The goblin awoke from the realm of dreams; he greatly enjoyed his time there. It seemed that the god of fishing had also enjoyed their time together. Amand wondered if the gods got lonely too. He didn’t ponder over that for long, however; he had a long laundry list of activities to get to today. He stood up and headed out; he sat at the table in the kitchen. A breakfast of boar and mushrooms would do. Isolde showed him how the boar belly was especially tasty when sliced and fried.
The goblin took the time to cook the food this time; after all, he needed to stay in practice should he gain access to new ingredients. After cooking, eating, and inevitably cleaning, he moved to the hallway. He wanted to begin by testing something specific: could he close off the dungeon core from the rest of the dungeon? After all, there was a door in the way; how much different was that from a wall?
He began to erect a wall to cover the pathway into the main room but as soon as it was complete, he felt his mana rapidly draining. He could also feel that the dungeon was beginning to shrink; all the passages he had made were crumbling, so he quickly willed the wall away and the rumbling stopped.
Okay, so I cannot close off the dungeon core from the entrance; in his next attempt, he left an arm-sized hole in the wall and the dungeon remained intact. “I just need some connection!” The goblin thought he found a way around the situation of his exposed dungeon core.
Next, even with this in place, he needed to reinforce his defenses. He walked along the corridor; he could will it to twist and turn on the spot. The goblin found a couple of spots worth of a pitfall and constructed the pits and covered them in loose, crumbly flooring, just strong enough to hold itself up but not enough to support something large. He went to continue on his journey and then remembered what he had constructed.
I should probably make a path for me to get to the other side, thought the goblin, so he created some safe spots to tread on that were strong enough to support his weight and continued on his way. Similarly, he made a couple of spike traps connected to tripwires; he made those wires from spider silk and was pretty proud of how they came out. He even added a splattering of spider web just to make it seem more authentic. The goblin did try to make a couple of noose traps but they were just too obvious and he felt like an idiot making them.
So he moved on to something else; his dungeon, even with the added twists and turns, was far too linear. He needed to make some offshoots and distractions. He started creating branching paths, many of which looped back to the beginning or to certain traps, making the main path less obvious by enlarging the fake paths. After a couple of continuous hours of dungeon shaping, the goblin finally felt the tugs of mana deprivation returning to him. He smiled, satisfied at his hard day’s work. Armand began his journey back to the core.
Upon arriving, he retrieved his spear and went to his training room. Once again he went through the books' techniques, mimicking the poses and trying to master fluidly moving between them. That occupied his time for a few hours but inevitably his muscles reached exhaustion. He put up the spear and headed to the bath for probably one of the more enjoyable hours of his day. After finishing, he stepped to the closed passage, he willed it to open and he stepped into the main room, reclosing the passage as much as he could after the fact. Satisfied, he sat down into his armchair.
He decided to return to his previous reading, he decided to finish the book about adventuring through dungeons. Unfortunately, its contents were sufficiently lacking and disappointing in a multitude of fashions. Other than its theories of the origins of dungeons, the rest of the book was standard survival. Weak spots of certain monster types and how to disarm and avoid traps, which made him feel silly after all the effort he just went through. Nonetheless, he finished reading up on its contents and set it to the side. He leaned forward in his seat, something on his mind.
He needed to overcome the limitations of not having minions. Having guardians would make this whole endeavor much safer. He would begin tomorrow by visiting the cave and experimenting there. The goblin pulled out his latest distraction; he had to get better acquainted with the gardener who won a noble lady's heart. After all, after a hard day’s work, one had to reward oneself. He indulged in this pastime till his eyelids grew heavy and crawled into bed.
This night he was visited by the Grand Mother; she just held him in her embrace and gently cooed to him, like a bird caring for her chick. It was a little awkward to him but overall he couldn’t help but enjoy the experience. Goblins didn’t really get to experience maternal love, being mostly independent from birth. Once you were born, you belonged to the king, and no other loyalties extended beyond that.
The goblin awoke the next morning, normally an okay experience but he frowned as he felt the ache of mana drain across his body. He should be back to full capacity after a night of rest. He stood up; he had physically recovered and his mental faculties were as normal. Perhaps something happened; he extended his mind throughout the dungeon. Even without mana, he could perceive everything within this dimension as if it were the back of his hand. Nothing had changed. It couldn’t be... suddenly a thought struck him. The wall, perhaps it was causing some sort of obstruction; he immediately removed it, and he noticed an imperceptible amount of mana returning to him.
