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Chapter 256 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”
🕑 Added 2024-12-09 16:02:46 +0000 UTCPov Dungeon Core
I watched as a group of platinum ranks tried to enter one of my gateways, but it simply didn’t work. All of the gateways on the surface just above me were now deactivated and completely disconnected from the rest of my network.
It seems that they had some sort of device they tried to use with my gateway. I didn’t know what it was supposed to do, but whatever it was, it didn’t work, which didn’t leave a lot of happy faces.
They usually just did one thing and then went to report back to the command center they set up in the Adventurers Guild. They had already set up a way to handle the new airships that were coming in and the people traveling over land. They were only letting them resupply and then sending them off again, and when the platinum ranks supported by diamond ranks said something, well, the airship captains wisely stopped complaining.
So instead of going back, they actually tried to enter my first floor. To make it a little bit fun, I made the first area of the labyrinth that was connected to the outside world look like a few of my original first floors. The difference was that there weren’t any monsters, and I made things look more run down—at least as much as you can make regular caves look like they’re run down.
At first, they didn’t think anything of it, but I could see in their body language how they slowly became more unnerved. They started to argue when they reached the place where the normal first-floor guardian should be. One of them wanted to return immediately, but it seemed like they were under orders to expedite things.
The diamond and platinum ranks had already been here for about four days, but they hadn’t accomplished much. Then have already interrogated a lot of the people who stayed behind and get a handle on the constant flow of airships that were coming in, but not much more.
Eventually, the group delving me decided to descend onto the next floor, and this was the first test I was actually curious about. They were all accomplished platinum ranks, even though they were, at best, servants to the diamond ranks who had the real power. Still, they knew their stuff—I was certain of that—but none of them could feel or identify the other type of gateway I had, which was basically a hidden gateway that only the very best could detect.
Now, I could have switched the gateway destination when only half of them had walked through, but I wasn’t going to mess with them just yet. In the grand scheme of things, the platinum ranks were not important enough to reveal such a powerful secret.
They continued to descend until they reached the 5th floor, after which they didn’t find a way down but instead six different corridors leading off in different directions, all of them with different ruin designs.
Most of the ruins were empty, especially the ones that were really old-looking, where the brickwork and stones were barely holding on. But even in those ruins, I always liked to add a few traps. I will feel bad for anyone that stumbles onto the really dangerous trapped ruins.
The kind of place where you step over one pressure plate only to find that the entire room was a pressure plate, and now you need to deal with flaming, flying, electrified balls of rock fired at you faster than the speed of sound.
Those were deep in, and even if I did make the entire labyrinth constantly shift, there were places you could only get to if you were really unlucky.
My design team, over the years, has expanded quite a lot, and while I have employed quite a few that adventurers would call madmen. If I let them do civil designs for too long—the ones that I can use in dungeon rooms—they would actually go crazy. So the labyrinth has also been a way to let them channel all their crazy ideas into a place that was meant to be madness itself.
I’m pretty sure some of the more elaborate magical traps have started to form consciousness, and honestly, that’s a scary thought. I don’t think I would have recognized that fact if I hadn’t dealt so much lately with how consciousness develops and what makes it actually happen. Fortunately, none of them seem to be even remotely close to sapient, but I guess if any of them actually achieve it, I’ll deal with that when the time comes.
They were still arguing, but one of the braver ones decided to venture a bit deeper in. Once again, I kind of wanted to mess with them and make one of the gateways switch locations, but I held off.
Then they became even stupider, with each one going individually into the different tunnels to search a bit further. Now it was an actual struggle not to mess with them. Fortunately, they didn’t do it for long once they realized that the ruins seemed endless.
I watched as they went back up, their faces showing a little bit of fear. I didn’t know exactly what they needed to accomplish, but it was obvious they didn’t accomplish it. They were headed to the command center, so I focused back on a particular wing of the Academy where a lot of people were furiously working on trying to understand and predict the secret language almost everyone upstairs was using to hide their communication from me.
