It took me some time to think over the small text window, breathing deeply and forcing myself to ignore the pointlessness of that action, mulling over what exactly I was and what I needed to do. As it stood there wasn’t really much that I could do other than accept my current situation and move on, or sit pointlessly catatonic until whatever sustained the core guttered out.

There really was only one option as I hadn't fought so hard to let go of life so easily. So I set my jaw, ‘grabbed’ the window and pulled it in close enough to look over. Then thought harder as nothing new was happening. It still reads Dungeon level one, unknown classification, zero forces, zero resources. I thought about it for a second then wondered if my guide had set me up with a body that was empty for a reason. Then another thought came to me, that this is probably some magical world and magic usually operated off of intent or incantations. At least in some books.

With that thought in mind I turned away from the window, raised up my ‘arm’ and spoke ‘forces’ in my mind, thinking hard about various monsters such as dragons, demons, wolves and slimes. Nothing happened. I tried a few other things such as army, monsters, system, a few monster names then a less than friendly comment about the system's fellatio capabilities. With a frown I turned back to my previous window and almost choked on my own building anger as a new line of text had appeared while I was shouting magic words at a wall.

Forces available for direct spawning:

Slimes:4

I almost reached out to ‘click’ on the window then thought better of it. Most monster systems had some sort of cost associated with them, mana, resources, or some form of sustenance outside of my control. If I just dropped four slimes in my room I might end up with four dead slimes, or starving myself for mana or whatever I was running on. I looked at the text then tried something different, pointing at it and saying ‘identify’. I watched as, slowly, the window did nothing to change, sending another surge of anger into my core. I huffed and took a minute to breathe and let the anger out. Slow progress was still progress.

While calming down I pointed at various things and tried another number of commands that accomplished nothing, other than striking them from my mental list, until I hit on some luck. Staring at the screen, I thought ‘man I wish I had some more information’ and a new screen appeared popping off to the right of my original one.

Direct spawning:

An action taken by the dungeon to facilitate rapid force spawning or relocation.

Well, that was decidedly little information but the action finally gained me a new word of power, two in one day. I quit my silly reflections and focused, forcing my intent on the word ‘Slimes’ and said the magic word.

Slimes:

An industrious low level creature used by dungeons for a variety of tasks, including but not limited to, fighting, resource collection, and cleaning.

My hands shot up, fists clenched, as I celebrated my little victory over this dungeon system. I quickly turned to start getting more info, first pointing at the rocks surrounding me.

Stone:

A hard substance usually found below dirt.

I stared at the wildly unhelpful window for a short time. It had told me just about everything I knew about rocks, save for the color. I tried again pointing at the rock below me and got the same response, then again for the rock above me. More than a little disappointed, I turned and gestured at my orb and must have pointed at the stone pedestal as something new popped up not regarding my orb.

More information cannot be given about unanalyzed materials.

That brought me back around, i’d need to get ahold of the stone somehow and have it analyzed before I could understand what it was. It made perfect sense that I wouldn't know anything more than the basics. Which led me to wondering just how I was supposed to analyze the stone. I wasn’t a redshirt and I sure as hell didn’t bring a tricorder with me on my adventure through the afterlife. Then I thought about my slimes. While the information about them was a bit more expansive it might have been because they were technically in an inventory of sorts and i’d scan them with my core? Or, probably, my body had the information as a part of it and the system recognizes that inherent available information. Or the guide was giving me a freebie, whatever the case. While it didn’t explicitly say they could analyze things, its description makes it sound like a support creature.

So, with a little worry about dropping into the negative on mana or whatever, I pointed to a part of my little room and spoke ‘Spawn one slime.’ It took a moment before a small green dot appeared then rapidly expanded into a gelatinous orb about the same size as my own, basketball if I had my measurement right. Then it plonked down on the floor. I waited, watching the little green mess go from somewhat pancake shaped into a half orb half puddle look, and nothing happened. No loss of mana incurred, no drop from 0 resources into the negative, it just sat there jiggling slightly.

Well, with nothing happening I marked mana depletion from my worries, then i pointed at the Slime. ‘Commands.’ I spoke in a commanding tone, the slime going somewhat more rigid as if coming to attention. No window popped up so I tested out a small assumption. ‘Analyze the rock over there.’ The slime jiggled somewhat then started to move that direction, which i’d call south for now.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

It was with no small amount of excitement that I watched my slime moving along, excitement which quickly petered out as I realized that slimes moved at a glacial pace. Such was its pace that I wondered if the system had been joking when it said it used slimes for fighting. I ‘moved’ over to it and knelt, making up busy work as I wondered what exactly the speed was, guessing eventually that it moved a foot every thirty or so seconds.

