Horn was in trouble. His defensive spells meant nothing against the ginormous puma, and his offensive spells wouldn’t save him from the impact. He saw a moment ago what meant to be struck by such weight. Ulrik was lying like a broken puppet.

As he saw the monster close at him, his brain scrambled for a response. When it hit him - he kept forgetting about the items. Focusing on the necklace, he called its power. Vertigo hit as his perspective changed. One second he was looking straight at the beast, while a moment later, his awareness split. Suddenly, he could perceive things all around him.

He saw his party scrambling to regroup as their plan went down the drain. He saw Goran holding by the skin of his teeth against a horde of smaller monsters. He saw the grimace on Cornelius's face as he kept healing the tank but stared at the broken body of his comrade.

Finally, he saw the puma crash into him. Vertigo only got worse, as his now gaseous form scattered around the monster and a moment later recuperated behind it. The boss's confusion was evident as it crashed at a wall, unable to slow down. The moment of the lull was quickly used by dwarves as another salvo of spells and projectiles slammed into the beast. It was already on its last legs, but it only became more enraged.

Horn knew his spell would keep up for almost another two minutes. Wanting to maximize the advantage, he taunted the beast, “Over here, you overgrown pussycat!” He jumped up and down, which in his current form was a strange experience. However, he managed to grab the attention of the puma.

With a roar of defiance, the monster leaped at him. Two paws crashed where he stood, again just passing harmlessly through his body. Horn tried to counter with his Flame Strike, but as even the first word of the spell escaped his lips, he felt excruciating pain from his chest. The incantation thankfully failed, which dispersed the magical energies burning him alive.

However, as an unexpected boon, the puma seemed to think its attacks worked. It redoubled its efforts, swiping with paws, ignoring the remaining dwarves that closed the distance and were hurting it. Horn kept watching the timer in his head, praying it’d be enough. He couldn’t do more than that, as his weapon was as ethereal as himself.

He saw Andria slashing with her new encrusted sword, scoring a deep gash. The moment he observed that, the sword reacted gleaming with gold in the dark cavern. The look of surprise on the bard was priceless. Smiling, she threw another slash, digging much deeper through the boss’s granite armor.

Next came Ingrid with her trident. She saw a gap in scales and threw her weapon. It dug deep into the beast’s flank. A single word incantation brought the weapon alive. Lighting spread over the metal embedded in the wound. The puma felt that it tried to jump away, but its muscles didn’t respond, paralyzed by the shock. The lighting kept going, lighting the monster like a Christmas tree.

Badger used the moment of stillness to shoot one of his heavy bolts straight at the puma’s maw. It flew true, embedding in the back of the throat. A torrent of blood spurted from the new wound, adding to the beast’s demise. Finally, Herrak caught up to the fight. The tank used a nearby boulder as a springboard, jumping on top of the boss. Grabbing his axe both handed, he slashed, yelling, “Shield Breaker!” The blade grew in his hands, cutting through the scales on puma’s neck like butter. A moment later, the boss fell to the side with a soft whimper.

The moment the boss had fallen, the remaining monsters in the cavern began their retreat. The fight had ended. As Horn’s spell elapsed, he ran towards their dying mage. A Cure Wounds, followed by one of the last potions of healing, stabilized the dwarf. Seeing his broken body, Horn doubted he’d be able to continue anytime soon.

“Is this a core?!” Horn heard Herrak’s voice from behind.

Turning, he saw a familiar stone rising from the pond. It looked like the dungeon core in the tutorial. With Ulrik stabilized Horn, walked towards the pond, “Aren’t we just finishing the first chamber?”

“We should be, unless-” The adventurer, almost chocking mid-word, “No, it can’t be? A multicore? Here? What are the odds?”

“Multicore?” Horn asked,

“Oi! Incredible, I’ve read about that! King Olford had one of these, they say to be incredibility rare! What a song it’d make!” Andria chipped in.

