The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Tier 1

Level 5/10

Heart 40000/40000

Experience 1400/10000

Workers 9/27

Monsters 1/29

Traps 27/59

Rooms 51

Food 81

Timber 692

Iron 1304

Steel 5

Charcoal 0

Mana 80

Rock 2452

Gold 1050

Leather 432

Leather Sludge 300

Lava 50

Glass 800

Explosive Runes 5

Triggered Explosive Runes 0

Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0

Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon

Quest: Get 10,000 gold

Stuffing a wagon with seven thousand gold had been an interesting test of physics. Thankfully, with Stephan's woodworking skills, fixing the two broken wheels hadn't taken too long. "Buy a bigger wagon in Northridge," Travis told the group as they left the dungeon entrance.

It was a little frightening to see most of the stronger members of the dungeon leave. Travis, though, had a new friend who seemed a little overpowered. Turning his attention to the dull set of sensations that came from one of his mana shrines, he focused on the big slime that seemed perfectly content to live within.

He tried to ask it questions. "Are you happy here?" But the slime didn't respond. He tried meditating with it, like he had with Katelyn, but it showed no actual response. Then he decided to try something else.

"Okay, so you like mana, right?" He didn't expect an answer and he wasn't disappointed. "Okay, so I have a way to give more mana, let's see if you'll react to that." Winding up, he cast Focus Mana in the room with the shrine.

He got a response. Actually, Travis got several responses. First and foremost the slime turned a bright blue color, with ripples and waves of blue flowing through it. Second, he got an intense feeling of happiness from the odd creature and it just seemed to pulse with excitement.

"You like that, huh? Well, why don't we see about widening out these tunnels so you can roam a bit more, and I might just give you that as a daily treat. And I guess I could use it to steer you around, too. Yeah, this will work great." Travis gazed around his dungeon, looking for someone he could ask to help with this project. Robert was asleep, Wild and Ludmiller were digging in the first floor, but he spotted Blake in the library reading a book. "Blake, could you help me with something?"

Folding the book closed, Blake stood up and, just like Katelyn did, looked in the direction of Travis' heart. "What's up, Trav?"

"I want you to dig out some room for our new friendly slime. I want to give him some room to move around." There was a lizard nearby, so Travis got to watch as Blake's face grew more and more concerned as he spoke. "If it helps, I'm pretty sure he won't hurt you."

"Okay, even if he doesn't want to be friends, I think I can still figure something out. The slime needs about twenty feet of room, right?" Blake asked.

"Yeah. Pretty much three squares of space."

"Well, I guess we go see how friendly he is, then." Blake walked back to the shelves and carefully put the book of Travis' memories back where he'd found it. Marching to the spell-testing area was the quickest way to reach the slime cave. He dug through the wall there into a back tunnel, headed up past the stairs, and dug across into the tunnel between the slime and the sludge traps.

The slime was only visible because it was straddling a mana shrine, though Blake recognized more glow than normal. Walking closer, he felt a weird sort of kinship with the slime. "This could be the stupidest thing I've done for a while."

"Stupider than throwing your lot in with a dungeon?" Travis asked him.

"Probably. Hey there, big guy. Want to be friends so I can give you some more room here?" Raising his hand, Blake held it out to the slime and touched it. His hand, even his claws, pressed against the surface of the slime and just rested there. He could feel, just as Travis had, the slime's simple emotions of curiosity, happiness, and excitement. "Aww, you just want to be friends, don't you?"

The slime could feel a fellow dungeon creature, it could feel the dungeon itself, and the life-giving mana that the dungeon provided. The spell, the one that had fed it so much mana it almost felt satiated, made it want to spread out and fill the entire dungeon in joy. Its new friend, it realized, was here to help.

While the nice kobold worked, the slime soaked up more and more mana until the dungeon's spell ended. When one of the passages that led into its home was dug out enough that it could move, it did so, gliding over the floor and picking up every stray rock or grain of sand, cleaning it of all organic matter, then dropping it again.

"You're not so bad." Working away, digging out the tunnel area but making sure that anyone coming through would still have to face the slime, Blake kept up a steady stream of calm words. The slime seemed to keep back a little, giving him room while also keeping relatively close. "Okay, that's one side."

The slime pressed all the way up to Blake and for a terrified moment he felt his arm slide into it, then it slipped back out. "Oh, you really are extra-friendly, huh? Just like the dog I had when I was a kid. He'd always lick my hand so much." He patted the surface of the slime, now a little inundated by the feelings of the happy slime. "I bet there will be more undead along soon. They seem to have a thing for our dungeon."

The wagon almost didn't make it to Northridge. There was no sign of any undead, thankfully, and so with more gold than most kobolds would know what to do with, Penelope decided on an order of business. "First we go by the temple, drop Brayden off with a thousand gold to talk to the priest there. We'll swing by the market and—"

"No. We don't go to the market. This much gold…" Stephan didn't even want to look at it. It was more gold than he could even think about—though he had to. "We go to the head of the merchants. When you have a hundred gold, you go to the sellers. When you have five thousand gold, the sellers come to you."

It struck Penelope that she'd never really brought Stephan to town before. "You know a bit about this kind of thing?"

