Lune Alpenglow
Luné stood in shock. The knight bowing her head in reverence, was truly summoned by her ability. She felt warmth flood her from the Dungeon’s Core. She looked at the Swordmaster, and spoke, “Please don’t bow to me. I’m not that important.” Sebastia immediately hops up onto her feet, and points at Luné accusatorially, “Do not dare discount yourself, my Lady! You summoned me away from my eternal fight! Knowing the tower will never open again, I can serve you faithfully and with no hesitation, as my homeland is free of the war god’s wrath, either way!” Startled by this sudden pointing and gesturing, Luné shrinks a little away from Sebastia, who sees this and brings her hand back to herself. “What I am saying, my Lady, is that you have freed me from my torment, even if it wasn’t your intent.” Luné stares silently, and with a small push from the Core flooding her with warmth again, she stutters, “O-Okay.” Sebastia looks around at that, and then asks, “My Lady? Where exactly are we? And what is this floating orb?” Luné looks at the Core, and speaks, “That’s the uhm… That’s this dungeon’s core.” She still feels awkward with Sebastia being summoned by her, and she is currently mulling over the implications of this, and the possibility that Carcere Fabricator is far more powerful than she ever gave it credit for.
Sebastia stares at the core, silently, as Luné decides to look at the management menu again, and she speaks, “Dungeon Core Management”. The screen opens in front of her, as Sebastia turns to look at Luné and starts walking over, to get a look as well.
Dungeon Core Management
Resources:
1x Oak Collection Point
1x Copper Collection Point
Manage Resources
Monsters:
1x Void Sprite Spawner Level 10
1x Spider Spawner Level 5
Manage Monsters
Denizens:
Luné Alpenglow (You)
??? (Error)
Sebastia Rin
Manage Denizens
Rooms:
Dungeon Core Room Level 1
Barracks Level 1
Crafting Room (Under Construction)
Manage Rooms
Expeditions:
Void Sprites x3 - 3:36 (Returning)
Spiders x3 - 3:36 (Returning)
Manage Expeditions
Dungeon Mana Pool 27/200
Luné notices that the error hasn’t left the Denizens, despite Sebastia being added. She’s about to press “Manage Denizens”, when Sebastia speaks, “Uhm… My Lady? Can we perhaps not have spiders? They freak me out a bit.” Luné instead presses the “Manage Monsters” button, then she selects the Spider Spawner. A small bit of sadness can be felt from the core, as Luné begins browsing what other monsters she can have instead. She selects the Wolf for 10 Mana, and a warning pops up.
WARNING
By proceeding, all Spiders on expedition will be lost, and become Masterless Monsters. All Spiders within Dungeon’s Territory shall return to the spawner, and exit once they are Wolves. If the Spawner is damaged or attacked during conversion, it will be canceled, and the mana will be refunded. Do you wish to proceed?
Y/N
She presses the “Y” not fully understanding everything, but knowing that fighting Masterless Monsters will be a good test of Sebastia’s capabilities. Sebastia smiles, and begins speaking, “Thank you, my Lady. I ha-” Her voice is cut off as both feel a sudden instinct telling them to prepare for a fight. Sebastia begins moving from Luné, heading up the stairs with extreme speed. Luné on the other hand, has a pull towards the pulsing core, which beats more rapidly with each step she takes. Placing a hand on the core, her vision goes black, and she falls to the floor.
As her vision returns, she can see, and feel the whole dungeon. She can see Sebastia throwing open the front door of the dilapidated home that is the dungeon. Outside of the house, she can see three balls of darkness floating away from three rather large spiders. The spiders are about the size of a foot. Why are those spiders so big!? As Luné thinks this, she can see Sebastia turn her head to look behind herself in confusion, she then shakes her head in confusion, and draws her sword, waiting on the porch. Luné starts to focus on the balls of darkness, and she can feel time slow, as a menu appears:
Monster Menu
Void Sprite Level 10 x3
Health: 6/10, 10/10, 8/10
Strength: 0
Dexterity: 3
Constitution: 1
Spirit: 6
In Combat
Current Orders: Retreat
Speak to set new orders.
