The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Level 1

Heart 400/400

Experience 15/100

Workers 1/5

Monsters 0/10-2

Traps 5/10+2

Rooms 3

Food 82

Timber 339

Iron 40

Mana 0

Rock 44

Gold 20

Leather 4

Quest: Gather 100 Food

Three days of hunting and all Penelope had managed was wounding a rabbit that had managed to still get away. It left Travis feeling more disappointed for her than she seemed to be herself. "Maybe we're going about this all wrong."

Fetching her spear from where it had almost hit a large rat, Penelope made some growling noises before she said, "What?"

The tone was so laden with frustration, annoyance, and a hint of anger that Travis winced—mentally of course. "Traps, Pen. I'm sorry I told you to make the spear, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Why don't you try making a bunch of little snare traps and just come back and check them each day?"

Her head jerked up and she let out a bark of a laugh. "And here I am, a kobold, and I didn't immediately think of using traps. Okay, let me see what I can come up with. I've seen where their holes are, I can set snares around the entrances and see if we can't get some more leather and food like that."

While she'd been trying to hunt, I'd gotten to familiarize myself with the interface more. There was a huge section dedicated to commanding and influencing monsters. I don't know why, but I just didn't have a desire to use them.

Crossing to the construction menu, I still didn't have any way to make monsters. I had a list of buildings I could make, all marked as Tier 0 that were all involved in materials and such.

[Kobold Quarters]

[Timber Mill]

[Smelter]

[Tannery]

Then there was a traps menu. The traps listed had grown by a few. There were now some extras added, but they were likewise Tier 0.

[Pit Trap]

* [Reinforced Platform]

* [Spikes]

[Dart Trap]

* [Sharper Darts]

[Crushing Trap]

* [Spikes]

[Spiked Arm Trap]

It was all reassuring to Travis to see that the timber mill had improved the traps, but seeing an entirely new trap was even better. The idea of adding a smelter next was strong, but there was a problem with it that Travis could practically smell coming—fuel.

Instead, Travis opted for the tannery next. He was sure it would upgrade something and he also wanted to test out a theory.

Upgrades were next. Each of them had resource costs associated with them—not that Travis was sure why it should cost 100 gold to be able to have 5 more kobolds, or how the gold would be used, but that didn't seem to matter. This was a game after all.

[Workers 1]

[Draconic Monsters]

[Draconic Constitution]

[Lizard Feeding]

[Boss Upgrade 1]

[Tier 1]

These were interesting to Travis, but since every single one required either 100 gold or 100 food, he couldn't even think of them yet. And he didn't even want to think about 800 gold, 400 timber, and 400 food needed for Tier 1. Instead, he turned his attention to the last menu—and it was empty. Not just empty but grayed out.

That's when he noticed his iron and leather tick down by one. "Did you do anything needing metal or leather?"

"Yeah. I made up a pile of snares. Got twenty in all. How much did I use?" Penelope sounded completely unrepentant, but then she had been told to set traps. "Too much?"

"Relax. It used one iron and leather. We don't have much, but one is fine."

Travis watched as Penelope blew out a snort and started setting the traps. Each one was a loop of wire secured to a long and springy sapling, held in place by a little loop of leather. "This will replenish some leather. Any more plans?"

"Tannery next. Smelter would be good, but until we have some diggers, I don't think it's worth it. What are your thoughts?" So far it had been a simple task of getting what was needed to survive, but now Travis wanted advice. "You've been in some dungeons, right?"

"Been in a lot, have never had to worry about trying to build them." She paused a moment, moving to the next spot and crouching down to set another snare. "Right now we're getting food and leather, so we need bonuses to those. The smelter will give us something good?"

"It unlocks metal parts for traps."

"That makes it tough—I do like traps. Do you know if the tannery will unlock anything? A new trap maybe?" She slipped-in the entrance and paused to glare at the empty and unsprung pit trap.

"To think, all the times I played these games and complained about a forced tutorial… I wish I got a tutorial to tell me how to do stuff." Queuing up some more digging orders beside the timber mill, Travis started to feel like they were getting a grip on things.

Navigating the traps with a few bounds, rolls, and a bow, Penelope letting out a barking laugh and approached the first bit of new digging. "Why do you make it all straight and corners and stuff? Can't make it round?"

"It was pretty normal for these games to only work on square sections of dungeon."

When Penelope worked her way through the first section, she took a step back and looked down the hallway at Travis' crystal. "Travis, this isn't one of your games. I've seen plenty of dungeons with curved tunnels."

Travis was starting to get an idea that something about his dungeon made it special, but he felt the need for more information before he could just say my dungeon acts like a game and call it done. "Can you tell me about dungeons? Other dungeons, that is."

Spitting on her palms, Penelope started her pickaxe swinging again. "Dungeons. There's always two distinct things about 'em; they have a preferred monster type and a theme. I've seen most monster types—yeah, even draconic, which is what you are—and I've seen every single theme. Other monsters are bugs, spiders, wolves, greenskins, undead… there're a lot. Same with themes.

"Themes can get pretty crazy. Sometimes you get entire dungeons underwater, others that seem to be full of creatures made from plants, eldritch horror-twisted creatures, poisonous—and I mean everything is poisonous in those, trap-crazy, and more. This—you, Travis—are the first I've seen like this."

"Yeah," Travis said. "That's what I figured. The whole game thing seems to be my theme. The shape and stuff seems to be part of the downside of making it easier for me to understand." Taking a metaphorical deep breath, he centered himself. "At least it might make me a little less predictable than others."

"Trav, you have one worker and no monsters—adventurers won't need to predict you at the moment."

Travis was about to reply when he saw movement at his entrance. "I just saw something," he said to Penelope. A moment later he added, "It's a person!"

