Chapter 4: The Core Room has been breached

Dungeon POV:

I felt their approach barely 6 hours after the ranger first arrived and quickly remembered that I’d forgotten to set up a swan wyvern lair. I hurried to spend the evolution point and then placed it in the sole room on the second floor besides my room core. The specifics of everything could wait until after I knew if I survived this. If things went bad here then nothing else mattered. I’d thought about trying to prepare more but in the end no matter what I did they could crush it like a pile of chalk.

Still, the adventurers were different than I expected. Sure, I mean I figured they would be armed, they were well except for one in a blue robe but he must be some kind of mage or priest. Still they seemed too normal I guess, I’d always thought there would be something you could different you could sense about them, like an aura of death or bloodlust. Only the lead one gave off anything kind of similar to that but it was more an aura of command not death. He was obviously the leader. Of the six, four had leather armors and bows with a short sword hanging at their side. I think one was the ranger from before but I didn’t really get a good look at him since he fled as soon as he killed the rabbit. The last, the one that gave of the aura of command was some kind of knight, he had plate armor on, a sword in his right hand, and a shield draped across his back.

There was something weird about their behavior though. All but the priest was acting funny, their eyes darting everywhere and they were walking funny almost like they had a rod up their ass. Maybe they were nobility, nah no way would five nobles be the first into the dungeon. Must be some kind of strange custom or stealth technique. Still I can’t possibly understand why these guys would need to be even a little bit wary in a dungeon like mine.

They killed the first rabbit like it was some kind of demon, three arrows and a sword ended talk about overkill. The dove wyverns surprised them but they took out any who even got close to them, a single arrow was all they needed. My creations seemed to burst apart as soon as they touched them. They were good, they didn’t even come near the rose creepers, all it took was one glance from a ranger and they all knew what they were. I guess they didn’t care enough to kill everything they came across which was the only saving grace. In the end I managed to hide away my three pink rabbits and a few of the other higher level creatures.

In less than a minute they were at already at the boss room. It only took them that long because not all of the hallways between rooms were straight and meandered a bit. Still they wandered the entirety of each room like they were looking for something. I wonder what it was? Maybe I was supposed to give better loot. When you killed a rabbit, you got a rabbit pelt or a lucky rabbit foot. The dove wyverns gave a few of their metallic feathers as loot. They didn’t kill any of the rose creepers but they gave a flower as loot.

***

Captain POV:

“So, what is your observation Edgar, is there a divine presence in this dungeon?” I was almost certain this dungeon was related to that Goddess of Love. Roses, bunnies, and pink all spoke of her hand in things. Not to mention those weird mutant doves. Doves have always been one of her symbols. I would have to keep my daughter far, far away from this dungeon. There was no telling what she would get into if she came in here.

“Clifton you’re not going to believe this but almost everything here is a registering as a divine symbol to me. Well except for the moss and rabbits but even then, some of the rabbits seem to have some kind of priest of love class or other.”

“Wait how is that possible? Symbols of love are all summoned from an altar of the Goddess of Love. There is no way a dungeon or anyone could afford to summon that many of them.” Shit this is bad. Nothing stunk worse than godly politics. This was going to draw the Church of Love and that meant all the other churches would come and monitor the area as well to see what they were up to. It was a never ending battle for followers filled with lots of posturing to see whose god was bigger, better, more powerful. Priests are a bit like men in that they are always trying to see which one is the bigger man or in this case has the better god.

“Exactly, so the dungeon must have a connection to the Goddess of Love which ensures that everything is somehow tied to her. There is probably an altar to her somewhere in the dungeon.” That was even worse. The Church of Love would try to label this a holy area and keep everyone but their followers out of the dungeon. Still probably best to focus on the dungeon, if things ever got out of hand we could have a holy war on our hands.

“Okay men we need to be careful, this dungeon making sure the dungeon is all in working order is or number one priority. It’s of utmost importance that we guide this dungeon into a beneficial direction.” I can’t imagine the consequences of this dungeon going rogue. This was deadly serious. While zealots like the love cult we chased out were rare the Goddess of Love was a goddess loved by all many of the unaffiliated would stand up for her if a holy war ever happened, even some who followed other gods and goddesses would join in leading to a battle that could involve the entire pantheon. Love crossed all species and when love was threatened legions rose up to defend her. She was one of the most peaceful and eccentric goddesses but also one of the most powerful and dangerous to anger. A person can hide from the sun, moon, or ocean but she is everywhere.

