As the night waned, the armies incursions diminished. Alexander was still watching the screens as his monsters took the interlude between parties to rest up, exchanging troops and maintaining their gear, for what there was of it. The front halls of the labrynth was awash in blood and bodies, after the first party had fallen two more had fallen prey to the orc and wolf rider ambushes, with the kobolds and goblins providing clean up on any stragglers that had sought to flee.
After the third party failed to leave, it appeared the commander had ordered his men back. Alexander didn't doubt that they were camped just beyond the entry. Sighing he rubbed his tired face, his eyes taking over the windows, there was no way the army would give up, even if it were thirty soldiers dead, they had far more to lay siege with, but it looked to Alexander that they were either waiting for back up, or that they had sent assassins in. He was wagering on the latter, while he didn't doubt that adventurers were on their way such a commander would hardly call in mercenaries before trying everything he or she could.
Tired as he was he adjusted the stance of the skeletons outside the core room, layering the undead observation range to trigger more minion involvement if any stealthier foes were detected while also leaving a safe path to lure the killers in. Jansea was looking bored in the core room, none of the soldiers had made it this far and she couldn't leave to get involved. Thus the succubus was sulking, lounging on his throne like some wastrel who had lost all purpose.
Shifting windows he checked his dungeon status, the dark dwarves were starting to produce copper at a slow pace, while their fellows had started on a small side room in the south eastern corner of the maze. Many of the injured monsters were crammed in there resting while waiting for the next attempt by the ones beyond the dungeon. Shifting his gaze to the dungeon management window he rubbed his temples. Killing the maids and peasants had initially earned him about two hundred and fifty merits each, so each of the initial hunters had afforded him two and a half goblins.
The trained soldiers were apparently double the worth, the first party wipe had easily paid for his orcs and the junk skeletons. The question was what to do next? With two more party wipes he was back up to ten thousand merits, he had a decent stockpile for re-inforcing his dungeon... or he could expand it. Opening the builders menu he scanned over the options....
===================
DUNGEON BUILDERS INC.
Level One Layouts ▪︎ 10,000 Merits
▪︎ Labrynth (Purchased) - A simple maze layout that has paths leading to a central choke point, then paths leading back to other rooms
▪︎ Large Cavern - A sizable hollowed out room with a high ceiling.
▪︎ Multi Room - A main corridor with branching side corridors leading to other medium sized rooms.
Level One Rooms ▪︎ 10,000 merits
▪︎ Core Chamber (Purchased) - Define your dungeon core room in a multitude of styles.
▪︎ Lords Bed Chamber (Purchased) - Define the bedroom of the Dungeon Lord in a multitude of styles.
▪︎ Minion Barracks - Basic living quarters, houses fifty minions comfortably.
▪︎ Minion Food Pit - Basic food source, supports one hundred minions.
▪︎ Workshop Tier One - Basic equipment provider, uses special resources.
▪︎ Graveyard Tier One - Supplied with corpses can produce Tier One Undead.
Level One Ammenities ▪︎ 5,000 Merits
▪︎ Tier One Equipment - Gear twenty five of your monsters with stone age equipment.
▪︎ Tier One Traps - Provides ten basic pit traps and ten basic spiked pit traps.
▪︎ Tier One Support - Create one hundred pounds of bronze ingots, for use with workshop.
Upgrades ▪︎ Varied
▪︎ Level Two - Create an additional floor above or below the first. (50,000 Merits)
▪︎ Floor Boss - Based on existing minions creates a floor plus two tiered boss minion. (25,000 merits)
▪︎ Mini Boss - Based on existing minions creates a floor plus one tiered boss minion. (10,000 merits)
▪︎ Special Encounter - Randomly spawn a minion, event or puzzle. May or may not be stronger than current floors strongest minion (5,000 Merits)
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Alexander sighed at the options, none of them really gave his minions an advantage. The level one rooms were simplistic, providing daily needs to his horde but would serve little use at this time if he continued to be at risk of being over run. He could change the layout but the labrynth had been doing a fine job thus far, As for extras... gearing his goblins and kobolds with wood and stone weapons might make them slightly more dangerous but they were against foes using iron weapons and armor.
Settling his gaze on the upgrades he drew in a breath through clenched teeth, the cost was crazy! Creating another floor cost five times his current merits, but expanding the option at least he could for free reposition the core to the next level which meant attackers would be forced to go through two full levels to reach his chambers. The bosses as well were mad expensive. The floor boss would be a tier three creature while the tier two miniboss would be on the extent of his orcs which he found strange. Expanding the option, it seemed like boss creatures were chosen from a list unavailable to the current floor, thus the mini boss at least would be a special tier two instead of just a better equipped orc.
