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Building a Dungeon

New minion added

Minion details:

Name: Geoff Livingston

Classification: Dungeon #32476 Monster

Race: Goblin Zombie

Level: 2

Pay rate: 1 tin per day, 2 tin per slain invader

Minions detected without room assignments

Any unassigned minions will be placed in stasis during invasions

Invasion defeated

Calculating results…

Invaders slain: 0

Invaders retreated: 0

Damage taken: 0

Damage dealt: 0

Minions slain: 0

Loot lost: none

Loot gained: none

Invasion duration: 18:41

Invasion reward: 1 tin

Loot value: 0 tin

No loot to covert

Total reward for invasion: 1 tin

A low rumble began behind Geoff, and then light filled the room. Glorious daylight filled the room as the door slid down into the floor. I still couldn’t tell what time it was but it was still day.

“Where is my spear? And my pack?” Geoff moaned in zombie speak.

Oh yeah… well at least he kept the loincloth.

“When you were dead the dungeon asked if I wanted to convert the stuff into coins, I thought you were dead dead so I agreed… Lilith ate it all.”

“Hey! That's not how it works at all I didn't eat anything!” the crown in question exclaimed.

With a sigh Geoff made his way out of the dungeon room, “Alright well I am going to go find my people. I’ll bring them back as quickly as possible and we can turn them.”

I nodded and my new zombie goblin friend vanished into the trees. He was definitely able to move better than me even with the leg wound that had turned him.

Dungeon Minion detected leaving area of influence

Dungeon wave event started

Maximum cumulative level of minions in dungeon wave: 3

Cumulative level of minions in wave: 2

“Uhhh what’s a dungeon wave?” I asked

“Just a fancy way of saying monsters can leave the dungeon but only as many as you can fit into a single room of the dungeon" Lilith answered sounding bored

“Alright, so nothing dangerous or weird is about to happen?”

“How should I know? I can’t read the future"

“Thanks"

“No problem”

It was hard to tell if Lilith was intentionally aggravating or if that was just her personality. Neither option was promising.

“So what now?” I asked

“You need to work toward raising your tier, you can't do anything about the five invasion requirement right now but you can build another room to hit the maximum room number at the Cave tier. It would be good if you added lighting as well and just figured out how to use the interface in general.”

That seemed reasonable enough so I decided that would be my next goal. I spent a few minutes walking around examining the outside of the room that was built when I put the crown on.

The room was a cube as I had suspected. About ten feet to a side, made of stone blocks of a type of stone I didn’t recognize, and totally lacking any interesting features. I felt like I was forgetting something but it must not have been important. Satisfied that the weird room was just a weird room and nothing special I moved on to building.

Or I would have if I knew how to start building. There had been talk of an interface so I knew I wasn’t supposed to literally build things. There had to be a way to activate it. I was absolutely not going to ask Lilith and invite that headache.

Dungeon construction initiated

I finally managed it by willing the interface to open. It seemed simple but just thinking about wanting something really hard was surprisingly awkward.

As soon as the message faded the world froze. My vision blurred for a moment and suddenly I was looking down at the clearing from above. I could see the black square dungeon room in the center of the clearing. Next to the dungeon room I saw… myself. It was strange looking down at this creature that was me. I hadn't even been in this world a full day yet and the new body was totally different from my old one. Even so, the new body felt familiar, correct, as if I had been walking around in it for years. Whatever weird magic ruled this world was powerful stuff indeed.

Then I noticed something off. Based on the view I had, I was a good thirty feet in the air right now, but if that was the case I would be in the treetops and shouldn't be able to see anything. The moment I thought that, my vision was blocked by leaves and branches. Well that would be inconvenient. Surely there had to be a way to move my point of view around. There would have to be if this was supposed to be a building interface, how else would you build inside a room for detail work.

