The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Tier 2

Level 11/100

Heart 435600/435600

Experience 19100/108900

Workers 11/73

Monsters 1/75

Traps 63/174

Food 2437

Timber 8123

Iron 2292

Steel 910

Charcoal 5058

Mana 467

Rock 2334

Gold 1057

Leather 197

Leather Sludge 300

Lava 0

Glass 635

Explosive Runes 5

Triggered Explosive Runes 0

Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15

Long Guns 16

Bullets 400

Black Powder 400

Quest: Destroy another dungeon.

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

Quest: Kill another dungeon's boss.

Travis' quest to clear his dungeon of invaders was completed when the adventurers all left. This gave him a level-up and, so he discovered, unlocked all the lowest tier dungeon upgrades. By then Katelyn had finished off Advanced Questing, which meant he got a substantial amount of experience from that.

Another trickle of experience came through, one of many, as Fife, Penelope, Katelyn, Ludmiller, Wild, Kelvin, and Brayden inevitably got kills. It was reassuring for him to get those little trickles. Over the day they'd been gone, Travis had spent his mana only when it was full and let it build back up again.

"You're going to need to buy actual resource nodes on the bottom floor soon. We'll want those exotic metals, Trav." While the others were out, Tannyr had been busy. She had a stack of five long guns stacked in a weapon rack beside her and was working on the sixth.

Travis mentally sighed. Given how she'd been the one he'd had to command to break the cave dragon's stun, he wasn't sure why Tannyr was so excited to have another such encounter. "I know, it's all—There's going to be nasty things on that floor. I don't want them coming after us when we aren't completely ready."

"We have enough deadly traps to make a goblin blush. Trav, plan it out for me and let's dig that lizard village down there." Standing up from the seat she'd made for the workbench, Tannyr put the completed rifle on the rack with the others—a moment before they all disappeared. "Get Robert to wait at the top in case you have to shuffle around the tunnels, but let's do this."

Travis didn't mind admitting, in his head, that he was intimidated by Tannyr. She was older than him by so many years that humans where he was from never lived as long as her. He estimated she was about eighty percent confidence by weight, which meant she could bully him along with her ideas—like now. He started planning out a dig to get a new lizard village built on the bottom floor.

The easiest way to put it where he wanted it, which was above the mushroom farm, was to rework the loop around the zig-zags that led to Fife's arena. But that didn't sit well with him, and he wanted to make a big loop around anyway so that mining in distant areas would be easier. So he planned out a new loop outside of the first, then put down a big dig plan right beside the lone iron mine that'd been placed there by a quest.

With it all planned out, he drew his attention to Robert. "Tannyr is going to start digging out a lizard village on the third floor. Could you hang out on the first and do some shuffling of tunnels if something goes wrong?"

"I thought we weren't mining down here until we had everyone back?" Robert started walking despite his questioning. "Wait, did she talk you into this?"

"A little, but looking at the plans I can make it safe for her. Seriously, she'll be able to get out of there really fast if things go south." Travis only wished he wasn't trying to convince himself as much as Robert. "We'll be stalled here for a while if we don't get something like this going."

"Trav, you don't have to give me a sales pitch. Without the undead able to attack us because of the blockade, things should be much quieter around here anyway." Robert passed Tannyr in the tunnel coming down from the second floor. "Let me know when it's safe to come down and help. I still like digging, even if I don't get to do as much these days."

"I made a circle of the room. That should mean if there is anything nasty there, it should be found on that first loop around. Once we have that dug out, you can come down and help." Travis kept up with both, glancing between Tannyr and Robert—telling the former when the latter was in place.

It didn't take long for Tannyr to stop in the first section of loop digging and mine out two squares perpendicular. "Ah, gold. Should be the equivalent of a second floor one." When she reached the end of the first run, and found a mana shrine, Travis certainly wasn't going to complain. "Now, into this wall?"

"Yeah, you should be able to feel where to end up. This runs straight down to the outer part of the square. It will break out into an iron node at one point, but that should be fine." Travis felt nervous watching her work. If things went bad, though, she could always run down the tunnel and dive into the other loop and go through the arena. He clutched that thought tight as she worked.

When Tannyr felt the planned paths go left and right, she stopped. "This is the start of the square?"

"Yeah. It's near the top of it, so if you go left you should have to turn right fairly soon. Going right will take you to the iron node and within one block of the inner tunnels. That should be another way you can escape if things go bad," Travis said.

"That's the important bit, Trav. Planning out for when things go bad means that if they do, we all know what to do. So, since it will be the safest bit, I'll go right and find that iron node." Turning, Tannyr started digging—pausing whenever she felt the need to reinforce the tunnel. From experience she knew the big, open room was faster to dig than these tunnels, but she wasn't going to complain about Travis' new way of doing things, what with him already giving in to her idea.

Digging and shoring up the tunnel was like meditation for Tannyr, and she knew it was that way for most of the others. The dark held no secrets from her eyes, not that it would have before either, but she had noticed she could see further in the dark as a kobold. "I can feel it. Next square should—" As her pickaxe bit through and demolished the next square, she revealed the reddish ore. "Bingo. Okay, following through."

