Dungeon of Assassins [LitRPG Through the Eyes of the NPCs] #Chapter 05: Selvara - Read Dungeon of Assassins [LitRPG Through the Eyes of the NPCs] Chapter 05: Selvara Online - All Page

Dungeon of Assassins [LitRPG Through the Eyes of the NPCs]

Chapter 05: Selvara

Selvara had spent a few relaxing weeks in the fairy world while her dungeon heart had increased in size by several levels. The other fairies had greeted her enthusiastically and congratulated her on surviving the dangerous early days with her dungeon. Her friends had been a little angry at first when she refused to reveal the name and location of her dungeon. But after the eldest fairy had reminded everyone that one of the most important duties of a dungeon fairy was to keep the secrets of her dungeon, they stopped complaining. At least she had been able to report that her dungeon used a chimera theme. After that, the others had suggested enough ideas for chimeras to keep a dungeon busy until the legendary twenty-fifth level. Unfortunately, most of them required animals as a component, which they didn't have on hand. Of course, she didn't reveal that, as it would have provided clues to Malvorik's location.

Selvara's mysterious dungeon was by no means the only topic. The fairy world was in a frenzy. More dungeons had been created in the last few months than in the previous two centuries. She therefore only met the fairies, who had just returned to report and recover a little. As the period during which her dungeon heart was inactive for the growth phase drew to a close, she said goodbye and opened a portal back to her dungeon.

The portal opened in the heart room, where she immediately saw from the glow of the crystal that Malvorik was already awake and active. As always, a map of the dungeon could be seen on a mirrored wall. She snorted, fluttered over to the crystal and tapped on it: "This can't be true. I leave you alone once and you build again without any sense or reason. There are new rooms and corridors going up again! You can't keep hollowing out the terrain without creating traps and monsters. If this continues, there will be a completely unprotected path to the surface. You're far enough up to come across mineshafts. You're building up to your maximum visibility, that's dangerous!"

<Don't worry. I'm being careful. The surface is still a long way off.>

"You wouldn't believe where dungeons have popped up if they hadn't listened to their fairy. Truldaqua, the water dungeon, for example."

<Why? Truldaqua is one of the most famous dungeons. The city on the lake next to it has a special training camp for underwater combat. The water-breathing races have long waiting lists to be allowed into the dungeon.>

"But that was never the intention. He dug his way under a lake without realizing it. The water then came in over such a large area that he couldn't close the hole with his existing astral energy. By the time it had regenerated enough, it had filled up. All his monsters drowned. He used up the next few increases completely to get special skills with which he could create underwater traps. Pitfall traps are no longer effective. Neither were crossbow traps and poison arrows. Then he had to wait until he could choose new monster races that live underwater."

<You're right!> Bright lights sparkled in surprise in the facets of the crystal heart.

Selvara leaned back and made a self-satisfied gesture: "Of course. In what specifically?"

"You see. Told you." The dungeon fairy sat down smugly on the floor beneath the dungeon crystal and crossed her arms, "Now remove your tunnel and repair the channel with the exact same type of stone that was used to build the rest. Make sure you use the same pattern."

<It's all right, Selvara.> He was undoing the overlapping tunnel walls and was just about to begin the makeshift sealing of the hole again before he set about the finishing touches when his building skills suddenly failed him.

Intruders! Dungeon construction blocked

<What the...> He shifted his view into the corridor, where two sources of light had now appeared. In addition, a waterfall flowed directly into his labyrinth. He tried frantically to dissolve the water, but was unsuccessful. With a casual thought, he transferred his vision to the mirror wall.

"Send up the Lurker! You have to take care of the intruders! Forget the water ingress. It's not that bad, you can dry it off afterwards."

