DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

Nate couldn’t make them. All attempts to make some form of laser-based trap inside the dungeon were rebuffed. This was the first time he had ever tried to create something truly technologically complicated, and the prompts weren’t having any of it.

No matter what he tried, well, that wasn’t quite true. He could have gone extremely old school using mirrors and magnifying glasses. That would have worked if he was trying to burn some paper or give them a tan.

No, it was time to face the truth. This dungeon, possibly even all the dungeons he made in the future, had limitations.

It also meant that the thoughts he’d been having about the dungeon or the wrist computer trying to guide him now held more weight. It didn’t mean he was convinced that’s what was going on, not yet at least. However, he would start paying attention to those feelings and thoughts more whenever they popped up.

“Nate, you home?” His mom called out before he could dive back into redesigning the traps.

“Yeah, I’m just up here.” He called back, already heading for the stairs. “Were you and dad doing more stuff for the new business?”

His father walked past the bottom of the stairs, his arms laden with bags full of groceries for the week. “There are a few more bags in the car if you want to grab a couple.” His dad grunted out when he saw him.

A few more bags was an understatement. The entire back of the car was packed with them.

“Why did you buy so much stuff?” He asked, exerting himself with only five bags while his mother breezed past easily four times that number.

For a cultivator, space to carry things quickly became the limiting factor, not strength. At least for everyday life, out on their hunts, it was a different matter entirely.

“Your father and I are going to be busy from here on out for the next while. So, we thought it was better to buy food for the next couple of weeks in bulk and just forget about it.”

He glanced inside one of the bags he was carrying and saw a myriad of cans and other items that they could put in the pantry. In other words, they would be dining on frozen food and easy-to-make meals for the next little while. It was annoying, but he also wasn’t going to complain.

Nate had missed his mother’s cooking, no matter its form too much to do that.

“Understandable. Let me know if I can help.” It would mean less time working on the dungeon and his frankly painfully easy homework, but if he could help them out, he would.

Nate didn’t want to miss this time with them. Not again.

His mother set her bags on the kitchen floor and ruffled his hair. “Thanks for the offer, sweetie. Right now though, the only thing your father and I need from you is your health.”

He rolled his eyes. “Gee, just ask for the one thing I currently have no control over why don’t you?”

She chuckled and went out for the last of the bags while his father brought in another load. Nate started putting everything away, his mind absorbed with thoughts about the various traps he’d placed inside the dungeon before.

He didn’t particularly want to reuse many of the ones he had designed previously. At the same time, he was running into the same problem as before, constantly coming up with new traps like this was difficult. He didn’t have the creative intelligence needed to come up with constantly new fantastical designs. Nor could he farm out the responsibility to others. If he tried, word would get out to people it shouldn’t. It always did.

No, the only way to move forward was to keep working on it by himself. At least until he had some people that he could absolutely trust with his life, because that is exactly what he would be doing.

His best shot, for now, seemed like it would be using the pre-made trap menu and going with some of the modifications it offered. It might not have been the most original option, granted, but it was right there in the middle. He would give it a try and see how it worked out. After all, as long as the core wasn’t destroyed, then he could keep trying new things.

So, that would be his first order of business later, securing the core even more. He wanted to make sure that even if they went through the wall, they wouldn’t find the core. That meant a double-blind bluff. He would hide the core behind a second wall, with another treasure chest where it currently was. He would extend the size of the room if he needed to.

If the cultivators ever got around to breaking the wall, all they would find is a hidden treasure chest. The second wall behind it would be even thicker and less likely to break so as not to draw their attention. It was probably too much work, especially when he could simply make the first wall thicker instead. But doing it this way would give him a better sense of overall peace and safety.

With those thoughts in mind, he pulled up all six screens for the dungeon, and after checking on his resources, set to work.

The last room of the dungeon before monsters and beasts could leave had originally been a fairly simple affair. The traps inside it had been a pressure-plated barbed spear trap floor with an incredibly sensitive spike wall setup that extended all around. If you had breathed on the wall, it would have gone off. And yet, it hadn’t been enough.

He had watched the human cultivators practically dance their way through it. All because they had been able to depend on their companion to activate the traps first.

The first thing he needed to do then was split each room into quadrants or sections. There would be no more of this whole room activation nonsense, at least not for the smaller traps. After that, he would add a reset timer to them. That way, even if they were activated, the spears would retract after a few seconds and shoot up again. It wasn’t a problem all the traps suffered from either, but he had made a note of the ones it did affect.

This way, while the last room still had the same traps for the most part, the room now had nine sections to it. With each trap in those areas being activated independently of the next. It increased the cost dramatically since he was, in essence, creating the same trap mechanism nine times instead of just once on a large scale.

