Chapter Four

Soul Net

Wraith’s awareness slowly came back to him and he saw Ember hovering dimly above him. Wraith focused on the pain in his center and used his last remnants of mana to fix the crack in his core.

“Thank the manifestations,” Ember said weekly, “I’ve been having to give you my own mana to keep you alive until you recovered enough to fix your core.”

I feel awful, what was that that happened to that beetle? Wraith asked.

“You killed it, by accident, and it cracked your core and let out a blast of mana in form of wild magic. Your magic, dark mana, is related to death and necrosis. When the beetle cracked your core, he literally released a bit of death into the world and it destroyed him by decaying his body in a matter of seconds in what would have taken years. If you had been a core of natural fire mana you would have incinerated him. Let’s try to take it easy for a week or two hopefully nothing was alerted to that burst of magic it could attract attention from monsters we aren’t prepared to fight. You should work on better traps and make it hard to get to your core. When we eventually fight adventurers, you will need to make your core insanely hard to get to so they don’t just try to run in here and grab you and flee without fighting anything,” Ember said his body a glowing white color that faded out to grey and then black at the edges.

What happened to your color? Wraith asked.

“I absorbed a bunch of your dark mana and it gave me a bunch of new abilities that an undead spirit would have, I can now possess creatures if my will can overpower there’s,” Ember preened.

Interesting, Wraith said and sat back to refill his mana reserves. Over the week Wraith began toughening up his dungeon the four remaining beetles had surrendered giving him a total of fifteen rogue monsters, one giant dire rat, four male beetles three female and seven snails who didn’t appear to have genders. Wraith created underground tunnels under the paths for the beetles where he confined them to hunt, the tunnels connected to all the pit traps where the beetles could eat or finished off anything that fell in. The snails he set to wandering the paths he had to give them orders not to eat his plants along the swamp but gave them patches of dirt and stone where he grew plants for them to eat. For Gnarl Wraith removed the plate armor and instead gave him spikes using the fast hardening mucus of the snails; the mucus gathered his fur up into spikes and hardened giving him a lighter natural armor that made him faster and swimming easier. Gnarl was assigned to the swamp where he could eat river plants and waste that washed down the underground river.

Wraith received a steady stream of dark mana from the plants as well as water and fire mana from them. Ember couldn’t explain well enough how magic worked but said that would come with adventurers who brought magic items into the dungeon. Wraith was working on his core room a massive stalagmite made of a pillar of iron and covered with an obsidian shell there were a few holes here and there to allow mana to flow in and out and to let Ember in but anyone who tried to break their way in would have to first smash their way in sending razor-sharp blades of obsidian flying in their face.

Wraith finished the last few touches creating a moat around his pillar when he sensed a disturbance on the side of the room where the water drained away into the ground in Gnarls old territory.

Ember I am sensing something odd coming from the north wall go check it out, Wraith ordered.

Ember flew over to the sound. He came racing back leaving his body in a small alcove at the foot of the pillar and slipped into the pillar in his spark form.

“I can hear pickaxes on the other side of the wall this isn’t good it could be adventurers, whoever they are they probably detected that burst of mana you gave off and are here to investigate,” Ember said flitting up to the top of the tower and looked out a viewing slot.

An iron pickaxe burst through the stone followed by another until a wide hole was dug. A scaled distinctly dragon-like head poked its head through the hole and sniffed and turned and said something to someone behind it in a language that sounded like growling, snarls, and low roaring. A short brown scaled humanoid stepped into the cavern he held a pickaxe and was followed by three other pickaxe wielding creatures then four with long spears they carried in both hands and another four with swords and shields, and three carrying daggers and some strange metal device in the other. Another one of the creatures held a bow and another with a long sword appeared to be guarding a wizened creature in black robes who leaned on a long white bone that served as a walking stick. The final creature to step into the cavern was a beast three times the size of Ember with red scales and a fringe of white horns around its head. Nineteen creatures altogether

Are these adventurers? Wraith asked.

“No these are kobolds one of the dark races, only one out of a thousand of them will become an adventure this looks like a group of some dragon’s cult, and that massive creature is a drake. Kobolds worship dragons and are probably looking for treasure for it which is bad because the only thing of any worth in this cavern is you and the plants and they don’t want the plants,” Ember said.

Can’t we take them? Wraith asked.

I doubt it, these are smart creatures plus they don’t have a territory here if they see they are being killed they’ll just retreat and come back with more if we could be sure we could kill them all I would say go for it but our best bet is to hope they get bored and leave. Until you have a really powerful boss form for me or a powerful rogue monster, we can’t risk it. A shame these are creatures that would give you a soul spark if you killed them,” Ember said wistfully.

