MH2 - Chapter 12: Suicide, Self-destruct, Same thing

The glow of Dolli and Julie’s bodies were all that lit the halls of the lower dungeon while they walked the new section. After the last dungeon level up, the dungeon had ascended twenty-five feet instead of the typical ten, which had given them a lot more room to work with.

“Here’s where I want to craft the hidden switchback,” Julie said pointing to the dead-end in the maze. “It’ll allow the troops to retreat up to the next level, and there’ll be a leaver they can pull once they’ve all escaped that’ll collapse this bit of ceiling.” Julie pointed to the space above where they were standing. “We’ll make a fat wall on top just for crumblin’ so it can fill in the gap, make sure no one crawls up in that way.”

Julie went on and Dolli followed, but her mind wandered. She needed to start making the hero quests to bring in allies and she needed to break that news to Monster Haven soon. Heroes stood for everything evil and bad in their world, though Dolli had recently seen much good in them over the years.

They weren’t vile monsters looking to steal and consume everything in Hafheim. Most of them seemed more like children, uncertain about the world and what was in it. With Dolli’s better understanding of the heroes—that the came from a world apart and didn’t know Hafheim was real… it made hating them a little harder.

“Overlord?” Julie asked.

“Uh, yes. This all sound good.” Dolli said.

“I asked if you were all right.” Julie said and slowed to a stop.

“My apologies. You seem to have this under control, so my thoughts were elsewhere.”

Julie chuckled. “Where’s that?”

“Somewhere between Hafhaven and the void,” Dolli mused, then shook her head. “Thank you for taking your responsibilities seriously.”

“It’s not just my home I’m protecting; it’s Monster Haven, home to any peaceful monster trying to escape murderous heroes.” Julie said.

“I wish I could show his people that.” Dolli sighed and drifted to the floor. She put a hand against the stone and though she barely felt it on her fingers, the thrum of her dungeon beat like a heart in her chest. She sensed the dungeonfolk hard at work fighting for survival.

“We need help, Julie, or we’re not going to make it. We need heroes.”

Julie recoiled and her body pulsed bright yellow. “Has all this been for nothin’? You’ve relied on them before, and this is where we got to!”

“I know, but we need more firepower. We just won’t be enough, and we need Kelzoul to drink one of those poisoned potions. Trust me, I did the math.” Dolli picked up a pebble and tossed it down the dark corridor in frustration.

“What about finding another dungeon, makin’ friends?”

Dolli shook her head. “How would we find them? If they were a defender style, how could they come help us? We’re bound to our zone. Warmonger style dungeons aren’t likely to help us unless they see Kelzoul as a threat—which if they did, they’d likely stay on the run, like Taffy and his elves.

“We have an edge with the heroes right now. They’ve become more aware of my quests, and I know we could get a fair few of them to sign up.”

“But what if they turn on us?” Julie fluffed down beside Dolli and took her hands in hers. “We can’t trust ‘em.”

“Kelzoul will unleash wave after wave monsters, thousands by the hour, unrelenting so there’s no time to recoup lost Spark and Health or even respawn. He will wear us down. It would only be a matter of time.”

Julie was quiet for a moment. “Is there nothing else we can do?”

There was something else they could do… that Dolli could do for them. But the likelihood of their survival without heroes was paper thin. Dolli’s dungeon core was strong, flowing with the power of a Lifestream of Hafheim. With a few special alchemy ingredients, Dolli could transform it into a powerful, one-time use weapon. Something that would end Kelzoul forever.

“I could use my core as a bomb, blow him to smithereens and destroy his core in the process.”

“And there’s no other way?” Julie asked, picking up her own pebble and tossing it in futility.

Dolli shook her head. “None that I see. I’d much prefer to turn his core into a bomb, but I have no idea where it is, or how well protect it is. I’ve been in his camp twice and didn’t see it, but I know everything of his is well guarded.”

They sat in silence for a moment, then Dolli lifted from the ground. “We better get back to it.”

Julie sighed. “If you kill yourself, Monster Haven is done, right?”

“I think so. You’ll be free to find another place of power and start fresh—maybe Greg could be your Overlord?”

Julie scowled sarcastically. “I’ve come to notice a few failin’s in him that might not make the best leader. I’m glad you’re our Overlord, Dollitrice.”

“Thank you,” Dolli whispered, then offered Julie a hand up.

She took it and then sighed deeply. “Well, we better tell the others about this new plan.”

“The suicide or the heroes?”

