Dungeon Status:

  Tier 2

  Level 30/100

  Heart 3,240,000/3,240,000

  Experience 454,845/810,000

  Mithril 3,722

  Adamantine 2,209

  Mana 6,420

  Poison, Greater 500

  Deadly Scorpion Venom 51

  Quest: Kill 87 city dwellers.

  Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 43/66 | Monsters 14/67 | Traps 80/162

  Quest: Reach level 50.

  Life had become a study in ignorance, for Travis. He did his best to ignore a lot of things that didn't matter anymore. Sure, he copied down a list of all the dungeon's resources each day so his friends knew what was running low, what needed to be used, and what was just fine—but he didn't need to keep checking on it.

  Too, the insane new plan for harvesting the bottom floor of his dungeon safely required him to ignore what was literally a king's ransom in resources that had built up around the east, north, and west sides of his dungeon tunnels—because they were dense enough now to block any possible resource node spawns except for in the south, which is where they'd mined out and back-filled. He refused to even mark the nodes on his maps.

  Even the workers and soldiers marching through his entrance every day required ignoring. They were passing through to the under-construction fort that was being built around his previously hidden entrance.

  What he was happy to pay attention to was the steady flow of cannons out into the city once Liz had brought him an artillery piece.

  The first week since sending the gold had been consumed with planning and preparations. Fife, Huntress, Ludmiller, and Ogmera's party had returned from the goblin dungeon, which had been the source of a flood of resources and experience.

  Breeze, too, was someone worth paying a lot of attention to. She was building out floors faster and faster, until Travis finally had Penelope ask Breath of Spring how she grew so many—only to find out it was food. The more food she got, the bigger she got. So, Travis started shunting any excess food he could to her, and given how much he'd gotten from the goblin dungeon, that meant she had shot down into mid 50s territory quickly—which had resulted in him finishing his quest. It had taken him a while to figure out what the reward had been, but the discovery that all his metal ores now smelted for fifty percent more end result was a happy one.

  Quests were something he had to pay attention to, but not too close. The killing city dwellers one had come easier when he found out that converting locals into kobolds triggered it. So, when new folks arrived, spent a few days in town to get up the nerve to ask, and joined—they counted.

  Northridge itself was growing, too. Travis had felt it working magics in a lot of subtle ways. When he'd directly asked the city about it, he'd gotten a straight answer: enchantments to make it easier to sleep, to ease bad memories, and enhancing the endurance of those who had to work. It made Travis jealous to hear about such effects.

  Travis watched Katelyn as she worked. Without anything else to steal his focus, he sighed as he felt like he could relax once more.

  "What's up?" Katelyn asked. She was in Travis' heart room, inspecting the Mana Manipulators there. "I think I could adjust these so they can store mana too."

  "That's part of it. You know my mana regenerates nearly ninety percent, three times a day?" When Katelyn nodded, Travis continued. "It feels like a waste. I mean, we already have a surplus of iron and steel. Gold on tap, and every time Axel or Tinpot want to do something, they're asking me to get them more mithril and adamantine to process. I want our railway to happen faster."

  Snorting with laughter, Katelyn shook her head. "Trav, we all do. Something's holding up the approval in Far Reach, though. Christine said it shouldn't take this long, but one of the landowners has the baron in their pocket and isn't budging."

  "Why don't we go around them, then?"

  Katelyn froze at that. She turned and looked directly at Travis' heart and took a slow breath. "That wouldn't be easy. We'd have to detour around them. They're not a central hub, though, so it could be done. Want me to get Steph to have another meeting with Christine?"

  "If you see him before I do, yeah. How are things going between you two?"

  Letting out the sigh to end all sighs, Katelyn sat down on the floor and let her back press against Travis' crystal. "He's great, but I feel like every step needs to be slow. He's had something happen in his past, and I think it hit him hard— Trav, it has nothing to do with you, that's one thing I do know."

  How she'd figured out he was going to interrupt and that he was thinking it was him and Penelope that were the problem, Travis had no clue. "Okay. On the plus side, you have all the time you need."

  Snorting a laugh, Katelyn reached a clawed hand up into the swirling mana around her, weaving it until shapes were formed. A train, a group of kobolds, a huge crystal. "I don't know if that is scary or a relief. Things seemed so much easier when there were only a few of us in here. We all had things to do all the time, and if we didn't do them it would turn out bad for everyone. Remember how long I spent in the library, struggling to regain my mana to make more explosive runes?"

