Goblin Raid
As soon as Gobshaw saw the stairwell, he immediately knew something was off. Not only that, but the stairwell stretched both up and down.
Gobshaw ran back into the village, and over to George's home.
...
George was once again sitting at his desk. Ever since Carl depleted the quintessence in the area, the goblins had stopped cultivating in the streets.
George heard a knock at his door, followed by it opening and a wide eyed goblin rushing in.
George didn't know this goblin, how could he? The population of the town was approximately 25,000.
"Sir!" The goblin said, standing up straight.
"What is it, I don't have time to waste sorting out meaningless issues? What happened? This better be important!" George grumbled unhappily.
"Sir, I was tasked with guarding the Southern entrance to the city, and while I was scoping the area out, I stumbled upon something..." Gobshaw said nervously.
George was renowned for being exceptionally cruel to those that waste his time, like doubling their 'training' time.
George was about to kick Gobshaw out, and remove his rations for a week when he thought of something.
"The Southern District... that was where that one goblin went missing... and right after that, everyone could cultivate. They have to be linked somehow" George thought to himself.
"What is your name?" George said.
"Gobshaw?!" Was his only reply.
"Alright, Gobshaw, I want you to form a team of a dozen goblins, and inspect that stairwell", George stated, throwing Gobshaw a dirty cloth.
"This is my seal, show it to any goblin that does not comply".
"Right away, sir..!" Gobshaw stuttered in reply.
...
Blissfully ignorant of what was going on outside his dungeon, Carl was speaking to Celes.
"When do you think someone will challenge the dungeon?" Carl asked.
"Hmm, I don't know. You did show the entrance to that goblin guy, and he seemed to run off. So they'll probably send a team to inspect it."
"I wish those goblins weren't in the village, there's so much stuff there that I could absorb." I said dejectedly.
Celes just replied with a gentle hum.
Suddenly, Celes jumped up and screamed "YES!! Finally! Goaty, I did it!". Goaty did not reply.
"What happened Celes," I asked.
"I did it, I leveled up, I'm now level 10, Carl I'm silver rank!"
"I don't get it, why does that matter?"
"Carl! I already told you, whenever someone ranks up, they can evolve their affinity. I'm no longer going to be a Purgatory fairy anymore!"
"What are your choices?" I asked.
Celes opened her 'Status Page', and began looking through her options. Suddenly, a solemn look befell her face.
"Carl."
"yeah?"
"How would you feel if I became a dungeon fairy?"
Suddenly, a System Notification appeared.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[Affinity: Dungeon
Updated Race: Dungeon Fairy
Rarity: Unique
Description: Dungeons fairies are very powerful but extremely restricted. Dungeon Fairies must bond with a dungeon core within 24-hours of gaining this affinity. Dungeon Fairies become a permanent member of a dungeon, and can control monsters; they will not disappear after the guidance period is over.
NOTE: If Dungeon Fairy bonds with your dungeon core, it may be susceptible to your abilities.]
"..."
"Celes, don't you want to go back to being a princess?" I asked
"I did, but now I've met a dungeon that can produce quintessence, and has the potential of helping me rank up. I never liked being a princess anyway."
"My main concern is that my family may try and come after you. They may think that you tricked, or forced me to remain in the dungeon somehow."
I pondered for several seconds.
"Celes, if you'd bond with my dungeon core, it'd be my honour", I said, telepathically sending her a mock bow.
Both of us then laughed, before Celes seemed to press something on her systems page, and she fell to the ground.
Expecting this, I picked her up using my mana, and sat her on top of Goaty.
Just then, I felt something enter the stairway of my dungeon. I had intentionally left a thin bit of quintessence there that would alert me if someone, or something entered my dungeon.
Instantly, I diverted my attention to the stairwell, and sure enough, a party of 13 goblins was walking down it into the dungeon.
I decided to inspect the one in the lead who I assumed to be the leader.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[Name: Gobshaw
Race: Goblin
Class: Lvl 6 Plague Knight(affected by racial bonus)
Description: Using its disgusting lifestyle, combined with its extremely mediocre combat skills, the plague knight debuffs its enemies with its attacks.
Racial Bonuses:
-Poison resistance - Due to the Goblins' filthy nature, they have evolved to be immune to Lvl 4 and below poisons
-Terrain bonus - Due to the goblins' subterranean heritage, they are adept at moving on harsh terrains, +25% movement speed when walking on harsh terrain. -25% movement speed on flat services. Status Effects:
Positive:
-Full Tummy - "I've heard fried rat goes great with a cup of poisonous water, you should try it sometime." - +40% to all physical stats.
Negative:
-Tired - This effect causes -20% to all attributes (except spirit).]
...
As soon as Gobshaw was dismissed from George's office, he immediately set out to find some companions.
George thought of himself as quite strong, I mean he had a whole 32 strength, so it was natural that he would be the leader. To make himself look better, Gobshaw made sure to only get goblins that were weaker than him.
Time passed, and Gobshaw had collected a dozen goblin warriors.
The party headed toward the dungeon.
Upon reaching the stairwell, the party stopped. Gobshaw, who was in the lead then said, "Gobroge!"
Suddenly, as if appearing from thin air, Gobroge appeared. Obviously, he was the party's rogue.
"You go first, check to see if it's safe".
And just like that, no sooner than he arrived, Gobroge disappeared.
