Uno

Daniel's interrogation proved to be informative, if unnerving.

In the middle of this process, I became aware that my method of tort… I mean gathering information leaves large parts of the brain unusable. Burned out of existence. With the vampire in question, it wasn’t a big problem since his regeneration kicked in almost immediately, but the data contained in these regrown neurons was simply gone. After all, it was just like electronically stored information - put a magnet near a hard drive, give it a few minutes, and the content goes poof!

Wait.

Hmmm.

Didn’t that mean that the brain was just like a more complicated computer? And with my power over electricity…

Also - magnets? How was it that I didn’t think about them earlier? Well, it’s not like they’re that useful seeing as most of my creations have high iron content… but still - this venue of thought was worth pursuing in the long run.

Just not now.

Because right now I was being overwhelmed with information.

Or rather the fragmented way it was being presented.

All because of Daniel who continued to turn more and more insane with each passing moment. Yet there was little that I was able to do in order to salvage his mind. Like some kind of defense mechanism, his ego fractured into emotionally unstable pieces. There was anger, fear, sadness, but also happiness, dutifulness, and even lust for revenge. Most pieces actively worked against each other, turning the whole ordeal into a race against time.

So I was asking and a discordant choir answered, sometimes distorting information and sometimes giving different answers altogether. It didn’t help that I assessed that his knowledge was about one hundred years old. Or more. Or less. It could be fifty years and it could be two hundred too - I was no forensic detective, after all. The most I could tell about the state of the bodies found in the Colosseum was that they were dead. And for a long time.

Anyway.

What mattered was the high possibility that any information gleaned from his brain was massively outdated. Yet beggars can’t be choosers.

Because of that, I focused on things that should be relatively unchanged even though the years passed.

For one I copied Daniel's knowledge of the language in its entirety. That also included some arithmetic and logic, with the alphabet and full encyclopedia. I also breathed a sigh of relief - the locals used a decimal system and the writing type somehow resembled the Western alphabet system I was used to when alive.

In his brain there was also knowledge about the current (or past) state of the world and boy, it wasn’t pretty.

It covered what the gods had already told me - about two magical wars, the destruction and slow decay of civilized lands. How most of the gods left the world and how people fell to despair, worshipping demons and false idols. About necromancers, blood mages, and cannibals who conquered parts of the known world.

And how Brighton, Mirabelle, and Gangria stabilized this dying world, consolidating the power of the sentients into remaining countries, forging them like living metal while managing scientific and cultural progress.

There were parts about the Heiron continent where my dungeon was located and mentions of two other land masses located somewhere to the west. No idea about the state they were in though.

For the first time on this planet, I knew about the outside - or at least a part of it, even if it was a piece of book knowledge.

The shape of Heron's continent reminded me of a nearly fallen-over pear - with the smaller part up in the air and the lower simply melting into an unrecognizable mess. I was located in the upper part, near the Geinard Kingdom where battles against the badlands and their creatures were a common occurrence. The Kingdom population was mainly composed of humans with small additions of other races. Their army prided themselves in heavy infantry troops and fire mages while worshipping Brighton as the God of Science.

To the west of their borders was the Luna Kingdom, blessed by Mirabelle and boasting a large half-elf population, while cultivating long-lasting hatred with southern Elven Theocracy backed up by Gangria, Goddess of Nature. True to their name elves took pride in their ancestry and innate magic - strong enough to hold the line against the longest, southern border - alone.

To the east of the Geinard Kingdom stood Dwarven Holds, entrenched in deep mountains and fighting their own battles with undead and monsters. There was a lot of blood being spilled in the tunnels deep below the earth. The dwarves usually kept to themselves, but as long as nothing catastrophic happened to their underground cities they had the best chance to survive among the nations of Yana.

And then, even further east, sticking to the nearby sea nested Dross Republic - a nation of builders and explorers madly interested in creating fortresses and expanding their naval force. Their oligarchic rulers didn’t discriminate against non-human races and tended to focus heavily on mercenaries and pike squares, not stopping even at purchasing services of badlands barbarians.

What shocked me was something else - why there were only five nations on this continent? Surely, their lands ought to be enormous, right?

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Wrong!

Well, not counting the Elven Theocracy lands, which seemed to seep like blood out the wound, creating an uneven line of forests and living castles. It seemed like their warriors, well versed in jungle warfare had an upper hand, but in the end, they too were stretched thin, like other countries.

All these nations seemed like an amateur attempt to create a war machine capable of wiping out enemies with ease. Yet not one of them seemed sustainable.

The Geinard Kingdom, for instance, was a firm believer in the scorched earth policy. They even had whole noble families dedicated to the task! Casting such humongous spells seemed to demand large quantities of mana and time. To provide the latter heavy armored troops became a staple of their armies. And also I couldn’t forget about their famed Blademasters - warriors who were rumored to be capable of wiping out armies by themselves.

