RD: Chapter Two - The Accidental Dungeon

Little Crossroad came into view through the trees as the timer in Dolli’s vision hit [0:10:00] with a bright red flare. Her head throbbed from the lingering effects of the concussion. How she wished she’d prepared better for going through the portal. Of course if she was using the escape portal she would be leaving in a hurry, and possibly hurt.

She’d left herself only two Advanced Healing potions—which were far less effective on citizens of Hafheim than it was for heroes. She’d poured the first one directly over the purpling skin on her leg and drank the second to speed the effects. Yet it hadn’t been enough to dull the throbbing ache in her skull which grew worse the closer she came to town.

Dolli staggered past the broken wood fence and through a narrow, decrepit alleyway into the village. So many people had left. Those who remained had moved closer to the village center where the last standing inn, X Marks the Spot, and the smithy sat amid the other rundown and abandoned businesses.

Every breath Dolli drew sent stabs of pain radiating through her chest. She must’ve just been exhausted from the hike with a concussion, but by the gods if it didn’t feel like the town itself was trying to strangle her with each step she took. Had the villagers learned to hex, and booby-trapped the streets?

Unlikely…

Dolli soldiered on until finally the worn down “X” over the three-story stone building came into view.

“You have to get out,” Dolli called to the sparsely populated streets.

The townspeople looked at her with disgust and went on about their afternoon business.

Dolli’s head throbbed, feeling like an over-filled balloon, but she yelled again, “There’s only minutes left. You will turn into monsters!”

“We’ve heard that one before, witch,” a woman in a blue skirt and white bonnet called. Dolli couldn’t clearly see her face, but assumed it was Julie Harken, the village nurse and the only one who kept the abandoned church in good repair.

Dolli stumbled toward her, leaning hard into the walking stick. “Ring the bells, get them out. There’s only minutes.”

“Stay back!” Greg’s booming voice made Dolli’s head feel like it would pop.

Dolli dropped to one knee under the pressure and the timer in her vision fell to five minutes. “Please. Get out before it’s too late.”

“What a pathetic display. Have you really sunk so low?” Greg’s voice sounded far off.

“The children,” Dolli said.

“The ones you murdered, or some others?” Julie asked, her fjord-land accent as thick as her fury.

Dolli closed her eyes to keep them from popping out of her skull.

“You should kill her now, Greg, while she’s weak!” someone shouted from the gathering crowd.

“I’ve more honor than that!” Greg bellowed.

“What is this?” Rufus declared and jolted Dolli from her painful stupor.

Rufus Kruger owned the inn and ran a small produce shop. Dolli sold Rufus her pumpkins every fall—except this one now—and overtime they had developed a sort of friendship. He was the only townsperson who’d shown Dolli an ounce of kindness after the plague, and if anyone would believe her, it was him.

Dolli dragged herself up with the walking stick and reached for Rufus. “Get everyone out. Two minutes.”

Rufus stared at her for a beat, then turned to Greg. “She’s telling truth. We need to run.”

“You can run. I’m staying right here.” Julie said defiantly.

The crowd murmured agreement. Dolli wanted to tell Julie what a horses arse she was being, but pain overwhelmed her, and she screamed instead. She was ripping at the seams, her very being pulled apart molecule by molecule. Dolli’s vision went dark as the timer hit ten seconds.

“Run!” she shrieked as green smoke enveloped her.

The townsfolk screamed in terror and ran, but it was too late. Energy surged through Dolli, blasting her into vapor. The pain ended in an instant, and Dolli looked down on the village of Little Crossroad with mortified curiosity. She hung just over the inn, but was moving up toward dark storm clouds above. She had no body, but retained her thoughts, vision, and hearing.

A new popup appeared with a two-minute countdown. The Dungefication Process couldn’t be stopped now, not that Dolli cared—she was just green smoke.

“It’s really happening! Run!” Greg screamed. Dolli wished she could reach out and slap him for his stubborn ignorance. His lies and conspiracies had trapped the poor people, tying them to Dolli’s dungeon forever.

Lightning pierced the sky and smashed into the road at the edge of town, then lingered. It spread spidery legs that reached up into the cloud of green that was Dolli, then back down to the city, encircling them. Dolli watched, helpless as the Hero Magic did its work to seal their fate.

