Chapter 2
Rowena was rather looking forward to seeing her betrothed again. She had not seen Tom since they had met, but that meeting had been fateful. Tom had used his abilities as a Controller to Evolve her Class from Child to Rogue, with an Agent subclass. This suited her, to her mind, perfectly. Even if the arranged marriage to Tom, which her Uncle Fenard was attempting to arrange, didn’t work out, Rowena remained grateful to Tom for unlocking a combat class for her.
She had been expecting to inherit Merchant from her parents. She had no desire to count coins or review expense reports, she would much rather delve into dungeons with a team of dashing adventurers and make both a name and a fortune for herself!
After unlocking her class, she had worked hard to develop the skills that went with it for weeks at level one before being allowed to join a curated group to delve a well-known dungeon for Experience. Under the careful eye of a seasoned Warrior, she and three other youths had each reached level thirteen before going their separate ways.
At level thirteen, she was slightly behind the fighters that surrounded Tom, but not by very much. And with Tom’s ability to control Dungeons, it should be a simple matter of him spawning monsters and the rest of the party killing them to catch up to Tom’s level, which had apparently become inflated recently due to the mechanics of his class siphoning experience off of the Cores that he Controlled in his Network.
Rowena didn’t have all of the details, except that Tom had plateaued for now and was waiting for his friends to catch up to him before doing whatever it was that his class required him to do in order to move past level twenty-three. Considering that the others were all in the mid teens for levels, if Rowena was to join her prospective husband on his Quest, now was the opportune time.
Her uncle agreed with her, to some extent. He hadn’t chastised either of them for their hasty Evolution of Rowena’s Class, but he would have rather preferred that she followed her initial path to becoming a Merchant. While not a powerful class in combat, Merchant was easily leveled to obtain the perks of longevity and good health that being high leveled conferred. And, most importantly, it was safe. However, Fenard was not one to cry over spilled milk, and once the Evolution had occurred he had looked for ways to make the best of it.
Such as inserting Rowena into Tom’s adventuring party, and hopefully developing their relationship in that way. He had sensed a bit of awkwardness on the subject of the proposed arranged marriage, and he was hoping that a bit of familiarity between the teenagers would break that ice.
Plus, both King Fenard and Rowen had yet to meet Tom’s parents. So it was with that purpose, and the delivery of the Command subcore that was associated with Tilluth Valley’s Core, that King Fenard once more escorted his niece to the Weaver Estate.
Rowena was in bright spirits during the carriage ride, hiding whatever nerves she felt about meeting the parents of her betrothed. When they actually arrived and Tom saw her, however, she recognized a panicked expression on his face, and it filled her with dread.
As the household had been expecting a royal audience, almost everyone had turned out for the reception, and Tom dutifully introduced King Fenard to his parents and vice versa. Then, awkwardly, the teenager introduced Rowena as well.
“Ma, Pa,” he began, “This is Rowena. We’re, um, technically courting.”
Rowena’s dread chilled as she realize the source of Tom’s panic. He hadn’t even mentioned her to his parents!
“Is that so?” his mother said, reading the situation and attempting to get a handle on it. “Well, Rowena, I’m certain we’ll--”
“You didn’t tell them?” Rowena asked. “We’re more than courting, Tom. We’re engaged! And you didn’t even tell your parents about me?”
“We’ve only met the one time,” Tom objected, “And a lot has happened since then. I sort of forgot, okay?”
“You forgot!” Rowena shouted. “You forgot that you had a fiance?”
Tom blushed madly. “Yes, okay? I’m sorry.”
Rowena was thankful that her adventuring gear was stowed away in the carriage’s luggage compartment; if she’d had a knife on her she might have stabbed the infuriating boy right there. Instead she picked up a stone from the road and threw it at him. She didn’t use a Skill, although she did possess Thrown Weapons Proficiency. She wanted to hurt him, not to hurt him. She was angry, but as a Rogue, even a rock thrown with a Skill could be empowered to cause significant damage.
He shied from the projectile and it hit him on the shoulder. He winced, but it didn’t do significant damage.
Rowena stalked off in a fury, heading towards the Alpha Core Stone.
Tom looked around at the adults for help. He found a mixture of amused, annoyed, or frustrated expressions.
“Really, Tom, you could have handled this much better,” his mother chided. “How could you not have told us about Rowena until just now?”
“I really did forget!” Tom exclaimed.
“Yeah, I think that makes it worse,” Jessica said, suppressing a chuckle. “I’ll go see if I can calm her down.”
“I’ll join you,” Sue said, and the two went after the furious teenager to try to calm her rage.
“I suppose I’m partially to blame for this mistake,” King Fenard said, attempting to take some of the pressure off of Tom. “I did spring Rowena on Tom without warning this visit. And the last one as well, for that matter. Tom’s potential marriage into the royal family is a matter which I need to discuss with you and Mrs. Weaver, Norman. I would like to have your agreement on the matter.”
“I realize that arranged marriages are common among the elite and the powerful,” Norman began, “But I’m not going to order Tom to marry someone just because it’s politically expedient, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”
“Nor am I!” Fenard objected. “It is politically expedient that Tom and Rowena wed, but I wouldn’t wish a loveless marriage on either Tom nor my favorite niece. I’m truly hoping that the two can get along and have a fruitful relationship. But we don’t need to discuss this matter here. Let’s go inside while the women calm each other down. We have other matters to discuss as well.”
