Uno

The human adventurers were busy. Their greed prompted them to advance recklessly, but my halls were anything but easy, especially since their rogue seemed to be much weaker than her elven ranger counterparts. At least in the traps department. Maybe it was a difference in experience, or maybe she just had a class less focused on detection and more on hiding. Or killing. Who knows.

No matter how much they wanted to rush through like human-shaped rhinos it was just impossible. The spear traps and pitfalls in this part of the dungeon were spaced irregularly and, most importantly, manned by the Ratlings. They made sure that any ignorant invader would end up looking like a pincushion. Preferably laying on the bottom of a deadfall too.

While the hallway wasn’t that long, they were moving step-by-step right now.

I could still recall their expressions when a spear trap nearly took out the red-haired mage who insisted on keeping the faster pace.

So close.

Their abilities allowed the adventurers to dodge some of the attacks or even move quickly from one place to another, but I noticed a suspicious lack of defensive or utility skills.

Making use of this weakness was a line of thought worth pursuing.

No matter how strong the people in the Swords of Hope seemed there was a clear preference for dealing more damage. It was just like they were not the adventurers, but soldiers used to assault. In my head, they were more like explorers and daredevils, not these down-to-the-earth individuals.

Only the half-orc warrior seemed different - a few of his skills made him a prime defensive specialist of the group. There was also the Lone Mountain girl, but she was much more dodge-focused than the man called Boulder. Still, considering the low quality of his equipment and the fact that the buffs only reinforced his body and did not much more… I was sure of the outcome if he was forced in a one on one bout with my Guardian.

Then again - one was a sentient and another an amalgamation of a machine and undead monster. The Guardian was also a boss of the first level.

Not to mention that the adventurers would never allow for such a duel to take place.

Yeah, maybe this comparison wasn’t the best.

Anyway, my point was that these adventurers instead of focusing on survivability tended to prioritize their attack power and powerful skills. Or maybe it was just me classifying them as squishy meat bags? Most of my minions, after all, were heavily armored, undead or made from metal.

Back to the point - such focus made them easy to exploit with indirect means of attack - like poison, hallucinogens, and acid.

Too bad I wasn’t well versed in such stuff.

The TV shows and books I have read didn’t delve into such subjects.

I had some plants with pretty potent poison on the second level, but making an airborne toxin was just too much.

Maybe if I used Anima magic as a way to power them up…

There was no need though as I had another way to mess with the invaders. For one I had the power of explosions! The amount of the Lebir Exploders on the second floor had already reached the critical mass. I wasn’t sure how many of them exploding at once would cave in the tunnels, so I had to be delicate. Ten of the blue-sashed bastards were waiting at the entrance into the Central Pond. Why not directly under the stairs? The room was too small to hide them all. I could, of course, resize it, but why bother?

The central room had a lot of flora and fauna floating about. Putting a few of the Lebir Exploders around the rock, trees and the walls unnoticed was much easier.

Was attacking the adventurers as soon as they arrived on my second floor cowardly? Maybe. My survival was on the stake, though. The kiddie’s gloves were off.

By the way, since the adventurers were progressing through the aptly named Trapped Hallway at a really slow pace I retreated to the second floor in order to gather my thoughts. There was something strange going on. Something, that I couldn’t put my finger on.

This invisible pressure I was feeling when my consciousness floated on the floor closer to the surface seemed much weaker down here.

I still had no idea what it really did, just a bad feeling floating inside my head.

Wasn’t much that I could do to confirm it though…

There was simply not enough information.

Thus with a mental equivalent of a shrug, I returned to planning.

Like I was wondering before - sentients seemed to have their abilities skewed in the direction of the offense. I hardly saw any buffs or the utility skills, not taking into account the hiding abilities of the rogue and shadow mage. There were of course shields that both fire mage and earth mage bestowed onto their companions.

The problem was they seemed lackluster at best.

There was also the thing about how they used these magics. It felt rigid, unnatural.

This meant that they probably couldn’t use them freely. Most if not all of their spells were activated by pumping mana into the crystal located in their chest. After a chant - or sometimes even without it - a result would appear, each time precisely the same like it was created by a machine, not by a human.

Things like starting fires by manipulating mana or warming up their group seemed out of the question. Moreso I decided to conclude that utility abilities like marking walls with earth or fire magic, building the shelter with earth magic (I seem to remember that one of their mages shouted something about my influence messing things up), getting water by the use of water magic, dispersing the smoke or poison with air magic… were alien to them.

I could enumerate even more applications, the point was that they weren’t using their magic this way. At least not while I was looking.

This should be the way forward. I’ll look into getting the temperature higher or lower, the fiery Ratlings being a natural solution. I needed a place to experiment. The second level was already done, but what about the third one?

My Dungeon Core Level was still only one and the feeling of fullness I had before didn’t appear.

Which meant that I could only wait for the adventurers to come.

And then kill them.

I should probably revisit my traps and monsters on the first floor. While it was true that I wasn’t able to do anything with sentients walking about - even in the rooms they already left - I still should reevaluate them and maybe even send some second-floor monsters to help.

So, let's go!

