The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Tier 1

Level 2/10

Heart 6400/6400

Experience 100/1600

Workers 5/15

Monsters 0/16+1

Traps 26/25+4

Rooms 43

Food 400

Timber 1403

Iron 1014

Steel 0

Charcoal 0

Mana 50

Rock 1647

Gold 2000

Leather 455

Leather Sludge 300

Lava 51

Glass 800

Explosive Runes 10

Triggered Explosive Runes 8

Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon

Quest: Get 10,000 gold

It was very nearly a mess, and Travis hadn't had anything he could do. Right now his newest visitor and Ludmiller were talking things over together, and he was doing his best not to listen in on them while they did it.

"Are you alright, Fife?" Penelope asked.

"Yeah, yeah. The big guy didn't hit me with those things. You'd have known if he had—I'd be screaming and swearing a lot more." Fife marched over to where her gear was sitting and started pulling it on—especially her new holster and pistol. "In the future, I am wearing all my weapons and armor at the bar."

Honestly, in Travis' opinion, he couldn't blame her. "Tell her she's a guard of the dungeon and is fully warranted to wear whatever equipment she likes while here. Even if she's drunk."

Penelope relayed the words with a laugh. "And besides, this is all before the traps and stuff. If you ever need to retreat, just run down the back hall and let Trav know to fill it in behind you."

"Who's Trav?" Blake asked.

Fife started to laugh, almost to the point where she fell off her stool. "Well, that secret lasted all of one night, Pen." She looked over to where Blake was looking at them with curiosity mixed with confusion. "Trav is the best dungeon in the world. Not only doesn't he want to kick my ass, but he serves ale, too."

"Might as well tell him now, Pen. Just try not to mention where kobolds come from." Travis let out a sigh and turned his attention, briefly, to Ludmiller and Wild, who were stepping out of the room they'd been talking in. "Do you need help with anything? Does he?" he asked Ludmiller.

In the dimly lit hall designated for visitors and residents, Ludmiller smiled. "You really didn't listen in?"

"I mean, I could have. It takes real effort to not at least be aware of you, but I feel you all deserve private time."

"You never really intended me to be a prisoner, did you?" Ludmiller asked. "You wanted someone to work, but…" She sighed when Wild's big hand-paw closed on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "He wants to stay here too. I told him that might mean he'd have to become a kobold."

"One condition." Wild's voice was deep and seemed like he was trying hard not to growl—and failing. "Make me floor boss."

"What's a floor boss?" Travis asked.

"Oh, we haven't got one of those yet, have we? We have Pen, but she's the dungeon boss. You'll probably get the upgrade soon, then. It's basically a monster you dedicate to be the big-bad of a floor. They get huge bonuses when fighting on the floor they're designated to, and they usually have specific rooms just for them." Turning to look up at Wild, Ludmiller explained, "Travis hasn't gotten the option for that yet."

"Soon. Second floor. I be first floor boss when get." Wild nodded, as if it was a done deal.

Travis was taken aback. "And he's fine with that? I mean, if the option never comes up—"

"If Trav doesn't get a floor boss?" Ludmiller asked.

Shrugging his big shoulders, Wild gestured vaguely toward the entrance. "Then I hunt food."

There was a lot to think about in the deal. Travis wasn't sure about this whole floor boss thing, but he would have liked to use it as a reward for someone. Then again, he remembered the all-too-recent demonstration of Wild's brutal fighting style. "Okay. I'm fine with this. He loves you, doesn't he?"

"Y-Yeah. I don't know why, either. I got him killed." Ludmiller leaned against Wild as they walked down the hall. "The rest of my party didn't seem to care about me."

Focusing his attention on the tavern room the pair were approaching, Travis spoke to Penelope. "You're going to be needed in the core room. Wild wants to join us." He just finished when Wild and Ludmiller walked into the bar. "We came to an agreement."

Fife's hand slid down from her drink toward her sword as Wild entered. Travis didn't mind so much, not when it was her job to keep him safe.

"Well?" Brayden asked, his eyes never leaving Wild. "Is your friend our friend, Luddy?"

"Wild wants to move in. He—" Ludmiller looked at Blake and then to Penelope, a questioning look on her face. At Penelope's nod, she shrugged her shoulders. "He's okay with all of it, but wants to be the first floor boss when Trav gets the option to have one."

