Cheri floated there without a chime. The silence made their disappointment very apparent. I excitedly fluttered beside them, examining an egg in a giant nest near a campfire light. The egg itself is around five times the size of an ostrich’s egg. Its milk chocolate brown-colored surface is barely contained within the confines of the nest, as it is not designed to hold such a beast of an egg. A tan zig-zag-like band takes up most of the equator of its shell. I admire the egg a little more. Nothing but childlike wonder at the world’s first Pokemon egg. This is it. The childhood dreams of my brothers and me are right in this cave, and I feel a little warm inside. Cheri stops floating and properly distances themself from the room as I, to them, most likely broke, and I’m going to worship the egg as a new god or something. I now check the status of the egg as I have privilege because it’s my monster. Well, soon-to-be monster.
Status: Pokemon Egg.
HP 5/5
ATK 0
DEF 2
SpATK 0
SpDEF 2
SPD 0
Description: A Pokemon egg! Wait until it hatches to see what it is!
Maturity: Egg phase. Hatches at 29 days: 23 hours: 54 minutes: 36 seconds
Note: It’s an egg. Maybe it’s lonely?
Although an apt description, technically, I don’t need to wait to know what it is since I’m the one who summoned it. Created it? Eh, like that matters, it’s here now. And no way I ‘popped’ in, just some random egg. I’m not that crazy. I need a Pokemon that is adaptable and just strong enough to carry me through. Outside the cave, I’m literally blind to the world. Like a wise Lotad in a well, I don’t want to underestimate what’s out there beyond the cavern walls to the grander, perilous world. For that, I need a little scout. Something balanced enough to better adapt itself to any terrain and have some ability to get out of trouble. When I know what terrain it’s in, It will collect resources to bring back for Identification, thus giving me a helpful boost in Spark. And all of that, at the cost of 80 Spark for the egg itself.
“Now I have to wait for a month until it hatches.” I let my words sit there, echoing in the chamber with an egg as defenseless as me. And it dawned on me why Cheri thinks I’m a moron. I spent the equivalent of 40 days worth of Spark, 16 slimes worth, on an overpriced monster breakfast. But what else could I do? The weakest Pokemon is in the upper five hundred’s! So to offset the cost, I needed a corner to cut. So what else can I spend but time? On top of that, I get to spend only one-tenth the cost of a regular ‘Mon. I get it’s not the games, but 30 days for an egg!?
“Now I get the whole’ pay to win’ thing. Instead of paying Spark, I paid with time and patience.” not going to lie. I don’t have a lot of that. There is a clock ticking away until the native population discovers this place; Adventures, Monsters, Scavengers, and the like that might want a monster egg and a free Dungeon Core for the price of one cave dive. Cheri made it very clear that as a dungeon, I’m a test to those who invade my territory to gain rewards and strength, so I can’t just hide in a corner forever. And no, I can’t just wall off the Core Room with the egg with me. There must be a path to the Core Room per the rules ‘by the great Elders’ or some crap. I almost growled in frustration at this point.
“Okay. Calm down. I’m completely calm. Focus on what’s important now. Budgeting.” Not the most glamorous job, but it helps to know what I have, what I need to have, and how to get it. Budgeting has been an essential tool in any Market setting, and I see Dungeoneering as a high-demand share stock. Thanks to my IT knowledge that I could remember, I took classes in Economics and Data Analysis. I can’t believe it comes into use here. Though it didn’t help when I pointed out some discrepancies in our branch’s funds in my previous job, and my superior got mad for practically showing his incompetence stamped on a financial statement. I sometimes hate corporate, and I am glad that I got fired for being a thorn in my boss’s pride.
“I accumulate one Spark every 12 hours. For the 30 days, that’s 60 Spark over time for the period. For basic defenses, it’s around 5-50 Spark for even a basic trap. The higher the investment, the more effective the trap. So around two and a half days for a minimum..” My mind gets lost in a data flow as I mumble statistics out of habit. Rope, pitfall, wall, spike, and dart traps go through a Budget Sheet, and nothing gets left out.
After a half-hour power analysis, I wished to have a coffee pot and decided. With the two rooms I have, The clear chokepoint is the cave entrance. It has natural hazards and unknown inhabitants, so any search here would have to account for that and take time. I don’t know how long the cave is or how deep it is, so let’s assume the worst and say a few meters below the surface and 100 meters long with many bends to account for being pitch dark without my Core illuminating it. So a full-scale search would give a helpful buffer of time between the search party and the Core. The first thing I need is a roadblock to add more buffer time for me to breathe.
