Mist of Shadows
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Dungeon Myst Part 6
🕑 Added 2023-09-05 06:51:58 +0000 UTCMyst shivered as his HUD tossed up an alert informing him that his Wicked Workshop was done and the simple stone foundation that was serving as a placeholder for his new workshop changed into a twisted stone building with a slate roof and dark shutters that leaked a sickly green light that made his skin crawl. "That better not be fell energy," he muttered as he opened the menu for his new workshop and looked at his options.
"Huh," he muttered when he saw the option for creating a gremlin tinker next to the grayed out options for recruiting and training tinkers. His attention jumped to the five empty project slots in the middle of the workshop page. 'At least I don't need to build one workshop per tinker.' He glanced at the brief description of the workshop near the top of the workshop menu. 'A workshop for all of your villainous inventions.'
Myst reached out to touch the icon to summon the gremlins and paused an inch away from the icon, wondering if he was making a mistake. 'What happens if they get loose? They'd have to take the portal or jump,' he mused, doing his best to ignore the mental image of a gremlin floating down to the island using a parachute and causing havoc. 'The island should be used to monsters causing trouble.'
He tapped the icon, bringing up a popup that showed an animated gray skinned long eared humanoid that resembled a house elf if they had a mouth like a shark and a blue mohawk. 'It costs ten mana and it creates a minor chaos loving demon with a random craft skill. Yeah, this is probably a terrible idea. Then again, waiting for a miracle to drop into my lap is probably worse.'
Myst hit the create button and spent ten mana to create the gremlin before he could change his mind, causing a progress bar to appear near the top of the menu along with a tiny picture of the gremlin's head. He watched the progress bar fill for a couple of seconds, doing a slow count as he watched. 'Forty five seconds to a minute per gremlin? Could be worse,' he mused as he opened his construction menu and looked at his options for building structures, not particularly concerned that he didn't have an exact time on how long the gremlins took to create.
'Inns, Farms, Housing, Schools and a Tainted Well?' Myst pulled up the entry for the Tainted Well, mostly because it was new and he wasn't sure why he'd want to build one. "This option places a cursed, monster infested or poisoned well which can be cleansed or purified, effectively creating a miniature dungeon for adventurers to explore. Warning, placing wells near each other will allow the dungeons to combine, creating a harder dungeon and resulting in more problems for the inhabitants of the city until it's cleansed, including death from poison or damage from uncontrolled monsters. Is that a bug or a feature if you don't have anyone the wells can poison and you don't actually care about most of your buildings?"
Myst pulled up his new minion's page when the system notified him that he'd created a gremlin, curious about the gremlin's stats and skills. 'Gremlin Tinker: These minor chaos demons love practical jokes and like sabotaging projects that aren't being built by gremlins. That probably explains the negative effect the gremlins have on morale, at least they don't require food, probably because they're demons.' He frowned when he realized that the gremlin didn't have a magic stat. 'So much for all demons having magic.'
He glanced at the gremlin's skills and smiled when he saw the Advanced Woodworking skill along with the Stealth skill that probably came from them being pranksters. 'If they don't work as crafters, I can probably train them to be scouts or saboteurs, which makes sense considering they're gremlins.'
Myst switched back to the construction page and looked at the requirements. 'Twenty stone and one unit of wood.' He added a unit of tainted wood and the seventeen units of tainted divine stone that he had and filled the rest of the requirements with a pile of defective crystal skulls that weren't going to explode if he dropped them, figuring it might give him something interesting or get him an interesting pattern.
He placed the well next to the Wicked Workshop and pushed the accept button that popped up, half expecting the system to complain that he was trying to place the well on stone or on a floating platform that shouldn't have anything under it. He stared at the innocent looking wishing well that appeared next to the workshop. "Huh, I wasn't expecting that to actually work."
"Dare I ask?" the skeleton mage asked as he walked over, having noticed the new workshop.
"Finishing the workshop unlocked a pattern for a tainted well," Myst replied as he walked over to check the well, slightly annoyed that he didn't get a notice about a foreign dungeon appearing. "Placing the well creates a miniature dungeon that we'll have to clear or that we'll have to have adventurers clear if we want clean water."
"I'll send some minions to scout the area," the mage replied as he mentally sent a dozen trolloc skeletons orders to explore the well. "How many wells can you place in the city?"
"I don't know," Myst admitted as he pulled up the map of the platform, wondering if it was worth placing a couple more while he didn't have any minions that could get poisoned by drinking the water. "The system warned me that placing multiple wells in the same general area causes them to combine and increases the danger of the dungeon."
"That's why we have minions," the mage pointed out, knowing they'd need a source of water if he wanted people to actually live in the city. "Did you get anything else from the workshop?"