Julie snorted. “Aren’t they both suicide?”

Dolli nodded. “Fair point.”

She opened the Overlord menu and did a quick round of reinforcement tasks for the top-city walls. This came with upgraded Ballistae which needed additional components from the Blacksmith. Dolli dished out all the work in turn, then noticed her monsters idle in the slaying pit. She opened the hero quest menu to find a slew of turn-ins ready to go, at least two big groups of heroes she could summon right away.

She moved over to the chat window and selected her officers: Summoning heroes to the pit, then need to call an emergency meeting at the throne. Gather in thirty.

Everyone replied in chat, even Julie, that they’d be there.

“Time to go feed the beast. Start the tea, would you?” Dolli asked and gave Julie a wave.

Dolli made her way down to the open arena where she could summon the hapless heroes in for slaughter. She summoned in the first wave of twenty-five and provided minimal support from the back, electing to watch her dungeonfolk in action instead. They’d grown in skill and tactics over the weeks, and Dolli was proud of how well they were all adjusting.

She gave them a short break, then summoned the next round. This group was larger, nearly thirty heroes, and Dolli jumped into the fray. She used burst of speed to weave through the lines of tanks and dropped a Solstorm on their casters. Chaos ensued from there as the randomly collected heroes tried their best to organize against Dolli’s troops.

“There’s the leader!” someone shouted behind Dolli as she retreated to the safety of her Bronzite tanks.

A female hero charged, shouting and waving, “Hey, Dollitrice!”

“What’s up with this potion you’re making?” Another random hero screamed.

They were dying all around her, but more interested in speaking with her than their own lives? Dolli called for a hold on combat with just four heroes left in critical condition.

“What—” the hero coughed, sputtering gore on his chest. He’d received too great a wound and his health bar emptied.

Dolli moved on to the next hero, the tank girl.

“What is this, then? Rumors spreading about us on Rebit?” Dolli asked in a critical voice.

The tank gave a bloody-toothed smile. “You know about Rebit… it’s true then. You’re… broken.”

“What’s the potion for?” the other hero asked from the stranglehold of a muscled Osorath.

Dolli crossed her arms. “None of your business—yet.”

“Yet?” the tank grinned wider. “Is this a new world event?”

“Oh muh gerd, I hope,” the slowly strangling hero managed in gasps.

Dolli smirked. “Keep an eye on the forums, kids.” She looked to her monsters and nodded. The heroes were ended in an instant, and with their demise came the notifications Dolli had been pining for. Dungeon level nine, and her own level up to sixteen—which unsurprisingly did not come with any new abilities.

[Congratulations – Your dungeon has reached Level 9]

Unused Monster Slots: [49/200]

Undistributed Roles: [1/7]

Open Lifestream Slots: [4/6]

Unclaimed Overlord Ability Points: [1]

[1] level remains until next dungeon ability: Modulate; Resolve.

Ascension Boost: The dungeon will now grow by 25 feet per level.

-----

Dolli opened the roles tab with hope swelling in her heart. There was a new slot open and that usually meant a new option was available, too. She almost shouted with joy when she saw what it was.

[Battle Commander]

The Battle Commander is a force to be reckoned with on the field. They can project their voice over the entire dungeon, set map pings, organize battalions, and use several abilities to command the troops.

It is recommended that the Overlord takes this role.

Oops, you’ve already assumed a role!

-----

While Dolli appreciated the system backhandedly chastising her for not being more patient for the “better role”, she wasn’t concerned. Battle Commander was not her style, but she did know just who to give it to.

She opened the chat menu and selected only Brene: Meet in the cottage in five. Emergency.

Brene couldn’t reply—yet—but Dolli knew she’d be watching her notifications.

“Crawl the halls for stragglers. I’ll be back with another round in half an hour,” Dolli said to her troops, then bade them farewell.

She multi-tasked, wiggling along through the tunnels toward her cottage while she applied her stat points. She decided not to go with the usual configuration and dropped all five into Constitution. Having a few more Health points for her battle with Kelzoul would be welcomed.

As for her ability point, she decided to drop it in Fold Reality, another one of her most-useful spells.

[Wispelle Ability: FOLD REALITY]

Spell type: Active

Cost: 150 Spark

Cast time: Instant

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Duration: 20 seconds

Range: 300 feet

Target: Any two points in space not occupied by a living being

Spark Alignment: Celestial

Description: Space is your domain, and you know how to bend the rules. Select any two points in space to be connected as if they were one.