A powerful rogue monster? Wraith asked giving the impression of a sharp-toothed smile.

“What are you thinking?” Ember asked suspiciously.

Wraith didn’t answer the question. Ember get ready for a fight I am challenging the otyugh, he said, Wraith began challenging the dominant monster of the cavern forcing his mana into the other creatures territory while directing his monsters into position.

“What are you crazy!” Ember shouted and a few of the kobold’s heads jerked up when they heard the distant voice.

It was too late for anything to be done, however. The kobolds had begun moving forward down the path when the otyugh erupted from the pool of water the kobolds had just passed. It swiped at the spear-wielding kobolds with two of its tentacles but missed the kobolds who jumped back. It lunged forward catching one leg of a kobold who had tripped and fallen over; there was a crunch and the otyugh’s leg snapped off. The kobold screamed but despite the horror of what had just happened the other kobolds leaped into motion.

The rage drake rushed forward savagely biting into the otyugh’s flank distracting it for a moment giving the kobolds time to recover from the surprise attack. The kobolds with pickaxes ran to the back of the group and began circling around a giant mushroom inadvertently avoiding its poison cloud and they were followed by the dagger-wielding kobolds who set down their devices and pounded a stake into the ground with a chain attached connecting the device to the stake. The robbed kobold was surrounded by the others and began chanting as the kobolds backed up, the one with a bow fired at the otyugh as the formation formed at the spear wielders attacked and then retreated behind the shield wall. their attacks though meager, apart from the rage drakes, were successful as they worked as a group making their entire effort more effective.

Wraith watched this and wondered if he had made a bad bet and that the kobolds would win this fight, then otyugh recovered from the attack on itself from the rage drake. The otyugh lashed out with a tentacle at kobold shield bearer snapping its neck causing the kobold who had been moving forward behind it to trip and stumble even as another kobold rushed in and scored a hit with its spear. Its other tentacle broke the shield arm of another and it lunged forward at the rage drake and sank its teeth into its spine before the rage drake raked it with its claws causing the otyugh to roar and release it. Another spear wielder stabbed forward but missed as well when the otyugh lunged for the rage drake its spear going wide of the target.

The archer fired, and its arrow hit the top of the otyugh where its eyes would have been as another spear wielding kobold tried to drag the wounded one-legged kobold away. The otyugh whirled and crushed the one-legged kobold under one foot. It swiped at the kobold dragging its friend and missed with one but struck it with another cracking its skull the shield bearer tried to slice open the otyugh’s belly as the other shield bearers retreated but the otyugh chomped down taking its head off.

Ember settled down and began instructing me. “Quick the kobolds souls are leaving their bodies you need to create a net with your mana to capture them, the net will separate the memories from the soul spark of the creatures’ spirit. I will need to impart some of my memories into the soul spark before it can be used but if you just let them die even you won’t get the soul sparks even if they are in your territory,” Ember said.

Not one will escape my dungeon! Wraith mentally shouted and gave an evil laugh as he used his ambient mana in the air to form a net and began trapping the glowing sparks visible only to him as they rose from the kobold’s bodies floating to the heaven only to be ensnared by his net and the souls broke in two, a pure white light floating up while a red spark was drawn towards his core.

The rage drake moved behind the otyugh and bit into its leg ripping into the tendons. The kobolds began retreating behind where the dagger-wielding kobolds had set their devices. The otyugh blundered after them on its two good legs limping along on its third bad leg. It stepped onto one of the devices and it snapped closed eliciting a roar of pain from the monster even as it stepped forward onto another of the traps. It managed to avoid the third trap and strained against traps on its two good legs. It pulled one of the stakes-free but was pulled up short by the other trap and the stake held firm.

The remaining kobolds with spears and shields surrounded the otyugh one darted in and the otyugh swung at him but missed as he rolled out of the way the others took advantage of this distraction and darted in the leader ducked a tentacle and slashed with his sword cutting open a small gash. The otyugh snapped at another kobold but again it was able to dodge and stab its spear into its side giving the remaining kobold a chance to attack unmolested. The archer fired and arrow but the thrashing body of the otyugh caused his shot to miss by a few inches and clatter into a stalagmite.

The retreating kobolds tried to go around a mushroom but came into its poison cloud, the kobold trappers began coughing and gasping two of them collapsed as their lungs began to fill with rapidly growing mushroom spores. The wyrm priest and the kobold miners backed up and the remaining trapper stumbled back before collapsing his body shuddering and then going still.

