants to further power the growth. All that would be left over was a pile of bones, bound together by a network of fungal threads, and covered in the fruiting bodies, ready to start the process again. Even better, Pan would be able to siphon off the mana, netting him large amounts of mana as long as the victim remained alive.

Pan had made one other modification, creating beads of water in the fungal pod that when frozen, would cause the pod to burst. This should prevent them from switching to ice magic, something he found himself hoping they did. The more he could thin them out in the opening salvo, the better. He would need new monsters to combat the mages as well, but that could wait for him to prepare more traps, as well as hear back from his quester.

The first thing he did was seal off the route to his first-floor breeding cavern with fire traps. Sealing it off would be good, but he wanted dead mages, and anyone investigating would be incinerated. In choke points, such as hallways between rooms, he added more traps. Most were set to release clouds of the anti-mage poison, and had magical safeties so he would only be dosing the mages and not every adventurer who walked through. There was also the added benefit of traps not showing up on trap detection skills when the safety was on. The world system was strange, and he hoped that it was set in stone, and wouldn't catch on to his ruse.

By the time he finished preparing his inanimate defenses, at least for now, the sun had risen and he could see his employee returning from his work. Pan had observed him take down another five mages in as many hours since he left the dungeon, bringing his total to twelve. When the man returned to his room, there were sixty gold coins, an obscene amount of wealth, waiting for him in the chest. The man could buy a large house in any city with that much coin, or open a business. The wealth was insane, and Pan hoped that the man wouldn’t get greedy. He was rather fond of the seedy assassin, and hoped his newest piece wouldn’t get uppity and need to be disposed of.

With the new dawn, Pan started phase two of his plan. The drop rates were changed, adding anti-mage potions to every group’s reward. He wanted a large amount of the stuff to be in circulation before the mages reached the city, maybe giving the adventurers a chance to stop them before they attacked him. To ensure that the adventurers would be hostile to any large groups of mages appearing on their doorstep, he put the second part into action.

He had had Elaria collect the corpse of the fire mage that had been with the group scouting his cavern. It was relatively undamaged, with only a massive bloody bite mark on the back of its neck. He created a sealed scroll case, and inside placed made up documents, detailing fake plans by the mages to destroy his dungeon. It wasn’t hard, and he copied the handwriting from the letter he had received from the mage guild leader when his application for apprenticeship was accepted. He made the document look as if it had been read through a few times, even going so far as to include a broken wax seal on the outside.

Once prepared, he had the body placed on the second floor, directly in the path of a party that was known to be especially loyal to the guild, as well as not squeamish about looting dead comrades. It was surprising how often those two categories overlapped, but Pan supposed it made sense. As expected, the party stopped to loot the mage, breaking into a smile when they recovered the valuable wand. When they got to the scroll case, their leader excitedly opened it, but his expression darkened as he read the contents. After quickly alerting his group, they gathered the rest and quickly set off for the exit, rushing the missive to the guild hall.

Pan could only hope that the guild leaders were tricked as easily as the adventurers, but he wouldn’t hold his breath. If it failed, he would have to resort to more direct methods of communications, but he had no desire to overplay his hand and alert people to his abilities if he didn’t have to. Drake had been necessary, money and the threat of angering a dungeon would keep his mouth shut.

For now, Pan had done as much as he was willing to do, and he hoped that he wouldn't required to expose himself. Leaving his flies to watch the reactions, he started designing creatures to aid him in the coming battle.

Peter was in his study practicing magic when he was interrupted by a message. The blue flame flickering above his hand winked out as the man strode over to his desk to place a stack of papers in front of him. Usually, he would receive a briefing every morning, but today, there was a request from the guildmaster to attend a meeting that would cover recent events. Sighing, but feeling that something was wrong, Peter grabbed his coat and left for the guild hall to meet with Jack. As he left his study, the two guards posted outside the room fell in behind him, escorting the new duke on his errands.

He found Jack waiting for him in the conference hall of the guild house. The old guild master motioned for him to sit, which he did. The long table had two others around it, the guild's head of reconnaissance, who Peter had met before, and knew also worked as an information collector, and a nervous looking adventurer. Peter nodded at all three, before turning to Jack, “what’s with the meeting?”

The old man breathed a heavy sigh, and turned to his lieutenant, nodding. The man slid a document across the table to Peter, who gave Jack a questioning stare. “This man, Dylan, brought this to our attention. It was recovered from the body of a recently deceased mage in the second floor of the dungeon.”

Peter read through the document, his eyes growing wider the further he got, “surely this can’t be real,” he mumbled to himself.

“I’m afraid it is, Peter. Master Glen already confirmed its authenticity. The handwriting and seal are a match for one of the larger mage guilds, and the man was a known member of the guild. It seems that we will have to prepare for war.”

“But why?”

“We have no idea, but the increase in local mage activity we noted last week shows that this has been in the works for awhile. Even Glen, who is skeptical about the orders you hold, thinks that in light of recent events, the conclusion is inevitable.”

Turning to the man he considered to be more of a spymaster than adventurer, Peter asked him about his reservations.

“Well for a start, the manner in which it was found seems too convenient. Documents on a dead body in a dungeon. Are we to believe the man was alone, because any comrades wouldn’t leave him with such vital documents easily. Either we are extremely lucky, or someone wants to alert us without giving up their anonymity. The content of this letter put too many recent events into context, however, and I am forced to conclude that there must be a conspiracy at work.”

Peter nodded, not fully agreeing with the man, but reaching the same conclusion. Before he could voice his thoughts, Glen cut him off, “there is more.”

Peter waved for him to continue, and the man took a deep breath, “all five companies of the Black Sparrow have been hired by mage guilds. This conspiracy may run deeper than anyone ever could have expected.”

Peter took a deep breath. The Black Sparrows didn’t sound dangerous or menacing, but they were known as one of the most immoral mercenary companies in the region. If they had been hired by mage guilds, and it surely was guilds, Borrander was in for dark times. Something needed to be done, something drastic. Peter only hoped that it might work.

Dungeon Menu

Level: 12

Type: Sentient Dungeon

Name: N/A

Titles: N/A

Mana: 14,559/100,000 (+1000)

Soul Energy: 12.1/500

Rooms: 130

Floors: 4

Animals: 100,000+

Plants: 100,000+

Monsters: 37,912

Skills: [Dungeon Menu], [Dungeon Manipulation], [Dungeon Absorption], [Dungeon Creation: Level 12], [Dungeon Expansion], [Dungeon Summon], [Targeted Evolution], [Monster Imbuement], [Dungeon Map], [Name Bestowal], [Drop Assignment], [Floor Creation], [Environmental Manipulation], [Dungeon Soul Trap], [Alchemy: Lvl 45], [Enchanting: Lvl 41], [Dungeon Ore Vein], [Mental Communication]

Dungeon Points: 370

Achievements: Evolver, Legend Slayer, Boundless