Elsewhere

“For the love of all that is holy, don’t you dare tell me that there is another level to the dungeon that you declined to mention before.” Duke fixed Sam with a firm gaze. He could feel his Health and Mana ticking back up, but it would be quite a while before he was full again.

“Oh, no, Duke. Nothing like that. You have done it. You have completed the dungeon and that gives you a number of options on what to do next. I have frozen time for the next few minutes so that we can have this conversation without anyone hearing or interfering.”

“That serious?”

“Duke, I am the last. I am the last dungeon in this world. I only survived the Purge because I am so well-hidden. Since I have been hidden, the only ones to ever find me before you were monster races and they all died within my walls. So, no word of my existence has leaked out. I do not know if those that initiated the Purge are still watching but it has been thousands of years so I can only hope that they have been lost to time. The Overmind itself fears for my survival. “

“Sam, what are you asking me here? You know that this experience has not been all roses for me.”

“I know, Duke. What you have experienced has been the shambles of what is left of me. A combination of dwindling resources and invaders that refused to leave has left me a shadow of my once greatness. Without your help, they won’t have to Purge me, I’ll fade away all on my own. I am begging you to not let that happen. I can be of grand benefit to you. Even if I am just a training dungeon like what was left of the Fifth Level was, I can be a huge benefit for your people.”

“My people? There’s four of us, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Perhaps for now, but I have heard all your conversations. I know what you stand for and what you stand against. I have felt your growing power. You have more than thirty thousand people waiting to join you and you are going to attract even more people to your banner, and they are going to need training. I can do that for you.”

“Thirty thousand people?” Duke paused as he remembered all the people freed from the dungeon by his weird, quirky RESTORE Ability. “Shit. How the fuck could I have forgotten about all of them?”

“You were a bit busy, Duke. But they will all be starting back off at level 0. They have virtually no Skills or Abilities. I can help you grow them.”

“That sounds great and all, but what’s really the deal? Don’t you feed off people dying in here? How is that going to help me ‘grow my people’?”

“It is true that sentients, well, really anything, dying within my dungeon would provide additional sustenance, simply having sentients within my dungeon provides more than enough sustenance to keep me fed and growing. The more that come in, the better. So, if one dies, that is a good amount of sustenance. If 20 come in and train, delve, or even just stand around, that provides even more. You are constantly absorbing Mana from the cosmos – it’s part of what makes you sapient. When you have absorbed more than you can hold, it spills over into the environment. Even more so when you expend Mana. All that Mana spilling out into the environment feeds me.”

Duke had too many questions and did not know how long they had for this conversation. “You already asked me to complete the dungeon levels and take your core with me. Is that what you are asking me to do again?”

“Yes, but even more, I’m afraid. I need you to take ownership of my core and plant it somewhere people can get to. If you have ownership, you could actually live in the dungeon proper and help me to shape it into whatever you needed.”

“That sounds like too good a deal for me. What’s the catch?”

A vibration quaked through the room. “Our time grows short. I cannot hold time back for much longer. Please do as I ask. The catch you are looking for rests in the Purge. If they are still around, you will have to defend me from them. I will fight them to my last, but since no other dungeon has survived on this world, I don’t count the chances of survival as a weakened dungeon as very high without help. Take the third passage on the left – you will find me there.”

With that, there was a shattering sound that propagated across the room. Duke stumbled as the ground shifted under him. The room quaked for a full thirty seconds before a large central passageway opened in the far wall and was quickly flanked by three passages on either side. As the dust settled, Duke heard something behind himself and spun around to face the new danger. He was interrupted by a system message he couldn’t ignore:

***Congratulations, you have completed the final level of the Lake Front Dungeon. The dungeon is now complete, and rewards are being calculated. As the leader of the party and the sole figure to complete the final level, your rewards will be additionally enhanced. When you exit the dungeon, your final reward will be revealed. ***

“Duke! You did it!” Grat led the group up the entrance path to offer Duke an enthusiastically awkward high-five. Duke obliged him, smiling.

“Man, you look like shit. Clean yourself up already and by the Seven, mend your damned pants!” Elaine followed Grat in turning her eyes away from Duke.

“I second the pants request.” Baslin added.

“Yeah, yeah, got it. I just fought like 10 consecutively harder fights, you know.” Duke activated RESTORE and CLEANSE to bring himself back up to presentable.

“And how many of those 10 were an actual challenge for you?” Baslin asked with a smirk.

Duke smiled sheepishly. “Really only the last one. I had to use potions to keep going.”

“Your REGENERATION wasn’t enough? Wow, that must have been one serious fight.” Grat marveled.

“It was the Mana potions that I used, actually. I about ran out of both Mana and Health. But I found a way to use my Mana to stop taking damage. It was costly though. Like 10,000 Mana a second.”