The rage drake tackled the otyugh leaping onto its back and ripping at one of its three tentacles with its teeth but the otyugh wrapped a tentacle around its neck. The kobolds rushed forward but the otyugh gave a heave and broke the chain and bit a kobold in half as it lunged forward with its spear swiping at another kobold, but its blow went wide, and the kobold managed to get in a hit with its sword. Another one rushed forward but the thrashing body of the rage drake threw off its strike and it narrowly avoided a tail swipe from the rage drake. Another slashed with its iron scimitar and made a tiny cut before he jumped back. Another kobold with a spear jumped forward and stabbed down into a wound on the otyugh’s leg creating a deep wound that fountained blood. The otyugh went mindless in furry and struck the kobold down squishing it into a mash of blood and bones with a tentacle before snapping the spine of the shield bearer to its right and then slamming the rage drake to the ground where it lay dazed.

The kobold archer fired but the shock of seeing his companions slaughtered threw off his aim and his shot went wide. The robed figure finished his chanting and the remaining shield bearer was engulfed in a red aura. The kobold roared and dropped his shield grabbing his sword in both hands and cutting off one of the otyugh’s legs.

“That robbed kobold must be a wyrm priest, they are kobolds whose faith in their dragon cult is so strong it manifests itself as magical powers,” Ember whispered to Wraith.

Get ready for your part of the plan, Wraith ordered as he moved his rogue monsters into position.

The last spear wielder stabbed the otyugh in the back of a knee. The rage drake stumbled back to its feet but was too dazed to attack yet. The otyugh now crippled lashed out with a tentacle and crushed the shield bearer’s skull and his red aura died with him and his other tentacle broke the legs of the spear-wielding kobold and the dragged it into his mouth.

The kobold archer knocked another arrow and fired into the roof of the otyugh’s chomping mouth and the otyugh gave a shriek shuddered and died. The remaining kobolds stood ready to flee but the otyugh remained unmoving. The kobolds then saw a glowing white globe of light flit through the air hover over the rage drake’s eyes before flooding into its nostrils. The rage drake gave a shake of its head before its eyes turned a black and it glared at the remaining kobolds and leaped forward.

The kobolds made a break for the tunnel the last fighter taking up the rear, but they stopped when they saw the tunnel’s mouth was blocked by a large spiked shell. The miners jumped forward smashing at the shell but jumped back as blue acid ichor splashed at them two of them were to slow and clutched their faces as the acid ate away at their flesh.

The robbed wyrm priest turned and shouted, “Necos!” His guttural voice rang out and a spectral skeleton hand slashed at the rage drakes throat, but Ember jerked his possessed body to the side. Avoiding the arrow. He bit into the throat of the archer and then Gnarl came up behind the wyrm priest and leaped onto his back and bit into his spine with his long incisors. The other kobold miners threw themselves at the rage drake, but four beetles rushed forward intercepting and impaling them on their horns and then flinging them against the wall.

Ember walked into a pit with tall walls and left the rage drakes body trapped there for Wraith to study and possibly utilize.

So how do I use all these? Wraith asked referring to the eighteen soul sparks floating around his core.

“Right now they just bits of mana given life but they have zero memories; I have to imprint some of my memories into their mana this is one of the unique abilities of a Lord Spark and is one of the main reasons dungeons need us, without us it would take you years to train these sparks to do anything and at that time you could be killed or another already established dungeon could steal your soul sparks for their own dungeon,” Ember said.

It’s possible to steal soul sparks? Wraith asked surprised and a little afraid it had been luck that had gotten him all these soul sparks and Wraith didn’t want to lose them and have to go through this all over again.

“Yes, it doesn’t happen to often dungeons have to be close together for it to happen within at least fifty miles, unfortunately this area has a high dungeon concentration there are almost a hundred and fifty dungeons of various ranks in this area, you would be considered a rank one dungeon now yesterday you were just a rank zero but since you just got eighteen soul sparks your rank went up,” Ember explained.

How long will it take you to imprint them all? Wraith asked.

“A day or two at most in the meantime you should create bodies for them to inhabit we may have more visitors in a few days if the other kobolds send others to investigate what happened to this group. It won’t be nearly as dangerous since we will have doubled our numbers plus you should have gotten a big boost to your mana as well from all those deaths. You should check out their weapons and see if that wyrm priest had any magic imbued into items like his staff,” Ember said and moved over to one of the floating soul sparks and enveloping it with his much larger spark.