“Attack the enemy,” she says, unsure if this will work. Even with the slowed time scale, she can see the Sprites already launching small dark projectiles from their sides, and reversing in direction. They can completely invert their movement direction extremely rapidly. She then moves her focus to the Spiders, bringing up another menu:
Monster Menu
Masterless
Spider Level 5 x3
Health: 10/10, 10/10, 10/10
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 2
Constitution: 1
Spirit: 1
In Combat
Current Orders: Assaulting Dungeon
These are the three spiders that were on expedition then? Maybe I should have kept them? No. I wouldn’t be able to sleep well. She then turns her focus to Sebastia, and a different menu pops up:
Denizen Menu
Sebastia Ria
Female Human
Swordmaster Level 100
Experience: 498/1088
Health: 160/160
Mana: 40/40
Strength: 36
Dexterity: 31
Constitution: 16
Spirit: 21
Armor: 15
Titles:
Martyr of the East Tower
Savior of Enna Evas, goddess of Weather
Protector of Enna Evas, goddess of Weather
Protector of Minun Irantus, goddess of Knowledge
Protector of Zeke, god of Agriculture
Hero of Grandia
Knight of Grandia
In Combat
Casting Spell: Grandia’s Banner
Luné focuses on the spell, wondering what it is, and yet another menu appears before her.
Grandia’s Banner
Cast time: Instant
Requirements: Knight of Grandia
The caster summons the Nation of Grandia’s Banner to their side, increasing the strength, dexterity, and spirit of all allies, within 50 feet of the banner, by 10. All allies within 50 feet of the banner, can no longer be inflicted with fear or otherwise be routed. This Banner can be destroyed.
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“Knights of Grandia! We fight today to protect our home! To protect our people! We fight beside our Adventurer’s Guild brethren, to wipe this undead scourge off our lands! These damned Necromancers dare to march on us with our own dead!? We shall show them not to defile the bodies of our loved ones! See them exit the tree line! See them, and burn your anger into their soulless bones, so that our loved ones can know how angered we are to see them used like this! Free our people, and let them rest! CHARGE!!!” -Sebastia Ria, before the counter push against the Undead Siege of Grandia.
Luné stares silently at the spell, and it finally properly hits her, as a blazing light begins appearing at the side of Sebastia, that Sebastia is from a different world. Her ability takes people from other worlds and brings them here to be her servant. That is quite a lot of power, but right now, she must focus on the battle. As she stops focusing on each of the different combatants, time begins flowing properly again, causing the blazing light to properly form a banner with a lion roaring on it. The same blazing light appears on Sebastia’s free hand, forming a kite shield with the same lion on it. She begins running forward, as the second volley is launched from the void sprites. Their first volley already hit the spiders, just before Grandia’s Banner was in play. Raising her shield, Sebastia blocks two of the web balls that had been launched at one of the sprites. The final ball hit its sprite, but the sprite is undeterred, and then calm, as the volley lands with almost triple the power, vaporizing the spiders.
Luné feels something, and realizes she gained mana from that. Or, rather, the Dungeon gained mana from that. She smiles at her three sprites and Denizen, and then focuses on the sprites again, ordering them to continue as they were originally, causing them to start floating back to the house again. Sebastia relaxes her stance, and sheathes her sword, as the shield flares and fades, along with the banner. She begins walking back, as Luné starts observing the area.
They seem to be in a dense forest of some kind, though she cannot see past the borders of the dungeon. The house itself needs work done on it. It's way too rundown to live in comfortably. She then looks around the house, finding the Oak Resource, and the Copper Resource. She finds where the crafting room is supposed to be, and can see webs haphazardly left on the ground, as if they were dragging things, and sprites floating about, working together to move things. She checks the next room, and finds beds of spider silk. She knows neither of the two will be sleeping there, even if it is the barracks. She looks around the rest of the house, finding plenty of room for more rooms, and what was probably once two personal bedrooms upstairs. She then hears a muffled voice, and looks back at the core room, which is in the basement. “My Lady! We did it! We sto-” as Sebastia enters the room, and steps on the stairs, she sees Luné’s collapsed form, and sprints down the stairs, yelling out, “My Lady!” She crouches down beside Luné and lifts her up slightly, “My Lady!? Speak to me!”
