The incoming group was still a few miles out when my surveillance drone spotted them. Given that they were moving at a normal walking pace, I estimated that I had roughly two hours before they would arrive and cause me trouble. Still, I figured that it would probably be a good idea to get a better idea of what I was dealing with, regarding who was coming. With that in mind, I ordered my drone to fly lower for a better view, but not so low that it would needlessly irradiate those it was surveying.

Almost immediately, the improved resolution from my drone informed me of several crucial facts. First and foremost, what I had thought was one group was actually two. There were roughly one hundred and twenty people coming my way, but only twenty of them were armed. At first I thought that the unarmed group might be some sort of auxiliary for hauling loot back, but then I saw that the armed group was very conspicuously pointing their weapons at the unarmed group.

At this point, I made an irrational decision; while it would be safest to simply exterminate all possible threats, it was also a path I did not want to go down under any circumstances. Instead, I swore to myself that I would spare as many of the hostages as I could. Now, it was simply a question of strategy. I had the greatest leeway to work with on my first floor since there weren't any under construction parts of my future body there, so I immediately set about turning it into my primary filter, where I would hopefully be able to sort out the hostages from the hostage takers. On this floor, there would be no forced radiation exposure, and nor would I truly go all-out. In addition, I added a movie theater/presentation room behind hidden doors, with speed-optimized clockworks to grab the unarmed individuals and pull them to safety. After all, I would need a place to put these people until things blew over, and being able to explain what was going on would be a major benefit.

That said, I would definitely be filling the floor with heavily armed minions in order to hold the incoming force at bay as long as possible. Furthermore, any mercy I extended would be strictly limited to the first floor. No matter how much I wanted to protect the innocent, I also had my own safety to ensure.

Anyway, defensive measures with a more distinctly lethal bent included finalizations to the design of the construct I referred to as the 'Clockwork Knight'. Primarily melee-focused in comparison to my Armed Clockworks and Machine gun Turrets, each Clockwork Knight was a hulking monstrosity of Vanadium Steel designed to almost completely obstruct passage through my corridors. For combat gear I'd included both an incredibly durable combat shield, and a chainsword, leveraging the immense strength that Clockworks could bring to bear. I'd also mounted a modified Proton Pile in the chest, built less for power generation, and more for firing a diffuse blast of superheated radioactive plasma into the faces of anyone who happened to be directly in front of them.

I also made a point of installing several incredibly lethal traps; some were simple brute force in the form of rotary saws that could be rapidly extended out of the wall in a few corridors. Others were somewhat less so, such as the collection of Uranium rods I'd installed in the wall in the second floor's main 'kill zone' corridor, allowing said corridor to be absolutely bathed in deadly radiation at a moment's notice. Further modifications in this direction included deliberate modifications to the second floor Proton Piles so that they would release even more gamma rays into the corridor. It's about this time when I received a notification from my interface.

Dungeon Themes: As Dungeons mature, they often develop a distinct individual style, commonly known as a Theme. Themed Dungeons have access to more advanced features, such as Bosses, more advanced Minions, and specialized room effects. These effects are tailored to the Dungeon in question's Theme.

Your current Theme is: Atomic Clockwork

Minion Group Unlocked: Gremlins

Intelligence: Cunning

Strength: low

Speed: Moderate

Utility: Very High

Autonomy: Moderate

Cost To Summon: High

Small Fey creatures with a knack for machinery, Gremlins aren't all that useful in a direct fight, but that's not the point. Instead, Gremlins make for excellent support units, as they are capable of rapidly repairing or upgrading Clockworks, or even fielding their own constructs with no additional cost on your end. Gremlins can leave the dungeon, but will go feral after a number of hours depending on type.

Minion Group Unlocked: Mutants

Intelligence: Low

Strength: High

Speed: High

Utility: Low

Autonomy: Nonexistent

Cost To Summon: High

Warped by exposure to radiation or other corruptive effects, the mind of a mutant is irreparably damaged on a deep level, leaving them only capable of direct and savage combat. Fortunately for them, their twisted bodies excel at this, as they have immense strength, speed, and odd morphological anomalies that can trip up opponents. Further, Mutants are healed by exposure to further radiation or corruptive effects, instead of being harmed. Any mutant that leaves the dungeon will immediately go feral, embarking on a bloodthirsty rampage without any form of direction or control.

Bosses Unlocked!

I temporarily ignored the possibilities offered by Gremlins and Mutants for the time being. Instead, I immediately homed in on that 'Boss' option and queried my Interface what it was capable of.

Bosses: Final guardians at the end of each floor, Bosses pack a lot of additional power for their cost. The Boss tag can be added onto any Minion, vastly reducing their summoning cost and increasing their lethality, with the caveat that the Boss tag can only be applied to one Minion per floor.

That knowledge acquired, I immediately set about slapping together a suitably lethal Boss for my first floor. I didn't have loads of time to min-max this one, so I would need to hurry.

While still fearing for his life, Seth's experience of said fear grew far less acute the closer he got to the Dungeon. While at first it had been a blazing terror, now it was more a feeling of resigned inevitability. Still, eventually, Karyll made her way to the Dungeon with her unwilling entourage in tow. For a brief moment, the sight of the massive steel door embedded into the hillside gave Seth the vague hope that Karyll would give up finding her way inside and would let them all go home.

This hope was immediately dashed when the armored woman noted "Now, this is obviously the entrance to a Dungeon, meaning that we'll be needing to break in and plunder that bugger for all it's worth. I don't much care to try and figure out the lock, sooo..."

And with that, Karyll pulled out her sword, plunging it into the bartender who not too long ago had been serving Seth a mug of beer. There was a distinct feeling of unease, before the bartender crumbled to ash and Karyll's long bastard sword lit up with brilliant green flames. Then, with a positively vile grin and an incantation of "Soulburner", Commander Scaleridge carved her blade right through the door, rapidly kicking the hewn off segments of armor steel inside as she cut off new sections.

There was a brief pause, before the murderous woman said "Well, go on. You'll probably live slightly longer if you go in there than if we have to spear you here and now, so you might as well all go in."

With that, Seth's shoulders sagged, and he began marching into the dungeon, hoping that at the very least his ordeal would be over quickly. Turning the corner, Seth found himself face to face with a hulking metallic figure blocking the corridor. Then, surprisingly, one of the steel wall panels opened up and the machine spoke saying "Quickly, go through there if you want to live."

Seth did as told without hesitation, rapidly dashing down the secret corridor towards what he dearly hoped was safety. Behind him. he could hear what sounded an awful lot like people being messily slaughtered, but the continued pounding of feet in the corridor behind him allowed him some hope that wasn't the case. Then, Seth came out into what looked a lot like a theater from one of the very few plays he had ever attended, a mechanical voice calling for him to find a seat.

In the end, I managed to shuffle about forty of the hostages through my secret corridor to safety before the hostage takers entered. As soon as that happened, simply allowing the villagers to dash through to safety rapidly ceased to be an option, unless I wanted to give the game away. Thus, I switched to having each panel very briefly fly open just long enough for one of my clockworks to seize a hostage and pull them through before closing, which managed to get a few more through.

Then the ones behind this whole assault came into combat against my first Clockwork Knight, and everything went to shit.