“Can I know when something enters my dungeon?” I ask Cheri, looking for any scrap of data now. They answer more readily than I thought.
The Core’s Territory is sacred ground. And any trespassers will not go unnoticed by the User. Any trials set in place will test or deter them at the User’s discretion.
Be warned. The User can’t interact with the trial taking place and must wait until the trespassers are dealt with utilizing the Dungeon or otherwise.
So, I will know if I can’t interact with the Dungeon suddenly. Great. I looked back at the egg, jealous of its simple needs and no worries. Right, everything I do is not just for my safety but also for the protection of my creation. So it can sleep and grow without any worry, a haven from the troubles of this world. What kind of person am I if I can’t protect my own? I grit up, waiting for a few days for my next plan.
After four days of constant waiting and boredom, I got 8 Spark for my patience, but I had to spend 2 to keep the fire alive for my future investment (egg). So I have 6 Spark in total. I use a hefty 2 Spark to buy a 5-meter long rope, 1 Spark for a small, weighted rock, and 2 Spark for a small root to appear on the ceiling behind the right of the entranceway of the cave, I place these two items to the side for later use, and I get ready to wait a bit more for what I need.
After an agonizing 12 more hours, I make one more Spark. I then go into the Room page and then the alter terrain tab for the room. It costs about 1 meter cubed of terrain displacement per Spark, so I dig a 2-meter pit below the root with a sharp, half-meter stone pyramid at the bottom. I then tie up the rope onto the root and make it taught for elasticity. Using the now led rope, make a hangman’s loop on the other end and then lay it on the ground in front of the entrance, barely noticeable in the campfire light and the stalagmites blocking the view. Lastly, I place the weighted stone on top of the rope, making a jury-rigged snare trap with a pitfall.
“There. It’s not much, but it’s honest work.” Cheri appeared beside me to look at my barbaric innovation and asked why I didn’t use the trap tool. I answered pointedly, “Do YOU have twenty Spark to spare?” Cheri doesn’t answer and has left to do System duties. It may be simple, but survival TV shows told me it could be effective if the dark or other objects obscured it. It may have a stone spike, but the trap’s primary purpose is to slow down anyone entering the room and scare the bejeebers out of them. What I want is to give them a hint not to go further. Intimidation, that’s all it is.
Five days after the trap went up, nothing to note happened. I just looked at my 7.5 Spark and decided to spoil my pride and joy with a twine blanket, which costs 5 Spark. Cheri might disapprove of my decision, but I felt terrible for the little thing. It’s just sitting in a nest, alone with nothing to care for it. So I decided to add a bit of comfort and try to talk to it from time to time. No, I haven’t snapped… yet. But I heard that animals communicate with their unborn children for multiple reasons. And most of all, I need something that won’t argue back about ‘semantics’ and ‘efficiency’ when I talk to them. Sure, I’m in IT, but it didn’t rule my life.
Five more days later. “Hey, LITTLE ONE! How’s it going!? Got any more eggcellent puns you want to share!?”… “Hahahahaha!! Good one! Just to let you know that you have all my support! Do you want a bed? I’ll make you one! Toys? I can make toys! You only have to ask! There are just 15 days, 11 hours, 23 minutes, and 47 seconds to go! Woooooooo!!!”
He finally snapped.
It took three days (and Cheri mentally zapping me) to get me back into reality. I spent a few hours trying to list the wasted items I spent during my breakdown. A cubby with small stone trinkets fills its two rows, things like a sack of gray and white pebbles, cubes with various letters on them, a mobile of the Sol system, and Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur figurines.
During this mental ‘journey,’ I figured out one thing: making and breaking down materials is more cost-efficient than buying them from the market, like purchasing a half-meter cube of stone and then breaking it down into other multiple stone items. But that is only a theoretical example, of course…*ahem*.
Six days later, I had another loss against Cheri. I marked the dirt floor for their 136th consecutive win. Who would’ve guessed a knowledgeable Dungeon System is a beast at checkers? I gaze at our battlefield of one dirt board with gray and white soldiers, the stone pieces I made that came in handy. Maybe I should go off on another ‘mind journey’ for better ideas? Cheri ringed loudly at me for even thinking of such a plan.
