The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Tier 1

Level 3/10

Heart 14400/ 14400

Experience 1100/3600

Workers 7/19

Monsters 0/20+1

Traps 25/35+4

Rooms 45

Food 400

Timber 1403

Iron 1014

Steel 0

Charcoal 0

Mana 19

Rock 1784

Gold 2000

Leather 455

Leather Sludge 300

Lava 51

Glass 800

Explosive Runes 8

Triggered Explosive Runes 8

Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon

Quest: Get 10,000 gold

Watching his experience tick up, then level him up, excited Travis. It had trickled in at first, but then two big amounts happened, and another handful of small bursts finished it up. Then he had to wait.

"They'll be okay, Trav. Pen knows what she's doing, and from what I heard about Wild, he would be useful in a fight." Stephan sat with his back against Travis' heart. "You have a counter for how many workers you have, right?"

Travis was checking that before Stephan even finished his sentence. 7/19 was reassuring to see, and highlighted how many more kobolds he should have. "Thanks, Steph."

"Since you sound so relieved, I'm guessing things are normal?"

"Yeah, as normal as things get around here. I got another level out of whatever they've done so far, and it raised a lot of caps. More traps, more kobolds—if we can find enough to hire." Travis went searching through his menus and dug up some new options. "Hey, I can make a stoneworks—ack, lots of steel."

"Stoneworks, huh? That sounds neat. Maybe it can do something with all that rock we get?"

"And I have an entirely new upgrade set, floor-specific upgrades. Ah, the one Wild wanted, Floor Boss, needs steel too. Guess we need to start getting that. Hey, you're right. Stoneworks unlocks Worked Stone Walls that uses 1000 stone and makes it so the walls of that floor can't be tunneled through by enemies who don't have tools. Wait, things can burrow through my walls?!"

"You're asking the wrong kobold. Robert might know." In his claws, Stephan held a knife and a small wooden statue he was working on. He carved off wood as often with his claws as he did the knife.

"Well, he's asleep. I guess we just take the description as lore and keep going. Wild's floor boss upgrade is there. We can cover most of it right now, but it needs some steel." Travis browsed his menus again and eventually found what he was after. "Right, charcoal burner to make charcoal out of wood, then blacksmith to make steel from charcoal or coal and iron. Well, looks like there's more digging and tree-cutting in our future."

Stephan laughed at that and shook his head. "Joke's on you, Trav, I enjoy working in the forest. Which reminds me, I want to start planting some trees. Fast-growing things, since it seems like your system doesn't care which is used. Also, I started stretching the leather to make more beds. Should have enough for all our current kobolds, including a larger one I'm making for Wild and Luddy, and any extras for the other rooms. I also want to poke around that new kitchen. I'm sure there'll be something in there we can take advantage of."

For a goblin shaman, there wasn't much better in life than establishing a new dungeon that synergized so well with their kind. New choppers abounded, digging the dungeon out into new tunnels and mazes—and especially new rooms.

Leaning his head against the heart, Short Claws could feel the love the dungeon had for him spilling over. "And I you. I promised you we'd be better than bugs." A wave of strength poured into Short Claws. In the short time since the goblins had been part of the dungeon, it had grown two floors down and was expanding faster and faster. That was the goblin way, after all.

Power surged in his body and his ties to the heart grew more focused and strong. His mind expanded in every direction at once, growing and filling with more magic. Laughing, Short Claws reached his hand up and touched the heart again. He stood taller, felt stronger, and knew he was no longer a goblin. "Soon we'll attack that weak city. Then we kill the dragons and take their dungeon. Then we re-kill the undead and take theirs. We will swarm, mother, and we will send out many m—"

"Short Claws!" Sharp Eyes ran through the dungeon as fast as the wind, his bow slung on his back with the filth-covered arrows. "Short Claws!"

Moving to meet Sharp Eyes, Short Claws almost tripped on his new legs. His new power and height had changed his form. His legs had grown a little longer, but it was mostly a more hunched-over pose now. He knew what he was—the dungeon had made him into a hobgoblin war-shaman. "What?"

"Undead are marching here! They have a lot of clanky old bones, a fleshy thing, and two green-glows." Having become a goblin scout, Sharp Eyes' mind had grown expansively too.

"Two green-glows?!"

"They had three." Baring his dirty fangs, Sharp Eyes saw pride in his leader's look.

"Good work. We need to kill the green-glows first. Get Axer and flank them. Take some orcs too." Short Claws tightened his grip on his rotting staff—it was time for the rot-goblins to go to war.

"Are we going back now?" Fife asked. "If they made a push on the town, they could press their advantage on the dungeon."

"No. Trav sent us to deal with this, we deal with it. Push on to the town and we'll deal with their forces from behind." Penelope looked at Timothy, the guard from Northridge that had alerted them, and raised an eyeridge. "What are the chances the town held out?"

"The priests were working at building a wall of holy power that would repel the undead. If they finished that, they will be holding." A little worried, because he'd expected to have all the undead just fall over if the wall was finished, Timothy's voice wavered a little.