Again, as soon as I thought about moving my view around, my view moved. Seems like the construction interface functions based on will like how I opened the thing in the first place. I took a minute to get used to exerting my will on the scene. I didn't try to make any changes, just moved my view around and through objects as well as making the leaves and even the roof of the existing room invisible to myself.

The whole thing reminded me a lot of base building games back on Earth. I had quite a bit of experience playing games and base building games were one of my favorites. I could lose myself for hours balancing resources and maximizing production lines. Thinking about resources made me wonder if there was such a thing here.

Dungeon construction resources

Mana coins:

14 tin

0 copper

0 silver

0 gold

0 platinum

0 mithril

Held material weight: 0/1000

Special items: none

Again the system supplied an answer before I even managed to fully form the question. The list was pretty small and confusing so I asked the dungeon directly.

“What are mana coins?”

Lilith's response was as acerbic as usual, “I think the name is pretty descriptive, coins made of mana, mana coins… currency… money… are you sure you’re not the mindless type of zombie?"

Unfortunately my current disembodied status meant I had no eyes to roll. She wasn't going to be any help, so I tried willing the mana coin section to expand. Nothing happened. I tried opening up a shop window or something. Nothing. I tried various mental commands for several minutes before giving up. I would probably figure it out eventually, everything related to the system had been fairly intuitive so far.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Putting the mana coin question aside for the moment, and definitely not giving up in frustration, I closed the resource window. I tried to will a room into existence next to the first.

Error: Room not attached to dungeon

Error: Insufficient held material to build room

Alright, now we were getting somewhere. Not attached to dungeon? Does that mean the entire dungeon had to be contiguous? That made some sense I supposed.

Error: Insufficient held material to build room

Great, that worked fine. My second attempt connected the new room to the existing one through the doorway, which eliminated one error. Now I just needed to figure out this held material thing. Double checking confirmed the resource window mentioned held material, saying I had zero of a thousand. My assumption would be that I had to have something to build the room out of and held material being at zero meant I had… zero material… Alright maybe it sounded obvious but this was new and I had no manual.

How then, did I get material? I didn't manage to open a shop window before so that probably wasn't it. Hold on, weren't dungeons usually underground? Maybe I could dig a second room out below the first.

Willing a cavern into existence under the first room with about the same dimensions actually worked. Suddenly the room had a basement, albeit one made entirely of dirt and tree roots. In order to satisfy the connected room requirement I had willed a stairwell of dirt in one corner and sure enough, the stairs connected the two rooms through a newly made hole in the floor. Intuitive indeed.

Now I needed lighting. There was definitely no way to make lights by digging a hole, so I would need to figure out how to add material. A quick check to the resource window confirmed my suspicion that digging out a basement had actually collected the dirt as material, and revealed the purpose of mana coins beyond paying minions.

Held material weight: 242/1000

Projected cost of changes: 2.42 tin

I wasn't sure how partial coins would be handled but at least I understood some of what was going on now. Still, held material didn't really break down WHAT material I held. Obviously I had a lot of dirt and some rocks and tree roots but I wouldn't be able to make torches or any other light source from that.

Wait… I converted the torch that Geoff carried earlier. It didn't add to my held material but maybe if I could convert items to mana coins, I could do the reverse? I flexed my will imagining a torch.

Error: Material types not unlocked for use

Missing material types: Cloth, Animal fat

Forcibly unlock material types?

Cost: 5 tin

Ok that worked… somewhat. I needed to unlock materials to use them in building. Doing it like this was possible but cost coins, that suggested there was another way to unlock materials.

“Lilith please tell me how to unlock materials, with minimal mocking and condescension.”

Lilith scoffed, “You're stuck already? You won't be making it very far if you can't even figure this little bit out. Fine. You can place any material you’ve absorbed before. Unlocking material just means absorbing it once.”

Well I got the answer at least, but it wasn't much of an answer. I had figured out that I could place what I absorbed but did that mean I could only place a bunch of dirt and sticks now? Some dungeon that would be. I really didn't want to spend five tin, more than a third of my wealth, for just one torch.

