(xxiii)

The insidious nature of creating dungeons was, Lazarus thought, nothing but an effort in futility. Much like fixed defenses that mankind used to build. They would last only so long as someone didn’t come up with a better idea, weapon, or tactic to annihilate them or bypass them entirely.

He supposed that would be the case in this instance as well, if he wasn’t literally a mile underground, with the only access point being plant roots. With such a distance between his core and any threats, being practically inaccessible, and with none of the limitations that he would have thought he would have had, this was turning into a rather interesting experiment.

His overall assessment? Someone would have to blow up a rather large chunk of the city above to get to him. That was a rather solid advantage.

Between the bakery, Guard Headquarters, and Adventurers Guild, his slow claiming of the city was well underway. The three points afforded him nearly three-square miles of territory after a month, and what was a month to an undead being such as himself? The only real question at this point was… there were many powerful beings as part of both the Guards and the Adventurers, so why hadn’t they found him yet?

“That, Father, would be because while your dungeon is forming it has not yet become active,” Ces explained. “This makes it difficult, but not impossible for those actively searching, for you to be discovered. With all of the magical activity in those areas on top of the difficulty of finding a forming dungeon? You are well camouflaged.”

Lazarus made a mental nod in her direction, “That does make sense. But you would think that the city itself would have more defenses, such as the Palace.”

“The Palace has existed for far, far longer than Delton has, Father. The city is recently built, within the last hundred years or so. The building the Grand Archon occupies? Millenia,” his corrupted spirit explained.

“Ah,” exclaimed the Lich, “Thus it has had much more time to accumulate the passive and active defenses such a structure would require. I am assuming it was a fortress at some point in time before becoming a governing residence?”

Ces nodded in confirmation.

“Wonderful. This answers many of my questions. Now,” Lazarus began, but he was interrupted by the always welcome red text.

Threshold Met: Dungeon Skill Gained

Secondary Core – Deploy a secondary core. This core will passively spawn creature types assigned to it, generate additional Mana, and create active defenses and traps within its assigned area.

“How interesting. All hail the red text,” Lazarus said appreciatively, studying the new ability.

This would allow him to place a secondary core, if he was not limited in number that was, in the three areas he had claimed. The question would be… where? Underground seemed to be the most appropriate… but something tickled his memory. Adventurers rarely, if ever, looked up. Could he designate a roof or crawl space as the core, then mislead them underground?

He would test out his theory on the bakery first. No sense in shedding his anonymity by doing it within the Guards or Adventurers Head Quarters. They would, more likely than not, immediately find and destroy it on deployment. That just wouldn’t do.

Beginning his consciousness to the surface, he examined the bakery. It was a large, two-story structure and attic with an attached warehouse and cellar. Quite the impressive building when so many homes within the city were far smaller. The attic was, for all intents and purposes, a glorified ventilation shaft with no external access outside of small holes for air along the sides.

It was perfect.

Triggering his ability, he felt his Mana drop precipitously. The ability was, apparently, far more expensive than he had thought. He wondered why it didn’t list a cost, curious as all of his other abilities and spells had done so. Something to play with later, for certain. He checked his stats:

Magic Aptitude: Metal, Death, Phage

Major Stats:

Level: 1 Unique

Health: 100 / 100 Mana: 21,500 / 26,500

Minor Stats:

Strength: 1 Dexterity: 1 Intelligence: 37

Wisdom: 41 Charisma: 1 Luck: 0

It had cost him five-thousand Mana. He watched in stunned silence as the secondary core formed with a small flash of light. Being roughly one eighth his size, it was much smaller. But the cost… he could not imagine spending that much Mana on an ability prior to changing into his newest form. It was almost asinine.

The secondary core took almost an hour to form, another limitation that annoyed Lazarus. He was used to nearly immediate results, something that he had become far too accustomed to. He would need to temper himself going forward, recognizing the attitude for the trap that it was.

Eventually the core finished forming, and Lazarus was presented with a new menu he had never seen before. One that made him… cautious.

Race: Basic Secondary Core

Sex: N/A

Skills:

Assign Mob Type – Assign basic skeletons, basic banshees, or basic zombies to spawn at this core.

Assign Trap Type – Assign basic pitfalls, basic spike traps, or basic dart traps to spawn at this core.

Assign Area – Designate area for the secondary core to attack, conquer, and control.

“Fascinating,” the Lich mused, perusing the options. He quickly chose zombies, spike traps, and chose the area around the bakery as the location for this core to control. Once he was finished, it prompted him to accept the changes, which he did so.

Lazarus mentally grinned, interested in how this would go. There were no concentrations of troops nearby, guards or adventurers. So there was no one to intervene and prevent him from causing havoc, and getting some of the sweet, sweet experience needed to move forward.

The grin was wiped off his mental façade as more than a dozen zombies simply appeared on the main floor of the bakery. All of the patrons, workers, and guests froze as they stared at the undead that had simply materialized in front of them.

Unfortunately for them, the undead had no such restrictions placed upon them like shock or awe. They immediately dove into the crowd, rending and tearing people to pieces. Much like soft hunks of bread. In his previous life, he was quite fond of dipping torn bread into olive oil. Here the soft flesh of the bodies were soaked in blood. Semantics.

Lazarus stared at the scene in abject terror. This was not the kind of controlled experiment that he had wanted! How was he supposed to identify variables within this chaos?

Threshold met: First kill confirmation. Phage Points Unlocked.

On the other hand, maybe not all was lost.