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

Selvara and Malvorik had just been engrossed in a new sketch for a labyrinth at the chalkboard. Selvara shook her head: "It's too complex and takes up far too much space. I'm sure you can achieve the same effect with a more compact design..." She felt Malvorik's attention swivel away: "What is it?"

The dungeon heart was silent for a moment and then mumbled a little confused: <Thanks?>

"What's wrong?"

<In my top level, intruders have taken up residence.>

"You mean in the second highest level of the city sewers. Tunnels that you just took over."

<You'll never leave that alone? It's logical to occupy existing structures. Anyway, you remember those mute guys who came into town through the water tunnel a few days ago? They took some other people from the city down into the sewers. Gagged and tied up. On the second level of the sewers there's an empty storage room for materials and equipment for the sewer workers. They put the prisoners on blankets on the floor and guarded them there.>

"What? When was that? Why didn't you say anything?"

<Yesterday evening. Didn't seem important to me. As long as they're dragging prisoners around, it doesn't look like they want to attack me. And since they are so far away from my core, they only shut down my construction abilities on their floor of the sewers.>

She only raised one of her tiny eyebrows.

<When I think about it... Shouldn't that have bothered me more?>

"It should have. If you were still human."

<I'm still... Well... I was...>

Selvara felt a storm of conflicting emotions from the dual bond of the faerie pact and the bond as a familiar. Unlike humans, however, dungeon hearts had a hard time sustaining emotions for long. At their core, they were logical beings.

Eventually the uproar came to a standstill and ended with a faint resignation: <Am I a monster?>

"As long as you're still asking yourself that, everything is fine. The feelings and instincts of a dungeon heart are different from those of a human. It's your job to challenge intruders who enter your dungeon. And to kill them if they are no match for your monsters and traps."

<Kill to grow. Grow to kill. The dualism of the dungeons.>

"Your poetic tendencies won't distract me from the real issue. What's going on up there?"

<The intruders have brought down six people. Two of them seem to belong together. A man and a woman of the same age, about early forties. Both plump and well-dressed. I would guess traders. Two men in their thirties, dressed in rags, undernourished, bad skin, unwashed. Probably homeless people. Then there are two men in the uniform of the city guard... Wait... They have little crescent moons embroidered on their shoulders, so they're night watchmen.>

"Is that an important difference?"

<Seems important to them. Otherwise they wouldn't have different badges, would they?>

Selvara gestured to him to continue and get to the interesting part.

<It's all right. Anyway, they were all lying around tied up and gagged. I only checked on them now and then, but there wasn't much going on. If they moaned or tried to say anything, there was a wordless blow with the end of a spear. Our intruders haven't made a sound even now. They're getting creepier and creepier. I can somehow analyze them even worse than the previous intruders. After a few hours, I was able to find a slight magical aura around them. You can't see it directly on them, but when one goes out, after ten to twenty meters I see a shimmer of communication magic in the room. If I didn't know that the intruders must be responsible for this, because there's no other magic active here except mine, I wouldn't be able to do anything with it. I also can't trace it to any of them or do anything with the structure. It's a spell I've never seen before. Not guild magic, anyway. More unformed, wild, natural. Maybe elven or druidic. Nothing happened for about a day. Earlier, they all started shaking and then rolling around. The intruders found it interesting, they all gathered around and watched. But they didn't do anything else. Then the two homeless people, the merchant and one of the city guards died.>

"Just like that?"

<Just like that. No external influence.>

"Could they have been poisoned?"

<They only got some porridge right after they arrived. Didn't seem to taste good, the invaders stuffed it into their mouths by the spoonful.>

"Maybe they're testing a poison that takes effect after a day?"

<That would be nothing new. Give me a lab and some ingredients... and, well, some arms... and I'll brew you something like this in a few hours. One that has a better result rate than just four out of six. I would have failed my students in alchemy for that... Not that we ever brewed something like that, of course. Such Alchemy was forbidden at the university. Strictly, in fact. No poisons, no drugs, nothing exciting.>

"And what did you thank for earlier?"

<I got XP. Just like that. For the level 4 merchant 16 XP. The homeless had no class and gave no XP. But the city guard, he was level 6 and gave a full 60 XP!>

"You get no XP for natural deaths... And nothing for diseases, unless you have the Plague Pool special skill."

<I've never heard of that. Please elaborate.>

"What? No. You'll hardly hear about that one either. You can only select it at Dungeon Master level 8 at the earliest. A dungeon with this feat spreads diseases via its monsters. Surviving adventurers even carry them out of the dungeon. If a dungeon is discovered that does this, it will be destroyed immediately. No matter how useful or profitable it is otherwise."

