Chapter Ten,

** ** ** Dungeon Core ** ** **

I am practically a god! I mean I don’t know what else an compare to the creation of life.

Bastill looked around at the work he had completed. Per Kitsunes suggestion he had gone about populating the dungeon with natural plant and animal life. He currently had eight rooms in his dungeon due to his prior project, when he struck the underground aquafer and he made another for the project he just finished.

After hitting the aquafer, he learned how to make mineral water! The hardest part had been diverting the water to flow through each tunnel without flooding and drowning everyone, but he managed to make connect each room and allowing the water to continue on to its destination. He could come back later and divert the water more if he wanted to place it in his future rooms.

Too be honest nearly flooded his entire dungeon when he had first struck the water source. He had watched the adventures and foxes panic when the water rose above their heads. It reminded him of the old story of one of the gods that his master once told him about. The story went like this.

One of the newer gods having recently been brought into the word from the Goddess of Creation. He had just been given the title of the God of Kindness. As he gazed upon the world in all its majesty all he saw was kindness being abused. All around the world the kind humans were in worse condition then the mean ones. The people living his virtues suffered and he couldn’t tolerate that. His solution he decided was flooding the world to rid the world, so the kind weren’t oppressed. He cohorted with the God of Storms and they flooded the world. To this day the followers of the God of Kindness are known to be one of the most merciless if angered.

Thinking about the Goddess reminded him of the Goddess of the Dungeon statue. He was down trodden that it had been lost to the upper floors. He would need to try to remake it eventually. He added it to his long list of things to get done. His current projects were to finish extending his dungeon to the other side of the mountain, continue healing his mind, figure out more about catalysts, try the new dungeon aura, make another floor boss, level up, recreate the Goddess of the Dungeon, figure out the effects of being fractured, deal with the massive covered holes that he had in one of his rooms.

So much to do, but I need to have priorities.

He had decided that the top project was excavating more rooms and to get a new exit built. He wanted to get away from the spiders and put that whole incident behind him. Making new rooms would increase his mana absorption. He had currently bumped his passive mana absorption up to four hundred and fifty mana a day. However, he was currently making a bit more than that. The spider catastrophe had taught him a lot. First thing he learned was never use spiders ever again. The second thing was that by having a fast reproducing animal he could gain more mana due to if they died, while not having to repopulate them at all.

The project he had just finished was the one that Kitsune suggested. What he ended up spending a half a day recreating the Caring Mother of Fertility with the effect of having greatly increased pregnancy, with a decreased gestation and maturing period for his animals. Instead of placing a terrifying monster in this new room he turned it into a Hare warren. He made the room only accessible to the rabbits and connected small rabbit holes to every room.

He planted toad stools, moon shades, mandrake roots, ferns, elder berry bushes, whistling leafs, and elves ears in all the other rooms. He also injected each with mana which caused them to either rapidly grow and produce smaller ones around, or just rapidly produce highly potent normal sized plants. In order for the Hares to eat they had to leave the warren and adventure into the other rooms where they encountered predators. Some survived the death hunt and became stronger, while others lead to a pleased and fed fox.

Bastill looked around at the new successful plants and seeing the results of the forced evolution. The toad stools ended up growing larger creating a beautiful landscape of over grown mushrooms. The ferns were similar to the toad stools as he knew from previous attempts. He pared the two together creating perfect hiding places for the foxes to set up ambushes for an unexpecting Hare. The elves ears were the perfect vine plant and were covering the walls and ceiling hiding away the rocky granite that ha been exposed before. They created a beautiful cover.

The moon shades and mandrake roots became more potent and spread more rapidly. The Hares especially like the mandrake roots. The elder berry bushes grew taller and produced berries that were not only sweeter but as large as apples. The adventures were most excited about this development, apparently, they mainly had travel rations. The adventurers also took to hunting rabbits for the fresh meat after seeing the foxes doing it.

His favorite plant personally so far was the whistling leaves. They were more of a grass. At first, he had been horrified for they made an eerie careening sound in the ear every few hours. Most plants actively release oxygen into the air, but the whistling leaf built it up in a reservoir within themselves, until they released all that oxygen into the air for a minute. After injecting forced evolution their careening turned into a beautiful hum. He found the hum relaxing. It also helped mask the sound of the predator’s movements, not that there was much sound to begin with. The improved whistling leaf now carpeted the dungeon.

