The Tower in the Shadows

It takes me another 25 days to take the basement over. It mirrors the ground floor above it, with each wing having a separate basement section; there are no doors, unlike upstairs. I find nothing of interest in these halls, some barrels and crates, but nothing of great import. Absorbing everything and choosing not to replace anything at the moment. This helps my CP restoration. The rooms are half the size of the ones above, which speeds things up a bit.

Several spiders are located down here with their accompanying cobwebs, but nothing else is living. As I take control of what little is down here, there is no evidence of rats or mice, which is odd. The poorly rated material spider silk is gained from the cobwebs and spider design, but nothing else. I am leaving the majority of the rest alone. This is the first time I have seen a rarity rating on a resource after the poor linen was absorbed from upstairs. The only good news I get is that with the expansion now over for me, my CP is sitting at 0.15 per hour.

Is this world now travelling into autumn, as I’ve been here for several months? On the surface, I detect a change in weather patterns as there has been more rain in the last ten days than there had been the whole time I was here, well, what I was aware of. To be honest, the weather changes do not bother me much as the building is part of me, is far more robust than before and will be far more resistant to the weather.

“Now, what do I do?”

“Bhaldor now controls the building and the basement. I need monsters. I need traps. But how?”

I have noticed that I am increasingly talking to myself and in the third person. This concerns me, but I currently have minimal options for conversation. My gem is still located in the first room. I’m still vulnerable, so that must be my new priority. I repositioned my sight to this room and looked it over. The only thing close to a trap in this room is the wine bottle in the cupboard.

My core is the only thing even close to the trap in my entire dungeon that is concerning. Mulling over my limited options, I get that old feeling again and an alert quickly pops up in the corner of my vision.

Opening the alert, I read that mana was again forming in my dungeon.

I moved my sight to the location, knowing instantly where it was. I activated my mana sight skill and saw what I had. From the light, it gave off a pale grey. It looked like shadow mana once again.

“What to do?”

I could list the options in my mind. What I find on those lists is that they are depressingly short and unlikely to help. I open my menus and go to my minion creation screens, focusing on the Sharoon template.

“Could Bhaldor do it?”

A desperate idea popped into my head. Could I grab the mana quickly and use it to create a Sharoon?

The idea was the best option at the moment, so what the hell, let’s try it.

Taking hold of the mana caused the expected alert to pop up, informing me that it was degrading and I could not absorb it. Using the time available as it degraded to focus on creating a Sharron.

A window popped up asking me if I wanted to create one.

“Yes!”

The system acknowledged my request and the CP and shadow mana needed were present, but a second alert popped up.

Alert!

Too much Shadow Mana Present. Three units are detected. Do you wish to create a unique minion design? Warning: this creation might be unstable and all resources used in its creation will be lost.

“Yes!” I exclaimed.

The mana was degrading, and I was getting desperate. I added more CP to the base design and balanced out the amount of shadow mana being put in. Another box opened, informing me that the creation process was taking place and costing ten CP points.

I was both terrified and exhilarated at the same time.

Before me, there was a small cyclone of dust and motes of grey light swirling as the minion was being created faster and faster. I made out a few details of the base design and suddenly, there was a flash of grey light.

Now, there was a Sharron.

“WWOOHHOOO!”

I did it. I have created the first minion!

I thought it was looking around, slightly perplexed. I quickly looked over and noticed some strange slight differences. Then I realised that there was a flashing alert icon in the corner of my vision that had been ignored in my excitement over my first creation.

Congratulations!

You have created your first minion—a Sharoon.

Congratulations!

You have created your first unique minion.

Congratulations!

You have created your first mini-boss.

…….

Greater Sharoon created!

Please name your unique creation.

I was stunned for a few seconds as I read through the information before me.

The Greater Sharoon seemed to be looking at me, waiting for my decision.

“Larry.”

Congratulations!

Your first mini-boss has been named. Larry.

Do you wish it to be assigned to a room or wandering?

“Wandering.”

I knew that this new creation of mine would not be fixed into a room but needed to be mobile throughout the dungeon. Looking at him, especially his hands, I realised he could be a far greater help mobile than fixed to a location. Looking at my character sheet, I knew there would now be a tax for having minions. I wanted to see what form it took.

It looked in my direction again. I noticed the glint of intelligence in its eyes. I opened my menu options quickly, seeking out Larry’s character sheet. I had to understand fully what I had created.

Name

Larry

Level/Class

1 - Dungeon Mini-Boss

Race

Greater Sharoon

Essence

0%

Health

70/70

Mana

40/40

Stamina

30/30

Corruption

0%

STR

3

3 Damage Base

DEX

7

AGL

7

END

3

VIT

7

PER

18

+8% Danger Awareness

INT

5

WIL

4

LUCK

4

Skills:

Claw Strike: 1 – 0% (+3 damage) Cost: 2 Stamina

Danger Awareness: 1 – 0% (+ 8% Success chance) Cost: 2 Stamina

Equipment:

Claws: Dam 2 + STR

Perks/Restrictions:

Shadow Touched: +30% to hiding in shadow.

Mini-Boss (Wandering) – This boss can travel anywhere in the dungeon and strike without warning.

Why name my first creation a mini-boss that can wander the dungeon “Larry”?

I say to you, why not!

………

………

“Bhaldor really needs someone to talk to.”

Damn it, I am doing it again!

