“First, let’s get you familiar with the mechanics of what you are using. But first, let's go over the time mechanics. One hour in real-world time is worth 24 hours in gain time. So we have three hours left in real-world time, and 72 hours game-time.” Nyx pulled up an almost translucent screen and turned it towards Amara. It took Amara a couple of seconds to realize what it was. A status page.

Anaphiel

Dungeon Core

Dungeon Type N/A

Rank 1 Tier 1

0 xp

100,000 xp to next Tier

Her status page was basic, but it told her how hard she had to work for each Tier and Rank. And it seemed that she needed a lot of xp to move up a Tier. If Amara’s memory serves her correctly, most games only have small xp requirements at the starter levels; they get higher and higher at each level. But that created a question, how in the world is a dungeon core supposed to gain experience?

“Anaphiel, you are currently a Tier 1 dungeon. You have 0 experience and have not chosen your dungeon and mob type.” Nyx flew towards Amara, floating in between the screen and her orb.

“Do you have any questions so far?”

“How do I earn experience? 100,000 experience to reach the next Tier seems a bit much.”

Nyx turned and pointed to her Tier level. “Good question. Unlike adventurers, dungeons are ranked through Tiers. Tier 1 is the bottom Tier of a Rank. It essentially would go through levels 1 to 9. Once you surpass Tier 9, your Rank will increase by one, and your Tier will go back to 1. Your Rank and Tier correlates to your strength. 100,000 experience will increase by a Tier. 900,000 experience, and your Rank will increase by one. As you increase your levels, perks and benefits will increase. I will go over this with you more when you have finished setting up your dungeon and begin gaining experience.”

Amara nodded her orb, signalling Nyx to continue. It made sense that she wanted to continue this explanation later, as they were on a time limit. The more detailed information should be left for later. For now, they have to prepare for her dungeon to become life for adventurers and players.

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“You can gain experience from killing adventurers and the rare achievements that you might receive. The experience gained from killing adventurers would be worth a single level of the adventurer when they die. The result would be that the adventurers will lose a single level if they die within a dungeon.”

What Nyx said explained the problem of experience gainage. It also meant that if an adventurer was at level 5 and died in her dungeon, Amara gained the experience that the adventurer would have needed to reach level 5. If it took 500 xp to reach level 5, she would receive that 500 xp when the player died.

But, also, the way that she gained experience told her what type of game this was. Amara had played games where death could steal everything that you had worked for on that character. More than once, she had killed other players in such games. The high risk - high rewards type of system appealed greatly to her and most gamers that she knew.

“Okay, I get it now.” The way that this game operates will make sure that players will take more risks, lead to more deaths, resulting in more experience for her. But it might also make it more difficult, as Amara would have to keep the adventurers interested and provide a reason for adventurers to risk their experience.

“So, with that done, let’s move on to your dungeon type.” Nyx was already waving her hand, and a roulette table appeared. This greatly surprised Amara, as all the stories that she had read had either the opportunity to select mobs from a list, take control of the first creatures that entered the dungeon, or whatever the environment was outside the dungeon. But the roulette table seemed quite … novel. It was something that she had never seen before. The developers must have a tacky sense of humour.

“Umm Nyx, what’s with the roulette table?”

Nyx motioned to the game and smiled sweetly at her. “The game has generated different dungeon-type options for you to choose from. You have three times to roll the marble. Out of the three types that it lands on, you will choose one dungeon type.”

“And if I don’t like any of the options?” Amara had played enough games to know the answer. She just hoped that the developers of CMS had that option.

“If you don’t like the options, you are able to use V Coin to play another three times.” Well, any game nowadays would have microtransactions. But, if there are no good options that pop up, it’s nice that there is a choice to re-play the game. But it did bring up questions on how she will earn currency in this game.

“How will I gain currency? Wasn’t CMS supposed to have a currency that could translate into V Coin?”

“Actually, dungeons may gain currency through coins dropped from dead adventurers, as well as through achievements. As we do not have a lot of time, let’s continue these questions later, hmm?” Nyx’s eyes twinkled mischievously at her as she said this.

“Alright, so are we going to play roulette and see why options I will get to choose from?” Nyx nodded as she snapped her fingers, and three marbles appeared.

Nyx placed the three marbles one after the other on the ball rack of the game. Amara was anxiously waiting and watched the marbles land on her options. After the last marble landed on a pocket, Nyx pulled her options up.

Ice

Nature

Darkness

Amara studied the options and tried to figure out which ones she wanted, as all of them seem like good options. Ice would limit the environment and potentially the mobs, while darkness could be weak against certain players and blessings. What Amara was pulled to was the nature theme. What she could imagine, she would have the most variety in designing floors and mobs.

“Which one do you want to choose, Anaphiel, or will you play again for a V Coin?”

“Let’s go with Nature.”