The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Tier 2

Level 10/100

Heart 160000/160000

Experience 64600/90000

Workers 11/67

Monsters 1/69

Traps 63/159

Food 2441

Timber 8130

Iron 2292

Steel 945

Charcoal 5058

Mana 606

Rock 2334

Gold 1057

Leather 197

Leather Sludge 300

Lava 200

Glass 635

Explosive Runes 20

Triggered Explosive Runes 0

Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15

Long Guns 19

Bullets 500

Black Powder 500

Quest: Destroy another dungeon.

Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.

Quest: Clear your dungeon of invaders.

Travis hadn't noticed at the time, but another quest was completed when Fife became a boss and the reward had been the upgrade for her boss room being free. His charcoal burner had been busy, as had the smelter making steel.

The steel was the slowest part of the process, but was at least automated. He watched Penelope dump the three thousand iron and three hundred charcoal in, and his count of steel slowly rose over two days.

Once he had enough, he got Katelyn to melt down some more gold for the lizard village upgrade. He tried to watch for what would change about the lizards with the upgrade, but part of it required the building of little huts for the lizards and, one by one, groups of them went in and came back out with little hardhats and tiny pickaxes.

This had earned them a lot of excited noises by every inhabitant that saw them. Fife, Katelyn, and Penelope had all crouched down and helped the lizards get ready for their tasks while Ludmiller had made plans to move into the lizard town (only complaints from Wild had stopped her).

Which was when a fresh attack of undead came into his dungeon. This one had the undead lord and twenty-three zombies. "We have the next undead wave coming in now. I'm going to obliterate them so we can get this plan started."

Travis had ensured his mana was well stocked for this exact moment. While the adorable little lizards started digging into the walls of his second floor, he waited for the undead to march halfway down the straight tunnel in his first.

When they were just where he wanted them, he cast the spell he'd tested with Fife. As the flames rushed down the tunnel in the only two directions it could, Travis reflected on asking Katelyn to make more lava for him.

When the flames had done their work, the first half of the column of zombies were in various states of "done-ness" ranging from extra crispy to medium rare. The ones behind them were only lightly seared, though, so Travis cast the spell again. Each casting took a hundred and twenty mana plus a hundred lava, but Travis was now satisfied with the effect. Every zombie was down and only the undead lord, hiding behind his shield, still stood. "Okay, I only have the lord left. I want to try another spell on him."

Before doing so, however, he paid for the upgrade to the mushroom farm. Watching his food stock slowly tick down had become far too annoying.

The ice spikes spell that Katelyn had invented for him were cheap, though they'd be cheaper if he could get some way of making ice. He mused over the possibility of inviting Jack into the dungeon so he could make ice. Aiming the spell, Travis started with the ice spikes. One cast. Two casts. Three casts. Four casts.

The undead lord didn't look happy, at least not to the lizard that was watching it rip free of the huge ice spikes that impaled it every other step.

At ten mana each, Travis was happy it only took nine castings before the undead lord stopped—stuck and unmoving on the last pillar of ice that penetrated its body. "Okay, that's them stopped. It's all up to you now." It wasn't quite a level, but Travis didn't mind that—there would be more XP soon enough for him.

"That's exactly what I am filing. A request for the aforementioned dungeon, named here as Travis, permission to exterminate a dungeon under the law Management of pest dungeons, section three, subsection b." Calmness and knowledge were half of Brevity Delling's job. This particular set of laws were strange, but when she'd been asked by a friend to intervene for a dungeon—she had jumped at the opportunity to add some new precedent to law. Having her name printed in one of the big books of landmark decisions was such a dream that she was surprised she wasn't buzzing with energy.

There was no formal opposition to Brevity's case. Normally, if such an action wasn't agreed by the local city's governors, they would have their own lawyer here to argue the case that a dungeon should be left as is. Instead, she had a signed document agreeing to the terms of the dungeon destruction.

The Lord in residence didn't need to glance at the opposition bench to know this was open-and-shut. The dungeons of an established city belonged to that city to defend, control, and exploit to their heart's content, destruction was another order of business. "What is the given reason?"

"Self-defense. The dungeon has killed several townsfolk as well as minions of Travis. It is costing valuable resources and, I don't think I need remind m'lord, we don't—"

"There will be a short recess. Brevity, please see me in my office." Standing, Lord Constance left the room and entered his adjoining office, leaving the door open. Only when Brevity was in and the door closed did he ask, "I don't care if the paperwork is all filled out, you can't honestly have me believe that this dungeon is your client?"

"In this matter I am working jointly with—"

"Yes, yes. I told you, I've read the paperwork. What's going on?" Finding his seat unbearable, Constance instead turned to look out the window and down on the city below.

"It's real, Con. The rumors of strange gold, pure as that of the kingdom, are also true. This letter of consent was signed by the dungeon's boss monster. The paperwork checks out, and no one objects, so what is the problem?"

"No other court sees as many dungeon-related cases as mine, and no other lawyer has the experience of dealing with them as you. Why are we entertaining this? We both know dungeons inside and out." Glancing at his staff, in a glass case in one corner of his office, Constance closed his eyes for a brief moment of remembrance of his younger days.

