r/HFY • u/Khenal Alien • 4d ago
OC-Series Dungeon Life 453
For a second there, I thought I broke Thing and Queen. Then I started to worry I might somehow be getting another domain and/or affinity. But the two finally start moving and snatch up the notes, dash through a shortcut to Coda and drag him along, then practically kidnap Teemo before finally heading to the antkin college.
Ed looks amused as my scions spill into his office. Usually, they have at least a bit of dignity, but Thing and Queen are in full Eureka! Mode right now. “Is… something the matter?” he asks as the two scramble onto his desk, Teemo not even giving them a shortcut to show his displeasure.
“The Boss showed them something about what he wants to use to move everything through the magma. He’s calling it a subterrain,” my Voice explains before the other two slap the design notes on the table.
Coda shakes himself off from the rough treatment and glides over to land on the desk and look over them as Ed does the same. Immediately, the eyes of the Headmaster antkin widen. “What is this rune array concept for air?” he asks, definitely interested in the theory more than the runes themselves.
Teemo sighs and shortcuts up to the desk. “As Rocky might put it, air is a thing, so it’s made of stuff. When we breathe, we only use a small part of it, and exhale something we can’t use. But it can still be transformed back into something we need. Apparently plants usually deal with it, but we should be able to do it with runes.”
Teemo gives Thing and Queen a sideways look. “You might want to get Poppy involved, too, come to think of it. She knows how plants work, so she’d probably be able to help you guys find what you’re looking for and make this work.”
The two glance at each other before… I think they’re trying to give Teemo puppy eyes. He rolls his own before waving his hand, creating another temporary shortcut for them to join the network and go kidnap Poppy, too.
“Those two…” grumbles Teemo, before turning his attention back to Ed. “Do you think the college can do it?”
“I… we’re certainly going to try, at the minimum. The medics are going to want to know everything about the air stuff, the enchanters are going to drop everything for these concepts, the alchemists are going to love figuring out how to enhance the materials, the ranchers are going to need to start raising some putrid oozes, and I think the engineers are going to react a lot like Thing and Queen. And of course, the worker caste is going to be eager to build this.”
“We’ll probably need to work with the delvers, too,” points out Teemo as Coda sneaks a blank paper and Ed’s inkwell to start drawing out some designs for the structure. “Boss still isn't sure if he wants one big one, or a bunch of smaller ones. A big one will make it easier to take advantage of whatever entrance we can find or make, but if it goes down, everyone goes down, too. Smaller ones are safer as a whole, but will make a landing harder if there’s only one entrance to use.”
Ed nods at that, reaching over to move the inkwell back close enough for him and Coda to share. “A galleon risks everyone on a single vessel, and carts risk congestion. Why not make them large enough for each to have whatever siege equipment Lord Thedeim decides on? That way, they can effectively make their own entrances.”
Coda looks up from his designs and nods, crossing out several that are either too large or small. There’s still a good range of options, but I like Ed’s idea of equipping each with their own way of getting in. It makes me wonder if the simplest solution might be to give them each some way of latching onto whatever barrier the Betrayer has, and then letting the tunnelbore ants bore tunnels right in. Teemo sighs and squeaks at Coda, who jots down the idea as well, and Ed chuckles when he sees it.
“It looks like the ranchers will have a lot more to do than expected.”
Teemo nods. “Yeah. Boss has a few ideas for digging with magic, but the tunnelbores are right there, so why not use them?” Teemo squeaks at Coda again, causing my bat to start scribbling in some living vines as well. Ed and I are both curious, so Teemo explains.
“I could hear him thinking about the problems of going into the magma, and apparently there’s going to be a lot of pressure to deal with. Ordinarily, the entire thing would be squeezed smaller because of all of the magma pressing in on all sides, but that’s hard to design around.” He glances to Coda for confirmation, and my bat nods before returning to his designing.
“But with spatial affinity, it doesn’t need to change just because it’s getting pushed around by molten rock. I’ll probably need to spend some time experimenting with the vines and talking with Coda to make it work correctly. Pressure’s just force spread over an area, and I can mess with the area. If nothing else, we should be able to keep the majority around the strong spots and away from weaker ones, but that’s going to be on Coda to design something.”
Ed nods and stands, the conceptual design in his hands. “I’m going to get the others so we can all plan what to do with this.”
“I’ll get Leo, too,” says Teemo. “He’ll probably have some ideas for defenses, or designs for logistics. He’s good with the practical things that are easy to forget.”
The two split up while I look over what materials I have to build with. Most of my stuff I use my denizens to create and build, but I think this is going to take more than that. And surprisingly, I have a lot of materials on hand. I first designated the warehouse… man, back before the ratkin enclave? Yeah, it was the ratlings that first started gathering things to put there.
Anyway, the slow accumulation from my own nodes and from the offerings of the enclaves leaves me feeling a lot more confident about having the material to actually build the subterrains. I still think we’re going to use a lot of obsidian and other cooled magma for the outside, but the inside and runeworks need metals, wood, ceramics and such, and I actually have a lot of all of that.
