NOVEL NEXT CHAPTER 101: Day Five Bones Bones Bones
Atlas's mind raced as he looked at the dungeon heart, pulsing with energy. He could almost hear the ticking of an invisible clock as he prepared for their next move.
"Alright," he said finally, turning to the team, "we're not just fighters. We’re strategists. Linking this dungeon heart to our settlement means we can control the mana flow. It won’t be easy, but it’s worth it."
“Do you know how to do that?” Wang Bo asked, glancing between Atlas and the glowing stone.
“I’ve done this before a time or two,” Atlas replied with a smile, stepping up to the dungeon heart.
Atlas knelt by the dungeon heart, carefully placing his hand on its surface. The moment his hand connected, the gem pulsed with a brighter light, and the room seemed to hum with energy. The team held their breath as they watched the dungeon heart begin to synchronize, creating a bridge between the dungeon and their settlement. Linking a dungeon wasn’t a quick process. It took close to half an hour of patience.
“It’s working,” Barbara whispered, her eyes wide as she watched the mana flow shift direction, feeding directly into the settlement link.
Just as the connection was nearly complete, the dungeon heart gave a violent shudder, sending out a shockwave that knocked everyone back. The walls of the chamber trembled, and a deep, ominous rumble echoed through the air.
“What’s happening?!” Kingsley yelled, scrambling to his feet.
Atlas gritted his teeth, bracing himself against the onslaught of energy. “The heart doesn’t like being tamed,” he shouted back. “Hold on, we’re almost there!”
The team quickly regained their footing, forming a protective circle around Atlas. The skeleton’s bones on the floor began to twitch and rattle as if trying to reassemble themselves.
“Not today, buddy!” Alexander shouted, stomping down hard on a skull with a sickening crunch. The bones fell still once more.
“Does that always happen?” Isabella asked.
“Sometimes the dungeon heart tries to respawn a boss if you’re not quick enough to link it. One time, we saw a group get into a huge fight over ownership, and the dungeon respawned a boss. That definitely didn’t work out too well for any of them,” Atlas said.
With a final, determined push, Atlas completed the connection. The dungeon heart let out one last, blinding flash of light before calming, its glow becoming steady and controlled.
The rumbling stopped, and the room fell silent. Atlas wiped the sweat from his brow, looking down at the now-dormant gem with a satisfied grin.
“It’s done,” he said, standing up. “The dungeon is ours.”
The team let out a collective sigh of relief, their tense expressions easing into smiles.
“That was intense,” Wilfredo said, shaking his head. “But worth it. We’ve got ourselves a steady supply of mana now.”
Atlas nodded, clapping Wilfredo on the back. “And a powerful tool at our disposal. Let’s get back to the settlement. We’ve got work to do.”
As they made their way out of the dungeon, John paused, glancing back at the pile of bones. “Think they’ll try to rebuild themselves again?”
“Not as long as we keep that heart under control,” Atlas replied, leading the way. “The dungeon will start spawning normal mobs in a day. But no more bosses.”
“Yeehaw! Now that’s what I call a grand slam!” Alexander whooped, his voice echoing down the dark corridors as they headed back to their base, victorious and ready for whatever came next.
After they linked, a notification popped up.
‘‘ACHIEVEMENT ACCOMPLISHED‘‘
‘‘TITLE: Dungeon Master‘‘
‘Ooh, you’re fast! You’re the first to clear a dungeon. From now on, linking and delinking takes half the time.‘
“Whoa! I got a title,” Wilfredo said.
“Me too,” Isabella added. “But what’s this linking stuff?”
Atlas nodded. "You know how we’re getting points for the leaderboards? Adding dungeons adds a point for every day we control it."
Stu, still catching his breath, jumped in, "We fought the entire fucking day just to get one goddamn point on a goddamn leaderboard?"
"No," Atlas corrected. "We fought for the upgrades."
"What upgrades?" John asked, his interest piqued.
Atlas explained, "When we get more points, we can register more people in the system. Settlements that don’t hit the threshold can’t have more than twenty people. If you go over your limit, the mana domes stop working."
John frowned, "But we don’t even use the mana dome anymore."
"We don’t use the Mana Dome of MegaAwesomeness anymore," Atlas clarified, "but we still use the Mana Dome of Awesomeness during the day to keep monsters out for one coin."
John nodded slowly. "Yeah, well, losing that would suck."
