Alright. First things first! Time to finally use Dungeon Territory. Activate!
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Activate Dungeon Territory!
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Hey Guide. How the hell does this skill work?
TO USE THE DUNGEON TERRITORY SKILL, FIRST FEEL THE EDGES OF YOUR BASE TERRITORY SKILL. THEN EXPEND MANA TO EXPAND THE TERRITORY OF YOUR IN THE DIRECTION OF YOUR CHOOSING FOR THE PRICE OF 10 MANA PER 5 CUBIC METERS. THIS COST WILL DECREASE AS THE DUNGEON TERRITORY SKILL INCREASES IN LEVEL. FURTHERMORE, ADDITIONAL TERRITORY DOES BEYOND THE BASE TERRITORY HAS A MANA UPKEEP COST OF 1/10TH THE PURCHASE PRICE. ADDITIONAL TERRITORY WILL INCREASE MANA REGENERATION DEPENDENT UPON AMBIENT MANA LEVELS AS WELL AS PROVIDE ADDITIONAL MANA STORAGE. ANY ADDITIONAL AREA CLAIMED BEYOND YOUR BASE TERRITORY, AS WELL AS ANY MANA PRESENT IN THAT TERRITORY, IS LOST UPON DUNGEON RELOCATION.
I see. Wait. Guide! What do you mean additional mana storage?!? That's just been a question mark for the last several days! I didn't know it had a limit!
MANA STORAGE CAPACITY IS FOR YOU AS A DUNGEON IS THE SUM OF MANA YOUR CORE CAN STORE AS WELL AS AVAILABLE MATERIALS WITHIN THE DUNGEON TO STORE MANA IN. BY DEFAULT, DUNGEONS USE ALL AVAILABLE MATERIALS TO STORE MANA IN INCLUDING THE AIR IN THE VICINITY. SINCE AIR IS CONSTANTLY CIRCULATING IN AND OUT OF THE DUNGEON BOUNDARYS, CALCULATION OF TOTAL MANA CAPACITY CANNOT BE COMPLETED IN AN ACCURATE MANNER, RESULTING IN ???.
Okay... This is probably something that stupid system did. On the bright side, I know how to fix it now! Probably! Hey Guide! Can you set the Status page to show the capacity as my core's mana capacity with a plus sign for the solid objects in the territory? Just ignore the air in the calculation for capacity!
STATUS SCREEN MANA CAPACITY CALCULATION ADJUSTED.
Alright! Let's GO! Progress is being made! Guide. Show me the new calculation please.
MANA: 50/100+23.143215398719234651352178357129
Okay..... Guide... can you round the numbers down to the nearest whole number please?
ADJUSTING FROM 30 DECIMAL POINTS TO 0 DECIMAL POINTS... COMPLETED
MANA: 50/100+23
Perfect! Oh yeah! One more thing. Guide, saying guide every time is getting pretty annoying. When I say guide, respond to everything I say until I say, I'm done Guide. Got it?
PARAMETERS ADJUSTED. LISTENING TO USER INPUT UNTIL THE COMMAND, "I'M DONE GUIDE" IS ISSUED.
Thank you guide! Man, that system guy is a total jerk, but this guide thing is pretty useful.
UNABLE TO PROCESS COMMAND. PLEASE BE MORE SPECIFIC.
Okay... some adjustments needed still it seems...
SPECIFY ADJUSTMENTS REQUIRED.
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Right... Let me think of how to phrase this....
UNABLE TO PROCESS COMMAND. PLEASE BE MORE SPECIFIC.
Set the things I say that cannot be processed as a command to be considered as me talking to myself, and not as a command you need to execute. Got it?
PARAMETERS ADJUSTED. USER INPUT THAT IS UNABLE TO BE PROCESSED AS A COMMAND, IS NOW SET TO PARAMETER "IDLE CHATTER" AND WILL NOT BE PROCESSED AS A COMMAND.
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Perfect! Now just to see that this thing is working properly....
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Okay! Guess that works! Now to the next thing I need to figure out while I'm hopping down this rabbit hole! Why doesn't mana regen rate show up on my stat sheet? I know I've asked about it from time to time?
CALCULATIONS FOR MANA REGEN RATE CANNOT BE PROCESSED IN REAL TIME DUE TO HOW MUCH THEY FLUCTUATE BASED ON ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS. INSTEAD, AN AVERAGE OF THE LAST 5 HOURS IS DISPLAYED WHEN INQUIRED ABOUT.
What do you mean by environmental conditions? Why not just display the average if the calculation can't be done in real time? Simple explanation please.
MANA REGENERATION RATE IS BASED OFF OF AMBIENT MANA IN THE SURROUNDING ENVIROMENT. AS MANA SATURATES THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT, IT IS ABSORBED BY THE VARIOUS MATERIALS IN SAID ENVIRONMENT UNTIL THOSE MATERIALS ARE SATURATED. THIS WORKS SIMILARLY TO YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF HEAT. MANA DENSE MOLECULES TRANSFER MANA TO LESS SATURATED MOLECULES. MANA IS GENERATED BY SOULS INDOCTRINATED INTO THE SYSTEM, SUCH AS YOUR OWN, AND SOULS HAVE A CAPACITY TO STORE SOME OF THAT MANA INTO THEMSELVES.
