Time passed, as it was wont to do; following the our work on the library and the assembly hall, much of the following day had been spent in relaxation, perusing the shelves of said library. The novels on its shelves were an eclectic mix of all sorts of genres, and more than that, a mix of both titles that I remembered from my first life, and new books that had to be native to this world. Whoever stumbled across this library was bound to find some interesting reading, for sure!
Throughout much of the morning I was occupied with local literature, working my way through a small collection of poetry – much of the metaphor used was unfamiliar, and I found it both frustrating and enticing in equal turns, trying to make sense of it. Occasionally my reading would be interrupted by small pings from the Interface as research projects completed. Most of said projects weren't exceptionally interesting; unlocking the ability to have multiple resources in a spot, expanding the maximum number of floors per building from one to two, and such. Unlocking the first tier of harvestable herbs was nice though, even if I only had mundane offerings of culinary herbs like mint and basil, and minor medical herbs like valerian and klamath weed. It was a start at least!
However, one of the things that had been percolating over the last day was the first tier of minions. Minions, as far as my understanding went, were more like the quiet-minded beasts from my world; that is to say, while possessed of a modicum of intelligence, they lacked willfulness, unable to fully deviate from their base nature and being reliant on instinct. In some ways not too different from a summoned construct, which I supposed made a degree of sense. Creating fully minded individuals was taxing on my resources – populating a dungeon with less refined denizens alongside a small handful of more intelligent ones to lead them was likely the intended way for the system to operate.
I hadn't given it that much thought, beyond simply deciding to research as many of the low-level options as possible, just to see what was available, but the options granted were quite interesting to say the least. The system allowed me six options to choose from; half of which seemed to reflect my druidic training, and half of which were clearly influenced by my interest in the arcane arts and education. The system itself divided them into four groupings – commanders, guardians, servitors, and wanderers.
Commanders, from their description, seemed to mix both a leadership and support role together, having increased intelligence that allowed them to coordinate other minions, while also possessing skills to enhance, heal, or debilitate targets. The specific commander offered by the system was something it referred to as a [GLYPH HOUND], which appeared as a glossy black jackal, quadrupedal with lapis blue eyes and long trails of golden runes running along its body.
(I had the feeling the system was either poking a bit of fun at me or was trying very hard to be thoughtful.)
Guardians were exactly as one would think – dungeon defenders that guarded assigned areas from invasion. I was offered a trio of options this time: one of them was a [MOSS ELEMENTAL], a squat and bipedal creature that was little more than dark green moss over a skeleton of stone, and the rather interestingly named [ORIGAMI WITCH], which was a figure made out of crisp cream colored paper folded into the shape of a robed human, about half the size of its compatriot. The interface claimed it was a spellcaster of some sort, though I had no idea how that was supposed to work if the minions lacked willfulness. I supposed I'd find out when and if I made one. The final guardian was a bizarre little thing labeled [ROSE RAT]; much like the [MOSS ELEMENTAL], it appeared to be a mostly plantlike creature, taking the shape of a large quadrupedal rodent, covered in thorns and tiny red flower blooms. It appeared to be the most aggressive of the three options – a skirmisher to go with the defender and artillery.
The last two categories also only presented me with one option each. The servitor offered was a tall and slender animated tree, draped in ambulatory vines, called a [WORKING WILLOW], and seemed to be a generic assistant, capable of performing many tasks but only at the basic level without direct oversight from an intelligent dungeon resident. Fortunately, we had an abundance of those; of all the various options these are the ones I would most likely create first, to give my children capable assistants.
The very last category, that of the wanderers, was a little bit of the odd man out – while they were part of the dungeon's defenses, their primary function seemed to be exploratory. Scouts and spies that patrolled the dungeon at large, on the lookout for issues to report to higher-ranked minions and residents. The system offered me another elemental, a [BLINKWELL]; it was a flowing ribbon of ink attached in some ill-defined way to a large blocky glass inkwell, and was additionally listed as a divination specialist. My immediate thought was that it must somehow use the glass as a scrying crystal, which struck me as both absurd and highly likely, considering the strangeness of everything else in this world.
