A Dungeon’s Survival

Connie

I would've been lying if I claimed not to have reservations about what was to come, but if being a Summoned Hero had taught me anything, it was that the title meant little. I was no hero. I was a mess of a person who'd killed countless invaders in order to protect what I cared about. I was fallible. I'd made mistakes, and I personified none of the values I thought a real hero should. That was why I felt comfortable setting my current plan into motion despite the fact that it was another Hero I was up against.

“They're here.”

As soon as Loot's voice rang in my mind, I began setting things into motion. With an exertion of will, I started eating away at the stone walls throughout my second room that I'd set up as temporary precautions, and with a brush of my mind, I confirmed all of my pieces were in place.

Then, I responded, Got it. What's the verdict?

“They spotted me,” the Shade Lurker continued her report, “Both the girl and the old man looked directly at me.”

By old man, you mean?

“The alchemist.”

Ugh, I shuddered internally at that revelation.

His being here and having spotted her was less than ideal, but I couldn't do anything about that now. Instead, I focused on the valuable part of that information, the part I'd had Loot waiting at the entrance in order to confirm in the first place. At least one member of the invading party had Mana Sense. That wasn't ideal, but it'd been likely, and knowing ahead of time was critical.

Good work, I told her, Now, get into position.

“At once.”

If I still needed to breathe, I would've held my breath as I watched the group enter my first room. How things played out there would set the tone for this entire defense. I could only hope Archie's hard work had been worth it.

Barely a handful of moments after they'd filed in, one of the two Trentis in the room had been roasted alive by means of an electrical blast, and the other was promptly ripped apart by flying icicles. The Shadow Viper didn't last much longer. It was a massacre, not that I'd been expecting anything else. I'd left the room untouched, after all, both to lower their guards and to give them the following chance.

“What is it?” asked a pompously dressed man who, if the information Lawrence had delivered to us was accurate, was an ice mage by the name of Ivan Corvinus.

“It appears to be a low-grade permanent enhancer,” the woman I presumed to be Fable Aspenbow responded, “Either the baron was telling the truth, or this was planted here ahead of time.”

“Does it matter which it was?”

“No, not particularly. Our mission remains the same.”

That had been the confirmation I'd been waiting on.

Sorry, Archie. It looks like all your hard work wasn't enough.

Despite all the time he'd spent toiling away for the sake of successfully creating that concoction, it seemed it wouldn't be enough after all. I felt bad for my loyal alchemist. Still, his hard work hadn't been for nothing. So long as we made it through this, those enhancers would prove an invaluable weapon for us. Also, there was the achievement he'd been awarded after the ordeal, which had crucial to him getting the last of his work done.

[Achievement: Quality Craftsmanship

Description: One of your monsters has crafted something well beyond their current skill level.

Reward: The monster has gained the Reliable Crafting ability!]

[Ability: Reliable Crafting

Description: Materials reshape themselves in order to better suit your needs.

Effect: You gain an additional +10% room for error when crafting.]

None of that was relevant in the moment, though. With the invaders having rejected our peace offering, it was officially go time.

Noctis, you're up. Be fast. Loot, Vie, hold until my say so. Archie, be ready.

Even as I alerted the others of the situation, I put my newly freed up DP to work, creating the final Shade Lurker I could have at any given moment. Giving it the order to remain on standby, I waited for the group to advance to my second room. That was where we planned to strike.

It didn't take long. While the Hero and the female mage seemed cautious, the other mage was completely unconcerned with danger, and their giant seemed impatient to advance. At their urging, the group hurriedly made their way through the narrow tunnel into our hidden ambush zone. That was when we acted.

Now!

“There are mana sources moving around in the walls and ceiling!” Fable alerted her team a moment after I gave the order, but it was too late.

At my command, hell broke loose. A mindless Trenti plucked a Mandrake, and its ear-piercing, soul-rending cry deafened the invaders. Loot took that moment to activate the trap above.

Through the use of her Phase ability, she removed the only thing holding the newly hollowed out ceiling's massive storage of boulders back. The result wasn't the room collapsing in on itself, but it also wasn't far off, and shortly after, she mimicked the effect in the first room. As of this moment, retreat was off the table for our opponents. That was only beginning, though.

In order to get the most out of our surprise attack, we needed to throw everything we had at our enemies at once. The Mandrake's screech was enough to catch them off guard and buy us an opening, but aside from interfering with their ability to communicate with each other, I didn't expect much from the little plant monster's onslaught to their souls. The thing was just too weak and our opponents too strong. Instead, it was only our opening move.

In the chaos we'd sown, the others acted. In the forested edge of the room, Vie and Pee played their roles. At Vie's command, her Pack Leader ability being put to use, she ordered what unintelligent monsters I'd prepared into action. Meanwhile her sister tossed a burning stick into the pit below.

