After feeling satisfied with having made these creatures on my own. I watched them for a minute, scurrying around my room. Hmmm…something seems wrong. Why do my creatures seem to be slipping around all over the dungeon stone? As soon as this question arose in my mind, the answer came along with it. Land creatures seem to prefer flat ground?
Sigh. So many concessions. You guys are lucky that I am depending on you guys. I told them even as I changed the bottom of my room to a flat surface. When I was done, my room was a vertical cylinder of height five metres with a hemispherical top, with roots coming out of the top.
My information tells me that I need to make an entrance as soon as possible to conclude the initial setup of the Void passage. So, I just need to make an adjacent room that leads up to an entrance and I am set to go? Okay. To complete my first floor as soon as possible, I set off to make my adjacent room.
Picking a random direction, I opened up a hole which was ten metre tall and three metres wide and then started converting the soil in that direction into Mana. After making an Arched corridor of around twenty metres I decided to make my second and final room. Let me just make a big Cavern here till I reach open air, to allow my future monsters lots of space, I decided and got to work.
I worked at a crazy pace converting all the Soil I could find into Mana and filling up the cavern which expanded by the second with all the excess mana that was being generated. When my work got too monotonous or when the cavern seemed unable to contain anymore mana I also tried out making all the other creatures, except the trout which died after four minutes. After all, nobody would complain about some extra protection right? I also created all the plants and fungi I had access to. I also made the cavern flat and reinforced it with Dungeon Stone, because I am a smart Core and learn from my Mistakes.
After I felt that I would have to continue digging this Cavern room for the rest of my life, which, by the way, was thirty five hours according to my status, I saw light. By this point my second room was a huge arched Cavern with lots of roots sticking out from the ceiling once again. It was currently sixty metres high, one hundred thirty metres in width and with a length of approximately, four hundred fifty metres. There was also a twenty square metres big copse of Pine trees in the centre of the Cavern, along with fireweed, lichen, moss and bracket fungi growing in the copse. The numbers of creatures had also multiplied to zero trout, twenty Squirrels, tens of Ermines, Foxes and Owls each, thousands of Snow fleas, Mosquitoes and Ants each and eighty eight Hummingbirds all with various mutations primarily on their Beaks/teeth, Claws and Wings/legs.
Gulkonda World realm here I come… I shouted, about to open up my entrance to my magnificent first floor. Wait, These roots sticking out of the ceiling look ugly, can I do something about them?... mmm… Our dear baby Core, which was still under the delusion that bigger automatically makes everything better, still had not realised the fact that a huge empty caves with some trees sticking out in the middle, will look unremarkable with or without roots.
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I couldn't change the roots previously although I pumped mana into them. However, they also did not go Splat. Maybe I can influence them like I do during Mutation? I tried pumping mana into them and telling them to go up and away from my ceiling. The roots seemed to hear my suggestion and swayed but nothing else happened. I even seemed to feel slight resistance from them.
Should I tell them to go down, maybe they won't listen to me because they are roots and don't like going up. I tried again but told them to come down and embed into my dungeon floor. All the roots started growing like crazy and embedded themself all over the floor of my rooms and passage. By the time they stopped growing they looked like randomly placed tree trunks of differing width connecting my floor to my ceiling. Well I think it looks better… hopefully.
Sooo, Now I can open my…
Congratulations! Your influence has rewritten the fate of a group of Organisms. Do you wish to form a Contract with them? (Yes/No)
Huh?.. I changed the fate of somebody?Who? When did this happen? How? Why don’t I know that I changed their fate?. I looked over all my creatures carefully. Is it because I mutated them? Is that such an impressive feat? Maybe the system felt bad towards me and acknowledged my greatness. Yes, that could be it. I guess I can reluctantly forgive you. I told the system in charge of Divine Messages. A new text box popped up when I tried focusing on the text on the dialog box.
Dungeon Contract: An divine agreement between two or more parties on specific terms agreed upon by both parties.
Note: In this particular case the other party has agreed to give protection in times of danger in exchange for regular supply of the resources provided by the Dungeon. Specifically all forms of Aether.
What the hell!?! Why is the most important information given as a Side Note in the Definition Text box. Does that mean that if I had not checked the definition, I would not have even known it when I was sold? I knew this system was up to nothing good. I am sure it was purposefully trying to cheat me.
My inherent knowledge tells me, Contracts are predominantly good for us Cores as long as the Price asked is not something too great. It seems Contracts are great so long as it is not with Abyssal creatures. I even have a recommendation in my KR, telling me to not engage in any Contracts with Abyssal creatures before the age of fifty, and even then triple check the Contract and proofread the Fineprint. Uhuh.. Apparently they like to cheat smart innocent Cores like me the most. After getting this message, I looked at the dialog Box warily, is this system also controlled by Abyssal Creatures then? Hundreds of doubts rose up in my mind.
