Chapter Three / Secure the Work

In inexperienced hands swinging the blade had no merit, but in Arn’s he felt a compulsion. A need to remember movements, skills that seemed to resonate with his high sword ability. There was, however, something else. Something deeper. Arn examined the blade from tip to pommel and looked at its description once more: Blade of the Dark Lord. It had no special stats, no abilities linked to its usage. It’s a simple sword. That’s all it is.

The blade felt heavier as he swung it, heavier and heavier. Fatigue. Arn thought. Yet, he felt no more tired than when he first started. He looked again at the blade, his masked features showing upon its face. Something squirmed then in the shadow of the blade, coiling around its face onto his features: a tide of black that covered its face entirely. Arn threw the blade away in fear, the metal clanging against the ground as it skipped across the stone floor.

A feeling of panic raced across Arn’s chest and he quicky raised his right hand. Instinctively commanding with his thoughts: Return. The blade jumped into the air then flew towards him with the hilt facing him. It stopped just before his hand, and he took hold of it – its face gleaming once again. When he cast aside the blade it felt as if he had thrown away his own arm.

His commanding of the blade made Arn wonder if perhaps his Authority ability had more than one use. He looked at the large chunk of ceiling still resting upon the floor, and commanded: Return. The ceiling chunk jolted off the ground and sailed towards the spot it fell from. It slid into place, and the ceiling was whole once more – as if it hadn’t ever been without it.

The gleam on the blade’s face turns with his hand, towards the throne, and a bright white nearly blinds him. Arn turned around and faced the source of the blinding white. Surprise crosses his shadowed face: a white tree is perched atop a small mound of dirt behind the throne. It’s small, which may be why he hadn’t seen it before, but its roots dug deeply into the ground below it. Arn approaches it and kneels to examine it. Its small branches and young leaves are wet with dew, and a chill emanates around it like an aura.

Arn’s mind wanders as he looks upon the white sapling. How strange a thing. Something like this wouldn’t be natural in the world I come from. Arn stood from his kneeling position. What is natural here then? Am I natural? I need answers.

“Answers.” A voice whispered and sent a shiver up Arn’s spine.

Arn turned towards the direction of the voice – at the back of the room.

A doorway, cragged in distorted rock like a cave entrance, shadowed in black and socketed into the wall.

“Answers.” Again, the voice whispered.

Arn approached the doorway, but the black of the entry way didn’t recede. Instead, it grew darker, darker than night itself.

“Answers. Arn.”

He reached into the black with his right hand, and it disappeared beyond it. Arn pulled his hand, but it didn’t budge. He yanked and yanked. Suddenly he felt a yank forwards. It began swallowing his arm. Wait, wait! His thoughts raced. He planted his feet, digging his heels, and pulled but it pulled him more into the black.

“Gel!” Arn screamed, “Gel!”

Before his face was swallowed into the dark.

 

“My Lord! My Lord!” Gelicarus yelled behind him.

Arn turned to face Gelicarus.

“Are you alright, my Lord? I’ve been calling out to you for some time, but you’ve been standing here staring into nothing.” Gelicarus asked genuinely concerned.

Arn turned back to the dark doorway and then looked at his arm – which was where it was supposed to be.

“Yes, sorry. Just lost in thought.” Arn answered.

Gelicarus appeared unconvinced, but didn’t press further: “Very well, my Lord. I came to inform you the rooms you prepared are now constructed.”

“I see, then I will assign a unit of skeletons to the Storage Room to fulfill the orders you request from them.” Arn said quickly, walking away from the scenery behind the throne and to the map.

There was a noticeable change with the map layout, it was more detailed and propped up from the normal flat view of the dungeon. He was able to see most of the details of the dungeon; the walls were high and the units within them small. With a tame green glow, Arn was able to select an individual unit of the skeletons he had assembled and move them to the now finished Storage Room. The skeletons would now supply any room that requested materials.

“The skeletons now await whatever you request for materials.” Arn said looking at Gel beside him.

“Thank you, my Lord. I will begin production in the Smithy immediately. As a reminder, however, I am not a smith, and my work will be crude at best.” Gelicarus said.

“That will suffice for now. Thank you, Gel. Your work will propel us into the future.”

“I am humbled by your kind words, my Lord. I will work to be worthy of them.” Gelicarus said with a smile and a bow.

Gelicarus left the throne room, the stone doorway closing behind.

Arn looked at the layout of the dungeon, noting the details with the better overview. The Covetous worked diligently to fulfil his requests to dig out as far into the sides of the dungeon as possible, their work already having progressed beyond the previously known border. The size of the dungeon was staggering before, but the ever-expanding border led Arn to believe he could possibly fit an entire country on this floor – perhaps, even an entire continent. Arn’s mind was already at work planning out how he would divvy up quadrants of the space he had to fit specific rooms until he could expand to other floors.

Arn’s attention moved to his Dark Lord skill tree, his suspicions surrounding the new map layout being correct: his Domain had increased in level. This allowed a clearer view of his dungeon, but also several new rooms: Woodcutter’s Camp, Mining Camp, Kitchen, and Dining Hall. The Kitchen, and Dining Hall were self-explanatory, but the Woodcutters, and Mining camps appeared to be more expansionist in origin. While creating them as an example, Arn discovered that these specific “rooms” required resources in their vicinity.