  "I—" Travis froze and laughed. "Steph just came in. He's on his way down. I worry that I'm asking too much of him. I know he has some history in this kind of thing, but—"

  "No. He's loving this, Trav. Ask him." Standing back up, Katelyn stretched and rolled her spine from one side to the other. "He knows you wouldn't pressure him to do all this stuff. He could dig tunnels, do some hunting, and you'd never ask another thing of him ever again. That's why he's happy to help."

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Travis let that sink in as they waited, and eventually Stephan stepped into the room and was ambushed by a wizard. It gave Travis a weird feeling of pride when he saw his friends getting together. Watching them hug—and in his heart room he couldn't avoid paying attention to it—was a little awkward though. "I've got a crazy idea and I want your opinion," he said, when the two broke apart.

  Stephan looked at Katelyn, who shrugged, and turned back to Travis. "On a scale of one to Fife, how crazy is this?"

  "Not too crazy, I don't think. So the issue here is, we want to shift goods into the kingdom via rail, and there is someone blocking us in Far Reach." Travis saw a human figure attempting to get his attention in the mining area. Axel wanted more mithril, it seemed, so Travis made another node and, since the lizards had literally nothing else to find on the floor, it appeared almost instantly; adding a plan to dig to the newly revealed ore. He then dragged his focus back to the conversation in his heart room with barely an instant lost. "So, why don't we go around them? How much land does Far Reach claim? Can we build a line around them to…"

  "Hearthhome," Stephan said.

  "Right. It's the central hub for trade, right?" Travis was pleased to see dawning recognition on Stephan's face.

  "That will be perfect. We can start petitioning Hearthhome's ruler, I think Earl Sanderson is still in power there, and do it very publicly. That way, Far Reach will get the picture very fast that we will cut them out of our trade completely if they keep up their idiocy. And, if they don't, we go ahead with Hearthhome and give Far Reach what they deserve," Stephan said. "I'll organize a meeting with Christine. She'll like this."

  The ride had left Anichka with a few more reasons to dislike being away from Northridge. "I'm going to find the place with the biggest bath in all of Northridge, and I won't be leaving there for a week."

  "Better make sure it's huge, because I'll be there with you. Someone needs to invent a better horse—one with more padding." Tammy would have tilted to the side and rubbed her glutes, but from experience that only made the ache worse. "Next time, we will bring a wagon."

  "And a bigger gun," Anichka said. "How big could you make a gun if it used a wagon to hold it steady?"

  "Tinpot would know, and if he didn't, Travis would. What's that sign ahead?" Tammy clucked her tongue and urged her horse forward. The two slow moving wagons, smaller than their huge tithe ones, held the guards in one and the goods in the second. The wolves milled forward around Tammy and Anichka's horses. "Northridge, that way?"

  It took Anichka a moment to realize what was the direction indicated, apart from a newly paved road. "Travis' second entrance. They must have fortified it while we were away. Do you think that shifty merchant got Travis his cannon?"

  "Don't call her 'shifty'. For all we know she's on the up-and-up." Tammy looked back as the wagons approached. She pointed down the stone-paved road leading toward the forest. "It looks like Travis' new entrance is being used now."

  "We'll be able to get the wagons in?" Thomas Brave asked. He was sitting beside the driver of the first wagon, doing his best to pay attention and not surrender to excitement at being almost home.

  Shrugging, Anichka turned her horse to the side trail. "If they're directing all traffic that way, I hope so." Anichka kept one eye on the wolves with them. If anything was amiss, she knew they'd turn from the playful oversize puppies they pretended to be to get pets in an instant. Instead of getting angry, though, they started wagging their tails the moment they were near the forest.

  Stepping out, wearing only a light suit of mithril chain armor, Astrid recognized the wolves (of course) and the guards. She bared a huge grin full of teeth at Anichka and Tammy. "You saw the sign?"

  The wolves were first to reply. They rushed over to Astrid and all seemed intent on being the closest to her at the same time. For her part, Astrid reached out to the lesser members of her pack and roughed up their fur while their tails seemed intent on creating a hurricane.

