The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Tier 1

Level 10/10

Heart 160000/160000

Experience 40000/40000

Workers 9/47

Monsters 1/49

Traps 58/109

Rooms 110

Food 1973

Timber 600

Iron 634

Steel 605

Charcoal 0

Mana 47

Rock 2447

Gold 10094

Leather 377

Leather Sludge 300

Lava 90

Glass 800

Explosive Runes 20

Triggered Explosive Runes 0

Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0

Quest: Reach Tier 2

Quest: Destroy another dungeon

Mana Shrine depleted

It was something Travis had been expecting. That still didn't change the fact that it annoyed him that shrines would run out. "Dungeons have to keep growing. Even when everything's unlocked and you have everything you could ever need, a dungeon has to keep growing."

"Huh? What's up, Trav?" Penelope asked.

"The mana shrine near Robert's lab just expired. I was contemplating that even once a dungeon is as big as it ever needs to be, it needs to keep growing because shrines and resource nodes will keep expiring."

Shaking her head, Penelope said, "I don't think you do. I know it would take a lot of effort, but when you get your final floor, it would probably be a good idea to shift everything from this one to that. I don't mean in a rush, but gradually shrinking that final floor.

"It would make putting shrines and nodes down in a tight cluster easier. You could put down a ton of them, until you can't make more because of space requirements, and then just dig out into them and slurp up all the resources as fast as possible. Then fill them all in and do it all over again."

"That's a neat angle, yeah. It could also work with larger areas, there'd just be a lot more resource nodes." Travis picked away at the idea, then started laughing. "You know, we need a more reliable way to move bulk amounts of goods to Northridge."

Sometimes Travis felt constrained by the level of technology in the world being where it was, though sometimes the opposite. "Do you know what trains are?"

"Yes, Trav, we have trains here. We're not that backwards. It just takes a lot of steel to—Oh." Now Penelope laughed too. "Okay, I get what you mean now. So we'd build tracks from here to Northridge?"

"That depends. I got a quest to destroy another dungeon. If we were to destroy the undead dungeon, and I'm not saying we do, building a railway to get goods to Northridge would be a great idea since it would be less likely to be attacked."

Wincing at the description, Penelope put her thoughts into words. "Dungeons are very rarely destroyed, Trav—they're too valuable. If one proved so dangerous the local town cannot defend itself against it, then the kingdom could be petitioned to send an exterminator." She used a claw to draw a circle into the rock of the floor, sketching a little map of the town and the dungeons around it. "There's another thing, though. There are old stories that sometimes an area will spawn another dungeon if one is destroyed. It doesn't happen often enough that you'd notice, but if that's true, wiping out the undead dungeon could result in something worse appearing."

"That could be a problem, but even if every dungeon we destroyed came back as another dungeon, they would be smaller than me. They would be weaker and we could keep rolling the dice until more of the—what is that other one called, verdant animals?" When Penelope nodded, Travis continued. "Right. So we just keep destroying dungeons until there is us, the town, and three verdant animal dungeons."

"Trav, you're audacious and completely dismissive of how all this dungeon stuff is meant to work, and I love it. You're going to give the people in Northridge a headache, and they might actually fight against you on this one, but I think they will like it in the end. So, how do we go about attacking and defeating the undead dungeon?" Standing up, Penelope walked over to the wall of the dungeon and used the side of her claw to shave an area smooth. Then, she started to write a list. "We need to locate it, ensure we can interdict any forces it throws at us, and then start exploring it. The town might even be able to give us a bounty for that."

"Should we tell the town what we're doing?" Travis asked.

"That's a good question. I don't know. Okay, new entry over here." She walked over to another section of the wall and started writing.

Protected by dungeon:

Penelope

Wild

Ludmiller

Katelyn

Turning her head to look back at Travis, she raised an eye ridge. "What does this tell you is our next high priority?"

It became far clearer for Travis now. "Boss rooms, making people into bosses and cohorts, expanding tiers to have more bosses."

"There's something else. Brayden. He needs to become a cohort as soon as possible. So long as he lives, and you live, we can bring anyone back." Penelope started on two new lists: New Kobold Priority and Boss/Cohort Priority. She added Fife to the former and Brayden to the latter. "I'll talk to Fife about her thoughts on this, but I believe putting her arena on this floor would be best. When she gets that boss upgrade plus a floor upgrade plus her arena upgrade, she'll be impossible to bring down."

Gesturing back to the first list, the one with what they needed to do to defeat the undead dungeon, Penelope used her claw tip to score a line under the interdiction part. "There is no point risking lives going into there. Wait, did you ever test if talismans worked with dungeon creatures?"

Travis remembered back to his briefest thoughts on that. "No. There were two huge problems with that and I didn't want to even try bringing it up until they were dealt with—but I guess they are now. With Brayden we have a way to bring someone back in case they fail, and with the priest in town we have a way to reliably get talismans."