While the Lurking Shrike ran off on its short legs and the knuckles of its large hands, the two watched helplessly as the two intruders struggled to their feet. The large empty room was poorly lit by the glowing helmets of the two. The walls were too far away to step out of the shadows. A steady stream of water poured down from the dozen-step-high ceiling and splashed onto the stone floor, forming an ever-larger puddle. The younger intruder leaned heavily on his staff, trying hard not to strain his left leg. The older one tore the rucksack off his back and rummaged around in it. Then he took out a bundle of rope with a throwing hook.

<That's just unfair. First these guys jump into my dungeon, of all places, while I'm just trying to repair their tunnel, and now they've got the right climbing equipment to escape again. Tomorrow I'll have the dungeon full of adventurers and mages from the academy. The day after tomorrow I'll be on top of a mage's staff. I was such a fool.>

"Don't panic." Said the panicked fairy fluttering around the room: "One is injured. Your Lurker has a chance to finish them off. You still have the choice of a second monster race. Take one, any one, create one and send it off!"

"That's right. You can only call Lurking Shrikes as normal monsters once you have selected a second monster race. You can then define your new monster as a boss and create several Lurking Shrikes. However, none of this helps us at the moment. Perhaps this moderator has left behind a nasty curse after all."

He fell silent and the crystal darkened as he gloomily watched the intruders.

Albus now threw his grappling hook up for the second time and managed to anchor it at the top. There were enough gaps in the bricks to find a foothold.

His colleague watched him, still leaning heavily on his staff. After a few initial anxious glances, he paid only casual attention to his surroundings. As a result, he did not see the hairy creature approaching him quickly from behind. The sound of footsteps splashing in the water was drowned out by the roar of the falling water. As Albus triumphantly turned to Arnheld with the rope securely in place, he saw the attacker behind him and shouted a warning. The Lurker grabbed the turning sewer worker and closed both long-fingered hands tightly around his neck. His cry was stifled by gasps. He lost his grip on his staff and fell to the ground under the onslaught.

<Stationary Zone of Darkness!> Malvorik had not yet been able to test his new spells and now looked disappointedly at the image of the mirror wall, where the area around the battle had turned slightly gray, but was not filled with the expected complete darkness.

<Crap! Why doesn't that work?>

"What do you mean?"

"It has become dark. You forget that you are a dungeon heart. Inside your dungeon, you have perfect darkvision. Apart from the intruders and your crystal, there are no light sources here at all. See how the guy with the staff reacts!"

Albus held his wand in a fighting stance, obviously knowing what he was doing. He not only used it to poke around in the sewers, but was also quite prepared to defend himself against the giant rats and occasional criminals roaming the sewers. Now, however, he just looked unfocused into the void and swung his staff aimlessly around in wide sweeps. The wrestling match between the dungeon monster and Arnheld could barely be heard over the rushing water and he obviously didn't want to accidentally slay his colleague. The Lurker had wrapped his short legs around the canal worker's lower body and was holding on tightly. With his injured leg on the wet and therefore slippery floor, he had no chance of getting up or shaking him off. The hands of the lurking strangler, which were made for this task, remained firmly closed around his neck. His movements were already beginning to weaken when he gave up trying to pull his hands away from his neck and instead reached into his belt to draw his dagger. The short blade dug into the strangler's side. His fur and muscles protected him from the blows, but he had nothing to offer against the steel. One hand detached itself from the neck and followed the shoulder in the darkness to the forearm, where he held his opponent. The other hand was enough to continue cutting off the air supply through the neck. The free fist struck the monster without aim, becoming weaker and weaker, which it stubbornly ignored.

Malvorik's crystal lit up hopefully as Arnheld's movements slackened and he went limp. The Lurker let out a triumphant growl. In the next moment, the oak staff thundered against the Lurker's skull, sweeping him from his victim. Albus had abandoned all caution and swept through the room with sweeping blind swings. Now that his hit had given him a target, he continued to strike. The Lurker remained lying on the ground, blinking dazedly. Once, twice, the wand passed through the air above him as Albus slowly approached.

"No, but you could take possession of the Lurker and control it. Have I explained that in more detail? Probably not. It usually only comes up in the second year. When a normal dungeon heart starts to understand simple sentences." She ruffled her long hair. "You're messing up the whole training plan I learned."

