Dungeon of the Deep - Chapter 3 - Book One
When she returned to her consciousness, she immediately felt the change of herself and how she perceives the surroundings. There were no eyes for her to open, but she could still 'see' the world where it was actually more beautiful than when she was human - with what she assumes to be a type of mana sense, many more colours were now perceivable to her. What was immediately brought to her attention was a very similar situation as the last time, where text floated in from of her in some kind of window.
Realising so, she slowly read through each 'window' in order to absorb each and every detail.
> Welcome to the start of your second life.
>
> You have picked: Dungeon Core (Experimental), interesting choice!
>
> You will find yourself to have an upgraded version of the system, but more tailored to your needs as a budding adventurer-devourer.
>
> Please make sure you read through your status thoroughly, which will be opened automatically and for future use, an intent of 'status' will pull the information up.
> Dungeon Status
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> Name: ??? (Y0/M0/D0)
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> MP: 100/100 (MP/Day: 10)
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> CP: 10 (CP/Day: 0)
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> Floors: 0 (Available: 1)
Her status was simple enough, but seeing the lack of information on her name made her heart pang in pain - although considering her current form, a floaty mana thing, her having a heart is questionable at best. She still felt the pain, and she somehow knew it would never go away but instead, she would become numb to it.
Moving on from her little choke of emotions, she figured that her status was normal but she didn't have a proper baseline to judge her mana points (MP) from. One thing that caught her interest was CP, as from the shards of her fragmented memories, that was never a variable that she had to consider. Perhaps sensing her thought, another window with the necessary information appeared, and then a few extra windows with a buttload more.
> As a dungeon core with sapience, you have been granted one law to use within your boundaries which was chosen by *̸̧̨̲̱͉͗̓/̸̡̜̳̙͖̐̃̋͒̚'̷̖̣̭̒͊̉|̴̺̎\̶̧͇͙̥̫͆"̷͍̦͙͓̈́"̶̜̘͍̆̐̈́̈́.̸̡͇̝̐͐.̶̟̩̮̬̅͂.̴͖̒͑͋͘ͅ .
>
> Through a scan of your soul to measure suitability, Law of Creation has been granted.
> Dungeons & Laws: One of the major differences between a dungeon without sapience and one with, is that the latter has access to a law. Laws often specialise a dungeon and make them stronger in one path, for example a Law of Trapping would make a dungeon heavily trap focused where each trap would be more powerful than other dungeon's traps.
> Law Points: Every Law has a relevant point system which acts as a reward for the dungeon from following the specific law, and can then be further used to strengthen that path even further.
> Law of Creation and Creation Points (CP): One of the most diverse laws as it does not specialise the dungeon towards a specific path, and if done correctly, can be potentially one of the strongest laws to utilise. Points are rewarded for being creative with each build and the ecosystem of the creations, where the CP can then be used to enhance things or used to build special rooms, for example.
From what she could tell, this Law certainly was tailor-made for her. Even though her memories were broken, a nagging feeling in her said she used to be some sort of creator and had a passion for it. When combined with her new instincts of being a dungeon, suddenly her metaphorical fingers began to itch in excitement.
She didn't quite know where to start, however. Looking at the last thing on her status, she assumed that there would be some useful information for her of how she should go about building her first floor. Indeed it did.
> Baby Steps with the First Floor: A first floor is the entrance to budding adventurers and hungering beasts, and as such, the difficulty should be scaled appropriately. Many dungeons don't put too much effort into their first floor, as the later floors bring more powerful upgrades - it should be noted that a bad first floor will leave a distasteful impression.
> Floors, Rooms and Passages
>
> Monsters, Beasts and Traps
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> Core and Walls
The description wasn't very explanatory and basically outlined what she already knew, yet it did let her know one thing - the dungeon's first floor, is an entrance and the first impression on beings who enter! Therefore it should be made like an entrance so it will leave a lasting impression on those who explore her. She giggled at the last part, but it was true - her core could be considered her body and the dungeon surrounding it is her clothes. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't really looked at anything yet.