The reception broke up at that point, with the butler showing Tom, Norman, Fenard and Grant into a sitting room. Fenard was annoyed with Grant’s presence, as he viewed the Hero from Earth as a frustratingly meddlesome influence on Tom. Unfortunately Tom valued the former senator’s advice, and to Fenard’s further frustration it was generally very sound advice. Not that he had a problem with Tom receiving good advice; he would just rather that said advice came from his own lips.
Once they were seated, King Fenard produced from his pocket the Control Crystal which was ostensibly the reason for his visit. He paused before giving it to Tom.
“Before we attempt to fix Tilluth valley, we should discuss how you plan to go about doing so,” Fenard said.
Tom nodded in agreement. “I was thinking I’d do the same thing that I did in Caseville,” he explained. “I’ll create a dungeon fifteen floors deep and fill it with progressively stronger monsters. The core is happy to put weaker monsters on higher floors, but only if it’s able to spawn high leveled ones somewhere. I’m hoping that by putting them deep in the dungeon instead of near the surface, nobody will ever have to face them.”
“And you’ll be able to create the dungeon from here?” Norman asked.
“I think so?” Tom said, uncertain. “I mean, that’s what we’re about to find out, right?”
“There is one consideration to make, Tom, and that’s your Link Skill,” Fenard reminded him. “Are you able to interact with this core without linking it to your network?”
Tom frowned for a moment. “That’s right. Alpha core and the other cores on my network are damaged at the moment. When I linked Caseville to the network by accident it caused a lot of damage to the others.”
Tom considered the problem for a moment, examining his skills and wishing that they came with a better instruction manual. “Claim and Link remain two separate skills. I think that as long as I don’t use Mana from the other Cores I’ll be able to Claim this core without Linking it to the network.” He paused. “But I think that I should link it to the network at some point, Your Majesty. It will be easier to manage Tilluth in the long term if I can access it from Alpha Core or any of the others linked to my network. When I do that, it will probably destroy this command crystal, just like it did to the zombie dungeon that was destroyed, and maybe cause some damage to my network again.”
Fenard nodded. “You have my permission to manage the Tilluth Core however you see fit, Tom. I have asked that you avoid destabilizing any of the settlement cores in my kingdom deliberately, but Tilluth is already destabilized and spawning monsters that are a threat to my subjects. You should realize, however, that if you connect Tilluth onto your network, that will likely cause financial issues in the valley as well.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Tom said. That had been a problem that he had discovered with his network in Caseville. The Core Stones that served as the centers of villages, towns, and cities throughout the kingdom served a number of record keeping functions, including financial record. Shifting them onto Tom’s growing network of cores removed the Core’s access to the financial information of the rest of the kingdom. It was potentially a major issue, one which Tom didn’t fully know how to address.
“I suppose before I add it to my network we should send them a warning that it’s about to happen and have their accounts transferred over onto my network,” Tom supplied.
“Exactly so. But if you need to wait until your network has recovered some then we’ll have time to prepare the valley for the financial reset,” Fenard agreed.
“Right,” Tom agreed. He picked up the command crystal, and he announced “Unless you can think of anything else to discuss, I’m going to get to work.”
“There’s nothing I can think of,” Fenard admitted.
Tom nodded, and he turned his attention to the crystal in his hand.
Core Name
Tilluth Command
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Controller Options:
Link
Level
1
Claim
HP
6
Level
Mana
25/25
Expand
Territory
10 M^2
Reduce
Floors
0
Evolve
Inhabitants
0
Summon
Experience
5*10^3
Spawn
Customize
Tom Reviewed the stats on the Command Core, and he reflected that it was the most pathetic Core that he’d ever encountered. He realized it wasn’t the core’s fault, it had been Sundered from the original and never allowed to level. It’s territory was restricted to a few square meters, and it barely had any mana. That was probably the entire reason that the map room was safe; the cores inside of it didn’t have enough mana to Spawn a monster.
With extreme caution, he Claimed the core, careful to only pull on his own mana, avoiding using any of his connection to the nearby Alpha Core. It barely took any effort and he felt the connection slip into place.
Through the Command crystal, he could sense the Tilluth Crystal, hundreds of kilometers to the north.
Core Name
Tilluth
Controller Options:
Link
Level
59
Level
HP
64/64
Expand
Mana
78115/100057
Reduce
Territory
128 km^2
Evolve
Floors
1
Summon
Inhabitants
1621
Spawn
Experience
5.14*10^4
Customize
Tom frowned as he realized that the Tilluth Core was even higher leveled than he’d been anticipating it to be. The highest level core he had dealt with so far was Gamma Core, which was level forty-one. Caseville had been level forty, a close second. Tom realized how lucky that his neighbors had been that the core hadn’t been spawning waves of much more dangerous monsters than the Flame Lynxes.
There was nothing for it, however, except to follow the plan. Tom had no way to de-level a core. He could only attempt to manage a high-level core and hope that it didn’t drive him insane.
Fortunately, in this case, his goals aligned with the Core’s. Before anything else, he began Expanding the Core’s Territory significantly. This came with the side effects of reducing the core’s maximum mana and increasing the mana regeneration rate. Tom’s reason for doing it was simple; the core felt stifled by its current territory. It wanted to breathe.
Next, he focused on the Core itself. He had a general sense of it, through all these miles, and, with an effort of will, he Customized a Dungeon entrance. Over the next three hours, he created a dungeon thirty-floors deep beneath his home town. Once the basic architecture was done, he reluctantly began filling it with monsters.