Rick scoffed but was grateful to see Jimmy lying in a fetal position on the floor, stripped of his hazmat suit, rather than running off or trying to destroy his Core in a panic.
Turning back to the available information, he wondered what the Energy was for. Just as he wondered, it was as if he mentally clicked on the words, expanding into an explanation:
Energy: Consume Energy to mold the dungeon to your will. Skill usage will consume Energy. Repairing Core damage will consume Energy. Depletion of Energy will have adverse effects.
“Alright, let’s see if I can ‘mold something to my will’,” Rick mumbled and focused on the door to the safe.
“Uh, open sesame!”
The locked handle turned and swung the door to the safe open.
2 Energy consumed.
“Woah,” Rick breathed out.
“Ah, what the fuck?!” Jimmy yelped and kicked the safe door shut from his spot on the ground, leaving him panting.
Immediately, Rick found a pen and paper close by on the office desk. Essentially, he just imagined the pen working for him and commanded it to write a quick note: Jimmy, it’s me. Rick. I’m alive in the stone.
2 Energy consumed.
Rick slid the paper off the desk and across the floor, making Jimmy twitch.
2 Energy consumed.
“Shit, this isn’t going to be very efficient. Gotta find a better way.”
Jimmy picked it up and read it, “Aw man, you’re a ghost?” he groaned.
Rick scribbled more words on the paper: No. Standby. Need to find a more efficient way to communicate.
2 Energy consumed.
Not only was this way of communication taxing on his Energy, but for some reason, it made him feel sick. Like the Core was resisting the act of expending Energy to communicate. Some new, instinctual part of him told him to stop.
“You got it, bro, I’m not going anywhere, but I’m gonna order some pizza, Ok?”
Rick didn’t respond. He knew Jimmy ate when he was stressed. Instead, he scanned the rest of his information.
Skills:
Identify: Consume 5 Energy to pull more information on anyone or anything in your domain.
Absorb:
* Consume 5 Energy to absorb any non-sentient objects to add to Core registry.
* Replenish 5 Energy by absorbing the remains of sentient beings. Adds all skills of fallen being to Core registry
Produce: Energy consumption varies based on the object produced.
Rick noticed that his Energy went up by one while he was reading through his skills. At least he passively got some of the resource back.
In any event, he wasn’t impressed with his skills. He couldn’t think of a way that any of them would help him communicate with Jimmy. He was also slightly disturbed about his Absorb skill referring to him absorbing remains. Still, he attempted to use the skill on something in the store.
He found his first victim as a dungeon core. It was a large framed photo of Bill Paxton, depicted as Chet from Weird Science, hanging directly behind the register. The work of art was autographed by the actor with a note:
To my good pal Jimmy.
- Bill Paxton
Jimmy had insisted on hanging it up, overruling Rick’s protests. He was extremely proud of it and it did surprisingly start a lot of conversations with customers. Without further Ado, Rick used Absorb on the framed photo.
It simply melted into the wall, vanishing completely. Rick didn’t have time to celebrate as the memory of not just the image, but every particle of the object was seared into his mind. At that moment, he knew Bill Paxton’s face better than he knew anything else in the world.
5 Energy Consumed.
“Ah, damn it!” Rick cursed at his now intimate knowledge of the photo and activated Produce right next to Jimmy. The signed photo was the only item available in his registry and blinked into existence, suspended in the air for a moment before clattering to the ground, breaking the glass in the frame. The photo was still in his registry. With a grim resignation, Rick knew that he would spend the rest of his life with it there.
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5 Energy Consumed.
Jimmy, who had just finished ordering pizza, lurched back, “Holy shit, you broke it!” he yelled.
Rick would be massaging his temples right now if he could as he watched Jimmy carefully remove the broken pieces of glass away from his precious photo.
“No, ‘Wow how did you do that?’, huh Jim?” Rick wondered aloud. Seeing that he was at 82/100 Energy, he realized that he would need to be careful with his experiments.
He quickly skimmed the other information, but some of it just didn’t make sense to him yet. The alerts were really starting to nag at his mind so he pulled those up before digging into the other stuff.
—ALERT—
1 Free Floor Available
1 Free Floor Boss Available
1 Free Minion Available
1 Free Dungeon Attendant Assignment Available
The fourth alert seemed to be his best chance at helping his current situation. Perhaps the Attendant would have an option to communicate easier to the outside world. He mentally selected it, revealing more information:
Invite a potential Dungeon Attendant or select one from the System Applicants.
There was a tab with what seemed to be an endless list of applicants.
