Duke started to dismantle the navigation system using all his sensing Abilities to see inside the console and really figure out how it worked. Each time, after he finished tearing it down, he RESTORED the console. The process was slow as he was gaining insight but at a maddeningly slow pace. The realization that this would take him longer than he had initially thought came over him. I need to relocate to Havenreach. The time dilation there will give me more time to work on this. But I have one more stop to make before I get started.
Thought became action and Duke was in the chamber with Ophirian in an instant. The serpent uncurled itself, its head rising to meet Duke’s gaze. Duke’s Ability fired up and he could tell the serpent was smiling in its own way.
“Good for you to come back to me now that I have rested. You have bonded us together so I will be going where you go from now on.”
“Well, where I am about to go is going to be pretty boring for you. I have some magical work to do that will likely be tedious rather than spectacular.”
“Is there somewhere I can hunt there?”
“I will make a hunting ground for you there. Did you get any experience for killing that pig earlier?”
“Experience? That is something from my inherited memory. Yes, I see now. I did receive twenty-five experience for killing and eating that prey.”
“Good. That means that you should be able to grow from killing the monsters I make to help you learn and grow.”
“Just make more of those pigs. That was delicious.”
“No, you need to hunt and fight all sorts of different creatures so you can be ready for what is to come. I am going to fight some of the most powerful people and creatures in my…weight class? No, I don’t think that’s right. I don’t know what to call it, but they’re all going to be tough opponents. You’re young, barely out of your shell. If you get sucked along to this Contest, you have to be a lot stronger than you are now or you’ll simply be killed as collateral damage. I’m not about to let that happen if I can help it.”
“Too many words. Take me to where I can hunt, where I can eat. That will be enough.”
Duke shrugged. It’s not like Ophirian isn’t going to go hunt and kill as is natural for him. I just hope he doesn’t go to sleep after every kill. Maybe that’s it. Maybe I can convince him to hunt for experience and practice rather than just food. Guess I’ll just have to see.
Duke TELEPORTED the both of them to the furthest reaches of the mountains surrounding the city of Havenreach. There, he went to work with his DUNGEON MANIPULATION. He carved out a massive cavern and cave network with interconnecting tunnels. He changed the terrain and environmental aspects of the area, adding a great deal of diversity. He established caverns to focus on each and every element he could think of as well as entirely different environments.
When he was done with those, he set about populating the areas. He discovered a happy surprise that his DUNGEON CREATURE CREATION Ability worked differently while inside a dungeon. It effectively removed the limit on the number and types of creatures he could create. None of them could leave the dungeon, but he was sure that he could find a way to use this to his advantage.
He created creatures of all types he could for each of the environments. They were all low Tier, but the levels varied with the strongest being nearly level 50. As Ophirian gets stronger, I’ll up the levels and Tiers. I have no idea how quickly he’ll be able to grow, but this will be a good testing ground for him.
“Ophirian, I will be staying in this central cave and working on a project. Explore the tunnels and caverns around us. Kill everything you come across. They are all enemies and need to be slain.”
“I hunt.” With that simple response, Ophirian slithered off into the nearest tunnel.
Duke set to work again. As he worked, he found himself getting distracted by his own thoughts again and again, frequently concerned about Ophirian. Every time he checked on the serpent, he found his bond to be doing just fine and racking up quite the body count. Finally, he put the project aside and addressed the other thought that kept coming to mind.
Focusing on his DUNGEON MANIPULATION Ability, Duke was able to separate his cave system from the rest of Havenreach. The next part was where he pushed his Ability to the limit of its Practiced rank. The reality of the cave system rippled and stretched until he was finally able to add his own time dilation to the cave. It took most of his Mana and all his effort, but he was able to increase the flow of time in the caves. The result was that time flowed four times faster in the cave system than in Havenreach. The combination of both dilation effects compounded making time move 108 times faster than the outside world.
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Duke smiled to himself as he looked at how much his Ability gained from that feat. A jump of fifteen levels in the Ability. I’m going to have to increase it more before the Contest. That and DUNGEON CORE CREATION. I don’t know if it will be viable strategy, but I am hoping it will work on at least someone as a trump card. I’ll have to keep it well hidden but if nothing else, I’ll have a place to escape to.
He returned to the task at hand, tearing down the navigation console and RESTORING it over and over, studying the runescript as intensely as he could manage. It was a slow process, but he spent a full ten days just studying the console and checking on Ophirian.