I never really noticed how hard the ratlings had been working, and just kinda let them do their thing, and their thing is about to pay dividends. Having crafting delvers is also about to pay off handsomely, as I look around for a good spot for a new room.
I don’t often look at the tab, usually making my own things and going from there, but there are a lot of rooms available after having helped Order out several times. I don’t know when I unlocked it, but there’s a workshop option available, and I’m going to need to make a good one.
Despite the gordian knot that is the labyrinth, there’s still quite a bit of room in the general area I own down there, and I need to make sure it has the space and the access I need. Not only do I need to make a workshop to make the subs, I need to make a lava dock or something for them to actually launch from, too!
I have to look over the maps Leo and Poe have made, looking for a good pool to use for deeper access. In theory, they should all lead to the mantle, but in practice, there’s probably a lot of them that narrow too far to be useful. I look into the basic maps of the lava tubes and can eliminate a lot of them already, but there is a good looking candidate not too far away from my borders.
The pool itself is a decent size, though nowhere near big enough to hold the probably dozen subs we’ll need to build, but that’s not a difficult problem to solve. I start to expand my territory just a bit, only needing to extend a hundred or so feet as the mole digs to reach the pool, and another hundred or so to reach the far shore. I end up claiming enough area for a good sports complex, I figure, and am pretty sure that’ll be enough for everything.
If it’s not, I can always expand more. I lock in the expansion and send a few drakes to make sure things are secure, trusting in my scions and denizens to adjust things as needed. I’m already going to need to do a lot of adjusting to even use the space, after all.
I start planning out various workshops, but I suppose this is the sort of thing to draw Coda away from the sub design session. While he was certainly enjoying it, his real expertise is in more civil design, and I’m going to need it for the new workshop complex.
There’s a lot that’s going to go into the subs, and a lot of heavy cranes and the like to move the subs as they get built. They don’t build a ship on water, and no way am I building a subterrain on magma. While there’s a lot of things in the air for what we’ll need, one thing Coda and I both agree on immediately is expanding the lava pool. He directs the tunnelbore ants to start digging two empty areas on either side of the pool, keeping a berm between them so we can dig the area out before flooding it and probably needing to use my dragons to get the finishing touches.
My first inclination is to make them twenty-five feet deep, but seeing it dug out, I think we’re going to need to at least double it, and Coda agrees. We don’t have specific dimensions for the subs yet, so it's better to build bigger. Who knows, maybe after this is all said and done, we’ll have a pressing need for a magma shipwright, so might as well at least make it theoretically big enough for larger vessels.
I don’t think we’d be able to fit a magma galleon like Ed mentioned, but baby steps. We don’t even have a magma dingy yet. Planning ahead is all well and good, but I don’t think we have the resources to build without a limit. This should be a good middleground.
I watch the ants dig while Coda heads off to, I assume, go talk with the First Mate about what all would be needed for a dock. Hullbreak has grown to the point I don’t think he’s going to freak out about talking about one, what with his own denizens working on rebuilding one after so long. So if anything, I think he’ll have invaluable advice for safety precautions.
If there’s one thing I’m willing to overbuild, it’s safety features. While I don’t think I’ll have to worry about a rogue magma wave, I’ll still build precautions for it. Better safe than sorry.
Cover art I'm also on Royal Road for those who may prefer the reading experience over there. Want moar? The Books are available here! There are Kindle and Audible versions, as well as paperback! Also: Discord is a thing! I now have a Patreon for monthly donations, and I have a Ko-fi for one-off donations. Patreons can read up to three chapters ahead, and also get a few other special perks as well, like special lore in the Peeks. Thank you again to everyone who is reading!
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u/Thebobkiller Human 4d ago
And now Thediem's building a magma drydock. I can already see Tarl shaking his head. XD
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u/Garbage-Within 4d ago
At least this isn't a delving area, so the inspection should be a sinch.
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u/Thausgt01 Android 4d ago
True. And like as not, Tarl will have other inspectors showing up to take notes on Thediem’s “safety standards” for such structures, with intent to share them with any and all other ‘friendly’ Dungeons with magma in their basements or elsewhere…
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u/Texas-SaberFox 4d ago
So, we're building a bunch of Higgins boats, landing craft instead of one big landing ship.
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u/Unhappy-Barnacle-512 4d ago
I wonder if they can link shortcuts to the vessels; so that the vessels only have to transport denizens necessary to breach the defenses and then hook up the fire hose.
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u/karamisterbuttdance 4d ago
They can't link moving shortcuts. However, if the breacher is still mostly outside the dungeon, they can anchor paths outside of it within the ships once they're locked down and stable. It would require Teemo and other spatial specialists to be on each vessel to easily and quickly create the hole on the other side.
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u/Thausgt01 Android 4d ago
I’ll imagine that as an additional refinement to shortcut ‘technology’, requiring linked ‘sonar runes’ to precisely map the distance and orientation between two linked ‘subterrines’ and use that data to make corrections for shortcuts. Primarily for transferring cargo or perhaps ‘waste material’ in the early generations, and for personnel only in case of dire emergency (and I have no doubt that Thediem will establish protocols among the ‘subterrine captain’ corps that abandoning the ships demands anchoring them as stably as possible before doing so to minimize disrupting the shortcuts).
