“Got it, Dark Lord.”
Tomlin did what I asked, while I listened for movement. If something got into my actual dungeon, I’d have an immediate awareness of it unless it had stealth skills. Unfortunately, I couldn’t detect much about the rest of the miles and miles of mud around me until I expanded into it and claimed it as part of my territory.
Tomlin crushed the leaf and patted a mud roof onto the ankle-high enclosure, and then looked at me.
“Good, Tomlin. Now we just have to wait. How about we get a start on your studies? It might take a while for any rats or mice to-”
A great explosion of mud came from the wall above the enclosure. Dirt splattered all over me, all over Tomlin, all over the room.
When the dirt settled, I couldn’t believe what I saw.
Neither could Tomlin, judging by how he cowered backward until he hit the wall on the far side of the room.
There, standing in my dungeon, was something that resembled a giant frog. It had bulging muscles and was standing on two legs like a person. It had claws that it must have used to dig through into my dungeon, judging by the mud that was caked underneath them. Its eyes were bulbous, its nose was exaggerated with great big nostrils. That thing must have smelled the crushed essence from near the surface, then tunneled down.
The frog-thing took a step forward.
“Tomlin, guard your nest,” I commanded.
He didn’t move. His kobold eyes were so wide I could see the whites. I would have felt sorry for him, if he weren’t both a complete coward and my only line of defense. A sorry combination, indeed.
After a few seconds more looking at the creature, my core senses washed over it, and information was fed back to me.
Greater Bogbadug
Habitat: Marshes, bogs
Traits: Loves essence
A bogbadug?
What the hell?
The bogbadug sniffed the air now, its oversized nostrils flaring as it caught the scent of something. Evidently it liked the aroma, whatever it was, because it licked its lips with a long, slurping tongue.
There was no food down here. Nothing for a giant toad to eat. Only…
Oh, holy twelve demon lords of the damned underworlds!
The bogbadug had caught the scent of my essence vines in my core room!
Time seemed to slow for me now, just as my pulse (imaginary) raced. I swear, I could almost hear an actual pulse pounding now, and it wasn’t just from that coward Tomlin.
I had to think quickly. Actions and decisions in times like this sealed the fate of a core.
Traps. Could I quickly fashion a trap to catch this thing before it followed the scent to my essence room?
No – the trap crafting category was still locked for me.
Okay. First things first, I had to contain it here, in room four. What could I do?
The bogbadug started to walk now, following the smell in the direction of the tunnel that led out of the room and toward my loot room.
Ah!
I quickly hopped onto the pedestal in my loot room. Here, I entered my core placement mode, which was how I manipulated the things that I had created using essence.
As the bogbadug walked down the tunnel, I used my placement command to move my loot chest.
First, I turned it so that it was standing vertically. Then, I dragged it to the tunnel, covering most of the entrance. There was a two-foot gap at the top, but it was something.
I hopped back into room four now, where Tomlin was still cowering. I shook my head. Or at least, I liked to pretend I had. “Pull yourself together,” I said.
The bogbadug, at the far end of the tunnel, was hammering the loot chest with his fists. The chest would hold him off from the tunnel to my core room for a while, but it was a crummy chest. It wouldn’t withstand it forever.
It was then that I heard something.
Footsteps coming from my core room.
What in all hells was going on? Was Vedetta here?
“Core Beno,” called a voice. “I request your presence in the core room for an evaluation.”
Another evaluation?
A second one? Right now?
And was that…Overseer Bolton?
I was suddenly aware of the almighty racket the bogbadug was making as it hammered desperately at the loot chest, its hunger for essence growing stronger by the second.
I didn’t want to exaggerate what my feelings were at that moment. After all, I am not an overdramatic core by nature. So, to sum up my feelings…
Things could have been going better.
I had no way of killing the bogbadug, but nor could I let Overseer Bolton see it. The fact he was here for an evaluation so soon after the last one meant that I was being targeted. Overseers were people. They couldn’t help their biases sometimes.
If Bolton saw the bogbadug running amok, he’d probably kill it. He shouldn’t do that, but I bet he would.
Not to save me. Oh no, nothing as nice as that. He’d kill the creature and then claim, ‘severe failure on Core Beno’s part forced me to intercede.’
When an overseer had to intercede in dungeon happenings, it wasn’t good.
Now, I heard another shout from across the dungeon. Only, this one didn’t come from my core room, in came from room four. And it was muffled.
I pedestal-hopped into room three, where I could at least see room four. Yup, I heard the voice again, coming from behind the wall.
The girl! She’d returned! This was the last thing that I needed.
“Vedetta? This isn’t