The serpent had grown significantly over the course of the ten days, reaching level 14 but Duke could see that his growth was slowing. It was becoming evident that the greatest challenge for the serpent so far had been finding his prey and finding prey that was challenging enough. Duke smiled. I can fix that. Time to add some Tier Two bosses in and let the caverns respawn their creatures. Maybe I should start adding intelligent creatures as well. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.
Duke put his plan into action, starting with the respawning mobs. Modifying the dungeon area to respawn mobs was far easier than Duke had expected, as if it was the natural state for the dungeon. Adding in the higher-Tier bosses took some time, but he was able to manage it with minimal effort as well. It was clear that the dungeon wanted to spawn mobs and bigger ones at that. Duke relaxed his hold on the area, allowing the dungeon more freedom to add and increase the monster levels. Yeah, go ahead and pump up the dungeon. Ophirian has 10% of my stats added to his own anyway. Makes him way overpowered for his level and Tier.
Setting aside his concerns for Ophirian, he turned back to his project. The investigative part of his project was done as far as he was concerned. He had learned as much as he could by tearing the console apart and rebuilding it. Now it was time to try runescripting in the manner he was hoping would work for him. He started with what he hoped would be the easiest step – creating the runescript out of dungeon essence.
Solidifying the image of the runescript he had studied over and over for the past ten days, he began to build the script out of pure dungeon essence. It started off slowly, forming in the air and growing into the intricate web of scripts. They were intertwined with each other, connecting in multiple ways to form a lobsided matrix. Layer by layer, Duke added runescript for several painstaking hours.
When he finally finished, he was mentally exhausted, but his creation stood stable in the air before him. He sat down in an extremely comfortable chair he had made for himself and promptly fell asleep.
Duke awoke surprised that he had actually crashed out but awoke refreshed and feeling hopeful that he would be able to figure out the next stage in his runescripting project today. But first, it was time to test the runescript he had spent so many hours on the previous day. With great anticipation, he approached the convoluted maze of runescript floating in the air. He placed his hand upon the Mana input and slowly added Mana. After ten minutes of adjusting his Mana input to find the right level, he came to the only conclusion possible: He had failed.
Growling, he set back to studying his construct. It took him all of thirty seconds to find the first error in the runescript. There was a spot where the defining line didn’t match his memory of the console. He compared the console to his own runescript and found that it was indeed an error. A momentary application of will later, the error was corrected in the floating dungeon essence.
Duke beamed with pride as he input Mana once again into the construct only to get the same result. He shook his head and went back to error-correcting. This reminds me too much of that one computer programming class I took in the academy. That was excruciatingly boring, and this looks like it will be just the same. But it is also important. I need to do this so I may as well get to it. Duke spent the rest of the day correcting the hundreds of errors he had made in the construct.
Finally, after having a wonderful turkey dinner with all the fixings, Duke approached the construct one more time. I just love being able to create anything I want out of dungeon essence. I might just have to push that Ability hard to increase it. I can only take a bit over 400 gold worth of stuff out of a dungeon as of now but that’s at Practiced rank. How much more will it be at Adept or even Master. Damnit, Duke, focus.
With more than a little trepidation, Duke pushed Mana into the construct. The entire thing immediately glowed with power and the navigational display lit up. It showed his own position and nothing else. Duke frowned but decided to check the result from the console he knew was functional. It showed the same nothingness. You idiot! You are inside a dungeon. There are no other star systems here. I’ll have to leave the dungeon to test it.
Duke used his DUNGEON SENSE to take a quick look at Ophirian’s hunting progress and found the serpent stalking a pair of kobolds down a tunnel. Guess he’s doing well enough then. A quick look at his bonded’s information showed that the serpent was already well into the 20s for level. Good progress. He’ll be fine if I’m gone for a bit.
Duke TELEPORTED himself, the console, and his construct out of the dungeon. Thankfully, the value of the construct seemed to be less than his limit which had been a significant concern for Duke. He immediately fed Mana into both and saw their displays light up with data. He had done it! Alright! Phase one is complete. Now to play with this thing for a bit.
Duke spent an hour running through all the settings and controls. He had used the navigational console on the Iron Reaver more than once and had a basic understanding of what he could do with it. The more he worked on it, the more he realized how little he actually knew about its functions and how to use them. Ya know, I would actually RTFM if there was a manual to read. Guess it’s trial and error time. After two hours of experimental discovery, he returned to the dungeon caverns.