Manual Not Included (Dungeon Building, LitRPG, Isekai)

It wasn't the first time Lacey had woken to alarms and a red dungeon, but this time Colt's tone wasn't soothing. It was clipped and demanding. Her sleep-muddled mind didn't quite understand what he was saying yet, but he was stressed. The alarms were in her head, but Colt's snapping voice wasn't.

"You were right, Lacey," Colt's clipped voice came out a little too loud. "Get up, fast. Sorry."

That woke her as quickly as the word bacon had woken him. Lacey was already sliding down off the upper bunk to Colt's bunk underneath. She tugged on her jeans and t-shirt, then got to work on her boots and leathers as Colt filled her in.

"Hughe's back, but not with the normal group," Colt snapped out, tapping on the pedestal.

"Fighter, level 26," the system said, and Lacey's eyes widened. "Thief, level 24. Cleric, level 26."

"We aren't calibrated for adventurers that high," Lacey huffed out like the system's revelation had driven the breath from her lungs.

"There are only three of them and Hughe," Colt blew out a breath and threw up his hands. "But that Thief is the real problem. He blew through all our locks on level one like they were made of paper."

"How deep are they?" Lacey hopped, trying to get one of her boots all the way on while walking to the pedestal to see the damage.

"They just got through level three," Colt growled out the apology that Lacey brushed off. She didn't blame Colt.

Lacey got to the pedestal in time to see the fighter treat the level four beetles on level three like they were the baby beetles on level one. Hughe and his party had barely gotten through half of level six, and that had taken them four hours to accomplish. They were only that fast because the mage had a new spell that set fire to half the beetles in the room. The fighter took on the beetles while the rogue picked the locks. The cleric poked at the puzzles that Hughe's group never did figure out. The cleric was decoding the puzzle panels like he spoke the language, pocketing the small chests at each door.

"They figured out the treasure panels," Lacey whispered, her mind unable to process so quickly what was happening.

"The cleric looked up sometime during the first floor," Colt admitted. "I had just gotten to the pedestal. I thought it was just Hughe's group coming in late and didn't want to wake you up if it was just a rerun of yesterday."

"Makes sense," Lacey said, and Colt's shoulders relaxed. "All we can do is watch anyway."

It was true. The pedestal was locked as the team picked Hughe up off the floor and dragged him to the next room where they threw him in a corner and proceeded to tear through that room the same way they had the previous one.

"Hughe was protesting all through the first level, I think," Colt waved at Hughe's crumpled form.

"Fighter, level six, damaged," the system announced as Lacey tapped Hughe.

Hughe looked like he had a black eye with his normal ego tucked between his legs.

"What could have happened?" Colt stood behind Lacey, running his hands through his hair.

"We can only speculate," Lacey remained calm. She had to. They had a deal. When Lacey was crazy, Colt calmed her down. When Colt lost his shit, Lacey was supposed to be the reasonable one. Lacey didn't feel calm, but she could look it for Colt. "And speculating doesn't help."

Lacey slid the screen to where the elite goblin squad were lackadaisically guarding the 13th level. They wouldn't get the alarm that the upper levels were being decimated until the small scout saw someone enter the 12th level. Would the scout be fast enough to warn them? Would it help? The elite squad was still only on par with Hughe's group and Hughe was helpless against these higher levels.

"Nothing helps," Colt curled up his fists as the team tore through another whole level.

Ideas of what they could have done differently were racing through both their minds as they watched two more levels get slaughtered without a scratch on any of these higher-level adventurers. They were ideas that might not help now, but they would help in the future. They'd gotten complacent with a routine. This was what happened when a person got complacent.

"What's the purpose?" Lacey questioned out loud, trying to work it out. "They can't be getting any experience. Why delve into a dungeon that can't help you at all?"

"Just power-soaked, ego-driven sadists?" Colt ranted, and Lacey discarded the idea immediately.

"Speculation," Lacey lectured herself for it as much as Colt.

There were over a hundred goblins out there behind that measly elite squad. They would be just as easily mowed down as the beetles were. The beetles weren't a great loss, but the goblins would be. Lacey's nerves got the better of her and she worried at the skin around her nails. Another level fell as Colt began to pace.

