Chapter 1: The Inn’s Cellar [1]

An ancient forgotten egg sits deep within the earth's soil. Those who listen closely can hear the thump of a heart beating within its shell. The thing within the egg stirs, and with a faint crack the egg begins to break.

The fleshy monster within soon pushes the eggshell apart. Its powerful meaty body makes short work of the egg, and it begins to tear at the soil and rock surrounding its birthplace.

The eggshells find their way into the moist core of the monster's body, and as the nutrients are absorbed the thing begins to shiver with satisfaction. There is a change within the being, and from the eggshells material a proper brain is being formed.

'Where... am I?' The monstrous blob of flesh begins to ponder its surroundings as consciousness is formed.

The beast cannot see as of yet. The large muscled tendrils it uses as limbs can feel the surroundings out. The creature stops shuffling its muscular tentacles around after coming to the conclusion it was trapped in a tiny pocket of space within the ground.

'Wait, what is that?' The blob suddenly senses movement through the vibrations in the earth. There is something high above the blob's earthen pocket.

The creature doesn't hesitate to burrow through the rock and soil in the general direction of the movements. The muscled unnatural looking limbs it uses push and break up the earth far faster than any man made tool.

The vibrations have multiplied, and now the fleshy blob can feel hundreds of various vibrations from above. This doesn't distract the creature as it moves toward the original source of the vibrations.

The earth gives way to softer soil as an unsettling pink tendril breaks through the dirt just beneath a wooden room set into the ground. The lump of red meat pulls itself up into the space only to feel a new kind of sensation.

Sound travels through the air, musty air full of dust now being disturbed by the squeaking of a creature somewhere nearby. The hungry beast follows these noises and feels an unfamiliar material. Wooden planks and stripped logs compose a room just above the beast.

Thankfully it knows it can simply push its limbs through the cracks in the boards without having to break it apart. The lengthy pink feelers slip up and move across the floor until finding the source of the original vibrations.

Without any hesitation the monster's red tendrils grab and dig into the prey as if it was no different from the soft dirt beneath it's core. The flesh, hair, nails, and organs are all consumed rapidly. The wet limbs of the beast function like straws as the organic slurry is digested rapidly while being pumped into the main body to fuel its growth.

'Delicious... I need more.' The thing is satisfied, and moves its limbs up through the boards before sliding around the dusty wooden floor in search of the scurrying paws of its prey.

Seconds later the sizeable basement is clear of rats. Every single one had been sucked up without so much as a drop of blood being left behind. The monster is full, and finally feels its mind taking full control rather than its instincts. The meal also leaves the red mass nearly the size of a human child.

'My hunger is sated... Now what do I do?' The thing has no more primal tasks to fulfill.

This doesn't sit well with the highly intelligent abomination, and so it decides to spread out its limbs. This extension of its fleshy appendages feels oddly relaxing, and it soon realizes that its main body has partially been embedded into the dirt while the tendrils it spread attach themselves to the terrain in a more permanent fashion.

'Did I just settle down like some kind of plant?' The appendages that had fused with the surroundings were more or less extensions of the main body, and therefore could extend tendrils just as the main body could.

This fascinated the red creature as it spread the thicker semi-permanent flesh conduits throughout the available spaces. The red vein-like protrusions soon form a thick web within the dirt spaces outside the wooden room, and with a slight push the flesh roots extend through the boards into the room itself. The monster feels extremely satisfied by this broad coverage, and keeps extending until the cellar its latched onto is a terrifying mess of flesh webs and growths.

'I can't continue, my nutrients are getting low.' The abomination is displeased by this, but does not have time to dwell on the feeling as it senses a disturbance near the opening of the room.

~

Jeramiah has been an innkeeper in Kerstead for a little over twenty years now, and had his fair share of rat infestations. The problem recently returned twofold when a horde of rat monsters and normal rats entered the town sewers.

The innkeeper sighs as he walks over to the cellar door at the end of a long night. His business is doing fine, however he keeps hearing those damned rodents making noise and wrecking his cellar. The racket even leaked out into the inn's dining floor a few times.

