The Tower in the Shadows

The snake needed 2 CP to be created. So, it was cheap, at least.

I looked over the snake's character sheet. It was not very interesting or strong, but it was an excellent basis for a future floor minion. It had some sharp fangs, but that was it—no venom or armour.

"What will I do with you?"

The night had passed and the adventurers were back with the dawn. I had been thinking about this all night. It had merged with other thoughts I had been having for over a year about mana.

"I get the feeling nature is best for this snake. I can possibly use other types of mana. The problem is I do not have Nature mana."

Since coming here, I have always had questions about mana. What was it? What did it do? How did I use it? Questions like those.

Through countless experiments and the guidance of a few books, I've managed to grasp the basics of mana. It's still a realm of mystery in many ways, but it's some knowledge I can wield to a limited extent now.

Mana is formed by essence condensing in a given area. This I understand.

It can take on a type based on the environmental factors of that area. Understood as well.

Knowing these two things, I should be able to create floors configured to create new types of mana. Case in point: making a floor with abundant plants would lean towards Nature mana being produced. The closest I had was the third floor, but it seemed I needed more vegetation.

That was the theory.

I had naturally found Shadow and Earth types. Shadows often formed in my dungeon now as the conditions were far better suited. Thinking about it, I should have had Darkness mana; it should have appeared, but it had not yet. Was there something I was missing?

I did not have the required environments for other types to stimulate their creation.

My next issue was the storage of mana. I, at first, used myself as the storage vessel. This mean the mana was secure. The downside was that this impacted the amount of CP I gained each time I levelled.

I had mana stones now. They allow me to store any type of mana. However, the amount of mana they could store was small and its regeneration was terrible. Those are big problems, but the worst was that the stones could be stolen if my Core was found.

I have problems then.

How am I going to fix them?

"This is so frustrating!"

Adventurers were fighting in my Dungeon; many were wounded, but no deaths. It was a distraction that gave me little satisfaction or answers.

I spent the day thinking about it, especially the sixth floor that I was planning. I will be trying new things on this floor, including how my Dungeon created mana. The snake would be the minion for this floor, but I will be creating multiple versions of this minion. What exactly would I do? I was not sure yet.

The snake and maybe another minion?

"Wasps and snakes? Attacked from above and ground?"

The snake's design kept drawing my attention back to it. What can I do with it?

"Camouflage? Yes, I will use that. But what else?"

Questions on questions. The snake would gain the ability to protect itself from adventurers. My concern with snakes is their lack of offensive abilities. They have fangs, but they are not very effective.

"What could I do with them?"

I notice that my thoughts are spinning around in a circle. Until I create the sixth floor, I will not waste my resources creating the full new snakes. I will do some testing on parts of the snakes, creating them with specific abilities that will be built upon to the final minion.

"The fangs will be first."

The fangs are very similar to the Rock Worms' teeth. Could I use them instead of the fangs that come with the snake? The fangs were smaller, so I would need to enlarge the snake or shrink the teeth.

The miners arrived and travelled to the copper seam. Their escort cleared the path to the vein and they got to work. The day passed and night finally came to the valley again. I started as soon as the last miners left with their bounty.

I move to one of the back rooms to begin. The snake's design screen was open and I was looking at it.

"Fangs and camouflage are a good start. Got get the fangs sorted out."

Using the design screen, I imposed the worm's teeth over the snake's fangs and began.

The rest of the night passed with many frustrated attempts at creating the improved snake. Eleven attempts were made and eleven of my creations died as they often appeared mainly to explosive results.

I did feel I was making progress. Each victory lasted a little longer than the previous one, but I took heart in each limited victory. It was that or the Core equivalent of crying.

The adventurers rolled in with the new day and I had to stop my experiments. I reviewed the night's work, vaguely aware of the groups running the Dungeon.

The rush of essence was a surprise.

"Right, who died?"

