MH2 - Chapter 13: The Endless Raid

“So, lemme get this straight. There’s a wandering dungeon called Kelzoul who’s gonna eat your dungeon core?” Katrina asked, her eyes wide.

Dolli nodded. “The overlord is named Kelzoul, not the whole dungeon, but yes, that is correct.”

Katrina scowled. “And you need me to post this quest to Rebit so you can build an army of heroes to throw against him until you can kill him?”

“Nailed it, as heroes say,” Rufus said.

Katrina shook her head in disbelief, her grin wide. “This. Is. Awesomesauce! Yes of course I’ll be the first ever Monster Haven liaison!”

Greg held up a hand. “Bein’ a little hasty with’at official title, aren’t ya?”

Katrina bounced in her. “Sure sure, no problem. Oh yeah, but I can’t start until tomorrow. It’s almost lights out and my mom will killme if I’m late for school again.”

Dolli rested a hand on Katrina’s shoulder, severity in her creased brow. “We’ll be dead tomorrow.”

She wasn’t certain if that was true, but it was very possible. Kelzoul moved fast, and there was no doubt in Dolli’s mind that he’d send whatever remaining Monster Haven defectors ahead to begin the demoralization assault. She’d need heroes on the front lines to do that dirty work and keep her own dungeonfolk back deeper in the maze to spare them the mental anguish.

Katrina’s smile faded. “You’re serious?”

The all nodded solemnly.

“Sheet. Okay. Sheetbulls,” the hero said the nonsense words like a curse.

“You’re our only hope,” Julie said, her hands pressed together in prayer. Her eyes were abnormally large and sparkly, her face molded into a pout. It was so convincing, even Dolli started to feel bad.

Katrina grimaced in frustration. “Damn. I really don’t want you guys to die. Okay, so what if I just asked my mom for an exception?”

Dolli nodded vigorously. “Yes! What a great idea. Death sounds like a harsh punishment for being late. You should relay that to her as well.”

Katrina rolled her eyes. “I know, right? She’s so harsh. Okay, beer bee.”

“What?” Boji asked, head tilted.

“Oh, it means I’ll be right back.” Katrina chuckled. Then her gaze went vacant and she sat up straight.

Dolli and the others watched the motionless mage for many long minutes.

“Is she… dead?” Greg asked.

Rufus poked her arm.

Katrina wobbled slightly on her chair, then returned to the upright position.

Dolli’s impatient streak from days long in her past flared up. Just before she considered shouting in the girl’s face, Katrina returned.

The mage leapt from the seat with a huge grin. “Mom said I can stay up thirty more minutes!”

The monster cheers were interrupted by the door banging against the wall. An out of breath Toren knelt as soon as he saw the officers gathered. “Overlord, Kelzoul’s troops have been spotted on the mountainside directly southeast.”

They were out of time.

Dolli took a deep breath. “Boji, I need you to start crafting some bombs. Tell me all the components you need in the chat.”

“Right,” he said with a dip of his head and dismissed himself.

“Greg, I need you to start crafting riding gear for Nubiri—” Dolli turned to look at the disgruntled wyvern—“With her consent to be ridden into battle with bombs strapped to her back?”

“There’s little else choice,” Nubiri grumbled.

“Good. At least three goblin riders across, and if you have time, work with Boji to make up a crossbow attachment for each side,”

Greg blew out his cheeks. “I’ll see what I can manage.”

“Rufus and Brene, get battle and rest rotations figured out. Julie, finish your in-progress builds and make a dead end out of anything that you can’t.” Dolli rapid fired the orders, whipping her officers into action.

Katrina cleared her throat. “And me, Overlord? What can your liaison do?”

“I need you to get these quests to every hero you can,” Dolli said.

She sat on her rocking chair throne and got to work on the first quest. When she’d made the first one, she used the same “templatize” option she’d used for the Plague quest. With a few tweaks to the name, Dolli created the second quest in a quarter of the time.

“Here’s the first one,” Dolli said, offering the mage the original quest.

“Got it, thanks,” she replied, then took a seat on Dolli’s plush armchair.

“Hey, hey Haf-timers!” Katrina said in a grandiose way. “It’s me, your dopest of dungeon divers, Rexis Min on my alt Tina-Flamestorm.”

“What are you doing?” Dolli asked as she watched the mage speak and gesture to thin-air.

She whispered, “Oh, heh, I figured the fastest way to get word out was to go live. I’ve gotten fifteen thousand new subscribers since yesterday.”

Katrina returned her attention to the air just above and in front of her. “That’s right everyone, I’m here with the Overlord of Chaos herself, Dollitrice Grandmeir!”