“First off we need to finish evaluating the dungeon. Fletcher you’re in charge of making sure everything in here gets identified. It doesn’t matter if it’s a rock, a monster, a plant, or anything else we need it all documented. Oh, and keep your wits about I’ll be sure to let the rest of the guards know if any of you are done in by a newbie dungeon.” It was best to try and keep the mood light the men laughed and we headed into the boss room. No need for them to realize the threat this dungeon could pose to our little town if they haven’t already. Still some of the others were obviously nervous. Edgar surely knew the implications of this all and Fletcher could likely guess. Still he tried to lighten the mood by pointing out all the crazy things we saw.

“Well that’s the biggest flower I’ve ever seen. Maybe it’s even big enough for your wife Ralph.” One of the men, Mike, joked as he patted Ralph on the back. The men chuckled and I hid a smirk as we moved in to fight the beast. Ralphs wife was a large woman that was the most tactful way to put it. Personally, I think she had a little giants blood but in a small town like this it was unwise to mention that, superstitions and all.

The boss was some kind of rose creeper like the others we’d passed on our way here but this one was over twice the size of them. Arrows aren’t much use here so I guess it’s time for me to get to work. Drawing my sword, I felt some of the tension leave me. It almost like back in the ole days, if I closed my eyes I could pretend Clarissa was still there, fighting beside me. Her elven bow string snapping with each arrow she let loose.

“Put away your bows men and draw your swords. Let’s cut this beasty down and bring a flower back for Ralph’s little lass.”

***

Dungeon POV

The adventurers made quick work of my new boss. The rangers and the knightly one all drew swords and started hacking it apart while the mage summoned some kind of storm cloud that spat rain, hail, and lightning on the plant. The rain actually helped the plant but the latter two not so much. It fell without much fanfare, hardly able to put up a fight. In the end only one of the rangers was injured when the boss fell over a scratch across his face that made all the other’s laugh. They joked about him telling his girl about the mighty plant he fought.

Their victory won them three large rose blossoms and a something I call a thorny staff, basically it’s just a piece of mostly straight rose creeper stem about six feet long. They didn’t seem too excited over their prizes but over the course of the fight I’d taken a glance at their levels and could understand why. The knight was the strongest of the six by far he was a level 31 Sword Knight and a level 26 Guard Captain. Guard captain was an uncommon job but sword knight was a rare one, the first one I’d seen. Shit though this man is way too OP! Why did I have to deal with existence at this level, I’m barely level 2? Though by now I’ve realized that dungeon levels are calculated differently than others.

Besides the ranger who came in earlier the other three rangers were all mostly level 10 to 12 guards, a common job, and level 12 to 16 rangers another common job, most had a third lower level class but one didn’t have a third class at all. Apparently, the guy in the robes was a priest of the storm god, a weather mage, and a scribe. Though scribe was the highest at level 17 so I don’t think he was a very good priest.

After the one guys face was bandaged they headed down the stairs to the second floor and met my mighty swan wyvern. I would like to say they were awestruck by my creations but they paid more attention to the core room that could vaguely be seen at the end of the short hallway out of the room than the red beast attacking them.

My creation fought bravely and blood splattered in every direction over the course of the fight. Unfortunately, though the blood was all swan and no human, the swan was severely injured by an arrow through the wing when it flew into the air and after three quick sword stokes it disappeared leaving only a large pile of feathers behind.

After killing the swan wyvern, they all walked in the core and started inspecting everything. The lowest level ranger got sent up the tree to pick the six ripe apples dangling from its branches. They were particularly interested in the altar but after twenty minutes or so of making sketches and writing stuff down they left. I survived? Yes, I did it I fought off my first group of adventurers. Okay they left after completely slaughtering everything but still, I survived.

Sighing I got to work repairing all the damages. God, I hate this drained feeling it’s even worse than before. Why did they have to try and kill everything they saw. I have barely anything left. Without my monsters providing me with a little mana every second I a little sluggish. Oh well hopefully my new guardians will be ready soon I’m looking forward to having five fully grown swan wyverns to protect my core.