DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

True to her word, Angelica was waiting for him as soon as school let out for the day. This time Lindsay was not by her side but was instead guarding the door to make sure they weren’t interrupted.

“What is it you wanted?” Nate asked. He was still more than a little suspicious of the girl and her motives.

“You’re a very cautious fellow, aren’t you?” She smirked and leaned back against the wall.

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t be? I know nothing about you or your motives. You say that you’re different from the people who did this to me, and maybe you are, but that doesn’t mean I can trust you.” He’d had some time to think things over since their conversation at lunchtime.

“I can appreciate that.” She crossed her arms thoughtfully. “Luckily for you, what I had in mind doesn’t require you to trust me. At least not much. Think of it as more of a business arrangement.”

“We’re in high school,” He said dumbly. “What kind of business could we be doing together?”

There was a muttered, “Oh boy,” from Lindsay by the door.

“Families like mine pay little attention to age. If we see a chance to do business of some kind, then we do it. It’s as simple as that.” Angelica’s fingers began to tap on her arm impatiently. “Now, would you be interested in working with me?”

“You haven’t mentioned what either of us would get from this, or even what I could possibly do for you.”

“What you can do for me is simple, and ties into what we both get out of this arrangement.” She took a step forward and approached him. “I want you to find a way to keep George coming over to your house. Dad said after meeting you, he was more alive than he had been in a long time. If that is true, then I want the two of you to keep interacting.”

Nate mentally facepalmed. That was something the old man had already planned to do, and it would have been entirely out of his control otherwise. Regardless, he decided to play along.

“And how exactly do you expect me to do that? He isn’t someone I can just call up for a chat.”

“Don’t worry, I have it on good authority that he’ll call later tonight to make sure everything is fine. You can use that conversation to invite him over for a thank you dinner or something.”

“You realize you are asking me to manipulate the man who healed my body? Even if you are possibly doing this for his own good, why would I want to do this?”

“Because I can get you the healing medicine from an alchemy guild in a different city.” She said, dangling the proverbial carrot in front of him.

George had offered to heal him, but it would take time, whereas the medicine would be quicker. Both were good options, and in this case, they weren’t mutually exclusive. Despite that, something held him back from simply accepting her terms.

“Let me get this straight. All you are asking me to do is keep interacting with George Trellow because I remind him of his own family. If I do that, then you’ll get me the medicine from a different alchemy guild outside our city? I thought that was impossible.”

“Not impossible, merely difficult for most people. Less so for my family.”

Lindsay snorted at that, never looking away from the hallway.

Nate slowly shook his head. “I don’t think that is a deal I can accept, sorry. He helped me more than you realize when he healed my knees. I know it sounds like you’re looking out for him, but I don’t think I would be comfortable going behind his back like that.”

Angelica tilted her head and stared at him, not saying anything for several long moments. Before abruptly cursing and tossing a coin to Lindsay.

“Uh, what just happened?”

“I’ll tell you what just happened is I won a bet!” The girl by the door crowed happily. “That almost never happens.”

Angelica rolled her eyes and relaxed. “She’s right. She bet you wouldn’t take the deal. While I thought you would. Obviously, she won this time.”

“Wait, so none of this was real? You were playing with me this entire time?” He was past beginning to get angry with them, and in the territory of murderous rage.

A clue that they both seemed to quickly pick up on.

“No!” Angelica quickly said. “It was real. I would have done all that I said I would. I just would have been disappointed and not offered to do more.”

“What was the point of all this then?” He growled, not understanding what they were aiming for.

“She wanted to see what kind of person you were. If you only care about yourself and are selfish, or if you also thought about others when you made decisions.” Lindsay clarified for him.

“That is so stupid. We’re kids, we’re selfish at times, but that doesn’t mean that’s who we are all the time. In case you have forgotten, my parents are being threatened right now and can’t work, and I was attacked and ended up with a destroyed core and wrecked meridians. Taking the sure chance to potentially get all that fixed isn’t selfish but the smart move.”

“And yet, that isn’t what you did. Why?” Angelica asked him with a curious smile.

“I already told you. He helped me more than you know. He deserves my respect and loyalty for that alone. Whereas, you I have only talked to for the first time today. I can’t even confirm that you actually know him.” Nate narrowed his eyes theatrically. “All of this could be a trap of some kind for George.”

Both girls started laughing at that, while he himself grinned.

“Point is, for now at least I owe him, and I don’t want to go making deals behind his back with people I don’t know. That’s how things get messy, and my life is messy enough as it is. Do you understand now?”

Lindsay stopped laughing and sighed. “Well crap, now I feel bad.”