An extra six days of waiting, and something actually happened during one of my egg chats. As the recipient of my constant rambling about the plot of Black and White 2, the egg shifted slightly. It spooked me a bit, but it moved again a minute later. I get egg- no, ecstatic. “Is it almost time?” I look at the room and find it now a mess.
Stone toys litter the floor. Poorly drawn pokemon, motivational phrases, and cringe-inducing puns to mark the walls. Even the ceiling was chiseled with a pretty good illustration of the Solar System. Guess which one had Cheri’s help. I even expanded the room by adding an extra meter of space to each side so as not to make it crowded when the time comes.
I look back at the egg that just moved into its blanket. “Come on! Just about a day left! You can get through this! You are my most important thing in this Dungeon right now!” My words only got another shake, and I kept my gaze locked on the egg. I was not moving at all until Cheri appeared and blocked my vision. After they startled me, I read the text as if it was important.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
There! Finally, you’re listening! Has the User noticed that the Spark is draining from their Core?
This takes precedence as it will empty our reserves in 23 hours! If our Spark zero’s out, the Core must go into mandatory shutdown!
I looked at what Cheri said and scrutinized our Spark generation. It’s in the negatives. How did this happen? How can I miss this when the Spark rate of 1 per twelve hours never changed until now? Now it’s at a worrying negative 1 per hour! I checked myself and found the Core glittering a bit brighter than before, prismatic light seeping out from time to time like tiny auroras. “Is it the egg?” I say to myself, but Cheri answers for me.
Noted… permission to delete liability before eventual shutdown?
“Absolutely NOT!” I exclaim. How dare they say that at this point? After all, that time spent waiting and preparing. “We’re riding this out until it hatches. We spent long enough on this, don’t give up before the finish line!” Cheri creates another box quickly.
And what? Let it drain us dry until you pass out? It will perish anyway when our current Spark is not enough to hatch it.
“It’s enough! I know it’s enough! It has to be, or else we will be stuck here for years before we get a decent ‘Mon!” I say desperately. I know it’s a long shot, but we’re so close!
Conclusion: The User has formed an unnecessary attachment to the dungeon monster.
“SO WHAT!? They are literally created to Connect! And I won’t let some two-bit AI with no empathy ruin this moment!” I am pissed at this point. Not only does Cheri want to kill the Pokemon, but there is a chance she may be correct in this situation.
Is the User not listening?
WE. DON’T. HAVE. ENOUGH. SPARK!
I’m only stating the facts. If we stop this trivial argument, we could start over. You can get another egg, and we will try again with the knowledge gained from our endeavors.
“That may be so. But I will never let go of my morals for safety. I’m keeping it, and I don’t care if it kills me in the end. This one! Not any other egg! This Will Hatch! IF IT’S ONE IN A MILLION, I WILL SAY ‘NO’ A MILLION AND ONE!” I practically scream out my defiance. The Pokemon will live, even if I have to give a part of myself! In fact… “Transfer all but 0.1 Spark to the egg! We will hatch it ahead of time!” I know that this is a gamble, rigged against me. This is all I have. Let fate deal the cards.
… As the Elders will it.
The Core glows into a brilliant sphere of radiant white light. Rainbow-like strings form and converge into rivers of energy and rapidly drain into the egg. Soon the counter quickly goes down. 22 Spark, 16, 12, 7, 4, 2.3, 1.8, 0.9, 0.5. No, no, no! I need just a bit. I know there’s more! Keep Going! … 0.1 Spark left.
Warning! Warning!
Six minutes until eventual shutdown!
I can barely see the notification in front of me. My thoughts are slowed, and everything’s drifting. The energy that is from Spark now takes from my Psyche instead. I look at the egg that now shakes with vigor. Just a little more. If not, it will die. Even if my consciousness drifts in and out, I won’t give up. “I..won’t..let it..stop me… Would..you..agree..as..well?……” After that, nothing but light. Pure, gentle light. I’ll let go for just a bit.
*Crack*
(…)
I came to after the most restful sleep I had in ages. My vision blurs in and out as I try to remember what happened. It takes a bit of time, 15 seconds, for the blue glow of myself to fill the Core Room once again. What happened? Did I knock myself out? I hear a familiar chime fill the cave as a screen takes up my view.
The User has gone through a forced shutdown. Please wait while I scan for discrepancies.