Wraith set to work he repaired the damage to the otyugh’s body reattaching its legs and fixing the large rips in its flesh from the rage drake. He examined the traps the kobolds had set and were able to make a working copy. With the understanding the trap gave him, his imagination was able to expand. The paths had previously been smooth stone but now they were made of hundreds of oval-shaped stones with deep grooves in-between them now if you stepped on the wrong stone the trap wound spring and the poisoned iron jaws would clamp down on the leg. Wraith planted small plants into the grooves between the stones to help disguise the traps. The snails could keep moving on the paths since their body weight was spread out and didn’t put pressure on a single stone. He fixed the broken necks of all the kobolds and created an iron gate in front of the tunnel the kobolds had made and set stalagmites to fall on anyone who stepped on the stones below the gate.

Wraith carefully examined the staff and found there was magic in the staff; the kobold had engraved some runes in a language that resembled claw marks after studying it he gathered it had allowed me to cast the spectral skeletal hand, he memorized the rune and had Gnarl carry the staff to his core room where he placed it next to his core. He found some silver coins on the kobolds and added those to his core room as well where he began replicating them and placing them in pools of water on branches in the path next to where he planned on positioning monsters.

Wraith also discovered that since he had inadvertently conquered the otyugh the dominant monster of the area by using the kobolds he now had ten more rogue monsters. There were three scorpions and a giant hellfire scorpion, a mining beetle that made tunnels and collapsed them on predators. There were three flying creatures he was able to analyze and identify as stingers they latched onto a person and began sucking their blood after stinging them with another paralytic poison that he added to his list. But the two most interesting creatures were a pair of mad slimes. Created from dead humanoids whose body had dissolved in a sorcerer’s acid the red slime aberrations were covered in misshapen mouths and mad yellow eyes slit like a serpent’s that constantly babbled intelligible words, screams that would drive a living creature insane or paralyzed by the horror of the sounds and creature. The creature would flood over a creature ripping it to shards with is jaws and dissolving them its acid strong enough to dissolve the stone. It could move through mud, sand, and water with ease, but it was a very slow creature, but its potential was great.

Wraith created two pits near the narrow crevice to the surface where the halfling who had brought me to the cave had come down. They gibbered at the bottom of the pits and I began extending my mana up to the surface creating a spiral staircase. I extended my senses and mound there appeared to be an odd type of territory I had never seen before. Curious I sent up one my beetles to investigate looking through its eyes. It was night time and there were clouds covering the stars and moon shrouding the land in darkness and he got a good look at the ruins of the castle. Broken logs and beams rested on the walls in what had been attempts to build a temporary roof, but it appeared no one had lived here for some time. Vines grew along the walls and weeds in the cracks of the stones.

The beetle scuttled along until it saw a group of humanoid figures standing still. Wraith chuckled to himself at the prospect of new soul sparks until he saw that the figures were not moving at all and there were no signs of a monster or humanoid living in the area. Wraith sent the beetle to approach closer and the beetle knocked over a rock. The humanoid figures turned and let loose a howl they descended on the beetle which tried to turn and flee but figures were quickly upon him ripping at him and gnawing on his legs and body as he still lived. It was the first time Wraith had gotten a look at the real undead. Ember had explained that since he was a lord spark he could animate practically any body made for him, but most soul sparks would require a living body or a more thorough understanding of undead. Getting a look at these Wraith understood why the reason they couldn’t animate dead bodies was different is that there was nothing like the body he had given Ember. These were non-living bodies, yes but the mana they created was twisted in ways Wraith did not fully understand. He loved it.

Ember, are you finished? Wraith asked he had given him two days already undisturbed.

“I just have one to go, why do you ask?” Ember said.

Assemble all of them into the new bodies I have created for them we are going to take over a new territory on the surface, Wraith ordered.

“But you still have to name them and to give them genders….” Ember protested.

All of that can be done later. I want this now, do as I command, Wraith commanded, and the dungeon rumbled at my command.

“Yes, my lord,” Ember sighed and the soul sparks flying around went into the various bodies of the kobolds he had killed. The kobolds wore suits of iron scale male and carried a bow and quiver on their back swords and axes on their sides and a shield and spear in their hands. Ember took his old body that had been modified to look more draconic with the addition of kobold blood, one of the new soul sparks took the otyugh’s body and the small army marched up to the surface with every single rogue monster.