At first, I thought they knew that I could see above the ground, but I think they were just paranoid about spying. Not everyone could speak this secret language of theirs, so I still learned stuff.
One of the things was that none of them actually believed that all of the spies had left, and that the pulling back of the personnel I did was just to throw everyone off. I guess I could have seen that coming, but I would have been happier if they actually believed that we weren’t spying on them anymore, well at least with people.
"They are going to go back and report the first delve into my dungeon. It would be nice to know what they are saying?" I communicated to the team in charge of deciphering everything. One of them looked up, and I saw a little bit of sweat running down his forehead.
"Just give me a little bit more time. I think I’ve got it," he answered, while not looking at anything. It was like he was focused more inside than outside. His body temperature was also rising at an alarming rate.
Before I could say anything, a person laid their hands on his forehead and started to cast a magic that emanated a chilling aura.
His talent was quite fascinating, allowing him to calculate things in his head even better than I could, and a lot more complex things that didn’t have direct and predictable outcomes. The fact that, if he really pushed himself, he would actually die from overheating because his brain was working so fast was so fascinating. Unfortunately, this was one of the talents that I couldn’t get, as he was actually a recruit from the outside world instead of one of my creatures.
He almost slumped when I saw his body temperature starting to cool down. Quickly, he started to write something down, and when he filled the second page, I could understand the rest.
“I thank you for everything. You can take your well-deserved rest now,” I communicated to the team leader, who then said it to the person who actually finished deciphering the secret language they were using.
Now, when I focused back on the surface world, everything changed. All the communications now made sense to me, so it was time to figure out what they were actually doing.
I always had a little bit of presence in the main chamber where their most important business was discussed. The interesting thing was that two of the five diamond ranks knew my viewpoint and often glanced at it, so when I now focused more on that location, I saw both of their eyes going towards my viewpoint.
They tried to figure out what was going on and even changed locations, but just to mess with them, I always went to the exact same place in whatever room they were having their discussions in. The best part was that, now that I knew the language, I just went back and rewatched everything that I had already observed.
It seems like their higher-ups were pushing them a lot, especially because the Pixies and the Deliverers had started to understand what was going on and were putting pressure on the Masters and the Beasts to get this solved fast.
The five who came here were from the Masters, and they were not ones to easily take orders. So that’s why they hadn’t stormed into me to try to break my core or take control of me. They were actually trying to do this properly and without crossing any bridges just yet.
That was quite fascinating. Also, Vivian’s grandfather didn’t really care about what was going on anymore, and while he was still angry about what had happened, he got his granddaughter back and was no longer on a warpath.
Now that everyone had seen his reactions play out, the ones advocating for her death were quite silent. I even had to stop a few of them from resigning. To me, it didn’t matter that they were wrong—what mattered was that they were willing to voice a different opinion. Sometimes that difference of opinion is the thing that might keep us alive. So who cared if this time it would have done the opposite? It’s important to know all the options available to us.
“So what you’re telling me is that this dungeon somehow changed the first few floors, and you think they are just cheap replicas that lead to a different part of the dungeon unknown to us?” The leader asked. One of the ones that delved into me answered immediately, and with an affirmative.
“Scour the mountainside and find if there are any other proper entrances, and test every gateway. If there aren’t any, that means this dungeon can modify itself more than we thought possible.”
I could now see the weight on the shoulders of that person. He was put in charge of this mission, but ever since he got here, I have seen him question things more and more. It’s like he has believed in something all his life, and suddenly there are more and more facts that show his belief has been wrong.
Perhaps it would be a better idea if I initiated contact. Perhaps a letter at the dungeon entrance asking for a talk would be a good idea. I started giving information to my people about everything that I had learned and about the idea I had. I should have a bit of time to discuss this with everyone. Our current game plan was to delay, delay, delay—and what’s more delaying than peace talks?
Comments
Michael Grover
Love it. You are hitting the notes just right.
ItWasIDIO!!
Again with the actual word... Peace? Peace. I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.