The discovery of the minions and resources now available to me was book-ended by a notification that my [RESEARCH] skill had increased by one tier – the only benefit that I could see was an overall reduction in research time and cost, of about 5%, but every little sliver of advantage counted. I debated briefly about giving minion creation a try, but I would most likely want to converse with everyone else first.
And given that one of our number had been working steadily in her domain for the last several days, I knew exactly which of my children to start with.
* * * * *
Nawra gently guided Finn as he did his best to duplicate her stitch, slowly pulling the sleeves of his new tunic together. Unlike the dungeon residents, Finn's clothes were not regenerated by the dungeon when they became damaged or soiled, and while regular bathing and washing helped, having only one outfit to recycle day-to-day was somewhat unsustainable.
As such, in between the meals they made together, the old jackal began teaching him the art of sewing, and while it was relatively slow going, between the two of them they nearly had a whole new outfit, in the form of a simple tunic and breaches. Both were a rich, vibrant lapis blue, stitched together with bright yellow thread; bold and expensive colors for mundane fabric, but the dungeon weighted the quality of the material it provided higher than the value or expense. And if Finn could use that as an excuse to copy two of the most prominent colors on the jackals that lived in the dungeon, then he was absolutely going to take advantage of that.
"You're doing very well Finn. Your stitches are a lot more even than yesterday."
"Yeah, but they're still kind of sloppy. I could do a lot better."
Nawra shrugged and ruffled his hair.
"Probably, but that's what the practice is for. If you managed this in less than a week, imagine how much better the next one will be."
The boy made a nondescript noise in response, but he looked pleased that the praise.
"There. And…hmm. That doesn't look right. Can you show me how you did that stitch around the cuff again?"
"Of course my boy. Watch close, just take the needle and pinch the fabric together like so, then you just go in and loop it around – like that. Now you try."
Finn did so, and while it held just fine, it was uneven, sloppy, even amateurish. But not unusable, and certainly not bad – with a little more practice, Nawra figured he would be a natural, especially given the high dexterity and perception his ranger class afforded him. All he needed was a little more time to train, and –
Her train of thought was interrupted as both of them received simultaneous pings from their system, their status screens flashing with notifications informing them of a sudden upgrade.
"Whoa! Look Nawra, it says I unlocked a perk! Let's see… 'Pack Supporter'?"
Finn tilted his head to the side, a little confused as he continued reading.
"By learning household management skills from a talented master, you gain a passive bonus of half your level to all uses of the cooking, tailoring, carpentry, and herbalism trade skills, and may upgrade those skills at twice the normal speed. You may select the 'Denmaster' specialization when your level meets or exceeds the minimum requirement for specialization. Damn, I unlocked a subclass! What's yours say, Nawra?"
Nawra examined her own screen,, a slow smile spreading across her face.
"I also received a perk. Here, take a look."
She angled the glowing screen his way and watched his eyes dance back and forth across the words, his excited expression only growing more so with each line.
"The 'Mentor' perk? But the only way to get that is training someone – did you get that because of me?"
"I do believe so. After all, you've almost leveled up from all the skill ranks you gained this week, right?"
Finn nodded, and then paused, eyes going wide as he realized that that was actually true – he was only a single skill rank away from another level up, having acquired eight out of the ten ranks needed in just this past week alone. He'd never grown that fast before in his life!
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"… That's so cool. I've never had a mentor before…"
"Oh? Well, what fantastic luck, I've never had a student before. And you've been a rather excellent student, my boy – I've no doubt I'll be spoiled for whoever comes next."
Finn didn't say anything to that, but the bright grin and slight flush of the ears really was response enough.
It was around then the doors to the dining hall swung open, Zahur striding in with a determined expression, heading straight for the pair.
"Excellent timing, maker. We have a lovely bit of news to share with you."
"Oh? How interesting, I was just coming here for almost that exact same purpose. Please, by all means, you first!"
Both Finn and Nawra turned their status screens towards him, giving the jackal the opportunity to read up on their newest acquisitions. Finn's in particular intrigued him, as it not only enhanced the boy's ability to both learn and perform certain skills, but also unlocked an entire new path of development – eventually.