She dug along the path, turning left, then further along left again. A few more squares, though, and she felt the pull of metal ahead. "Trav, there's something ahead. Metal." The string of curses he let loose actually made her proud of him. "Nice work, though I can teach you some dwarven ones later."

"I don't need help with more swear words, I need a section of this place that isn't riddled with resources." After a moment Travis continued, "Don't laugh at me!" He was laughing too, though, by the end of it.

"Can't help it. This isn't in our way in the same way as the iron one was, by my count. I just hope there isn't anything in the middle, though, if it's a gold vein we can have Kate melt it down fast and use it to pay for upgrades." She shrugged, spat on her hands, and got back to digging.

When she'd gotten all the way around and formed up the square edges, she stopped for a breather. "Okay, Trav, that's the square worked out. You can probably get anyone you want down here now. The odds of something being in the middle of this are pretty low. I didn't feel any metals, either."

"I'll let Robert know. Feel free to dig inside the square as much as you want."

"They're not sending much out." Fife was sitting back on the palisade they'd built. The platform that'd been lashed together let her aim her rifle down at the entrance to the dungeon and present as little of herself as visible as needed. Not that she cared too much about it—it was fun for her to taunt them.

"We'd only beaten up all their stuff yesterday, they will be low on resources." Penelope crouched beside Fife, watching the dungeon with her own rifle loaded and ready. "Honestly, it'd be nice if they sent something bigger than a zombie out. Where are those wraiths they used that time?"

"It might send those if we're lucky. Do you think they could hurt me?"

"I am positive they could hurt you if you did something silly like charge at them. Remember, they normally drain your life directly. Let the magic users deal with that." Despite the sentiment, one of Penelope's hands strayed to her side where one of her swords lay sheathed. A sword that had magical energy around it now. "Or me."

"Bloody dervish is what you are now. Can't exactly be a rogue when you stand taller than everyone else." Her attention not wavering for a moment, Fife spotted the undead lord reach the entrance of the dungeon. "Eyes forward, your buddy's back."

Lining up her shot, Penelope kept the rifle trained on the lord's head. "Got him. Call it."

"Fire." Fife said the word and pulled the trigger of her rifle a moment later. Penelope's shot rang out so soon that it was almost lost in the noise and smoke of Fife's. The undead lord hit the ground not two steps outside the dungeon's entrance. "Nice shot. Hey, there's more stuff coming. Zombies, I think." Turning her head to where Katelyn and Jack were crouched, Fife could see they were on it. "We'll reload. Save one or two for us."

Alternating blasts of fire and ice worked wonders on even necromantically reinforced flesh. By the time Penelope reloaded her rifle, three quarters of the zombies were down. Bringing it up, she aimed at the head of one of the nearest zombies. "I've got the right."

"Left for me then." Fife didn't hesitate to fire, her round shattering the head of the zombie and embedding in the gut of the one behind it. A moment later Penelope took another down. There were two left standing. "Back over to you!"

"Did you notice my bullet?" Penelope asked. "There was a green flash of light behind it."

"Wasn't looking. You think it's an effect like your swords?" Fife took her time to run the brush down the barrel. It probably didn't need it, but she wanted to make sure her gun was clean and in perfect condition at all times.

Penelope kept her head above the edge of the palisade long enough to make sure that Katelyn and Jack nailed the last two. "Nice w—"

"Soldiers behind!" Ludmiller's shout got everyone's attention. Heads turned as if on swivels to see what was coming, only to spot thirty of the city Guard marching up. "Our allies."

Scott Gaoler gave the order to halt and keep weapons upright. He recognized several of the kobold heads that poked out of the various blinds and woodwork ahead of them. "Sergeant Gaoler reporting. I hear you have a dungeon that's bottled up?"

"That's some good timing, Sergeant. Fife, keep your eyes peeled up here, okay?" Penelope waited for a nod and for Fife to turn back around before she dropped off the edge of the platform. "Can you and your riflemen hold the entrance while we push inside?"

Grinning, enjoying the responsibility of the position his captain had put him in, Scott saluted. "Can do, ma'am."

Robert and Tannyr glared at the glowing blue shrine before them. Travis might be happy about getting more mana shrines, but having one in the middle of their projects was not conducive to their good mood.

"What now?" Robert asked.

"Trav, queue up some digging to shift the room away from this as short a distance as possible." Walking up to the rock, Tannyr pressed one palm against it. She felt when Travis marked the planned blocks. "Thank you."

"Let's take a break, Tannyr." Robert patted the mana crystal. "This wasn't a bad find, and I've been up and working for plenty of time today."

Grunting, Tannyr wanted to argue—but she ultimately decided to surrender with grace. "Yeah. We've dug enough today. Sorry, Trav, if I push too much. I like to get projects completed."

"You're both fine. Nothing got uncovered and there was no danger." Travis had noticed the trickles (and one rush) of experience. It was a relief to get some tangible evidence that their plan was progressing.

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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.