—
Enkrid the Gnomish tinkerer had a bad feeling. Being the right hand man of Boss, as the human liked to be called, he voiced this worry immediately as soon as it got too bad.
Boss, however, doubted him, and for good reason.
“Come on, Enkrid, it’s a baby dungeon. What harm could it do?”
“I don’t like to tempt fate, Boss, especially when we have so few members. Maybe we come back when we have recruited more than six people?”
“Think about it this way, Enkrid, standard party size is five, so if we cash in on finding a new dungeon, we can turn away from banditry, become lords, and live the high life for a long, time. Adventurers live rich for centuries, remember?”
“Wait,” interjected Eric, a young elf and the newest recruit, “Does that mean that I’ll get cut out?”
“No, No,” Boss replied. “Such a young dungeon can’t have enraged monsters, it just doesn’t have the levels yet, and I have no intention of cutting you out when we become lords.”
No one had any more to say, so they proceeded into the dungeon. It was pretty standard fare, even if the monsters were seemingly of the rarer sort. The first room was easy enough, and there were no traps, so it was smooth sailing until the second room.
As they were fighting the second group of monsters, Eric kind of just… disappeared? And Enkrid, being the only person who stayed behind the archer, was the only one who saw it happen.
“What the Fuck? Ambushers?!”
Boss was the first to respond. “The fuck you mean, ‘Ambushers?’ this is a baby, it shouldn’t have access to ambushers yet!”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Yeah, well Eric just gommmmph!”
One of the ambusher types had reached down and grabbed Enkrid. He had no opportunity to be rescued, he was just pulled up and shredded.
Boss made the wise decision to retreat. On the way out though, the DPS mobs got two of the other bandits hamstrung, which made them easy pickings for the massive wall of a tank archetype.
In the hall from the first room to the second, the last remaining bandit got tripped up on some roots that he hadn’t seen. Just Boss left, he ran from the dungeon… right into some actual adventurers on a quest to hunt down his little group.
—
Elise of Softclaw tribe, Catkin Ranger extraordinaire, was tired of bandit fetch quests. There had been so many recently that she had bought a relatively cheap but very bulky recording panel just so that she wouldn’t have to carry the heads around. Very fortunate, then, that she had it on her to record what was clearly a new dungeon without having to delve to its core.
“We’re gonna ” Said Waldorf Groutflesh, a Dwarven Tank with a habit of getting rowdy in bars.
“Indeed we are. I’ll take images of the entrance and a few monsters, and we’ll get back to town to claim the bounty.”
“You say ‘get back to town’ like we don’t have a three day walk back.” Archer Fletcher this time, ironically a Human Swordsman.
“Indeed, but if you can find us a new fifth we would not have to do these long-winded fetch quests.” The final member of their current party, Carrakan Effervalence, A blue Dragonborn Warlock of Bahamut (no, Carrakan couldn’t explain why she wasn't a cleric either, though Bahamut’s standard cleric devotion and her warlock pact were remarkably similar) with a specialty in metal magic.
“Anyway, we should get going.” Elise turned and walked back down the path, evidence collected.
—
[Well, this way took barely any mana, and it was significantly more interesting than just infusing a mob.]
— - —
Congratulations, Davies.
You have acquired the skills:
{Lattice Bank}
{Fusion}
{Mob RTS} (excellent strategy by the way, if a bit brutal)
{Ultra-Precise Mana Control}
{My World}
Use them well, I have generated them specifically for you.
— - —
— - —
System setup finalized. You now have access to your stat screen.
— - —
— - —
Name: Davies
Race:Dungeon Core
Age: 18
Skills:
{Lattice Bank}
{Fusion}
{Mob RTS} (excellent strategy by the way, if a bit brutal)
{Ultra-Precise Mana Control}
{My World}
Warning! This Stat sheet has been significantly simplified due to direct system intervention. Not all functions have been activated.
— - —
Fine by me. This is all I need.
I use fusion on the skills. To my great satisfaction, it works, and my skills all fuse into one:
{Dungeon Operation and Maintenance}
Excellent.