DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

Needless to say, Nate had been unceremoniously kicked out of the house rather quickly after that. It was a move that he completely understood. The family had some things that they very obviously needed to talk about.

“How did it go?” His father asked as soon as he walked through the door of their tall brick duplex a while later. The row of squashed-together buildings on the street all looked the same outside of their front doors.

Nate hesitated. “I’m not entirely sure. I think it went well for the most part, but then things got weird, and the conversation got derailed.” He shrugged. “I guess I’ll find out tomorrow at school. Anyway, what have you and mom decided to do?”

“We’re going to look for a new place to work. There’s no way we can stay with a company that betrayed us like that. So, we’ve decided to start going through them all and seeing if we can eliminate any from the list. We don’t want to end up working for another group that will pull something like this again.”

“Dad, I doubt there’s a company out there that wouldn’t buckle under the pressure and send their people on a death run.”

“You might be right, which is why your mother and I have also been thinking about starting our own group.”

“Is that even possible or feasible?” Nate asked, impressed at the amount of work, and thought they had put into the matter while he had been gone. It had only been a couple of hours and they were already thinking about striking out on their own.

They didn’t have a plan or anything, but the idea was there.

“Normally, I’d say no. Right now, though, we might have a small chance of making it work. The large families are the ones who typically control the expeditionary rights for outside the city.”

“But a few of them are currently on the outs with the person who created the structure out there. I know it’s leaving everyone unsure of what to do in regard to their families.” Nate said, finishing for him.

“Exactly. So, we might have a chance right now of actually getting some expedition slots instead of being ignored. However, that’s only the first part of the problem. We’d still need to fund everything, create our company, and get the paperwork in order,” Niall sighed and shrugged. “It’s a lot, and not necessarily the best option either. For now, it’s just one of the options we’re considering.”

“Well, I’m heading up to my room. Let me know what you both decide.”

“We will, and don’t get too absorbed in anything. Dinner will be ready in just a little while.”

Nate laid on his bed with a groan. Meeting Angelica’s parents had been interesting for about five seconds. Then it had simply been stressful. It was no wonder she only had one friend. If she ever brought them home, they would have been run off.

Rolling over, he pulled up the screens to the dungeon and began reviewing everything he wanted to do to it right away.

Which mainly consisted of the normal items, fixing and perfecting various traps. The only new item on the list was creating a path throughout the dungeon, specifically for his use. Something that he wasn’t even sure the dungeon would let him do.

It had odd, hidden requirements at times. So, while the tunnels might be meant for him, they also might need to be accessible to the monsters. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it would be annoying. Either way, the only way to know for sure was to experiment and find out.

If this worked out, then maybe he could erase the hallways to the dungeon core altogether and just use tunnels. It was a nice thought, but again, he needed to play around with it all first.

Creating a tunnel turned out to be more difficult than he had originally thought, for different reasons. He had to plan the placement of the tunnels around the traps in the floors or the walls. No matter where he took them, there was a trap.

The only real solution was to plant them even deeper or go even wider. All of which would make the trip longer, and while he would still be safe, it would somewhat defeat the purpose of having them. Not to mention they became extremely confusing to navigate after a certain point.

This was another item he would need to fix with the second dungeon. He would include the tunnels in the design of the dungeon from the very beginning.

It took a while before Nate stumbled upon an easy, though somewhat costly, solution. He would expand the space inside the walls of the dungeon. That way, the tunnels could fit in between each of them, however, that meant that the entire dungeon needed to grow by a fair bit.

Everything that he had gotten back earlier by deconstructing parts of the dungeon would have been used. Even then, the tunnels would have been left open as building working doors were currently beyond his budget. Doors that blended into their surroundings were far outside his budget.

By the time the call for dinner came, Nate had placed the idea for tunnels in this dungeon to the side. They would have to wait until a later time. At the moment, he would rather use his limited resources on perfecting the traps.

“Are you all set for school tomorrow?” His mother asked as he came down the stairs.

He nodded and took a seat at the table. “I finished all my homework on Friday. There shouldn’t be anything else that I needed to do besides that.”

Niall shared a looked with his wife as he speared a particularly large meatball in the middle of his spaghetti. “Nate, your mother, and I wanted to ask your opinion on something. You’re old enough now to have a say in the matter, especially since it also impacts you.”

Nate twirled some noodles around his fork and slowly nodded. “A little ominous, but alright.”

“It is at that,” Nina agreed, taking a drink from her water glass. “As your father told you earlier, one of the options we were discussing is creating our own expedition team and company. However, if we did that, it would require some changes. A tightening of the belt, so to speak, specifically for all things related to money. I know you had just asked about getting some training in relation to using kukris. If we did this, that wouldn’t happen anytime soon.”