In his second room with the pond he added an acorn which turned into a massive tree. He had to extend his roof as far as he could. At fifty feet tall he couldn’t raise it any further due to the old floor above that he couldn’t reclaim. Since his plants weren’t really creatures he hadn’t been able to see their effects. He knew the one called Stelle was an alchemist and had taken to using some of the ingredients found in the room. As soon as she set the chemistry book down on his dungeon floor he planned to absorb it to figure out more about ingredients or maybe if he kept trying he’d find an ability to let him understand the plants better. Despite that he looked around his rooms with pride in his core. Pleased with how the project looked he checked his ever-present notification. No matter how many times he checked it, nothing ever changed.

Status

-Fractured

-Effect unknown.

Hhhhhhhh, well I can’t be perfect I guess. It’s better to improve the things I can rather then lament what I can’t.

He had a lot to do and get done with. He planned on developing another five rooms before trying to create another floor boss, so he could reach level seven. He was thinking about using his new catalyst, he had discussed the topic with interest with Kitsune. His reasoning was that he wanted to see the effects of the Angel Feather but he felt that for this purpose the Ceremonial Blood was more practical. He checked his Stat menu before he went to work.

Stat Menu

Level:6, Race: Dungeon Core, Name: Bastill

Characteristics

Mana Capacity: 550/550, Mana Absorption: 450/day, Creatures:100, Rooms:8, Floors:1

Abilities

Expand Consciousness- You can now use mana to expand your body around you, which in turn gives you a greater area of control. Current mana cost: 1 mana per every 4 cubic foot.

Passive Mana Absorption- You no longer need to pull mana to you. It is now naturally drawn towards your core. Current rate 450/Day. To increase grow stronger or larger.

Stone Touch- Due to your talent and diligence your ability working with stone has increased. You have a great understanding of the stone you work and are able to make stone you work on glow with radiance.

Dungeon Aura-Unknown

Observe- Ability to see the level and vocation of other creatures, while seeing the whole stat menu of dungeon creatures.

Forced Evolution- Ability to see inject mana into a creature body part or characteristic, which will evolve the creature and raise its level and abilities.

Dissolve- Lets you dissolve matter and recreate learned matter with mana.

Mind Speak- More complex form of basic communication with lesser creatures.

Learned

Materials -1 cubic foot

Quartz:5, Granite: .2, Marble:10,

Creatures

Insects- Leaf Imitator: .2, Stick Bug: .2, Praying Mantis: .3, Centipede: .3,

Animals- Grey Squirrel:10, Red Fox: 35, Hedge Hog: 12, Racon: 25, Deer: 40, wolf: 45, Bear: 60, goat: 35, Hare: 12, Beaver: 20,

Created Beasts- Bloody Fox: 90

Objects

Toad Stool: .1, Moon Shade: .5, Mandrake root: 1, acorn:.1, fern: .1, elder berry bush: .1, whistling leaf: .1, and elves ear: .5.

Fluid- Per Bottle

Medium Health Potion: 20, Mineral Water: .01

Catalysts

Ceremonial Blood??

Angel Feather

Back to digging in the dirt. I still don’t know what on this dirt I am going to do about that massive hole. Investigating it isn’t high on the list of things to do. I will just leave it covered by granite for now.

** ** ** Corrupt Dungeon Core ** ** **

Status

-Fractured

-Effect unknown.

WHAT THE LIVING SHIT IS WRONG WITH THIS!!!

Status

-Fractured

-Effect unknown.

I SWEAR I WILL SHIT ON EVERYTHING THAT MOVES!

No matter how many times he looked at the notification it never left. It sat there taunting him. He didn’t know what it meant, and it gave him no advice over what it could possibly be. He checked one more time for a good measure.

GOD DAMINT, LICK BUTTER FROM MY ASS YOU PIECE OF SHIT.

Status

-Fractured

-Effect unknown.

I’m not fucking fractured, I work perfectly the way I god damn am! Calming thoughts, Calming thoughts. Kitsune, Statues, Floor bosses, all good thoughts, killing humanity. I’m okay. Im fine. I am perfect just the way I am. Nothings wrong.

Absolutely teetering on the edge of livid, Bastill pulled himself together mentally. It pissed him off to no end. Luckily the searing head ache no longer bothered him. It hadn’t dispersed, but he had earned he could ignore it by keeping busy. He always kept himself busy, but never with his own thoughts. Turning to his thoughts caused him to be aware of the pain. He had begun perfecting the art of being spontaneous, but the agony was still there. It would occasionally diminish, but it would frequently flair up occasionally with memories attached.

After creating the floor bosses, he had decided that he needed more Giant Furry Spiders along with common versions of the floor bosses. When they had begun the reproduction process he had been bumped up a level due to the spider's process. He was equally excited and disgusted when it had happened. On one hand he had increased to level seven, but on the other hand he had watched the female spiders cannibalize their mates after copulating.