Effects:

- Allow objects and Creatures to pass through each point in space as if they were the same point.

- Neither point can be cast on top of a living being* in a way that would bisect, or otherwise trap them in the Fold.

- Any allies passing through the Fold will gain the Celestial buff “Reflect,” increasing resistance to all spell types by 20% for 10 seconds.

- Any enemies passing through the Fold will gain the Celestial debuff “Repulse,” adding a 15% chance to be stunned when physically attacked for 10 seconds.

*Disclaimer: Very small and microscopic beings are an exception.

-----

The upgrade dropped the cooldown and increased the duration significantly, a huge boon. Not only that, but the buff and debuff for friends or enemies passing through the portal was a great addition.

All her officers, plus Brene, were waiting inside her home when she arrived. She pushed the door shut behind her and gave nods of recognition to everyone for coming.

“First order of business; Brene, I’d like to offer you the officer role of Battle Commander. It comes with interesting combat perks and the ability to send dungeon messages and map pings. It’s a powerful and important job that we need done well.”

Dolli pulled the Battle Commander pin from the ether of the menus and held it out to the towering Stagarth.

Brene dropped to a knee, but she was still a head above Dolli. She took the pin and pressed it to her chest. “I would be honored to serve Monster Haven in this way.”

Dolli dismissed the notification that appeared for Brene’s acceptance and watched as green light filled the room. The pin molded into Brene’s chest, searing into her very being. The light in the pin dimmed, then thrummed in time with the others.

Julie clapped. “Well done!”

“Yes, welcome to the officer’s team,” Greg boomed. The hulking Bronzite was getting much too large for Dolli’s table and chairs, but that was a logistical problem for another time.

The others joined in the welcoming and Brene turned bright red, looking as if she wanted to disappear. Dolli ushered her to the over-stuffed table, then pulled up a stool for her to sit on.

“Greg and Julie, please keep this in mind when we’re not all about to die, but we need a bigger meeting room. I’m not sure if I want to make changes to the cottage just yet, so perhaps we can craft something in the next level down.”

“Something big enough for me, as well,” Nubiri said from the window with a snort of hot air.

“Right,” Julie said, scribbling a note on a long bit of parchment that was overstuffed with things to do, nearly half of them crossed off.

Dolli sucked in a deep breath. “Now, for the reason you’re all here—

“Julie told us already,” Rufus said.

“We support the decision to call in heroes to fight with us,” Greg said.

Dolli scowled. “All of you?”

Nubiri growled. “I begrudgingly agreed. I would prefer my unborn child sssurvives.”

The rest of the group nodded, even Brene. “I’ve been monitoring our power level through the Dungeon Information menu—just outside the cottage there—” Brene pointed to the door to where Dolli assumed an access menu existed. “I compared this to the size of Kelzoul’s army and used the monsters I fought against as a mid-level baseline for their overall strength.”

Brene paused, uncertain, but Dolli nodded and she went on, “We don’t have enough monsters at high enough levels. The dungeon itself needs to be three to six levels higher than it is to put up any kind of a fight against his forces. We’ll need many disposable fighters to combat his style of endless waves. I assume this was the conclusion you came to hours ago, Overlord?”

“It was indeed,” Dolli affirmed. She smirked at the pandering, or perhaps it was just courtesy that Brene was trying not to make her Overlord look bad.

“Good pick,” Rufus whispered to Dolli with a wink and a nudge.

Brene’s shoulders climbed up to her antlers and she shrank in on herself. She was beet red as she whispered, “Yes, well, the heroes would provide a near endless stream of forced to clash with Kelzoul’s, if we can get them to agree not to kill us.”

Greg crossed his arms and sat back, the little wooden chair whining under his weight. “We can’t trust heroes not’ta do what’s in their nature. They kill monsters and raid treasure holds,” he said.

Dolli raised a finger. “This is where I’ve blundered in the past. The quest has explicit fail conditions I can fill in—though it does take a higher reward value. I can ensure they no not to hurt the dungeonfolk of Monster Haven or raid our holds.” At least, she hoped that was a condition she could set.

Rufus shrugged. “Not like we’re using the mountains of coin we’ve collected from them.”

“Ha, we’ll be paying them with their own pilfered money. I like that,” Greg said with smug satisfaction.

“We’ll need to spread the word fast,” Dolli said, opening her Hero Quest menu. She saw the simple quest she’d given to Katrina was completed, and she was online. Perfect.

“Get ready everyone. Hero incoming.”