I needed lighting though… What about windows? I absorbed stones from the walls and ceiling creating a skylight and a window on each wall save for the doorway wall. That shed some light on the first room but the second had to rely on diffuse scraps of light from the stairwell. Maybe that wouldn’t matter, I was trying to build a second room to satisfy the tier up requirements, no one said anything about the rooms being useful.

I tried to confirm the changes.

Error: Room 2 is on a different floor, second floor not unlocked

Error: Room 2 structurally unsound

Error: Boss chamber designated as Room 1, Room 2 placed after Room 1, Rooms placed after Boss chambers classed as treasure rooms, treasure rooms not unlocked

I take back my praise of the systems intuitiveness. What the hell was I supposed to do with that mess of nonsense?

I ended up spending an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out how to make the damn thing work. I couldn’t place a room on a second floor, but I also couldn’t build at ground level without material to do so. I couldn’t get material without digging out a room underground, so I was stuck. I solved that problem by tearing out the floor of ‘Room 1’ making it one giant room that extended into the ground.

That set off a series of errors about structural stability and traps not being unlocked. I finally worked out that it considered the entry door being ten feet up from the floor was a trap, so I built a staircase down from stone that I had absorbed. Fortunately the stairs didn’t make the room two floors or something so that seemed valid.

Next I solved the structural issues by extending the stone walls of the original Room 1 down to the ground, then for good measure I made the floor from the same stone. That left me with a room barely bigger that my arms outstretched but twenty feet tall. Whatever.

Then I tried making the second room again, this time when I dug out a room it shared a floor with the first extending off to the side just under the forest floor. That satisfied the single floor requirement, but set off more structural errors. I resolved those by continuing the stone walls and floor theme. The ceiling of the second room was just under the surface so I added some dirt on top, hopefully plants would grow there and help disguise the oddity.

Finally I realized I had been making stone walls and floors far beyond what the material I had absorbed from windows and the removed floor could account for. I thought back on the wording of the errors and what Lilith had said and my gut sank. A quick test confirmed I had been a moron. Whenever I absorbed a material I unlocked that material for use. The held material gauge didn't show what material I held because it didn't matter. Material was material and I could place anything I had ever absorbed regardless of how much or when I had absorbed it. I had absorbed a few tree roots and gravel, so I could place a mountain of wood and rock.

That explained why the torch was so expensive, I would be unlocking materials that I didn't have for permanent use. The only difference I could find in the materials was how much they ‘cost' in weight. Each material had some value in weight, so I could, for example, absorb a yard of dirt and place a quarter as much stone. They had the same weight, but the weight wasn't based on actual weight but some nebulous value that I didn’t understand. I had absorbed some iron from my excavation and could now place iron but one ounce of iron had a similar value as five pounds of stone.

The whole thing was giving me a headache and I just wanted to be done. I quickly checked on the projected cost and decided unlocking the torch materials would be fine so I paid the fee. I was able to cut small divots in the walls that fit the torches so I wouldn't have to spend the material on brackets. Then I filled in the windows so I wouldn't have weather pouring in, no windows until glass or something.

With my torches placed and rooms built most of the troubles were done. I still needed to figure out how to change the boss chamb…

Select boss chamber:

Room 1

Room 2

Just be simple to use or complicated quit flipping back and forth! I still wasn't in my body so I couldn’t grit my teeth in frustration, but the dungeon knew. I selected room 2 as the boss room and cautiously, tentatively, hopefully, willed the process to finish.

Dungeon construction complete

Checking…

Checking…

Checking…

Don’t fuck with me dungeon, there are only two rooms, just build it!

Construction cost: 7.34 tin rounded to 8

Confirm?

YES! Do it!

My vision snapped back to my body and time resumed. It had taken me upwards of two hours to sort that mess out but no time had actually passed. I felt irrationally angry that no time had passed. I pushed the feeling away and moved into the dungeon to check it out with my own eyes.

