The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Tier 2

Level 23/100

Heart 1,904,400/1,904,400

Experience 27,521/476,100

Workers 27/139

Monsters 9/141

Traps 118/339

Food 6,349

Timber 7,322

Iron 2,292

Steel 905

Mithril 922

Mithril Ore 0

Adamantine 917

Adamantine Ore 0

Charcoal 3,658

Mana 3,965

Rock 1,293

Gold 6,057

Leather 216

Leather Sludge 215

Lava 501

Ice 10

Glass 483

Explosive Runes 30

Triggered Explosive Runes 0

Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0

Long Guns 30

Bullets 400

Black Powder 400

Poison, Greater 500

Deadly Scorpion Venom 76

Sulfur 708

Quest: Kill the boss of another dungeon.

Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 27/66 | Monsters 9/67 | Traps 118/162

Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.

It was dawn on the third day after the enemy had started pulling back. Travis would have been happy to let the army withdraw and not bother them, but Brolly had told him the army would only go and harass another village or city, or face the kingdom's army, with that extra strength. So he let Fife, Tannyr, and Ludmiller continue to do their things.

Fife, of course, wasn't allowed too far from the entrance. Travis had needed a little digging done and he wanted to have her ready to deal with any monsters discovered. In the three days, though, nothing had been found while they linked up a small group of resources.

There were a few discrepancies he'd noticed over the previous days that only came to light when he had a good look around. Left alone for three days, his mana had shot up at a crazy rate, and he found out he had the Magic Academy to thank for that. It gave a boost to his maximum mana and the rate.

He finished the current research project, Dungeon Soldiers, and that unlocked the Soldier class. He immediately switched the research to Helping Hands, which would let friendly non-dungeon creatures gain bonuses as if they were his creatures.

All the mithril and adamantine ore had been smelted and turned into usable metal. He'd gotten Jack to make him some ice, at last, and then left the thermodynamics-defying water phase in a warehouse… somewhere.

The last secret Travis uncovered was where the missing quest reward had gone. There was a list of three buildings, each of them being described as External. "Katelyn! Katelyn! Katelyn!" Travis found her in the Trap Factory. "Oh, uh, what are you working on?"

"Teleporting trap. I was talking to Kelvin about higher level dungeons, asking him about some of their unique traps. This one, apparently, teleports adventurers to the entrance." Giggling, Katelyn adjusted a golden piece of equipment on the bench. "And I know we're not exactly seeing much in the way of adventurers delving us, but it would provide an instant exit for anyone."

The concept wasn't a hard one to figure out. The trap was meant to be put after a series of other traps, to force a party to go through them multiple times. Using it as quick transport was something Travis was kicking himself for not thinking of in advance—then he had to remind himself that he didn't know about them in advance. "That's a great idea. Those'd be really handy for getting around—but there was something else I wanted to talk to you about.

"There are three external buildings we can construct. As far as I can tell, we only get one. One is a Fortress, one is to make an entrance hard to find, and the final one is a Wizard Tower." Travis felt a jolt of glee when Katelyn sharply inhaled. "I take it you have a preference?"

"You big dummy. Of course I do. Do you know what each does?"

"A Fortress removes the usual penalties for dungeon monsters fighting outside and it counts as a boss room, plus it's a fortress." Travis left it at that until Katelyn looked about to explode demanding the next one. "Hidden Entrance gives an extra entrance, so I assume if you use it on an existing one, it hides that. And the Wizard Tower, which provides bonuses to magic users and doubles mana regeneration."

"Huh. No detailed bonuses? How much is it?"

Travis warmed to the topic, hearing the joy start to mount in Katelyn's voice. "That's the thing. After Astrid was sent to our jail, I got a quest completed, but I couldn't figure out what it gave me. Turns out, I can have any one of these three for free. I still want to discuss this with Northridge and the council, but I'd like to plant a wizard tower in the city. For one thing, if this synergizes with some upcoming research, it could—"

"Helping Hands!" Stumbling sideways, Katelyn sat down on a stool beside her workbench and just stared blankly ahead. "Friendly, non-dungeon creatures can gain bonuses as if they were dungeon creatures. Travis, you'd supercharge every magic user in the city!"

"Yeah, that was the thought. Do you think Northridge would go for it? I have no idea what it will do to our little outcropping of wall."

Turning his attention outside the dungeon, Travis tried to focus on his memory of Northridge. "I need your counsel and permission."

Northridge had spent its time reassuring its population with small morale buffs. Many homes had been ruined, but many had been saved and the disparity was going to take work from everyone to correct. "Yes, Dungeon Travis?"

That it appended "Dungeon" to his name was a minor issue to Travis. He was simply relieved Northridge stood behind its word and seemed friendly. "I have several projects I'm working on, one being that I can place a Wizard Tower. It will enhance all my magic users and give me much more power to expend too."

