DUNGEON CORE (POOR) UPGRADE FOUND
UPGRADING…
Had he bought a poor-quality dungeon core? Figured. That sales guy had been sketchy as hell. Kai felt a burst of loathing for the man. Then he took a moment to think about it and realized that the transaction had probably been fair. After all, he was a nobody, a random gremlin in the forest. And he’d paid nothing upfront. His hostility was misplaced.
As the messages continued, Kai's brows rose higher and higher.
UPGRADING TO…COMMON…UNCOMMON…RARE…
The term RARE blinked on the screen for a long time.
“Holy Hanna Barbarian! Rare?” That seemed like a huge level up from poor.
UPGRADING…
UPGRADING TO…EPIC…
Kai's throat went dry. “Holy heavenly grenade.”
The screen fuzzed for a split second.
UPGRADING…
UPGRADING TO…LEG…LEG…LEGENDARY
VERIFYING…
INSTALLING
UPGRADE COMPLETE. DUNGEON CORE (LEGENDARY)
Kai took a step back from the console in disbelief. “No way. No freakin’ way!” He couldn’t stop the huge, toothy grin from taking over his reptilian face. “How the hell?”
Maybe the salesman had made a mistake and handed over the wrong core by accident. Well, the contract was signed, and the core had been planted, so if he came back trying to renege and give him a lesser one, too bad. There was no way that Kai was going to let that happen.
Maybe he was making assumptions, but legendary sounded like it was really rare and impressive. This was the kind of thing that had never happened to him before. He wasn’t that lucky. He’d never been born handsome or smart. He’d never won the lottery. In fact, life had always seemed determined to make sure everything about his existence was consistently mediocre while others seemed to catch all the breaks. Honestly, he carried a fair amount of half-suppressed resentment for that. But no more.
Looks like the roll of the dice was finally coming up Kai! He was getting his own OP chance, after all!
DUNGEON CORE (LEGENDARY)
To unlock higher-level features, please grow your dungeon to Floor 10.
Kai shrugged, trying to be patient. “Ok. That seems fair. Gotta prove I’m invested before I can access the crazy stuff. I can do that.” To his surprise, he truly believed he did. He could do this!
A digital screen appeared on the stone wall in front of the console like a theatre projection. On the right side was a 3D model of the dungeon so far. On the left was a menu. At the top of the screen was an XP bar for the dungeon and his level: Dungeon Master Lvl 1.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Kai read through the menu aloud, “Structures…themes…traps…minions…creatures…decorations…sounds. Huh. Neat.” Unfortunately, very little was available to use in each section. There was nothing in most sections. Theme allowed him to choose whether walls were the current stone blocks or natural stone. “Probably gonna have to level up to get access to more stuff. Or build my own.”
Under Structures, he had two door options: a stone block that fell from the ceiling and trapped people inside, and a simple worn stone door with a basic puzzle lock. Under Traps, he had Pit Trap and Bear Trap.
“Pit trap! Classic. Can’t use the bear trap; nowhere to hide it on a stone floor. What am I gonna do, bring down a bunch of leaves and hide it under them? Who would step on that?”
Using the console, he put the pit trap right in front of the door. Then he installed the drop slab from the ceiling to cut the entryway off. The little treasure chest that had held fireworks was still in the room. It was empty but would still serve as a lure. He moved it over to the far corner so that anyone could see it from the entryway. The plan was to have someone come in, see the chest, then walk forward and fall into the pit. If they somehow jumped over it, the door would slam closed anyway, trapping them in the room with no way out.
“Simple, but it should work. Hopefully.”
Another look at the Structures menu revealed an item for Admin Outdoor Access. He could place a secondary entrance somewhere outside so that he could secretly come and go without going through the dungeon. He placed the interior door on one side of his room. His dungeon was under a small hill with his cave, now his dungeon entrance, on one side. The exterior door popped up in a crevice on the opposite side of the hill in the middle of some bushes.
He surveyed his design with a small measure of pride. This was fun! Almost as cool as that building game with the beavers, Timberbaby or something. Woodborn? He paused in thought. Did they have beavers in this world? If they did, maybe he could recruit some for his dungeon. They were natural engineers.
Finished for now, he used his admin exit to go outside and circled the hill until he returned to the cave entrance. He needed to bring his food into his new lair. It took some effort. He had to empty most of the bread from the basket, hauling it loaf by loaf before dragging the basket all the way around the hill, then down the long tunnel into the Admin Area. It was freaking exhausting. He found his gremlin body was pretty strong and durable for its size, but it was still small. After he’d gotten all the bread down, he ate half a loaf, then returned above for the jerky. He rolled the jerky cask through the forest and tunnel and into his new home. Finally, he took hold of the pie dish with both hands and heaved it step-by-step down into the Admin Area.
He stood in front of the food, breathing hard. “Better eat the pie first.” It was a tad cool down here, so the food would last longer than in the heat outside, but it was no fridge. He’d have to eat the pie before it spoiled. That’s when he realized that he’d need water or something as well. Unfortunately, he hadn’t noticed any streams or lakes nearby so far. Nor did he have a container to hold any. His gremlin form seemed to tolerate dehydration better than a human one, but he was in dear need of a drink.
He checked the console again and found Cistern (small). Had that been there before? He wasn’t sure. Placing the cistern on the wall next to his food, it appeared in the Admin Area. It was a clay jug set in the wall with a tap at the bottom. Maybe it soaked up water from the ground or something. He didn’t know. But turning the tap allowed a stream of cool, clear water to trickle out. He drank deeply, feeling revived.
Kai returned to the console. He touched a button and another digital window appeared on the wall, this one showed a live view of his dungeon. He could switch views to any angle as if there were floating cameras everywhere. It was very useful. He waited for his first hapless adventurer to stumble by and fall victim to his brilliant design skills. An hour passed.
“No one yet.”
He waited some more.
“Still no one coming.”
He waited. He ate some pie. It was really good pie. He washed it down with some water.
He quickly checked the screen, just in case someone had appeared in the dungeon during the few seconds he’d taken his attention off of it while eating and drinking. He was as obsessive as a serial author checking their stats after posting a new story online. Or a new influencer posting and then anxiously waiting for their first like. But the dungeon remained quiet.
Night fell. Kai slept.
Morning came.
He excitedly rushed to the console to check for an update. Still nobody. The pit trap resolutely remained empty. His hopes crashed, and he sighed.
Kai realized that just having the dungeon wasn’t going to be enough. People weren’t just going to show up on their own. This is probably why it took thousands of years to grow a dungeon. His shoulders slumped, and he groaned. “Ugh. If I want to level up faster, I’m going to have to get into marketing, too, aren’t I?” That sucked. He just wanted to create and not worry about self-promotion and the whole business side of things! Tsking in annoyance, he made for the exit, then stomped down the tunnel. It was time to give the local area a better perusal. Just his luck, he’d built his dungeon in the middle of freakin’ nowhere, and nobody would ever come by, then he’d never be able to level up.
With growing worry, he hoped that he hadn’t made a huge mistake just planting the core here instead of taking his time and looking for a better location.