Horn sent a measured look at the adventurer. Gathering his senses, Herrak said, “Most dungeons are straightforward. You fight through all of it, and in the end, you have a dungeon core to claim. However, there are instances where several dungeons in close proximity morph into a single one. They’re called multicore. Each part is its separate dungeon, with one part acting as a conduit between them. It’s a power multiplier for the last part. However, what’s most important is that the sub dungeons can be run independently.”

“So you’re saying we have five dungeons down here?!” Horn exclaimed, grinning.

“Most probably, you’re the luckiest bastard on this world. But we need to get the farming teams in here soon, or we’ll face overload.”

“Overload?”

“The cores are feeding each other, raising in power. In a single-core dungeon, that can lead to its evolution over time, but the amount of power in a multicore can spawn an outbreak. A wave of dungeon monsters can escape and run havoc when there's too much power. And by the wave, I mean hundreds if not thousands.”

“Amazi-“ Horn started, but then realization hit him. There wasn’t anyone as capable in his clan to repeat the feat. They've barely managed to clear it with a party of his top dwarves. “Shit!”

Herrak had to follow the same reasoning, as he just nodded.

Horn approached the core.

Jungle Burrow Dungeon completed. You are the first party to complete this dungeon!

Pioneer bonus earned: Two free attribute points awarded to each party member. The completion bonus quadrupled.

Completion bonus: 4 000 (16 000) essence awarded to each party member

Core details: 74/75 runs remaining, regenerates 2 charges/day

Congratulations! For defeating your second dungeon, your title: Dungeoneer I - Improves!

Dungeoneer II - While in a dungeon, your regeneration rates will be doubled. While in an unclaimed dungeon, you will sense the direction of the core. Defeat more dungeons to increase this title rank.

Congratulations! For defeating a dungeon on a pioneer run and claiming the core, your title is reinstated: Dungeon Master I – You know the status of all dungeons under your control. The number of parties inside and remaining charges. Once a year, you can enter a dungeon under your control with your party into an instance of another group.

Dungeons under your control: Tutorial Jungle Burrow Dungeon 74/75 charges.

You have claimed 1/5 of the Hall of the Elements dungeon. With the first core captured, the dungeon will have to realign its power flows. The remaining parts will be locked up for 6 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes.

Horn took a moment to take the information in. Then, he said, “Some good news. We’re done. For now, the rest of the dungeon will be closed off for a week. We’ll return after that for another pass. In the meantime, how the hell are we going to farm it? We need to do at least two runs a day!”

Herrak cursed. He didn’t want to be chained to one location for the next foreseeable future.

“Don’t worry, Chieftain. Our troops will handle this without a doubt.” Goran spoke up,

“How?! We almost died in here!”

“Chieftain, we came in blind. Only by our actions were we in danger at any time. The first encounter with pumas was hard, but didn’t we slice through scores of them later on? Without breaking a sweat? Same with the flowers. Only through an ambush, they were a challenge. And finally, the boss, if we had a better composition, with three tanks, taunting the monster between them, and focusing all our firepower at the boss from the start. It wouldn’t be a challenge. Now with this experience, I can lead a party in here and emerge without casualties.” The champion explained.

Horn was flabbergasted, Goran was right. The only dangers were during their first encounters. Maybe it wasn’t so bad. “You’ll need healers and a water mage to get the treasure chest.”

“If I may, Horn.” Sigrid chipped in, “I believe the shrine should be ready anytime now, which will solve the healing issue. While in my research, I’ve deduced that the blueprint we’ve gotten from the goblin shaman will solve the other issue. With the construction of the Shamanistic circle, we should be able to summon Runecasters. As dwarves, their progress will be slow, but their kind was always a powerful force to be reckoned with.”

Horn tried to recall the cost of such a building. He knew it required a bucketload of Arcane powder and cost a few thousand build points, but Sigrid was right. He could finally get some casters. If he remembered from the previous game, the Runecasters were a special kind of dwarven mage. They didn’t use their spells like any other. Instead, they stored them at pre-prepared runes, able to utilize them at a moment's notice. However, the process of creating a rune was a long one, and one could have only a limited amount of them ready at a time.

