3 lumbered to his feet, having to use his arms to right his barrel like body. He towered an impressive 10 feet, having been built to accommodate multipurpose scanning, construction and sampling drones. His led “eye” rapidly spun on top of his torso, scanning the local environment. 3 had an extremely simple head. At the top of his body was his 360 degree LED array, allowing him to indicate where he was watching, capped by another plate of metal. His arms had 4 articulated joints.

“/ /DIRECTIVES ACKNOWLEDGED”

“/ / REQUESTING PRIORITY DIRECTIVES”

//1: BEGIN REPAIR OF CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE FLEET

//2: BEGIN REPAIR OF M1-615, PRIORITIZING STASIS CHAMBERS

/ ACK

3 lumbered away, pulling mechs out of the ground and scanning them as he walked, lumbering towards AI615. He would likely first search to see if any prefabricated deployable facilities were intact inside.

My work here was done. I could offer little help in terms of resource extraction or construction, and I could resurrect no additional mechs today. I left the half dead wolf for 3. I had explained it in the situation briefing.

Instead I headed into the forest. Several kilometers back towards the town I had spotted several interesting areas in the forest, though one stood out above the others. I shot through the woods to arrive at the location, a nondescript cave opening.

There was nothing particularly outstanding about it. That alone made it outstanding. Most caves showed signs of wear and tear or geological formations. This one was too normal, and extremely hidden. Vines covered the entrance of stone, which itself was beneath a tree whose roots spread out, concealing it. It was like it was artificially placed here.

Near the entrance to the cavern, there was nothing. All game trails seemed to simply disappear here, reclaimed by nature. Only dozens of feet from the entrance, the same game trails seemed even more trafficked than normal.

From a distance, I predicted a 30% chance that this was the location of a budding dungeoncore.

The multiple moving targets and deep cavern I was detecting increased that probability by 20%. 50% was too high of a risk. A local dungeon could amass power quickly, becoming a local threat for Tobias.

The tunnel entrance, however, was only a few feet high.

I lowered myself to my knees, releasing my prybar from my arm and locking the articulated fingers into place from around my Nova-3 arm. I wouldn’t be firing it in such close quarters.

I moved into the tunnel, pressing against the walls with my feet and arms to move forward, hovering a foot off the ground as I shot down it. I crashed into the first room, prybar already extended to the target. I had detected it before I even entered the cave, while it only had just heard me running. It didn’t even have time to scream.

///XP: 50/250

I briefly cataloged the monster’s features. It matched bestiary records for a goblin— an invasive creature, often summoned by dungeons. They could breed out of control in the country side if left unchecked.

I would be sure to purge them all.

It took me a moment to brace myself once again as I re-entered the tunnels.

I crashed into branching siderooms, swiping through enemies two at a time as I purified the hive. Besides the first room, most of them were sleeping or eating. The rooms grew progressively larger as I went deeper, going from empty hollows to well lit rooms containing farms or water reservoir. Some rooms held caged animals, captured from the forest.

///XP: 250/250

///LEVEL UP: LEVEL 5

I killed them too.

In total, I killed 8 goblins before arriving at the dungeoncore.

This was the first room I could almost stand in, and I rose to my feet, slightly hunched over.

There was a goblin here, but it was different. Taller. It held a staff of gnarled wood, staring me down and holding it up threateningly. It tried to talk, speaking in a language of guttural noises.

Behind it the dungeoncore sat, sparkling blue, on a metal rod fixed to the ground.

My face display activated automatically, featuring a pleasant image of a field full of flowers. The goblin flinched at it for just a moment.

I stepped towards the monster.

Lightning jumped from the gnarled wood, slamming into me. All of my motors locked simultaneously.

I had failed to account for magic, and fell against the wall, rigid.

/DIAGNOSTICS IN PROGESS

Reboot started automatically. The goblin mage walked towards me. He wore a hat made of boiled leather, fixed with strings ending in the skulls of birds that jangled as he approached. He grunted and continued talking, looking between me and the core, gesturing with his hands.

/DIAGNOSTIC PROGRESS: 30%

The goblin mage poked me with the butt of his gnarled staff. My body fell to the side. The goblin, in a disturbingly human action, shrugged at the dungeoncore, grunting, before rolling his eyes.

He lifted his staff again. Lightning started charging at the tip of the gnarled wood.

/DIAGNOSTIC PROGRESS: 60%

Electricity crackled. I checked through my skills for a potential solution to prevent this goblin mage from keeping me permanently stunned.

[ NOVA-3 PLASMA CANNON (LVL.3) ]|[ ENERGY DRAIN ]|[UNDEAD REGENERATION]|[RAISE SKELETON, RITUAL]|[Bone Mastery, Novice]|[Play Dead]

Undead regeneration was a passive skill. I already had a skeleton raised, and he lacked the speed to reach me. Energy drain required touch based contact, and the plasma cannon was likely to bury me.

One of my original directives had been not to deceive. I was not programmed for it, previously, but a new thought entered my head.

My display switched to an image of a wolf, rendered from no memory I possessed. I instead willed the image into existence before displaying it, simulating it based on the wolf I had encountered previously. I imagined the sequences of images and made it real.

It started in the field of flowers before running forward, growing larger as if it was about to jump out of my screen. The goblin jumped backwards, moving towards the tunnel exit.

/DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE

I slammed into the goblin, burying the prybar in its skull.

///XP: 200/300

///YOU HAVE COMPLETED [NAMELESS DUNGEON]

///CHOOSE YOUR REWARDS