The camps had Arn hoping for resources on this floor of the dungeon, even if it was little. Arn also noticed, however, that his insight had increased a level on his character sheet. Whether that was good or bad had yet to be seen.

For the time being, Arn set up build orders for a Dining Hall which would take up the area closest to the waiting room just before the Throne room, and above the newly erected storage room. The Dining Hall occupied both sides of the middle area, thus disallowing another room beside it, but Arn placed a Kitchen just below the Dining Hall and behind the Storage Room. This created several interlocking doorways leading from room to room and allowed the Storage Room to supply the Kitchen directly without having to move around the other hallway. Creating these rooms required minimal resources thankfully, but his dwindling supply was beginning to create stresses on Arn’s mind. He had enough iron and wood to complete the weapons and shields he required for his skeleton army, but he will have gone through most of it.

His orders would require time, so Arn decided to wander the halls. The walls of the hallways were a crude brick cobblestone, along with the floors. The ceiling was simply the same stone that was being dug out, with iron candelabras hanging down and iron sconces upon the walls to illuminate the halls. Eventually, Arn thought, these would need to be refined to be more appealing to the eye. A group of Covetous worked on digging out the rooms Arn had designated, and Arn moved past them into the right hallway. Arn followed the hallway east, trailing the path the Covetous were digging. The hallways appeared to form behind the Covetous and didn’t require additional resources to make basic cobblestone, perhaps because of their unrefined look.

It was a mundane trip east. He walked for what seemed like hours before coming upon the Covetous at the end of the hall. Three of the Covetous bore away at the stone, the other two perhaps busy working on the rooms. Arn approached the ground just as they were finishing another chunk of rubble when the rubble behind collapsed further, and a dark opening appeared. A gust of air billowed out of the opening, the air smelling of a familiar scent: sap. Arn proceeded past the group of Covetous who parted and stood by the entry way, and he entered through the opening.

Light. Arn was unsure if commanding a light source would work, but a bright white orb appeared in the air above and illuminated the space. Huge tendrils of wood roots cut through the rock ceiling above a cavernous room, their size almost just as wide as the hallways, and dug through the ground below. Arn couldn’t tell how many there were in space, but many were present and perhaps were also in the surrounding rock around the room. Piles of rock were also present below the roots in the floor and laced in between. Arn approached the rocks, and his system identified it as iron.

Arn sighed with relief. Like any RTS the starting area always has a starting resource point.

With this amount of abundant wood and iron, Arn had a stable resource for his growing dungeon. Arn turned to the opening, and like rushing tide of water the rock was refined into cobbled brick floors and iron sconces surrounded the walls. The refinement, however, ceased at the roots and iron deposits. No longer needing his light source, Arn commanded it to cease – the iron sconces now illuminating the room. Arn also learned through this that the basic look of his hallways was automatic. As he commanded the dungeon, it grew to further its influence – his influence at work on the world around him. It was a bit disturbing to see the environment change in seconds.

Arn stepped back through the opening, now a large archway, and into the hallway. He looked at the Covetous who knelt in front of him.

“You are to build two rooms, a Woodcutter’s Camp above, and a Mining Camp below.” Arn said pointing at the designated areas. “They are to be no larger than one another, at a basic four by five block area. Understood?”

The Covetous gave a nod and an inhuman groveling whine to confirm his command, then set about their work. Arn made his way back to the main area, he had several hours to make his way back. He was excited to see the new rooms.

After several hours walking back, Arn thought it prudent to enter the Dining Hall first. Upon entering the room, he smelled an alluring aroma. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he felt the pangs of hunger fester in his stomach. The room had the same look as the hallway, iron sconces and black iron candelabras hung from the ceiling. Several long wooden tables were set in the middle of the room, accompanied by several long benches which could seat several people. It was more like a cafeteria hall, but perhaps that was to be expected. A stew sitting in a wooden bowl on the table wafted the aroma.

Gelicarus entered the room from the Kitchen doorway and smiled.

“Ah, my Lord. I thought it would be a good idea to make a stew. You must be hungry by now.” Gelicarus said holding another bowl.

“Hmm. I guess I am hungry.” Arn said looking hungrily at the stew.

Arn walked over to the table and sat down, taking off his mask and setting it upon the table to his right. Gelicarus took a seat across from him and watched. The stew appeared to be of tiny pieces of chopped ham, potatoes, and sliced green beans. It was a basic stew, but Arn was hungry. He picked up the iron fork and began eating. Gelicarus waited for his Lord to commence eating before beginning on his own stew.

“Ah, just what I needed. I don’t know when I last ate anything. Good work, Gel.” Arn said.

“It’s just made of the simple ingredients we had laying around. It’s certainly not fit to be consumed by a monarch, my Lord. I apologize for the lack of flavor.” Gelicarus said.

Arn had no retort, as he was busy cramming his face.

“There’s more if you would like any.” Gelicarus said.

Just before Arn could ask for me, a ringing sound pierced through his skull. Arn stood in a panic.

“My Lord?! What is it?!” Gelicarus worriedly asked.

“We’re under attack.”