Spooky Skeletons

Chapter 10

During my first hours after arriving, I’d thought I should feel some sort of existential guilt for what I was and what I was meant to do. Slithering out of my chamber toward the hounds for comfort I finally got the chance to experience something in that vein. Instead of hovering, I oozed across the ground, body feeling heavy and useless. I snapped out of it after a while, but it was a strange experience.

I had made my choice, I would live as what I was, but accepting what it really meant didn’t come so easily. Even so, I was probably being a little dramatic. It sucked that I was required to kill people to live as a dungeon but that wasn’t something I could change at this point. I’d given up the chance to do that during my interview.

If I was being honest it was more the enormity of the System and the power that it granted me that was getting me down. I was a mere former mortal with a less-than-ideal educational background and temperament. A flawed being that was being given what amounted to bullshit evil genie powers.

Trying to think of how to phrase a wish so as not to be screwed over was a kind of game that one played to kill time. Lots of people with time on their hands got good at it. Being the granter was a whole different order of responsibility. I needed to think ten steps ahead about everything or risk endangering myself as much as what I was trying to accomplish. Something I wasn’t accustomed to if I were being polite about my scatter-brained approach to life and everything.

Even so, sulking about it wasn’t going to make it easier and I couldn’t maintain the needed amount of despair to keep moping. Not with the hounds doing their best to cheer me up.

“I’m okay,” I said, finally reacting to the hounds and petting them once I got myself floating again. They both yapped happily at my return to responsiveness and cuddled with me for a while. Looking at the countdown to the years' end I found I’d spent about ten minutes acting like a sadness slug.

Judging me as sufficiently recovered to leave alone or deciding to give me some space, the hounds ran back to the tunnel complex to chase each other. I moved to the pool while I slowly returned to work, not wanting to look at my diagram for the moment.

I spent my day’s allotment on tiles and just before the reset came, I spent the rest. It was nice to see that no one needed potions for the day, and it helped improve my mood. Spending all one hundred mana on tiles also felt nice and I used them to expand the first dungeon stacks floor plan. Studying it I spotted an overlap between layers two and three. Looking at it for a while I tried to think of something to do and finally installed a pit trap.

The unwary who activated it would be sent sliding down past layer three and directly into the boss room. A vicious turn of events but since it was the easiest stack it was probably the only one where that would be a survivable turn of events.

I spent the next week expanding the individual layers and tinkering with how I wanted to handle the safe zones. In the end, I left them as their own layer in the diagram but nested them behind the boss room and with the entry to the next stack. It saved some tiles to condense them and I used those in other areas.

After the first three stacks, the boss rooms would increase in size so I might not do the same, but I was focusing on getting the top set ready for use. Though I was good for the year I wanted to reap some points early on to upgrade my interface further and buy some points only features.

That meant expanding the floor plans and picking out monsters. I chose monstrous varieties of bats, moles, and skeletons as my monsters. The first stack’s boss was a swarm of bats. A technical challenge rather than a life-threatening one since they were a pain in the ass if you didn’t have ranged support.

The second stacks boss encounter was a giant mole the size of an adult human standing up and some small raccoon sized large moles. You had to defeat the large moles and learn how they operated before putting it to use in the final encounter against the giant mole. Or that was my plan. Unfortunately, the moles weren’t sentient or at least couldn't understand me. They sat up and seemed to listen attentively when I spoke but wandered about when I asked them to demonstrate what I’d asked of them.

For the final and most difficult of the first three stacks, I chose skeletons as the final boss. I took some time as I considered how their encounter would work, hoping we could understand each other. I settled on a mining scene for adventures to stumble in on. The skeletons would be armed with pickaxes and dressed like miners as they endlessly continued to dig, cursed by greed to forever seek the riches that had eluded them in life.

It was a nice idea but the skeletons in the shop didn’t really have any character. They came with tattered remnants of armor but that didn’t fit with the theme. I hesitated to buy them before I sorted that out. It took me an hour and a lot of sketching to come up with something I thought would be interesting.

Digging around in my store I found human remains. Though I’d thrown out the bodies as treats for the hound they were now a part of my store options. I bought some to refine a whole undamaged one. It went into the deconstruct table and I got a grisly list of items including human hide. With that ready, I sent Elim a text.

Hi,

Please buy some clothes a miner would wear and a frame for stretching hides and related supplies.

