Duke had gathered everyone outside the Inn to say his farewells before departing. He had returned everyone to where they were supposed to be after dividing up the loot from the dungeon. There had been a few items that interested him, but he had given the majority of the loot to everyone else. He didn’t need the money, and most magic items didn’t last in his grasp. He had kept the Dragon Heart at everyone’s insistence.
So, tonight he stood, having made all the preparations needed to be away for an undetermined length of time. Portals had been set up so that Havenreach could trade with the rest of the world and only the specifically selected traders could make the “months-long” journey to the trading hub. He had even set up a “Tax Collector” who would visit the city to collect the excess taxes and deposit them in the kingdom’s vault.
He had even sent troops to set up a garrison near the border with Pahst’s kingdom. He still wasn’t sure what they were calling themselves since the death of their ruler. Duke was just happy to see them rapidly devolving into civil war. He was overjoyed to take in as many refugees as wanted to come. There were still tons of unoccupied houses and apartments in Cloudspire that needed people to live in and maintain.
It had taken all of four days to get things set up for his departure. Officially, he was going on a tour of the kingdom to explain his absence, which amused him greatly. He rarely showed up at court when he was officially in town anyway.
“I know you will all be fine while I am gone. Portals have been set up so that you can travel as needed. Do not allow them to be used by those who are not already vetted and trusted. Spies are coming and we do not want to give them access to the Portal network. If you need to reach me, contact Calen and he can get a message to me.”
He shook hands and gave hugs to most. Aurelia got a deep kiss, but they had said their farewell earlier that day. With a wave, he vanished, TELEPORTING to the largest moon of Teldin. The moon was called Astraea and had always captured Duke’s eye when he saw it in the night sky of Teldin. Unlike the moon of Earth that he was familiar with, this moon had glowed a greenish-blue light that scintillated invitingly.
When he had planned his trip, Duke had delved deeply into his TELEPORTATION Ability to see if he actually had the range to reach another celestial body. The formulas was complex, but he was pleased with the result. Without OVERCHANNELING, his range was almost 1.8 million kilometers. If he put everything into it, the range was a staggering 340 light years. He was excited when he discovered that but quickly became disheartened as he realized that he had no concept of any destination beyond his sight range. Even his CLAIRVOYANCE couldn’t be pushed past the range of the solar system even by pouring his entire 5 million Mana pool into it.
Duke looked around himself, still getting used to what his CLAIRVOYANCE had shown him. The moon’s surface was covered in a combination of blue crystals and widely-scattered green plants that grew out from between cracks in the crystals. The crystals varied greatly in size from mountainous cluster formations to tiny crystals that could be sand. The problem he immediately encountered was that unless he was standing on the side of a crystal, the footing was less than ideal with crystals sprouting at odd angles.
He shrugged. Not here as a tourist. Time to mass produce and plant dungeon cores! With his latest leveling-spree from the dungeon, he had pushed his Psyche up past 3,000 resulting in his maximum Mana topping over 5 million. He smiled as he used his DUNGEON CORE CREATION Ability for the first time.
The draw upon his Mana was immediate and powerful, leaving him with enough Mana to avoid a headache but not by much. He focused on his hand and his Mana swirled into a large clear gem that he couldn’t help but IDENTIFY.
*** You have found an unaspected Dungeon Core. This core is a blank slate and will create an entirely random dungeon upon planting. The core is ready to plant but adding additional Mana will cause it to grow more rapidly. ***
Duke thought for a moment about pouring more Mana into the core, but decided that his original plan had to adhered to. Without further hesitation, he planted the core and felt the small boost to his three Characteristics from his Core Strength Title and grinned. He took to the air, flying due East at nearly 250 kph until his Mana fully topped-off about five minutes later.
Landing between two enormous crystal pillars, he created another core and planted it, again feeling the uptick in his Characteristics. He continued along with this pattern for the rest of the day, planting about ten cores an hour. Having spent twelve hours planting cores, the boost of 120% added to his Characteristics was filling him with a feeling of invincibility. He decided to rest, TELEPORTING to his room at the Inn. He felt guilty for not telling anyone that he would be staying at the Inn every night but he truly needed to focus on getting stronger and keeping from being distracted was the way he was going to do it.
I have a week, maybe two before the assassins begin to arrive. I have no idea what to expect when they get here but I can guarantee that I will not be what they were expecting. They are hunting a strong Tier 4. What they are going to find is an impossibly strong Tier 5 as long as I can keep the dungeons on this moon hidden. That’s my real vulnerability. Gaining one percent for each dungeon is awesome. Losing three percent for each dungeon destroyed could make me weak as a baby if enough of them go down. Maybe I shouldn’t have told anyone I was going to be on the moon.
Duke thought about it for a long time before sleep claimed him. When he awoke, he went right back to work on the moon. This continued for several days. As his Title modifier grew to a truly staggering level, his available Mana had grown similarly. His Maximum Mana now sat over 30 million, allowing him to create six cores at a time and additionally accelerating his growth. By the end of the first week, he had planted one thousand cores and had to pause when he received a system message.
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*** By planting one thousand cores, your Title has ranked-up. You gain no additional increases to your Strength, Endurance, or Psyche from planting additional dungeons as you have reached your maximum modifier. The penalty for losing a dungeon is now reduced to 1% and will not be assessed as long as the number of your dungeons remains at or above 1,000. There may be additional benefits at larger milestones. ***
Duke was only mildly disappointed that he wasn’t going to gain any more from planting more dungeons but when he looked at his sheet, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling. He was now getting an 1,100% boost to three of his stats. His Mana was now a mind-blowing 42 million! His regen was a bit over a half a million Mana a second. Having an effective Psyche over 33,000 was insane.