"Just a pattern for an inn and the ability to create gremlin tinkers," Myst replied as he pulled the description of the Inn up. "Inns make it easier to attract adventurers and traveling merchants which helps trade, which makes it easier to attract certain types of minions."
"Which would be more useful if you had a way to actually transport people from the island," the mage replied as a dozen trolloc skeletons walked over and started climbing down the metal rungs on the inside of the well. "Did it say what type of monsters to expect?"
"No, it just mentioned that the wells might be cursed, poisoned or monster invested," Myst replied as he queued up another four gremlins.
"That's why we have minions," the mage repeated, looking forward to testing himself against the dungeon. "How expensive are the farms?"
"Good question," Myst replied as he pulled up the page for farms. "The basic farms require dirt and enough people and time to clear the land while the rooftop farms require a sample of dirt and fifty mana per five foot square but you can put them on top of stone."
The skeleton mage glanced at the workshop. "We're going to need to increase your mana."
"That's going to take a bit," Myst admitted. "I was hoping the gremlins would have magic but no luck so far."
"Most minor demons only have a small chance to have magic," the mage pointed out. "You might need to create a magic school in order to recruit magic users."
"It's on the list," Myst replied as he pulled up the workshop and assigned the gremlin with woodworking to the first slot, giving him an icon he could tap to bring up a crafting page. He tapped the icon and glanced over the annoyingly small collection of basic items the gremlin could make. "I'm going to have to do so much cross training if I don't want to lose everything if one of my crafters dies," he complained as he selected a handle for the mining pick.
"It's certainly worth it." The mage glanced at the well when he heard an explosion coming from somewhere underground. "Sounds like they found something."
"Or hit a trap," Myst replied as he checked the first new gremlin. "No magic but it has Stealth and Clockworking." He checked the next gremlin and laughed when he realized the gremlin had a magic stat and a traps skill, along with the stealth skill that seemed standard for gremlins. "Nice, one of them has magic."
"How much?" the mage asked.
"Five points and Lightning affinity, it should go with his traps ability," Myst mused as he checked the other three.
"That's high enough to be useful even if they don't advance," the mage mused. "Did they get any interesting skills?"
"Plumbing, Gem Cutting and Advanced Sculpting. The Sculptor also has ten points of magic and earth and fire affinities."
The mage stared at Myst, wondering if he'd misheard him. "Two affinities as a gremlin and an advanced skill that synergizes?"
"Is that rare?" Myst asked, rather happy with all of the gremlins he'd picked up or at least happy with their crafting abilities.
"Practically unheard of," the mage admitted. "You can teach skills but starting with a skill usually implies a certain talent. Make sure he doesn't die, demons get stronger as they change types and advance which means we're looking at someone that we could turn into a real monster by the time they make it through the academy."
"I wasn't planning on it," Myst replied as he assigned the sculptor to a crafting slot and pulled up the list of things he could create. 'Miniatures, chess pieces, artwork that inspires people to cause trouble, decorative walls, and prank items.' He assigned her to make some prank items using some of the normal stone in his storage, curious what he'd come up with and wanting to keep him busy.
The mage frowned as one of his skeletons was destroyed. "One of the skeletons just died."
Myst glanced at the mage then went back to giving the gremlins projects. "Give me a minute to finish assigning projects so we don't have a bunch of bored gremlins and I'll possess one of the skeletons and take a look at what we're dealing with."
0o0o0
"Best of luck mate," Harry offered to the annoying redhead that was supposed to be his best friend, rather relieved when he found himself back in the black void. "Pretty sure juggling grenades would have been easier."
"Congratulations, you've successfully arranged a bachelor's party for your emotionally unstable friend without getting killed by his fiancé or ruining their relationship," the voice offered.
"You can't blame me for ruining the first one, how was I supposed to know that the bride would run off with the stage magician/stripper?" Harry asked, not feeling particularly guilty about ruining Ron's engagement party since he'd been a prick to his fiancé.
"You should have noticed the way she was watching the stripper," the voice said. "And your second attempt?"
"She asked if her dress made her look fat, was I supposed to lie?" Harry asked, fairly sure that particular scenario had been rigged.
"Generally, the correct response is always no, unless the dress is actually responsible then you blame the dress," the voice replied.
"I'll keep that in mind," Harry replied, glad he was done with the annoying scenario as his friend's fiancé had changed every time he'd restarted so he couldn't just pick a different option until something worked. "What's next?"
"I suggest dance lessons, learning to dance will open up more relationship options," the voice explained.
"How about something else?" Harry asked, not seeing the point in learning to dance.
"I suggest taking the option to learn how to deal with being an anime protagonist and insane girls," the voice suggested.