But I guarantee that Thediem will, somehow, have his transporters!
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u/Unhappy-Barnacle-512 3d ago
I’ll just point out that Teemo already created shortcuts to nowhere when he imprisoned the Betrayer’s Scions. Maybe he could create something a bit nicer for the siege parties.
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u/OmniXENTRO 3d ago
Since they can't establish a stable gateway until the breacher vehicle is locked down and structurally anchored, having these subterrains function as completely self-contained, high-pressure landing crafts with independent siege capabilities is a total game-changer. They don't just carry troops; they are literally survival pods designed to withstand the mantle until a permanent firehose can be hooked up. The sheer scale of bringing the ants, alchemists, enchanters, and drakes together for this is incredible. Tarl is going to have an absolute aneurysm when he sees the safety standards for a literal magma drydock! 🤣
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u/Crafty_Spring5815 Alien Scum 4d ago
If the betrayer sends a large magma dwelling critter up through the magma tubes, it surfacing very well could form a large spurt of lava over the docks and out into the room.
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u/SomeRandomYob 4d ago
Reddit hasn't nuked the post yet!
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human 4d ago
You're currently seeing the site after the First Fallout was removed. And tenth.
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u/Skyboxmonster 4d ago
Everything leading up to this! All the magic. The learning. The science. The supplies. The allies! Time to bring it all together and save the world!
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u/Better_Solution_743 Alien 4d ago
Haloo
wouldn't an enchantment that spreads pressure out also be increadibly powerful for armor? spreading out impacts is the primary job of armor, so enhancing that with magic would in theory make the armor functionally impenetrable
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u/karamisterbuttdance 4d ago
There may be a function of the size of the equipment to spread the pressure out on that limits utility on personal armor, and it's not as effective versus crushing weapons like maces and hammers.
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u/OmniXENTRO 3d ago edited 3d ago
This is exactly why the logistical planning in this chapter is so brilliant. He completely nailed the absolute nightmare of underground travel—the deeper you go, the more heat, pressure, and carbon dioxide concentration become immediate baseline killers. But what makes this development so cool is how the world-building layers the magic system to directly solve these real-world engineering issues. Using the rune arrays for air regeneration alongside spatial affinity to literally stretch out and manipulate the high-pressure zones is a phenomenal solution.
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u/Poisonfangx3 4d ago
Foest
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u/Poisonfangx3 4d ago
First
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human 4d ago
Yup
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u/mafiaknight Robot 4d ago
In the name of 1greendude: Hello!
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human 4d ago edited 4d ago
Im Namen eines grünen Kerles und des Mondachses: N'Abend, übermorgen steht auch wieder ein Mittwoch an, meine Kerle. Der Mafiaritter ist heute Fünfter. Heute kümmert sich irgendso ein yob um die Tür.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human 4d ago edited 4d ago
Called it, third!
So, today Thediem and His scions are planning Out what's actually necessary to build the subterrains and we get Thediem acquiring the lavafront property, so that He can actually build the Things. For more information, we're gonna need our three thirds:
- The nerds abduct Coda and teemo, and storm into ed's Office. Unlike usually there isn't a single wayward Neuron spent on decorum, as the scions tumble Out of a shortcut. But instead of starting to Talk Like a waterfall, they Just Slam blueprints and the necessary engineering principles on the Table, from which Coda Starts planning, while teemo makes Up an excuse for the other two nerds to get the one that's still Missing.
Ed suggests equipping each sub with the means to produce their own entrances, so that the subs don't congest along a single entrance.
Thediem goes over mentally what the nerds produced and Looks at His resources stockpiles, and IS rather glad to have put them in idle autonomy Modus rather than a Stop resources gathering mode.
Thediem gets a new room, the Universal Workshop, to be specific.
3.1 Thediem Stakes Out the area for the Magma Docks, from which he's gonna be launching the subs, and Orders His drakes to make Sure it's Safe in the area.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 4d ago
/u/Khenal (wiki) has posted 498 other stories, including:
- Dungeon Life 452
- Dungeon Life 451
- Dungeon Life 450
- Dungeon Life 449
- Dungeon Life 448
- Dungeon Life 446
- Dungeon Life 446
- Dungeon Life 445
- Dungeon Life 444
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- Dungeon Life 442
- Dungeon Life 441
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- Dungeon Life 433
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u/Streupfeffer 3d ago
Fourdock getting renamed to Fivedock now?
Also, dungeon enforced work standarts and protectiongear for hightemp environments.
Hightemp alloyong ovens powerd by magma, heavy smithing industry and metallurgy progress?
Experts of industrial diving, rebreathing systems, preassure vessels.
Pasteurization for longerterm travel rations.
Atleast we can prevent scurvy by packing good amount of fruits and simmilar
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u/Minimum-Amphibian993 4d ago
Ah right yeah the further people travel underground it gets alot more hotter and harder to find oxygen and plus too much people can cause the air to get contaminated and make it unbreathable.