The Tower in the Shadows

The continent of Kyber was tense as winter rolled over the land.

I settled in for the winter and thought about what I could do with my limited resources. I noticed an increase in new teams visiting me during this period. Many were much higher grade than I commonly encountered, with quite a few gold teams now running the Dungeon regularly. This was a great boon to my slowly ever-increasing essence count.

Most teams stayed on the eighth or above. A few more daring ones went down to the ninth. Two gold-rated teams decided to risk the 10th, and both suffered severe casualties, with multiple teams being mauled. Krag was an extremely popular opponent, and many went to fight him often. I was beginning to see another improvement in his combat skills approaching, as he was now far more tactical in the fights.

Larry had moved downstairs, closer to the 10th floor, to take advantage of the warmth. He was utilising the hidden passages and corridors built into the floors to allow Puck to move around undetected. They also help move air through the Dungeon, which conceals my location.

I had noticed the change almost immediately, particularly when adventurers entered a surface building and noticed where they were walking. I had highlighted the stones where the traps were located in the room. They did not stand out as obvious, but if you paid attention, you could see the difference in the stonework where they were located. I'd make sure that Ranus had informed the Adventurers' Guild of the change and that they were not to mess around with these locations, as well as the ones located on the pillars on each floor.

I had told them what they were, but I had hinted that messing around with them would be a very bad thing. I made sure to communicate the fact that they were designed to fight any twisted monsters that attack the Dungeon. Any tampering would trigger them, but they were safe to walk across. Most did not at first.

My instructions were ignored on the 18th day after the traps were installed. Which I was pretty surprised at that, as I thought someone would have tried sooner.

It took the rest of the day to rebuild the surface buildings. A silver-grade team had ignored my instructions and attempted to investigate the traps to see if there was anything they could salvage or loot.

I must say, I was pretty impressed with the results.

They, of course, did not survive. There were additional injuries outside, some quite severe. Even the dumbest adventurer learned their lesson after that.

Except the Gnomes.

It seemed they took it as a personal challenge to figure out what sort of traps I had created. It took them less than a week to figure them out. They quickly realised the purpose of the surface building trap. It was a brute-force, in-your-face, explosive punch designed to kill as many as possible. The others were far more subtle. That was where they faced the most significant challenge, as they were expecting it to be an outward-facing trap, not something that absorbed void essence.

I could tell they were happy that they had cracked it in the end, but I did not know how they felt about the trap. I could not read their expressions or their body language beyond the most obvious emotions. They didn't speak the human language, so I didn't understand a thing they were saying.

Things settled into their usual routine, and every day I checked my essence count, watching it grow ever closer to my next level. The team destroying themselves along the surface building gave me a bump—the death of the gold grade adventurers also helped. Krag and the Revenant were also reaping a tally amongst the more cocky or arrogant adventurers.

This forced me to concentrate on my plans for floor 11.

What would it be?

I was thinking about a weird mixture of minions to throw off the adventurers and a change in environment. Unless I discovered something as I moved further down underground, I was planning on a hall or halls similar to what Krag had. I was also considering adding some plant life as well.

But what would the minions be?

Maximus, on the 10th floor, was rated a platinum great monster. I didn't want to create another single monster floor and wanted to experiment a bit more. The problem was that by doing so, I weakened the Guardian. I needed that to be stronger than Maximus, as the next assault by the void twisted could come from Folly's End and could be the end of me.

So maybe some form of…. Undead?

I was impressed with the Revenant on the eighth floor. I can create a couple of new versions of it and then a stronger one for the Guardian. If things continued as they were, I was going to gain 150 CP for my next floor. Adding the 25 I had left would give me a total of 175 to play with. Maximus costs a minimum of 100 CP to establish.

So, my next Guardian will need to be at the lowest 100 CP for the foundation alone. That restricted me quite badly. I opened up my stat sheets for my different minions and guardians, looking at possible solutions.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

I was still thinking of the undead and wanted some form of that minion to be present on the floor. But I still wanted some form of new minion to be the centre of the floor. I also had to figure out what the hook would be to draw them down. To get past Maximus, it had to be something desirable.

I continued racking my mind, thinking of all the possible things I could do as spring arrived.

I was nearing the threshold for the new floor and had to make some decisions.

## ## ## ## ##

Elian was reading a report from the local Gnome trade mission.

They had been investigating the new traps in the Dungeon. Averance was owed something, and she had them investigate for her as payment.

The report was late because they had started the investigation at the beginning of winter, and now it was the start of spring. That was odd, as the Gnomes were well known for their ability to deliver timely goods or services. Out of all the races, they were the most reliable when it came to such deals or requests, taking pride in always fulfilling their contracts.