She flicked her hands through the air and looked at Dolli expectantly. “Say something,” she whispered when Dolli stared back at her, dumbfounded.

Dolli waived to the thin air in front of Katrina.

The mage flicked her hands again and brought a big smile to her face. “We’ve got a special request tonight. You’ve seen her slaughter quests, her courier quests, and everything in between—except this!”

With a flourish of her hands, Katrina gestured to her left. Dolli’s quest materialized in soft golden light. “We need any able-bodied hero ready to throw down for guts and glory to save the awesome Monster Haven Dungeon… for they are in dire straights.”

The mage went on, talking to her “subscribers” about Monster Haven’s horrible plight and Dolli got back to business. In a few minutes time, she’d made twenty nearly identical quests with a cap of sixty heroes for each. The maze halls below had defender limitations, and it wasn’t just an arbitrary dungeon restriction—as some other things were that Dolli had noticed.

The halls were narrow in many places, making it difficult for big groups to do combat effectively. Limiting the defenders would give Dolli the upper hand.

With the summoning quests completed, Dolli worked on the painstakingly complex “Battle for Monster Haven” quest. It outlined the rules of engagement, which included failure for any Monster Haven creature killed by their hand among other things. This would hopefully disincentivize the murder of her own people. With the restrictions piling up, the gold reward for the quest was up to one-hundred and forty for each hero. That was fine, their treasury was full to the brim and as Rufus had said, they had no need for the gold.

A chat notification appeared in the upper right of her vision and Dolli switched over. It was from Brene: They’re here. 1,000 out front, 100 or so preparing to enter the maze.

Dolli: We’ll be down there soon for the first summon.

“Katrina,” Dolli said, interrupting the mage who could talk non-stop.

“Wha?” the girl’s head snapped in her direction.

“Want to give them a good look at the action?” Dolli asked with a cocky smile. One hundred enemies in the maze would be dispatched quickly, and what better way to wet the heroes’ appetites if they saw how many monsters there were for the killing.

Katrina looked back to her subscribers. “New development, the battle is kicking off. Let’s go watch! Don’t forget to donate to my VTube stream so I can keep going all night. You guys aren’t gonna want to miss all this!”

Katrina jumped up and followed Dolli to the maze entrance. If it was true and there were fifteen thousand heroes watching her now, they could easily turn the tide of this battle. They would have to restructure the entire dungeon after inviting the enemy into it, but that was a problem for after they survived Kelzoul.

She spared a glance at the hero quests and saw three were already taking on heroes, and one was almost at the limit. They needed to keep this influx coming steadily throughout the night, and Dolli had a brilliant idea how. Heroes loved four things: Gold, loot, killing monsters, and competitions. She would give them everything they wanted.

“Any hero able to strike the killing blow on Kelzoul will get two-thousand gold and pick any one item from our treasure horde on top of the quest reward.”

Katrina had spun the imaginary view portal toward Dolli when she’d started speaking, then turned it back on herself with a gasp. “She is just straight chaos! What do you think, guys? Are you gonna sit on your ass and watch from VTube, or will you be rolling in the riches tomorrow?”

By the time they reached the middle levels, heroes were rolling into the quests. Three of them were full up, ready to go. Dolli had certainly picked the right liaison. While Dolli’s offer was good, Katrina knew how to make it irresistible.

“Form up, heroes incoming.” Dolli opened the quest menu and selected “Summon All.” Her dungeonfolk raised weapons, but stayed back as the heroes materialized in golden sparkle.

The heroes unsheathed swords and readied spells, but didn’t attack. She marked the quest complete for everyone, granting them a small amount of experience.

“Here is your new quest,” Dolli said, then offered them “The Battle for Monster Haven.”

The heroes went glossy-eyed as they reviewed the offer. Murmurs of “New content,” “Cool world battle,” and “Never seen this before,” filled the crowd of heroes. Within seconds, they all accepted the new battle quest.

Brene stepped up beside Dolli. “Recruits! If you do not follow my directions in combat, you may kill one of our monsters. If you do that, you fail the quest. No reward, no more fun. We will turn on you faster than a pack of ravenous wolves. Understand?”

Some of the heroes whispered to one another, then a stout man in chainmail raised his axe. “So, you’re like the raid leader?”

“I am your god down here,” Brene said, confidence radiating off her in waves.

The heroes fell in line at Brene’s commands, listening to her every word. “You may see some of our own in the enemy ranks—defectors. We will treat them just the same as the others.”

“How will we know if its you, or them?” a tall man in blue robes asked with his hand raised.

Brene turned to pace the line. “We will not attack you.”

Another hero raised her hand. “When do we get our rewards?”

“When we’ve won,” Dolli said and smiled. “Welcome to the endless raid.”