The effect was instant. As the flames came into contact with the explosive gas I'd stored in small pockets throughout the room, behind thin walls of stone I'd only just removed, the room lit up. Over these past few days, I'd had a few monsters producing a small but constant supply of Flame Gel, and now, it was being used as an accelerant. In a moment, I'd turned my second room from a more plant-heavy jungle than it'd initially been to a burning inferno.

That was Archie's cue. From above, through small holes in the ceiling, the unbound Trentis I'd been building up, a force over a dozen strong, began firing off Spore Waves at his command. I had no intention of letting the intelligent monsters engage in direct combat, but against such powerful opponents, direct combat would've been foolish anyway. Instead, we were using the environment to our advantage. Through the use of Mycokinesis, Archie could take control of the other Trentis' attacks, set them alight in the rapidly growing flames, and use them to spread fire wherever it was needed. That was his task in this encounter, which only left one key combatant in our initial engagement.

The Shade Lurker I'd created, weak and unintelligent, was my avatar for the time being. They shadowy monsters weren't good in direct combat, but in terms of utility, they were the best I had. Only making use of two of the three that were available to me would've been a waste, so I'd opted to summon that last one and to personally oversee its every action, the first of which was to further disorient our opponents. At my order, it moved.

“Cudgel,” the female mage yelled, her voice barely audible over the Mandrake's wailing, “Look out!”

I had the Shade Lurker pop its head out from the ground for only half a second. By placing it directly between the woman and the giant, I'd been hoping to bait out a bit of unintentional friendly fire. Unfortunately, though, she yelled out a warning instead. Seeing the failure in real time, I had it retreat back to the tunnels below the room. With the amount of light the fires were giving off, the thing's life was on a time limit, and I needed to make every second count.

Only a moment after it vanished, a large boulder crashed down from above, nearly landing directly on top the Hero. That was enough to disrupt his coordination with the others. A moment later, and he was the only one putting distance between himself and the entrance.

“Run!” his voice was lost the the noise of the room.

“Where'd it go?” the giant's, by merit of being louder, was audible, but the girl who could sense my Shade Lurker's presence either didn't respond in time, or her words failed to carry.

Either way, it didn't matter. The results were the same. In the brief few seconds my Shade Lurker was gone, I'd had it Phase into a small offshoot to my hidden tunnel network. From there, the time frame of its rapidly approaching death accelerated substantially. It was worth it to have it deposit a light-aspected Crystal Puffer right behind the giant, though.

The moment the shadowy monster was gone, life barely intact, I ordered the puffer to puff. A blinding light burst from the plant, and I informed Vie of the development. In response, she sent one of the dracos our way.

Unfortunately, it never made it. From her visible reaction, I was fairly confident Fable had been blinded by the flash, but her Mana Sense seemed to be on another level. A zap of electricity shot the lizard down midair even as her eyes were tightly shut.

Ugh, I groaned.

That was one Horned Draco down, and we'd only started the fight with two. Things seemed to be going better with the Hero. I was vaguely aware of Archie managing to dowse him with a new contact-based variant of the Minor Strength Sapping Poison, but that did nothing to hinder the other three. I had the perfect opening and no way to take advantage of it, or did I? I'd tried it before to no avail, but now that she was blinded and with how fast she'd reacted to the Horned Draco, I thought there might just be a chance, so I acted.

At my command, the Shade Lurker shot from the ground toward the mage. Obviously, there was nothing it could do to actually hurt her, but she didn't know that, and on the other side of the monster stood her hulking ally. All I needed was for her to fire at it, and she'd hit her teammate. Instead, however, she slammed her staff against the ground, and electricity rose up in a pillar in front of her. That was enough to do the lurker in. It was also enough of a distraction to take her and her friends' attention away from the falling rocks.

A massive boulder crashed down from above at an angle. It would've been better had it landed on top of one of them, but it was still enough to send the giant flying backward into the ice mage. Together, the two of them stumbled back into the narrow passage they'd taken to reach my second room, leaving the other mage alone. That was good enough.

Loot, hit it!

Surprisingly, the cave-ins had been simple to set up since I only had to carve away the stone around what I wanted to fall. As a result, I'd prepared three. The first had been designed to be slow and methodical in the hopes that it could separate at least one member of the group from the rest. The second, the one in my first room, had been massive with the intention to prevent retreat, but the third was much more straightforward. It was just a series of large stone pillars to block off the connection between the two rooms.

Ha!

Things had gone perfectly, far smoother than I'd anticipated. We'd divided. Now, it was time to conquer.

Vie, Pee, they're ready. It's the giant and ice mage.

Work delegated, I turned my attention to the woman. The Hero was who-knows-where with Archie and my mindless monsters to hold him off, and the other two were about to be far too busy to help. That left the squishy mage undefended and in a vulnerable position. I wasn't counting on it, but I figured if I could take her out here, things would get a lot easier.

Adraugon, you're up. Buy me a minute.

It was time to use my freed up DP to replenish my forces.