Dungeon of Doors

The last time I saw Teddy this excited, we were entering the dungeon for the first time. He's all smiles and energy today. Finding out the dungeon isn't gone, just buried, really turned his mood around. I can't say the same for the rest of the folks gathered here. Some look skeptical of our words while others bear hope in their eyes.

"Right there! That's where we found it!"

With a confident smile and a swagger in his step, my cousin approaches the mound of rubble and soil. The men and women we brought inspect the overturned rubble with furrowed brows. They're having trouble seeing what Teddy is talking about.

"Don't see nothing but a bunch of rocks, kid."

"Were you pullin' our leg? This isn't something to joke about!"

Teddy shakes his head quickly. He hefts a shovel in both hands, shoving the head of it into the dirt. With several hurried motions he begins to unearth the stone we found buried under the earth. Slowly, minute by minute, Teddy reveals the overturned door frame to the dungeon. The onlookers go from scowling to wide eyed as they watch.

"There! Hah, see! The door is just fine."

The people we brought here start to get closer to the door. Some of them poke at it and touch the stone, searching for any obvious breaks or fractures. While cracked and dull the door lacks any true breaks in its structure. Some of the more skeptical quickly find something to complain about.

"This door is lying down. All we can see is stone on the other side, so how are we supposed to get into it?"

I almost want to step in to defend Teddy. While I was as negative as this woman when Teddy first began digging for the dungeon, seeing it made me realize we had a chance to get something out of it. Teddy doesn't need defending, though. He's quick to explain himself.

"That's why I brought everyone. With our strength combined we just might be able to lift it!"

There's a few dry chuckles from the men and women gathered. No one here is particularly large in stature, no more fit than your average soldier at best. The idea we could somehow use nothing but our willpower and our strength to lift the door is a fantasy.

I didn't want to admit it, but maybe they're right to be skeptical. Even if the door is intact, we can't just lift it with our bare hands. The door is massive. What's more, how are we even going to profit from the dungeon? Back when the guild was around we could at least easily trade things we got from inside for money. Now there's nothing, and even trying to attract merchants would lead to the church getting involved again.

"Kid, that will never work."

Agreeing mumbles from the gathered further reinforce how impossible the task is. There's no way for us to lift it. Despite that clear impossibility, Teddy stands up straighter and argues for his plan to simply move it ourselves.

"We must try. At least once, we must give it all we've got."

The way he's talking resonates with more than half of the people. I find myself grinning despite not believing it will work. He's right, isn't he? We should at least give it a try before we call it quits. We've already brought everyone here.

"Fine, kid. We'll help."

One of the older men decides to pitch in. The folks he's brought with him follow his lead, and so the majority is participating. The others decide they may as well join in for an attempt if everyone is doing so. It's just sporting to do so.

~

Something rather strange is happening on the surface. The adventurers--and some unfamiliar faces--are gathered around the overturned door to Woodrin. They're planning to lift it up with their bare hands. What they plan to do with the door once it is upright, I do not know, but what I do know is that I want their crazy plan to succeed.

Adventurers returning to Woodrin would be a huge boon for me. So, I may as well throw them a bone, right? It will be worth the mana sink.

The group starts to grab onto the door, as many hands on the stone frame as possible. I start by sealing the door so they can't go into it just yet. My mana fuses stone over the portal they can't yet see on the bottom side of the frame. I etch runes into the stone, the kind that ensure those that look upon the door know it will soon open. Hopefully this will prevent them from thinking it's shut for good.

They're starting. Less than thirty people are attempting to lift a stone door so big it rivals a house in height. There's no way they can possibly do it. Without my help, that is.

Mana flows out into long tendrils. The amount of mana being used is staggering, since I'm brushing right against people, but I manage to grab and start to lift the door alongside them. It's funny watching their faces contort with shock as they raise the door off the ground.

"My God! It's working!"

"Amazing! Let's get it moving, people!"

I watch, still forcing my mana under the door to lift it up, as they start carrying it away from the site of the explosion. I didn't expect them to try and move it. One familiar young man, Teddy, is their leader. The short boy is helping as much as he can as he eggs everyone on.

Apparently this whole ordeal was his doing. They have a plan, and from what I can tell they intend to move the door to Woodrin somewhere more secure. They're moving toward Daywark, where exactly in Daywark I can't say. While my influence has spread to encompass Daywark I can't possibly pick out which building they might be heading to.