It was the room she died in. She never really cared about that though, but she did care about how lacklustre her dungeon looked. Her core was where the gem was before, so as to say that it wasn't a good spot at all.
'First things first, let's create a frame of the first floor - it doesn't have to be fancy, for now, but just enough to get the job done.' Her core hummed, which elicited surprise from her as she thought her intent was the only way to communicate. Although she suspects that nothing else would be able to hear it anyways.
> Floors, Rooms and Passages:
>
> If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
>
> Room (10m x 12m x 2m): 48 mana
>
> Passage (1m x 30m x 2m): 12 mana
The prices seemed reasonable enough to her, and judging from how it was measured, 5m³ is the equivalent of a singular unit of mana.
Deep within her core, she felt that a dungeon must have a grand entrance that would entice adventurers far and wide, and not some inconspicuous hole in the wall. For her, she wants the first floor to be a façade, to lure adventurers into a sense of peace and make them drop their guard. For that, she needs a suitable starting point and the plain room she died in just wouldn't do.
An instinctual urge brought her to slightly expand the room so that a stone shape of a semi-circle on top of a rectangle was made, which was then hollowed out leaving a border. This would be her entrance to her domain, or at least the start of it - she didn't have the mana to start going all fancy straight away. She did have an idea budding in her mind for the entrance, but her mana did start to seem like it was going to be a lasting problem.
> Mana Points: 99/100
It didn't seem like a lot lost, but just to make something like this she had already expended one-tenth of a day's worth of mana - which wasn't ideal. But she had to make do with what resources she currently had, making her skimp out on the fine details on things.
The shape of the door extended for 3 metres, costing her another 1.1 mana, leaving her with 97.9 units in total. At the end of the door, she demolished a wide-open space for her first room which drained 18 mana (90 cubic metres, 9 metres width, 5 metres length, 2 metres height). An idea sprung to her thoughts as an open space was cleared for her, but mana was still her main concern as she couldn't work off only one room - but then she remembered the protection period, she just hoped that nothing serious attacked before it ended.
Eventually, the bare-bones of a room was made, with one side split off by stairs on both the left and right wall, it could arguably be two rooms. The view into the upper floor was cut off by a wall, and on either side of the stairs were more stairs that instead headed down, both ending with a similar door to the first one she made. In the direct middle of the room, attached to the northern wall (straight ahead) was a flat stone bowl and above was a vague carving of hands offering something - her plan was to make it so that in order to enter into the depths of her dungeon, an offering would have to be made.
Information had been packed into her head as she reincarnated, and one of the most important points of information she could glean was that fallen items could be absorbed by the dungeon for materials. Hence why she devised a plan that took advantage of that function, with each explorer of her dungeon she will get more materials to further expand. She also had more information, but she decided to check her mana just to confirm it.
> Mana Points: 29.1/170.9
The information was correct, the amount of mana expended to create a room will give an equivalent mana capacity back. It was important to note that her mana regeneration stayed the same though, so she could hold more mana but it would take more time for it to fully replenish. This was where absorbing materials came as a benefit though, where it gave her knowledge of the material so she could create it, mana would be absorbed that could potentially go past capacity and apparently that causes mana burn if the exceeded amount is serious.
Technically, this room would count as part of her first floor, just that the rest of the floor will be on a lower level. Dungeon floors could be confusing, a floor was merely a concept that most higher-type dungeons manipulated to their own desires.
The room was dark, with her senses everything was easily visible to her but if someone came in then it would be pitch black, which was certainly not very welcoming. Therefore she had 2 sconces in each section of the room that gave it a sombre feel, as it was lightened up but not by a lot. That cost her 2 mana. In the upper section of the room, a semi-circle reminiscent of a desk which had its back to the wall - extremely utilitarian in design. In all honesty, it wasn't bad looking but it certainly didn't look like it belonged to a dungeon that supposedly had a law regarding creation.
Nothing she could do at the moment about that, her mana never allowed anything other than things with a purpose to be made, it having dropped from 100 all the way to 19.1 with the desk taking 10 mana - that was without furniture. In the future, she planned to properly furnish and decorate, but for now, all that was left was to have something inhabit this 'reception' area.
