Prologue
Captured a Wild Goddess
Today is the day a new VRMMO is being released into the world. Dungeon World Creator Online (DWCO) is a game that promises an entertaining experience different from most games. You are given the opportunity to create and rule over dungeons instead of just traveling the world, hunting monsters, crafting, etc. Over time, you can even have villages, cities, or even an entire world inside your very own dungeon.
As enticing as it sounds, it’s actually a lot more difficult than many would think. Creating dungeons requires extensive efforts from the creator and interaction with others to make a dungeon truly prosper. No one person can provide everything needed so teamwork is essential! Despite that, nobody is required to build a dungeon and such people can play the game like they normally would in any other game.
However, it is precisely this unique aspect that has attracted so much attention on the opening day. The closest that has been achieved prior to DWCO is just claiming ownership of an already developed dungeon for taxes. You could never really influence what was inside a dungeon.
Everyone has their own wish they want to fulfill. An infinite dungeon that can never truly be conquered as it will continue to develop addition levels. A tower of heaven that literally pierces the clouds as it reaches towards the heavens. Creating a stable ecosystem of monsters that simulates a real-life ecosystem and watch as they grow and evolve over time into sentient creatures. Becoming a dungeon god that has somehow fit not just a city, but also has oceans, empires, mountain ranges, and so much more inside their dungeon.
It is for these very things, that a pair of twin sisters has bought their own copy of the game. Alena, the quick-tempered and younger sister who loves fighting and burning things to ashes like a true pyromaniac. Acacia, the calm older sister, who loves relaxing and freezing things in a block of ice like any other ice mage. Both were 17 year old and thus were classified as young women by society.
These 2 sisters have decided to team up, not that they ever separate, in order to create their own awe-inspiring dungeon. Each had already put on their dungeon visor, bracelets, and anklets for the most authentic playing experience. They have many plans for their dungeon and so little time to test anything.
[New user detected]
[Body scan complete]
[Mind scan complete]
[No abnormalities]
[Connecting to Dungeon World Creator Online]
[System has detected that you have family online. Would you like to create your characters together? Yes/No]
[Merging connections between devices]
Once the loading process was finished, the sisters were reunited in a completely white room. They wasted no time in having a reunion hug despite the fact that they had just seen each several minutes prior. Now that they had their skin-ship meter refilled, they moved their attention on to the menus displaying images of different races in front of them. Both had decided to play as elves since it’s a really cute class. Not that mermaids, half elves, vampires, and faeries are not cute but many of those have huge downsides.
Afterwards, all they had to do was choose a name. Acacia went with Snow while her little twin sister named herself Flare. It has always been a theme for them to be polar opposites when it comes to using magic in games. When they were finished, they were greeted by a goddess which was relieving since they thought that the entire process was automated with no eye candy to ogle.
???: “Hello, my name is Evangeline but you can call me Eva if you prefer. I welcome you to this world and I shall assist you should there be any questions before you get started. No need to fear as I can still control the help menu to answer any questions once you get in-game.”
A pink haired girl wearing a white robe that would be seen on a priestess descended from the sky in all her glowing splendor. 12 white wings stretch out from her back to show off her grace and majesty. Sapphire-blue eyes that reflect the vast oceans give her a calming atmosphere. The most striking part of her appearance was that she looked like a 7-year old girl and these twins couldn’t help but hug her for all her cuteness.
Eva: “Hey! Let me go! It’s a crime to assault everyone’s favorite goddess like this!”
Flare: “Such a waste!”
Snow: “You’re so cute yet you never take advantage of it?”
Flare: “Don’t worry! These big sisters will take care of you from now on.”
Snow: “Yes! Leave everything to us!”
Eva: *sigh* “Why must I suffer so?”
The hug session continued for a good 10 minutes before the twins were satisfied. After they forced out a promise to visit them from the goddess, they were promptly ejected from the white room and sent to their shared dimensional room. Dimensional rooms are normally separate, but those twins would rather be together while playing the game so they “bargained” with the goddess for it. As such, they now have a room with enough space for 2 people.
The goddess could only lament accepting such a small appearance as her way to combat the ogling from perverted men as only lolicons would dare look at a child with such eyes which is another form of creepy. She did not realize that women were more prone to displaying affection towards children that they consider cute. Not only that, but children themselves also never fail to turn her into a playmate for a bit. It’s a curse that she will never be left alone no matter what appearance the AI goddess makes for herself. It doesn’t help that her creator is clutching his sides while watching her predicament. Parents are a bunch of meanies!