The report was here and written on good-quality paper. Not vellum or foolscap but actual paper. The handwriting was neat and clear to read. She felt like crying as she wished her guild employees would be as diligent and precise in their report writing.

The start of the report was lengthy and interesting, as it explained what was expected of them. She quickly skimmed through that, and about a third of the way down the page, it got interesting.

"The surface building of the Dungeon now possesses three interlinked enchanted circles. The enchantments are very basic but are modified versions of what is found in most basic texts regarding Mana Stone Circle empowering. It appears that the Dungeon has altered them slightly to act as a trigger to release a fully charged mana stone located within the centre of them.

The mana stone in question is a fire-infused one. The trap is designed to trigger when a hostile steps on or passes the third in the role. The first is located by the door, the second is in the centre of the room, and the third is by the door leading to the stairwell at the base of the tower.

It was discovered that the traps were in that and appear to require activation. An anti-tampering trigger was also found during the investigation. The investigation team believes that this was the cause of the resulting explosion, which closed the Dungeon for the day and extensively damaged the surface building."

Elian thought that made sense, as a particularly arrogant silver grade team had gone in that day. They had been overheard discussing whether to investigate the traps, in case there was something to be gained or looted from them. The Guild had informed all adventurers to avoid and ignore those traps, as they were designed to fight the twisted, not adventurers.

The resulting explosion had echoed through the valley, causing great distress among the population. Many within the Guild had been quietly betting on when, not whether, an adventure or a team would try to tamper with those traps.

Many were surprised that the surface building had survived as well as it had. It was a blackened shell when the fires were left to burn out. The roof was gone from the front wing, and the rest of the buildings had extensive fire damage. The team in question was wiped out, and many outside suffered injuries.

"These interlinked enchanted circles are designed to detonate from the back of the room to the front, where the exit to the surface is located. The reinforced nature of the Dungeon building helps to contain the blast within the room, increasing the damage inflicted upon those caught within it.

It is the opinion of the investigation team that these are crude but effective traps meant to be used against a large or significant number of twisted monsters that could one day attack the Dungeon."

This made sense to her. The Dungeon had told that this trap was only meant to be used against the twisted, and reading the report on it reinforced this. They were crudely made enchantment traps designed to explode. After the last demonstration of their destructive power, the adventurer community within a city avoided them.

It was the second type of trap created that caused the stir and delayed the report from being sent to her.

"As to the nature of the second trap, now discovered to be located on every floor at the base of the stairwell pillar, this proved to be a more challenging problem, not in the complexity of the trap itself, but in its very nature.

One such trap was detected on every single floor, as reported. The 10th floor, however, we believe has many more locations on it. This could not be confirmed as the nature of the monster on the floor precluded any additional investigation."

She snorted out that. Translated, it meant that they didn't want to be ripped to shreds by the monster that was to be found on that floor. She cannot blame them, as a platinum-grade monster was nothing you faced without extensive preparation.

"As with the first, it was discovered that the trap was based around a modified Mana Stone Circle enchantment. The alterations were very subtle and were not fully understood until they were recreated to the best of our ability.

At the centre of the circles was what is now being called a void stone. This unique form of mana stone was used not to empower the circle but as a means of containment. The alterations to the circle meant that if the attuned essence is discovered within a set distance, the circle aggressively draws it in. In this case, the attuned essence was void."

That last paragraph made her sit up. This was important for two reasons. The first was that the Dungeon had created a means of drawing in void essence from the air around it, should the source appear. The second was that a void stone was the heart of the enchantment, and if this became public knowledge, there would be a run of adventurers trying to dismantle them.

"The investigation team has controlled this information, as revealing it could cause a great deal of danger to anyone attempting to steal the stone from the central enchantment. It is believed that a second trigger is hidden within the circle, which could detonate the stone if it were to be removed.

If a way can be discovered to mass-produce void stones, then this trap can be used as a basis for a means to mass remove void essence from those unfortunates afflicted with it."

No wonder they had been holding off giving her this report; the information within it was massive. First, she needed to ensure that the knowledge of the second trap was not disclosed in great detail. She would ensure that word would be sent to the adventurers that the traps were just as dangerous as those on the surface. That should deter the greedy from them.

Next, she needed to speak to Averance, Selmum and Ranus. Normally, she would have added Albrot, but he was out of the city at the moment.

She got up to summon runners to pass messages along, but she knew she had to be very careful with how she worded them. Spies were everywhere these days.