"Not everyone came to Northridge to make a fortune. Some of us just wanted to get away from something." Stephan looked away before he said too much. "Come on, we take this to the head of the merchants here and tell them what we want. If they don't make offers we like, I'll take the gold to the next city and see if they want to sell stuff to us."

After dropping Brayden off with a few sacks of gold, they moved on to the market. Penelope gave Katelyn her own portion of gold to go to the bookstore and relieve them of as much stock as she could, then Penelope approached the merchant who'd gotten the pistols she and Fife now had.

"Oooh, a long gun? How much for this?" Fife was pointing at a brand new firearm sitting on the shelf behind the ironmonger.

"Twelve hundred of their gold."

"You use a sword and shield, Fife. A pistol works because you can put your sword away for a few seconds to fire, but you're not getting a long gun." Penelope flashed her teeth at Fife, glad to see her friend was grinning back at her. "Now, where can we find the head of the merchants here?"

"C-Christine Sellswell? Over there, behind the awning. Just knock on the door and someone will come out and see you. Uh, are you sure you don't want a gun? Finest you'll buy."

"Maybe later," Fife said. "Looks like we have business elsewhere right now."

Christine Sellswell wasn't exactly expecting a pair of kobolds to enter her office just before evening, but she recognized that it wasn't something that should surprise her, either. She expected demands from them, though, not— "So you want to place orders?"

"Are you willing to negotiate?" Stephan had taken over the conversation from Penelope. It wasn't that he wanted to, but he knew how this worked.

"Always. What do you want?" Leaning back in her chair, Christine held up her tablet and got a stylus ready.

Holding up his own tablet, Stephan read down the list. "Two thousand units of steel. Four thousand units of grain. And as much again of timber."

It was easy. Christine jotted down figures. "The going rate for—"

"No. That's not how these orders work and you know it." Tapping his claw on his tablet, Stephan shook his head. "Not at all. You see, we tell you how much we're willing to pay and you tell us if you are able to meet that order. If you don't, we don't do business."

It was getting out of hand, Penelope realized. This wasn't what Travis had wanted. She opened her mouth to argue but Christine was already talking.

"Right. What are your prices for steel?" In the back of her head, Christine wondered who Stephan was to know so much about business.

Holding up his tablet, Stephan turned it around and showed it to Christine. His writing was more precise than he'd ever been with a tablet or pen, thanks to his talons. "I think you'll be able to meet our orders."

The prices weren't quite as good, Christine could see, as their markup on gold would normally give, but they were still generous prices. "This comes to—forty-three hundred gold."

"Our wagon outside has enough to cover that and whatever fees you have for delivery." Slipping his tablet back in the little bag he'd brought with him, he slung it over his shoulder. "And there should be twelve-hundred left for a little purchase, and enough to see us all safely housed for the night."

"Wait, delivery? There are undead roaming the forest, how am I meant to—?" Stopping herself, Christine realized she was walking toward a precipice. "How much, exactly, will cover delivery?"

Penelope decided it was her turn to answer. "About five hundred gold or so."

"I'll arrange for delivery as soon as I can." It was enough to take the anger out of her. Christine could hire wagons, hire guards, and still have a good amount of that left over for her own coffers. "As soon as you bring me the gold, of course."

"Give me a minute and I'll get it." The look Christine gave her, Penelope had to admit, was the best part of the whole situation. Once they'd hauled all fifteen-hundred gold bars in, she went back out to give Fife the good news.

The day had worked out well. Fife had gotten the local armorer to make her some actually-fitting chainmail, a nice heavy shield, and when Penelope had surprised her with the long gun, she might have just hugged her friend.

Settled into the tavern, and in high spirits, she was having a sip of ale when the door burst open and a bloodied half-elf cleric half dragged a human in. He was followed by two more—another cleric with yet another human and an elf that looked like his robes were almost burned away.

"Please! We need healing!" Nathaniel looked around the room, his eyes a little wild at the sight of actual monsters in the tavern. When one walked over to him, he was halfway through spitting a curse when the kobold spoke.

"Brogdar, give this one strength so she might fight another day!" Brayden's power reached out to the bleeding woman and closed her wounds. He still wasn't used to how little such healing taxed him anymore, but he was damned if he'd let people be harmed. Walking over to the other human, what looked like a wizard to him, he was just in time to see a flash of holy light before they vanished. "Talisman. Where were you bound?"

Being addressed by a kobold was a bit of a surprise for Felna. "H-Here. The priest of Balance."

"Ah. Good, Brother Rupert will have your friend safe. Do you require healing?" The mute stares annoyed Brayden a little, but he could understand adventurers not trusting a kobold. "Brogdar, a minor healing for the lot of mute fools."

"F-Forgive us our surprise." Stratus cleared his throat. "We've had a bit of a day. The vermin rot dungeon to the north should have been ready for another run and we headed out." He winced at the memory. "It seems goblins have infested it, taken over, and now you have rot goblins to your north."

"Brolly's gonna hate that. Well, might as well head over to the temple and collect your friend. I'll let the commander of the guard know when he's done with his meeting." Brayden sat back down at the table with Fife. His eyes roamed over to where Katelyn and Jack were talking.

Sitting up, Ogmera looked around at the tavern. She could still feel the warm glow of holy magic in her body. It wasn't a lot of effort to feel-out which cleric had healed her. "A kobold? Interesting."

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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.