Oh screw the empires! Those bastards have no respect for other people and their cultures. At least the smaller kingdoms leave us alone so long as we pay taxes, but those damn empires just love sticking their noses anywhere they can. I can tolerate a greedy noble who just wants to turn a profit, but the ideological morons from the empires are insufferable!
Just you wait! The only reason Wyrmrest and Ormain are playing ‘nice’ right now is because they don’t have three star dungeons to fall back on if they piss off the guild! The Empires own the second and third highest level dungeons on the continent and the second those dungeons reach three star I guarantee they’ll try and kick us out!
* A rant by Guildmaster Tor moments before his demotion from the Defiance branch
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Eternal Dungeon POV
The Northern Wastes. I was somewhat familiar with them thanks to them being a part of one of my quest objectives. The Northern Wastes only existed thanks to the corpse of the Ice God polluting the northern third of the continent. While I knew some information about the wastes I could always use more.
“I’m familiar with it to a degree. I am aware that it is a high-magic zone where many adventurers go to try and force through their three star ascensions. I also know that few return.” I say in my imperious voice.
The Guild Leader grimaces at my mention of the low survival rate, as well as at the mention that they go there to reach three star. It makes sense I suppose, she must feel guilty that she’s unable to let all of them get stronger in the three star dungeon.
“You clearly know much despite being unable to see outside.” She says probingly.
I can see what you're trying to do, you sneaky elf.
“Indeed, your adventurers talk quite a bit. One such as myself must learn from observing since I cannot seek out knowledge myself.” I say.
The Guild Leader simply watches me for a moment, searching my face for some kind of hint or clue as to the truth of my claims. She will find none, my control over my avatar is perfect so cold reading won’t work on me. I’m also stopping her aura from examining me as well which cuts off her other means of truth telling.
“I see. Perhaps I’ll have to have a discussion about speech discipline with them again.” She says before changing subjects. “Allow me to tell you a little about the Northern Wastes, just so I can be sure you have all the information.”
She pauses and waits until I indicate that I’m listening. She continues once I give her the go ahead.
“As you know, the Northern Wastes are a high magic zone that occupies the top third of Aveneast. It is a cold and harsh environment saturated with ice aligned mana types. It is also a very chaotic place, with random magical phenomena happening regularly. However Enhanced blizzards and Mana storms are the least of the worries, the monsters that survive the densely mana saturated environment grow incredibly strong. The fact that almost all of them are predatory only makes the situation worse, they’ll actively seek out any explorers that seek to chart the north. All of these factors make expeditions into the northern wastes highly lethal, with less than 2% of people ever coming back. Although those numbers are more like 20% if you only count 2 star adventurers, still not great odds.” She explains.
“While that’s interesting you still haven’t told me why I need to know all this.” I say staying in character.
“I’m getting to that.” She says, giving me a hard look until I settle back into my chair. “Now the reason all of this is important is because I plan on going on an expedition into the Northern Wastes. I have sources that have informed me of the location of a set of ruins that may contain knowledge as to where the source of the chaotic mana is and how to stop it. However as things are now I still need more support for the expedition. I need a 30 person team of three and two star adventurers who already have experience with the environment of the north, and currently I only have 7 people who’ll go.” She finishes and then looks at me expectantly.
I raise a brow and don’t say anything. She’s yet to actually make any requests or directly ask me for anything. It seems to take her several moments of expectant staring to realize that she never actually asked for anything.
“So, would you offer your support for my expedition?” She quickly asks.
“I don’t exactly see what it is I could do for you, nor how I could possibly benefit from it.” I drawled.
Twas a lie of course. Knowing the source of the Northern Wastes meant knowing where the corpse of the Ice God is, and one of my main quests is to deal with the corpses. While knowing where the body is would likely help, I’m confident that I can simply follow the damaged ley lines to hone in on its location.
Not knowing how to help her was a lie as well. I could already think of several avenues of support that I could offer. I could focus on expanding my aura and offer scouting. I could offer to equip her entire expedition with class gear, which would both incentivize people to join and give them better odds in the north. I could create a simulated northern wastes environment within my dungeon and allow people to train there. If I managed to expand my aura far enough and was willing to expose my true nature I could even offer to revive them if they died. All are things I could easily do with my current capabilities or could easily accomplish with a few weeks of dedicated work.
