NOT NECESSARILY. DUNGEONS EXIST TO MANAGE THE FLOW OF MANA IN AN AREA AND CONSTRAIN MONSTERS. IN AN AREA WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF MANA BUT NO DUNGEON, THE AREA WILL BE OVERRUN WITH THEM ON A FAIRLY REGULAR BASIS AND POWERFUL ONES AT THAT. IF THAT SAME AREA HAS A DUNGEON, THE MONSTERS WITHIN IT WOULD BE MUCH MORE POWERFUL THAN WHAT THE AREA WOULD HAVE HAD BUT THEY WOULD BE CONFINED WITHIN THE DUNGEON. OUTSIDE OF IT, THE MONSTERS WOULD BE MUCH WEAKER AND WOULD SPAWN AT A STEADY RATE RATHER THAN IN SURGES.
MOST OF THE TIME, AT LEAST.
THAT ASIDE, DUNGEONS CAN BE EITHER BENIGN AND SAFE IN NATURE OR MALICIOUS AND DANGEROUS.
THAT DOESN’T CHANGE THEIR PURPOSE.
HOPEFULLY IT WILL REMAIN PEACEFUL LIKE IT IS NOW.
“Is there any away to keep it like this?” I ask.
CAREFUL TENDING WHILE A CORE IS DEVELOPING DOES INFLUENCE THE OUTCOME. IF A BENIGN BEING CARES FOR AND PROTECTS THE DUNGEON CORE WHILE IT IS FORMING AND MATURING THEN IT WILL IMPRINT UPON THEM. WHEN THAT HAPPENS, IT WILL TAKE ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ITS PROTECTOR AND RETAIN THEM THROUGHOUT ITS ENTIRE EXISTENCE. IF THEY ARE PEACEFUL AND BENIGN, THEN SO TOO WILL BE THE DUNGEON. IF NOT…. WELL, YOU GET THE IDEA.
HOWEVER, A BENIGN DUNGEON CAN BECOME MILDLY DANGEROUS IF ABUSED BUT THE REVERSE CAN NOT BE SAID OF MALICIOUS ONES.
“So good ones will stay mainly good while bad ones can only get worse, I take it.” I said, putting two and two together.
CORRECT.
“I’m not really looking forward to full filling that role, if that’s what you’re going to tell me to do next.” I told the System, having a vague thought of where this was going.
DO NOT WORRY, SAMUEL. ALTHOUGH THE THOUGHT IS APPRECIATED, I WILL NOT ASK YOU TO STAY IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO.
WITH THAT SAID, THE CARETAKER OF THE DEVELOPING DUNGEON DOES NOT NEED TO BE A PERSON. A WELL CARED FOR CREATURE ADEQUATE IN NATURE AND TEMPERAMENT MAY ALSO TAKE ON THAT ROLE ALTHOUGH IT MAY BE MUCH MORE DIFFICULT SINCE ‘TRAINING’ MUST BEGIN AT INFANCY OR CLOSE TO IT. FORTUNATELY, YOU HAVE SUCH A CREATURE IN YOUR HANDS. IT WILL BE GOOD FORM GUIDANCE FOR THE DUNGEON ONCE IT HAS EVOLVED INTO A MONSTER.
ALSO, IT HAS ALREADY LEARNED TWO ‘LESSONS’
1. RATS ARE DANGEROUS
2. HUMANS PROVIDE SAFETY
EVEN IF YOU DO NOT CARE FOR IT ANYMORE FROM NOW ON, THOSE TWO ‘LESSONS’ WILL REMAIN WITH IT FOR THE REST OF ITS LIFE AND WILL BUILD UPON THEM.
“So, I don’t have to be here for it?” I queried further.
YOU DO NOT BUT IT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR YOU TO REMAIN UNTIL IT EVOLVES. ON THAT NOTE, YOU CAN HELP IT FURTHER BY PLACING IT IN THE LIQUID MANA TO HELP IT HEAL.