Luné didn’t really know how to go back to her body at the moment, so she tried something. Earlier, she had thought something to herself, and Sebastia had turned to look behind herself, perhaps Sebastia can hear her? She spoke, “I’m okay, Sebastia.” Sebastia jolts, and turns her head to look behind herself again, then looks down at Luné, “Are you sure, my Lady? You seem to be unconscious, and are somehow speaking in my ear.” Luné notices the core is missing now, and continues speaking, “I am fine. I think I am the dungeon’s core, right now. I can see everything going on, and order the monsters to do things. The Void Sprites are slow, but I could get them to come down to the core room, or I could have them go do something else. It looks like they are busy building though.” Sebastia nods slowly, and then says, “My Lady, could you perhaps try to come back to your body?” Luné starts to focus on her body, trying to force her way back in, only for another menu to pop up, causing Luné to yell out, “I hate all these menus!!!” Sebastia jolts, and doesn’t ask about that outburst, as Luné presses the button to re-enter her body.
Luné opens her eyes, as the Core exits out of her hand, leaving no visible mark. A feeling of warmth emanates from it, and she smiles. She then looks up at Sebastia, who smiles and pats her head, “Welcome back, my Lady. It's far less creepy this way.” Luné starts sitting up, and puts a hand to her chin. Sebastia watches silently. Then Luné speaks, “Manage Expeditions.” A menu pops up in front of her, and Sebastia watches over her shoulder, reading along:
Expeditions Menu
Monster Expedition
Denizen Expedition
Luné has an idea, and speaks, “Explanation of Expeditions.” A small submenu appears, asking if she meant “Help:Expeditions”, to which she responds with a confused “Yes?” A new menu appears, explaining that expeditions cause the map available to a Dungeon Core to expand. If an expedition does not return, the map is not updated with the expedition’s information. Explored areas cost less to expand to. Luné lets out one word, “Shit.” Sebastia looks at her, confused as to why she just cussed randomly. Luné speaks, as she looks at the core, “You were using the spiders to explore, and because I didn’t allow them to return, we didn’t get it, did we?” A small hint of sadness is felt through the bond, and Luné sighs, knowing she fucked up when she swapped the spiders over. “Expansion Menu,” she says, followed by, “Map.” Both appear before her, but she looks at the map first. Like she thought, they are in the middle of a forest, based off of the squares of filled map around the dungeon’s area, which is highlighted in blue. However, with the map, she can also see a bunch of letters marking where she can expand. She then looks at the Expansion Menu:
Expansion Menu
Expansion
Cost
Expansion
Cost
N1 (Explored) (Set North)
50
N2 (Explored) (Set North)
50
N3 (Explored) (Set North)
50
E1 (Explored)
50
S1 (Explored) (Set South)
50
S2 (Set South)
100
S3 (Set South)
100
W1
100
U1 (Explored)
100
D1
100
Glancing at the map, she doesn’t see U1 or D1. “Show Expansion U1,” she says, unsure it will even work. However, it does, and the map simply changes, going up a layer, which reveals U1 to be directly above the current dungeon area. She smiles, as she starts to figure out how this system works. “Current Mana.” A new menu opens, revealing the Ambient Mana to have gone down, and the Dungeon’s mana to have gone up to 41/200. She stares at the Ambient Mana, a bit upset to have decreased it by summoning Sebastia, but at least it did not go down to common, and is still rare. “Close all but Expeditions Menu.” All menus close, leaving just the Expeditions Menu, and she presses the Denizen Expedition button, saying “Help:Denizen Expedition.” A new menu opens, explaining the difference between Monster Expeditions and Denizen Expeditions. Aside from being able to trade with people, and hold conversations, Denizens can gather resources while away, and the dungeon gains mana equal to ten times the amount of areas they explore. She selects Sebastia for an expedition, and chooses to have her focus on exploration, and sets the amount of time she can be away for as two hours. She then looks at Sebastia, and says, “Try to get to the edge of the forest.” She then presses the button. Sebastia starts getting up, “Understood, my Lady. I shall be back when I am done.” A warning pops up in front of Luné, which states that Sebastia cannot be completely ordered. As Sebastia walks off, Luné sits quietly, and she begins thinking on what else to do. She decides to put her hand on the core again, wanting to figure out how to join together at will, rather than whenever the dungeon could be in danger.