The third floor had claimed another kill. A group of adventurers I had not seen before were getting stomped by the three boars in room 2. Initially, it was a party of six; the first had fallen and the rest were not faring any better. The boars were overwhelming them due to numbers and fortitude.

Two more group members were trampled by the boars, which caused the remaining three to turn tail and run. They were close enough to the doorway that they made it out and did not stop. The essence reached my Core as soon as they passed the door out of the room.

"Well, let's see what we have."

I had to wait for them to run out of the Dungeon and when they did, I absorbed everything remaining. I read through the alerts.

“Nothing…nothing… Oh, nice dagger…. Nothing….and more nothing."

I was disappointed. The boars had done a great job trashing their bodies and gear.

"Well, every little bit helps in the end."

Checking out my progress to the next level was next.

"Twenty-eight percent… This is going to be a slog to get to floor six."

I resigned myself and reviewed the next group coming in. It was another new group, much better outfitted with magical gear—five strong three front-line fighters with two support members.

"Looks like things are slowing outside regarding new adventurers showing up."

I watched this group work through the first and second. I was not paying attention; my focus was on reviewing my planned experiments for tonight. The third gave them more problems, but they continued onwards.

They reached the floor guardian, where things took a turn. As the fight progressed, they must have been in worse condition than I thought. They started falling quickly to my guardian. A well-timed charge smashed right through their line of fighters, catching the support members when they were standing close together. They died as the others tried to distract the massive boar.

"Well, that's not a good sign for the rest of this fight."

The fighters should have retreated, but they fought on. They fought well and wounded the guardian, but his tusks and hide carried him through the fight to victory. I absorbed what was left behind.

"Right, let's see what we have."

Like earlier, the boar had trampled most of what was left. I gained a few magical items in the form of light crystals, a sword and a few pieces of armour. All of its durability was low as the guardian had trampled it in the fight.

The enchantments were weak, but I got a good feel for them. I was sure I would be able to recreate them in time. I got a level increase in my enchanting skill from studying them.

A new team was coming into the Dungeon. It appeared I had spent longer than I realised studying the enchantments.

"I should use the gear I am stockpiling."

I was unsure how to do this, but I had to look into it. Another thing about the sixth floor: the list for this floor is getting longer by the day.

The rest of the day wore on with no other deaths. There were a few injuries, but the groups were being more cautious. I was sure the deaths had reminded them how dangerous my Dungeon could be. I had felt that the adventurers were getting too complacent.

The miners rolled in with their escort. They went down to the fifth, and the escorting adventurers fought through the worms. It seemed that the adventurers were collecting the kill rewards, which was part of their payment, as the miners made no issue about it.

The miners unpacked as soon as they reached the copper vein. The pickaxes began hitting the stone to free the copper ore from the rock face. There were occasional sparks as the metal heads connected with the stone. They were fast in removing it from the rock face. The ore was placed in a dimensional bag by the miners.

By now, they knew the quantity of ore they would get from the vein and stopped when they reached it. As soon as they packed up, they vacated the Dungeon. I always respected the professionalism the miners displayed. They got in, did the job and got out.

As soon as the door was closed, I got to work. I positioned myself in the room I designated as my experimentation room.

"Right…open design screen…snake, snake, there you are."

I went back to work. The night passed with ten attempts, all failures. Two were massively explosive, forcing me to repair the room—another night of no new minion designs. Dawn was here and the adventurers had arrived.

For the next few days, we were adventurers by day and experiments by night, over and over, until I made a breakthrough.

The seventh attempt this night worked!

I gained the design for a stable new snake. I had reworked the size of the fangs for the last few attempts, and this version worked!

"Finally! Sorry, but you are just a stepping stone to my goal."

I felt I had to apologise as I destroyed the snake. Well, Larry killed it at my behest. I dismissed the notifications and alerts.

"Progress, not perfection, Bhaldor!"