Swinging slowly, the wooden door opens to reveal a dark stairwell leading down into the cellar. Jeramiah starts stepping down the stairs with a lantern held in one hand. He raises it high up as the flame flickers gently. The light casts onto his musty wooden cellar, and after a few steps into the dark his face pales.

The normally dusty wooden basement is not coated in dust and grime, but flesh and tendons. They seem to move and pulse as he takes a few bated breaths. Without warning the tendrils of flesh start to rush at him like a cat pouncing on a mouse.

"Ah-!" Jeramiah quickly turns around and practically jumps up the steps to the inn's dining floor. The fleshy protrusions try to follow, however they are stopped short as Jeramiah slams the wooden door and bolts it before taking several steps away from the cellar entrance.

The lack of customers in the dining floor is a relief for him as he quickly leaves the inn to track down a reliable guard to help him with the predicament.

~

The sound of the door slamming shut coupled with the feeling of its tendrils smashing into hard wood irritates the monster greatly. The thing goes berserk for a moment and breaks a few barrels of alcohol into splinters with several of its larger meat vines.

'That thing got away! Ugh!' The creature is mad, but it knows there's no reason to be angry about something it can't fix.

To its surprise a large volume of an unknown fluid began flowing into the space beneath the floorboards. The rather odd tasting mixture is in fact a cheap alcohol the inn sells to its customers, and it left the creature with a little buzz of warmth in its body.

'What is this..?' The creature uses its tendrils to soak up and drink the stuff, and it eventually gets to the point where its tendrils are like limp noodles as it makes an odd gurgling noise akin to its own unique giggle.

The creature has gotten so drunk off the drink that it has forgotten all of its worries relating to the prey that had escaped.

~

Jeramiah arrives at the inn with two guards in tow. They each wear leather armor and carry steel swords. The first of the two guards is slightly older than Jeramiah, and has a rather serious expression on his face as he moves toward the cellar door with his fellow guard.

You are reading story The Heart of a Dungeon at novel35.com

"Be careful, the thing tried to grab me. I don't know what it is, but it didn't chase me out into here." Jeramiah's voice is a tad shaky as he tries not to look like a coward in front of these rather well trained guards.

The older guard glances at the innkeeper before moving to one side of the wooden door in question. The younger guard moves forward and slowly opens it to reveal a rather unnerving trail of deep frantic gouges in the wooden stairs and other side of the thick cellar door. The two guards harden their expression as they realize this won't just be some rat monster trespassing in the basement area.

The older guard steps forward with his steel blade at the ready. Each guard carries a torch in one hand and a sword in the other. Upon reaching the tenth step they stop abruptly. They fleshy tendrils are swaying and limply moving toward their feet.

"Nasty... What the hell is this?" The younger guard grimaces while the older guard starts swinging his blade through the forest of fleshy webs and veins.

The blood spurting is accompanied by a muffled screech that reminds them of an animal dying. The sounds grow quiet for a second and then continue to rage on with each cut they make. Eventually they clear most of the flesh vines, however they can still hear that unknown monster crying out angrily from within the walls of the cellar.

"Let's get the out of here and report this back to the captain... We can't kill it as we are." The older guard orders the younger one as he starts making his way back to the steps.

The two of them are surprised when from within the floorboards beneath the steps a large bundle of rather thick flesh vines swarm up like arms ready to grab and strangle the nearest fool. They each step back and the older guard swings his blade at the meat vines.

"What-" The older guard's eyes go wide as a second set of much thinner tendrils grab him from within the floorboards. They constrict tightly and his eyes bulge as he feels his ankle bones slowly begin to give under the astonishing pressure.

"AH! HELP ME YOU IDIOT!" The older man is shouting spittle at the younger guard while the man in question steps back a few steps with a look of shock on his pale face.