"Exactly! So, here's how it works..."

He interrupted her: <I haven't had a fight since I was a kid. I seem to remember that I wasn't particularly successful even then. I've been a scholar all my life, not a warrior. Do you really think I can handle the strangler's body better than he can? Even with the advantage of being able to see something?>

"Crap. Maybe there's a reason why Golgoroth usually uses psychopathic killers after all."

The strangler crouched up and tried to get close to his opponent, but was almost immediately hit in the arm.

The two watched in the mirror as the strangler took another heavy blow that sent two teeth flying off in a high arc. Blood seeped from the burst lip and disappeared down the neck, into the thin fur.

<Ok, that's enough now. I don't have much, but then I'll just use this>

One thought was enough to lift the darkness that hindered his Lurker more than the intruder. Albus flinched for a moment, blinded.

Albus whirled the wand around in the middle as something pulled on his boot. Not so strong that it would normally have done anything, but on the slippery stone floor it was enough to throw him off balance. Reflexively, he braced the staff backwards at an angle to catch himself.

The spell knocked the tip of the staff aside. Once again, the smooth floor aided the effect. The canal worker fell to the ground, flailing wildly with the staff. Splashing, he tried to get to his feet again, but the strangler threw himself at him with his full weight and took him in a chokehold. The wand was no longer of any use to Albus in direct hand-to-hand combat. He dropped it and tried to get his hands off his neck. In vain. He punched the Lurker in the face, in the sides, kicked it in the crotch with his knee. Nothing elicited so much as a grunt from the monster. Here it was in its element. The blows became weaker, the wriggling of the legs stopped. The strangler did not let up until the last bit of life had been drained from his victim. Only then did he open his hands, stand up and let out a muffled roar of victory. The only sound the monster had made so far.

Bonus! First victory in the dungeon: 100 XP
Opponent defeated:
Simple worker level 2: 10 XP: 60% = 4 XP
Simple worker level 5: 25 XP

Undistributed XP: 129

Missing points to the next level:
Dungeon Master 300 / Mage 300

Prey Analyzed:
2x helmet (enchanted with permanent light)

Artifact analysis successful:

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Spell learned: Permanent light (level 2)

2x simple clothing, 2x leather boots (waist-high, waterproof), 2x simple stick, stonemason's tool, shovel, throwing hook, rope, climbing hook

"Have you actually got rid of the water ingress yet?"

Mana capacity (current: 0/ maximum: 40/ temporary: 129)

"You just discovered a temporary mana supply, didn't you?" The dungeon fairy sounded smug to see him surprised.

<Yes. What exactly is that all about?>

"For every point of experience, you also get one point of temporary mana once the battle is over. Even beyond your usual maximum limit. The temporary mana evaporates again after an hour. So you should use it up quickly."

The dungeon heart turned its attention to the hole from which the brackish, stinking broth was still flowing.

On the mirrored wall, he created a precise sketch of the dungeon from glowing lines in alignment dot perspective.

The dungeon fairy looked at the sketch with interest: "What are those strange worms growing out of the top?"

"Wait a minute! You can't just take over the existing tunnels!"

<However, it works perfectly. I also lowered the ceiling of the top floor at the overlapping points and restored it. Soon you can't tell the difference. Now I'm following the tunnels upwards.>

"No, I mean, that's not how it works. You take over an area and create your own tunnels. You don't just take over existing areas.>

"The dead and abandoned city of Manavgatt."

"Quicker into trouble, you mean."

The crystal flashed indignantly: <What is it now?>

"What do you have? More intruders?"

"You have opened your dungeon to visitors. From now on, you can no longer close it permanently. Create a ladder or spiral staircase up the side of the tunnel. Then build a hidden door and close the tunnel. The entrance may be hidden and secured, but it must be able to be opened by level 1 heroes."

Malvorik nodded mentally and set to work.