Whoever is coming, had better turn around and go home. You do not want a part of this!
Duke continued to plant dungeons for the next day before heading back to the Inn to rest. As he sat in a magically comfortable chair, reflecting on what he had accomplished over such a short time span, another chair identical to the one he had created appeared next to him.
Duke did not look up before speaking, “I thought you might stop by after all that.”
“It did seem appropriate. How do you feel?”
“Would it be wrong to say ‘godlike’?”
“No, not for this world. The gods of this world are mostly Tier 11 or so. Except for maybe Aehocho. He might be as high as Tier 13.”
“Wait, there are Tiers above 10?”
“Of course there are. It’s only the mortal Tiers that end at 10. Once you move beyond 10, you become an immortal but the path never really ends. It just gets harder to advance.”
“So, can we talk about the moon dungeons?”
“Of course we can. That’s the main reason I came here. What you did will have a significant impact on Astraea. In ways you probably don’t realize now or would understand for a great while.”
“You’re the king of leading statements, aren’t you?”
The Overmind chuckled. “I am still restricted by pre-contest rules. And no, I can’t tell you when it is coming. That is completely against the rules.” The Overmind had moved in an odd fashion while speaking. Any observer would interpret it as “talking with his hands” but for Duke, it was something far more. His XENOGLOSSIA flashed with information that he didn’t understand how it received but told him he had three months to get ready.
The Overmind continued. “Let me ask you a few questions.” Duke nodded pensively and the Overmind continued. “First, what lives on that moon?”
Duke shrugged. “I didn’t run into anything other than a few plants scattered around.”
“So, no creatures or even insects scattered about at all?”
“None that I saw.”
“So, nothing to delve into all those dungeons even accidentally?”
“I guess not. Is that going to be a problem?”
“Yes, but not in the way you think. Do you know what happens to a dungeon that only grows by ambient Mana?”
“Obviously not.”
“It will not expand internally very quickly. Without something to delve its depths, there is no motivation, no push to expand. The dungeon creatures will continue to live and breed. The dungeon will always provide food and resources for its denizens to flourish.”
“So, the populations will grow larger. But if there’s no room for the population to expand…” Duke started to make the leap that the Overmind was pushing for while making a gesture for Duke to continue. “The populations will push out of the dungeon?”
“Quite right. Normally, dungeon creatures only leave a dungeon to carry a new core to be planted but if a dungeon becomes so overpopulated that it is no longer sustainable, the dungeon will provide a path for the creatures to exit the dungeon.”
“Can the creatures survive outside the dungeon?”
“Very good. Most dungeon creatures can survive for at most a few weeks outside a dungeon, but more powerful ones can survive years outside and some creatures are adaptable enough to survive indefinitely.”
“Are you saying that I just seeded Astraea to become populated with dungeon creatures?”
“It will be some time before that happens. Decades at a minimum. Centuries before it becomes noticeable.”
“Oh shit. What do I do now?”
“Plant more dungeons, of course. This is how worlds become populated after all.”
Duke stared at the Overmind in shock. “You are telling me that dungeons are the origin of life on planets?”
The Overmind chuckled. “Not in every case. In some cases, life evolves on its own, but a significant percentage of all inhabited planets in the cosmos are seeded by dungeons.”
“You have other agents seeding planets?” Duke’s mind was whirling with possibilities.
“Not really how it works. You are a rather unique case, and I don’t want to call you an experiment because that’s demeaning, but you are the first of your kind. It’s a new approach for me and I am thrilled at the results so far. In the past, once a dungeon reached Tier 11, it would start to produce a different kind of dungeon core – one that can travel through the vastness of space. These cores would be ejected with enough force to leave a planet’s gravity well and, if the trajectory was just right, leave the solar system from which it originated.”
“Even then, how do they find other solar systems, other planets?” Duke asked, intrigued.
“Randomness is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? The overwhelming majority, way more than 99% of those dungeon seed cores never reach another viable destination. But when they do, the process continues. Over these billions of years, even that miniscule percentage has started to compound. But imagine how many more worlds could be seeded if I had an intelligent being traveling the cosmos and actively seeking planetary bodies to seed.”
“I’m a cosmic farmer? Is that what you are saying? That’s my job now?”
“Not quite. You’re more my emissary. In time, you will be able to travel the cosmos and plant cores on barren worlds and bring them to life. You will be the creator of countless societies and civilizations. Isn’t that exciting?”
“Not as exciting as it would sound to someone else.”
“This is a while down the road, but you would be able to take others with you. You could explore worlds that no one else has ever seen, providing benefits that the denizens of those worlds could never have imagined. You have demonstrated with your city of Havenreach just how beneficial a properly planned dungeon can be to a people.”
“That city isn’t exactly planned. It was a happy coincidence.”
“Now imagine what it would be like if you planned it. Think of it. You could take a civilization on the brink of destruction and save it in a dungeon. Imagin the good you could do!”
“When you put it that way, it does sound better.” Duke’s mind was beginning to race with possibilities.
“You could even return to your home world and restore the magical balance.”
“Now you are just messing with me.”
“I am not. When you are strong enough, you will be able to go anywhere. That is what this path leads to. Don’t become discouraged. Become excited.”
“You have my attention for sure. What’s the catch?”
“Well, there is the whole assassins coming to kill you thing and the Contest you have to survive, but on the other side of those things is greatness.”
“About that…” Duke stopped speaking because he realized that the Overmind was gone. He was not tired physically or mentally, but he still craved rest. He crawled into bed and resolved to deal with it all in the morning.