A new sort of energy rushed into me. Through dream logic, I knew this to be mana, and I had gained it from the bat's death. Brains leaked from the poor creatures every facial orifice. They dribbled onto my core, still hidden within the bat’s mouth. Thankfully, despite the cracks and scratches, I was still in one piece. With a thought, I repaired the core, squelching brain matter around the mouth of the creature.
Gross. I thought idly. I couldn’t do anything but watch though, so I did just that. The bat fell from the air, approaching the now visible ground with increasing speed.
As if summoned by the commotion, dozens of other bats entered my view, clicking and chirping their way towards my fallen victim. The largest one held the lead, bullying the others in order to keep it.
He crashed into my victim with full force, clamping down on whatever part of the body his little claws could purchase. The other bats attempted the same, but were getting rebuffed by the larger bats' wingbeats. The larger bat seemingly kissed the corpse it held, but I could sense its tongue worming its way around my dungeon core. Like the first bat, it wanted to eat me.
Shouldn’t I have minions to protect me? I thought. Summon goblin!
Nothing happened.
I sighed, a little disappointed. I didn’t really want a goblin anyways, they were just so… I don’t know, boring. Tried and trivial. I should take some time to consider what sort of dungeon I wanted to be. Before that though, preserving my own life should probably be a priority.
Die. I commanded.
The large bat’s brain detonated.
Well that’s boring.
It was just too easy. However, I did gain some more mana thanks to its death. Almost double what the first bat had given me. I wondered if the reason I couldn’t summon a minion yet was because I didn’t have enough mana. Thinking I would be able to summon at least something small and simple, like maybe a slime, if I had enough mana, I turned my attention to the rest of the swarm.
Detonate.
They continued fighting each other over the corpses of the other two bats. Finally, they reached the ground. The corpses collided with a soft thump, rolling over each other. My core dislodged itself from the original bat, rolling along the wing of the larger one until it nestled against its chest.
So I can’t kill creatures unless they touch my core. I mused. I wonder if I can make them do anything else.
Claws scrambled against my core’s surface, fighting to gain purchase. I waited for the perfect moment, when I knew a bat would touch my core. Then, I gave it a command.
Kill the others.
The bat I had commanded detonated, collapsing to the ground.
Boo. I pouted. At least I have other test subjects. You, kill the others.
That one didn’t work either. The mana I had gained thus far was significant, but apparently still not enough to summon a minion. I thought about what I could do instead of just killing all these bats. Perhaps my commands were too harsh. Maybe I should start a little simpler. Talk softer.
The next bat gripped me fully. It prepared to fly away from its competitors.
Let me go please. I asked. Not commanded.
The bat screeched, letting me go. It then collapsed onto the growing pile of corpses around me. Dead.
Interesting. Its brain is still intact. This can work! I just need to be softer!
The next three bats died in similar fashion. I was down to just half the total number of bats that had tried to capture me. If I didn’t figure out something soon, I might have to wait for something else to come along. And I didn’t like waiting.
I settled in, staring with interest at the bats that were attempting to kill me. Once again, one of them managed to grip me in its claws.
Obey me. I whispered, as softly as a thought could be.
It stopped screeching. It just flapped its wings, holding me gently. Success!
The other bats promptly attacked it, for it was holding their prize. My bat died soon after.
Aw. Nuts. Still, this was progress! And I noticed something interesting too. I didn’t gain any mana from the death. Meaning only ‘enemy’ creatures that died within my domain gave me mana. Well, I was assuming that any creature would work, as well as the fact that they had to be within my domain instead of touching me. If my life was truly on the line, it wouldn’t do to make assumptions. I had to make sure.
Obey me. I asked of the next bat. I felt it fall under my complete control.
Kill the others.
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Now that it was under my control, it easily took to the harsher command. It dropped my core onto the pile of bodies and struck out at one of the nearest bats. It seemed surprised, but quickly recognized a fight when it saw one. The two bats fought fiercely as I gained control of another bat.
Two of the five remaining bats were now under my control. This second one I did not tell to fight, and instead I had it abandon the conflict. It flew in lazy circles above the pile of corpses.
Suddenly, I sensed a snake enter my area of sight. My domain.
I want it. I thought immediately.
One after the other, I claimed the remaining pair of bats as my minions, gaining a few scratches on my surface for the efforts. I healed them without any effort. I had my newest minions join the first in its attempt to kill the remaining bat that remained outside of my influence. It seemed it was trying to escape, especially now that it knew it stood no chance.
The snake, on the other hand, ignored the bats entirely. It watched it as it approached the pile of corpses next to me. It sniffed the air with its tongue, coming closer. Once its nose brushed against the first bat, it flinched backwards. Blind, I realized. That didn’t stop it from opening its mouth to swallow the first of the downed creatures.
By the time it finished the first one, my bats had killed the straggler. Just as I suspected, I gained mana from its death. No more or less than the average of the others. Good to note. I still gained mana despite it not touching me.