The way the new soul sparks fought was terrible, having had no time to adjust to their new forms they were clumsy and awkward fighting the ghouls. The otyugh accidentally crushed two kobolds. The kobolds tripped over their shields and a few impaled themselves on other kobold spears by accident. But their sheer numbers and the more experienced and cautious rogue monsters dragged the ghouls down and ripped them apart. Wraith absorbed the bodies of the ghouls and the twisted pattern of their dark mana. my laughter made the dungeon rumble as the ghoul bodies and a few of the fallen kobolds rose as ghouls. The other kobolds collapsed in a wave as their sparks were recalled from their bodies and the bodies began to wither flesh melting away in some areas their eyes rotting away to be replaced by cold blue fire.

They opened their jaws and the air was filled with a hiss, as air passed through there desiccated lungs. Wraith looked over the ruins of the castle and set my rogue monster snails roaming over the ground absorbing the plants on the ground clearing it or weeds. The kobold ghouls lifted up logs and braced them on the stone walls they shifted stones back into place and Wraith cemented them in place with a stone he created from his mana.

Now they can have names, Wraith said, and the bodies stood still as the presence controlling them left and returned to his core. Wraith divided the group of eighteen soul sparks in a group of twelve and a group of six. All of you in the twelve are female your names are Amy, Emy, Imy, Umy, Omy, Eamy, Oomy, Ramy, Tamy, Vamy, Zamy, and Kamy. He said directing them in a line their sparks turned from a yellow to a light pink or a purple glowing spark. You in the group of six are male and your names are Bob, Tob, Rob, Fob, Gob, Hob and Job. Wraith said breezing through the simple process, okay done report to your stations and get ready to fight I must speak with Ember now. The sparks followed my orders though for some reason he detected a bit of unhappiness from them.

“I think they were expecting a little more from you,” Ember said, “A name is a kind of personal.”

They are minions, next batch I may consider letting pick their own names, but I have bigger things to consider I want to kill an adventurer it’s been five months since I was placed in this dungeon if I beat the record now, I will be unrivaled in my time among dungeons, Wraith said growing excited at the thought of spilling an adventurers blood.

“Well since you have a good number of monsters, I think you might be ready to at least try to kill an adventurer. Let me explain the process, you could wait here for months without anyone visiting so the quickest way to attract adventurers is to create a lure. There are lots of ways to do this after you become well known you could start a rumor of a powerful magic item here or some other treasure adventurers will come looking for but since you are a new dungeon the best way to lure adventurers is to kidnap some women and children and bring them back here. Adventurers will walk into any trap if it means saving children,” Ember said with a chuckle.

What if there are no adventurers nearby? Wraith asked it would be a big waste of effort if he couldn’t get an adventurer to come and had to go sending monsters out to look for even more children.

“If they don’t show up after a few weeks just kill them,” Ember said with a shrug he communicated by bobbing his spark up and down. “It will give you more soul sparks and add to the urgency of those who send for adventurers when you kidnap new bait. This brings me to the reason dungeons create themes, scapegoats. Dungeon cores are a very well-kept secret, hardly anyone knows of or believes in them and its best to keep it that way, so an adventuring party doesn’t just come to conquer your dungeon and shatter you core or use you for some magical item they want to make. You create an evil overlord, cult, Warband or just a corruption well that is ‘gathering’ monsters or dark races. The adventurers come and either die or destroy the Warband and then you lay low for a while before subtly changing your theme and having a ‘new’ cult appear and terrorizing the land starting the process over. Dungeons use the downtime between adventurers to upgrade their defenses send hunting parties to find new monsters and magic to study, create and gather loot for new adventurers. This is also the time’s dungeons brag about their accomplishments and compete against other dungeons,” Ember explained as Wraith waited patiently.

So, I just send out my monsters to capture children? Wraith asked.

“Basically, I would suggest just sending normal kobolds that way adventurers will come unprepared for the undead ones and will be easier prey for you when they arrive. While you’re waiting for the adventurers, I would create an appropriate theme like a sacrificial altar or a slave mine. Slave mines just go to show how dumb adventurers are risking their lives for human dregs. You don’t actually need the miners for mining, sense as a dungeon since you can just absorb the stone and turn it into earth mana but besides that children make the worst slaves, their weak, whiny and die easily, enslaving dark races like the goblins or kobolds would be much more effective but adventurers never think about things like that, lucky for us,” Ember added with a sinister laugh.

Very well, Ember you will lead the raid scout the land around us and find a human settlement and then conduct a raid. Leave eight sparks with me to guard the dungeon. Take only kobold bodies I don’t want them alerted to the other monsters we have, Wraith instructed.

“All right I should be back in a week,” Ember said and disappeared.