The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Tier 1

Level 7/10

Heart 78400/78400

Experience 1800/19600

Workers 9/35

Monsters 1/37

Traps 28/79

Rooms 51

Food 575

Timber 665

Iron 1293

Steel 5

Charcoal 0

Mana 43

Rock 2484

Gold 1050

Leather 432

Leather Sludge 300

Lava 10

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

"I gained two levels in that fight." It was astonishing to say, but Travis felt excited at how useful it was to have the undead coming in. "Oh! I see why. Reaper is doubling the experience from them. We really need to get Timesink next, though, with all these new adventurers."

Travis would have liked to have just told all the kobolds to go to the library and start researching, but the fact was the dungeon needed work done and their new prospective guards would need to be interviewed. "Okay, Pen, what are your thoughts on these adventurers?"

Penelope was sitting across from the five at a big table in the barroom. She ate some of the stew Stephan had gotten them from the kitchen and sipped at her ale. "You came here to see if we had any work for you, after the vermin dungeon got infested with goblins?"

While they were discussing things, Travis started adding more plans for further living quarters in the dungeon. The iron nodes around that area were in the way, though he was loath to get Katelyn to just melt them to slag and throw it away.

Wild and Ludmiller were starting work on their own rooms, too, but he had an idea for how to gain more room. The big room he'd had dug at the end of the long tunnel at the entrance could be made into a foyer. The iron node behind it was unfortunate. A thought occurred to him. "Pen, do you think the town could build its walls out of iron instead of stone? We have a pile of nodes that are in the way and all…"

"Trav, that's probably better asked later."

Freezing, Travis remembered what Penelope was doing. "Right, sorry. Hiring. How much do they want?" For a moment he located Robert and Blake. "Can you two work on a new area for me? We're probably going to need more rooms soon." Their acknowledgements let him get back to the conversation going on.

Penelope was relieved when Travis' focus seemed to return and stay in the room around her. "Right, so, what are your capabilities? What can you offer us that we'd pay you for?"

"Healing and protection spells, care of our clerics, powerful fire magic thanks to our wizards, and I can offer my services as a potion maker, curse-lifter, or curse-layer." Ogmera gestured to her party mates as she described them. "Plus Felna can share senses with dungeons."

"What?! What does that mean?" Travis said to Penelope.

Running numbers, Penelope tapped her claw and glanced toward where she felt Travis' heart was. "That sounds useful enough. One gold—that's one each." She flashed her fangs to them, noticing that the two humans among them seemed a little distracted staring at her teeth for a moment.

"Five gold? That's hardly—"

"Per day." Penelope watched as the group of them seemed to reel back in surprise. "You want more than that?"

Ogmera struggled to contain all her questions. Their normal wages worked out far less than that. "That's days worked?"

"No. We'll pay you to sit around on your rears and drink ale if there's nothing happening. But we'll also pay you to hunt undead with us."

"I'll need a moment to confer with my party." Standing up, Ogmera leaned on her staff and started walking to the entrance. Finding fully-furnished and clean rooms in a dungeon wasn't a terrible surprise, but finding them serving ale to adventurers was. Still, she prided herself on flexibility.

As soon as they were outside, Felna spoke, "You saw her eyes when you mentioned I can link to a core? She wants that ability, or she wants me to use it."

"You'd use it for this kind of pay, right?" Nathaniel asked. When Felna nodded, he grinned back. "Then that's not a problem, but we might want to ask for more for special services."

"Just ask for a gold and a half per day," Tom said.

Nathaniel shrugged his shoulders, "But only on condition our vows aren't required to be broken. I won't go against my god."

Smiling at her fellow cleric, Felna was onboard with that. "My vows aren't as strict, it's true, but you're my compass far more than I would admit to another follower of the Sandwalker."

Realizing everyone was now looking at him, Stratus held up his hands to placate them. "I don't have much to add here, other than to say there's more here than just money. Ask them about lodgings and equipment. This is a dungeon—dungeons are nothing if not resource rich."

Tom just smiled and said, "I've trusted all of you with my life, more times than I can count. This is just another job."

Nodding around to everyone, Ogmera led the way back into the dungeon. Down the long and dark tunnel straight-on, she could only imagine what nightmares there were in store for attackers. She gladly turned left and then right to enter the cozy little tavern-like taproom. Advancing back on the table Penelope was sitting at, she sat down. "One and a half gold a day, each. You cannot ask any of us to do something that would be considered against any of our gods'—collectively—views. We will also want options for equipment should you be able to produce anything suitable."

Reaching behind her back, Penelope focused on the amount she wanted. "Okay, let me get this sorted." She set down the first bag of a hundred and fifty gold, then another, and continued until she had five of them on the table. "That's your first hundred days' pay. Also, I don't believe Brayden would let me do anything against his god's will. He's a welcome addition to the dungeon for that. Oh, and the dungeon will pay for any resurrections and talisman costs, so long as you see Brother Rupert in Northridge or Brayden here."

Felna jerked at that and stared. "Can the kobold priest resurrect?"

"He's only recently become a kobold. His god has shown more attention to events in this location, which is unsurprising given his change. Any of you are welcome to join us too, once we're sure you'll fit in here." Penelope stood up and turned for the tunnels. "If you'll come with me, I'll show you where Trav is building your quarters."