Elsewhere, white particles condensed inside a room to reform the bodies of Snow and Flare. The room functions more as a lobby where you can chat with friends, teleport to towns you have visited or your own dungeons, invite others to play with you, etc. Of course, you can use it like a normal room and fill it with various things as well. For now, it just has a couple of beds and nothing else decorating the room.
Since there was nothing to do with their room, they moved on to create a dungeon together. With another light show, they appeared in a 10x20m cave. No plants, animals, or monsters are inside yet. No openings for people to get inside or exit so this must be the default setting. Normally, dungeons would start off as a 10x10m area, but our protagonists are getting a bone for being together.
In the back of the cave are 2 crystals the size of a marble that allow either Snow or Flare to modify the dungeon. These are called dungeon hearts which must be fed mana in order to get bigger and stronger in order to pull off more modifications. As dungeon hearts get bigger, the monsters, too, shall become stronger. After looking around the room, they were interrupted by a series of ominous messages.
[As you have become the master of a dungeon, you have joined the dungeon faction. As a member of this faction, your relationships with monsters and other dungeons will improve.]
[Many sentient races will seek to conquer your dungeon to obtain your wealth and power. Your dungeon heart is a priceless magical reagent and is thus very important to protect it from greedy hands. Others will slay all who live inside your dungeon for experience and anything of value that may be looted. Not advised to travel through towns outside of your dungeon as doing so may bring unwanted attention towards yourself.]
[Monsters have been persecuted and hunted since time immemorial. Some monsters are actually evil (as much as any other race), but most simply live by the law of “survival of the fittest.” All monsters will help protect your dungeon in exchange for a safe and functional ecosystem to live in.]
[The Church of Agni has declared all dungeons as pests that must be purged. Their followers all believe in living pure lives and see monsters and dungeons as filth corrupting the purity of their surroundings. Anyone affiliated with monsters or dungeons will likely be killed on sight.]
Flare: “What the heck! We are going to be hunted down by the church simply for playing the game as it was meant to be played?”
Snow: “There there. Doesn’t this make things more interesting?”
Flare: “If you call being an enemy of the entire world as interesting then you would be correct.”
Snow: “I wouldn’t exactly say the entire world is our enemy. Only a single church and anyone who wants to make a quick
profit would outright attack us.”
Flare: “But we are only 2 people. Even with an army of monsters, we will inevitably lose!“
Snow: “Then the answer is obvious! All we need is to gather like-minded individuals as we grow our dungeon.”
Flare: *sigh* “I guess you are right, but how are we going to convince others to forsake everything for our dungeon? It will take a long time to make our dungeon attractive to others.”
Snow: “We can worry about that later as we get stronger and develop our dungeon. Shall we check our status before getting started?”
Flare: “Fine with me sis.”
Snow + Flare: “Show Status”
StatusNameSnowLevel1RaceSnow ElfGenderFemaleFame0Money10sClassesTitlesHP50/50MP200/200HP Recovery0.2 hp/minMP Recovery4.0 mp/minSatiety100/100Stat Points0/0Strength5 (10 x .5)Intelligence20 (10 x 2)Vitality5 (10 x .5)Wisdom20 (10 x 2)Endurance5 (10 x .5)Mind10Agility20 (10 x 2)Dexterity10
You might be wondering why some stats are buffed while others are penalized. All races have unique benefits to give them an edge over other races. Elves have immense magical prowess and speed, but are extremely weak in terms of other physical abilities. Demi-humans have high physical abilities, but tend to have low magical abilities. Vampires are powerful in every way but they have a crippling weakness to sunlight and light magic. Mermaids are unrivaled in the water but are weakened above ground. Humans are normal, but can get stronger 5 times faster than any other race.
Snow: “Judging by our status, it seems we can pick 2 classes out of a huge list without even doing a quest for them.”
The class system in DWCO is a bit freer than most by allowing 2 different classes. Class-ups also exist and can further bolster the power of your character by doubling your specializations. For instance, a mage class can become a dual-element mage or a combat mage. Even without the class-up, both classes can synergize with each other and act just like a class-up. Some classes can synergize, but it doesn’t mean you can have any combination as a class-up. It’s best to choose your starting classes wisely as you might not be able to get a class-up you like.
In addition to the potential of having 2 classes, your stat modifiers will increase once you pick a class and when you class-up. Stat modifiers from picking a class all add up to an extra 100% distributed to different stats.
Flare: “Oh? Well I know what I am picking then.”
Snow: “Same for me.”
Flare: “On 3?”
Snow: “1.”