I shuddered.

If these powerful guys were the shield of civilization I wondered what was the hammer striking it down?

And the clock was ticking!

Besides this more general knowledge, I was also able to understand a bit of the common sense of sapients. Especially those, who lived in the nearby Geinard Kingdom. It was very similar to what I read about the Middle Ages - the medieval caste society, where nobles were treated like different, higher beings except here they also knew magic. The lowly masses were illiterate, superstitious, always hungry, and poor. The omnipresent suspicion and distrust of both magic and the unknown were like an illness stopping the development of this nation supposedly blessed by a God of Science.

It was a nightmare that produced both mindless soldiers and zealous mages while mutilating the souls of anyone stupid enough to care into parts of a war machine.

I didn’t care.

The only information that was important here was the surety that there would be no end to young, overambitious fools trying to get richer and stronger in my halls. To change their destiny.

Most of them would die in the process, feeding me.

More importantly, there were also bad news I discovered when sifting through Daniel's brain for dungeon knowledge.

Like the fact that in the moment that my Drones break to the surface all this accumulated mana will shoot out like a fountain. And in turn, it will convert surrounding lands to my element and affinity!

Which was… Anima and electricity… yeah.

That won’t backfire at all…

Shit.

Who knows what will happen?!

Electricity wasn’t that bad on its own - maybe a mountainous region with sharp peaks and even sharper winds would be created?

Or a large hill with high iron content, capable of drawing down the ire of lightning?

It’s the inclusion of the Anima element that worried me immensely. This “inner truth” that it was supposed to exert on surroundings.

What will happen? Who the hell knows!

But there was no question about it - striking the surface would draw all kinds of attention. Both good and bad. And there was another thing I was made aware of. It seemed like in the past the sentients tried to immediately send parties into new dungeons. Explorers tended to be either hot-headed youths or old, powerful adventurers.

The first type served as a living bait, judging the quality and danger level of a dungeon.

The second type of duty was much more sinister. They delved to challenge the intelligence behind the dungeon and enslave it.

Yup.

Enslaving it.

There was a whole bunch of magic prepared just to make sure that it produced what the sentient population needed at the moment and wasn’t able to oppose its new masters. This also included a permanent outpost carved into the core room.

Yeah...

FUCK NO.

I wasn’t going to just wait for some overpowered motherfucker to collar me and then be forced to live the rest of my days like fucking cattle!

The excavation was stopped immediately, Drones buckling under my anger.

I shouted mentally, feeling my minions once again rage in their own way. This whole place was a part of me I’ll be damned if some entitled adventurer tries to get his grubby hands on it!

Arghhhh!

No.

Calm.

Calm, down.

Calm, Uno.

I needed to be calm.

It was after all the time to plan. To counteract. And preferably to fool these sentients while still being regarded as a simple dungeon. Maybe not an easy one, but not an intelligent, devious being.

What cards did I have in my hand?

Plants, for one. They didn’t count against my creature limit and as such could be put nearly everywhere, as long as there was space. Most of my tunnels were looking a bit barren, not counting the Conservatory of course.

It was time to change this.

My invisible form flashed through every room, adding a few knife-bushes here or there to generate a better ambiance.

My mental list of plants didn't hold anything that impressive. At the moment. Besides knife-bushes I had two types of trees, the Axe Conifer and Silver Ironbark - and my acid-bearing plant Fiery Dandelion, carrying deceitfully beautiful seeds which exploded on contact.

Not enough.

For now, something to hide my creatures - grass. Of course, an ordinary thing would be too boring, not even mention dead the moment it was born. Instead, I gathered pieces of copper, stretched them thin, and planted them in the soil of my dungeon. It grew nearly immediately, leaving me with a strange, spring-like plant whose only unusual ability was that it bounced back when pressed to the ground. Copper Grass was a simple enough name for it.

After that, I used bone - just a generic one and after pouring Anima inside created a fern-like plant with pale white leaves. Also not dangerous, but thick enough to hide something under. Bone Fern was enough for it.

And for that something I used both bone and iron, creating a liana with bulbous roots that reacted to movement. The reaction was simple - to catch and strangle. It could grow on the floor, on the ceiling, and even on the walls. I propagated it through the dungeon and decided to call it Strangleroot in the future.

Then there was one more thing to focus on. In nature, there were types of lichens that extracted water from the air. Using my Anima focused the intent on a summoned bone, making it grow on the closest wall and lose its white color, somehow forcing it to look more and more metallic, like most things in my dungeon. It turned and twisted, growing more porous and even forming small tubes in which water would be stored. And then it was done. Bone Lichen - the living silver - was claiming the walls everywhere. It would serve as a good enough plant to keep my other flora from rusting.

Not that I was sure that it was needed at all.

Now there remained two things to do - hiding my core and making sure that Daniel was stowed away.

And then… then I’ll just face the odds.