Shirou opened his eyes, as he let the visions of the keeper sight fade from his view. He looked towards the Mentor, and gestured in the direction he felt . "There's an open space that way. That's where the portal is?"
The ghost nodded. "Indeed, though you might not want to mine in that way at this stage." At Shirou's surprised look, he added, "An underworld portal is a double-edged sword. People can go through both ways, so if you open your portal while your dungeon is as it is now, you will be vulnerable to enemy attack, and you won't be able to recruit any minions to defend it. Minions will work for cruel keepers, minions will work for eccentric keepers, and minions will work for incompetent keepers, but minions will not work for impoverished keepers."
Shirou frowned at that. "What do you mean? I don't have any money on me; I left my wallet in my room back home." That got Horny laughing, and Shirou staggered as he got an enthusiastic pat on the back.
He looked up, and saw amusement in the eyes and fanged grin of the demon. "I said the Dungeon Heart would bring you wealth, didn't I? It's a Philosopher's Stone. Turns base metals into gold, and gold into stuff for the dungeon."
Shirou looked at the Mentor, and the ghost nodded in agreement to the demon. "Indeed. If you saw any veins of metal ore with your keeper sight earlier, you can order your imps to dig it up, and they will bring it to your dungeon heart to be transmuted into gold. Simply use your keeper sight, and if you draw the connections out from your territory out into the rock, the imps will react to dig the rock you indicate."
Shirou nodded at that, and clapped his hands. "Let's go, then." He closed his eyes, and called up the keeper sight; it came more easily to him now that he knew what to do, the magic flowing up in a moment and showing him the land he controlled. With the thought, he grabbed some of the spider-webbing covering his territory, and dragged it out into the rocks containing the ore. He felt the dark spider-webs stretch and warp, before snapping into new shapes and in a moment, he saw the imps rushing forth to begin hacking away at the wall, creating a small offshoot of the aborted surface-tunnel.
He heard some skittering footsteps, and opened his eyes, releasing the keeper sight as he did. One of the imps was rushing back, the bag on its bag filled with rocks that it dumped on the floor, before rushing back out of the room. Shirou watched with fascination as the rock liquified, melting into fluid and turning metallic, flowing in a vortex as it did. First the reddish-brown of copper, but then the puddle of fluid started turning lighter and yellowish before the vortex flowed up, forming a rectangular shape as it solidified and darkened, turning into the brown solidity of a wooden chest, the only trace of its former nature being the golden chasing of its fastenings and its latch. The entire process was over in seconds.
Horny snorted. "Go ahead. Open it. It's yours." Shirou nodded somewhat dazedly and stepped forward, grabbing the latch, flicking it open before heaving the lid of the chest open. Inside was more gold than he'd ever seen in one place; it was filled to the brim with a pile of gold coins. He reached out and grabbed one; he felt its weight as he flipped it over and examined it. On one side was his face. On the other was the Hill of Swords, the rays of the rising sun shining up behind it.
Other imps arrived and left, and soon the chest was accompanied by its siblings. The keeper floated up to Shirou hovering on the other side of the chest, as he harrumphed into his hand to get Shirou's attention, breaking him out of his daze.
"That should prove to be an adequate start, Keeper. Now we must begin the construction of your dungeon. Without at least a source of food and sleeping quarters, your minions will have no way to survive. If you would, you should be able to call upon the power of the dungeon heart. Within it should be a number of patterns for rooms it can construct using the gold within this chamber. Simply pull on the link, and will it to show you the room patterns it contains."
Shirou frowned in concentration, and pulled on the link between him and the dungeon heart. He felt the heart respond, and knowledge poured down the link between them. He saw patterns new and unfamiliar to him. The Lair; a magical room that utilized the alchemy of the dungeon heart to produce furnishings for those who dwelt inside. The Hatchery, which produced agricultural land and which would in turn eventually produce edible chickens and eggs, by alchemizing real gold into dead matter in the soil that the chickens would eat and absorb. The Library, which acted as an archive of his magical knowledge in physical form, and which contained the equipment for magical experimentation. The Treasury, which extended the Philosopher's Stone properties to a new location, allowing more rapid conversion of mined metals, as well as increasing the reservoir of gold he could utilize; his heart chamber was getting pretty full now. The Training Room, which lacked innate magic, but which made up for it with an assortment of training aids. The Inner Sanctum, which was an opulent series of rooms, and which called upon the magic of the dungeon heart to maintain its facilities.