-42

With that sent, I put some inanimate skeletons around for decoration. With them went overturned mining carts of rock, dirt, and quartz crystal. It looked okay but I added some random rocks and stalactites to give the impression of a cave in. Feeling good about it I invited the hounds for a look.

“Oooh! Skeletons are tasty!” Blackmore said, eyeing the decorations like treats.

“No gnawing on employee’s and decor, I’ll add some to the dining room for you guys,” I said then remembered how far the employee lounge was. Feeling a little bad I used some tiles to create a small one off the boss room. Once I actually placed the new monsters, I’d furnish it after discussing what they preferred.

Thinking about the break room I looked at the skeletons in the shop again. They had classes just like adventurers, so I decided to pick out one of each of the basic rolls. They would get a warning when a party was heading in and could configure themselves to match with the excess members going into the break room. It would add a better touch than random miners.

Rather than appearing directly in the room, they went to my inventory and I took a couple minutes to look at them. That was when I noticed dots indicating more menu options. I’d been finding them randomly since my interface upgrade but felt like a tool for not checking for them in the monster tab. I looked at Stalin and Blackmore and found they had the new menu as well.

I wasn’t about to fuck around and do something like accidentally resetting them. I needed a lab rat and selected a skeleton since perusing their expanded stats revealed a ‘sentient’ tag along with the basic one for species which was ‘necromantic construct’. An interesting description since I was accustomed to ‘undead’ but I thought it was more accurate and didn’t pay it any more attention.

I chose a Warrior and set him in the room a few paces away from me. He moved around in an awkward shambling way until he turned and noticed me and the hounds. Standing to attention with a speed that would have seemed improbable a moment before he gave a salute.

“Hi, I’m your dungeon master; 42. No need to be formal,” I said and extended a hand to him. He shook it promptly and still didn’t speak. I checked his stats briefly to make sure we could communicate, and it looked like he was technically mute but could telepathically respond to me.

“I wanted to test some of the enchantment features on you, is that alright?” I asked, wanting at least a minimum of consent if possible. He nodded, bones rattling which caused Blackmore to bounce up and down excitedly. He flinched back from her, holding his arms over his chest like he expected her to jump for a rib.

“Blackmore, Stalin, I put some treats in the lava breakroom, help yourselves,” I said, not wanting to make the newest addition to the dungeon feel unwelcomed.

“Yes, mistress!” They barked together before running for the bone buffet I’d added to keep them busy.

“Sorry about that…Are you unable to use telepathy? Your stats say you should be able to,” I asked, noticing he still hadn’t said anything despite the fright Blackmore had given him.

“I- I c-can,” The skeleton replied, and my orbs fluttered. A telepathic stammer, I wasn’t sure what to make of it but felt sorry for the poor thing.

“If you're uncomfortable I can ask one of the others,” I offered. The hedge mage skeleton honestly looked like a weirdo so he might enjoy it. I’d only held off on asking him first since I felt a bit uncomfortable at the thought of dealing with someone like that.

“No no, i-it's it's fine!” he insisted, finally letting go of himself to put his hands up like a shield.

“Okay, well I’m going to make some cosmetic changes first, then go through some of your settings. Let me know if anything feels uncomfortable,” I said, going into my item shop to find a full-length mirror. I set it up so he’d be able to get a look at what I was doing.

The cosmetic changes available were considerable. Especially since I had the art interface to augment them. Into his sockets, I placed glowing black stones to create a flame effect like my own in blue. That added a good bump to his overall eeriness on the cheap but was a bit lackluster. On examination, I found that he had a magic seal written on a scroll tucked inside his skull, but for a couple mana, it was now carved into his forehead instead. I accentuated the design with black enamel, so it stood out in the blue light of his eyes.

“Wow, I-I look scary,” He said in an appreciative tone as he got a chance to check out the changes. I nodded in agreement and felt my initial idea of miners who crafted new tools and jumpers out of their victims was a bit too cartoony. Watching him check himself out in the mirror gave me a new idea and I found a magic mirror in the store and placed it at the back of the room. The mirror had a two-way function that let those who met certain criteria pass through it. I set it to monsters from the associated stack and placed the break room behind it.

“Set encounter rules,” I thought but nothing happened, and I put exploring the concept on the to-do list for later. The skeletons wouldn’t be an issue, but I still had the moles and bats to deal with after all. With nothing left that I wanted to play within the superficial options, it was time to get into the more drastic settings.