Nodding, Penelope finished checking her daggers for chips and started off toward Northridge. Moving as they did, they didn't encounter many undead. There was a stray or two, but Katelyn and Jack were making a game out of which of them could deal with threats most effectively. She particularly liked how they compared mana-use. "We're close. Katelyn, take over dealing with all the stragglers, we'll save Jack in case there's a big group."

Brayden Smith had been about to mention something similar. He was used enough to dealing with their small group, but to him it always seemed like Penelope was one step ahead with the larger group's tactics. "We should be able to see the palisade soo—"

A rush of divine magic flared from the city ahead and a shimmering barrier slammed into place not a dozen feet ahead of them.

"Well, I guess that's our job done?" Katelyn asked. "Only, I don't want to test how that barrier treats kobolds."

Brayden nodded and looked to Penelope. "A good plan. Without knowing the exact wording used in its construction, you could be harmed greatly by such a barrier. If you want us to escort you back to the dungeon, we can, but I'd suggest letting us go report on what we saw. They owe you a debt for this."

It was hard for Penelope to do, but she focused on Travis' interests and goals. "There should be no debts between allies. Tell them to let us know if they need any assistance shoring up their defenses." She gave a nod to Brayden and turned to Ludmiller, Katelyn, and Wild. "Come on. I hate to think what would happen if they sent a necromancer along with a raiding party on our dungeon."

"Note, get my brother to add bone-eating acid to the last slime trap. That would keep most undead incursions out." Smirking, Katelyn walked alongside Penelope. "Let's go. Maybe we should run?"

A shiver ran through Wild at the idea of running with his new family. He'd been testing his new body and finding it wanting in a lot of ways, but the claws on his feet were excellent. "Yes. Let's run."

It should have been an hour's travel by foot, but at a run the group made it back to within sight of the dungeon, only to spot two necromancers working at the entrance. They all halted, out of view of the undead, and crouched low.

Leaning closer to Penelope, Katelyn asked, "Can you pull items from the dungeon's storage?"

Trying, Penelope shook her head—at which point Katelyn passed her three explosive runes. "You were holding out?"

Katelyn shrugged. "We blow up the necromancers, rush in behind the rest and sneak into the dungeon. There are eight more runes we can pull out, plus let the bony bastards walk through the maze."

Weighing up the three stones, Penelope considered giving them to Ludmiller and Wild, but both were relatively new to their bodies. "Okay. We're going with Katelyn's plan. As soon as the third one is in the air, we rush them and get those necromancers down fast. If they have a zombie, we'll try to keep away from it and rush for the dungeon."

Rolling her shoulder, Penelope held two of the runes in her left hand and the other in her right. "You ready, Katelyn?" Getting a nod, Penelope drew her arm back, aimed, and threw the first of the runes at the nearest necromancer.

The second stone was in Penelope's right hand before the first hit. A moment before she let go of it, the first explosion sounded.

Wild watched as not only did the runes explode, but Katelyn launched several of her own explosions into the necromancers. He was upright and running when the third rune exploded. Clawed hands drew out his axes and his eyes focused down to slits. One of the necromancers was nothing but a scattering of bones and dust, while the other looked to be pulling itself upright again.

Penelope could see the weight of the axes slam into the necromancer because she was only a few steps behind Wild. With Ludmiller at her side, they circled around each side of Wild and started working on the necromancer with their weapons. They were distractions at best, though, but distractions were exactly what Wild needed.

Each strike of an axe slammed into the advanced skeleton like a forge hammer on low grade iron. Pieces flew from the necromancer and, eventually, too many bones were missing for its necrotic energy to repair and it slumped to the ground like its strings had been cut.

Wild turned to the dungeon entrance and stalked toward it, his every sense focused and trying to sense what was immediately within. When he stepped his taloned feet on the stone of the entrance, he heard Travis.

"Wild's here! The others are outside! Wild, what's going on?" Travis was trying to keep his panic down. The explosions outside had surprised him, but in a good way—of all the creatures he knew, only kobolds used such explosives.

"Killed a necromancer and zombie attacking town. Two necromancers outside are gone now. Where are skeletons?" Wild squinted into the dark but couldn't see any enemies.

When Penelope, Katelyn, and Ludmiller filed in, Travis felt some semblance of elation that his defenders were home. "Take the back tunnel. The skeletons and the huge zombie things are trying to figure out the maze. Robert, Steph, and Blake are in my heart room."

"Yeah, good call. We'll let them trigger the explosive runes in the maze. Wait, how many zombies were there?" Penelope's blood ran cold when she recognized that Travis had used the plural things.

"Three."

"I wish Fife was here," Wild said as he slipped through the door last and closed it behind him.

"They didn't touch the kitchen or bar. I guess since they have a way to get down here," Travis said, "they wouldn't bother. Oh, there goes the first explosive."

"Yeah, I felt that." Penelope led the charge through the donkey's supplies and down the tunnel. When they reached the door that hid it from the maze's end, she heard a second blast. "Those are really useful for figuring out where things are."

"I know, I know," Travis said. "We need to get those lizard upgrades so I can see more consistently."

Taking the steps fast, the group reached the lower dungeon floor and raced around to dig through and slip into the safe area. Bringing the tunnel down behind them completed their trip home.

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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.