<I'd better install a lockable corridor here too. Access to my heart room is then hidden and the obvious passageway is blocked. Instead, a secret passage opens up, which is not so easy to find. This means that the path to my heart room is open, but the heroes have to find the new path or remove the obstacle first. This buys me some time for preparations in an emergency.>

Shortly before the heart chamber, a structure formed around the corridor.

"What is it exactly? I can't see it exactly."

<Wait, I'll color one part slightly reddish.>

"A block of dungeon stone that falls down to block the passage? Good idea, but why is the trigger a lever in the middle of a small empty area in the rock? How is that supposed to be triggered?"

"But you can't move the lever if there are already intruders nearby. People block your changes to the dungeon in the entire area. The more there are, the wider the effect."

Selvara stared at the crystal: "You can't do that! You're bypassing one of the most important restrictions of dungeon hearts!"

<You didn't mind earlier when it saved our asses>.

"I haven't understood what that means yet. The adventurers' guilds will send us dungeon killers before I've finished setting up my own room."

An archway the size of the fairy appeared halfway up the wall, with a small ledge to land on in front of it. The door itself was a massive piece of dungeon stone that revolved around a central axis.

The fairy looked around the room. With a ceiling height of two meters, it was a little too high for her, but Malvorik had built a stone gallery halfway up, covered the floor with a plain grey-green wool carpet, created a bed, a chair and a table and removed the previous stone furnishings.

"You've obviously never looked closely at chairs in your life."

<Maybe the next canal workers will have one with them,> quipped the dungeon heart. Then it paused: <Shame. My mana is almost gone. Dungeon stone costs more mana than anything else. Now it's going to take a long time to extend my influence along the corridor.>

"Is there nothing alive up there?"

<Just a few rats>.

"Grab them with traps or the strangler. Even a rat will give you XP or at least a few MP."

<Let's see... I don't have any spring steel. Oak wood doesn't bend very well. How am I supposed to build a rat trap with it?>

"Just start with the good old standard: A pitfall trap."

The dungeon heart called up the list of his previous construction sketches for traps via the dungeon status screen. He had not yet selected one, but dared to construct one without a template. A pit trap with a thin layer of stone on top and stone spikes at the bottom. Shouldn't be a problem.

It took him a moment to work it all out. Then, just after the start of the tunnel to his new entrance, he formed a six-step deep pit, the bottom of which was densely covered with fine needles of stone. The stone ceiling was just thick enough to support itself. As bait, he created a few chunks of the flesh of his two victims. He had to make an effort to see it simply as meat and not think too much about its origin. He started at the outermost area to which he had extended his dungeon. Then he made a trail across the pit.

It only took two hours for the first rat to follow the smell of fresh blood. It greedily devoured the first bait and ran to the next one. The thin stone ceiling above the pit collapsed. Surprised, the rat jumped off. As piece after piece of the stone ceiling crumbled down, it took three leaps to safety. Now on the safe side, it gorged itself with relish on the last piece of bait.

Lightning flashed across the rat's body and it flinched spasmodically. Dazed, but far from dead, it looked around for the source of the attack, its head swiveling wildly back and forth.

The rest of the meat moved towards the rat and pushed it backwards a little. Before it could regain consciousness, it fell through one of the holes in the floor. A protesting squeak sounded before it hit the ground and was pierced by numerous stone needles.

Intruder defeated: Rat (common): 0 XP, 5MP

<Crap. I used more mana for the spells than the rat brought in. It doesn't work that way.>

Malvorik waited three hours to increase his mana supply and reshaped the lid of the trap. The holes disappeared and the stone slab became much thicker. Then he formed round protrusions on both sides, which disappeared into precisely fitting recesses. He removed the connection to the edge on all sides. With a few adjustments, he had aligned it so that it was almost perfectly balanced. With a slight overweight on the side further inside the dungeon and an edge that prevented the plate from snapping upwards on the other side.

