At the start of any dungeon, the two most important things to get were defenses and a prison. Dungeon Realm didn’t have a mechanic where you bought monsters, the only way to gain monsters was to capture and enthrall them yourself. Without monsters, the only way to protect the dungeon was through defenses like traps, hazards, and barriers.

  With the space he had now, he could begin creating the start of his dungeon. Defenses were the first thing his dungeon needed as he couldn’t attack and the dungeon fairy was weak. This dungeon didn’t have any flying animals from what he could see on the map, which meant that a simple spike pit would do.

  The cavern he had taken over would be the only path to the dungeon core and prison, at least for now. He created the outline for the spike trap in the map, widening the cavern in places and shrinking it down until the cavern’s shape became a room.

  While the dungeon fairy began to transform the cavern, he created an offshoot for the prison. Gaining denizens for his dungeon was a difficult process to do cheaply. Not only did taming cost currency, but so did modifying and mutating them. The weaker the animal or organism became, the cheaper it was to tame them. Starving them in a prison was a cost effective way to do this without creating horrendous injuries.

  He didn’t think that there were any animals in these caves that were worth the cost, but the prison was too important to procrastinate. He created several chambers with small holes that will allow air in and out so that his captives wouldn’t die from suffocation.

  He needed to know how many soul points he had. While the animals in these caves probably weren’t worth it, at this early stage it was better to have something. He floated to the dungeon fairy and asked for help.

  “Use the ability phrase [Status] to see your dungeon’s stats, including how many soul points you have.”

  Jacob quietly said, “[Status].”

  He had zero soul points, which was interesting. Having no soul points to start wasn’t too much of a detriment, however it did mean that his reality, or maybe dream, was based off of the game at hell difficulty. This meant that the enemies were stronger, he gained less soul points, and other mechanics were harder. It was concerning.

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  Having no soul points in his account made his decisions easy. There simply wouldn’t be enough to capture and modify any of the monsters that lived in these caves. He would have to wait till he created the dungeon entrance before he could begin creating his own monsters.

  He created the outline for the tunnel as the dungeon fairy finished creating the room full of spikes. The tunnel was intentionally long as it would give him more room for defenses later, as well as creating more distance from the dungeon core. However, that was something for later.

  While he waited for the dungeon fairy to finish carving out of the prison and tunnel, he decided to spy on the type of monsters he would find. There were many different types of underground monsters from the game, and knowing which type was immensely helpful.

  He floated through the walls using his map to find the nearest monster. Despite the lack of light, he could still see as if he had darkvision, and when he found the monster he felt phantom pains in his stomach.

  The monster was clearly undead, some sort of alien beast that wandered around the caverns as a zombie. The thing had six legs and reminded him most of a wolf, with dead muscles peeking out through the patches of skin and fur that had decayed. Just being near it he could feel the unnatural hunger of the monster.

  That made things difficult. Spike traps worked against most animals and monsters, but undead were the exception. He looked around and discovered that there wasn’t anything but bones covered in rotten dust. They didn’t eat, didn’t need to breathe, didn’t need their organs to work or their blood pumped; they had few easy weaknesses beyond magic.

  He looked back at his map and counted the amount of monsters as he checked all of them. All eight of the monsters were undead. They all seemed to wander around braindead, only regaining some life when they got close to each other. They seemed to want to eat each other, but kept backing off as if intimidated.

  He groaned to himself from having to deal with these monsters. Then all of them turned their heads in unison, all looking in the same direction. It took him a moment to realize, to his horror, what had happened.

  Every undead monster rushed toward the newly created tunnel, their hunger no longer pointed at each other. The dungeon fairy noticed this and stopped doing anything, and the undead didn’t notice it as they rushed through.

  When they reached the spike pit, the first few undead were pushed off and into the spikes, immobilizing them. The monsters then stepped on the bodies of their new comrades until they fell into the spike pit. Seven of the undead monsters fell into the spikes, one used their bodies as platforms and managed to pass over the trap.

  “Dungeon Fairy, attack it!” Jacob shouted but it was too late. The zombie wolf rushed through the small tunnel into the core chamber and it reached the dungeon core. It raised one of its claws into the air, then it struck the pulsing red gemstone.

  Pain poured through Jacob like a cascade. Rather than scratching the rock, it felt like every attack was directed onto his soul. He couldn’t think for a moment as he felt the harrowing pain. His mind seemed to open up and become stuffed with information like everything, from the rocks in the walls to the dust in the air, was shouting or speaking to him.

  The dungeon fairy reached into the spike room and held its hands forward like it was grasping an invisible ball. A white light converged and condensed into an orb of magic power that crackled and sparkled. It pushed the ball forward and launched it. It traveled slowly towards the monster; to Jacob it was like the ball was being chained down by time.

  The ball always kept moving forward though, and eventually it touched the monster. It exploded into white lightning that wrapped around and blasted the undead with magic. The dead of the wolf monster glowed with malevolent purple as the curse that kept it alive was damaged.

  The monster was stunned for a moment, the magic crackling around it after the attack. Then it turned around and stared with pure hostility at the dungeon fairy.