Who is this contract with? A baby core asked the System seriously. However there was no reply even after five minutes of waiting. God Damn it. Swearing in baby voice could be heard if you listened closely enough.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
After careful triple checking of the two-line contract, and making sure there was no fineprint. I more or less confirmed, it was no Abyssal Creature. And since I seemed to have an Overabundance of Mana I decided to form this contract.
Yes. I thought aloud to the Divine text. And felt a connection snapping into place between me and a group of Organisms above me. Hello?.....(Silence)
Congratulations! You have formed a Contract with a group of semi-sentient trees.
For forming your first Contract before Opening up to the World,
Awarded Title: Contractor- All sentient beings will show favourable impression to any Contract you initiate as long as the terms do not cause any direct harm to the other party
Opening up Gulkonda flora to the creation menu.
Error…
Gulkonda flora already available for Selection.
Opening up Gulkonda fungi to the creation menu.
Error…
Gulkonda fungi already available for Selection.
Opening up Plant Monster to the creation menu.
New Dungeon Monster Available: Plant Monster
TREES??? I made a contract with trees?? What kind of protection can they even give me? I wondered, I became more certain that the system was being controlled by demons. At least I got a title and a new race. I tried to console myself.
I checked out what monsters I had received. I got two plant monsters, one of them was called Blood sucking Vine, which was a thorny ambush Vine which lay in wait for its prey and constricted the prey that came in its range. The thorns on its body would wound its prey and suck blood through them when it constricted around it. And Purple sleepers, which were plant monsters with small light purple flowers and spiny green leaves. They were usually found in danger zones with high fatality rates. They released knockout pollen to make its prey unconscious, increasing the fatality rate in the area, and then used the carrion and blood as fertiliser to grow better.
Honestly they seemed like a good combination of plant monsters, so I planted some of them throughout the copse of pine trees. In the Center of my cavern. The greenish brown thorny vine looked unremarkable against the pine trees. Furthermore,the purple sleepers almost seemed to disappear among the fireweed.
After planting a few of them to see how they looked and making sure they really had intelligence, at least more than the ants. I came back to my non-existent Entrance a third time. With the firm resolution that nothing would hold me back from showing my magnificence to the world this time, I started opening up my entrance. When the hole to the outside was around three metres wide and tall as always a message popped up.
Congratulations! Your first floor…
Don’t disturb me Damn it. I shut down the message forcefully without reading and continued to expand my entrance. Since this stupid system has something against me making an entrance, I might as well make a huge as fuck entrance. There was also the fact that I could only see the things for about five metres in front of me, so I might as well make my entrance wider to see more of what the outside was like. So, I kept on enlarging the hole sidewards and upwards. Just when my Cavern entrance reached a height of twenty five metres and length of forty metres. Another message popped up this time in Red.
Warning! Enlarging the Entrance of the Dungeon any further leads to destabilisation of the Void passage.
Warning! Enlarging the Entrance of the Dungeon any further leads to destabilisation of the Void passage.
Seeing the warning, I finally stopped enlarging my Entrance any further and started layering the rim with Dungeon stone. At the same time I brought back the message I had previously dismissed.
Congratulations! Your first floor has been Completed. Reward: 75XP
Void realm integration to Gulkonda world realm through dungeon walls: Complete
Void realm passage is completely stabilised.
Void realm anchoring into Gulkonda world realm, initial phase: 100%, Completed.
STBC of Core (Unnamed/Void creature/ Void realm Anchor Point) : 10%
Void realm anchoring into Gulkonda world realm, Final phase: Initialising… 1%
Note: Your Walls are now integrated into the Void realm. Any Damage unable to pass through the void realm will be annulled. Any additional floor once complete will become part of the Void realm passage.
Although the addition in XP seemed nice, what really held my attention was the last Note. Does that mean that it is impossible for anybody to bore through my walls without Void powers. So, can they only hurt me through my entrance and targeting my Core?
I looked at my Entrance which was so huge that basically an army could march through and suddenly felt a little worried but only for a second. It’s fine. Who would target a pretty core like me with numbers, and it's easier to lure in World realm organisms with a bigger mouth. But most importantly the view is pretty.
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Creation Menu
Further organisms become available upon creating more floors/ Blueprints/ Mutation/ Evolution.
Gulkonda fauna/Animals (common)
Trout
Red Squirrel
Ermine
Owl
Snow flea
Mosquito
Fox
Hummingbird
Black Ant
Plant Monsters
Blood sucking Vine
Purple Sleepers
Gulkonda Flora (common)
Moss
Fireweed
Pine tree
Gulkonda Fungi (common)
Lichen
Bracket Fungi