A Dungeon’s Survival

Cameron

I messed up. It wasn't the fire resistance. That worked perfectly and had caught my most regular adventurers off guard. It also wasn't the fact that I'd increased my mana usage yet again. That was troublesome, but with the increase to my experience gain it brought with it, it had been worthwhile. No, my mistake was in how I'd immediately shoved the two new aspects I'd gotten onto my Bloodthorn Vines without even considering the possibility of what came next.

[Achievement: Aspect Infused

Description: You have imbued a single monster with 5 separate aspects.

Reward: You have gained a random aspect from the monster without losing it!]

Luckily, the achievement's reward hadn't resulted in a single-monster buff. Had that been the case, I would've immediately lost it. Instead, I had gained another new aspect, but the issue lied in the accidental way I'd gotten the achievement. If I had been prepared for it, I would've made sure to shove all of my aspects onto something more broadly useful first. A Shade Lurker would have been best.

I hadn't done that, though. Instead, I had blindly thrown my achievements onto the modified Bloodthorn Vines and was rewarded with a random aspect from the monster. That could've still worked out. The monster had plenty of useful abilities after all. Blood Sense, Blood Drinker, Blood Siphon, Blood Thinner, or even Symbiotic Power, I would've been thrilled to be able to give any of those abilities to my other monsters as I pleased.

The problem was that, despite that being the way I'd used the power exclusively up until now, Aspect Extraction wasn't anywhere near that limited of a trait. In some ways, it could function similarly to my Monster Customization but in a more limited capacity. That was a functionality of it I'd yet to touch on.

[Trait: Aspect Extraction

Description: Monsters are tools to you, their parts interchangeable. You may sacrifice your ability to summon monsters of a given species and all of their related evolutions to extract an aspect from them. For a cost of addition DP, you may imbue any monster with the extracted aspect. Aspect Upgrades will be unlocked as an available focus option. You can not acquire a species of monster you have already extracted an aspect from later on through any means.]

Nowhere in the trait's description did it specify that abilities were all that it could extract. The only thing it required was for an aspect to be shared among the entire species, and the achievement I'd gotten had seemingly bypassed even that limitation. What it ended up taking from my boss monster was the most useless thing it could have: a modification that I had personally made to it.

[Aspect: Extra Appendages

Cost: 20 DP

Description: A modification that doubles the amount of a selected type of appendage that a monster has.

Effect: When applying this aspect, select a type of appendage. The amount the monster has doubles.]

Not only was it redundant, it was expensive. I'd thought the last two aspects I'd unlocked were bad, but the cost of this one made them seem reasonable in comparison. Flame Gel Excretion had ended up costing ten Dungeon Points to apply. It was costly but worth it. Record Memory, my other new aspect that I'd gotten from something called an Echo Crystal, was slightly cheaper with a cost of eight. Considering that all that one did was make it possible to remember a minute per hour in perfect detail, I'd thought that was overpriced, yet Extra Appendages showed me how wrong I had been.

Twenty DP was more than double the cost of the four additional vines that my boss had, and it was only slightly better in terms of mana usage. Sure, I ended up paying significantly more than that due to the modifications I'd made to each of the extra appendages, but I couldn't see that being any different regardless of whether the vines I was modifying were from Monster Customization or Aspect Extraction.

That meant, unless the amount of extra vines scaled off of the number I manually added to it beforehand, something I hadn't been able to check yet due to mana constraints, the aspect was completely useless. The only use case I could think of that could possibly save me resources was if, for some reason, I decided that I needed a spider with sixteen legs. I didn't see that happening.

Since that was case, I had no choice but to move on and let the missed opportunity go. It was annoying, but there was little I could do about it. There was also little I could do about anything else for the time being. For the first time since I'd been ripped from my past life into the dark void that housed me before I wound up in this world, I was left with absolutely nothing that needed to be done. It felt wrong, but I was coping. That's how I found myself where I did now.

Rook to h five, I said.

The Lizard Man blacksmith, not preoccupied with anything else of too much importance, moved a small, rock game piece across a black and white stone board. Afterward, the seconds ticked by in silence.

“Queen to,” Vie paused for a moment as she spoke, “e seven.”

We were playing chess, and in spite of the fact that I had only just taught my opponent the rules the day before, she was picking up the game fast. It was both impressive and annoying. I glared at the bishop she had just positioned her queen to protect while simultaneously getting it out of my rook's line of fire.

Pawn to b four.

“Rook to g one.”

And, I lost my knight.

Well played, I sighed internally.

As if losing in cards to a blind opponent wasn't bad enough, I was now losing in chess to a complete beginner. I was no expert at the game, only having just barely been able to recreate a setup from memory alone, but it was enough to make me feel bad about myself. I also felt immense pride in my darling strategist in the making, but that couldn't fully win out against my disappointment in myself.

“You've got this, mother!” Pee exclaimed as she watched.

Vie blankly stared at her sister for a moment before asking, “Weren't you just cheering for me?”

“I'm cheering for you both!”