Pulling up the 'Monsters, Beasts and Traps' menu brought various starter monsters but also held an option to create your own, which if it was good enough it would let you use the design at zero mana, or minimal, for the first few. It didn't take much to decide that she would create her own, especially when considering that deformed goblins, kobolds, and ratmen were the default options. She never held any qualms about the less-than humanoid creatures, but it certainly wouldn't be good for first appearance's sake.
Deciding to create her own inhabitant of the dungeon, she was quickly pulled into a space devoid of anything, although there was a noticeable and very appreciable change. The space wasn't black, but instead rather light and brightened. From here, she started a project that would later be more beneficial once further improvements were made.
She could summon any basic material into existence, and she was free to mould it. If she had absorbed other materials, they would have been able to be summoned but unfortunately, she didn't have the ability to do that and when digging through the wall there was nothing but stone. First, she summoned a large block of stone and carved a general shape of a humanoid, and then split the different parts.
In the end, she had a head that had holes for the general look of eyes, and for its ears were merely two small holes on the side. No other features were visible on the golem's head. The torso was made to be slim, and it was mostly hollow inside with crisscrossing patterns of stone to increase the structural integrity but also keep it as light as possible. Its arms and legs were not the best, but they would barely function as usable limbs. It was a shame she never had the proper materials to do anything more efficiently, as stone golems are notoriously slow and bulky, but she couldn't use wood golems as they are too flimsy.
It was okay for her first attempt, and she had plenty of time to improve on the stone golem before her protection period expired. She had an inkling that a dedicated mana crystal would improve the quality of her golems by leaps and bounds, but it was unfortunate she never had any.
Once formed, the stone golem took its place behind the desk. She was never counting on it for it's combat capabilities, but more so for its durability and the higher likelihood of someone accepting it as not being threat. A goblin talking in peace with adventurers? She highly doubted that, although it would make for an amusing sight. Looking at her first addition to her dungeon, she decided to bring up the stats of it - like how she would do so for herself.
> Artificial Stone Golem Status
>
> A very durable construct that has minor combat capabilities, and currently runs on the intent of the dungeon.
>
> Artificial Evolutions only.
The 'Artificial Stone Golem' didn't seem all too impressive at the moment, but the last line intrigued her. After thinking about it for a while, the majority of beings can undergo an evolution once it fulfils certain conditions but because she directly made the golem, in order to evolve it she would have to add bits and pieces to it herself. Although it was definitely a more expensive route of evolutions and upgrades, it would also be the quicker way for it to gain strength - as long as if she got the necessary materials to do so.
Planning her next goal of somehow obtaining materials, she decided to create some of the starting monsters. As reluctant as she was to do so, it was probably for the best as she may find a way to collect materials through the less-than desirable starting monsters. The choices she saw earlier were not great, but when she opened it up again she was pleasantly surprised as the list had expanded.
> Starting Monsters:
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> Goblin: Goblins are small, green-skinned humanoids that nest in dingy spaces. They are individally weak but use their numerical advantage to overwhelm enemies. Dungeon goblins are often far stronger.
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> Kobold: Kobolds are small, reptillian humanoids that are adept at making traps. They are stronger than goblins, but their reproductive rate is more limited. Dungeon kobolds are often much stronger.
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> Ratmen: Ratmen are small, greasy furred humanoids resembling upright rodents that are an equivalent of a goblin with fur. They are individually weak but use their numerical advantage to overwhelm enemies. Dungeon ratmen are often far stronger.
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> Unseelie: An unseelie is the malevolent side of the often spry, and exciteable faeries. They use magic as their offense and defense, and trick their enemies. Dungeon unseelies are much stronger.
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> Slimes: A slime is often regarded as a cute monster that holds no danger, but a dungeon slime can dissolve bones and flesh in minutes. A fearsome foe which evolves as it absorbs.
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> Giant Spiders: People often have unrational fears of spiders, as they are often harmless and can even be helpful. Dungeon spiders become predators, their size and hunger increasing accordingly. Perfect for traps!
She just wondered what she should choose...