Dropping her pick, Penelope ran for the heart room, dug her hand's claws into the wall a little to help her turn faster and was up to the chicane that hid Travis' heart from the hallway a moment later. As she slowed, she reached to her belt (that was hanging over one shoulder like a bandoleer) and drew her daggers.

"He doesn't look much like an adventurer," Travis said to her.

"What do you mean? What's he wearing?" Again Penelope was amazed at how well she could see in a pitch-black dungeon. All the lizards that seemed to be around stood out against the walls and she could readily tell where every stone was—and all the traps.

"He has some kind of jacket made of fur on, rough pants that don't look like armor or anything, he has about a dozen knives on his belt, but none of them look—"

It was all Penelope needed. "Must be a trapper. If he thinks I'm a rival who has made herself a cave home, he probably won't stop until he's found me to yell at."

"I think he's saying stuff, but I can't hear his words well enough. Damn lizards must have terrible hearing."

"Hey! I know you're in here! No point hiding—I just want a chat!" a man's voice echoed through the dungeon. The voice seemed to be getting closer to Penelope.

With no immediate danger in sight, Penelope sheathed her knives and focused her attention down the hallway. "Guess he missed the pitfall trap at the entrance, but he probably found my snares outside. Okay, so, do you think you could turn him into a kobold?"

"I don't even know how I did that with you. You were bleeding out and smearing blood everywhere, then bam, I got a box asking if I wanted to save you." Travis wasn't completely onboard with the idea, even if Penelope was. It was one thing saving a person's life and another converting someone who wasn't hurt.

"If I can tie him up, we can get a few chances at trying. I don't want to kill him, though—not unless we have to." Penelope was going to say more, but she saw the trapper round the corner into the hallway.

"This damn place is spooky as a dungeon and I can barely see. Who in the Grove's name would build a home in the dark like this?" As he walked forward, the man kept one hand on the wall.

"Wait, he's not even checking the ground for traps," Travis said. "He's going to fall into the—pit trap."

Penelope had heard the horrid noises people made when they fell down a hole they weren't expecting to. There was a shout of surprise a moment before the pain of his landing turned it to a far more terrified scream. "Shit. Shit. Shit." Dodging the other traps, she looked down the pit to see the guy laying wrong on the ground fifteen feet below her.

He'd clearly tried to catch himself at the bottom, and Penelope was thankful she hadn't gotten around to putting spikes in the trap yet. "Hey, you need a hand out of there?"

"Who's that? Did you dig this damn hole?"

"Well, duh. Like it'd be safe to just sleep in a cave when there are bears in these woods. Why the hell did you fall in my bear pit?" As she lowered a rope into the pit, Penelope could see the guy wasn't able to see anything, not even the rope she dangled in front of his face.

"Grab on."

He only seemed to notice it when she made it slap him in the face. He fumbled and grabbed the rope, pulling himself upright with it and, she noticed, favoring his right leg. "You hurt?"

"Damn near broke my ankle when I fell down here. Why don't you have any lanterns in this place?" She was hauling him up easily enough, her claws gripping the floor with ease while her hands found good purchase on the rope.

"I do. You walked past them all in the dark." Lying came easily to Penelope. "Look, if we just get past this bit here and around the corner, we can sit down in my kitchen and I'll see to your leg." When he emerged from the hole, she reached out for his wrist and guided his hand to her shoulder. "Lean on me and stay close."

"Y'ain't human. What are ya?" His hand closed down tight on Penelope's shoulder. For a moment she wondered if she should just walk him into the rest of the traps and cut her losses.

"Kobold. Don't worry, I'm alone here."

When the guy laughed, Penelope was so surprised she almost tripped over. "That explains digging and trapping. Maybe we can figure something out with the traps." He moved with her, stepping around triggers he couldn't see until a soft pink glow got his full attention. "That's a—This is a dungeon! You lied to me!"

"Actually I didn't. Well, not about the important bits. The traps are to protect against bears and I am the only kobold here. Trying to fix that right now, actually." Crouching just as the man shifted his weight to her shoulder again, Penelope ducked backward and pushed him.

Stumbling forward, he fell to the ground at the base of Travis' heart.

"Okay, Trav, give it a try!" she shouted.

It didn't feel right, but with the alternative being dragging the guy to town and having him tell everyone where they were, he couldn't see another option. "It's not working. Nothing's coming up. Maybe there needs to be blood?" Travis asked her.

That's when something that had been bouncing around in the back of Penelope's head finally came to the fore. "Oh, for—The reason wasn't just blood, it was my blood. Ma always told me my great grandpa had far more scales than sense—she told me tales of him being a dragon."

"What's all that talk about? Who're you talking to?" The trapper started to try getting up while reaching to his skinning knife. In the dim pink light he tracked as Penelope circled around him, sliced her palm with one of her daggers, and pressed a bloody red palm print on the dungeon heart. "What are you—?"

"I got it!" Travis sounded excited. "Should I—?"

"Just do it before he takes a swing at me with that knife!" But the trapper wasn't looking at Penelope when she spoke, he was staring at Travis' heart and raising his knife hand into the air.

Travis shivered at the intent in the man's eyes, seeing dozens more like him rushing into their ill-prepared dungeon.

Pink light wrapped around him and started shrinking his body. She watched as his arms and legs thinned, his face drew forward, and a thick tail left his rear and tapered down to a fine tip. The changes to his legs ripped the seams in the back of his pants, but thanks to his size reduction the rest of the pants remained intact. He was practically swimming in his jacket by the time the glow began to fade. When he started to topple, she rushed up and caught him.

"You won't be able to talk much at first. Just relax and breathe. You're alive and we're not going to hurt you. Trav, how are things on your end?" Penelope asked, trying to reassure the poor guy and make sure everything worked right.