Nate sat back, his fork lying forgotten on the plate. “I’m fine with you both doing this, as long as you think it’s the right move. I can figure something else out for my training if I need to. If you are going to create your own company, though, then you need to make sure you can do it safely.

“No going into dangerous areas or anything like that. I want you to run the numbers first. Can you make enough to keep it running by running those types of expeditions? The current companies make more money because they treat their employees like disposable objects. All they care about is getting more…” He blinked uncertainly. “Whatever it is you get when you hunt the monsters.”

“Parts for weapons, armor, and alchemical ingredients. Cores if we’re really lucky. Most parts of the monsters and beasts we find out there can be used if we can bring them back.” Nina explained carefully. “The city also pays a bounty on everything we kill. The stronger the beast, the more they’ll pay out. At which point, it becomes a juggling act for available storage space. They’ll only verify it if you bring the corpse back.”

“So, if you stay out too long and run out of space, then you are leaving money on the table all around. And since selling the bodies is apparently how companies make most of their money. If they’re leaving them all behind, then they aren’t making anything.” Nate finished for her.

“Exactly,” His father said. “Which is why we would also need to make sure we had enough people to run a wagon train. We aren’t like the big cities; storage items don’t exist out this way. Especially not ones of sufficient size to carry a bunch of monster corpses.”

“Anyway, going back to the earlier discussion. If you both want to do this, I say go for it. Just, you know, have a plan, and be careful. Please?” Nate was more than ready to support them in this endeavor in any way he could.

It sounded like it had the potential to keep them safer than working for another company would. Assuming they could find a decent group of people to work with in the beginning at least.

He might need to talk to Angie and George and see if they knew of any trustworthy people looking for work.

He wouldn’t be asking for their help in hiring anyone so much as just pointing them in the right direction. Hopefully, they would be willing to do that much.

Nate swiped one of the last large meatballs on his way to the sink. The saucy ball of deliciousness disappearing into his mouth in near record time.

The doorbell rang while he was in the middle of washing off his plate.

Setting it to the side to dry, Nate grabbed a nearby hand towel and went to see who might have shown up. Draping the small towel over his shoulder, he opened the door and stepped back in shock. He had somewhat been expecting George when someone rang the doorbell.

And he was there, however, there was also another man that Nate had hoped to never see again. One that George was glaring at as well, his entire body coiled to spring at him if he so much as said the wrong thing.

Suddenly, he found himself faced with a choice. Did he greet the man with the hostility that he so dearly deserved, or with a modicum of respect?

Did he want to risk drawing George into a fight? Especially when it was one that he could potentially avoid, and the kind older man had no stake in.

“George, it’s great to see you as always. Why don’t you come inside?” He took a deep breath and faced the other man. “Leon Pritchley, I wish I could say the same for you. What brings you here today?”

“Careful, he doesn’t have a lot of respect to lose by attacking you personally.” George breathed out as he walked past, his hand quickly grasping his shoulder.

Leon stiffened and glared at him. His jaw worked itself up and down as it repeatedly clenched and relaxed. Finally, he grunted in annoyance, his eyes shifting from the boy to the inside of the house, and began speaking at last.

“I have come to apologize for what happened a few months ago.”

Nate felt the small part of himself that had gotten its hopes up die and wither away at that lackluster showing of an apology. “Sure, I think we both know why you are really here. Someone with a lot of power appeared and now you are suddenly scrambling to do damage control. Make amends to those who you can before they come to attack your weakened corpse. Is that about, right?”

He did his best to keep his tone even and non-confrontational the entire time he was speaking.

Leon growled and nodded.

“Well, don’t bother. It’s not like we have the power to do anything against you, even if we wanted to. If you actually wanted to make amends, you could give us some more money to pay for the medication I need. It’s going to be more expensive than what was originally quoted.”

He nodded sharply and reached into his back pocket for his checkbook.

“Mister Pritchley, one last thing, if I may?” Nate dared to ask, looking at the scary man before him.

Leon ground his teeth together but still gave him the go-ahead.

“Why did they attack me in the first place? I was so close to finishing my core…” Nate’s voice was soft as he asked the question that had undoubtedly been haunting his parents.

“I’ve asked myself that same thing many times,” Leon began in a strangely quiet voice. “I’ve asked my daughter almost as many times… The answer she gives me is different each time, but the original reason was simple and worse than I had imagined. They wanted to see what would happen to someone if they were attacked in that state. I have no idea if that’s the truth or just another lie, but I hope it’s not.”

Nate saw a haunted, tired look enter the powerful cultivator’s eyes, and he answered his impertinent question. It was proof that there was still some humanity left in the man. “I understand, thank you.”