Now, can you understand me, or is some sort of emotion-based charades equivalent required to communicate anything more than ‘affirm or deny'?
It seemed this contract was immediately effective at solving the communication issue, as the imp froze in apprehension, eyes darting around the room, before settling on my core.
I'm going to take that as a yes. Now, if I may, I have some questions that I'd appreciate answers to before we continue with...Whatever it is that I'm expected to be doing.
Ten seconds passed as I waited for a response, before I realised my new 'minion', as the new addendum to her stat screen title helpfully informed me, was off in her own head and hadn’t parsed my question.
Ma'am?
"Oh...Sorry, you're the dungeon spirit r-Of course you are, I-I mean you're just, uh, more coherent than I was expecting..." she replied, looking away from where she imagined I was standing. I wasn't sure who she was trying to fool with her half-hearted attempt at playing down her shock. If even someone as inept in social situations as I could see through it, no-one was going to be fooled.
May I ask how coherent were you expecting, exactly?
"...Not. At all. Usually, uh, dungeon spirits take so long to mature that their personality's all gone by the time they-Oh, right, we evoked the core over three days, rather than...uh... twenty thousand years, so I guess it makes sense you're still, uh, lucid..."
I pretended I hadn't heard that for a moment, lest my unpleasantly morbid imagination run away with my attention. I’d have time for stomach-churning ‘what-if' scenarios later, once I had some idea of what I’d been dropped into.
Thank you, and to your master, for saving me from that fate, I guess. Now, the task at hand, if you'd be so kind.
"...Uh...Be a dungeon...?"
I was not amused.
And what exactly does that entail.
"S-sorry, I just, uh, well, y'know, we need you to-uh, be-"
Perhaps it was hypocritical of me to have so little patience for her tongue-tied stammering when I'd so often had problems with it myself, but her stop-start speech and the constant references to concepts I had no contextual understanding of had already become trying.
Stop.
Her sudden silence and almost mournful expression reminded me of a scorned child and I immediately felt guilty, even if the more detached parts of my brain insisted I wasn't being unreasonable (and that I was far too easily swayed).
Take a deep breath.
...
...
Now, if you would, please explain what exactly I'm expected to do here, both in general and for your...summoner?
"I'm, uh, not a summon. I'm a familiar. She's my boss...She, uh, hates being called 'mistress'...But, uh...I'm not an expert on dungeons...My job is to...y'know...manage the boss's inventory mostly...But shouldn't you know this? I mean, I know most dungeons spend years as, like, a room in the middle of nowhere, but you seem...human-y? So shouldn't you know this already?"
I mentally took a deep breath, briefly weighing up my options. On one hand, TV and fanfiction told me it was tradition to withhold facts like 'I'm from another world' in these sorts of situations for vague, usually important sounding reasons. There were definitely more practical reasons to keep your mouth shut, especially if you couldn’t afford to seem foolish, or didn’t want to draw attention to yourself.
On the other hand, bugger that. I'd never been one for keeping arbitrary secrets and, if I was going to have to deal with doubt and mistrust, I was going to bite the bullet and deal with it now.
Mmmm...My apologies, but we don't have dungeons where I'm from. Or imps, for that matter. Naturally, I can’t say for sure, but I’m think I might be from a different world. Maybe a different universe or dimension or plane altogether, considering inexplicably present menu options and combat statistics are another foreign concept, for the most part…
I braced myself for suspicion, or maybe laughter.
"Oh... I guess you're from one of the unenlightened realms then..." said Faryea, surprised but not particularly shocked.
...
Uh-huh?
...
As the possibility that her statement might be construed as an insult dawned on her, I cut off her impending string of apologies. Sure, I might’ve been a little sceptical that the world as I knew it could be considered ‘unenlightened’, but I was far more interested in how easily my statement had been accepted.
Look, calm down. I get it. Technical term, no insult intended. Whatever. And whatever you expect I'm going to do to you...I'm probably not that sort of guy. Anyway. Topic. Other worlds. Those are a documented...thing?