"Can’t we just keep it at twenty people?" John asked.
"We could," Atlas replied, "but the portals will keep spitting people out. If we kick them out of the settlement, besides abandoning them to the wasteland, it causes the survivors to form into bandit groups. Those groups will hit the settlements hard. I've seen so many settlements selfishly kick people out, only to watch themselves get attacked and burned down a week later."
"Whoa," John said, clearly taken aback.
"And also," Atlas continued, "the more people you have, the more upgrades your vending machines get."
"Like what?" John asked, now more curious.
"Like a brewery or a friend/foe identification system," Atlas replied.
"A brewery?" Alexander perked up.
"Yeah," Atlas explained. "Most of the plants around here can just be chucked in, and it makes beer. No need for hops, yeast, or anything else. Each beer tastes a bit different, but it’s pretty good."
"You had me at beer," Alexander said, grinning.
“We’ve got another task,” Atlas said. “Time to get the bones back to the settlement.”
Worn out, they decided to draw straws to determine who would head back to camp. Half the team ended up leaving, both for safety and to carry the spoils. Well technically they didn’t have straws. But lots of finger bones.
As Amber and the others departed, their backpacks stuffed full of bones, John watched them go and asked, "Do we even need all these bones?"
"Yeah, we do," Atlas replied. "The bones are great for the pitfalls we'll be making. And if we get enough, we can build actual watchtowers."
‘‘‘‘
Half the group walked to the dungeon entrance. They would wait for the boned losers on transport duty to return there. They took the exact same route back to the entryway to avoid fighting wandering skeletons. They did encounter a few stragglers, but nothing too overwhelming, and, best of all, no traps.
"Thank goodness there's no more traps," Kingsley said with relief. "Collecting bones and daisy-chaining them all the way to the front was already a lot of work."
"Alright, everybody," Atlas called out. "I see we’ve finally got the whole team back together. Do we have enough to carry the rest of these bones?"
The boned Portal Crushers had returned, and brought a few porters with them. Sweaty and tired from their trip, they were recuperating and drinking ClearStream water.
"Well, that's a lot of bones," Amber said, glancing at the growing pile. "But I think with all the people we have here, we can manage. I’m pretty excited—we’ll have enough for tables and chairs now."
"Do you think we have enough for a watchtower too?" Atlas asked.
Amber hesitated. "Well, I guess if we skip the table and chairs... but I’m sick of sitting and eating in the dirt."
Atlas nodded but said, "Sorry, Amber, but we've got to prioritize the tower."
"But why?" Amber questioned. "We always have the MegaDome up during the day, and we can handle the demon dogs at night now."
"It’s not just the demon dogs that are a threat in the wasteland," Atlas replied. "There’s a lot more out there to worry about."
Atlas and the Portal Crushers returned to the settlement, exhausted but satisfied with their day's work. Their packs, heavy with bones, were a testament to their success. Despite the overall positive vibe, John was the only one really suffering, having lost his arm—yet again. The morphine wasn’t doing much to lift his spirits.
As soon as they arrived, they dropped the bones off with the crafters and immediately got John into the medipod. "One new arm coming up," Atlas said as he placed John and the severed arm into the medipod, ready for the familiar process of regrowth.
As Atlas drank from a bottle of ClearStream water, he walked over to Noi. "Hey, Noi, do you think you and the crafters can start putting together a watchtower?"
"A watchtower?" Noi replied, raising an eyebrow. "I think we could do it. I mean, we don’t really have blueprints, but... isn’t it just a big tower?"
"Pretty much," Atlas said. "A big tower. Try and get it as tall as you can, keep it sturdy, of course. And make sure there’s a place for our watchers to stand and shoot crossbows from. That’s all we need."
Noi nodded thoughtfully. "I think we can handle it."
“Oh, and here are the contracts for you guys from the system." He handed over the documents, excitement flickering in her eyes. She’d heard about the contracts and was thrilled that the crafters wouldn't be ignored or treated like servants.
By the end of the night, Noi had surprisingly finished the watchtower. As she stood back to admire the work, a system message appeared in her vision:
‘‘ACHIEVEMENT ACCOMPLISHED‘‘
‘‘TITLE: Fixer Upper‘‘
‘You built a structure you clearly could have bought, you cheapskate. Every time you build a self-designed building, it’s 10% infused with mana. Thanks for saving us the mana.‘
***
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