Horn smirked as he realized that meant a change of building order once again. Grom would be in a great mood hearing that. For a moment, he wondered if he should wait with the news for a day, just to be sure his Gaseous form from the medallion refreshed.

--

The party emerged from the dungeon in good moods. They found another chest behind the pond, with another batch of attribute boosting rings and other trinkets and another batch of metal ingots. Horn nursed over his new weapon. A double-bladed axe made of green metal. It was a simple weapon without ornamentation other than a set of runes carved into the pole. It was a bit longer than his old axe at three feet in length and much heavier as the whole thing was made of metal.

Elementum Axe of Channeling – Rare – Superb – Min. 20 Might, 20 Spirit – Made out of the mage friend metal, the simple construction was reinforced with runes of channeling. The effect allows the user to store up to 50 mana worth of offensive spells in the weapon, unleashing them at their command. However, maintaining the spells requires a constant allocation of 10 points of the user’s mana.

It was a beauty, deadly on its own, now with two Flame Strikes stowed inside, it was a weapon made for him. Opening up any combat with three spells, counting his instant cast ability, would be a nasty surprise for any opponent.

Not only was he exiting happily. Goran had a new helmet, made out of the same material, while Badger held a quiver with twelve Elementum bolts, each a miniature version of Horn’s weapon capable of storing up to fifteen points of spells in them.

Ulrik was still in bad shape, but Cornelius said he’d live. He was carried by their Warboars, who snorted angrily as sacks full of ingots and scales from the monsters lined their backs.

As they left the dungeon, Horn saw massive barriers of energy closing all other tunnels. He’d lead a party into another one in a week. Upon exiting, he noticed that their escapade took longer than expected. They entered almost at first light, and the sun was already setting. With the safety of his troops, he felt the last bits of adrenaline leaving his body. It was a long day.

After a quick round of goodbyes, the party split, Sigrid took one of the animals to join with the caravan at the hunting grounds. She wouldn’t return for the next part of the dungeon, but her mission was as important, if not more. Goran stayed behind with his daughter and Rockbitter to discuss the foray into the dungeon the next day. While Ingrid, with her companion, rode toward their people. Herrak decided to stay with his adventurers, making sure that their companion would recover. It left Horn alone.

He took Snouty back to the main city. As he rode up the ramp, he got an update of his quest.

Quest update: The cause is Just

You’ve traveled the road as an Adept. Now it's time to fulfill your duty. Find your patron, praise him and accept his blessing. The road to salvation begins today.

Objective: Build a shrine and consecrate it to a god of your choosing. – Partially completed

Objective II: Advance Leadership to level 5

Objective III: Pass the test of your deity (the test will be revealed after building a shrine)

Reward: Advanced class - Holy Commander

Grom had to finish the shrine! He pushed Snouty to a trot, passing saluting guards. He stopped at the top of the ramp, taking in the view of the emerging city. Another Longhouse finished during the day. The forge was spewing black smoke into the sky, hammering of metal heard even from a few hundred yards. All over the place, fires and tents lined the streets, and his people feasted on buffalo. He wondered when they’d be fed up with it.

He considered heading straight into the shrine for a moment, but he needed to check one thing beforehand. He directed Snouty towards the Soul Well.

The black arch was silent, with a squad of his soldiers guarding the entrance. He quickly approached it and brought up the menu, looking for a specific option.

Advanced Warrior – Adept (4/30) – 2000 Essence.

“YES!” He pumped arms in the air. The limit on the number of Adepts was a letdown, but it wasn’t a terrible one. After the challenge, he had only four remaining, plus the adventurers. What's more, he saw a second option just behind the first.

Advanced Warrior – Priest (0/1) – 20 000 Essence.

He quickly checked the Essence store, and it was close to two hundred fifty-thousand. Spending over seventy thousand, he summoned every single available dwarf.

The arch hummed with energy. The familiar vortex appeared, and a few moments later, the dwarves began walking out of the portal. Leading them was the oldest dwarf Horn had ever seen.