"...Mmm. Yeah. There's the other dimensions that outsiders come from, and the...uh...unenlightened realms beyond that. Which is where you're probably from. Those are the ones the gods haven't reached yet...So, you won't have knowledge of stat...stuff..." she said. I wanted to object, to perhaps explain more about the place I came from, to question just how concrete her assessment was, considering how vague she was being, but I didn’t. It wasn’t an explanation I was happy with, but I wasn't going to bother looking for a better one while there were other, more pressing matters to be considered.
"So, the boss, uh, wants the first floor to be usable by level one adventurers, so 'Recommended Level: 1-5' is what's needed, I think. They'll need material to bring back to town for gear, and they'll need monsters to kill for combat class exper-Wait, you probably d-"I am familiar with the concept of experience, don't worry. "...Oh, okay...? Uh, I don't know much about...I’m not the one that does dungeons…But since you’re able to access the gods’ command system, help should tell you the basics...I think," she finished lamely.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I would've sighed if I had the necessary organs for it. Partly because I still had a thousand and one questions unanswered, all burning away in the back of my mind, and partly because, as someone who considered themselves a habitually accommodating gentleman, this was really all I needed to go out and do what was asked of me.
Alright...Let's see what this magic menu system thing can do. Help.
* * * * * * * *
Strike the Earth!
A dungeon core can excavate unclaimed earth at a rapid pace with little more than a mental command and a small investment of Mana. It should be noted that, though mass select might trick one into thinking it can be adjusted to the spirit’s exact desires, the excavate command is rigid and immutable, limited to one specific set of dimensions that is known as a ‘Tile’. As a result, dungeon excavations will always occur in set patterns (even if room upgrades can allow for more minor alterations to room shape).
The magic that supports a dungeon's structure is ever growing, but finite at any singular point in time. There is a hard limit on the number of tiles that the dungeon can support, known as 'Space Capacity' or SC. If the dungeon core attempts to excavate more tiles than are available, the command's natural magic will fail.
Any set of tiles with a minimum size of 3 x 3 can be designated a room. Any area not designated a room is considered a 'corridor'. Rooms are considered a single entity by the Dungeon Core and have a stronger link to it than corridors, allowing them to be upgraded directly. A Core can only support a limited number of 'Rooms' per floor, depending on its strength. This is known as 'Room Capacity' or RC.
* * * * * * * *
After skimming through the explanations of basic dungeon architecture and the mental commands to quickly access the menu's help function, I immediately dove into creating the skeleton of what would be my first floor, spurred on by both curiosity and the barest silhouette of a plan. Some might’ve already had greater ambitions, others might’ve already started thinking about getting home, but, for now, I was more than content to just learn the ropes of what I was doing. If this was going to be my life, I was going to get invested in it.
Firstly, though, I needed to actually reach the first floor.
There was a certain gratification in the process of digging, in watching the roughly hewn tunnel drill downwards, one regularly shaped block of earth at a time crumbling into nothing. While the novelty would likely wear off quickly, especially with how time consuming it was, going one at a time, for now it brought a sort of cathartic glee, with just enough of a sense of effort that I could grok that it was me doing it.
Two minutes of digging opened up a tunnel that corkscrewed from underneath where the altar once stood (for where else would you put the entrance to a dungeon in an abandoned chapel), all the way down to the limits of what I could reach. While each tile needed to be laid edge to edge on the horizontal plane, it was possible to connect each tile half way down the last (known as a 'step', according to what I was quickly beginning to call 'the manual'), which allowed for what could roughly be considered a staircase.
I didn't dwell on it, for the sake of preserving my companion's opinion of me, but ‘FEAR MY POWER OVER THE VERY EARTH, MORTALS’ definitely crossed my mind.
From there, I opened up a small entrance hall, just big enough for me to designate it as a Room.
> Quote:You have opened a room on a new floor. Would you like to designate this as your new core room (20 Mana)?