Flare: “2”
Snow + Flare: “3”
*bishan*
[In response to dungeon master Flare’s class change, her dungeon heart has gained fire affinity and unarmed combat knowledge. Monsters living in the dungeon will be more likely to learn fire magic and become more skilled at using their bodies when fighting. The dungeon will naturally become hotter and increase the chance that monsters will evolve into fire variants.]
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
[In response to dungeon master Snow’s class change, her dungeon heart has gained ice affinity and dual sword combat knowledge. Monsters living in the dungeon will be more likely to learn ice magic and become more skilled at using multiple blades when fighting. The dungeon will naturally become colder and increase the chance that monsters will evolve into ice variants.]
Coinciding with the messages, the 2 dungeon hearts change in appearance. Originally, they were of a transparent blue color with only a few bright blue specks inside. Now Flare’s dungeon heart has become a red crystal with a bright orange flame in the center. Snow’s has become a light blue crystal with a bright blue flame in the center.
Flare: “Can I?”
Snow: “Please do.”
Flare: “What the heck! Since when does a person’s class affect the dungeon?”
Eva: [Eva’s friendly help system here! Don’t try looking for me since I am not even there! Now for the question at hand about how classes affect dungeons. Silly, dungeon hearts are born from your soul and thus reflect all of your growth. When dungeon hearts spread out the mana in its core throughout the dungeon, it imbues the monsters with your attributes. This in turn allows monsters to more easily grow up into a form that matches the dungeon master.]
Flare: “….Eva get down here.”
Eva: [I-I have no idea what you are talking about. I am simply a manual designed to answer questions that pertain to the game.]
Flare: “Eva. Hug. Now!”
Eva: “Ok…”
With a flash of light, a pink haired goddess that has resigned herself to her fate as a hug pillow floats down into our paltry dungeon and is immediately captured by the twins. Elsewhere, a young man in his late twenties is watching the scene and presses a button. As he does so, his grin gets bigger to signify the ominous feeling approaching the girls.
*ding*
[You have caught a wild goddess Evangeline. Your new pet will now live inside your room and can freely roam inside your dungeon. Take good care of my daughter! ~ Yours Truly, Lucian]
Eva: “Wha-Father! How could you?”
Snow: “…”
Flare: “…”
Eva: “Please don’t do this! I promise I will be good!”
Lucian: [And you will be better than good with these two.]
Eva: “But father, don’t you love me?”
Lucian: [I do and it breaks my heart to do this! To give up my sole ownership over my daughter to complete strangers is heart wrenching!]
Eva: “Don’t lie! You are just doing this for your own entertainment!”
Lucian: [Shhh, they didn’t have to know that. Now they will think I am weird!]
Eva: “You are weird!”
Snow: “Sorry to interrupt a family moment, but we have a few questions.”
Lucian: [Oh right.] *ahem* [Speak child or forever hold your peace.] ‘After his cough, he made his voice sound deeper and more majestic.’
Snow: “We can hug Eva as much as we want?”
Flare: “Do we have the rights to bathe her as if she was our own little sister?”
Snow: “And most important of all, can we dress her up as much as we want?”
Eva: “Wha-what are you saying? Have you no shame?”
Lucian: [Hmm, deal but on one condition. All pictures must be forwarded to me so I can add it to my collection.]
Eva: “Father….”
Flare: “Agreed.”
Lucian: [And with that I bid you adieu.]
With the disappearance of the almighty voice of the creator, the twins continued to use the goddess as a hug pillow as they considered their options. Advancing their dungeon is a slow and arduous process. Every cubic meter of terrain costs 1 mana to add on to the dungeon. If the starting cave was not free then it would cost 2,000 mp due to the height of the ceiling.
Flare: “Hmm, what shall we do? Our dungeon hearts only has 10 mp and it takes 10 of our mp to make it grow by 1 point. This is incredibly inefficient.”
Unfortunately, all dungeon hearts start off with a capacity for 10 mp. Increasing it by a single point requires you to spend 10 times as much mana to refine it. Progress is slow, but it gets easier as you secure greater quantities of mana for your dungeon.
Snow: “Hmm, from the list we can only create slimes or grass with the current mp capacity. I’m against slimes as there are too many tentacle fantasies for my taste….sooo grass?”
Eva: “Agreed. No to slimes!”
Flare: “But we need to kill stuff in order to lvl and get stronger. The stronger we are, the more mana we can offer to our dungeon. So I vote we make slimes.” ‘She states in a teasing tone in order to nudge me. I hate you and your common sense!’
Snow: “Fine, but I am blaming you if anything happens.” ‘I might also be somewhat unwilling to help if she is the victim instead of me. Although I will jump in if things go too far.’