When the ring of lightning sealed, the cloud of green mist descended in a deafening whoosh. The cloud—Dolli herself—wrapped around each citizen with a snake-like embrace, lifting them from the streets. Screams of pain and terror threaded through the gusting wind. She watched from a hundred different eyes as her essence pulled the townsfolk apart, breaking them into clouds of sparkles.

The children screamed for their mothers. Greg begged for mercy as he always did of Dolli. Julie and the other townspeople fought and yelled, trying to free themselves from Dolli’s suffocating grasp which she could not control. But then there was Rufus, who quietly accepted his fate. His body dissolved, as did the others, and Dolli was left alone in a sea of green.

A burst of light filled her vision, whiting everything out until Dolli saw only a popup.

[Dungefication Complete]

Congratulation, or perhaps condolences! Your zone [Valley of Little Crossroads] has been transformed into a dungeon.

The remaining citizens are selecting their monster forms now, with your zone restrictions of [Mountain | Forest | Plains]. You will be prompted to select your new form below.

You may rename your dungeon at any time before level [5] from the Overlord menu.

Review Overlord Menu? [YES] [NO]

-----

She selected No. She would have plenty of time to review the menu later, and she was certain it couldn’t be much more difficult than the Regnant Powers. When the prompt disappeared, she was brought to a new screen that displayed four different creatures, vaguely human, who looked somewhat like her. It was as if Dolli’s essencewas captured and molded into the creatures hanging in the whiteness before her.

A warning popped out at the bottom of the screen which stated all current magical and non-magical abilities would be lost, and that Dolli would start over at level [1] in her new body.

New body.

The words struck Dolli into stillness. She had lived in the same body her whole life, sixty-eight years, and now she would be choosing a new one. It was an opportunity to start fresh—though incredibly annoying that she would have to start fresh. Those wyverns were powerful. Who knew how long it would take Dolli to level up and kick them out? A problem for later, though.

The first option up was a [Golem], a rock-skinned creature that towered above the others. As Dolli leveled up, new modifications of the monster would unlock. The first two choices were wildly different. One would transform the rocky skin into sand, allowing the monster to shapeshift. The other modification grew the monster by two feet in each direction, hardening the skin and increasing health stats. But it had low magical affinity. Dolli could never learn to cast the spells she once knew, and would be most reliant on brute force, or other non-magical abilities.

Next was a [Wendigo], a gangly creature of the forest that could transform into a horned beast like a bipedal elk, or a nymph with a body like a sapling oak. This one had magical affinity, and Dolli kept that in mind—though the first form, the Wendigo, was horrifying to look upon. Not to mention her cottage was now covered in Wendigo repellant…

Third, a [Belgrus]. It was a feathered monster with the body of a bear and no magical affinity. At the first transformation it could become more hawk-like, growing long feathers from the arms and slimming down. At this point, it gained magical affinity, but that would be a long time to wait to cast spells again. The second transformation was more beast-like, gaining a longer maw, bigger claws, and a spiked tail. It was certainly ferocious and the least human of the four.

Last was a [Wispelle], a smoky ball of light in its first form that could take simple physical shapes. As Dolli watched, the bright smoke shifted from a bird, to a cat, to a smaller version of herself. The branching forms were hidden from Dolli with a message that stated, “Monster given unique transformations based on play style.” Dolli scowled as she reviewed the stats for the strange creature.

The Wispelle started with a whopping thirty-two points in Magic Affinity, twenty in Mental Prowess, five in Agility, and one point for Stamina, Strength, and Constitution. It had the lowest of low hit points, only twenty, but the spark points—what Dolli would use to cast spells—started at six-hundred and fifty.

Dolli compared that to the Wendigo. It started with ten Magic Affinity, eight Mental Prowess, twenty Stamina, twelve Strength, and ten Constitution, with one-hundred and ten hit points, and ninety spark points. It was a balanced role, something that would give her an even ground to stand on. But was it the right choice?

She’d been a magic user all her life—though magic had changed significantly with the arrival of the heroes—and that was one thing she didn’t want to give up when she started over. Wispelle and Wendigo were the only choices for her. One would give her a good starting point to survive a variety of encounters, the other was wildly balanced toward magic dependency.

Dolli didn’t want to be at the mercy of her people to protect her—they wouldn’t. She needed to pick Wendigo. It was the right choice… but there was so much more magical potential to Wispelle!

Dolli knew what she truly wanted. She’d worked her way out of difficult situations within her limitations before, and having twenty hit points was just another roadblock she’d figure out on her own, as she always had.

Without another thought, Dolli made her choice.