He used the last of his mana to create a few baits again and waited. This time, several rats came running at once. The smell of the last bait had already lured them close. The first one had barely crossed the center of the moving plate when it began to tip over. The first rat ran forward, jumping in panic, then a second one tapped on the slab, shifting the center of gravity back again. The stone slab tipped back up and the first rat jumped off the trap and grabbed the bait. Two more ran happily to it. The stone slab wobbled a few times, but only one slow straggler, which wouldn't have gotten any more of the bait anyway, actually fell down.

"Rats." Selvara managed to put a completely disproportionate amount of contempt into that one word. "You're being conquered by some rats right now. Can we talk again about how I've told you several times that you build a proper dungeon before you expand your terrain this much? Full of traps, obstacles and monsters? But no, you wanted a bunch of empty rooms so you could get to the top as quickly as possible. You have no more traps and no mana. So you can't even conjure up your magic hand to trigger the emergency door. If that would work at all. Depending on whether the World Voice considers your dungeon open by now or if this all still counts as intruders before the opening."

"If so, you can never completely close your dungeon access again. It doesn't matter. They just ran past it. You're dead."

Malvorik watched the rats as they scurried through the corridors further into his dungeon.

<I'm not worried about that. My crystal body floats almost two steps above the ground, they can't get to me.>

The fairy stroked the crystal with her hand and then flew to the small ledge at the entrance to her own room. While she could already hear the clattering footsteps on the stone floor with her sharp ears, she pulled the door shut behind her and slid the bolt forward. She walked the few meters through the deliberately narrow corridor into her room and threw herself onto her bed. A stone box with several layers of fabric. Not comfortable, but nice enough. "Think about putting a mirrored wall in this room later. I can't see anything at all from here. "

"What, the ceiling of my bedroom is made of a mirror? What were you thinking? And why can't I see that? The ceiling is just smooth."

We really should install lighting everywhere. The crystal's view of his heart room from high above filled the ceiling in one fell swoop and lit up the room.

The crystal began to shimmer slightly pink <You're right. I wasn't thinking. It was a crazy idea. Remind me to change it to a mirrored wall. Or a small wall mirror.>

The fairy stretched out on her back on the bed and stretched out: "Oh, you know, I actually like it. I also keep forgetting that we both have dark vision. Without light in my room, there are no reflections either. But this way I can watch you in comfort. We can leave it. Let's see how long it takes you to get rid of the rats."

The little beasts jumped wildly through the mostly empty room. They looked around, sniffed. Then the first one leapt purposefully upwards towards the dungeon crystal. It got a little over a step up, then dropped to the ground, caught itself with its paws on the stone floor and turned around for the next attempt. The second one followed suit.

"They are attracted to your magic. They probably have a spark of magic in them too. They instinctively sense that you are a source of power. It won't be pleasant, but if one catches you, it can devour you. This separates you from your dungeon and makes you mobile. Your crystal disappears and your magic is transferred to the rat. I can't wait to see what it mutates into. Your crystal size is already quite high, but you're completely empty in terms of mana. It's a good thing they can't jump high enough. Otherwise you'd be the first dungeon heart to be eaten by a rat."

"You should keep that to yourself. It's not common knowledge. A few more levels of crystal growth and you'll be too big to be eaten by most creatures. At the first levels you grow only a little, later you grow much more. At level 20, you'll be as big as a child's head."

A rat stopped and looked around the room carefully for the first time. Then it ran towards the wall and skilfully jumped to the small landing platform in front of Selvara's door. From there, it flew in a high arc towards the crystal.

<No! NoNoNo... Gone. Gods, that was close.> His voice calmed down, but immediately became louder again when the second rat also started to use the small balcony as a springboard. <Leave that! Shoe! Don't you hear?>

"The creatures are not intelligent and not magical. They can't hear your voice of thought. How long will it be before you can kill them with your lightning spell?"

The second rat flew towards the crystal and stretched out its paw towards it. The claws scraped across the facets. For a moment, it looked as if it would manage to hold on. Then it slipped completely and fell off.