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The passage needs to be sufficiently large for mana to get to the core; perhaps that is why a direct connection was needed. Perhaps that is why the dungeon needed to be connected to the outside world, to draw in mana from the material plane to construct this world. He had never been able to feel his mana return to him either, at least not at this rate. It was faster than before; what had been grains of sand was now a trickle of mana. He had done some widening of passages; maybe it was allowing more mana to enter the dungeon and, in turn, recharge his power. He looked at the flames; a black orb had slowly been forming as he began enlarging the dungeon. It was now about the size of a small stone.
This warranted some changes in the architecture but for now he had to return to his original plans, of course after breakfast. An hour or so later, then he proceeded into caves; his mana was partially filled up now, not enough for his usual constructions but enough for some basic checks. First, he wondered if he could manipulate the cave. Stepping forth off the stone and onto the earthen floor, he breathed in. The air in here was a lot fresher, perhaps because of the foliage. He noted to himself that he should perhaps sprinkle some plants throughout the dungeon. The goblin stepped forth to the pool’s edge; he, of course, rolled multiple steps into one and had brought dishes for dual purposes. He began to wash and inevitably the fish came up to enjoy some free bits.
This was a perfect opportunity to see if he could control the more mundane creatures. Unlike the rest of his dungeon, this cave he could not see it, perhaps because he did not control it, so small steps were necessary. He decided to try controlling them by imagining them doing something, like when making new sections of the dungeon. He imagined them swimming in circles, but instead of the fish swimming in circles, some fish-like shapes appeared in the water and they began to spin in a circle, scaring the fish away. The goblin reached into the water and examined his handiwork; it was a very accurate rendition of a fish but felt like it was made of wood.
So he could still create new things in here but did not control them. Perhaps he could tame this cave ecosystem, he snapped as a bridge began to form over the water. He didn’t need to snap but he enjoyed it. The design was much like his others—over the top and intricate. It spanned across the water; he sent pillars down into the water at regular points for support. He walked as it materialized; the lake was not really that large, and it didn’t take much time or mana to manifest the bridge across. For the first time he saw the other side of the cave complex; there was a large dilapidated stone structure. Something told him that this was not an endeavor he should engage in empty-handed.
He outstretched his hand as a spear materialized into it. Better, but could be a little better, as he summoned a suit of leather armor around himself. The now armed goblin stepped onto the other side and took confident strides towards the structure. Armand approached the doorway; what was left of the original door was rotting and falling apart. He pushed his way through and entered the main room. He did not find the danger he expected but what was in there was quite unexpected; it was a throne room, and a decomposed skeleton sat upon said throne.
At the center of the throne room was a basin, at the bottom of which were several shattered black fragments. The pieces had finally come together. Dungeons were in random points in space, but when their cores were shattered, the structures within dissipated into the void. Sometimes these shattered fragments came in contact with another dungeon and became bound to it.
It was a stark reminder of a potential future of his should he fail to protect his dungeon core. He looked around the room but most of its contents had long rotted away. There was a gleaming dagger in the skeleton’s hand; he didn’t hesitate to swipe it. Respect for the dead was not one of his strong suits. The goblin also decided to gather the shards of the broken dungeon core; perhaps they could be helpful in some fashion. Walking out, he looked over the forest and grasslands; perhaps this used to be a controller dungeon. He wondered as he expanded the dungeon if he would find more fragments of dungeons.
He scoured some more but failed to find anything else of use so after an hour he decided to leave. As he walked out, he was greeted by several beasts, hungrily staring him down. He was not really in the mood to deal with them, so he just erected some walls and strolled out to the bridge. He kept on his way until he had returned to his own little paradise. He dismissed the weapon and armor he created and proceeded to return to the main room; the little excursion probably only lasted an hour but even that was exhausting.
As he entered, he felt the bag he was carrying shake; reaching in, he pulled out the shards of dungeon core. The pull of these shards was towards his own core; he decided to test with one small piece, letting it go and watching it fly into his intact core. It was like a drop of water falling into a puddle as the core rippled and returned to normal. So he continued to feed the pieces in one at a time. The core grew with every piece added and he could feel the cave system appearing in his mental bond.
The goblin tired of the steady testing and just inevitably poured all the remaining pieces out of his bag, all of which were pulled, almost magnetically, to his dungeon core. When the dust settled, he saw that the little black ball had grown about double in size; he could also feel everything in the cave ecosystem. There were boars, wolves, large lizards, and an entire thriving ecosystem of beasts. He focused in on a pack of wolves; he saw a little of pups being born, and he saw the eldest wolf draw his final breath.
A speck of white light flew from its body and returned to the dungeon core. That is when he noticed two other things, along with the little specks of light coming off the beasts: in his dungeon core here were two others. One was a flickering golden ball of light that faded in and out, struggling to maintain itself. Another ball of crimson emanated brightly and remained strong; when he focused in on it, he saw a curled-up figure, one that was familiar to him. It was the Intruder that nearly killed Isolde.