What the hell is wrong with these spiders? Talk about domestic abuse…

He had been waiting the last day and a half for the new spiders to be born and developed. They were currently on the last phase of development after having been born an hour ago.

Interestingly when he leveled up his new requirement to level up again was to kill twenty-five humans. He now received six-hundred mana a day along with gaining a new ability named Sacrifice. It involved sacrificing humans to the goddess of his choosing, but it could only be performed by a floor boss in the dungeon room that held his core.

Killing humans? Kitsune would agree that these wretches deserve nothing less than death, after all they killed him. Revenge is perfectly rational. Plus, they made me fractured. I don’t know what they did, but it has to be their fault and they will pay.

It didn’t say what the sacrifice would grant him, but he was very curious about what it would give him. He was thoughtful and understanding. There deaths wouldn’t be meaningless. He was hoping they would give him more power and grow his strength. The word sacrifice struck a chord with him for some unbeknownst reason to him.

Sacrifice… Sacrifice… Sacrifice… Why is that so familiar.

The pain in his head furiously erupted causing him to grit and squeeze his thoughts in order to bare through it. His thoughts were sent into darkness. Very slowly memories appeared in the darkness. He watched them replay in his head.

**

Bastill stepped back from a chunk of granite. It was no longer the block of granite that he had started with. In it’s place was a skillfully crafted statue. The statue depicted that of an angel, however the face was left blank. He had yet to be form it, because he felt his inspiration was lacking still. After he had finished looking over his work he proceeded to put his selected chisel and hammer back in a stone box that had other hammers and chisels of varying shapes and sizes.

Unlike the angel his own face was highly detailed with a wide smile, dripping sweat on the forehead, and eyes glowing with happiness and delight. There was no amount of money on the world that could ever get his face to shine with this type of genuine happiness. It was simple and strong.

I will never tire of this work. Each time it feels different and unique. There is nothing that quite compares to sculpting.

He was about to call out to his master, but he remembered he had recently finished his training under him. He no longer worked under that man. His master had been a great instructor. Bastill hadn’t been his only student, but he liked to believe he was the man’s favorite.

I think I miss having the old man watching me. It feels better working in someone’s presence.

His current creation was not for his own eyes. It was contracted work for one of the wealthier families in the city. The statue currently sat on a wooden plant that would be tied securely before the movers came to pick it up from his work shop. He would have to go visit them tomorrow to get an idea of the face he would sculpt into the statue. While the majority of work was done, the hardest part was just starting. The face was the most important part to craft in Bastill’s mind. It couldn’t just be a blank face. It needed inspiration. It was late, which is the reason for him putting the project off tomorrow.

Well I think I deserve a little celebration. A little ale will calm my mind and I don’t need steady hands tonight. I wonder if Natasha will be at the ‘Leakey Tankard’ tonight? I wouldn’t mind going just to see her.

With thoughts of love or lust on his mind, he attempted to clean up his current dusty-grey body. He wanted to look presentable before making his way over to the ‘Leaky Tankard’.

…

The memory cleared up as his mind started to relax. His mind opened back up to his dungeon. He had never felt so relaxed and pain free before. Before he could utter a thought, suddenly the pain came searing back into his core and he spiraled back into his memories.

…

I can’t believe how lucky I am. She is practically rivaling the ‘Goddess of Beauty’ in that red dress and all she wants to discuss is me. I think I hit the jack pot! Forget Natasha this girl is my destiny. I guess love at the first acquaintance is real after all. I’m almost skeptical of her interest in me, but I am not rich nor have any political sway. Is the Goddess of Love finally given me mercy?

His gaze was fully enveloped upon the beautifully figured brunet with stark blue eyes. He wasn’t quite sure what her name was but was to nervous to ask now. They had been talking for the past hour and it might remind her that they didn’t even know each other. He didn’t want to scare her away. She began to talk again, but it was rather a near incomprehensible mutter, “Hmmm I think this is a good choice, just a newly appointed journeyman sculptor. No one special, no one will go looking for you. It’s not rare for journey men to flock over to a new city. That’s what they will believe.”

He was quite alarmed with her analysis of his life, mixed in with confusion of what she was talking about. Finding some bravery, he put his tongue on the line as he went to infer what she was muttering about, ‘I’m actually quite skilled no one else can craft like me. You make it sound like I am unimportant. I am also confused about what you were saying. I don’t think I will be traveling to a new city anytime soon I rather like iii-t heeree. Iiiiii tinnk Iiiiii”

His brave tongue began to fail him. Was he drunk? He had tried not to drink too much, because he didn’t want to affect his night time exploits in case she felt the desire to spend the night. His gaze began to get blurry and he felt his mind beginning to slip. She smiled with him with the beautifully full set of lips that had been mesmerizing him all night, “Oh relax silly you are very important to me. After all you are going to help this kingdom out greatly with your contribution.”