Harry sighed. "I'm guessing running away isn't an option?"
"Generally, things will conspire to keep you from running away in anime," the voice offered.
"I'm not in an anime," Harry complained.
"Life skills are important," the voice replied.
"Fine…" Harry trailed off as he found himself being hauled into a dojo and tossed in front of three teenage girls by a fat man. 'Great, now what?'
"Harry Saotome, you must pick the girl that you'll marry so you can carry on the proud tradition of the Anything Goes School of Martial arts," the fat man announced.
'Great,' Harry grumbled as he glanced between the three asian teenagers. 'One martial artist, one girl in slacks and a leather jacket that barely covers everything it's supposed to and a girl wearing a dress that looks like it should be on someone thirty years older. He turned his attention to the conversation options floating over their heads, fairly sure the youngest girl looked like she wanted to murder him. 'Do you want to spar? How do you feel about playing with breasts and can I have your panties? Yeah, those last two would probably get me killed for being a pervert,' he mused.
Harry glanced at the middle sister, wondering why she wasn't wearing a shirt. 'How much to pretend to get married? Sorry, I don't want to wake up and find out that you've sold my kidneys to the black market. Do you have nudes?' He glanced at the stern looking man standing off to the side, fairly sure none of the conversation options for the middle sister would end well. 'Yeah, I think I'll just ignore her.'
He looked at the older sister who was wearing an old fashioned dress and looked a lot less athletic than the other two girls. 'How well can you bake? Do you like martial arts? How old are you?' He briefly considered asking about baking but wasn't sure if that was the right question as it implied that he only cared if she could cook. He turned to look at the youngest girl and asked the only reasonable question, "Do you want to spar?"
"Yes!" Akane said enthusiastically.
Harry found himself regretting his choice immediately when he found himself pushed into the ring by the fat bastard and the girl gleefully demolished him. He sighed when he found himself back in the black void after a thankfully brief flash of pain in his nose. "That sucked."
"Having hobbies is a useful social skill, perhaps you'd like to try taking Dance lessons, it will help with your footwork," the voice suggested.
"Fine," Harry muttered, deciding that he might as well get it over with, especially since no one would remember when he made a fool out of himself. He glanced around the stone red and gold lounge then focused on the dark haired woman with a witch's hat that seemed to be the only adult in the room.
"Don't worry, dancing isn't actually that hard, it just takes a bit of practice and attention to where you're putting your feet," the witch assured the students. "Please find a partner of the opposite sex and we'll get started."
Harry glanced around at the girls, happy that the guys seemed frozen in place as it gave him a chance to wander around. He smiled when he saw the bushy haired girl that looked like a younger version of the girl that ran off with the stripper because Ron was being an idiot. 'And the girl with a pink jumper looks like the girl he ended up with.'
He walked over to the bushy haired girl and glanced at the conversation options. 'Please save me from Ginny. Don't worry, I won't step on your toes?' He went with the last option, "Can I have this dance?"
"Do you actually know how to dance?" Hermione asked as the rest of the boys found dance partners.
"That's why I'm here," Harry replied, figuring that was better than lying or complaining.
"Don't worry, it's simple enough once you get the hang of it," Hermione assured him.
'Good, McGonagall will kill me if I screw up in front of everyone? Or I could complain about making a fool of myself, is complaining ever the right choice?' he mused, trying not to think about the times Vernon had hit him for complaining. "Fantastic, I'd hate to ruin my date's night."
"I appreciate it," Hermione replied then turned her attention towards McGonagall as she started giving the boys directions.
0o0o0
Myst used his possession skill on the trolloc skeleton standing in front of the corrupted well then climbed down the rusty ladder set into the side of the stone well. He froze when he dropped the last couple of feet into the water under the well and realized that it was basically a toxic sewer complete with floating lumps and faintly glowing green sludge.
'Don't think about it. You're not actually here, it's just sludge,' he told himself as he waded through the water toward the sound of battle, sticking to the edge of the rough tunnel so that he could use the wall to keep from slipping and plunging into the liquid filth. He focused on his hand that was on the wall, mostly because he couldn't actually feel the wall with his boney fingers.
He rounded the corner of the rough stone tunnel and stared at the filthy looking goblin camp where a horde of revolting slime covered goblins were swarming the remaining skeletons with meat cleavers. He turned his attention to the skull covered altar in the middle of the camp that was oozing a glowing green sludge that made the scene even more disturbing than it should have been.
"A-foozel! A-foozel, Lord of Corruption!" the shaman chanted as he waved his staff at the skeletons, tossing bolts of green plasma that caught the skeletons on fire, making it easier for the goblins to kill the skeletons.