BEWARE THOUGH. DO NOT GET IT ON YOU AS IT WILL POISON YOU WITH MANA OVERLOAD. IT DOES NOT HAVE A PLEASANT OUTCOME.
“Noted.” I said with a nervous swallow before heading over to the pool.
Like the system had warned me, I was very careful as I dropped it into the shallowest part at the rim of the pool. I was close enough to the surface of the liquid, so it didn’t splash but the little spider apparently wanted to be deeper. It used its remaining legs to crawl further into the pool until I lost sight of it.
“Is it really going to be all right?” I asked the system while I crouched carefully at the edge of the pool and watched its unnaturally still surface with worried eyes.
DO NOT WORRY SAMUEL. IT IS A BEING OF PURE MANA. MORE PURE MANA WILL ONLY HELP IT TO HEAL AND GROW. IT IS GETTING BETTER.
“Alright. I’m trusting you on this since you know this better than I do.” I told it as I got up and turned away from the pool. I looked around for a moment before heading deeper into the cavernous room.
“I don’t suppose this is where I can find the control thingy for the place? It’s where they’re holding all of the mana they’ve sucked up after all.” I asked while I walked.
YOU MAY BE CORRECT. I CAN SENSE SOMETHING IN THE CENTER OF THE AREA. PERHAPS THAT IS WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR.
“You don’t sound too certain about that.” I pointed out.
YOU ARE CORRECT. THIS AREA, IN SPITE OF THE LEAK, IS DIFFICULT FOR ME TO ‘SEE’. THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM FORE ME IN PLACES THAT EITHER HAVE VERY LOW CONCENTRATIONS OF MANA OR VERY HIGH ONES. THIS AREA HAS BOTH.
“Ah.”
With that thought in mind, I continued walking. I wasn’t really sure about where I was going, as the place was beyond huge, but the System managed to keep me from getting lost. I eventually got to more or less the center after an hour or so of walking and having to make a quick stop for some personal business. I hope who ever made this place was rolling in their grave as I pissed on their pet, world-ending project when I did too.
Impromptu potty breaks aside, I had a fairly good hunch we had come to the right place as there was something like an arcane console in the middle of the clear space we had come upon. It was made of stone and set into the base of a large stone pillar that had pulsing, glowing lines leading to it. There were several orbs that looked like fist size pearls of varying colors set into the surface of the console along with a large glass one the size of a large bowling ball taking up the middle of it. Different swirls of glowing color slid across the surface of it, and I watched it for a couple of seconds before opening my mouth.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I take it, this it is what we’re looking for?” I asked.
I BELIEVE SO. INTERESTING. IT LOOKS LIKE THEY CREATED AN ARTIFICIAL DUNGEON CORE TO RUN THIS PLACE.
“And the others, are they anything we should be worrying about?”
I DO NOT BELIEVE SO. THEY ARE ALSO DUNGEON CORES BUT THEY ARE… OR RATHER THEY WERE FROM NATURALLY OCCURRING DUNGEONS. IF YOU TAKE THE CORE OUT OF A DUNGEON OR DESTROY IT, THAT DUNGEON WILL ‘DIE’. THE SAME IS TRUE FOR THE CORE. IF YOU REMOVE IT FROM THE DUNGEON, IT WILL DIE AS WELL, MUCH LIKE TAKING THE HEAD OFF A SNAKE. BOTH WILL ‘LIVE ON’ FOR A LITTLE WHILE BUT BOTH WILL ULTIMATELY DIE. FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, THESE CORES ARE DEAD AND CAN NO LONGER BE USED AS WHAT THEY WERE ORIGINALLY MADE FOR.
AS FOR THEIR CURRENT USE HERE THEY LOOK LIKE THEY ARE BEING USED AS AIDS OR APLIFIERS FOR THE MAIN, ARTIFICIAL ONE IN THE CENTER.
“Huh. Do you know how big their dungeons were?”
I DO. JUDGING BY THEIR SIZE AND COLORS, IT WOULD BE SAFE TO ASSUME THAT THEY WERE FAIRLY SMALL AND SIMPLE WITH ONLY A FEW ROOMS AND MONSTERS.
