Dungeon Life - Chapter 171

Thing

The crawling hand scion drums his fingers as he goes over his list of enchantments. The Master has not quite given him carte blanche on what to put into the planned lava labyrinth, but he does have quite a bit of leeway. Some of the suggestions are simple enough, and some will require a bit more work on Thing’s part.

While he has what he would consider to be rather standard versions for most of the magical traps, he also would like to experiment with some of his own takes. He’ll need to be careful and test them thoroughly on the denizens before turning them on the delvers, though. His failed attempts to dispel the Lifedrinking enchantment lead him to a deep understanding of its workings. If he adjusts the spell, he could produce debilitating effects without being life-threatening.

He gives a longing look to his personal tome of enchanting, before setting it aside. No, if they’re going to be used on delvers, it’s better to use the tried and true formulae and arrays from the other books he’s gathered. If he’s being honest with himself, it’s not like that would limit his options much.

He sighs in his own way and leans back onto the stump of his wrist, letting his fingers weave the telekinesis he needs to move his books and notes. He and Queen are going to organize and plan together in the secret war room for what traps to put where. Coda is hoping to join them, but it’s uncertain if he actually will be able to. The bat scion is still putting the finishing touches on the production of the blocks for the lighthouse.

With his materials in hand, Thing jumps atop the floating pile and levitates it and himself to the war room. He’s relieved to see he seems to be early, giving him time to organize himself a bit better. He has no idea how Honey manages to keep everything so neat and tidy. He’ll need to ask her for pointers once she gets back.

Queen doesn’t give him much time to organize, as he soon notices a trail of ants bringing in the Alchemist’s own notes. Thankfully, it seems Queen herself is delayed slightly, which gives Thing a chance to get his ducks in some semblance of a row before she makes her entrance.

“Greetings, Enchanter Thing. I hope the day finds you well.” While their first attempts at communication had been a bit awkward, the need to talk shop so often has given rise to their own unique sign language, with Queen using her feelers and even some workers to communicate.

“It does, and I hope it finds you similarly,” he replies. Queen prefers to speak formally, though that often falls away as they get deeper into discussions of their specialties. “It seems we will have to start without Coda.”

“It is unfortunate, but unsurprising. The Emperor has the Architect very busy with the lighthouse project. I beli- hmm?” She pauses in mid sentence as the Conduit slithers into the war room, a book in his telekinesis. Thing and Queen both give a small bow of respect, which Fluffles receives awkwardly. Much like the Master, his Conduit is not very big on formality.

“The Denmaster wished me to bring this to the meeting. I believe it’s his own designs for some mechanical traps. With Coda so busy, I think Thedeim wishes to provide his help in this,” hisses Fluffles, much to the interest of the other two.

“With Emperor Thedeim’s more direct involvement, his new lava labyrinth will be a wonder to surpass the hedgemaze and gauntlets combined!” signs Queen, her formal movements starting to lose their stately grace as the prospect of working with the Master’s knowledge trumps her desire for decorum.

Not that Thing can blame her. Master Thedeim’s knowledge is always exciting to witness. He would have never expected the secret to dispelling Lifedrinking would lay in his knowledge of lightning, of all things, and yet it was. Even more, Thing knows it can be used to counter theoretically any magic. He’s uncertain if he could ever manage it in the timeframe of a fight, but it’s worked every time so far in the lab.

“Will he be specifically watching our meeting, then?”

Fluffles shrugs with his wings. “I don’t know. I can’t track his attention as well as Teemo can. I think he is more focused on meeting with the Southwood right now, as well as gently guiding the tunnelbore ants in giving the labyrinth its rough shape.”

“I hope the Emperor will upgrade the anthill once more, soon. I am very interested in seeing what the last form of ant will be.”

“I think he’ll be doing that soon,” hisses the Conduit. “Once the labyrinth is shaped, he’ll probably want to get the enclave in so they can attempt to get settled before delvers flock to it.”

They both nod at that, finding Fluffle’s reasoning to be sound. “Then let’s get started. I’m sure Queen also has a whole host of ideas she could use, too, depending on what is actually needed,” signs Thing as he motions for her to confirm or deny.

She nods. “Indeed. And the sooner we get started, the sooner Thing and I can practice our craft and prepare to help the Emperor with the problem in the depths.”

Fluffles looks at the two diminutive scions with mild surprise. “Oh? Did the Denmaster suggest something to you two?”