Nawra's was both simpler and broader by comparison – it simply doubled the speed at which anyone acquired ranks in a skill when being taught by her directly, but Zahur could already see the synergy between the two perks. If Finn continued learning the trade skills Nawra had to offer under her supervision, he would actually quadruple the rate at which they were acquired. Which had the potential to send his level skyhigh, at least until those skills reached a point where diminishing returns make growth functionally useless.
"Fascinating. Impressive and excellent, both of you; I'm very proud of how much you've both grown."
Nawra looked pleased; Finn just looked embarrassed, scuffing a boot along the floor.
"S'not that impressive. It's just a perk and a couple of skill points…"
"And have you ever earned any of those things that quickly before?"
"… Well, no…"
"There you go. It's perfectly fine to be pleased with progress, Finn – I have no worries that you'll get a swelled head over some praise."
Finn looked just a bit dubious still, but at least no longer embarrassed, which the jackal was going to count as a win.
"Well again, like I said, excellent work both of you. And on the heels of that, I have something that I think you'll be interested in, especially you Nawra."
"Oh?"
Zahur flicked open his own status screen, showing the now unlocked minions, and navigated down to the [WORKING WILLOW].
"I've been going over some of the critters that the interface has made available, and this one appears to be some sort of helper or assistant. I think we might find them quite useful in the dungeon…"
* * * * *
Irfan and Nuha occupied themselves in a much different manner from the rest of the inhabitants. Unlike Nawra, they had no students to teach, and unlike their creator Zahur, they had no real need to familiarize themselves with local culture; their creation had infused them with a synergistic mixture of knowledge from his world and theirs, and while they didn't know everything about the world of course, they had sufficient background knowledge to not stand out against the crowd.
No, instead they busied themselves in these last few days with testing their skills. Today was a spar, and the empty building that was earmarked for the combat arena bore the brunt of their efforts.
It was almost like a dance, with the pair so deeply in sync; the sharp crack of wood as quarterstaves bounced off each other, each swing vicious and bone shattering; the air and brick blistered by arcane flame and mystical thunder. Jet black fur marred by golden spiderweb cracks, fine robes burned and ripped as the twins circled each other with pure predatory focus.
A swing, a parry. A sweep of the ankles, the thump of a body hitting the ground, the high-pitched whine of lightning as it arced through the air, to buy time to recover. Another swing, a staff flung against the brick walls, an iron-shod tip pressed threateningly to the hollow of a throat.
"That's three to two, brother. Do you yield?"
"Not quite."
Nuha stiffened as she felt something sharp dig into her neck from both sides, and a quick flick of her eyes revealed the glowing grey forms of a pair of arcane needles, poised for the kill just like her staff.
"Clever tactic. The lightning burst was a distraction then. A draw."
She moved her staff away from Irfan's throat, the needles disappearing as she reached down to help him get back on his feet. A soft ding sounded around them, the twins both looking quite pleased as they saw the notice of their new level up.
"Excellent. We're making good progress – if we continue at this pace we'll be at level 8 by the end of the month."
"Out of 100."
"Don't be so grim, Nuha. That'll still put us on par with most of the people in this world, and once the dungeon starts getting regular visitors, we'll have plenty of opportunity for growth."
An indistinct noise came from her direction, neither agreeing or challenging that assertion. With their spar seemingly at an end, the pair did their best to clean up what they could, bruised and cracked forms protesting the exertion until they were forced to concede, returning to the dining hall – which was rapidly becoming the unofficial meeting place for their little family – to rest and recover.
The short trip was passed in companionable silence, at least until they opened the door and stared, both of them exclaiming in unison.
"What the hell are those?"
* * * * *
I could at least rest easy in the knowledge that my children had inherited my good timing, if nothing else; Irfan and Nuha could not have planned their arrival in the better, entering the hall to see the conjured [WORKING WILLOWS]. I had summoned up four in total, intending to give Nawra and Finn each a pair, to assist them in their day-to-day tasks.
"Minions, my children, minions. These are minor assistants called Working Willows. They're here to help with the daily chores and whatnot."
Both of the twins gave me distinctly speculative looks, glancing at my creations with increased interest.
"Are you planning on conjuring such minions for all of us?"