He also saw patterns he recognized as being from the Emiya mansion; the Dojo, the Living Room, the Dining Room, the Kitchen, the Storage Shed, the Hot Water Heater, the Attic, the Ritual Circle. He also saw that some of the utilities wouldn't work without modern technology; not much point in building a modern kitchen when there wasn't any electricity or running water.
Shirou nodded again. The patterns were clear in his mind; the gun was loaded, and all he had to do was pull the trigger. He grabbed the web of the claimed territory, and dragged it out over the rock off of the main tunnel. Within moments, the imps were working away at the rock, as he began plotting the design of his new dungeon, the shapes and designs of the complex of rooms sliding and appearing in his head like a computer model.
Soon the imps had finished clearing one room. "Trace, on." He projected the room into the empty space. Nothing happened; he felt his power flow out and crash against the boundary field, swirling about to no effect. One of the imps began expanding the territory as the others hacked new rooms from the rock, the rough mining of the imps turning into the meticulous cobblestones of the dungeon.
"I can only build rooms within my bounded field?"
The ghost nodded in affirmation. "Indeed, Keeper. The alchemical magic of the Dungeon Heart is incapable of flowing past the boundaries of the territory its keeper has claimed."
Shirou nodded, as he watched the imp dance and caper in the room, expanding the boundary field. Shirou felt the flow of mana into the dungeon heart quicken as it did; it seemed that it drew on the mana of the territory within the boundary field for its power. Within a minute, the imp had finished the first room, and the excavation of the others was also complete.
He tried again. "Trace, on." The dungeon heart answered his desire, and three of the chests of gold dissolved, as the gold bubbled up from the rock of the other room, and began swirling around, like a golden tornado as the droplets of liquid gold splattered into place, and congealed into the form of the room. In moments, what was once bare cobblestones was now covered in topsoil, and a chicken coop stood in the center of the room. A few chickens walked about.
Looking at the rest of his new dungeon complex, he saw the imps hard at work claiming the rest of the rooms they had carved; Shirou began firing the bullets the dungeon heart created for him, filling the nooks with Lairs, paper doors sliding shut to offer the future residents some privacy. A larger pair of rooms became a Training Room and a Dojo, ready to serve the training needs of any troops he hired.
A while later, that task was done, and the imps were beginning on claiming a several larger rooms, from the branch that was created by the mined copper seam. One became a Library, full of books on every magic sword he'd ever seen. Attached to that, one became a Ritual Circle for the working of more potent magics. One became a Treasury, the chessboard tile floors and Ionian pillars hiding the power the room possessed. And the last set of rooms became his Inner Sanctum; it had a throne room, a luxurious bedroom, a magically-heated bathroom, a private kitchen, the works.
Shirou opened his eyes, and looked back up at the other two people in the room. Well, what he expected to be the other two people. He glanced around. "Where's Horny gone?"
That got a raised eyebrow from the ghost. "Where do you think? He's gone to eat, and claim a Lair. Those imps aren't exactly quiet, and you've spent a fair while overseeing their progress. I had a bit of a look around myself; it looks like your dungeon is more than ready to get some hirelings. How much gold do you have left?"
Shirou clapped his hands together, muttering an incantation as invoked his magic to analyze the dungeon heart chamber and the treasury to determine the gold remaining. "Twenty seven thousand, thirty two."
The Mentor nodded in affirmation, before gesturing out towards the niche in the wall, behind which the portal lay. "Very well, then that should be more than enough. Please excavate the portal; we have a shopping trip to make."
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(Posted Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:40)
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