<I'm sure it will be difficult for me, but I think I can manage without this specific skill.>

"I'm glad we agree on that. But then what happened to the prisoners up there? Magic?"

<No. I would have seen it. I can't analyze the bodies as long as someone is standing in the room. If they were gone, I still wouldn't be able to dissolve them, because it would certainly be noticeable if one was suddenly missing.>

"Wait! Do you still have the automatics on?" Selvara flew up excitedly.

<I can switch the special skills off and on floor by floor. I always had the top level off. Precisely because of such treacherous functions.>

The heart crystal sparkled thoughtfully for a while. Then it became unusually cloudy. Selvara flew to it, but saw nothing unusual. "Malvorik? Are you all right? You're suddenly so quiet."

<It's nothing>.

"Are you worried about the intruders?"

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

<Not only. I just realized... Well...>

"What? Come on. You can tell me anything." She sat down a little way away on the ledge at the entrance to her room.

<It's all completely pointless. A dungeon underneath a town. What was I thinking? Well, I wasn't thinking anything. I just did what I found interesting. That can't go on for long. The intruders will find me, or one of the sewer workers, or some thief scurrying through the sewers. Then a squad of dungeon killers will come along and its over.>

"That doesn't have to happen. Maybe you'll end up as a training ground for the army or the city guard."

<Never in my life. I could undermine the city from below and make entire buildings sink into the ground. They must know that. They won't let me live. There's never been a dungeon under an inhabited city. I'm sure there's a good reason for that. Besides, all my plans for the future have not survived contact with reality.>

"What plans?"

<I wanted to learn, study, research. Exactly the subjects that I never had time for in the past or that were forbidden at the academy. But none of it works. I have no hands, no ingredients and no laboratory, so much for alchemy. To modify spells, I need spells. To learn them, I need grimoires. Which I don't have down here. I also need rare metals, exotic woods and gemstones to create magical artifacts. Three special skills completely wasted. After sixty years in a mage university with easy access to all these materials, I didn't even consider that I'd have to get by without anything but stones. Wait... Something's happening up there.>

The light of the crystal became increasingly brighter and life came into the spiritual voice.

<They're dragging the bodies away. Let's see where they take them.>

"What if they take them to the river? Then they'll walk right into your traps."

<That would be quite a long way. I wouldn't like to carry a corpse that far.>

Selvara waited nervously as the dungeon heart made its vision appear on the mirrored wall. Silent as ever, four of the intruders marched through the sewers, each with a corpse slung over their shoulder. They followed the canals to a gathering pool. There they stopped for a while and looked around. After a while, they all started moving again at the same time, walking through the knee-high water to one of the overflow shafts. One by one, they disposed of their load through the opening and walked back.

<Now those guys up there are dumping their bodies into the sewers. The drop shaft on level three. You'll never find them there again. It's just within my sphere of influence, though. Let's see what killed them.>

As soon as he had a secret to study, the heart crystal shone brighter again. Selvara waited patiently for a few heartbeats. Then she fluttered up and down excitedly: "So, what is it? Magic? Poison? A disease?"

<I... don't know...> The voice of thought seemed astonished.

"Why? Come on. You know human anatomy. So many corpses. You must have a complete pattern by now. If that were allowed, I'm sure you could create humans with ease."

<The bodies contain tiny crystals in the blood. They don't belong there. Some veins have become blocked as a result. In one person's heart, this led to a heart attack and death. In another, veins in the lungs were blocked, also fatally. It looks as if the crystal has grown there. I've never seen or heard of anything like it. By the gods! The brains are full of these crystals. A real web running through them! And the stomachs... What's that?>

"I have no idea. I've never heard of such a thing."

The dungeon heart wasn't really listening. At last, it had something truly new to investigate.

<There is a magical structure. Incomplete and disintegrating. Communication, something very complex that I don't know and anti-magic. Ooooh... Nice. With normal analysis spells, I couldn't see anything here. But it doesn't affect my dungeon vision at all. Fascinating.>

Complex diagrams and charts appeared on the walls of the heart room. Selvara didn't understand any of it, but she enjoyed the contented aura that Malvorik radiated.

Skill learned: Crystal Theory (Apprentice I)

Skill increased: Crystal Theory (Apprentice II)

Skill increased: Crystal Theory (Apprentice III)

Skill increased: Magic Theory (Apprentice II)

Skill increased: Magic Theory (Apprentice III)

The voice of the world could barely keep up with adapting the official knowledge skills to Malvorik's demonstrated knowledge. He combined his knowledge of various specialist areas, made new connections, dug out old knowledge from his memories and put it in a new order.