I did take the rest of the night off. My progress to the sixth floor was now at forty percent. I was going slowly but moving forward.

## ## ## ## ##

"Any more reports of strange sounds from the Dungeon last night?" Elian asked the man standing before her. The Guild has established a guard at night to prevent foolish young bloods from trying their luck. She had been receiving strange reports recently about sounds of explosions and loud bangs from the building over the first floor.

"A few earlier in the night, but it went quiet afterwards." He was tired and she did not want to keep him here any longer than needed.

"If there is nothing else, head home and get some sleep." The man almost ran from the room and Elian could not blame him. Guarding the Dungeon at night was proving more taxing due to the strange happenings.

The town council had worried over the sounds, but nothing had come of it so far.

Albrot had departed but had told her he would return. There was only so long he could avoid the politics of his position. She had heeded his advice and strengthened her whisper network. She was now starting to get her people into place in the nearby realms. The ones around the town who were reporting to her things were stable and seemed reliable.

Adventurers exploring the northern valleys bring back tales of unrest amongst the monsters and beasts. That was concerning her. Things should have stabilised so long after the passing of that twisted ogre. Something was disrupting the natural balance, but she did not know what.

Getting up from her desk, she walked to the open window. Stretching as she went.

"I am spending far too long at that desk." She grumbled as she walked.

Her office overlooked the town's central square. She took a few moments to look out over the masses. The noise and, yes, the smell of the population greeted her. A petty criminal was in the stockade, and some children were throwing mudballs at her. A town watchman promptly chased them off.

Elian picked out people she recognised. They were all moving purposefully, attending to the tasks that brought them out. It was then she spotted Trixis. The freed slave was now living in the town, working different jobs that needed to be done. Albrot had been very interested in her but had chosen to not seek her out.

Elian knew she was living in a small room in a longhouse in the outlying part of the town near the exit to the south of the valley. She was covering her daily needs and was not in debt; she seemed to be doing well.

Sighing, she turned and returned to her desk.

## ## ## ## ##

Unintended consequences.

As Oda was now discovering, they came to mortals and Gods alike, to his concern and regret. They were never expected or foreseen and always a surprise.

What Bhaldor did not know was that the biggest he had created so far was a small, dressed woman named Trixis, a freed slave and survivor of a failed Dungeon run. He had freed her not from compassion but from a sense of indignation she had not come to test herself of her own free will.

She did not know this. Well, only Bhaldor and his fourth-floor guardian knew why, in truth.

The only thing she knew was that, against Law and Magic, the Dungeon had broken her collar and freed her to live her life as she desired. This had impacted her significantly and it had taken months for her to see how much.

She walked through the town of Shadow Vale, which she called home. She had found a way to make a living by performing small tasks that the townsfolk needed to do, such as delivering this, fetching that, doing this laundry, and taking this message to this person, never complicated, with a little coin in return. Many times, she took other things like food as payment. The town was getting busier daily, and she found work easier than when she first started.

Greeting those she knew as she passed. At first, she was an oddity, making her a little famous in the town. In those early days, many pointed and whispered. Now, most knew her not and those who employed or ignored her did not care.

She walked through the town to the Longhouse she called home. She rented a small room, barely big enough for her bed. What few possessions she owned were within. She went in and locked the door behind her.

Sitting on her bed, she removed her shoes and laid back on the straw mattress. A luxury compared to some places she had been forced to sleep. Looking up, she could see a plate she had attached to a bream over her bed. The plate was a crude depiction of the watchtower and its attached buildings, which acted as the entrance to the Dungeon.

She rested for a few moments and then started.

"I thank thee, Dungeon, Breaker of Chains, for my freedom and for my daily bounties. I pray that you see my works and bless my future days with more."

You see, when she was freed, the woman mainly had known a life of abuse and slavery. This was the first time that she could remember that something had acted to make her life better. She came to see this as a miracle.

And from this, she believed. She believed hard.