"Malvorik, I think we should dissolve our pact. As long as the pact is valid, we will die together. If we break the pact, a portal to Golgoroth's fairy realm will form after your death, through which I can escape." She hesitated, then added more quietly, "I'm sorry I couldn't be more supportive."

Dungeon fairy Selvara suggests pact dissolution.

Accept Yes/ No?

<Wait a few more heartbeats>.

"Why? A few more tries and they'll have you. Do you think the air down here is so bad that the rats might just die? If so, I have to disappoint you. Outside of specially created traps, the air is breathable everywhere in the world. One of the laws of the gods of creation."

<Wait... wait... there!>

Selvara looked at her ceiling mirror. The rats could still be seen there, slowly finding a rhythm as they leapt to the landing platform and from there to the dungeon heart. One of the rats stopped for a moment to aim at the platform. Without warning, a staff descended from out of sight and broke its spine. The strangler came into view, skillfully spun the staff around and took aim at the second rat.

The dungeon fairy moved closer to the mirror and tilted her head: "Did I miss something?"

<Yes, after defeating a clearly superior opponent, the Shrike went up a level. Seems to work differently for monsters than for humans. But I'm sure you know that. He got to pick a weapon skill with a simple weapon. I took staff combat. Conveniently, I still had two of them lying around.>

"The last rat got him! Look, it's bitten into his left foot!"

Standing on his left leg, the strangler grabbed the rat with his right foot with an iron grip, under which it quickly breathed its last.

"Now he can choke with his feet too?"

"Take care of him. He has a monster heart and can therefore be resummoned with all his memories and skills intact after death. But theres always a chance a revenant just steals the coin and leaves. Then he's gone for good. Without the coin, you get a new monster that starts from scratch again."

The crystal flashed enthusiastically: <That was one of the biggest puzzles that dungeon research has so far failed to solve. Now I finally understand why it's bad luck to take monster coins from the dungeon. Until now, no one understood why dungeons create these coins and then react extremely aggressively when a hero takes it away.>

Selvara nodded seriously, "Imagine heroes defeating a boss that has protected you for a hundred years. These monsters also have a personality and have practically become friends and companions to their dungeon hearts. Very few dungeons take this lightly and start over without comment, but most will go out of their way to stop the hero with the coin. Golgoroth also allows a very generous interpretation of dungeon etiquette in such cases. Whole groups of heroes have been torn apart by completely over-the-top monster hordes before they even understood what was going on."

<Wouldn't it be fair to include a warning here?>

"A fairly effective method is to place a container with glowing runes at the exit of the floor. Above it is an engraving of the monster coin and an arrow pointing down into the container. Anyone who throws a monster coin into it will receive special loot. Gold or an artifact adapted to the giver."

"Probably a secret that the heroes have deliberately kept to themselves. But back to the topic: all you have to do now is analyze a few rats, then you can create rats as mana constructs and use them as monsters."

"If you can talk to rats."

"Or if you have magical abilities that allow you to enslave ordinary monsters."

"A featfor dungeon masters. From level 8 I think. But you can also mix constructs and normal rats and sic them on your opponents as a swarm. That usually works quite well."

"What's going on? More attackers?"

<I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. There was a bat. Luckily, it was small enough to finish it off with a shock spell.>

"Oh by Golgoroth! Bats! We are lost!"

<What? No. They're harmless. I just really want something that can see in the dark. For chimera building.>

The fairy put her hands in front of her face: "And I thought I had caught a dungeon heart that wasn't completely insane."

<I'm not... Oh, let's not go there. Do you want to help me give the dungeon a proper structure? So that everything and anything can't walk straight through to me? Please?>

"That, in a nutshell, is my life's work as a dungeon fairy. All right. Create a layer of sand here on the floor so we can make some sketches."

One wall of the heart room was covered with a dark gray smooth layer. A few pieces of white chalk appeared on the floor in front of it.

"Is that slate? Slate is perfect, of course. Where did you get the chalk?"

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