The dungeon fairy was unable to follow his conclusions. She stared at the sketches and notes, confused and helpless. Due to the bright sparkle of the dungeon crystal, she didn't notice another golden light appearing behind her. A cough made her move around.

In the middle of the room stood the moderator who had visited them once before. Selvara immediately dropped to her knees and bowed deeply: "Praise be to Steve!"

"Praise be to Steve." The answer sounded completely casual coming from the moderator. A formality that distracted him from his actual topic. The radiant light of his aura flickered; she had the impression that he was shaking his head.

"You two again. When I got a warning about an impossibly rapid skill increase, I immediately realized it was you again."

The sketches on the mirrored wall froze when Malvorik also noticed the presence of the moderator: <Oh... I... Did I do something wrong?>

The moderator sighed emphatically and made a few gestures in the air. Selvara quickly bowed her head. He was surely studying scriptures full of divine wisdom that were invisible to mortals. This was not meant for her.

"Your knowledge doesn't match your character skills at all. That completely confuses the increment system. I have to do something here. A partial memory wipe?"

Selvara held her breath and the heart crystal began to flicker in panic. The moderator weighed his head thoughtfully for a while, then continued: "No, too risky. That would probably destroy your mind. Would be kind of a shame."

He continued to think. His gaze was now darting back and forth between two places in his field of vision, as if he were comparing two scrolls.

"Ok. Here's what we'll do: I'll bring your knowledge skills up to where they were before you died. As soon as you're discovered, you'll only have a very short life expectancy anyway. According to the rules, your personality will then be permanently erased."

<Could we perhaps talk about this again?>

The moderator barely listened to his objection and concentrated on the world visible only to him: "So that works. Let's take the opportunity to see what synergy there is between the classes for mages and dungeon masters... Ok... Fits... Powerful, but acceptable... No. That's not possible."

Selvara had looked up curiously, and now threw herself to the ground again.

"You can use a touch spell on anyone inside your dungeon? With 400 MP you'll kill everything that moves in here. Not acceptable. I'll set it so that touch spells are only possible on enemies that touch one of your monsters or your core." The golden-glowing figure hesitated and then corrected himself: "No... That would almost amount to the same thing... Okay, we'll do it this way..." His hands made a typing gesture and then moved invisible things around until he was satisfied with the result, "That fits. So Dungeon Master Malvorik, as a Chimera Dungeon, you can now grant each new Chimera the ability to use a specific spell you know. In return, it will receive its own mana supply, which you must replenish from yours. However, you can only do this once a day. The size of the mana supply and the complexity of the spell determine the difficulty of the chimera construction and its summoning costs. You can also use all your spells when you possess one of your monsters with possession. But only using the monster's own mana supply."

He hesitated. "That's potentially quite powerful. But I think you're going to need it. I suppose I don't need to tell you not to let the whole town sink into the ground, or something similar. I'd have to intervene. A few buildings would be acceptable, but the city and especially the fortress wall are necessary for the overall plot. This is where the defensive battle against the Krigesti will take place. To make things a little fairer..." His fingers danced through the air. After a few minutes, he nodded in satisfaction, "If you take possession of a monster, you can use all your mage abilities within the dungeon. But the damage it takes is transferred to your dungeon heart in the same proportion. If it dies before you can end the possession, you die too."

Skills changed by intervention of a moderator:

Magic Theory (Master IV), History (Master IV), Spell Control (Master II), Alchemy (Master II), Artifact Enchantment (Journeyman V), Herb Lore (Journeyman IV), Rock Lore (Layman III), Weapon Lore (Layman III), Armor Lore (Layman II)

<Yes! I feel great. Complete. I hadn't even realized what I was missing. Thank you!>

"You'd better not thank me yet. That won't make it any better. You only have more to lose now. The next world event starts soon. Mulnirsheim has about 50,000 inhabitants. The same number of heroes will appear there again soon. They will open stores, search the surrounding area for materials for their respective crafts and for brewing elixirs. They will trade, hunt and steal. Do you know what they will be looking for the most?"

<Quests?>

The moderator hesitated briefly: "Well, that too, of course. But I meant dungeons. If there's even a rumor that you exist..."

<Will they overrun the sewers, find me, destroy me and steal my crystal?>

"This is not a challenge you can pass. We will therefore not pass it off as a quest. Nemesis will not scatter clues to your location. Bardic knowledge will not provide rumors about you. There will be no visions for psychics. But that doesn't mean your activities won't have consequences. You certainly don't want to hide down here forever. You will interact with the outside world at some point. You'll leave traces. Then they'll get you."

The crystal dimmed for a moment, then lit up all the brighter: <Challenge accepted.>