…

Why am I on the second floor again?

Did I finish working on the traps?

Hmmm…

Nope.

They still look the same.

Weird.

A mental experiment, then.

I’ll move to the first floor, the Kitchen room.

Good.

Now, let’s ma-...

Where was I again? The second floor, core room? There was this nagging feeling bouncing around my head…

I had to do something.

What was it?

A trap?

.

..

…

The adventurers were about to reach the Forge Room when I understood that something was wrong. All it took was writing down what I wanted to do on the stone slab in my core room. And tens of tries.

After who knows how many returns I understood - something was actively stopping me from modifying the first floor. A similar feeling, albeit much weaker was present on the second level too.

This made me angry.

Was that mind control of the Gods?

Or maybe the twin Gangria made me a slave?!

Wait, focus, focus Uno!

While both Mirabelle and Brighton remain a suspect Gangria herself should be out of the picture. At least as long as she didn’t lie straight to my face. Since her goal is killing the sentients limiting my abilities wouldn’t make sense.

Or she could just be a two-faced bitch.

Or... it could be the ritual that Daniel was describing to me some time ago - the one used on the dungeons in order to bind them. The details were vague at best, but still, if I compared the effects…

The rooms and tunnels of my dungeon were under constant surveillance, no weird voodoo magic detected there. That left only the surface. I had to quickly move some of my forces out there - get a bearing on my surroundings, maybe even listen in on some conversations.

Another point for my bucket list.

Right now I had to be a patient observer of the Swords of Hope progress.

They were currently entering the Forge room, where I left the useless Bile-brain Golem. It was still diligently trying to create a blade, failing to do so, throwing it away into the waste barrel and taking another piece of metal out to shape.

It was stupid but stubborn.

Not that it mattered much.

The humans were scouting the place with Tinna at the helm but little did they knew that the Golem was too absorbed in his task to pay them any attention.

Now, if you were to stop him from doing his work - that would be a different situation altogether.

Seeing the rogue's obscured figure I waited with anticipation.

She crawled along the ground, slowly getting closer to the Golem. After a few minutes of staring at the repeating task that the giant was busying itself with, she did something weird.

She left the shadows.

The tension didn’t leave her shoulders as she trembled, eyeing each move of the Golem. It, of course, ignored her, but this didn't make her tension any lesser. The breaking moment was when she stood in his way, like a human-shaped obstacle and he, after a short stare, just walked around her. It was then when Tinna relaxed. Her face lost the sharp glare she was sporting all the time.

After observing the Golem for a few minutes and confirming his further lack of reaction she exhaled. A small murmur left her lips, unheard by most, but not me.

“You’re doing your best too, right?”

Without turning back or waiting for an answer she left the Forge room. A few minutes later Agnes lifted her brow questioningly seeing the rogue returning without her defensive skills active.

“Is the next room empty, Tinna?” She asked.

“No, not really. However the monster there seems to be of an utility kind. It didn’t attack even when I appeared just before it.” The group’s thief wiped off her sweat and answered in a flat tone.

“Oh. I see. And what it is doing?”

“Forging, I think. But it’s not very good at it.” A smile appeared on Tinna's face.

“Forging, you say?” Interrupted Charles, his red hair once again an eyesore. “Can we take a look? What metal is it using? What is it forging? Maybe there will be some artifacts to acquire.” His face twisted in a greedy expression at the end of the sentence.

“I doubt it, sir.” Tinna answered directly, but that didn’t stop the man in the slightest.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Charles motioned the party, only to be shoved back. “What gives!” He snapped with anger.

“Please get behind me, sir.” Boulder said impersonally. “While the monster didn’t react to the Tinna's presence we can’t be sure that it would be the same when we all come. Or if a mage appears in the vicinity.”

“Hmph.” Charles retreated, but not without a look full of hatred. “Don’t do that again, slave.” He hissed only loud enough for the two of them to hear it.

“I won’t. Sir.”

“He is right, you know?” Eve suddenly interrupted, the whole team staring at her in shock. “What?” She looked around in panic.

“It’s rare for you to enter our discussions, Eve. That’s all.” Stifling her laugh Agnes answered the bewildered elf.

“Oh. Yes. You’re right.” The haughty expression left her face and for a moment - only the young lady was left. Even if she was more than one hundred years old according to the party whispers.

“You were saying?”

“Yes. Right! There are records of monsters who were collecting the cores we carry in our chests.” I strained my attention. At least something interesting! It would be interesting to acquire such a monster. Or even create one. “They were using them to empower their bodies or forge artifacts that conducted the magic power.”

“Similarly to how the Fallen tribes turn our mages into wands and staves?” Asked Charles with a face full of fury.

“Yes. However, the monsters have a more natural way of doing so.”

“Hmmm?”

“They simply devour the body and the core of the mage, thus gaining some of their affinity.” She said with a weak smile.

After a moment of silence, Agnes ordered.

“Mages in the back, warriors in the front. Let’s just keep formation, people.” She turned towards the red-haired man. “And no touching the loot until we confirm it’s safe. Understood?”

“Understood!” The whole team replied, preparing their weapons.