  Not having the full story of Astrid's changing sides, Anichka was always a little wary around the big woman. With her in her wolf form, and almost as tall as Anichka was while on her horse, validated it in her own mind. "Yes. You're the welcome party?"

  "More like the unwelcome party. The goblins have sent out a few scouting parties. My pack has been hunting them." The smells on the bloodied wolves of far-off lands, cities and forests, tickled at Astrid's senses. "Any trouble getting the delivery through?"

  Seeing Tammy was happy to let her talk, Anichka gave the report. "The tracks between Far Reach and Hearthhome were out, so we had to drive the wagons all the way through to Hearthhome. Ran into some fools with more bravado than sense. We shot them up, then they opened a wagon."

  Astrid let out a laugh while crouching to give her returned friends a few nips. "Any survive?" At Anichka's nod, Astrid felt a little disdain. "I guess they will think twice before attacking any wagon trains from now on. Were they the reason the train didn't run?"

  It was a link that made Anichka lift her hand up and press it to her forehead. "I didn't think of that at the time. It makes sense for brigands to disrupt the train and force folks in a hurry to take the road instead."

  "Next time," Tammy said, speaking up so Astrid could hear her, "we're bringing you with us."

  "As if I would be allowed within eyeshot of your capital." Astrid started walking alongside the road, keeping pace with the two riders. "Even with these classes Travis can give, I doubt I could survive whatever the standing army there would put forward to end me."

  "We let those wolves out to play while the King's Guard watched over us. I think, if you wore some kind of fake collar, we could convince them you're well-behaved." Anichka could see, ahead, the wall of a stone fort among the trees.

  Remembering all too well the suspicion of the guards, and Anichka's efforts to show the bloodied wolves as being tame, Tammy groaned. "You are not going to get Astrid to roll on her back while you rub her stomach."

  Putting Tammy's words together with the description of events, Astrid let out a bark of laughter. "You were petting bloodied wolves in the middle of the capital? Didn't anyone recognize them?"

  "Yeah," Anichka said. "And she came with us."

  Available at:

  This story is released under the license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, , is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

  Goblin dungeon: Are you happy with having goblins now? or do you miss your old monsters?

  Goblin dungeon: What are you planing next?

  Travis: Do you think there is a limit on the number of floors you can get since no new resource are after the fourth floor?

  Travis: Do you expect the other bosses to get transformations like Penelope?

  Travis: If you could do a cross over with any other story/dungeon on royal road which would it be?

  Travis: Have you considered making the slime a boss to see what might happen?

  Travis: What stuff from earth (Save the train) are you most excited to bring to life in this new world?

  Travis: Have you considered making electricity with a spinning magnet and some copper?

  Travis: If all your memories from earth are in book does that mean you have perfect memories of everything you did/saw on earth?

  Travis: How long has it been since you arrived?

  Travis: Have you suggested improved sanitation to Northridge as it was one of the most pivotal moments in history saving billions of lives?

  Travis: What will your new 1st floor look like when the floors all move down?

  Travis: Are new books added to the library with your new memories?

  Travis: Since apparently all floors are their own little pocket dimension, have you tried to find out where the spatial limits of those are, if there are any? How far can you go sideways, or upwards?

  Travis: As a fellow (former) gamer, if you get to choose any building from any game you've ever played for your dungeon, including any associated technology or unit, which would you choose?

  Travis: What building or structure from the game would you like to have and why and do you think you can unlock it?

  Travis: Any plans on giving your dungeon a visual upgrade instead of rough-hewn stone everywhere? A bit of paint, some drawings (gift Mixie all the crayons, the public demands it!), some tapestries or paneling, some rugs or carpeting?

  Travis: Have and of the kobolds looked at your knowledge of sports and wanted to play one?

  Travis: Why haven't you maxed out your traps? Does that mean you no longer have in built feeling of nervousness?

  Travis: There's been talk about the Dungeon's existing as pocket dimensions, which allow for their incredible layouts, both in width and depth. With the Heart of the Skeleton Dungeon destroyed by Luddy to prevent it's enslavement, would that have ended the extra-dimensional effect of the Dungeon? Or would it have left the space formerly occupied by the Dungeon as a permanent passive effect?