Lacey began to think further along those lines. Mow down the baby dungeon, dragging Hughe with them. Were they intent on a dungeon wipe? Could the dungeon change ownership? Would that be worse or better than having Hughe own them? At least they'd had the chance to set up a dungeon that showed well. The cleric was getting the puzzles. The thief was having to pick a ton of locks, and the fighter was seeing that the dungeon had teeth and challenges. While Lacey didn't like the thought of anyone owning their dungeon, maybe high leveled adventurers would bring in more treasure and more than just Hughe's party.

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Lacey banged her hand on the pedestal. If the stupid thing was unlocked, they might know what would happen when those people made it all the way down to their control center. Lacey had set up a surprise for level 13, but would it turn away adventurers this high?

The adventurers hit level 12 and Lacey found herself holding her breath. Colt had stopped pacing to stand and watch over her shoulder. The scout goblin had been doing his job. He'd been watching through a small hole in the wall of the following room as the adventurers lowered into a room full of ten level eight beetles and began to mow through them like paper. The goblin scout had scurried almost immediately for the elite goblin team.

The adventurers were through the third of five rooms on the 12th floor when the elite team retreated as they should to the 13th floor. Everyone on the elite goblin team scurried right past the 13th floor to the floor beneath and as fast as they could to the lower levels. Everyone but Adam. Adam stood at the fuse and waited.

There was crashing and much destruction as the fighter ran out of monsters to destroy and began to tear apart empty rooms. Mostly empty rooms. The cleric was no longer looking for puzzles. The thief was disarming most of the pit traps Lacey had installed in the rooms. The thief missed a spiked log but dodged the damage from it. Hughe didn't warn them about the double pit trap until they threw him over one of the pits, and Lacey tried to think better of him for it.

Lacey felt proud of her traps, almost all of which she'd peppered all along the 13th floor. The thief was jumping, the cleric looked like he was swearing, and the fighter was finally scowling. The cleric put out the flaming log, but at least it singed his perfect robes. Unfortunately, that was the only damage the traps of the 13th floor did before Adam boldly met the gaze of the fighter charging in the second to last room on the 13th floor.

The fighter took a stance and gave a wild grin. The thief rolled his eyes. The cleric was still brushing at his robes like a simple mend spell wouldn't repair the damage. Adam pulled the plug, his beady little red eyes gleaming with fanatical satisfaction. Liquid rushed into the 13th floor in a wave that was bigger than Lacey had figured it would be.

"Is that water?" Colt watched curiously, as he hadn't been aware of Lacey's final failsafe mechanism.

"No," Lacey answered.

The fighter laughed as he chopped the head off of Adam and the liquid lapped up to their calves. Colt winced, even though they both knew they'd have Adam back soon enough.

"What is it?"

"Moonshine," Lacey answered as the wave finally reached the last room. None of these rooms had had the automatically closing doors, nor had the doors even been locked.

The moonshine lapped up to a single torch that lay on the floor of the first room on the 13th floor. The liquid wasn't much more than the fuse and the vehicle. Adam had pulled another plug out long before he'd let the liquid out. The reason stills explode isn't the actual liquor being produced, but rather because of the ethanol gas that leaks out of the mechanism and then is lit by the heating mechanism. As the liquid filled the pits, the gas took up more and more of the level, a level Lacey had sealed with a mix of bat guano and tree sap that was surprisingly waterproof.

Still, it was more of an explosion than Lacey expected. The fire not only burned up the adventurers, who were still alive after the initial fiery explosion somehow, but the heat had expanded the walls and ceiling of the level. That expansion caused the supports for the level, which were already weakened by the fire, to fall. The cave-in rocked the dungeon twice as hard as the initial explosion.

"Incursion wipe summary," the voice of the pedestal announced, the red lights changing to blue. "4 adventurers slain, two levels destroyed, 11 levels damaged, 42 traps destroyed, 128 beetles destroyed, two goblin fatalities, 59 rooms looted (loot returned), dungeon reset in progress."