“So, no real loss here. Technically. Do you want me to eat this now that we’ve found it or….?” I let that question hang in the air as I waited for answer. The system seemed to be deep in thought, so I waited patiently for it to give me my next course of action. I did not need to wait for very long.
HMMM…. THIS IS MORE COMPLEX THAN I THOUGHT…. AND NO, I WON’T HAVE YOU EAT IT NOW. I DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE ENOUGH POWER OR CONTROL OVER YOUR FATE SKILL TO SAFELY CONSUME IT. NOT TO MEAN YOU MAY BECOME STUCK IN WHATEVER CONTAINMENT AREA THIS PLACE HAS IF YOU SET OFF ANY POSSIBLE SECURITY MEASURES THERE MAY BE PROTECTING IT IF YOU DO. WE SHOULD MAKE CERTAIN WE CAN ESCAPE THE CONTAINMENT AREA IN CASE THAT HAPPENS. MOST LIKELY BY DISRUPTING WHATEVER THEY ARE USING FOR IT
“Any idea of what that might be? or where?” I asked as I headed back to the entrance to the cavern.
WAIT. TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE LINES ON THE FLOOR. ONE OF THEM MIGHT LEAD TO THE CONTAINMENT AREA.
“Good point.” I commented and went back.
Sure enough, there was one where the pulses of light lead away from the central stone pillar. Unfortunately, it had a fairly convoluted path through the room, and I lost it several times under the mats of fungi and other primitive plant life. That’s where the basic knife the System had given me came in handy. It wasn’t very big but it did the job of cutting the mats so I could peal parts of them back and continue to follow the line.
It was hard work even with the knife though and I was so absorbed with it that I didn’t notice that the big bad brother of the Mana Spider had joined me. When I finally did, I near had a heart attack. I had gotten so used to the Mana Spiders wandering around me that it hadn’t registered that an even bigger version of them had come over to watch me work. The System told me it was a non-aggressive monster call a cave spider, but I wasn’t really listening.
It was the size of a large dog with its central pair of eyes being much more pronounced than the other two. It was to the point of them being large enough that I could have put a fist through one of them had I been so inclined. Fortunately, I wasn’t as I didn’t want to tangle with its equally over-sized fangs and its unintentional scare was quickly forgiven as I recognized its little white rider.
Well, not quite as little as before since the little white spider had doubled in size since I had last seen it. It was also fully healed and happy to see me which was a relief. I quickly scooped her up off her ride and petted her a few times before letting her crawl on me while I went back to work. She eventually decided to perch on my shoulder to watch what I was doing. Meanwhile, the cave spider lost interest and wandered off, leave me to work in peace without it staring at me.
Time passed and I started to get tired. I thought it was odd since I had been taking rests to restore my stamina and had managed to raise my endurance a little even. The system informed me that I had been up for several hours and prolonging my lack of sleep will only make things worse for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough in the ‘tank’ so to speak to get a proper sleep, so I had to go hunting.
I stuck my knife into the mat I was currently working on to mark where I left off before placing the little spider on a nearby pillar so it wouldn’t get hurt by accident and went off. I didn’t have much success on my own and only managed to capture three of the little ankle maulers before exhausting myself. They weren’t nearly enough for me though, and I started to notice that I was beginning to get diminishing returns from them. That did not bode well for me, and I suspected it was from a lack of proper food.
It didn’t change the fact that I didn’t have enough time stored up to sleep though, and I wasn’t really interested in trying to eat anything else. The spiders would have been more effective in feeding me, but I would have felt guilty about eating the peaceful creatures. Anything else I would have been able to catch wouldn’t have been worth the effort and the System warned me off eating the plant life when it caught me contemplating it. It stated it was a too concentrated a source of mana for the current me to handle and that I would instantly get poisoned if I had tried. I know it was trying to keep me alive but starving to death wasn’t my cup of tea either. Still, I could feel the worry in its warnings and decided against trying to ignore them.