So, with bated breath, I watched my little hero steam along until it was pressing up against the stone, then I perked up as it only marginally slowed as it sank into the stone, burning out a neat hole in the stone before slowly backing out and standing still once more. I had expected it to keep going but apparently that was as far as it needed to go, little pebbles quickly dissolving inside the green blob. I then turned my attention to the wall and tried my luck again.

Basalt:

A common form of volcanic rock.

Alright, that was more information than I knew an hour ago. Still a damned small amount of information but it works well enough anyways. It does mean i might be in or near some ancient volcano which was an exciting enough prospect, that could be cool later down the line, it definitely wasn’t a thought process brought on by coping over the mixed bag of information available to me.

I then turned and checked screen one, which had vanished with my force spawning screen and others i’d brought up. I was a bit annoyed that they might be on a timer, or connected to my attention but I guessed it was better to not have a bunch of them cluttering up my room. ‘Dungeon info.’ I spoke, trying out a simple command.

Unknown Dungeon Level:1

Classification: unknown.

Forces: 1.

Resources: 1

I could feel a grin, or I couldn't. I'd eventually give up on my old body but now wasn’t the time. I had made forces and resources, though using the plural form of those words wasn’t true. It seemed, for now, that one resource was one slime sized chunk of whatever I got a hold of and stashed away, and I realized my slime must automatically put the stuff it eats away. I then got curious, as i’d probably want stuff in a slightly smaller amount down the road. I pointed at resources and tried my luck.

Resources available for use:

1.0 units of stone.

0 units of biomatter:

0 units of metallics.

0 units of gasses.

This list went on, describing in simple terms that I was pretty much dungeon bankrupt. A bit concerning but nothing was negative and i might be able to make more things though i was pretty sure i could make more now if i figured them out. I tracked back to my forces screen, seeing I now had three slimes available for spawning, and pointed at the word spawning.

Spawning:

An ability of the dungeon allowing it to spawn in various forces, traps and nodes along with rewards and other specialized materials and objects, depending on the dungeon's classification.

Alright, i could probably spawn more things, i just needed to up my level, or maybe it was behind some wall i wasn’t aware of. I reached out and spoke ‘nodes’.

Nodes available for spawning:

Glow moss: 2 per cycle.

Then a quick check on info.

Glow moss:

A cave moss found mostly in dungeons, effective for use in healing and lighting. Produces oxygen over time.

Alright, it was just a regular old herbalism node. I’d have hordes of herbalists running through my dungeon in no time. My attempt to get excited over, potentially, glowing moss wasn’t too successful. Still I pointed up at the ceiling, to better spread any given light, and tried spawning the moss. A green dot appeared and, like my slime, it slowly expanded as a green mass though it took a more solid shape. Soon a circular patch, about a foot across in either direction, of glowing moss was securely fixed to my ceiling. It had a rather similar look to moss from home, so far as I could tell, though any glowing was hidden by the general brightness of my orb.

I then checked my resource page again and cycled through to gasses, wondering if the moss production would slip right into my storage or if i’d have to worry about air turning my room into a makeshift explosive. It took a couple minutes but the counter ticked up by one. With that slight worry out of the way I checked my node screen and saw a timer had started up next to my moss counter, signaling thirty minutes. I took that to mean it’d be thirty minutes before i had a spare to throw down so i turned my attention to my lone slime.

I needed levels and my little jello guy might provide some way to get them. I wasn’t thinking about harming it, I didn't think killing my own creatures would do anything good for me, but I might be able to gain levels by growing. So, with that hope I spawned in the next slime, then tried two to see if there was any difference in multi spawning. I didn’t notice anything but they were small and there were only two of them. I grinned as I looked at my assembled slimes, sitting around idly.

‘Gentlemen’ I took the commanding tone in my mind, taking the chance to alleviate my boredom. The slimes responded wonderfully by jiggling into an almost rigid attention. ‘As the great warrior Leonardo once said, we need to go deeper.’ I gestured at the hole, having spawned my new slimes closer in a fit of almost intelligence on my part. ‘You.’ My gesture changed to my original slime, standing nearest to the hole. ‘You shall be named Bob, it will be your duty to keep these jiggly weirdos in line.’ The slime in question, Bob, almost seemed to go even more rigid. ‘This hole shall be as tall as the room we are in now and be as wide as.’ I paused to consider that my slimes may lack any good means to measure. So I used them as the tool. ‘It shall be wide enough to fit all four of you in it just touching either wall and yourself. It shall also go downwards at a degree that you can manage to ascend and descend safely.’ I didn’t know if they could go vertical or not so I resolved to watch them for this portion as i’d probably want the angle to be fairly gradual. ‘And you shall go until the light of my orb is no longer visible to you, Bob shall notify me when the project is complete.’ And with a mock salute I sent them on their way, merrily dissolving my wall and making me worry slightly for the stability of my room.