Dungeon Life

Chapter One-Hundred Fourty

Unfortunately, its easier to want to get down to business than to actually get down to business. The biggest hurdle is that I know even less than I did about Hullbreak when I started. At least I knew where Hullbreak was! So time to do what I can. The most I can do directly is ask Poe to focus the underground expeditions out past the underswamps. If I want to kick that dungeons butt, I need to find it, first.

The other thing I can do is to make sure the home front is well and secure, which means making sure Violet and Hullbreak can support themselves. Violet is fine on that, technically. She doesnt have many delvers, but she also doesnt have much in the way of expenses. With me sending quests for delvers for her, she should be getting a lot more mana now, too. I can also feel her shuffling closer to expanding, so I poke Teemo to go visit and see if she has any questions or wants any guidance for her first expansion.

Thankfully, it looks like the mood has lightened significantly in the meeting, my dwellers doing their best to reassure my High Priestess, who reassures them in kind as she can feel me moving. Theyve moved on to the more idle chatter between friends, which lets Teemo slip out without making much of a fuss.

Whats up, Boss?

Heya Teemo. Can you go check on Violet? I think shes about to expand, and Id like to be able to answer any questions or worries she has.

Like with the scythemaw eggs? he asks with a cheeky grin, before slipping through a shortcut.

Har har. Like with help with whatever new spawners she gets, and with whatever the eggs do.

You still think they wont cause any problems? asks my Voice, letting his sarcasm fall by the wayside.

Yeah. I get the feeling they wont do much at all. I think, worst case, theyll count as delvers who arent doing very much.

Any idea for how to help them hatch?

Mostly to just leave them alone. Id probably suggest she keep an eye on the temperature and humidity, and probably mana, too, but try not to interfere with anything. The maws have been doing this long enough to know how to make it work, right?

Teemo shrugs. I guess?

Its not like either of us has any better idea. Its not too much longer before Teemo exits the shortcut, and then its just a little further until he can slip into Violets area.

Heya Violet! Howd you like that boss fight? He listens for a few seconds, before relaying her opinion. Sounds like it wasnt as scary as she thought it would be, and she kinda wants to have a scion she could use for fights like that.

Oh yeah? Which one is she thinking to use for that?

Hmm she says she wants a new scion for it. She likes Legs as her guardian, and Cappy for information.

Nice, shes named them? I can feel my happiness at the thought filtering through the bond, and Teemo smiles.

She says shes glad you like the names. So yeah, she plans to expand and get a new scion or two. Do you have any advice for her before she does?

Nothing specific, no. Just to take a moment to take it all in before she spends more mana on various upgrades. She has enough to cover expanding as well as some upgrades to things, yeah?

Teemo nods. Yep. Sounds like shes as ready as shes going to be. Go ahead, Violet.

A couple beats later, I feel her territory expand, rapidly claiming the entire small cavern outside her door. A few more seconds pass before I get a notification as her mentor, giving me a basic list of what shes gained. What I see has me interested, too.

She says she can make mining nodes now, and she picked up a pair of spawners. Wait, really? He listens to her reply while I nod to myself.

She got moles and shadow spirits, and I can see the spirits can upgrade to gremlins for practically a song.

Yeah. Thats probably not a coincidence. I can feel some concern through the bond, so I pat it to reassure her. Nah, you didnt do anything wrong, Violet. It just seems like one of the Boss experiments wasnt going as badly as he thought, he finishes with a grin. I dont dignify him with a response as I instead take a closer look at my proteges new spawners.

Looks like the gremlins are a resource specialization, which could be good for her mining nodes. The moles also have a mining specialization, but I cant get too much detail. Its probably more efficient to just go with the gremlins for the resources, and decide on what to do with the moles later.

Teemo relays that, and Violet quickly takes the discounted upgrade. We all watch as a gremlin almost flows out of a crack in a wall like smoke, before moving to one of the nodes, looks like tin or something? Either way, the gremlin picks with its claws at the rock, leaving the metal ore behind, and I can even see it somehow adding to the metal there.

I take a closer look at the gremlin, and see why. Huh, looks like they picked up metal and earth affinities. Thats cool.

Teemo speaks up, drawing me from my examinations. Hey Boss, Violet wants to know if she should make scions, and if she should make any of them fighters.

I take a quick glance at her mana flow, and give Teemo the go-ahead. Its a good idea to get scions, but what kind of fighters does she want?

Teemo snorts when Violet gives him her reply. She says she wants something like what you have, heh.

Well I think shell need to do some more prep before she can manage someone like Rocky or the Jakobs Ladder snake. She should probably make a few basic rooms before trying to specialize her new scions. Her mushroom scion will probably make a good marshal, so she should make a war room for a map.

I take a few moments to see what rooms she has available, before continuing. I dont see alchemy or enchanting labs but she has access to a metalworks, which could be interesting. If she wants to pull some kind of surprise, thats probably her best bet.

Oh! Speaking of surprises

I trail off as I focus on one of the scythemaw nests, and see something surprising, but not shocking. The nests each count as a very small enclave, with the eggs counting as dwellers. Violet notices, too, and I can feel worry dripping through the bond, until Teemo speaks up.

Hey, easy there, Violet. Youll be fine, theyre still just eggs. Just keep an eye on them, dont bother them, and they should hatch and head out for the water. The Boss says the maws know the best way to let them grow, so try to just not disturb them, ok?

I can tell shes still nervous about the eggs, but the little pep talk from Teemo seems to keep her from doing anything rash.

Any advice for how to organize her new denizens?

Well Id leave the moles mostly alone for now, maybe a couple upgrades to make them stronger, but dont specialize them just yet. Moles and centipedes are probably good to send on expeditions, but make sure she keeps enough at home to deal with whatever new invader she has. She might actually see wild gremlins, so she might want to upgrade her centipedes to be able to deal with them, come to think of it.

For her new scions Id suggest giving them both turns in running the metalworks, see which one likes it better. Whoever doesnt like it, she can try to see if it likes to fight. If it still doesnt feel quite right, let it focus on dealing with invaders and helping out wherever it can. Some of my scions I had a good idea of what to do with them, and some of them took a while, like Coda. Poor bat was kinda just flapping in the wind for a while.

Teemo relays that, and Im happy to see Violet not just implementing everything I said. Shes her own dungeon, Im just giving her advice to avoid pitfalls. For the moment, it looks like shes getting those rooms I suggested, and getting Cappy to organize a few expeditions.

I lean back and idly watch her work as I think. Its definitely not a coincidence she got spawners for the two things Ive been trying to gain. Were the ones we released just hunkering down in here, waiting for her to expand and join her? Is that even how it works? I could try to experiment with other invaders but the only other one that comes from down here are those dire mosquitoes. I feel like having those as a spawner would traumatize Violet even more than a scythemaw spawner!

Ill let Jello know shes kind of succeeded with the mole/gremlin stuff, though I doubt thatll get her to stop. I dont think Id want her to, either. If she can pacify them and they go to Violet, thats perfectly fine by me. Ill probably ask Violet if I can have one of each once I do my own next expansion. For now, though, Ill just let her get used to the new stuff she has to deal with.

Violet is making strides now its Hullbreaks turn. Im going to need to ask Tarl to do an inspection. Thats probably going to be difficult for everyone but it still needs to be done.

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