“I’m not even going to ask. I’m just glad that you made it.” Elaine interrupted. “Now that we are done with the gauntlet, we are done with the dungeon, right?”

“You have completed the dungeon, but I have asked an additional task of Duke.” Sam replied.

“That doesn’t sound too ominous, now does it?” Elaine gave both Sam and Duke the side-eye and waited for either of them to explain.

“It’s nothing crazy. Just follow me everybody.” Duke set off down the passage Sam had indicated, not looking back to see if the rest of the group followed. They, of course, followed.

The passageway had several turns that even corkscrewed in on themselves. It was impossible to see the entrance to the passage by the time they got to the end. They emerged into a room that was largely unadorned. There was a single stone pedestal in the middle of the room with what appeared to be a red glowing gem on it.

Duke calmly walked up to the gem, looked over to Sam, and asked, “Just grab it?”

“You might want to open up the chest in the corner first. Once you take the core, the dungeon around you will start to lose structure. It won’t be immediate, but you don’t want to stay in here afterwards. Here, let me set up the exit portal for you as well beforehand.”

A glowing portal opened with a big gaudy banner above it saying “Leave this way!” Duke also noticed the chest that Sam mentioned. He was absolutely sure the chest wasn’t there before but he was getting used to dungeon shenanigans. Duke nodded at Baslin to open the chest.

Baslin didn’t hesitate. He quickly walked over to the chest and threw the lid open. Or at least he tried to. The lid didn’t budge. A look of panic crossed his features and he leapt back from the chest like it was going to bite him.

“What’s wrong?” Duke asked, taking a step in Baslin’s direction.

“Chest won’t open. Thought it might be a mimic.” Baslin said, not taking his eyes off the chest.

“It’s not a mimic. It just won’t open for you.” Sam explained. “Since Duke is the one who completed the dungeon, he needs to be the one to open the rewards.”

“OK, guess it’s my turn.” Duke went over to the chest and opened it. The room was filled with a golden flash of light that slowly reduced to a gentle glow coming from the chest. “There’s an awful lot of stuff in here. Anyone want to go through it all and figure it all out.”

Grat was standing over his shoulder by now. “Well, we’re certainly not leaving it in the chest.”

Duke chuckled. “What I meant was that I can pull it all into my INVENTORY and we can go through it when we are in a more comfortable position. Stone floors are great and all, but I would much rather sit in a chair and go through all this stuff than sit on the hard floor.”

“I guess that works too, but aren’t we going back to the ready room after this?” Grat asked.

Sam responded before anyone else could interrupt. “About ten minutes after Duke does his next task, the dungeon as you know it will cease to exist. Take what loot you can now and prepare to leave. I don’t know if I’ll be able to speak with you after that happens. If not, it has been truly fun watching you all progress. I hope you are ready for the challenges that wait for you outside the dungeon. From the sound of it, you have made some serious enemies. Good luck. Now, Duke if you would?”

Duke nodded to Sam and pulled the contents of the chest into his INVENTORY. “Running through this dungeon has changed me in more ways than I can think about. Thank you for all of it and I really do hope we can speak again.” He stepped over to the pedestal and picked up the glowing red gem. Duke was greeted with another system prompt that he could not ignore:

*** You have taken hold of the dungeon core of the Lake Front Dungeon. Do you wish to take ownership of this dungeon with all the benefits and responsibilities this entails? ***

Duke indicated yes. And then everything changed. First, there was the sound of stone cracking and shattering. Fissures sprouted from the walls, ceiling, and floor all around them. Next, everything started to shake as if a tremendous earthquake had hit.

There was no discussion, no debate, no hesitation. All four charged for and straight through the portal and the moment they emerged, it vanished. The group stood in the center of the standing stones briefly before all the stones crumbled to dust. Duke felt a pulse of energy from the dungeon core in his hand and another message filled his vision:

*** You have 32,117 lifeforms that you have liberated from the Lake Front Dungeon. Now that you have completed the dungeon and taken ownership of its core, you have 10 minutes before they are released into your vicinity. ***

“Fuck! We have to get out of here and back to the surface immediately. Shit, shit, shit!” Duke announced even before the rest of the group got their bearings.

“What are you talking about?” Baslin asked, stepping closer to Duke. Elaine and Grat instinctively also stepped closer.

“We are about to have more than thirty thousand of our closest new friends show up and I really don’t want to have to ferry them all out of a cavern. Any suggestions on where to take us so that this is not an absolute disaster?”

“Tower?” Grat asked.

“Burnt to ash.” Baslin responded.

“Council of Druids?” Baslin asked.

“Infiltrated by the king’s spies.” Elaine responded.

“Right. Taking us up to the surface, outside the cave. We can figure it out from there.”