"I sense there is more?"

"Yeah. You might not know, but there are two people, a smith and an adventurer, who have bonded themselves to me. They can get all the benefits of being members of my dungeon including far easier crafting for the smith and greatly expanded mana for the cleric. My next upgrade will allow anyone not specifically an enemy of mine to gain those boosts. The wizard tower may affect the entire city's population."

"That would be a great boon for those of divine faiths and worshipers of arcane power both." Northridge, after spending some time talking with Travis and the other, nameless dungeon, had found itself not using language to its best ability. With a bookstore in the town, it had sought to and had invested power with the keeper of the tomes—and its vocabulary and diction had been improving ever since. It even knew what vocabulary and diction meant, now. "What would be the consequences should it not go to plan?"

"Then you get a wizard tower sticking out of the side of you that you have already relegated to being where we dungeons are. There are two more options for this. The first would be to place a fortress somewhere. Potentially near the rot dungeon would be my choice for that. That way I could help contain the goblins, continue to grow from them, and provide a safe place for adventurers to head out from to attack them.

"The second is the opposite. A hidden entrance somewhere. I doubt that would be at all useful for the future we're planning. I don't want to us to hide—I want us to be strong together." Travis was almost panting as he finalized his thoughts.

"A fortress on the road leading to Far Reach would be a far better use than the goblins. It would certainly shorten our supply lines and result in this kind of siege being almost impossible. You have mentioned trains in our past conversations, and hearing those discussed, I would very much like any railway area far from the city—but instantly accessible." The plans were, indeed, far in the future, but Northridge was starting to look forward to a time when they weren't at risk of being destroyed on any given day. It had been watching the northerners packing up and leaving, and if it could have given them a shove—it would have.

The words carried a lot of interest and weight, but ultimately Travis didn't see a point to wasting such a boon on a hardened location when they wouldn't need one that would take any serious assault. He just didn't see it offsetting every magic user being more powerful. "We already have that forest entrance I made that could be built out for that. It's close to my city exit, and it isn't like we cannot pool our resources to make a fortress there the old fashioned way. A boost to our magic users would be a benefit every single day that a spell is cast within your walls."

"Our walls. You have defended them as much as I," Northridge said. "But that is a good point. I have notified my council, if they do not protest within a day, consider them as approving too."

"Breeze."

The word was soft and whispered to Travis' thoughts like its namesake. It took him a few moments to realize the origin was the verdant dungeon. "Hey, uh, is that your name?" In answer he got approval, as a raw emotion, coiling around the word. "Got it. Did Breath of Spring help you pick it out? It's nice."

A shower of giggling, happy emotion poured from her, but still weak. Travis tried to reach back with the same, but barely managed a fraction of Breeze's ability. "Do you have any other words?" A touch of sadness, but otherwise it wasn't hard for him to figure out that Breeze would take time to develop more than the muteness it had evidenced so far. "Do you need more food?"

Travis got an overwhelming sense of yes from Breeze. "Okay, well, send me some bunnies when you can, but otherwise…" His delves into Breeze had been giving food at a double rate compared to the undead dungeon, so he knew he had a lot to spare. Fifty thousand food was transferred from his buffer to Breeze. "Does that help?"

The deluge of happy emotions from Breeze was like a warm rain in spring. Travis laughed and thanked it. "You really don't have to. We're all working together. If one of us lags behind, the others can support them."

Travis didn't think he needed to tell Breeze that it getting more floors meant he got more resources. He only wished he could figure out a way to build floors as numerous as it did. "They did? She did? He did? Life is getting more complicated after the army leaves."

It had taken two weeks in total to get her army out and get them moving.

Hilda kept near the rear of their line as the final withdrawal began. With the cunning of a city and a dungeon working together, she wanted no surprises from the rear. As with any other time you try to move over fifteen thousand people, it was a slow process and what information reached the rear was slowly sent.

When a runner rushed up to her, though, she felt her adrenaline begin to kick in. "Report!"

"A horde of green beasts! It's like the other hole opened up and spilled a wave at us!"

"Numbers? How many? If you say "countless," I'll take your throat." Already riding the wave of excitement in her body, Hilda began to jog alongside their line and, in the far distance, could hear fighting going on. "Get our bows up here."

Around her, people started moving to follow her orders. She wished again for her sister or even Astrid—both would have supported her by taking up various ancillary groups. Cresting a small hill, she saw what her column's forward squads were fighting. Huge trolls belched, coughed, and bled as they battered back spears and polearms leveled at them. Orcs in heavy armor moved in wherever her troops were pushing back, securing the line that had cut off their retreat, but behind them all were foul magic users. "Get the ballistas up here! Sight in those heretics!"

Just when she'd thought it had been one failure after another to take Northridge—this came along and reminded her that, to her people, she and all her soldiers were expendable.

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This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.