Wheels started to turn and gears mesh in Blake's head. The kobolds weren't just more individualized than he'd expected, they were all very different people, with an emphasis on people. He stared between each, his mind racing at this new revelation. "You have a way to turn people into kobolds!"

Penelope looked over to Robert, noticing he looked a little tired still—and more than a little hungover. "Robert, you might as well answer all his questions. No sense holding it back from him now. And, Trav, this whole gradual thing isn't going to work. We can't go a whole day without spilling it."

Leading the way down the back tunnel, Penelope noticed Fife was following their little procession. "Made up your mind too, then?" she asked.

"What? No. Just—You know me, Pen. Curiosity and all that." Fife had stopped lying to herself about how curious she was about most dungeons—and this dungeon in particular. Stray bits of information had saved her ass more times than watching something a little too long had forced her to use up her talisman.

"You sure? We could always use a kobold to clean out the donkey room. Robert normally does it, but that's because he likes the donkey." It was good clean ribbing. Penelope noticed a bright light come from behind her and knew that Fife had pulled out a light stick. "You wouldn't need that if you were a kobold."

"Look, I can't. You know Jack and Bray would be lost without a sword and board to stand up front." It was getting to be an old and well-worn argument. "And besides, how would it have been just now? Could I have stood up against the big guy for so long as a kobold?"

"No," Wild said. "Arms too short."

"Exactly! With a shield I'd have held you off, maybe, but if I was lower to the ground and had less reach—you'd just have knocked me off balance and brought a cleaver over the top of my shield."

Wild just nodded. He had enjoyed having a reasonably worthy foe, even if the fight had been short, but more of his focus was on Ludmiller beside him. When they slipped out of a hidden door, he realized the whole upper dungeon had been heavily rearranged since he'd last been in. He also noticed a familiar smell. "Runes?"

"Yeah. We have a maze around us. This tunnel comes out at the center. There are several places in the maze where Katelyn's latest little presents are hidden. These ones recharge themselves over a few days." Gesturing to the hall where the maze merges in, Penelope put her back to it and started down the stairs. "You'll remember this part, uh, Wild wasn't it?"

Wild just nodded, and nodded again to the question as he ducked to get down the stairs. The dungeon seemed far less hostile this time. Sure, he'd had a little fight with the woman upstairs, but that was before he knew Ludmiller was still alive. "Same, but different."

"Well, you probably went right last time. Down to the sludge traps. We don't go there unless we're building new traps. This way." Turning left, Penelope led the way down to the easiest link to the inner dungeon, breaking down the wall quickly and showing everyone through. "Normally, to get past all the traps like this, takes a lot of trust. I trust Luddy when she says you aren't a threat."

Ludmiller had finally worked out what had felt so strange since she'd been in the dungeon—it was not having Wild with her. The big guy wasn't just a friend, she could see that now, they were kindred spirits. The time they'd spent apart had made her life feel a little empty. Now, though, she could walk with more purpose and surety. "Are you sure, Wild? Trav would be fine with you staying here as—"

"I'm sure. You're here, I'm here." The little squeeze Ludmiller gave his hand as he said it made Wild purr just a little. He reflected on how painful two weeks without knowing if she were alive or dead had been. How much anger he'd been forced to hold back when he'd wake up at night with her scream in his head.

When Penelope opened the hidden door, Wild was impressed—it had smelled just like any other wall. But, the sight within stopped him in his tracks. The giant pink crystal could be nothing else but a dungeon heart. He dipped his head toward the heart, realizing now that the dungeon was trusting him a lot to allow him here with his weapons. "How work?"

Fife was all eyes as Penelope approached the heart and pressed her palm to it. The slow stroke of her fingers didn't seem like any kind of incantation, and Fife easily jumped to the conclusion there was more of a bond between Penelope and Travis than she'd thought. A smirk replaced her curious, blank expression.

"Hey, Trav, you up for making a new friend?" Penelope asked. She tickled his crystal with her claw tips, not leaving any marks but liking the way she imagined it felt—if his previous comments and vocal tics had told her anything.

In this one room, and this one room alone, Travis could see and hear everything going on with his own senses. He didn't need Ludmiller and Penelope's eyes and ears to watch Fife fidget and Wild stand proud. "I should ask instead if you're ready for this. You're the one who has to spill blood every time."