  Travis: It has been a long time since there were any major dungeon building. What is your plan on the dungeon front? Any nice research options? Wasn't there plans on building a gauntlet of sorts to get some classic adventures?

  Travis: What is it going to take to unlock the ability to manifest an avatar, so that you may properly mingle with and inspire your loyal kobolds (and other visitors) in bodily form, even if only for limited times?

  Travis: Have you considered having your research team work towards physical alteration magics?

  like having a system, and being on the world full of apparatuses would be terrifying, so I'm going to go with having Thedeim as a neighbor—I think it would be cool to have someone chill nearby.

  don't want to bring up. Yeah, they can browse my library and find stuff, but I trust my friends not to split atoms or recreate some of the nastier social structures. What we have here is amazing, and I love being part of it—but if anything I think ice cream.

  forms bricks. And, no. Mixie gets paints and paper and everything she creates gets put up on the wall in the kitchen her mom works in.

  hundreds of kobold-days of work to do anything there now. The next target for that is so I can be heard by other people. Then we'll be going back to researching the classes. As for buildings, there was the Scorpion Den, which had an upgrade to let me make it a mini-boss. We did build that gauntlet, but we're waiting for the first fish to come take a bite.

  avatar' thing, you bet I'll be going for it. I'd like to hug Pen first, then everyone else in turn. Also all the lizards. Also-also Squishy. Okay, I'd hug everyone in here if I could." He read the next one and shrugged. "That's like the other answer. I'd love to, but there's no research options for it."

  cross with me?"

  Penelope: Can dragons polymorph in this setting?

  Penelope: Anything you miss from being smaller, or is it a good trade-off in order to defend Travis better?

  Penelope: How are you handling being a dragon? Will you stay around town and be careful not to step on people? Or are you gonna petition Trav for an entrance high up in a mountain and go full raidboss? Breathing fumes and slumbering on a gigantic pile of gold and living that legendary endboss life?

  Penelope: What are the known magical capabilities of full dragons? Is it reasonable to expect that, once fully evolved, you will be able to magically alter your size and shape? It may assist in movement through the tunnels, open additional options during combat, and allow for stealth/ subterfuge.

  eggs. Right, next upgrade will probably make me bigger. I don't even care anymore, so long as I can still stretch out on the tower and get some sun. What's 'polymorph'?"

  my room, I'm way smaller than when I'm outside." Looking at the list, she shrugged her wings. "I was a little attached to using weapons. It was weird when I had to start fighting without them. I've asked Trav to make the Tank class his next priority for research, so I can get some heavy armor on and some self-healing to stop—what that troll did to me.

  that big! Most people are smart enough to make room for me. It's mostly the kids that try to get close enough to touch me. When they start to swarm, and I have time, I just lay down somewhere so they can get it out of their system." Her eyes widened at the next part of the question. "I'm not answering that on the grounds I already have an awesome lair full of gold.

  'dungeon priest', I'd actually like to try that. Trav, how do we make talismans?" Brayden, in his temple, glanced in the direction of the stairs leading down to the bottom floor.

  dungeon priest." Travis sounded smug.

  Northridge: How do you know how to manage a city? Do you learn from humans, is it ancestral memory or what?

  Northridge: Is there a limit to how much territory you can claim?

  Northridge: How do you increase your territory?

  Northridge: What are the stages of growth of a genies loci?

  Northridge: What are your plans for the future now that defenses and food are taken care of by the dungeons? Maybe a canal to bring fresh water and boats in the city?

  me." Voice calm, level, and loud enough to leave a person dazed for a week, Northridge spoke through a filter that it hoped would cushion its audience from brain damage. "I watch. I learn. I adjust my tactics to assist. Travis the dungeon told me this is called symbiosis. Two species working together for mutual benefit.

  Huntress: What upgrades to your arsenal are you going to try to get before you try going after the rot dungeon again?

  boss upgrades seem to be things like never running out of arrows—normal ones at least—and being able to put extra effects onto them and my bow. I need to practice more."

  Mixie: Have you read about dinosaurs in Travis' library yet? If yes, which one is your favorite? If no, go and read about them! Every kid loves dinosaurs, and for many that fascination carries all the way into adulthood.

  Mixie: What's the consensus on Travis and his strangeness?

  Mixie: Did you know there is edible glitter?