Fortunately, nothing looked like it would actually damage his personality or memories. I checked off boxes for regeneration after a defeat and left the cool down at six hours since it was cheaper that way. Searching I didn’t initially find one but after looking a second time I found a mimic setting shimmering into existence. Skeletons with this enabled would copy the general appearance of their opponents.

Desiccated flesh tone, remnants of hair, flashy bits of gear, those things would match up to enhance the psychological effect. That was still technically an aesthetic change, but it involved a more important setting, so I counted it. It was also a much better idea than human skin overalls with a face on the chest.

“Do you remember your name? You can choose a new one even if you do, or I can give you one,” I offered, curious if anything I’d done would change the skeleton.

“N-no no, anything w-would be fine,” He replied, and I nodded, satisfied I was still conversing with the same being.

“Henry James Clavicle?” I offered, wanting to give him a middle and last name since he’d been human once. Yelling at people always felt best when they had a middle name to screech like an eldritch incantation. Working in a bone also satisfied my deep need for juvenile humor.

“That’s… I-I’m h-honored,” Henry said, bowing to me which caused my orbs to flicker. It was a jokey name, but he seemed genuinely touched. Thinking about it I realized that Elim didn’t have a last name. In certain time periods, those were reserved for people of the aristocracy or military, so giving him one might very well be an honor. I slightly regretted making the name funny, but not enough to change it.

“I’m glad…So it seems I can increase your level and offer you a class change. Is that something you’d be interested in?” I asked, wanting to change subjects in case he was going to ask what his surname meant.

“Y-YES!” He shouted in my head, which was an odd feeling.

“Okay,” I responded, rubbing my ear as if it had felt anything out of reflex. “Here, you need to be-”

I paused, mid-sentence as I leveled him up from first to fifth which was the minimum for a job change. That opened up a new set of branches on his class tree and I put my interface to share mode so he could look.

“Take a look,” I said and let him peruse them. As a Warrior had three options when it came to specialization. Looking them over, I noticed that one of them was Fighter which I considered a basic heroic class. That was when it struck me that he wasn’t a variant class, he was an NPC class as I would have understood it in a game.

“T-this is a big choice…” He said and I realized he’d been talking to me for a little while as I started digging through the store and my options. I didn’t get how I’d ignored a psychic communication, but it had felt like when I ignored a verbal one. He spoke and my mind heard but did not process the info somehow.

“Yeah, totally,” I said, pretending that I hadn’t been ignoring him.

“Uhm… how about we start with a base class change? I’ll upgrade you to a Fighter. That way you get access to all of the Fighter’s specializations,” I offered. The costs were adding up but since they were one-off mana expenditures, I considered them investments. Henry grabbed my hand and nodded his head so hard his teeth rattled.

I’d expected three new options to open up when I finished changing his base class, but the change was drastic. It went from three total to six, and all of them were obviously prestigious. Duelist, Knight, Chevalier, Martial Artist, Rune Guard, and Sentinel. Chevalier, Martial Artist, and Rune Guard all had an aspect of magic to them but were at heart combat classes rather than pure casters.

They all looked good to me and I didn’t really care which James picked so I let him take his time. If I made a skeleton for each class and specialization it would add to the effect and the expense would be easy to absorb since I wasn’t in a hurry. He ended up picking Chevalier which I found interesting.

A few spells, some party buff abilities, all woven into a very solid combat build. I liked it but it seemed like a choice for someone who was a touch more confident than I felt Henry was. I didn’t refuse or try to talk him out of it, paying the mana to finalize the change. It was entirely possible that I was wrong about him and he was just nervous in front of the boss.

Even if I wasn’t wrong, it was his choice. I could change it later if it didn’t work out or he found it too uncomfortable. There would be plenty of other skeletons to pick up any slack soon enough. It was time to move on, so I directed Henry to stand next to me and brought out the remaining skeletons so I wouldn’t have to do individual introductions.

“Hello, I’m 42, your dungeon master. I’m going to be editing your classes and appearances to fit with the boss encounter you're going to be a part of. Henry here was the first one I did this for, you’ll be getting similar upgrades,” I said to the four unaltered skeletons that stood before me.

“Would anyone like to volunteer?” I asked and the hedge mage immediately raised his hand and stepped forward.

“Okay, let's start with a name. Do you want to pick it or should I?” I asked, seeing that he lacked a name like Henry had.