TYPICAL DUNGEONS DO NOT HAVE SOULS, AND THUS ARE RELIANT ON THIS MANA TRANSFER (ONCE AGAIN, THINK HEAT TRANSFER) FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD INTO THE PARTICLES OF THE DUNGEON TO EFFECT CHANGE. THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY DUNGEONS INCORPORATE MONSTERS INTO THEIR ECOSYSTEMS, SINCE SAID MONSTERS GENERATE MANA/MIASMA FROM THEIR SOULS TO SATURATE THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT TO FUEL THE DUNGEON.
SINCE THIS WORLD HAD NO MANA TO SPEAK OF PREVIOUSLY, THE SURROUNDING ENVIROMENTS PARTICLES HAVE NEXT TO NO MANA SATURATION. AS SUCH, THE MANA IS LEAKING OUT TO THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT OUTSIDE OF THE DUNGEON, REDUCING VISIBLE MANA REGEN SINCE THE ENVIRONMENT OUTSIDE THE DUNGEON CAN'T BE USED TO FUEL THE DUNGEONS ACTIVITIES. AS THE OUTSIDE ENVIRONMENTS MANA SATURATION INCREASES, MANA REGEN RATE EFFECTIVELY GOES UP SINCE LESS MANA IS BEING TRANSFERED OUTSIDE THE DUNGEON.
SINCE THIS IS ALREADY HAPPENING, YOUR MANA REGEN RATE IS IN A CONSTANT RATE OF GOING UP AS THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANA SATURATION OUTSIDE THE DUNGEON INCREASED, LEADING TO AVERAGE MANA REGEN CALCULATION BEING EFFECTIVELY USELESS FOR THE TIME BEING, SINCE IT WILL ALWAYS BE LOWER THAN THE ACTUAL RATE.
I asked for a simple explanation.... but I guess that works.
Well.... first things first then, now that I know a bit more, I need to be smart about my next decisions... so time to put those 10 unused skill points into intelligence! Bam!
My mind suddenly felt sharper. Clearer. Huh. That explanation I just got makes a lot more sense all of a sudden. Which is suddenly all the more concerning now that I realize the implications of the fact that the mana saturation of the surrounding environment is currently being fueled off of my soul apparently. Umm... are there any downsides to that?
SATURATING THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT WITH YOUR SOUL IS CURRENTLY CONSUMING .0002% OF YOUR SOUL PER A SECOND. CURRENTLY 1.296% OF YOUR SOUL HAS BEEN CONSUMED IN THE 4 DAYS, 12 HOURS SINCE YOU HAVE BEEN INDOCTRINATED INTO THE SYSTEM. YOUR STATS WILL BEGIN TO BE REDUCED BY THE PERCENTAGE OF SOUL DEGRADATION UPON REACHING 10% SOUL DEGRADATION. UPON COMPLETE DEGRADATION OF THE SOUL, YOU WILL CEASE TO EXIST.
Ahhh.... that figures. Knew that something was up with that. More reason to hate that system guy. I'm so done with this.
I gave a long mental sigh and resigned myself to keep going.
How do I fix this?
CALCULATING. PLEASE STAND BY.
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GUIDE RECOMMENDATION IS TO TAKE THE MONSTER CREATION SKILL AND STAFF THE DUNGEON WITH MONSTERS TO GENERATE MORE MANA. THIS IS LIKELY TO REDUCE THE RATE OF SOUL DEGRADATION.
How much would that help?
CALCULATIONS WOULD REQUIRE THE SKILL TO BE AQUIRED AND MONSTERS TO BE CREATED TO DETERMINE.
Great help.... Well, screw the system. Here goes nothing.
Monster Creation -10 points
CONFIRM PURCHASE?
Okay. Deep breath here. This will not result in anything bad happening! Confirm Purchase!
Purchase Confirmed!
Gained Skills:
Monster Creation Lvl 1
I feel like I just opened Pandora's box here... Well... there are already monster spiders running around, soo....
Actually, I wonder where those things got off to anyway?
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Meanwhile, in the recently established secret base of the Stained Crime Syndicate....
"Man, who knew all we had to do to become more powerful is capture these spider things, let them breed, and then kill em? This is so much easier than making drugs!"
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Back to our protagonist
Ehh... who knows... I got other things to worry about. Anyway. What monsters can I make?
MONSTER CREATION LIST:
Dungeon Spider Lvl 1: 10 mana
Dungeon Worm Lvl 1: 10 mana
Dungeon Rat Lvl 1: 30 Mana
Okay! Those don't seem too bad! First thing I guess I should do is take over the rest of this survival bunker... which will take the rest of my mana, but I guess it has to be done.
Dungeon territory expanded!
And now to wait and get enough mana to make some monsters.... this might take a second...