Thing motions a negative. “No, this will be more on our own initiative. Depending on the specific terrain, we can greatly help in fortifying positions and securing fallbacks with our traps. We can even help offensively with Queen’s potions and my enchanting equipment. I think I’ll need Teemo to shortcut a tunnelbore into the secret base here to expand the enchanting lab for me, and possibly the alchemy lab for Queen. I know I’ll need the room to teach the ratlings some basic enchantment.”

Queen nods her agreement. “And we will both be giving the dwellers an education in our arts for them to leverage on their own as well. The Emperor will certainly give them what he can, but I fear our rate of production will not be enough on its own.”

Fluffles brings his tail around to rest his head on as he thinks. “…I think Rocky, Slash, and myself will need to step up our own efforts, too. We can’t let the dwellers come to harm with our inaction. I wouldn’t be surprised if even Jello is preparing for the fight in her own way. She is very effective in tight tunnels.”

“What about Poe and Tiny?” asks Thing, curious about the two strong scions.

Fluffles rubs his chin with his tail for a few seconds before answering. “Tiny will most likely be staying behind to be a last line of defense. With him being a Guardian, he should be very good at it. I believe Poe will also be staying to ensure Denmaster Thedeim won’t be left unprotected. The large caverns would be a very good place for the two to work together to thwart a counter-offensive. And I suspect the delvers would be more than happy to assist, especially if Thedeim promises compensation.”

“Don’t forget Nova and the wyrms,” points out Thing, making Fluffles slap himself with his tail.

“Ah, of course! She has been wanting to join in the spars with Rocky, too. She wants to live up to the weight of her name, and this is exactly the kind of thing she’ll want to help with for that.” Fluffles smirks before continuing. “And I’m sure Rocky will enjoy the challenge of trying to fight someone he might not want to physically punch. His thermal control is astonishing, but that’s still a ton of heat to try to compensate for.”

Thing and Queen can only nod again. They’ve both run the numbers on magma, but they also both know just having a number doesn’t paint the entire picture. “Do you think Rocky will expand his affinities before the battle comes?” asks Queen, earning a laugh from Fluffles.

“I’ll eat my tail if he hasn’t gained at least one more besides fire, ice, and kinetic. He hasn’t shown any others off in our spars yet, but I know he’s been wanting to focus on each one as they come now, instead of just sprinting ahead and getting as many as possible. I think the young goblin wresting control from him that one time really showed he needed to get more of a grasp on each affinity, or else risk having it turned on him in a fight.”

“How about your own affinities?” presses the Alchemist, and Fluffles considers before answering.

“I’m working on mastering what I have already. Dispelling that hurricane let me gain wind, storm, and lightning affinities. Those three will keep my attention for some time, I expect. I’m not the savant that Rocky is. I can feel him resonating with wind and lightning, and he says he can feel the same for me with fire and ice. I’m deliberately holding back from them, but I don’t know his plan for his own affinities.”

The three scions sit in comfortable silence at that, pondering their affinities. Thing has kinetic and meta, as well as fate, of course, and has little idea how to expand them. While he vaguely understands that kinetic, fire, and ice are all closely linked, he honestly has little interest in those affinities. He’d like to gain knowledge affinity, but doesn’t know how he would actually achieve that. His hopes will likely rest on Queen or Honey expanding their own knowledge affinities to something, and hoping he can work backwards from their advice.

He shakes himself to clear his mind, and raps a knuckle on the table, getting their attention. “Affinities aside, we should probably work on what we have for the labyrinth. Once we know what we want to put in there, we’ll know what materials we’ll need to make that a reality.”

Fluffles nods and coils up, intending to sit in on the planning, and possibly even give his own suggestions. Queen straightens herself and nods, though her attendant workers look eager to get started, mirroring her true mood.

“Indeed! The Emperor has given us much latitude in this, so we must show him his faith in us is not misplaced! So, let us compare what effects we can produce, and work from there.”

Thing takes notes as Queen lists off and explains her relevant alchemical creations, and notes what ones he can mirror. They even start drawing up a few joint plans to inflict the same malady in different ways, ensuring delvers can’t simply create an alchemical solution and expect it to work every time, nor will a magical solution necessarily work, either.

Already, their collaboration has promise, and Thing hasn’t even gotten to go over his own presentation! He can only imagine what just he and Queen will come up with, not to mention what they can accomplish once Coda can truly give his own input.