"So, do you want me to test this right now?"

"No. That's no good either. The timer thing I get might interfere with the talisman. Also, don't talismans need to be bound?" Travis asked.

"I don't think it's binding so much as the priest not wanting to bring you back if they don't recognize you. We shouldn't have that problem with Brother Rupert." Scraping a little more flat area at the top of the list of things to do to defeat the undead dungeon, Penelope added: Test talismans. "Okay, so next time someone goes to town, we have them buy a talisman from the priest. Then we can test that." He let a simulated gasp out. "Fife just stepped in the front door!"

"Knock knock! I hope someone's home!" Fife looked down at the lizard sitting beside her foot, staring up at her. "Trav, you wanna send everyone up here? We got so much stuff and they're going to want all the gold they can carry."

She waited, tapping her foot. Fife was just about to start talking to the lizard again when the door beside her opened and Brayden looked up at her. "Ah, cool. Is everyone coming to help?"

"Trav told me to remind you that he can't hear through lizards. Also, he can't read lips. Yeah, the others are coming. Any problems on the road?" Peeking out through the entrance, Brayden could catch a glimpse of a lot of wagons.

"This is going to unlock the next floor, right? Then I don't need to yell at lizards so much." Despite her annoyance at the wait, Fife picked the lizard up and set it on her shoulder. The lizard, knowing a good source of warmth when it found one, wrapped its tail around the curve of her neck and under her chainmail. "The road was fine. Steph talked them into sending more stuff right now, so we took a bit longer to get everything moving. Undead should be coming any day now, right?"

"Yeah I—" Cutting himself off when Penelope stepped out of the door, he made room for her to get past.

"Holy gods and goddesses, Pen. I spend a few days away from this place and forget how big you are now." Fife had to look up to look Penelope in the eyes. "This is how many upgrades?"

"First one made me a boss," Penelope said, drawing her huge pickaxe out and ripping down the wall in front of the storage room. "And the second gave me bigger wings, height, and more teeth than I know what to do with." For effect, she flashed a smile at Fife.

Eyes fighting against the dim light, Fife found herself grinning like a fool. "Steph also promised them we'd fill all their wagons to capacity with gold. They're going to hold any excess as credit."

"That's perfect!" Travis couldn't help but get excited. "I was hoping they'd be okay with that, and that we could trust them, because it does two things. It puts them in our pocket and it means I have an excuse to just fill their pockets with gold."

"Generosity doesn't hurt us, I guess. If it makes the town happy and makes them want to trade more with us, it's fine. Maybe you could lease a part of the city." Penelope started swinging her pickaxe, ripping apart the wall that hid the storage drop-off and the timber mill at the front door. "That way you'd have somewhere in town to establish offices and store gold, while also giving you an excuse to keep giving the town gold."

When she was confident Penelope had started to open up the dungeon for delivery, Fife walked back outside and had to shade her eyes even at the sun filtering down through the trees overhead. "Alright, start bringing them in. Two at a time should be okay, Pen's making you plenty of room."

"Trav, get Katelyn up here and melting down gold. We can fill up their wagons as they're going back out again." Brayden looked at Penelope, then at the first wagon approaching. "Pull that up on your right, by the open storage room there. When you're unloaded, swing around and park on the other side to get loaded with gold."

Walking into the dungeon—her first time in any dungeon—Christine Sellswell first had to acknowledge that it was dark. Locating a kobold with a staff, she asked, "Excuse me, I understand I can speak to the dungeon itself?"

Katelyn stopped and looked the woman up and down. "A lot of us will be busy and you'll need someone to translate. Trav, would you get my brother up here? One of the merchants wants a chat."

"My name is Christine Sellswell, I'm the head of the merchant guild in Northridge."

"Robert's asleep. Ludmiller is coming," Travis told Katelyn.

"If you'll come into the tavern here, Trav has Ludmiller coming to talk on his behalf." Katelyn noticed that a wagon was already getting loaded with gold. "You'll have to excuse me, though, I need to go get some gold for your wagons to haul back."

"You mine the gold?" Christine asked, pausing at the doorway to the well-lit tavern area.

"I melt it. It's the fastest way to get it out of a vein. Sorry, I really have to go if this isn't going to get backed up so much you'll be spending the night here." Leaving Christine with that apology, Katelyn started back down the back tunnel and toward the gold veins. She nodded to Ludmiller as they passed. "She's in the tavern."

"Thanks, Kate." With a bounce to her step, Ludmiller wound her way to the tavern and stepped inside. Christine Sellswell was sitting at a table with only a lizard on the chair beside her for company. "Trav, are you watching?"

"Yeah. She seems self-assured and not at all afraid of entering a dungeon. Kinda weird, but that's merchants," Travis said.

"Would you like a drink?" Ludmiller walked around behind the bar and was already filling a pitcher with water for herself.