He slumped over in his seat and began to slip to the ground, “Barkeeper me and my lover seemed to have a bit too much to drink. Mind helping him and I to the wagon?”

**

The pain fled again as he returned to his dungeon mind only to be lost in the torrent of pain again. The next scene went through his death in slow motion. He was forced to watch every single second of his death over again. When he finally returned back to his dungeon he spent a full thirty minutes just existing. Not scheming, or cursing, or planning, or meditating, or even thinking. He just laid there and existed. When he finally came out of his stupor he couldn’t even gather the anger for how he felt.

He remembered who Claire was. She was a Bitch. Also, the root cause for all of his current problems. He had a lot of different emotions swirling around in his mind. He had a precise goal for what he needed to do. For one, he needed to kill that bitch. Not only to serve deserved justice, but in order to live.

I only have two years left to live before she returns to kill me. When she comes for my core I won’t kill her though. Well not immediately at least. She needs to understand that I remember first. She needs to feel what pain is. She needs to know what I have gone through.

There were more thoughts in his head besides justice and revenge. He saw his old passion of sculpting. He had created beauty from stone in the past. He had been a sculptor. He had seen the expression of joy and love on his human face as he had gazed upon his work.

I was a sculptor… No, I am a sculptor still. This must have been my work.

He looked at Goddess of the Dungeon statue the, which he was living out his life hour by hour at the feet of in the dungeon. He focused in on it as he reveled in its own beauty. He could feel the delicate care it had been crafted in. It was absolutely beautiful in every definition.

He had three other statues. Only one of them was immensely helpful though. Not that he cared. He loved every single statue as if it was a treasure trove. None of them were as beautiful as the Goddess of the Dungeon. It simply was incomparable. The useful statue helped his forces grow faster, which due to this his current army composed of ten thousand furry giant spiders. He had also created some lesser versions of Thanatos, Nyx, and hades. He had an additional one hundred of each at the moment.

There was only one statue that he was not happy with. In fact, it was a major pain in his ass. The thorn in his side was non-other then aptly named statue, the ‘Headless Winged Angel of Victory’. Why was it named that? Because it had no god damn head, that’s why.

Who the fuck doesn’t make a head on a fucking angel? What on earth was I thinking. It can’t be the fucking Angel of Victory. The angel of victory would have two god damn heads. He would first keep his own head attached to his neck and second, he would hold up the decapitated enemies head.

To be victorious to him meant defeating your enemies and living yourself. They die while you live. He promised himself that he would restore the head. He would continue to practice the art of sculpting. He would be victorious. The effect was quite impressive never the less. He would have made this room for snakes he decided. They are practically just a head and tail, which would have been very effective.

I have a purpose in life! I will create the most beautiful statues this world has ever seen. That is why I will live. I will survive so that I can happily live out a life of creating masterpieces.

He had Relearned Granite and put up five different pedestals around his favorite room with large blocks of granite in them. To begin with he was at a complete loss of what to create. He just couldn’t find an ounce of inspiration. He decided to create a head for the headless Angel. After lots of attempts he came back with nothing but failures.

He tried to feel the stone with his soul and mind. Yet, each time he tried his mind would pound harder and harder with pain growing hotter and hotter. By the end of his attempts all he had managed to create was shoddy chipped lumpy blocks of granite. He had been relentlessly trying with all he had, but in the end, he got nothing in return besides scrap rock.

Just great, fucking great. It’s okay I’m probably rusty. I will continue developing and attempt after I feel more inspiration. It will come back to me. I am after all a Sculptor.

In a foul mood Bastill tried to keep his mind on other things. He looked upon his beasts swarming around and building their nests in the four other rooms instead of his failed sculptures. His dungeon was an assortment of webs in all the rooms except in the first room. He refused to let them build in the first room where he preferred to stay. He didn’t want them to circumvent the Goddess of the Dungeon’s glamour. With nothing better to do he inspected his three floor bosses.

Stat Menu

Level: 35, Race: Scythe Legged Giant Huntsman Spider, Name: Thanatos of Death Age: 1, Gender: Male, Vocation: Floor Boss

Characteristics

Strength:40, Constitution:21, Dexterity:53, Intelligence:12, Wisdom:12, Charisma:8

Traits

Mana Infused Iron Body- Whole body fortified with Mana Infused Iron. Making it both harder and sharper.