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Sebastia Rin
Sebastia was quietly walking north, determined to reach the end of the forest. She walks calmly and happily. On the lookout for any enemies, as usual. Back before she entered the tower, she had to walk through a swamp, marshland, and jungle, just to reach a town that was cut off from the world. There she fought the king of the Inner Sea; met Irae, the Silent Hero; protected Minun, and went home with a cracked sword, but a happy smile. She was in the middle of her musings, as she stumbled upon a small ruin. Searching around, she found nothing of note, aside from one skeleton with a journal and golden necklace. She crouches, and picks up the journal to read. It is the story of a small town, and a young man. The young man simply wished to live a peaceful life, but when a group of Dwarves found out about a gold deposit nearby, mercenaries attacked the village, and left none alive or remaining to tell the tale. Except him. He had hidden well, and when he came out, he found bodies, and missing bodies. Knowing they had been taken to be sold off into slavery, the man chose to give in to a simple life. Racked with guilt, he eventually came back, wrote his last entry, and killed himself. Sebastia frowns at the journal, then reaches and takes the necklace, "I hate doing this, but I have a feeling my Lady can use this somehow." She pockets the necklace, and takes the book with her, as she says, "I will be back to bury you properly." She continues on her way.
As Sebastia walks, she notices something odd. The forest has gone silent. She lays a hand on the hilt of her sword, ready for anything. Continuing her walk, she eventually hears the sound of running. She stops walking, and watches the direction of the noise, and she realizes that there are voices as well. A deep growling voice can be heard in the distance, “Find them! We cannot lose track of them!” Sebastia stands still, as a young man and young woman run into her sight. They are wearing rags, and have many bruises and cuts on them. They freeze on seeing her. Sebastia grows angered, as she is reminded of the many slave rings she busted in Grandia. As more running feet grow closer, the two start running to her, as she hasn’t made a move. They try to pass her, only to feel her grab them, and bring them behind herself. The young woman punches Sebastia’s armor, terrified that they miscalculated. The young man was simply trying to pull away, but stops as Sebastia speaks, “Stay behind me, children, and do not run. My Lady shall keep you safe. As is the duty of Heroes.” She lets go, and steps forward, if the children were to run, she would be unable to stop them, but they remain at least, until the enemy shows their faces.
Four Beastkin enter into sight, and one points at Sebastia, yelling out, “Human! Where are those slaves!? You’d better say, or we’ll lock you up too!” Sebastia draws her sword, answering, “And why would I do that? I did not know this land was as rife with debauchery and villainy as my homeland, but I shall not look away as I did when I was a young woman.” The Beastkin begin growling and approaching, starting to stalk towards the Human. Sebastia raises a hand, and casts a spell she knows will work well here. “Enna’s Step”, a spell taught to her by the goddess herself. It increases the speed at which an individual can move, by double, for 18 seconds. More than enough to remove these small fry. With the burst of speed, she closes the gap in a second, and with two rapid slashes, she cuts down the first. A number appears in front of her, popping out and away from the slashes, “36” and “36”. The first is red, and the second is black. The wolfman falls to the dirt, dead already.
The three Beastkin are startled by the sudden attack, and turn to face her, slashing their weapons towards her. The closest two’s swords hit her armor, glancing off. The third is moving his position, ready to attack. As Sebastia slashes the two attacking her, she sees two red “36”s. The two attacking her begin to turn tail and run, terrified that they can’t harm the human in front of them, and the third, clearly their leader, slashes at her again. His axe finds perch in a small chink in her armor, and she sees a red “2” appear in the corner of her view.