Finally he focused on the special encounter. For half his merits he could rely on luck to give him something. Expanding the option he saw that the minion would be a special tier two minion, or in short explanation a stronger variant of a basic creature. Events could be a regional change of the area for say making part of the labrynth fire based or plunged into darkness. Puzzle wise, those were special traps. Far more lethal than anything he could currently invest in.
Alexander sighed, some of his merits he'd have to keep in reserve for whatever the army would throw his way next, but the cheapest thing he could get other than over stuffing his dungeon with goblins was either some basic traps or the special encounter. Gritting his teeth he pressed on the latter option making the menu wink out. A new notification popped up before his eyes.
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A SPECIAL ENCOUNTER HAS OCCURRED
The corridor before the core room has become negative energy infused. Twenty skeletal warriors have been promoted to skeletal fighters, due to the nature of the group a skeletal commander has spawned to lead them!
=========
Alexander blinked opening a window to view the core room approach. Before the twenty skeletal warriors were just there, skeletons in rags and holding basic weapons that were rusty, dull and more often than not broken. Instead of the ragged group of skeletons he now saw a nearly arranged pair of skeletal lines down either side of the corridor, the skeletons were now outfitted with bronze weapons and armor that seemed to have a very roman aesthetic. Right before the doors was a larger skeleton, thought this one was bedecked in an outfit that made it appear like a hoplite, complete with a large iron shield with the House Caven crest on its face and a long iron spear.
Looking over the arranged fighters and their commander Alexander whistled, they looked far more impressive than disturbing now, the prior warriors needed to rely on their creepy appearance to unnerve foes as their skill equated to random flailing about, but these fighters looked capable of actual combat. Feeling his core was even more protected he looked to his bed chambers door, feeling a mite sorry that the depressed demoness would likely see even less action now.
Dismissing the window he opened one that showed the front entrance and scratched his head, just what were they doing out there? Focusing on his control skill he urged one of the goblins outside, chances were high it would be instantly killed, but if it peeked and came back he could see just what the army was preparing next.
* * * * * * *
Goblin PoV
Thurk of the Snubnose tribe was happily digging out a choice price from the guts of one of the tall pink skins he and his boys and recently felled. Those big dumb orcs had stolen most of the meat but his boys had managed to hide a couple for themselves. Even the sneaky kobolds hadn't had that luck! As he was about to dig in he felt what was like a whisper in his ear, this whisper urged him to investigate the outside.
Thurk thought this whisper stupid. Outside was enemies, the same ones that all the others were now gorging on, why go out when they could ambush in here. Stupid whisper. Yet still it teased his ear and mind until finally with a growl he stood up and trudged off, a stone club in hand. His boys looked at him curiously then shrugged, the big boss was likely going to piss, no big deal. Thurk continued through the winding passages as he reached the blood soaked stones where the front line was.
Glancing around, other than a few guttering torches discarded on the ground there was no new enemies. This was normal! He and the boys kicked their ass! Naturally they fled! Feeling more secure the thick goblin stomped down the entry corridor, carefully tip toing around the kobold traps. Stupid reptiles. Grumbling he reached those bone doors that were there yet not there, they always creeped him out, why the big boss had such a door he was too afraid to ask.
Gritting his tusky jaws he stepped forward feeling a chill on his naked green flesh as he passed through easily. Looking around in shock at the host arranged beyond, before he could back step his world turned topsy turvy, images flashed before the goblins eyes. One was a a woman whose hair was bright like a camp fire, her drawn sword covered in a thin spray of greenish blood. The last sight he saw before darkness fell was his own headless body dropping his weapon and slumping to the ground...
* * * * * * *
Alexander rubbed his neck, he had hitched a ride with the goblin and had felt the sword pass through his minions neck. Unlike the distracted goblin, his senses were far more perceptive. So Thersea was outside, along with what looked like the Imperial response. The church, the mage association and the knights league had all sent their forces... but how? He'd only been discovered the night prior, sure the last twelve hours had been constant fights but that wasn't near enough time to inform the countries top three military forces and get their elites outside.
Then there was Thersea herself, she looked different, a bit taller and far more assured in her skills, far from the tomboy that half a day prior was still willing to indulge his childish silliness. Frowning he called for Jansea to ask of her what was going on. The demoness smiled and answered simply, "Death realized that dungeons could well over run a population if managed right, thus for every hour in here, a month passes out there. Gives the local population time enough to breed, recoup and train up so we don't wipe them out to a man."
Alexander stared blankly, "You mean to say..."
Jansea nodded, "Twelve hours have passed for us, but out there a year has marched by."
Alexander sat back on his bed and looked with disbelief at the demoness. His rival and secret love was now a year older than him? While he was fumbling trying to survive what seemed like constant attacks the fact was these incursions had been a month or more apart. While he was barely grasping the dungeon systems, Thersea had a year of hero training.
Slumping back looking up at the ceiling Alexander cursed, "Well fuck my life, Death has certainly got me with that."