Revivable- Able to be created with all its memories and power.

Innate Abilities

Maw- Bite, Pain, Advanced, Toxin- Numbing Effect, Advanced, Web-Sharp Shards of hardened toxic web, Intermediate, Legs-Scythed, Slice, Advanced

…

Stat Menu

Level: 30, Race: Concealed Giant Jumping Spider, Name: Nyx of Darkness, Age: 1, Gender: Male, Vocation: Floor Boss

Characteristics

Strength:19, Constitution:17, Dexterity:70, Intelligence:15, Wisdom:10, Charisma:8

Traits

Black Hearted Duplicate-Can make an identical copy for up to an thirty minutes

Revivable- Able to be created with all its memories and power.

Innate Abilities

Maw- Bite, Knockout, Advanced, Toxin- Knockout Effect, Time a hour, Intermediate, Web-Enforced Stickiness, Intermediate, Legs-Jump,15 feet, Intermediate, Active Camo-Unseen in daylight if still, Unseen during night if moving, Advanced

…

Stat Menu

Level: 40, Race: Overlord Giant Fringed Spider, Name: Hades the Underlord

Age: 1, Gender: Male , Vocation: Floor Boss

Characteristics

Strength:40, Constitution:40, Dexterity:24, Intelligence:48, Wisdom:8, Charisma:8

Traits

Black Hearted Mind-Able to control spiders hordes of up one thousand-five-hundred, with fine-tuned coordination

Revivable- Able to be created with all its memories and power.

Innate Abilities

Maw- Bite, Numbing effect, Advanced, Toxin- Numbing Effect, Advanced, Web-Capable of making living corridors or shot at enemy to entangle, Expert, Brain-Communicate with spiders, Advanced

My beasts, my three princes of death, darkness, and everything below. You will make me proud I am sure.

He turned his attention to his newest troops. They were at their peaks. They were quite magnificent for spiders that is. They were still no math for his majestic Blood Foxes. His heart tightened in a ball as he remembered his ‘little fox’. Nothing could ever compare he was sure, but that didn’t mean he wanted to remain alone for the rest of his life. Thanatos and his lesser forms, which was meant to be a flashy and distract attention turned out to be quite deadly. More so then he had thought so. He was a very explosively dangerous and volatile ‘distraction’ he mused.

They common versions of the Scythe Legged Giant Huntsman Spider, the Overlord Giant Fringed Spider, and the Concealed Giant Jumping Spider where very similar except they were all five levels below them. Their abilities were greatly reduced. The common Scythe Legged Giant Huntsman Spider had less infusion from the mana infusion, while the common Concealed Giant Jumping Spider could only retain a copy for ten minutes, and lastly the common Overlord Giant Fringed Spider could only control up to one hundred. In addition, their innate ability all dropped down to the next rank. Meaning instead of advanced it would receive intermediate.

He continued to watch the spiders crawl around and have an occasional skirmish. He encouraged fighting amongst each other. It made them gain levels and grow stronger. Not to mentioned he gained mana. They were replaceable after all. They were all either replaceable or revivable in some cases. He didn’t love them though. They weren’t Kitsune. All attempts of talking to them would end in shambles.

They were great at taking orders and that was it. Even Hades, with his more elite and powerful mind, was only created to carry out plans and strategy. There were no intricacies in their exchanges, just deliberate and dull affirmatives. There was no desire to talk. Internally sighing he mentally prepped himself.

Well regardless, I will march on. I will avenge my ‘little fox’. These floor boss can’t even compare to him, not that I tried to have them. These pale imitations cannot emulate a friend in any shape or form. The soldiers appear to be fully developed, it’s time.

He looked at his princes, “ My dear sorry excuses for sons, Nyx of Darkness, Thanatos of Death, and Hades the Underlord. Go forth with the armies and capture land and lets began the sacrifices of scum for Kitsune’s honor and my power.”

He watched them leave out his dungeon, but as they walked outside he saw what was beyond. With each and every sharp spidery legged step he could sense his influence spreading further. He had started to see the world outside of his small little dungeon. Various plants where abundant and he could feel the sun beat down on his beasts. The dirt was marginally damp, causing the every tip of each spider leg would stab into the earth a bit. He began to see the forest that surrounded him. The same forest that Kitsune hunted upon in days past.

This is what he must have scene each time he ventured out. It’s just so… It’s absolutely hideous land. I will turn this horror into beauty though, for you of course ‘little fox’.