Level 3 Goblin Dungeon Attendant Apprentice
Level 1 Yellow Dungeon Wisp
Level 3 Demoness Dungeon Attendant Apprentice
…
The list went on and on. None reaching above level 4. Scanning back up to the top of the prompt, he reread the words, “Invite a potential Dungeon Attendant.”
“Uh, J-i-i-m–y-y. Wanna be my Dungeon Attendant?”
Invite Jimmy Amato to fill the role of Dungeon Attendant? Y/N
Rick mentally confirmed, pleased with himself. He felt like a savant when it came to this dungeon stuff.
Jimmy’s eyes glazed over, “Woah, yeah Rick, of course.”
Once Jimmy made that announcement, he seemed to visibly lose a few pounds.
“Holy shit, Rick. This is intense. A lot of information was just injected into my brain, man. I’m a Level 1 Human Dungeon Attendant now. I feel different too. More alive. And it’s like there’s a computer screen in my eyeball,” he said, gently prodding his eyeball, making it move a smidge.
“Oh, you are human. Good to know,” Rick joked to himself. But, that was Jimmy for you. He just rolled with everything, no matter how bizarre or confusing it might be.
“Ha! I can hear you!”
Rick did a mental fist pump, then paused. Now what? There was too much to go over. He supposed he should just address the elephant in the room, “Well that’s a relief, Jim-bo. But, uh, yeah. I’m definitely stuck inside of the stone. I think I might be dead.”
“No, no. I know all this stuff now,” Jimmy said with wide eyes and his mouth slightly hanging open. “I was given some Dungeon Core 101 when I accepted the Dungeon Attendant invite. You’re not dead, my dude. You’re basically immortal as long as nobody destroys your Core. Downside is — and this is a very shitty downside — you can’t leave your domain. You can grow it, but you’re stuck here.”
“You’re handling this pretty well in stride, Jim.”
“Yeah, well I thought you were dead. And now I know you aren’t. So let’s run with it. It’s kind of exciting don’t you think?”
Rick wasn’t sure. He didn’t feel excited. He felt cheated. Who would want to be stuck in a damn rock? Not one to wallow in self pity for long though, Rick knew he didn’t have a choice at the moment. It was best to get a hold of his situation and maybe capitalize on it.
“Not really. The reality hasn’t set in yet. There are a few things I’m going to need you to do, though.”
Jimmy raised his eyebrows expectantly.
“First, bring Penny here. She’s probably starving and needs to go outside right now.”
Jimmy grimaced, “Man, you know we don’t allow pets in the shop. Especially golden retrievers. Penny will shed all over the joint and break some expensive shit.”
“Hey, it’s not the shop anymore. Penny first,” It was nonnegotiable for Rick.
“Fine, fine. What else?” Jimmy asked.
“Nothing too urgent. I’ll need to come up with something for you to tell my parents. I don’t think they’ll understand what’s going on here. Hell, I don’t understand it. So for now, just hold off on contacting them.”
“Yeah, just let me know when you’re ready with that one,” Jimmy said, looking a bit uncomfortable at the prospect of having that conversation.
“Oh, and find that little prick Adam. We need to know where he got the Core from. Whoever he swiped it from must know something about all of this.”
“Yeah, no shit. I’m gonna strangle that kid,” Jimmy said through a clenched jaw.
“Nah, I doubt he had any idea. If he did, he wouldn’t have taken a measly $900.”
“You’re right,” Jimmy conceded.
“And lastly, no reason to keep the house. Just bring over all my shit and I’ll use my Absorb skill. I’ll want to give half of the proceeds to my parents, a little commission for you, and the rest to the dog rescue I got Penny from.”
“No problem. I’ll start bringing stuff by tomorrow. Anything you need tonight when I go get Penny?”
Rick thought for a moment but couldn’t think of anything he absolutely had to have, “Nah. Just Penny.”
“Cool, I’ll head out once the pizza gets here.”
As if summoned by his words, the delivery driver walked in, carrying hot boxes. Jimmy exchanged cash for pie with a practiced hand. Lifting the box, he inhaled the steam from the greasy pizza, “Ah, man. The saddest thing about all of this is that you’ll never get to taste pizza again.”
Rage bubbled within Rick at that prospect, “Lay a slice on the counter.”
Jimmy obliged and his eyes widened as he watched the pizza get absorbed from the surface.
5 Energy Consumed
Rick cheered, “This tastes better than I remember. Best part is, I can make myself more whenever I want. As long as I have the required Energy.”
Jimmy’s eyes sparkled at the realization, “You tryin' to tell me I never have to buy pizza again?”
“Yup!”
“This is the best day ever. Let me use your credit card. I’ll pick up beer and chicken parm on the way back from getting Penny.”
“You’re a goddamn genius, Jimmy.”