“I want something dignified,” He said, haughtily crossing his arms. Since he was wearing a loincloth and had bits of dead herbs tied around him like a skirt, I hadn’t expected the excess of pride.

“Uhm…Dignified? Aaron Eustice Ulna?” I offered, trying to come up with something without properly know what constituted a dignified name. Arron nodded in agreement with me, then gave Henry a contemptuous look.

“I’d like different a different color from the…fighter,” He said, and I would have raised an eyebrow if I had one. I decided to wait and see how he acted instead of jumping in preemptively. He might settle down once they started working together.

“Right, well let's change your settings to regen and do the base class change first. I’ll pick something to go with your class after,” I replied, feeling like he was going to be nuisance despite my resolve to chill for the moment.

“Normally I’d let you pick anything you're compatible with for your new base class but it looks like Sorcerers use blood magic so that won’t work in your case. Druid or Wizard?” I said after studying the classes available to him.

“Can’t I just use hero’s blood?” Eustice asked, clearly annoyed by the restriction. I wasn’t keen on buying a class that probably wouldn’t work. Even so, it was worth finding out if it would despite the potential for failure and so I okayed the base class change and ordered some supplies.

Hi Elim,

I need several small cauldrons or pots with handles in different metals. No lead though, it's toxic.

Thanks,

42

I had texted him with my first request nearly an hour before and shortly after had my overalls and fifteen minutes later cauldrons in copper, cast iron, and steel. I filled each of them with bandits’ blood and placed them in front of Aaron, gesturing for him to give it a try. He went at it enthusiastically, but with less than stellar results.

“It works but there’s a penalty,” He said unhappily, kicking a cauldron over and snapping off several toes in the process. Not wanting to damage his dignity further I scooped the mess up into my inventory. I checked his stats but didn’t find anything specific about why the blood wasn’t working properly.

“Maybe it’s because its pure human? Your class requires a pact with a demon, so you’re considered a ‘tainted being’ according to the description,” I offered, and Eustice looked at me like I’d spoken in tongues. I looked back at his data, even at level one that seemed like it was basic information and the class operated off of intuitive spell casting. I thought when the change went through that he’d understand how it operated similarly.

“Then I’d need the blood of another tainted, shit,” Eustice said and then sighed. His class operated off charisma and will, but his intelligence score was only ten, so I bumped it up at a considerable cost to a fourteen. I still felt like he’d figure things out intuitively, but extra smarts for research wouldn’t hurt.

In an RPG game, there were two kinds of classes; S.A.D (single attribute dependent) which was the most desirable and M.A.D (multiple attribute dependent) which was the lesser. Needing two stats to power his abilities he was already a M.A.D but I didn’t hesitate to spend the points. It wasn’t reasonable to treat a sentient being completely like a game character. They needed a minimum level of general utility if I wanted them to learn and progress. I copied all of his class information and sent it to him to study, hoping the intelligence bump would help him figure out what to do.

“Okay, well, let’s try some eye colors out and finish up the aesthetics. I’ll source tainted blood later,” I offered in an attempt to make Aaron feel better. Henry had been ecstatic about getting a new class, Aaron was probably more disappointed than he was letting on that it didn’t work. We settled on magenta for the flame color and added arcane symbols in the same color to his ribs and limbs. He seemed satisfied despite his general unhappiness with the situation.

Christopher Truman Phalanges graduated from thief to rouge and at his request, I painted his bones black and gave him deep violet eye flames that were difficult to see. I accented his seal with deep violet as well, making it barely visible indirect light.

“Lovely, now I just need an ass-load of shivs!” he said happily, checking in the mirror to make sure I hadn’t overlooked any spots on his bones.

Since there were only three skeleton classes, I’d bought one of each and was aware I’d need more to create the larger number of hero classes available. I checked my store, wanting to double-check the cost before doing the math for how much I’d need to spend to fill them all out. I was surprised to find new options for skeletons had appeared. Azure Flame Fighters, Magenta Flame Sorcerers, and Violet Flame Rogues, my upgraded versions had been added.

It was nice that I wouldn’t have to upgrade them all individually when I bought more. At least if those were what I wanted. I still had more base classes to build to have all of the heroic classes represented. They would have to wait until mana reset though, it was almost year’s end, but I wasn’t in a hurry. Beyond setting up the obstacles I still needed to figure out what rewards I would offer. That would take a few days and require Elim’s help so I had decided to wait until he was done getting his family moved. Once they were in place and basic furnishings were taken care of I’d start sending him out on my behalf in earnest.