Still, he believed it was worth it.

That was only a simple modification he had made using the trap menu. There were other options that he wanted to try out in some of the other rooms. For now, he wanted to take things slowly and keep the changes to a minimum for each room. It would be impossible to know which new options worked and which didn’t if he just tried them all out at once in the same room.

He was just finishing up with placing the new traps in the room when his mother called him down for dinner. With what he had been doing, he hadn’t even had time to cultivate the last couple of days. It would take him away from continuing his work, but he needed to at least do a little after eating.

Assuming, of course, George didn’t show up.

Nate was always hopeful that the pleasant guild master would. He brought some rather obvious benefits each time he showed up, but he was also a genuinely nice fellow to be around. His own grandparents had died when he was young, on both Earths, and while he was hesitant to call George something of that nature. A hesitant uncle might work.

He didn’t really want to quantify and define what they had going on though. People tended to do that so they could get more benefits from someone. He was already in debt to George as it was. If he suddenly started calling him uncle, outside of the cringe factor, it would be too much. It would be a friendship built on lies, and that was not how he wanted to live his life.

He didn’t want to be someone who used his friends. Nate had known those sorts of people in the past, and the friendships they built were shallow and never lasted long. They weren’t real. That wasn’t what he wanted.

He had been alone when he died, granted through no real fault of his own. However, this time he wanted to be surrounded by people he could depend on and that cared for him.

“You got here early this time,” He said with a grin, noticing that George was indeed there and already sitting at the table. In the past, he had arrived while they were eating or right afterward.

“I thought I would join you all today, and share some news that just came down the pipeline.” The older man told him somewhat solemnly.

“You make it sound like the news isn’t good.” He sat at the lone open seat and began making his simple taco. It wasn’t quite as tasty as what he would have gotten on Old Earth, simply because they didn’t have access to all the required herbs and spices. Just like he would likely never taste a decent curry again for the same reason.

When the dimensional zones had appeared and cut off trade routes, spices had been one of the first things hoarded by people. Unfortunately, nothing lasted forever and all those hoarded supplies had long since been used over the years.

“I’m afraid that’s because it’s not.” George took a moment to chew, covering his mouth, before speaking again. “These are quite good. Thank you for letting me eat with you.”

“Anytime, Mr. Trellow, you know that,” Nina replied with a smile.

“And you know to call me George,” He returned with a smile of his own that fell off a second later. “The Turners and Petersons attacked the structure surrounding the portal with some of their cultivators earlier. For whatever reason, Pritchley didn’t participate, and frankly, it’s to his family’s benefit that they didn’t.”

Nate’s father inhaled sharply and leaned back from the table. “Are they insane? How has its creator reacted?”

George took another bite before answering. “I don’t know how the structure’s creator has reacted, and yes, I think they are all insane. However, this has brought something interesting to light.”

Nina motioned for him to continue when he paused to eat. “Don’t make me take that plate away from you, George.” She threatened him.

He huddled protectively around the plate and swallowed. “Fine. I don’t have all the details yet, but apparently, the team that went inside, found some treasure chests. Sooo, it would seem like the creator expected people to go inside at some point. Of course, in their excitement, they reportedly destroyed a fair bit of the interior. Something that was serving to keep back the monsters that were always appearing, even while they were inside.”

“What’d they do, release some kind of report?” Nate wondered.

“Actually, yeah,” George sat back with a sigh, seeming to have lost his appetite. “The two families spent most of the morning putting together a report and then sent it out to a few of us. There is one more important piece of information that was included in the report. It’s bigger on the inside.”

Both his parents dropped their food and stared at George in shock. “They messed with someone who has the ability to impart a spatial concept onto a building?” Niall whispered.

“What were they thinking, releasing that report?” His mother’s voice was hoarse. “No one is going to work with them once that becomes known. We’re talking about a cultivator even stronger than we thought before.”

“Which is exactly why they released the report,” George told them softly. “They knew they were doomed, and that the truth would come out, eventually. This was their version of damage control, by releasing everything they had learned all at once.”

“Is that going to work?” Nate had lost his own appetite. He hadn’t realized just how impressive what the dungeon was doing until just that moment.

“It might mitigate it some, but I doubt they’ll ever be the powerhouses they were even a week ago.” George smiled at him wryly. “Congratulations Nate, two of the families that attacked you have now fallen to ruin. Not quite how I imagine you thought you’d be getting your revenge on them, but in my opinion, at least it still counts. It’s never a good idea to kick someone too much when they’re down. If they ever do manage to pick themselves back up, they’ll remember what you did to them then.”

He nodded mutely and stared down at his plate, lost in thought.