"In time, Irfan, when you and your sister are more pressed in your roles as supervisors for your areas. Until then, I have a slightly different plan in mind – I've noticed you two have been spending some time sparring lately, so I intend to conjure up teams of defenders for you to train and practice with. Like so –"
I stretched out my arms, my hands raised skyward as I drew on my reserves of essence; unlike creating a building or a resident, generating the comparatively simple minions required only small slivers of energy. Without the intellectual complexity that came with true willfulness, it barely taxed my resources, so I conjured up for each twin a full squadron of minions – a [GLYPH HOUND], a pair of [MOSS ELEMENTALS], and three each of the [ROSE RATS] and [ORIGAMI WITCHES]. Even considering the minions I had already created, the essence expenditure didn't even quite reach half of what it took to create a single resident. At the very least our new home would never be short of defenders!
"Go on, try and give them a simple command."
Nuha barely even waited for the words to leave my mouth before she gestured to her group, waving them forward.
"Approach."
The group of minions looked up towards her – and stayed completely still. Arched eyebrows went up around the room, and I felt the rare sensation of embarrassment as heat blossomed beneath my fur.
"… Apparently I'm missing some step in the process; Interface, why aren't the minions responding to Nuha's order?"
"DUNGEON RESIDENTS MAY ONLY COMMAND MINIONS AND STRUCTURES THAT HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED TO THEM PER DUNGEON INTERACTION PROTOCOL."
"Hmm. Interesting. Would that restriction also have anything to do with why my sister and I were unable to directly arrange our buildings without maker Zahur's intervention?"
"AFFIRMATIVE."
The burning heat around my face intensified – I hadn't felt this embarrassed since I was a newly inducted druid, fumbling my way through my first attempts at basic spellcraft.
"… Interface, would you please assign each of the minion squadrons to Irfan and Nuha, and two of the Working Willows each to Nawra and Finn. And assign the Library and Assembly Hall to the twins as well, in the same order."
"AFFIRMATIVE. DUNGEON LOCATIONS ASSIGNED, COMBAT MINIONS ASSIGNED, WORKER MINIONS ASSIGNED – ERROR. DESIGNATION 'FINN' IS NOT A LINKED DUNGEON RESIDENT. EXPEND ESSENCE TO REGISTER EXCEPTION?"
"Of course."
As the words left my mouth I felt the slight pinch of essence drain, and my awareness of my created minions changed; I could still feel them connected to me, along with a general sense of their status, but my connection to them felt… obscured, for lack of a better word. Like trying to peer through frosted glass; simple impressions but no clear details.
Strangely enough – or not so strangely at all, upon second consideration – my connection to the library and assembly hall felt obscured in the same way, my ability to directly interface with those areas blocked.
As those thoughts run through my head, I realized I had overlooked something, and called out for the interface once more.
"Excellent work. And if you would also please assign control of the dining hall and dormitory to Nawra, and give young Finn...I'm not sure what the proper phrasing would be. Subordinate or secondary access, perhaps?"
"ASSIGNING ROOMS TO DESIGNATED RESIDENTS. WARNING, DESIGNATION 'FINN' IS NOT A LINKED DUNGEON RESIDENT. MULTIPLE REGISTERED EXCEPTIONS ON FILE. UPDATING GUIDELINES; DESIGNATION FINN WILL NOW AUTOMATICALLY INCUR ESSENCE EXPENDITURES WHEN ASSIGNED DUTIES THAT REQUIRE PROTOCOL EXCEPTIONS."
The boy in question looked startled at that announcement, his expression a mix of surprise, embarrassment – and longing.
"… Are you sure that's a good idea? You don't have infinite essence, you know…"
"I don't think I've ever been sure of anything more; when I said you could stay here that wasn't just a promise to let you hang around the grounds, it was a promise of a home, Finn. I know it's only been a little over a week, but I trust you, and it's good for a young lad to have something to be responsible for."
He didn't respond immediately, and the silence stretched for so long that I was nearly compelled to breach the quiet myself, when the boy let out a sudden sob and ran across the stone floor, nearly bowling me over as thin arms tried their best to crush me in a hug.
"… Thank you."
I settled a hand in his hair, patting gently as I returned the hug as best I could.
"You're very welcome, my boy."