After several minutes past Gobroge reappeared.
"I inspected the first room, there looks to be a passageway going to another room at the end. The room is covered in moss, I didn't see any hostiles, but I can't be too sure."
"Very good, Gobroge."
"Everyone, follow behind me", Gobshaw said, puffing out his chest to act cool.
Upon entering the first room, it was exactly like Gobroge said, extremely mossy with a door on the other side. But suddenly, the moss seemed to quiver... a glowing white orb appeared, and just stood there. Before it seemed to go into the wall and disappear.
It was a wisp. The moss had not fully grown to the point where a wisp would form, and it just happened when the gobins entered the room. Caught off guard, Carl immediately sent the wisp into his storage room before anything happened.
Gobshaw was confused, but stupidly decided to ignore it. The goblin party continued into the room, but when they reached about half way...
There was a clashing sound behind, and in front of them. A massive stone slab had landed in the doorways, blocking both escape, and entry.
Suddenly Gobshaw felt something curl around his leg, he looked down to see moss. It pulled him off his feet before he could do anything.
Gobshaw felt light headed, and he was starting to see double. Gobshaw grabbed his sword and started swinging it around randomly.
Just then, 3 pillars rose from the moss, they also seemed to be made of the moss. The 12 other goblins hardened their resolve, and unshieved their swords, all charging for one of the pillars.
They sliced and hacked at one of the pillars, and they managed to tear a good slice into it.
This enraged the monster, the moss growing a bunch of what seemed to be tentacles, that lashed out towards goblins.
The weakest goblin there, a goblin by the name of Garygob, was targeted first, as soon as he was hit by the creature, he went flying against a wall, after all he was only a level one.
Knowing his time was up, Garygob just said "tell Martha and the kids I love them", before everything he knew faded to black.
Letting out a single tear for their fallen comrade, the other 11 goblins strengthened their grip on their swords, and all charged the monster at once.
Under the onslaught of attacks, even the Glittering Wood Monstrosity couldn't bare the incoming attacks. It managed to take down two more goblins before it was taken down.
At the end of the room, Gobshaw was trying to stand, but he couldn't, his world was spinning from the hallucinations, and he couldn't get to his feet.
Similar to Garygob, Gobshaw was smacked against the wall, getting a mouth full of moss. But surprisingly, his dizziness went away. He looked towards the moss around him, and realised.
"Everyone! This moss has healing properties!" He shouted, before turning toward the monster again.
Wielding his sword with both hands, Gobshaw steadied his breathing, and charged at the monster!
Like before, several tentacles spurted out from the monsters back, they all shot toward him.
Gobshaw shouted out something "Filth of the underground, bestow your wrath upon those that compete against your morals."
It was an incantation.
As soon as the incantation finished, a ghostly figure shot from Gobshaw's chest, it was a spirit.
The spirit flew extremely quickly into the body of the Glittering Wood Moss Monstrosity. Almost instantly, parts of the plant monster began to wither.
The creature became noticeably weaker, in both strength and speed.
Gobshaw put all his strength into a slice.
The weakened beast could hardly fight back, and the blade slid straight through it, cutting it in half, and killing it.
Gobshaw stopped, to take a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding. But, a scream rang out.
It was one of the goblins he had brought. He just suddenly collapsed. his face, turning extremely pale. He had been poisoned. The poison had to be stronger than a 4th grade poison for it to have that effect.
Gobshaw rushed to the fallen goblins' side, and saw a moss tentacle wrapped around the goblin's heel.
Gobshaw traced the tentacle to the third pillar of moss that the last 8 goblins were fighting.
Gobshaw cut the tentacle, and immediately raced toward the final monster.
Shouting out the incantation again, the same spirit came out of Gobshaw into the beast. When it was debuffed, it was quite easy for the low ranked goblins to take down.
After the battle, The stone slab blocking the doors lifted, allowing them to leave.
"Guys... I think this is a dungeon... We need to report this back to Head Goblin George'', Gobshaw said before sprinting up the stairwell to the goblin village.
...
I could not stop myself from cheering for the goblins, the battle was awesome.
Watching the goblins fight tooth and nail against his monsters was truly amazing.
He could not wait for more people to come into his dungeon.
Watching the fight, I realised several mistakes I had made. I needed a way to limit the amount of people that could be in each room at once.
But that was for later, I had just leveled up.
I had asked Celes how leveling works, and she said "for most people, you can gain levels from cultivating, or alternatively, you can gain levels from killing monsters, and taking their experience. For you, when you kill a humanoid, you gain their level [X], divided by your level[Y], divided by 4 (X/4Y), so when you killed that lvl 4 goblin, you got a 4th of his level; 1 lvl. There are other ways for you to gain levels, but you don't need to worry about that anytime soon."
There had been 2 level 1's, a level 2, and even a level 4, which in total added to 8, giving me a new level.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP, YOU ARE NOW A LEVEL 3 DUNGEON CORE
You are now a level 3 Dungeon Core {Quintessential Core of Creation} {BRONZE} "Who said home invasion was a bad thing?"
kills needed for next level: 12 LVLs
Mana: 1,200/1,600
Aura: 800 metres (affected by: Mana Maker)]
I felt extremely happy.
Then, I got a brand new notification.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[Creature: Celestia Aldruid
Wishes to Bond to your core
YES/NO]