  Mixie: Have you ever looked in Trav's memories for someone called Mark Rober? They do incredible work to help others with glitter bombs!

  Mixie: Would you train some lizard to be ninja lizard so they can spread the love of glitter everywhere?

  Mixie: How is the (power) relationship between the king and the high ranking nobles? Especially to which degree they can influence the countries decision making.

  Mixie: What is the general opinion of natural-born dragons towards dungeon-spawned dragons?

  Mixie: Are there any dungeons with a more... artificial architecture? Like a library dungeon. Or a bathhouse dungeon. Or a draconic dungeon with smithing workplaces everywhere.

  Mixie: Thank you for your time. My question is on the intricacies of using a simulacrum or other physical avatar via one's mind. Specifically, the granularity of control available, how many senses are used by and translated from the avatar, what condition the user's primary body remains in while the mind is elsewhere, and where additional readings might be found on this subject?

  Mixie: Glitter as we know it wasn't really a thing until around 1934 due to the surprising difficulty involved in it's manufacturing and the necessary advancements in plastics formulations. Where do you keep getting your copious amounts of glitter from?

  Mixie: how do dungeons reproduce? Or are they spontaneously formed? Created?

  Mixie: How do you feel about all the new changes in the city?

  Mixie: How do you feel about the city's future prospects?

  work. He allows minor shake-ups, quashes those he thinks are too much—and does a good job of both.

  Fife: Now that most inhabitants of the dungeon are finding partners. Is there anyone you're ogling and thinking of going steady with?

  Breath of Spring: Do you have any long term plans?

  Breath of Spring: Can you make something like the wizard tower to augment the city?

  Wild: I have noticed that the dungeon does not have a source of water. Do Kobolds not need to drink, or at least as an ingredient of their ever food? Do they not have any need for washing themselves?

  Ludmiller: You've been adventuring a while, and being a sneaky-sneaky stabby-stabby type probably have a better information network than your friends. Do all dungeons just dig deeper and deeper pits, making that dungeon poisoning the army did a viable tactic?

  For Wild and Ludmiller: Is kissing awkward with the kobold face?

  feeding their enemy dungeons. I'm sure there's more tactics to it, but that's probably why the undead dungeon wasn't as big as what it could have been—Travis didn't have many floors." Ludmiller looked at the next one and laughed. "For me, at first, yes."

  Brayden: Has the interesting situation in Northridge increased the attention your god is paying to you?

  Brayden: Are other priests going to come to the city and would you welcome them?

  Katelyn: What is the coolest thing you have found in Travis' memories?

  Katelyn: Have you created anything from his memories?

  Katelyn: If the library represents Travis' mind have you experimented to see if you can augment his mind to expand it or speed it up?

  Katelyn: Knowing Travis' growth speed and the crazy stuff he gets up to where do you think you be (and what will you be doing) in ten years?

  Katelyn: Has the maths mentioned and used in Travis' classes (geometry, calculus, statistics) been of any use? Are they new to you?

  Katelyn: How are time and dates measured relative to the time of Travis' home?

  Katelyn: Please relax we only need two answers. Can you describe where you are right now? And who or what is asking these questions?

  Science is my brother's domain." Looking down the notes, she smiled. "Definitely how much he cares for us. He doesn't realize it, but I've spent time—with Steph—reading that first encounter between them. Despite what Trav thinks he did wrong, Steph holds no ill-will."

  more you mean?" Reading the question again, she let out a sigh. "I am in my library, reading a question that appeared to me on a slip of paper. Who you are is irrelevant, since I feel compelled to try to answer."

  Sandwalker: Have you thought about telling your followers about M'aiq the Liar?

  Council of Northridge: Does the city have a library and if not would you consider making one?

  Council of Northridge: Knowing Travis' growth speed and your own city what do you think it will be like in a decade? What is the normal growth speed of a dungeon?

  Patreon or fuel my writing on ! Join me on .

  Canary in the Coal Mine

  Daremo

  shortskirtsandexplosions

  Sirion123

  Vi Watch

  Emtu

  HarmonySpent

  Jeffh4

  Shi

  Istyatur

  Shelbo

  Treascair

  Lab

  Jeffh4

  Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license in addition to all other licenses required by the sites I post to.