Walking again after having spent so long without legs was more difficult than I imagined. The difficulty was only made worse by the stone stairs immediately in the door. I could understand now how the dungeon called the free hanging door a trap. Even only ten feet up, the stone floor ten feet below and no handrail made the stairs seem narrow and treacherous. Without the flickering glow from the torches even the stairs could probably be counted as a trap.

That caused me to pause and consider. The torches had been made by my will, I had imagined them lit and so they were. Obviously they would burn out with time, and I would need to replace them, but I should be able to extinguish them to save them for later.

When Geoff had been an invader the door had been locked and the room was fully dark. What would happen if I went down to the lower area and extinguished the torches? Whenever an invader entered, the door would shut and plunge the room into darkness, even if they had a torch of their own it would take a moment to light it during which they would be perched on these sketchy stairs in full darkness.

I would basically be making a trap manually rather than in the dungeon interface. Would that be allowed? How would it stop me if it wasn’t? Assuming it worked that would open a whole world of possibilities. Images flashed through my mind of swinging logs, pits of spikes, locked rooms set ablaze, flooded chambers, and all sorts of other ‘traps' that I could probably set up without being counted as a trap. Maybe being a dungeon boss would be an easy gig after all.

I quickly explored the entire ‘dungeon' It wasn't much of one to be sure. Only two rooms all of bare stone and torches. I only left one torch burning to keep the place lit, saving the rest for later. I couldn't tell how long they would last but they were definitely burning and not just magically lit forever or something. One of the unlit torches was placed at the top of the stairs for emergency lighting, at least until I realized I wouldn’t be able to light the thing. The only source of flame I had was the single still burning torch. Again I regretted just dissolving all the gear Geoff had brought without thinking about it first.

I had spent five tin unlocking the torches and another eight on construction, that left me with only two coins. I doubted I would be able to do much with two coins even if I did want to dive back into that mess. Tools like flint and steel would have to wait, furniture too for that matter. I really had overlooked some pretty basic things, but in my defense… fuck errors.

Geoff and his goblin family would probably bring some stuff with them when he returned. I wouldn't have to wait for them though would I? I was perfectly capable of walking, and while I probably wouldn’t be finding much of use at least I could look around a bit.

I climbed the stairs and left the dungeon again, intent on exploring the surroundings. As long as I didn't die and lose the crown I should be fine right? I picked a direction at random and started walking. Only fifty feet or so later a message popped up.

Error: Dungeon wave cumulative level cap insufficient to add monster

Cumulative level cap: 3

Current wave cumulative level: 2

Error: Dungeon Boss and Dungeon Crown cannot both be absent from dungeon at the same time

I see. I had forgotten about the level restriction on the wave, but what was that about the boss and the crown? The way that read made it seem like the dungeon boss and the crown could separate and one would be allowed to leave.

“Hey Lilith, what's this about us being absent at the same time?”

She didn't respond

“Lilith?”

This time Lilith snorted and sounded startled, “Huh, What?”

“Were… were you just asleep?”

“Of course I was, do you have any idea how boring it is to watch you fumble around trying to build a single room?”

“You could have helped."

“mmm no maybe next time.”

I rolled my eyes, glad to be able to do so again, “So? About the message?”

“What message?”

“The one that says we can’t both be absent at the same time?”

“What about it?” Now she was starting to sound irritated, which was irritating me in turn.

“That means one of us could be absent without the other right?”

“Yeah, so what?”

“I thought you said I couldn't take the crown off without dying"

“Yeeeeah? What is your point?”

I came very close to shouting at her then. It takes a lot to piss me off but this was doing it.

“How can one of us leave without the other if we are attached permanently?” I managed through gritted teeth, another thing I had been looking forward to being able to do again.

Lilith paused before answering sounding confused, “I… don't know… I did know but… the memory is gone…”

Our conversation was cut short as a troop of goblins led by Geoff entered the clearing with a clamor.