"Yeah, but it's you they bond to. Well, let's get this over with. Big guy, when I press my blood onto the stone, you just need to walk up and touch it. Got it?" Penelope drew one of her regular daggers and drew the edge up and under her scales on her palm.

Fife felt crazy. It was the same urge she got when she stared down a dungeon monster that was beyond her skills to defeat one on one, only to have her party members back her up and bring down—whatever it was. Her left foot moved as Penelope brought the blade along her palm.

She took two steps further when Penelope pressed her palm against the heart. Against Travis' heart. It was weird to know a dungeon's name, but Fife wanted to know more. She wanted to know what he sounded like, how he talked, and she wanted to know everything about this odd place. Reaching her hand out, she felt like she hit a wall—a kobold-shaped wall.

"Fife! What the hell?" Penelope struggled to hold Fife from advancing. Being a dungeon boss gave her strength beyond her appearance, but Fife had spent a whole lifetime training her muscles to be able to shove aside dungeon bosses and force them off balance. "Fife, stop this!"

Shaken from her daze, Fife ignored Wild stepping around her. "I need to know."

"Okay, okay. It's cool, but you need to tell me before you do, okay?" Penelope, seeing Wild pressing his hand to Travis' heart, was relieved that her friend wouldn't be able to do something inadvisable now. "Trav, are you cool for a second, uh, new employee?"

Shocked, still dealing with having his Workers stat tick up by one, Travis replied, "Sure, as long as she's okay with it. Oh, and get her party members down here. I don't want Jack or Brayden thinking we talked her into it or, worse, forced her." He paused a moment before remembering that quickly communicating between different kobolds was his job. "Robert, can you escort everyone down to my heart room? Fife wants to join up, and I don't want Brayden or Jack thinking we did something to her."

Brayden recognized the look of someone hearing a higher power. In this case the higher power was Travis, he knew, but it still reminded him of the rapturous faces some acolytes had the first time they felt their god's will. "What's up?"

"Fife trying to do something stupid. Trav is still talking to me, so this is hard to explain, but she wants to become a kobold." Holding up his talons to fend-off any accusations, Robert went on. "He wants you and Jack down there to either talk her out of it or make damn sure you don't think we're doing this to her without her full approval."

Jack burst out laughing while Brayden swore up a storm. Robert hoped that was a natural reaction and they weren't going to get angry. "Oh, Blake, you might as well come and watch if you want?"

The walk back down to the heart was filled, at least from Robert's point of view, with Travis freaking out.

"She almost just did it, too. If it weren't for Pen, Fife would have just slapped her hand on my heart and—I guess I could have denied her by not accepting the sacrifice, but still. How can an adventurer be so freakin' crazy?"

"Trav, calm down. Let Pen keep control down there and just don't agree to take Fife until her party has spoken to her." Robert glanced back at Brayden and Jack as he led the way down the stairs. "Trav is in a panic because of how Fife acted. He's trying to get away from thinking of this as capturing or something done against someone's will. Well, unless someone comes down here to attack him."

"Like you?" Jack asked.

"Like me and my sister, yeah. We came down here looking for trouble, and found it, but we both are pretty sure we got a good deal in the end." Robert checked the usual tunnel "entrance" they all used, and sure enough it was already open.

"You just leave tunnels open like this now?" Stepping through the hole, his light stick half activated, Brayden ran the fingers of his glove along the stonework.

"In an emergency, Trav can use a spell to fill them up. We could probably leave this open all the time so long as he keeps some mana in reserve for it." It didn't take much convincing for Robert to agree with his own assessment that it wasn't laziness.

When they arrived in the heart room, Jack was the first to say anything, and it was a string of curse words followed by, "There's a lot of mana in here."

The reminder that he was full jerked Travis back to his other project. "Right. Uh, let me help with that."

A rumble caught everyone off-guard. The ground didn't perceptibly shake, but everyone knew something was off. "What the hell was that?" Penelope asked.

Getting to show off, Travis couldn't help but sound excited. "A new mana shrine. It's somewhere on this floor and somewhere near where we've already dug. It's a three by three room, so it shouldn't be too tough to pin down. I'll set up some plans to find it and then we can fill-in behind. The aim would be, right now, to get as many of these going as we can so we can generate a lot of resource nodes."