The next few seconds are a blur for the young man as he sees the legs of his patrol partner turn to mush while being forced beneath the now broken floorboards. Red vines slide up and with a sickening crack the older veteran guard's bones are broken while his corpse is pulled somewhere unseen beneath the room.

"SHIT!" The young guard breaks into a mad sprint and hacks recklessly at the tendrils by the stairs. He jumps across a few appendages and lands halfway up the stairs. The sound of him swearing as he bolts out of the compromised cellar echoes down to the creature as it gradually retracts its limbs into the walls and floor of the basements.

~

The invaders' blades tore into its fleshy sinew like a broom through cobwebs. The creature howled in rage and pain as its drunken state left it sluggish and disoriented. Shocks and spasms of pain from the onslaught severed so much of the fleshy creature's body that it regurgitated a swath of disgusting muck from its core.

This discharge manages to clear up the monster's head as it goes into a fit of rage. It only knows instinctual wrath, and so it blocks their escape before trying to pull one of them beneath the floorboards.

The sickening snaps and cracks are the sounds of success to the beast. The metal armor and clothing is absorbed along with the dying human. Each bit of organic material is being consumed to recover from the injuries while the inorganic matter is forming deposits of various materials in the outer layer of the core.

'Those pests... They're just like big rats!' The meaty beast is in a fit of rage. The other human had escaped while it was eating the first. It swore to itself that it would get revenge for their transgressions.

~

Eighteen men and two women all stand at attention in a training yard within the town. The sun is rising; It's rays shine brightly off the chainmail armor of their captain. The man has a large moustache that frames his mouth, and a stern gaze as he looks down at his subordinates.

"As most of you know, there is an unknown monster lurking in the basement of the town's most popular inn." He says this loud enough for everyone to hear while maintaining a solemn tone.

"My older brother was killed by that abomination, and Clancy was only able to make it by the skin of his teeth. What I'm saying is, we can't let this thing live. It will take more lives." His gaze is full of grief and suppressed rage as he speaks. The crowd of guards is all impacted by their leader's somber demeanor.

"We would burn the creature out, however the inn would go up in flames as well. We'll be using our steel to take it out. I want everyone in groups of four! Form up!" The captain walks down off his platform as the small force of guards begin to divide themselves into five squads. The group moves out on his command.

The spectacle of so many guards mobilizing at once in such an orderly fashion causes the townspeople great concern. Many are wide eyed with curiosity over what crisis could cause such a show of military might.

~

The vibrations are immense. Twenty plus humans march on the roads above the creature as it realizes the prey is the new predator. Its fleshy tendrils quiver with an unfamiliar sensation. The uncanny being felt fear for the first time. Their steel blades hurt quite a bit, and with so many it doubts it can bring them all down painlessly.

The fear of pain drives it to retreat. The sensation of bitter defeat fills the creature's mind as it retracts the tendrils it had spread all over the cellar's walls and floor. The fleshy network of vein-like protrusions is dismantled before the guards step into building above.

Dirt and rock are pushed aside skillfully as the creature digs its way into the earth. The path of retreat is based purely on its instincts as it flees like a burrowing worm of meaty gore.

~

"Move in!" The guard captain organizes his men and pushes the first squad into the cellar. They enter with torches and swords. Their gazes scan around the room with a mixture of heroic bravery and suppressed fear.

The guard squad looks around for a few minutes before deciding the monster has fled. The captain is outraged, and enters the basement to see for himself.

"That demon..." The captain's hands are balled into fists as he looks at the massive hole in the wooden floor. This was where his brother was pulled under the floorboards before being eaten alive by that abomination.

The guards have no choice but to regroup and give up on hunting the monster.

~

Author's Note:
I'm planning on having the audience participate
in this story a bit, stay tuned for that in the next chapter!
Thanks for reading!

You can find story with these keywords: The Heart of a Dungeon, Read The Heart of a Dungeon, The Heart of a Dungeon novel, The Heart of a Dungeon book, The Heart of a Dungeon story, The Heart of a Dungeon full, The Heart of a Dungeon Latest Chapter