Brevity hadn't seen the inside of a dungeon, but she had pored over reports and had a good idea of all the states a dungeon could be in—what had been described of the Northridge dungeon, however, had shaken her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a gold coin. Gold coins were common. Gold got used for several essential-to-civilization products, so it wasn't merely in circulation—it was a commodity unto itself. "Look at this coin and tell me about it."

Taking the coin, Constance examined it. "That big merchant consortium's mark, the banking guild…" Turning the coin over revealed the third mark that looked like a lizard head. "I haven't seen an origin mark like this. Where is the source?"

"That's dungeon gold. It was reforged and pressed legally by the merchant guild that is tied to Northridge, with the observance of the bankers, but it was obtained from the dungeon in question." Smirking as she prepared for her reveal, Brevity waited for the right question.

"There is nothing new or strange about that. Dungeons are raided for their gold reserves every hour of every day in some capacity."

"I should have mentioned, Northridge traded timber with the dungeon and it paid in gold—that gold. My fees, however, are being paid directly by the dungeon without any expectation of anything except results."

"And that's why there's no adventuring guild mark? No town mark?"

"Exactly. That dungeon isn't just a dungeon—it's Northridge's trade partner," Brevity said. When Constance held out the coin to her, Brevity shrugged and took it. "Can't have people thinking I bribed you."

"This does change things. My main argument was why does the dungeon need our permission, but if it wishes to do business, it must follow our laws. The laws have a series of counters for dungeon extermination, and you have ensured all those have been cleared and neatly proven." Constance reached up and rubbed his chin. "Granted, then. Let's return to our positions and go through the motions. After my docket is cleared for the week, I would quite like to see this dungeon that asks permission and trades its gold freely."

Penelope hauled the tree closer while Wild was cutting up the previous one. While they worked, Katelyn and Ludmiller were standing guard and nearby Jack, Stratus, and Tom also maintained vigilance.

Ogmera, meanwhile, was brewing tea. She had a big pot on to boil and had a nice fire going while she watched the work progress. When her water was ready, she lifted it away from the fire's heat and dropped the wire-bag filled with leaves into it. "Shouldn't be long and we'll have this place far more civilized. I don't know why Travis didn't open an entrance right here like he did the town."

The only two kobolds present that weren't either a boss or part of a cohort were Brayden and Kelvin, neither of which were being put in the front line. Brayden gestured to his tablet. "We'll have the palisade up by the end of the day. Northridge's riflemen will be here by midday tomorrow."

"You don't need to keep reading my plan back to me, Brayden. Dungeons need external resources, we'll deny that to this one. When it's weak, and we have this permission, we'll move in and put it down." Kelvin still was excited to see his plans play out. Besieging a dungeon and choking its supplies was a big step toward controlling it.

The crack of a black powder rifle discharging shook the forest from its stillness and, standing on her position above the dungeon's entrance, Fife was already in the process of reloading her ranged weapon. "Group of archers coming from the west!"

Katelyn's head snapped around to spot the movement of bleached bone skeletons advancing on their position. Fife had their attention and they were actively shooting at her while she was laughing and getting ready for another shot. "Giving me a free shot, huh? Bad move." Thumping the butt of her staff on the ground, she called up her flames and sent a detonation seed out, landing it in the undead's midst—then setting off the magic concussion that shattered all but two of the skeletons.

Standing back up, Fife aimed carefully at one of the remaining skeletons—completely ignoring the arrow it fired and hit her with—and making its skull explode with another rapport of gunfire. "Who wants the last one?"

The shadows parted beside the last one and a pair of blades caught its throat and further down its back before Ludmiller pulled sharply, parting its spine in two places and dropping the skeleton to the forest floor. "Way ahead of you, Fife."

Kelvin turned back from observing the action to the tiny fire that Ogmera was serving tea from. "Are all the women in the dungeon this dangerous?"

"Only the kobolds," Ogmera said, passing Kelvin a tin mug of the hot brew. "The rest of us are quite calm and collected."

"Don't listen to a word this witch says," Nathaniel said as he sipped his own tea carefully. "She's crazy. Ow!" His words had gotten him a bonk on the head from Ogmera.

"The dungeon will notice when its patrols start going missing. Soon enough it will swarm out with everything it can." Hating the proximity of the source of undead energy, Brayden poured a little extra something from his flask into the tea, then sipped it with obvious glee.

"What's with the spirits? We're supposed to be on duty." Her whiskers twitching in dislike, Felna was more than a little on edge herself at the necromantic energy in the air.

"It's not alcohol. I blessed my flask because holy water, even a small amount, fortifies you against the undead energies that grate on your nerves." The accusation went ignored by Brayden, mostly because he had the same opinion on drinking on the job.

"Oh. Oh! Can I have some too?" Felna held out her cup. "Sorry for—for that."

Tipping a small measure of holy water into Felna's cup, and then Nathaniel's when he held out his, Brayden shrugged his shoulders. "Being this close puts you on edge, I get it too."

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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.