I had my three warrior bats join my scout up above it all so I could watch the snake in peace. I still wanted to confirm for sure that any creature that died within my domain would give me mana, but I wanted to claim the snake as a minion even more.
It made slow progress along the floor, inching its way towards me. Deliberately, so it seemed, once it began passing on any more potential meals. I found it interesting that it could smell me, considering I was just a rock. Sure, a fancy rock, but a rock nonetheless. It’s tongue touched me.
Obey me. I whispered, same as I did with the bats.
The snake reared back in surprise. Then, after a moments hesitation, it opened its maw and scooped me up.
This again. I sighed. Thankfully, the snake didn’t have a powerful jaw, so it didn’t crush me like the bat tried. Then again, it also didn’t have a gag reflex, so it probably couldn’t spit me back out now my core was inside. I debated killing it instantly, but instead I held off, curious to know what the consequence of doing so would be.
The pain started once I got to what I assumed would be the stomach. And this time, I also felt my mana drain from me at a rapid pace.
Hey! That’s mine! Stop!
All movement ceased, and my avatar watched as the snake’s brain exploded out its mouth. The instant it died, I got some mana from the kill. Nowhere near the amount that had been stolen from me, but still, more than any individual bat. Regardless, it was a net negative.
Rescue me. I commanded my four bats, passively healing myself from the stomach acids. The pain wasn’t too bad, thankfully. It was like a bad itch, all over. An interesting feeling, since my physical body was a perfect sphere.
The bats landed near where my core was within the snake. They scratched and bit at the scales, peeling bits of it off as they went. Some of the bats ate what they tore off, while the others just threw the bits to the side.
I noticed that I gained a miniscule amount of mana when one of the bats ate an iota beyond what it would consider full.
Time for an experiment then. Consume what you can.
All four of my bats now ate the snake as they went. Tiny specks of mana slowly entered me as they ate beyond their fill. Interestingly, none of them seemed to ever get overly full from the effort. They reached a point where they would consider themselves satiated, and any extra converted directly into mana for me.
Mana, which I now began to notice, that was slowly draining as I healed myself.
Ah sugar. I swore. I switched the bats back to just throwing the bits of flesh onto the ground, favoring speed instead of the extra minute mana gain.
I wish I knew how much mana I had. That way, I’d be able to manage it more properly.
A number flashed in my head.
1.20097180001… The number went on.
Yesh, too many digits. Never mind. The number vanished.
I settled back, resigning myself to wait.
----------------------------------------
The bats freed me eventually. During my time imprisoned, a number of critters had entered my domain. Nothing large this time, just bugs. Centipedes, cockroaches, flies, and whatever else I didn’t bother identifying. Unlike the larger creatures, the insects didn’t seem overly interested in my core. One happened to crawl over it on accident, and when I tried to command it, it just died.
After having the bats catch and hold bugs onto me for some experiments, it seemed that no matter how quietly, softly, or politely I asked, any bug that I tried to command would just die. So, rather than attempt it any more, I just had all four of my bats go hunting. I still got mana from insect deaths after all.
I wondered what the limit was. Like, could I gain mana from single celled organism deaths? Maybe I already was, but the gains were so small I just couldn’t notice.
Regardless, now that I had some free time, I decided to see just what exactly I could do in this dream. After all, this was only my first time having a dungeon core dream. Now that it happened once, it was bound to happen again. And when it did happen, I wanted to know exactly where the limits lied. What the rules this dream went by. Was I allowed to fly? Move by myself, even if it was teleporting? So many things to figure out!
It would destabilize the dream, I knew that much, but I really wanted to try and do something by myself, instead of having my minions do all the work. So I tried to fly.
I willed myself to leave the ground. For gravity to decrease.
Nothing.
Teleportation? Nope. And that was an easy one! Ok, what about rolling? Nope, not that either. Summoning other creatures didn’t work either, I’d already tried that one. What about creating objects? Food. A fancy pedestal for me to rest on. A pillow? A pebble? A fucking grain of sand!?
An immense vacuum surrounded me, sucking out every ounce of mana I had. Without a sound, a single fraction of a grain of sand fell onto the top of my core.
Great. That sucks. THIS sucks. I’m bored. I want something interesting to happen. I don’t care if the nightmares come, let’s just get this over with. So come on dream. Do your worst.
I waited. The bats continued attacking insects in the area, feeding me mana.
Hello? I acknowledged that this is a dream. Shouldn’t you destabilize now? Annnd go! Fade to black! Wake up!
One of my bats chittered.
Wake up!
Mana continued to flow around me.
WAKE UP!
I was genuinely starting to get scared. This was weird. I could still move, or at least my invisible avatar could. This wasn’t sleep paralysis. My avatar opened its mouth, and I tried to speak for the first time. To cry out. No sound emerged. Only my thoughts.
WAKE UP!