Several agonizing minutes pass. My mana drains, reserves depleting far too fast to keep track of as they haul the door into an unguarded Daywark gate in the poorer side of town. I'm getting dizzy when they finally set it down, placing the door against a wall in the basement of a house in the back alleys of Daywark.

Thank goodness they stopped when they did, because I'm basically out of mana.

My focus leaves Daywark, moving quickly back to my core room, and into my body. The vertigo is a bit nostalgic. I don't often feel so drained these days. The constant trickle of mana from my living inhabitant usually keeps me from running empty.

Speaking of my inhabitants, I should probably go check on them...

Unfortunately I have far too much on my plate! Woodrin isn't ready for adventurers in its current state. Things need to be patched, renovated, and the level design needs to be molded to suit adventurers better.

There are countless residents I should meet with. The gremlins and I haven't met in a long while, Silva and Pearl haven't had any real one on one time with me lately, the sea dragon in Farumi has yet to see my face, and I'm not sure what the wildkin might need as of right now.

I really need some structure around here. Hopefully I can delegate some tasks and duties to Silva and Pearl at a later time. For now, I need to prepare Woodrin... but where will I get the mana for it? I can't just conjure mana from thin air.

My brows furrow as I think it over a bit more. Conjuring mana isn't possible, but attaining it isn't limited to waiting for it to accumulate.

Reaching out, I grab my nearly empty core. The sensation of leaving my body quickly fades as I move my focus deep beneath my dungeon's many cavernous chambers. The earth around them is vast, solid, made from stone and minerals. Everything is made of mana in a way. Each time I carve a new room I absorb and carve stone. Each time that mana from the stone is used in construction of the cleared space.

What if I just clear stone for mana gain?

Can't hurt to try. I reach out and start to pull at the stone deep beneath Woodrin. Boulder sized chunks vanish into seemingly nothing. I absorb them, turning the rock and various materials into mana. As the space I empty expands I have to keep it from collapsing. Voidium is used as support for the earth above, while I continue to eat away at the surrounding rock.

Soon enough I've got more than enough mana to work with. I feel energized, pride swelling in me at the new method for mana collection. It's finite, but it should help me when I need to expand in a pinch.

Starting Woodrin's renovations is simple. The antechamber needs cleaning, and to be fully restored. I smooth cracks, clear debris, and fix the tree sculpture. Once the antechamber looks presentable it is time to move onto Green Valley, the first level of Woodrin.

Green Valley is really outdated at this point. When I created it I was blinded by grand visions of an underground world, and I failed to consider how adventurers would traverse the space and what they might get out of it. Very little in way of direction and rewards makes this level little more than an empty lot.

To fix the issue I start by adding a path. Stones laid into the earth form a winding trail, starting at the gazebo where adventurers emerge from, leading to the edge of Fair Plateau. At the plateau edge I add a rope ladder. The sturdy construction doesn't completely disrupt the original terrain, but it allows adventurers to get up and down the cliff edge. At the bottom I continue the cobble stone path. It crosses the river--a wooden construction bridges the gap--then continues winding through Swarm Forest. The path finally ends at the overgrown door which leads to Wildwood.

Rather than leave the door I break it down, replacing it with a mural. I prefer not having multiple doors leading to the same place. Too many possibilities for an accident. Instead this mural and a treasure chest will do. The chest I bind with emertal, the green tinted metal of the forest. Within the chest I place a heap of copper coins and a dungeon lantern.

With this final reward and the hidden chest off the beaten path, Green Valley has a more direct design. Though there is one thing I've left aside for far too long.

At the very bottom of Toad Lake there is a door. It is sealed, covered by stone, and not connected to anything. The eroded algae covered ruins it rests in have gone undiscovered all this time. No adventurer has even looked in the lake for fear of the goliath toads.

Since this door is so hidden, yet in such an early part of the dungeon, I have a unique idea for it. I won't simply remove it or replace it with treasure. Instead I will link it to an unexpected area. I begin by knitting the space of the door frame elsewhere. After a few concentrated moments the door is connected to another identical door in Aquartis. Behind the waterfall in Rushwater Canyon there is a still undiscovered obelisk, and behind that obelisk there is a submerged door I've just added. These doors connect to form a shortcut between Woodrin and Aquartis.

Now, do I think adventurers will find this anytime soon? No. Not at all.

But the idea is someday they might. And when they realize they have a way to travel over fifty kilometers just by swimming through a door, my dungeons just might draw even more traffic.