(Dungeon entrance way, Zhenya Pov)
The moment we step into (hole in the ground)-dungeon, we were plunged into total darkness.
“Wah!”
“Watch out! Watch out!”
“How is this possible and where the hell is the entrance?”
The others start to yell in surprise it was pretty well warranted to as no light is entering from what should be the mouth of the (hole in the ground)-dungeon.
“Okay now everyone calm down this just means we are truly in the dungeons domain now” Virgil lights a torch revealing our surroundings while Sabastian lights his own and heads ahead of the group to light the way.
The walls and floor were made of stone that was cut too clean and angled to be natural, but also placed in a way that made it look to random and awkward for it to have been done by anybody who has actually practiced the craft of stone cutting, the whole cave looked like something just hollowed it out all at once.
Looking behind, all I see is an abyss of darkness in place of the entrance, not a hint of the outside world could be seen.
Noticing the group had moved on and that I was in danger of being left in the dark, I jog briskly to catch up to the tail end of the group.
Catching up to the group, we briefly stop at a staircase, which had a faint light illuminating the bottom of it, to take a head count to make sure that we’re not missing anybody before continuing down.
As we descend the loud rhythmic clacking sound of footwear on stone start to change to a more subdued tapping sound as the crude stone steps start to give way to proper wooden steps.
At the bottom there’s a small room illuminated by two candles resting on Bronze plates affixed to the wall, sitting in between both candles is a plain wooden door.
“Beyond here is the entrance to the dungeon, so I’ll warn you now the entrance floor is usually home to the dungeons avatar, they are the will and voice of the dungeon, so don’t go disrespecting it okay.” With that being said Virgil opened the door.
The entrance floor was like a small cozy room, which made sense considering the dungeon avatar supposedly lives here, a few tables and chairs for sitting and doing work on, empty shelves for storage and a counter for…. For?
While I let my mind wonder what the counter would be used for a girl with light brown hair pops up from behind said counter.
“Hello, welcome to our library,” she says in a monotone voice all the while hoisting a book half her size on to the table.
“Library?” I unconsciously spoke my mind.
The moment I said that it seemed as if a wave of disappointment seeped out of the walls and the small girl whose face seemed to be indifferent about my statement was also leaking out an aura of disappointment.
I felt like was going to drown in the tsunami of disappointment that was coming from the walls and girl, when suddenly something in my rucksack starts to shine and glow.
(Dungeon entrance floor, Curator POV)
“Library?” The young adventurer girl asks, really I mean what else could this place be?
We have reading tables, a checkout counter, and shelves!
Okay we may not have any books in stock yet, there are no skills that actually spawn books, and I’ve tried everything from trying to create books using both types of lore material creation, *cough* actually hell I haven’t gotten anything to create from lore material creation yet *cough* to writing things down on paper, but that didn’t work out as every time Alice would finish writing down an entire story the ink would just slide of the paper like it was nothing. Well if anything we do have that one book Lyra lent us but really one book does not make a library. Oh crap, I’m never going to get some books in here am I? Ahhhhhhhhh crap who the hell can even call this place even called a magical library with only one book in its selection……*angry and disappointed dungeon core ranting noises* ……..
While am off in my own world rambling how I might never get my hands on enough books to be called a library, I notice from the corner of my view something glowing.
The girl looking confused took off her rucksack and started looking through it, after a while of comically throwing things out of her bag she finally takes out the source of the light.
“My book?” she starts to rotate the book looking for anything that could be the cause of the books sudden illumination.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
As she explores different avenues of examining the book, I notice Alice staring intently at the book, before speaking up to ask for it “you there with the book can I see that for a minute?”
Hearing this, she seemed apprehensive about handing her book over to Alice, until her guide, a man with messy silver hair came over and urged her to hand the book over telling her that it was okay.
Walking up to the counter she hands the book over to Alice “Here you go.”
“Thank you.”
The moment that the book exchanges from the girl's hand to Alice’s hand a message pops up in front of me blocking my view of what Alice is doing with the book.
The Book Little Red Riding Hood has been returned.
Max Dungeon points have increased 1500 -> 1505
Materials pertaining to this story have been recorded in lore material creation (fairytale).
A special condition has been met (first to return the Book Little Red Riding Hood back to its rightful place).
As the messages start to fade away allowing me to see unobstructed again.
The little red riding hood book that Alice is holding disperses into particles of light half going to a shelf and reforming back into a book, the other half went towards the girl and reformed into a large piece of red cloth in her hands.