"Small beer will be fine," Christine said, trying to not feel shocked at having another kobold around. "You're Ludmiller? The former adventurer?"

Carrying two pitchers and two glasses, Ludmiller approached the table. "Yup. What did you want to talk about?"

"This is mostly addressed to the dungeon itself. I believe it is—?"

Ludmiller cut in with Travis' quick reply. "Trav says he's sentient. He can talk, feel, and even make bad jokes."

Christine tried to ignore the jokes part. "Perfect. Firstly, I'd like to thank him for being so open with Northridge and myself, but I want to know his plans. Stephan, the kobold that has been negotiating with me, seems most insistent that Trav wants to invest in Northridge. What I'd like to know is how, why, and with what goal in mind?"

Listening to Travis for a moment, Ludmiller nodded and started repeating it. "He wants me to answer those in reverse order, if you're okay with that?" She waited for Christine to nod. "Long term, he well recognizes that he will be safest if there is a town with its own army of well-equipped soldiers protecting him because he is the backbone of that town.

"Why? Because your town can get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time if you can pay better rates for goods, and more gold in an area attracts more people willing to work hard for it, and more people means you get to the point of having a well-equipped army faster.

"How? He'd like to rent some land in the city."

It perplexed Christine. "'Rent'?"

"Exactly. He's sure that the price will not be too much. He wants a nice building where he can store some goods, gold, and have room for any guests of his or kobolds to rest and do so in comfort. He knows that as Northridge grows, so too will the price increase." Ludmiller could see the moment when Christine figured it out. Right as she'd mentioned the price increase, realization had dawned—writ large on the merchant's features. "You understand now, I think."

"I believe I do. This building, as well as any staff that work there, could be provided by our city, for a very competitive price." Christine knew when she was being handed a present, and now she knew why she was getting such a gift. "It would surely make negotiations easier if we had a nearby consultant who could make decisions on Trav's behalf."

Her eyes widening a little, Ludmiller let out a bit of a wheeze. "He asks if five thousand gold a month, plus another thousand for guards and servants, will be enough?"

In Christine's head, five thousand gold of clear profit, every month, seemed like a very good way to buy into the town's good books. The best books, in fact, since five thousand gold could buy a lot of paper. "That sounds like a fine price."

After her earlier reaction, Ludmiller's eyes almost bugged out at what she needed to ask. "There was another matter, though your guard captain will probably want to be the one to discuss it. He thinks you would be a perfect envoy to bring it to his attention. Trav is sick of being attacked by undead. It happens every few days, and while we're repelling the attacks readily enough, it isn't without resources being spent. Would the town be fine with us eliminating the undead dungeon nearby?"

"Destroying a dungeon without just cause is against the law of the kingdom." It was annoying, because Christine was absolutely fine with the friendly dungeon wiping out the undead and the goblins. "I will contact a master of law to advise us on how to go about getting the legal right to eliminate it."

"There are two more matters. The first is something that will be simpler than kingdom law, he promises. He will be trying to open a new entrance to the dungeon soon, and he will be trying to make it as close to Northridge as he can. Will this be okay?"

"If he can do that, it will be very helpful. I can't see anyone objecting. There was another thing?" Christine had pulled out a tablet to take notes on, using shorthand to quickly and effectively use the best of the space she had.

"The other would be to build a railway from Northridge to more populous parts of the kingdom." Ludmiller was at the point where nothing she was told would surprise her. She drank a glass of water and started pouring herself another.

Christine's hand started moving, writing down details and trying to come up with round figures. "That would require a lot of gold. Probably more than a lot of gold—it would require a great deal of steel. I presume Trav would be willing to pay for it?"

"If he pays the whole price, he will be charging to use the service. If Northridge wishes to share some of that burden, particularly by helping arrange the work to be done, he would be content to split the profits. He said it would be an essential part of moving goods and gold out of Northridge, and moving people in."

"It will also be a long-term project. These things aren't built in days or weeks."

Ludmiller nodded. "He figures it might take years, but it would be best to start now."

Laughing, Christine couldn't help but feel excitement boiling inside. She'd expected Northridge to grow and herself to build a future for her family in it over her whole lifetime. What was proposed would make the town not just into a city, but into a huge economic center of the kingdom. "I'm going to have to hire a dozen people just to figure out how to start this, but I will do so. I will put together a report for you in a month's time, less for the more immediate things."

Standing, Christine realized that over the conversation she'd barely drunk one glass. Shrugging, she carefully touched a gem on the side of her tablet and the thing chilled down to near freezing, ensuring the wax wouldn't melt. "Thank you for your business, and I look forward to future dealings."

"That went well," Travis told Ludmiller. "I expected them to be worried about killing other dungeons, but she seemed—I don't know, kinda fine with it, or maybe even keen. The other stuff all seemed to interest her. I think we have a solid ally."

Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions

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.