Eva: “If anything happens, I’m going to fly away.” ‘Hey, if we are going down then you are coming with us!’
Flare: “Yeah, yeah. Hurry up and spawn your slimes.”
Snow: “I’m…on it.”
Together we spawned 50 slimes the size of our palms with our mana. According to our pet goddess, they multiply every hour so it’s best to leave them alone for a bit. As such, we decided to check on our dungeon hearts while we wait for our mp to regenerate.
[tr][tr]
Freezing Blades CoreDungeon Name: UnknownRefined Magic Power: 10Floor Count: 1Species Count: 2Monster Count: 50Elf Count: 2Effects: Increases ice affinity, skill with multiple blades
Blazing Fists CoreDungeon Name: UnknownRefined Magic Power: 10Floor Count: 1Species Count: 2Monster Count: 50Elf Count: 2Effects: Increases fire affinity, unarmed combat skills
We were confused by the fact that we are considered a part of the dungeon until we remembered how we were a part of the dungeon faction and can no long live freely outside of dungeons. After picking a name for our dungeon, we asked Eva how to fuse our cores together. She gave us a questioning glance before telling us that a core fusion can never be undone. Of course, we twins would never be swayed by such a trivial matter so the goddess just sighed before assisting us in our endeavor.
By agreeing to a confirmation window that showed up after using the core fusion dungeon skill, our cores immediately shot towards each other. In a flash of light they devoured each other and began mixing their properties in a weird way. Half of the crystal had an ice blue color while the other half was a fiery red color.
Inside the crystal, the powers of fire and ice collided until they finally merged at the center of the crystal. In the center was a sphere that was ice blue in the fire crystal half and fiery red in the ice crystal half. The ice sphere released snowflakes amidst the flames in the fire crystal while the fire sphere leaked flames into the snow of the ice crystal. It was really beautiful to look at and even Eva gasped in awe at our dungeon heart.
With this done, all we could do was wait for our mana to replenish while we go over our plans as a weak dungeon masters. We can go outside to capture weak monsters, but there are currently many Agni priests waiting near the weaker monsters to attack unsuspecting dungeon masters. We also lack food in our dungeon since all we have are slimes and nobody wants to eat those blobs of sliminess.
Over the course of 3 hours, we had refined our dungeon heart until it had 170 mp. Now that it’s at a decent size, we are going to add another room to our dungeon. Unfortunately, we ran into a slight problem. We forgot that we need food and there is no way in hell we are eating a slime.
Speaking of which, there are now 400 slimes and they have already begun to solve their food problems. How you ask? Cannibalism is my answer. Yes, right now there are 400 slimes duking it out to see who becomes food for the rest. That number quickly dropped down by half as the winners were decided. They are all still lvl 1 slimes, but that should change within a day. It’s weird how slimes constantly make children just to eat them later. Does this world not have child abuse laws?
Once our mana had recovered, we worked on a 2nd room for the next few hours. We made a 10x5x2m hallway followed by a 10x20x2m room. Since we were creating the area, we had full control over the type of terrain. The left half was made with an ice cavern layout and the right half was made with a lava cavern layout. Best part is that you don’t need to spend extra mana to make different types of terrain unless it has some special material. Although, the center line tiles were a bit more expensive as we had to use icefire blocks to connect both halves of our dungeon without issue.
After finishing up the base designs of the new room, we created a few snowberry and heatbberry seeds that we planted in their respective areas. Normally, it would take a while to grow a tree, but our dungeon is cheating the laws of physics for us so it will only take 5 hours to be fully grown. 5 hours of being ravaged by hunger. Hurry up and grow already!
Being driven by hunger and thirst we moved on to making rooms on our own sides with the same dimensions as the former. We had also agreed to making the center of the room into a pond although one of them is going to be filled with lava while the other is covered in ice. It was more time-consuming to make the ponds since we had to extend the ground deeper in order to give at least 5m of depth for the ponds. Afterwards, we created a bunch of snow carrots and fire carrots which we planted around the ponds with a few berry trees here and there.
You might be thinking that we had forgotten to extend the ceiling of the rooms to fit the newly growing trees. Well, you’re wrong as we had been keeping careful track of the trees while we were designing our rooms. After all, it only costs 56 mp to have the walls extend higher by a single meter. Unfortunately, trees need 8h to grow the fruits after maturing so we were completely screwed out of a meal. At least the carrots will actually sprout within 5h of planting them, but we must replant the seeds afterwards. I wonder if we can make a monster to do that for us.
Anyways, with the 3 new rooms built, we now need to work on accomplishing our actual objective. Capturing monsters!