I chucked as my opponent shook her head at her sister's antics. Moments like these were nice. I was glad I that I could enjoy them for a time.

[Your Plated Gator (Level 1) was slain! No experience gained.]

And, it was interrupted.

Hold on a second, I said as I absentmindedly turned my attention toward my lowest level.

I quickly summoned the Horned Dracos there and granted the boss its aspects before freezing.

Wait, no experience gained?

That wasn't right. Even if Flur or Lance were the ones to kill it and not the less experienced adventurers in their group, I still got a few points at least. I turned my attention toward the bog room and my mind stopped working. I recognized that berserker.

Vie, Pee, Adraugon, Archie, Prism, get ready. We have a problem!

The heart of my Dungeon sprung into action at my words, but all I could do was stare at the invader. Her armor was cracked. She was alone. Dried blood coated her, and from the way she roared as she moved, I wasn't fully convinced her mind was still intact. She had clearly seen better days, but that did nothing to make her any less imposing of a presence, especially not after what I'd learned about her class from Lawrence's book.

Frantically grasping for anything that could make the oncoming assault easier to defend against, I threw the, in my opinion, useless aspect onto the boss and started dumping the Bloodthorn Vines' experience pool into it. Sixty-five thousand, almost all of the points from the reserve, later, it was at level thirteen. Then, I grasped for any free DP and mana that I had left and went to shove it into the monster to get it up to level fifteen. I quickly found that I didn't even have enough to raise its level to fourteen. All of the imbued aspects were adding to the cost, and it was too much.

I kicked myself for giving the useless ones to the boss before actually reading the notification I'd gotten. I'd become too lax. I cursed myself. Then, I actually took in the sight of the monster. As it turned out, that last aspect I'd gotten had been far better than I expected it to be. Not only did the boss now have sixteen vines instead of eight, but the new appendages also came with the manual upgrades I'd applied to the others.

Huh, I found myself thinking, maybe that wasn't too bad of an aspect after all.

* * *

Flur

Alarm bells were ringing. It was here. I had no clue what it was. All I knew was that it had old man Gyle acting even more irritably than usual for the past week as he stressed over it, and it had supposedly been cutting off our communications with nearby settlements as it slowly moved in our direction. I rushed to the gate as adrenaline coursed through me. When I got there, my jaw dropped and I couldn't help but to stare.

“What?” I mumbled the question.

I knew in concept what I was looking at. I'd even seen a couple in my time, but I couldn't begin to reconcile the stories I'd heard and my own experiences with the sight before me.

“Is this supposed to be a monster horde?”

It was a phenomenon that occasionally occurred when a powerful monster took up territory somewhere new and disrupted the local ecosystem. Weaker monsters fled and amassed into stampedes. They were dangerous occurrences, but they weren't supposed to last for long, certainly not over a week. Then, to add to the confusion of the matter, there were the monsters in this one.

“This isn't right.”

“No, it's not,” a voice broke me from my stupor.

I looked up and saw the branch head standing beside me.

“What is this?” I asked.

“A monster horde.”

“I can tell that much, but why is it like, well, this?”

I stared out at the mass of rodents, bugs, and other monsters I was certain wouldn't award me any experience for killing. I knew the monsters were sparse around Firmsoil, but this was ridiculous. There should have at least been some stronger monsters. Grave Wolfs, Rage Boars, and even the rare second-tier Onikumas were native to the area. Why weren't any of those around?

“Because,” my boss answered me, “this isn't a natural monster horde. This is artificial.”

My blood ran cold. I looked back and forth between him and the incoming monsters.

“I don't suppose you'd like to clarify?”

“There are only scraps left. Whatever caused this killed anything stronger than what remains. Either a powerful monster is passing through, hunting for experience rather than food, or somebody is. Whichever is the case, it changes nothing. There's something dangerous heading this way, and it has no regard for mortal life.”

I clenched my daggers and looked around.

“Where's my team? They should be here by now.”

“I sent them away already.”

I turned and stared at the man.

“What?”

“They're heading to the Dungeon,” he clarified.

That made sense. He wanted us to protect the Dungeon. Between him and the old alchemist, it didn't matter what had caused the horde. They could handle it.

“Got it,” I said as I nodded and made to go after them.

“Wait,” the sound of his voice stopped me in my tracks.

I paused and turned back to him.

“Huh?”

“I want you here,” he said, “Sir Peter and I can handle it if the town is attacked by nearly anything, and the greenhorn adventurers should be able to hold their own against foes this weak. We can't be everywhere at once, though, and they can only fight for so long without getting sloppy and making mistakes. All it would take is one enemy getting through to cause casualties. You're well suited to handling hordes of weak monsters, so we need you here. Head to the north gate. Do what you can.”

I puffed out my cheek at his words. I didn't like leaving my team to fend for themselves, but orders were orders, and I was loath to risk the town if I was needed here, so reluctantly, I gave a salute and started running.

Ugh, I thought as I ran, looks like I'm not getting any experience today.