“Okay, all that’s left is to show you guys your break room and chat a bit,” I said cheerfully. Going through the mirror with a skeleton hoard looked pretty sweet. I captured an image of the moment, thinking it would make a fun addition to the decor in the break room. The break room as we entered wasn’t much to look at.

A simple twenty by thirty by ten rectangles with alcoves along one wall featuring benches with storage chests under them. They were deep enough to act as beds of a sort since I doubted that the skeletons would be able to feel much more than I did.

“Any requests?” I asked, uncertain of what they would all want. They looked at each other then back at me and I realized that I might not be able to hear them if they conversed with each other. Or they just looked silently, I couldn’t tell.

“Bookshelves and books on magic,” Arron said immediately, and I felt like I heard a collective sigh from the others.

“Good, work-related things are a must. Don’t hold back about hobbies or wants though, this is your personal space. The hounds have a pool,” I said, wanting to convince them to ask me. If they got too greedy or outlandish, I’d just say no, but I’d try to do anything within reason.

“I’m a little claustrophobic, could you make my crypt bigger?” Christopher asked, and it took a second for me to realize he considered the storage boxes crypts.

“Sure, everyone go ahead and claim an alcove, I’ll come around to make any changes you need,” I said and the crowd of skeletons seemed to get a little enthusiastic. Like high schoolers jockeying for a seat on the first day of class, they all sat down firmly to claim their choice. Adjustments for height came first since Arron was on the taller side.

Width and depth came next for Christopher. He was happy once He didn’t touch the sides of the box but I changed the top to an iron grate so he could see out and the mechanism became a slide instead of a hinge. Even if someone wanted to play a prank on him, they wouldn’t be able to do something like sitting on the lid to trap him.

They all received shelves and I added a variety of books to my shopping list for Elim. Henry liked mysteries, Arron still just wanted theoretical magic texts, and I needed some picture books to teach Christopher how to read. It wasn’t a requirement for the job, but I felt weird about the idea of an illiterate skeleton.

I’d also need to see if I could teach the hounds how to, though I’d probably have to copy the books on stone tablets first. That or figure out how to get their fire resistance high enough to survive the break room and general proximity to the hounds. It would be a low priority to-do, but one I felt would be a lot of fun.

On a more serious note, I added board and card games to the list as well as basic furnishings. I couldn’t predict how long it would take adventurers to reach the boss rooms so there was a strong possibility of large spans of downtime. Like the books, games would help stave off boredom. Once I expanded the break room, I’d add other amenities but those were the most basic needs that needed to be met for the moment.

“Oh, before I forget. I don’t have any strict rules about moving around the Dungeon for now. Until we start getting adventures in, feel free to explore. The first six stacks anyway, the last three are the lava themed ones where the hounds spend most of their time. You can go there; I just don’t suggest it,” I said and all three nodded, Henry more enthusiastically than the others.

“Also, about your surnames, would it be alright to share them with others of the same base class? Like all Fighters will be Clavicles?” I asked, knowing I’d run out of bones to use far too quickly otherwise. Including various teeth would give me a bit more room to work with but I wanted to see if they’d agree before going that far.

“That’s fine-fine,” Henry said, easy-going about everything it seemed.

“Eh… Sure, why the fuck not?” Christopher said with a shrug.

“Is sorcerer a base class or will I have to share my name with wizards and the like as well?” Aaron asked, taking the longest to make up his mind.

“It’s a base class, so only sorcerers and sorcerers who graduate to prestige classes will be Ulnas. This isn’t a binding decision. It can be discussed again later once I’ve added more skeletons and you have a chance to chat,” I said, feeling like it wasn’t that important to settle the matter yet.

“On those conditions, I’ll agree,” Aaron said graciously.

“Alright, I’ll let you guys settle in and visit again tomorrow. Text me if you need anything before that,” I said, and Henry jumped to his feet to bow elaborately to me. Aaron and Christopher laughed only to fall silent when I bobbed in the air, doing my best imitation of a curtsy. My hands out as if holding an invisible dress, I noticed they were actually holding on to a gauzy veil of shadow that disappeared when I completed the gesture.

Surprised and rather pleased with the discovery I floated out with my chin up and shoulders back.