But I would do none of them, because I currently saw no reason to help her.
“You can’t help? No . . . that can’t be right . . . but I was told . . . never wrong.” Amy began to mutter under her breath, becoming completely lost in her own thoughts. It’s as though what I said was completely unexpected to her. From what she’s muttering about it seems like someone told her that she should specifically seek me out for help.
That’s rather worrying. Whoever told her to seek me out must have some idea of my true capabilities. Something that should be impossible . . . unless.
The world seems to freeze around me, as though a pause button was pressed. The only thing still capable of movement is my avatar.
“You’re quick. I like that.” A soft and smooth voice resonates in my mind.
Standing behind the frozen form of Amy Evergreen is what appears to be a middle aged man. He looks completely human with black hair and skin that is just tan enough to make it impossible to tell his ethnicity. His eyes are heterochromatic with one being neon green and the other gold, they look like normal human eyes yet something about them feels off. The man is wearing a golden suit with neon green lining and a tie that has little pictures of a golden coin on it. Looking closer I can tell that the golden coins on his tie have a white skull on one side and a green four leaf clover on the other.
“Done giving me the once over?” The man asks. He has a slight smile on his face, as though in a good mood.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Not quite.” I say before finally checking his tag.
[First of Fate] Seven
“I’ve never seen an administrator with a title before.” I say, doing my best to control my instinctual reaction of screaming.
This is a top dog of Unity! I had done some research into the organization I’m now a part of after my run in with the Executioners. One of the things I learned is that the highest ranked guys are known as ‘numbers’ and that the number of digits in their number correlates with their power, with lower numbers being stronger.
“For a Number to have a title it has to be officially recognized by One, luckily he’s a good friend of mine. Plus I’m the only Outer God who’s also a Number so it only made sense to get a title for it.” He says in an amused voice, his smile growing slightly wider.
“Well, what can I do for you Lord Seven?” I ask cautiously.
“Now, now, you must know that Unity prefers carrot over stick. I’m simply here to incentivize you to assist my warlock in her duties. Your goals align somewhat, so it only makes sense to work together right?” He asks leadingly.
“I suppose that’s a fair point. However I dislike the idea of giving up my true capability before I’m the most powerful thing on my continent.” I respond carefully.
“Come now, we both know you're already the most powerful thing on this measly continent. You could kill a ten star by encasing it in dungeon stone, three stars can’t threaten you. Nothing can threaten you aside from a fellow administrator.” He states.
“While that may be true, I’d still prefer to be capable of defending myself without relying on cheesing my enemies.” I say, using a bit of earth lingo.
“Fine, fine, I get it. How about I just offer you some quests and you can choose to do them or not?” He asks, simply accepting my stubbornness on the matter.
“I have no problems with that.” I agree.
“Excellent! Then I’ll be going now, don’t worry about my little warlock, I’ll make sure to straighten things out with her. I can assure you she won’t spill any of your secrets.” He says, giving a showy bow before disappearing.
I simply gawk at his ability to completely vanish without any trace of mana being used. Clearly these administrators have abilities beyond just magic, I might need to learn some if I want to keep up. I am supposed to be an administrator myself after all. Although I guess I’m more like a trainee right now, I still need to reach level 100.
As soon as Seven is gone time starts moving again as though our conversation never happened. I notice Amy pauses in her mutterings and tilts her head to the side as though listening to someone intently. After several moments she nods her head and then refocuses on me.
“My patron informs me that he had a discussion with you directly.” She states.
“Yes, he and I came to an agreement. I will assist you depending on what he offers me in exchange.” I say getting back into character as a lofty god.
“Very well then, thank you for your time. I’ll be leaving now, if you would please.” She says after a quick glance around at the room and seeing its lack of obvious exits.
I smile and teleport her back to the room where Tor and Wyla are negotiating the terms for the adventurers.
Once she’s gone I let out a weary sigh and sag backwards into my chair. I’ve missed being able to express myself so easily like this, I should’ve made a body ages ago. There’s not even any drawbacks really, sure I’m projecting my mind into this body but my mind is incredibly vast. I’ve been able to segment pieces of myself off and then later assimilate them with ease ever since I became a dungeon core. Even this body can’t hold all of me, it's why the avatar is more like a puppet than a true form.