Ludmiller was sitting in the middle of Wild's boss room surrounded by lizards. There were over a dozen of them, and more walking out of the adjacent tunnel every minute. "Aren't they just adorable?"

The sight did make Wild happy, perhaps even giddily so, but it was only tangentially related to the lizards present. "Something looks adorable, yes."

Turning her head and tilting it up, Ludmiller smiled with a radiance she felt welling up inside. "I meant the lizards."

"I meant a lizard." Stepping closer, Wild reached a hand down to her. "Trav, when can we upgrade this room to an arena, and when can I have a cohort?"

Drawing his attention down at the sound of his name, Travis caught what Wild asked. "It's a priority. When we get enough steel and timber, you'll get it. I hope it unlocks more upgrades too."

"Thank you, Trav." Wild was impressed, again and again, by his dungeon's sincerity and dedication. "The next time undead come for the dungeon, I'll be here and ready with my axes."

"That I'd like to see, but we'll have a few traps to soften them up before they get here." Travis noticed Katelyn was working in the library. "I'll leave you two to it. Do you want me to let Steph know you have new quarters?"

"Hmm. No." Wild locked his eyes to Ludmiller. "I will make the things myself, if you'll provide the resources?"

"Of course." Travis waited a moment, but Wild and Ludmiller seemed to find more interest in each other than continuing the conversation.

Katelyn had transferred herself to the trap factory. She liked how effective her new burn spell had been on the skeletons, and was trying to come up with a trap version of it. Needing a focusing rune, something far easier to make than the more advanced runes she'd been creating, she was working on making it a floor trap that would poke up and spin, creating a circle of that intense heat. "Trav?" she asked when she sensed his attention.

"What are you working on?" Travis couldn't help himself.

"I am trying to design a new trap for you to use. I think you'll like how it operates." She had to use some gold and iron to carefully mount the rune in such a way as it could spin, then all she needed was a smaller rune—trivial really—to add the desired rotational force. "It pops up out of the floor and spins, covering the area with high intensity fire."

Thinking about it, Travis couldn't help but figuratively smile. "You're right, I do like that. What's the trigger?"

"You get to activate this one by dropping a mana field on it. It will keep burning the longer you leave the field there." Using her own fingers and claws, Katelyn heated the various metals to shape them and work them easier. Eventually creating a rotating-trigger that would cause the trap to pop up when it starts to turn. The harder bit was making it so it would drop again when finished. That took a third rune.

"Any ideas on how much fire it will produce?" Travis asked, fascinated by the work she was doing with the trap's various mechanisms.

"Uh, about ten feet. So three rock squares." Carrying the whole assembly over to one side of the room where other traps were displayed, Katelyn set it down and watched the full size trap shrink down into a tiny model. "Did that get you a new trap?"

"Heck yes! It even has upgrades that can be added. Needs a pile of mana to create, but I figure that's because of the runes. Thanks, Katelyn, this is amazing!" Not for the first time did Travis lament his complete inability to make simple physical contact with someone. The trap had obvious synergies he could already imagine with pit traps and sludge being the obvious ones.

Making Travis happy was its own reward for Katelyn. As a kobold in his dungeon, she knew it was wired into her to want to help the dungeon heart, but she also just liked knowing he was doing well. "You're welcome, Trav. I'll try doing more when I get ideas for them. Maybe I could make something that's a wall trap that shoots a long path of flame down a hall."

Travis couldn't help but laugh at that. "Do you have any ideas for traps that aren't fire?"

Katelyn, grinning like a fool herself, tapped her chin. "I don't understand the question. There are things that aren't fire?"

After a good few minutes giggling together, Katelyn started for the door. "I mean it, Trav. Any time you need something, let me know. Even if it's just a hug." When she heard his laughs snap short, she realized that might be something they'd all missed. "Ah. I think I see now. Get ready, Trav, because I'm coming for a hug."

"What are—?" Travis was surprised by the turn of speed she put on. She took the zig-zagging tunnel extra fast by using her claws on the tunnel walls for grip. Racing through a mana shrine, she was outlined in a blue glow for a moment before she was into the main warren of tunnels.

It seemed like no time at all before Katelyn reached the door to Travis' heart room. She knew the trick to opening it and did so, slipping inside. "I never thought about it before, Trav."

Watching her approaching his heart, Travis felt a surprising amount of excitement, anticipation, and a moderate amount of embarrassment. "What do you mean?"

"You. You're stuck without a body. You can see through us, hear through us, but can you feel through us?" She walked all the way up to the now larger crystal. "You saved me, you know? I hated contact with people; guys especially. As a human, I had a look to me that got to be so annoying I would hide within my robes. Now, this?" Stepping up to within touching distance of his heart, Katelyn tapped her chest with a claw tip. "This was a release for me."

Travis was tongue-tied. He didn't know what to say at all. She was thanking him for making her a kobold because people ogled her too much. Then, just as he was starting to come up with something, she leaned forward and kissed his heart.

"That's how much you mean to me, Travis. You've given me everything I've ever wanted. That I didn't see this need—something I could help with—hurts a bit, but I can fix it now." Turning her head to the side, Katelyn rested her cheek against the heart and stretched her arms as far around him as she could, even if that wasn't very far thanks to his new size.

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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.