**WARNING** THE CORE IS CURRENTLY HOUSED IN A TEMPORARY ROOM. REMOVING IT WILL DESTABILISE CONTROL OVER -ROOM #1-.
ACCEPT
[REJECT]
As liable as I was to ‘mash’ through random menu prompts normally, I wasn't too keen to do something I likely couldn't reverse. More pressingly, however, was what the prompt had indirectly brought up. Knowing my core was housed in a ‘temporary room’ was a little disconcerting and immediately put me on edge. What did that exactly entail anyway?
Mulling it over, my general good mood evaporated, undercut with ‘oh god, did I screw something up?’
I knew it wasn't exactly a rational thing. In fact, it was likely the same sort of overreaction I had whenever I tossed out bread a day expired. Unfortunately, telling myself that never actually helped. If I tried to stomp down on it without anything else to distract me, it’d bother me for days. I had to be certain.
With an off-hand thought, I opened up the Chapel's status page.
> Quote:ROOM #1The Chapel
> Status: Temporary Room - Perilous | Core Room
> Threat Level: [0]
> Monsters:
> Traps:
> Constructs & Objects: Altar, Pews x 16, Decorative Carpet, Dust Bunnies
Actions:
Catalogue all unknown items present.
Absorb all available constructs: [2 Mana]
Abandon RoomCan't abandon Core Room
Upgrades:
Permanently attach this room to the dungeon [500 Mana | 16 SC | 1 RC]
Stabilise control [50 Mana]
Most of the screen went in one ear and out the other. My attention was held by a single, stomach turning word. 'Perilous' wasn't a reassuring word. It was the opposite of reassuring. Still, my logical, detached side that stood in place for optimism reminded me that the specifics could mean anything.
Elaborate.
> Quote:Temporary Room - Perilous
> This room has not been reinforced with Mana and is only tenuously under the dungeon's control. If the structure of this room is damaged, it will collapse.
It was like suddenly noticing ominous cracks in the ceiling above your bed. I couldn't not think about it. I was considering just spending the mana and dropping my core in the newly made room...But then I'd also lose the chapel, which triggered feelings of ‘waste not, want not’. I briefly warred with myself over the matter, before my attention briefly skimmed over the menu once more and I noticed the Stabilise option. How convenient.
I checked my remaining mana. Thirty six out of fifty left.
Manual, Explain Mana Generation
> Quote:Mana Generation
> Per the First Law of Thaumadynamics, mana cannot be created or destroyed except by the gods.
...
Manual, please Explain how a dungeon spirit gains, collects or restores the resource marked as 'Mana', if it would behove you.
> Quote:Resources 101: Collecting Mana
There are three primary ways a dungeon can collect mana.
The first is via the slow diffusion process. As a dungeon naturally drains its surroundings, mana from beyond the dungeon's limits will slowly flow to replace it. This amount scales with the size of the dungeon.
The second is via the absorption of mana-rich matter. When a dungeon core absorbs an object that contains mana, that mana is directly added to its collection. Absorbing matter also allows for the creation of similar objects or creatures, or the integration of these elements into the dungeon's own designs.
The third is by installing constructs that can generate effects that draw mana from external sources. These are on a case by case basis, but include everything from Healing Fountains to Siphon Traps to Sacrificial Altars.
I very deliberately didn't think about the implications of that last one.
Absorbing objects that contained mana seemed like the obvious way to go. I eyed the 'absorb' option for the Chapel, but ultimately dismissed it. I could, but it seemed like a pretty pitiful amount of mana and I found it hard to tell what exactly was being absorbed. Really, I could put that off till later.
No, obviously, if I was going to sustain any sort of expansion, I needed to obtain such things from an external source...Even if it made me uneasy. 'Mana rich matter' was suspiciously vague and I had a bad feeling regarding its most commonly used sources. There had to be more to it than that, even if the manual had little to say regarding it.
I needed a second opinion on the matter.