"If I didn't know better," Brayden said, "I'd think you were looking to equip an army. Now, you don't have an army, so where does that leave us?"

"Trav says he'll happily equip the kingdom's army—for the right price." Penelope struggled not to laugh as she said it. "Or a church's."

"You don't have to butter me up. I'm already onboard with this. Well, maybe not this." Gesturing at Fife, Brayden asked, "Hey, Fife, what's up here?"

Fife had been staring at Travis' heart, but now she turned to look at Brayden and Jack. "You know what I'm like, Bray. I need to know this."

"Yeah, but there's no coming back from this one. Your talisman isn't going to save your ass from being a kobold."

"You think I don't know that? Come on, life's an adventure. There's always the small chance that a monster rips your talisman or some kind of weird magic stops it. We all know the odds. This is just—"

"You'll be scared to go outside alone. The sky will make you keep looking up for threats and, when you're looking up, you'll get vertigo." Robert walked over to Fife and stood beside her. "You'll be short. Pen might be tall, but that's because she's got the dungeon boss thing on her. The only place you'll truly feel comfortable is in the dungeon."

Fife's hand still itched. It was an unknown. She wanted to feel it, even if everyone was telling her to be careful. She was reminded of moths smacking themselves into lantern glass. No one had told her no, though.

Marching himself over to step between Fife and Travis' heart, Brayden reached out and put his hand on Fife's shoulder. "I'd hate to lose you as a party member, but I respect your decision—your sober decision. Trav, can you not accept Fife for a week during which she isn't to drink a single drop." Knowing Fife well enough, Brayden was already dodging the punch she was sending his way.

"You can't decide that, you—you bastard!" Fife turned back to look at the heart. "Trav, a week would—"

"Trav agrees, Fife," Penelope said. "In the last day you got so drunk you couldn't walk, and then got in a fight with—Shit, Wild?"

Looking at his talons, formerly paw-hands, Wild was astounded at the difference. From claws that had been almost useless to ones that looked like they'd make short work of rock. The voice in his head, that Ludmiller had described to him as being Travis—the dungeon, wasn't what he'd expected. The young man sounded equal parts nervous, excited, and determined. It was a unique set of traits.

Wild tried to answer Penelope, though his new mouth was different enough from his old one to make that impossible—for now. Instead of giving her a verbal reply, Wild just nodded to her.

"Wild, I'll do everything I can to get you to be floor boss, like I promised." Travis had to assume it was either going to be triggered from building up the first floor or from reaching a particular level. He was already pondering how to make the first floor have more rooms without putting anything too precious there.

"What about me?" Blake asked. "Can I—Do I need to?"

"Trav says," Penlope said, "that he needs some smart minds building up the first floor for him. You fit the smart mind bit, but having someone to implement their plans would be more useful. It's your choice, in the end."

"Listening to everything you're planning, Trav, you're going to be amazing. You'll be a cornerstone of the kingdom and will be making it and Northridge rich beyond measure. You're going to build your dungeon huge. There will be innovations in here that nowhere else in the world will achieve." Blake walked closer to the heart and reached his hand out to touch it. "I want to be part of that. I want to help you become amazing!"

Listening to Travis, Penelope walked up to his heart and cut her palm again. She only needed to smear it lightly over the huge crystal, but she liked to drag it out—to tease him a little. "Alright, Trav, do your thing."

Feeling a rush of pressure, Blake staggered back from the Heart and fell to his rear. Staring up at the glowing pink crystal, a sense of profound oneness poured over and through him. The heart seemed to grow larger as that feeling spread through his body. Scales poured over him, his bones and muscles reshaped themselves, and even his eyes and fingernails changed. It was the single biggest rush of his life. He felt connected, but not just to Travis and the dungeon, but with all the other kobolds. "Wow," he tried to say, though it just came through as a distorted yip.

Fife's eyes were as wide as saucers. She didn't so much as blink as Blake became a kobold before her. When he was done, she was focused on his muscles and form. A tail, she concluded, would make things a little odder, but she loved the way his arms seemed to cord with new muscles. "Damn you all. We have a perfectly good tavern and now I have to not drink there."