With my Dungeon network done for the first time ever, it was time for expansion. More Dungeon Seeds!

But before that it was time to send out System orbs into the class trials. As far as I’m concerned, they’ve earned their classes. I just need to make a few last tweaks to System version 0.2.

And there we go.

I carefully move the orbs of System Essence over to the challenges and wait. Not long after, Ram finishes her current task and touches it. Nothing new is revealed as she’s integrated into the System for the second time, and soon after the same happens with Prshky.

But when Dittillap touches their System orb… a very interesting piece of info gets released.

I’ve modified the status Users get a bit. Now it’ll show not only one’s name, but also any information that’s relevant. Plus, people will only be accessing their status after they’ve already chosen a class, so there will also be that. Even so, for most people this won’t make much of a difference, maybe occasionally show an Ability if they somehow managed to get one without the System.

What I did not expect to show up was what I saw on Dittillapp’s status.

Dittillapp

Sipalian

Aspect: Fate

class: rogue

level 1

Guided destiny

Thievish presence

An Aspect. They had an Aspect. How did they have an Aspect? Also, Fate? And what’s with that Ability? I assume it’s a result of the Aspect, but what?

But the strangest thing was that after only a few minutes it changed. Now the Aspect only read as unknown.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

This is… interesting.

It would explain their behaviour last time around. How they were never surprised and always knew what to do.

I’ll definitely have to keep an eye out for that. Speaking of, I should probably tell Faellen. It’s the one who will be training them, after all.

For me, however, it was time to focus back on my mini Dungeons.

With the Dungeon network finished, or at least in its early stages, I could now do the main thing I started it for. Exchanging monsters and materials between Dungeon Seeds. It’ll still be a while before I can get either of them to my main Dungeon, but at least on Lapis they could be exchanged.

This will also allow any new Dungeon Seeds to gain powerful defences much earlier on than they should. While I’m already thinking about them, I Create and send another three Dungeon Seeds at the planet.

Now, together with the three earlier one, they make a sort of hexagonal shape. And everyone knows hexagons are the bestagons.

I also immediately have them start working on connecting to the Dungeon network. From both sides, since the established Dungeons already have some good tunneller monsters and will make the whole thing much faster.

In the meantime, I begin working on a special little side project. A bit of preparation for after I’ve dealt with Zemis. Which means working on my own Dungeon for once. Or one specific chamber, to be exact.

Still, it’s less Dungeon design and more enchanting work.

----------------------------------------

While the big boss Dungeon moon up in the sky may have been busy, so were the Sipalians. Just like in the last time loop, a hunt for the Light’s meteors began. Except this time, there wasn’t just the one in the middle of the ocean.

The three outer Dungeons landed on shores, easily accessible by any half-brave explorer. Not to mention the three other new Dungeons, which were even somewhat inland.

Yes, some intrepid explorers still chose to board a boat. But it would be a while before any of them reached their destination. That’s if any do so at all, with the fast evolving beasts in the waters. Soon there’d even be some monsters.

But enough about them. Those that chose to pursue the shoreline Dungeons are much more interesting. Mainly because a few of them actually succeeded.

A small group of about a dozen Sipalians managed to track down one of the landing spots. But where they expected to find a crater, with maybe an alien structure inside, something much weirder stood.

Of course, the way the crater. Hard to avoid that when sending something from space without any brakes.

But inside that crater they found just a simple hole. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

The leader of the expedition, one Amy Stake, ordered everyone else to set up camp while she went to check out the hole in the crater.

Strangely enough, she couldn’t see much more than a few metres inside, a deep and unnatural darkness obscuring her sight. With a foreboding feeling, she returned to camp. They’d rest for the night, then see about exploring further the following day.

Similar scenes played out around a few more Dungeon entrances. In the end, only three of the expeditions managed to find the Dungeons.

The first, lead by Amy Stake.

The second, lead by Doug Raves.

And the third, lead by Sum Ting Wong.

Despite this achievement, despite having achieved their goals after months of searching, they wouldn’t go down in history as members of the great discoverers. For even a baby Dungeon is full of magic, and the average person is not acclimated to mana in large quantities.