Larry was a marked improvement over the average Sharoon. His intelligence score was what was interesting to me the most. I noted that he was the same size as a standard Sharoon and could easily be confused with one.

I needed to prioritise what I would do, as I had limited resources at this given time. The first thing was to secure my core! I now had at least one defender, with all the possibilities he presented.

The long periods of inactivity I had allowed me to plan out several options depending on my situation when I started creating minions. I now knew what direction I would take in the next few days and what steps to enhance my survival odds.

The small hidden section I found in the barracks/bedroom was a great source of inspiration for my plan. The other was that now I had a minion who was flexible with what I could get him to do, allowing me to do more. During my down periods, I read through the whole wiki several times. There, I found an interesting fact about minions that will be important moving forward: I can influence the minion to do tasks I cannot.

I begin my plan by going to the basement and the stairwell that runs the tower length. Just behind the last steps is a hollowed-out half-meter cube in the pillar that the steps are wrapped around. This is where my core gem will be hidden from now on and is this size to allow growth through levelling but not too big to risk the structure of the pillar.

I return and find Larry sitting on the table in the entrance room, just looking around. I open the door to the tower, which draws his attention.

“Alright, here goes nothing.”

I focus on Larry; he seems aware of my attention; his head moves and he looks at my core gem. I form a picture of what I want Larry to do in my mind as his intelligence is not high enough; I can’t just tell him. It takes a minute before he does anything, but he suddenly jumps up and clambers off the table. He quickly scurries over to my core gem; looking at it for a few seconds, he picks it up and holds it under one of his arms. He quickly moves through the open doorway to the stairwell using his hind legs and other arm. From there, he hurriedly navigates down the stairs into the basement.

Following him, I was obviously concerned about my first minion carrying my “body” and that he might accidentally drop it and damage me. It turns out I need not have worried; his dexterity and agility were more than sufficient for the task I had set him. He quickly moved down the stairwell, taking care not to endanger my core gem; once at the bottom, he moved around the stairs to the section of the pillar I had hollowed out. Using both hands/paws, he placed my gem in the alcove I had created roughly in the centre of the bottom section.

If I could, I would have sighed in relief that my gem was no longer so exposed. Larry sat looking at my core, likely wondering if I had any other instructions, so I projected happy feelings to him in recognition of what he did.

“Well done, Larry.”

He might have appreciated my complimenting him on a well-done job, but I was unsure. He just sat there and went back to grooming himself, so it seemed he was happy and I let him be there for now. But I had plans for him in the future.

I was checking my dungeon aura to see if the moving of my core gem had altered it in any way. I was extremely pleased to see that my moving had indeed not changed the space my aura controlled. This meant that in the future, I could drop down deeper into the ground as my dungeon delved further, making it harder for anyone to reach my core gem. But for now, I will begin to implement the next stage of my plan.

This started by creating a small stone layer covering up the alcove that had been built into the pillar. This was the next line of security as I sought to hide my location from anyone seeking me out. Next, several slabs of stone shaped like the stairs wrapped around the central pillar were created. They were placed in front of the now-hidden alcove, further obstructing its location. I put several other slabs around this room to add to the effect.

All this took less than 20 minutes to do. I still had quite a lot of CP left, so I began the creation of my first proper trap. Again, taking inspiration from the small compartment area found in the barracks, I set about creating a pitfall trap. I decided to locate it at the bottom of the stairwell in this very room. I started by creating a section on the floor that was the length of the step and located about half a metre from it. The section was 3 m long and 1 m wide. After some thought, I made the pit I had created only a metre deep.

The stairs leading to the basement were wider than the ones going up into the tower. The tower was designed for defence and the stairwell was created as a choke point, but this basement section was designed to allow easy access to large quantities of goods and people.

Looking at the pit that had now been created, I was pleased things were going so well. However, I needed to make a choice here on how dangerous I would make this trap. At the moment, someone could see it and avoid it, so I created another thin layer of stone across the top so thin that if anyone stood on it, their foot would go straight through.

I’ve been thinking about the building upstairs and what I could do with it, but at the moment, I have no clear idea that I would leave it as is. This would easily injure the unwary, from simply twisting an ankle to breaking a leg, and was, in my opinion, a perfect introduction to my “true” dungeon. In time, this could change, and probably would, but there was no need at the moment.

Down here in the basement, I had plans. They would make this basement into the proper dungeon starting area. The pit trap could be far nastier with spikes in it. Still, I did not add this, making it dangerous as the media and literature I’d read indicated that if a dungeon became too difficult too quickly, it developed a bad reputation and was often dealt with permanently.

Checking my CP level and still grumbled about the reduced total that could be reached. I knew from reading my wiki that levelling up was the only way to increase it. So, this increased the impetus to get my dungeon ready and to create more defenders. I have purposely ignored filling in Larry’s loot table. This section on his character sheet gave the odds of certain types of loot appearing when he is killed. I did not want him to die because he would be my “hands” for a better term.

However, I would assign the proper rewards to my other creations, and I began to plan how this floor would look and challenge anyone who came upon it. At the moment, it consisted of four rooms and a stairwell made at the base of the tower. I knew I would have to expand this, so I began to push my aura into the ground around me. I plan to expand into the dirt around me to form a rough square and add another four rooms to this underground section.

Once this is done and the new rooms are populated, I will begin filling them with additional traps if needed. I was genuinely looking forward to this part of my new existence.