'One fireball would probably clear the place but then we'd lose the loot and the mage if the sludge is flammable,' Myst mused as he glanced between the chunks of glowing green crystal embedded in the walls of the cavern. "Kill the shaman!" he ordered as he climbed out of the backed up stream.
"A-foozel!" the shaman shouted, causing a twenty foot section of the sludge on the ground to form into a knee high wave of slime that surged towards the skeletons as they charged him.
"Seriously?" he complained when most of the skeletons were knocked over by the wave, letting the goblins swarm them. 'Fuck it,' he thought as he charged the goblin shaman, doing his best to avoid the piles of trash scattered around the camp, including the contraption that looked suspiciously like an old fashioned radio.
"A-foozel, protect your degenerate servant!" the shaman chanted smugly.
Myst heard bones splinter and snap as he crashed into the goblin and the goblin's aura ripped into the skeleton he was possessing. He grabbed the goblin shaman by the neck, lifted him off the ground. "Die."
"You can't hurt me!" the shaman bragged.
Myst slammed the shaman against the altar, causing the goblin's aura to lash out at the altar. He had a second to enjoy the panicked look on the shaman's face before there was a flash of light and he was back on the surface in spirit form. "If the goblins try to climb up, set them on fire."
"With pleasure," the mage replied as he mentally directed another dozen skeletons to grab spears and hurry over to guard the entrance.
Myst pulled a crystal skull out of his storage as he heard the goblin war cries getting closer. "I should have grabbed one of these to start with." He tossed the crystal skull down the well when he saw a goblin swim into his field of view. The skull clipped the last rung, causing an explosion of force and making some goblins scream in pain.
The mage tossed a fireball down the well and stepped back. "Fire in the hole…" the mage trailed off as the ground shook and a nasty jet of green flame exploded out of the well.
"So much for it not being flammable," Myst muttered as a notice popped up informing him that all of the monsters were dead and that he needed to clean up the trash and mine the tainted crystal to purify the water. "The goblins are dead, now we just have to clean up the trash and get rid of some tainted crystals."
"What do you want to do with the trash?" the mage asked, hoping he wasn't going to suggest going down there.
Myst glanced at the workshop. "We have gremlins, they can probably salvage some of it for parts."
The mage shook his head. "I doubt they'll want to go into the water."
"Issues with water?" Myst asked, thinking about the gremlins movies.
The mage shook his head. "No, it's just nasty and we don't exactly have a good way to get clean right now."
"That just means…" Myst trailed off as he looked down the well and realized he could see stone at the bottom. "You might have broken something."
The mage looked down the well. "There's a ledge, the blast probably destroyed whatever was backing up the steam which caused the water level to drop."
"I'll take a look." Myst possessed another one of the skeletons then headed down into the well, curious what he'd find in the trash. He glanced at the water that was flowing in the channel next to the ledge, a touch surprised by how fast it was moving. 'At least it just looks like someone spilled oil in the water rather than replaced it with ooze,' he mused as he took a left instead of a right and walked down the tunnel leading away from the goblin camp. He paused as he walked around a bend in the rough tunnel and reached a cavern that was lit by glowing blue crystals embedded in the walls.
He glanced at the pool that had a small whirlpool in the middle. 'If this was warcraft, they'd have fishing pools for the quest and you'd be pulling up thousands of pounds of trash before you finished the quest.' He glanced at the glowing crystals in the wall that gave the cavern a peaceful look then looked at the edges of the pool. 'Plenty of space for people to set up chairs and enjoy the sound of rushing water or practice their water magic.'
He turned around and headed back the other way, making his way to the other chamber, happy that he could walk on the ledge now that the stream had receded. He glanced at the hundreds of sickly glowing green crystals embedded in the walls of the cavern that gave the cavern a greenish glow. He walked over and checked one of the piles of trash with his spear, a bit surprised to get a broken cow magnet stuck to his spear tip. 'It's like they raided a lab or something, makes me wish I had a geiger counter.'
He dropped the possession and opened his workshop menu.
"Did you find anything useful?" the mage asked, curious if they could use it for something other than just water.
"Maybe? I found a bunch of glowing crystals that are tainted. I might be able to use the crystals to pay for a magic school," Myst said as he started setting things up so the two gremlins that didn't have magic or advanced skills would train the rest of the gremlins in their skills so they could go down and poke around without him worrying about losing access to their skills if they died.
"It's worth a shot," the skeleton mage mused. "Actually, if I can get a sample of the crystals, I might be able to research a way to turn crystals into mana batteries which should let you save up your mana for large purchases."
"Like you said, worth a shot," Myst replied with a grin as he opened his minion panel and gave the skeleton miner orders to start harvesting the green crystals in the goblin chamber.