The axe is removed, to strike again, and she takes that opportunity to chase the runners, who she slashes again, dropping them both. She turns and faces the final Beastkin, who readies his axe. She speaks, “Yield, and I may let you live.” He charges her, causing her to rush up to him, and slash twice, and with a flourish, she places a bolt of fire into his chest. Three red numbers pop up, “36” “36” and “21”. The axe is thrown at Sebastia’s head, and she ducks under, slashing up at the Beastkin twice, cutting into his flesh again. He slashes at her chest, and she jumps back, tossing another bolt of fire, making a red “21” appear. He drops to his knee, huffing and puffing. Sebastia realizes this man is no longer able to fight, and begins sheathing her blade. She approaches, and stands in front of him, “Do you yield?” He looks up and growls at her, holding the nastiest of his wounds. Sebastia speaks again, “It would be wise of you to yield.” She raises a hand to the sky. The Beastkin speaks with vitriol, “I will never yield to a filthy Human.” Sebastia frowns, and speaks with a cold and calm voice, “Then perish.” She casts “Smite”, and brings her hand down towards him. A blast of holy light comes through the trees, and crushes the Beastkin to the floor. A black “84” appears from him, and she lets her hand hang.
The two Humans tentatively step out into view from a bush. Sebastia looks at them, and smiles, happy they were not hurt, and had not run off. She speaks to them, in a warm and calm voice, “Are you two alright, I was a little worried you had run off.” The young man speaks, as he stands in front of the young woman, “What are you?” Sebastia does a small bow to the two, and says, “I am Sebastia Rin, Martyr and Savior of the Skies. Loyal servant of my Lady, Luné. Allow us to tend to your wounds and keep you safe.” The young woman start to take a step, but the young man stops her, asking, “How do we know you’re not actually trying to sell us off into slavery too? It was Humans who did to us first.” Sebastia is silent, thinking, then she says, “Well, if I were to, then I would not talk to you. I could easily grab you and lock you down, as my armor will protect me from your strikes. Likewise, if I chose to attack you, my blade would likely cleave you in two. I have no outward hostility to you, and I know my Lady will accept you without question.” She then pauses for a second, before continuing as she realizes she doesn’t actually know what Luné will say, “I hope.” The young man relaxes a little, but as they begin following her, they keep their distance. The three begin to return to the dungeon.
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Luné Alpenglow
Luné was quietly observing the happenings of the dungeon, when she felt a feeling of two sets of unfamiliar feet and a set of familiar feet. Shifting her attention, she looks at Sebastia and the two children with her. She focuses on the two kids, and gets a menu for them:
Invader Menu
1
Koto Youngthorne
Male Beastman:Kitsune
Commoner Level 3
Health: 14/20
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Constitution: 2
Spirit: 4
Currently: Following Denizen Sebastia Rin
Illusion: Human Appearance
2
Miyoshi Youngthorne
Female Beastman:Kitsune
Commoner Level 1
Health: 8/10
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Constitution: 1
Spirit: 3
Currently: Following Invader Koto Youngthorne
Illusion: Human Appearance
As Sebastia enters the Dungeon’s house, a notification appears, and Luné speaks, “Lead the two Kitsunes to the crafting room. It just finished a few minutes ago, and has chairs for them to sit.” Sebastia speaks, “As you command, my Lady.” Koto and Miyoshi look a little unnerved by that, and by the sprites floating about and ignoring them. But they are not running yet. Luné smiles, and looks at that notification now.
Expedition Results: Sebastia Rin
Enemies Encountered
Beastkin Brigand Level 23 (Killed)
Beastkin Warrior Level 12 (Killed)
Beastkin Warrior Level 18 (Killed)
Beastkin Brigand Level 40 (Executed)
26 Mana Gained from Kills
40 Mana Gained from Executions
Time Away: 1 hour, 49 minutes, 55 seconds
Map Updated
100 Mana Gained from Explored Areas
Excess Mana Released to Ambient Mana
Resources Gained
Gold Necklace
Deceased Man’s Book
Luné raises a metaphorical eyebrow at the resources, but she smiles happily from the excess mana. She chooses to hold off on expanding right now, and disconnects herself from the core. It was time to greet the guests.