It feels like I have just a part of myself inside of it, moving it around and animating it. It's actually very similar to when I segment myself for multitasking. I’m still connected to the whole that is me, but I’m also separate in the sense that I don’t know what’s going on elsewhere in my dungeon. If I wanted I could use the connection back to my soul to learn everything that happened.
I remember asking Wyla about the whole segmenting yourself thing and she told me that it's something most ex-mortal’s do to cope with being so much more than before. I don’t need to create ‘multiple me’s’ to multitask, but it's easier for my more mortal mind to comprehend. According to Wyla one of the signs of growth is when I can start utilizing my full mental capabilities without relying on a crutch like segmenting.
Well, that’s for the future. For now I’m just going to enjoy this physical form and all that comes with it. I mentally reach out and request food and drink from the spiritkin attendant who I can sense waiting outside the hidden door. I also reach out to Wyla to check on when she’ll be finished.
The attendant is quick to respond to my mental commands and immediately starts moving towards the town to acquire the items I asked for. I could’ve fabricated or teleported them, but I wanted the full mortal experience for now.
“I’ll be done shortly. The Guildmaster is simply trying to convince me of something I’ve already decided to agree too. It’s good to make them think they’ve won, that way they feel better about the results.” Wyla responds to my question, making me smile.
She’s doing a great job as always. She’s only been around for a week and yet she’s made herself indispensable. The amount of tedious repetitive work she handles for me really frees up my time for more experimentation and creativity. Plus the companionship she offers as an equal has definitely helped my mental state stabilize, although that could just be the system.
There’s no way to know if the system is messing with me or not, so for now I’ll run on the assumption that it isn’t. The System seems pretty hands off when it comes to most things after all, and the regulation of my emotional state was only supposed to be happening when I was in a stressful situation. I genuinely feel pretty unstressed right now.
Sure I’ve got several quests to start working on and several floors I need to build, but there’s no rush on anything. Plus I still need to see what quests Seven is going to give me as that may affect what I do for my next floors. While the plan I already have is still going to get used no matter what, there’s room for flexibility and changes within it.
I turn to my left and see Bellator sprawled out on his table sized platform. He looks incredibly comfortable and is clearly half awake, I guess this must be the first break he’s taken in awhile. Normally he trains constantly and hunts in between training. His senses are so acute that he didn’t bother to stay alert. Although I did see him tense up anytime someone released a hint of bloodlust, which told me that he was still ready to respond to actual threats.
I reached my hand over and began to stroke Bellator's head. It was surprisingly fluffy and soft despite the cat’s propensity for violence. I heard him begin to gently purr and he rolled closer to me. I smiled as I continued to pet him, enjoying the moment. I had wanted to pet him ever since I first created him. I was a big animal lover in my previous life, all good boys deserve pets.
My food arrived as I was about to get lost in thought again, causing me to refocus. The attendants carrying the large trays of food and drink all seemed shocked to see me petting Bellator like a housecat, but they quickly got over it. I could sense their minds reasoning that it only made sense for me to be able to treat him like this.
I asked the attendants to sit and eat with me after they were done setting up the food. I did this mainly because I wanted to speak with my Spiritkin on a more personal level. Also they brought wayyyy too much food and I didn’t want to eat it all.
This gave me a great chance to further develop the persona of this avatar. I planned for my Spiritkin avatar to appear as a prideful and aloof god to outsiders and a stern, yet kind grandfather to the Spiritkin themselves. As with all roleplaying, it was best if you incorporated actual traits of yourself into the character to help it feel more real.
I truly did think of my Spiritkin as something akin to my children. They were my creations and I valued them greatly. Yet at the same time there was a certain distance between us. I was an immortal being after all, one that could shape and change almost anything within my domain. I truly did feel some of my pride, as a True Core I was pretty much at the top of the local pecking order. Even the system itself said that I was basically a god of this world.
I continued to think about my character, both of the fake persona of my avatar and that of my real self. Introspection was important if one wanted to live their best life after all, and I always had room to grow. I was going to be alive for a very, very, long time, so I might as well be happy with myself.