“Crap?” Nate glanced at Angelica.

“Her family doesn’t believe in cussing.” She replied with a roll of her eyes. “They’re weird, but we indulge them.”

“Ahh, okay then.”

“However, she is right. I do feel a little bad for doing this now.”

Nate glanced at the clock on the wall. “Well, listen, this has been fun and all, but I’ve kept my mom or dad waiting long enough. I need to get out there before they think something else has happened to me. If you want to stay in here and feel bad, that’s fine with me, but I’ve got to go.”

He grabbed his bag and walked towards the door, where Lindsay stepped to the side after a moment.

“She didn’t mean any harm.” She whispered as he walked past.

“I didn’t think she did, but her methods still sucked.” He hurriedly returned before walking out into the hallway and leaving them behind.

True to his expectations, his mother was worriedly waiting in the parking lot.

“You’re late.” She said in a way of greeting as he climbed into the car. Her eyes skimmed over him, making sure he wasn’t injured.

“I know, sorry. I got held up by a couple of students who wanted to talk.”

“Talk?” Her eyes narrowed, expecting that to mean something more.

“Yeah, just talk. Nothing bad happened today mom, you can calm down. How has the expedition fared so far? Has there been any word?”

“Even if they travel at top speed and don’t run into any difficulty, they won't reach the inner zone until tonight at the earliest. I’m guessing they won’t reach the structure until sometime tomorrow in the afternoon. Either way, we probably won’t hear anything unless it’s through the official channels.”

At home, Nate spread his homework across his desk for later and sprawled out on his bed. He hadn’t had a chance to look at the dungeon all day, and it was making him jumpy. School and generally having a piece of crap body were getting in the way of him managing the dungeon properly.

At least, this first dungeon seemed somewhat designed to help him learn as he went. The abundance of resources he had begun with made no real sense otherwise. Unless, of course, he was still missing something. Which was entirely possible and more than a little likely.

He opened up the interface and spread out the various screens in a rush. The resource counters had gone up again, especially the energy, which had skyrocketed.

At the moment, inside the dungeon, there were four monsters. One of them was winding its way around the interior, bashing against the walls and doors, while somehow narrowly avoiding the traps. Nate didn’t think it would be in there for very long. It was an ugly, wrinkled creature with no eyes. He remembered seeing something similar to it once on an old, animated television series.

It had been called a naked mole rat, he believed, only this one was far larger, and uglier than the real-life versions.

The other three monsters in the dungeon were in the corridor outside the dungeon exit room. Evidently, they had made it all the way there and were now afraid to continue any further. It was nice to know the trap was working, but it seemed like they were able to sense it still.

A trap was no good if everyone knew it was there. It kind of stopped being a trap at that point and more of an annoying obstacle.

That wasn’t what he had been going for when he designed the dungeon or the trap. However, it might be something to consider for later. The simple maze he had gone for didn’t really count as an obstacle design. At least not in his mind.

Nate glared at the three monsters and then at the wriggling naked mole rat that apparently had better senses than he had given it credit for. He needed some way to finish them off.

The question was how?

He couldn’t afford to go in with his avatar and properly fix some of the traps. In that same vein, he couldn’t afford to spend a lot of resources creating new ones, either. Those resources would be needed for when he could go in with the avatar. Everything was more expensive then.

Something that he would be able to do, hopefully, during a time when there were fewer monsters. He didn’t feel like being torn apart again. He wouldn’t say no to getting more equipment, it would simply have to be against the right monster. Something that he could handle in his current weakened state.

Nate made sure they hadn’t gotten close to the dungeon core and then closed all the screens. It was time for him to do some more research on traps. No matter what he did, it felt like there wasn’t enough variety.

He was probably overthinking the process, especially considering the opponents were mostly unthinking monsters. Yet, he wanted the dungeon to be better. This was his first one… the dungeon he would care the most about.

What he came to realize, though, was that it all came down to trial and error. He was trying to rush something that couldn’t be rushed.

Grabbing his notebook, Nate began jotting down a few ideas that had stood out to him that he wanted to try out.

The next time he went inside with his avatar, he needed to see what it could do. Instead of rushing, he would take things a little slower this time. As long as the monsters couldn’t reach his core, then he had all the time in the world to experiment.

Well, he also needed to get ready for the expedition party to arrive the next day. There was no telling how they would do against the traps. He expected the first one to be the deadliest, simply because they wouldn’t be expecting it. After that, they would be on the lookout.

He would need to make a few more changes to some of the rooms that night after George left. Assuming he was coming over. They hadn’t exactly set a schedule of any sort. It was more that whenever the guild master had some time to spare, he would come over for a healing session.