Confused about the foreign object that suddenly appeared in her grip, she spread the cloth out as wide as she could with both her hands to get a full view of it.
Damn, forget large it was huge once the thing had formed completely it looked like it was meant to worn as a hood as it was almost the same height as her and twice her width.
Wait a minute…..
Why did my max dp increase?
Why did this girl have a little red riding hood book?
Does this mean little red riding hood already exist in this world?
What’s with the reward thing?
Why the hell can I still not make books?
“Alice, what just happened?” I ask Alice since she would probably know as to why be this happening and tell her about the messages that appeared in front of me.
Alice took a few seconds to gather her thoughts and compose them into an acceptable expiation before starting one of her gloriously long explanations.
“Your increase in Maximum dp must be because of you being lore dungeon is “consuming” the book, that being said the book should not have already existed in this world remember when those bandits killed the big bad wolf? It dropped the medal to go the next floor and a book that must be the little red riding hood book considering the message said returned instead of gave or donated.”
Oh yeah, I forgot that the big bad wolf did drop something in addition to the medal. But what did Alice mean by "consume"?
“In regards to the book, it acts much like a dungeon core as it can absorb ambient mana and refine it into dp, of course, it’s much more inferior to you because the books maximum dp limit is very low and it can’t release or use dp one its own…..”
Alice abruptly pauses, as her eyes go wide for but a fraction of a moment in realization before going back to her usual blank face.
It was actually pretty cute I’ve only ever seen her blank face that always seems kind of bored or drowsy but I digress so let’s get back on track.
She goes into a state of deep thought for a minute or so before continuing again.
“In actuality it works much like my book, likewise my book can also collect and store ambient mana to slowly turn it into dp albeit my book can store a greater amount of dp than the other can, so I can also assume that it may serve a similar function as my book.” she pats the large book that never leaves her side.
“In any case imagen the little red riding hood book as a smaller soulless dungeon core and you “Consuming” is you assimilating it into yourself” Alice suddenly puts up a graph in my view of vision similarly to how the messages popped up earlier.
The book is a dp tank with no mana -> absorbs ambient mana -> gets charged up with dp -> someone returns it back to the library-> book with dp is assimilated with you rising your maximum dp
Now when did she learn how to do that?
“As for why the girl was rewarded for “returning” the book…… That is because of the nature of our dungeon, because this place is called a library, we call it a library and we want it to be a library, the system just became so, our way of growth became so to be more specific, we now grow through you ranking up and by people returning books to our library. Be it, it’s probably only special books that work like little red riding hood”
As Alice continues her explanation I remember something important…..
“Alice we forgot there are other people here!” I practically scream at her.
Alice, to everyone else in the room, has been staring off into space, and they are starting to seem worried and confused.
I don’t blame them either after the light show with the book, the sudden appearance of that hood and Alice suddenly staring off into space for god knows how longs It’s been by now…….. I bet they also saw that face Alice made but with no context of what happened.
“uhmmmm I think we should address these guys before things get more awkward.”
(Dungeon entrance floor, Zhenya POV)
The little girl at the counter just stood there staring blankly at me for the longest time not moving or anything.
I was about to give the dungeon avatar a tap on the shoulder but Virgil stopped me before I could even stretch my hand out “hold it just wait a moment and you may just get an answer”.
I need answers especially for my book what happened. What were the lights and what the hell is up with this thing?
Seeing my discontent Virgil tries to offer me some words to placate me, “don’t worry about it, dungeons like these work in mysterious ways, also it looks like the item is a real beauty, so how about when we get back we find a seeker to take a look at it, something tells me there’s more than meets the eye with this item.”
*sigh* might as well roll with it I guess, I try on the hood, it fit me perfectly like it was tailored made to fit.
That was when the little girl finally broke out of her stupor. “My apologies everyone it seems something unexpected has happened but it has been resolved to know. As for the book we apologize as we cannot return it but in return please take the hood, think of it as a prize for returning this book Also you can return at any time and we’ll be happy to let you read it.”
I try to ask for more information but once again Virgil cuts me off “OKAY than everyone let’s move on, Sabastian take the lead.”
“As always.” Sabastian words echoed off the walls as he was already halfway through a door to a door next to the counter, heading down another set of stairs.
With that everybody that everybody followed him, heading down farther down in the dungeon.
“Ah wait everybody wait up!” not much choice here, I don’t want to get left behind so I run after everyone.