Cheri goes through diagnostics as I look around at my Room, which is still the same as before. The banners and tapestries still fill the walls, still as legible as they were, not at all. My orb is still above its plain-looking Piller, floating subconsciously like a fixture in its space. Soon, my mind finally caught up to me after an unreasonable amount of time. “THE EGG!!!” I practically shouted as I zoomed past Cheri, with them ringing from behind me with irritation, to the next room as if I was not caring for my dizziness for a second more. I look to the nest near a smoldering campfire, and I find no egg in its place. I thought the worst had happened, but before I could sink into despair, I heard a rustle from the placed tall grass and a high-pitched “Voi?”
I look at the tall grass to see two brown eyes staring back through it. A small form cautiously stepped out towards me to sniff the air. A brown quadruped that looks like a mix between a canine, feline, and vulpine features with a luxurious light tan mane covering its chest. It’s an Eevee. It’s what I’ve been fighting tooth and nail to get. The Eevee takes a gander in my direction and gives me a look of familiarity, as if they know I’m here despite not being physically present. They get on their hind legs and sound out an enthusiastic “E’voi!” at me, causing me to shiver. “Arceus…” I say as it hopped around its play area. “Why did you make them SO CUTE!?” Until I get a reply.
The User must calm down while under maintenance and inspection.
“IT’S REAL! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”
… Applying Memetic Jolt
Soon, I felt a familiar shock to my system to get me out of full disbelief, fanboy mode. “Okay, okay. I’m good now!” The last time I got shocked was when I went full Wilson, but can you blame me? The very embodiment of my and my brother’s childhood dreams is RIGHT THERE, batting a letter block between its small paws. My very own Pokemon! They- Er. “Umm… what’s their sex?” I check the Status of our new friend while they sit in front of me as if they heard my question.
Status: Eevee [LV: 1] (Female)
HP 12/12
ATK 6
DEF 6
SpATK 6
SpDEF 5
SPD 6
Description: A female Eevee with the Rash nature, this special Pokémon conceals many different possible evolutions thanks to her unstable genetic makeup.
Maturity: Juvenile phase.
Note: Her Fluff is as soft as it looks. A handful of it can put a hardened adventurer into a stupor.
I stared at the page, then at the description. The Rash nature can give a benefit to her Special Attack, a.k.a. Magical damage, by 10%. Though she also takes a hit on her Special Defense by 10%, not like that matters now since she has a very balanced stat sheet. She is alright at taking hits and dodging too, but the main strength of the Rash nature is creating a glass railgun. ‘Giving’ all the damage, but can ‘get’ damaged massively if not careful. This is important as her future evolution may be impacted by this. She is also in her juvenile phase and may take some time until she is an adult. Does this mean she will get free stats or level up as she matures?
“E’voi?” She was rolling onto her back in the grass and looked up at me curiously. “Hngnn! Stop being so adorable! I will die of a sugar overdose if this keeps up!” I say without reservation or shame. She only looks up with a bit of confusion. After rolling around, the Eevee trots to the nest and rests her tiny body. Cheri breaks the serenity after the Eevee just got comfortable. It seems like they have done the inspection.
Does the User need a reminder that they have a plan required to enact?
I read and remembered why I bought the egg in the first place. I need Spark. Lots of it. And the Eevee is supposed to find it. “Oh right! Eevee! I got a job for you. How do you feel about an adventure?” She looks back at me with a mixed response. “Voi?” she said with confusion as if she didn’t understand the question. “You know, gathering resources, trekking the wilderness, and battling monsters?” Her ears perked up after the last part left my voice. She jumps up in excitement. “E’voi!” she enthusiastically stated as she wagged her tail. It looks like I got my answer.
Why is the User even bothering to ask?
Just order your monster to exit your dungeon and scavenge the materials required.
“No.” I’m too tired to even explain ‘Pokemon 101’ to the AI, so I’ll focus on the Eevee in front of me. “Can I ask you to do it?” I asked gently, but I didn’t think it was even necessary. “Eevee!” She proudly called at not even a second of hesitation. Pokemon are awesome. Totally worth comatosing myself.
After about 10 minutes of preparation, I have the Eevee in front of me. My POV is facing away from the cave entrance. “Now, here are the things I ask you to do:
1) Go find many new things to bring back to the dungeon; If you find something that interests you, bring it here.
2) Find out what environment we’re in; I will be happy with any answer, even if it’s a volcano or a beach.
3) If you find a monster, check it first before battling; You are level one and must remember that. If you are strong enough, battle it. If not, leave it and run if necessary.
4) If you find a sapient creature, do not engage; they probably have friends, and they won’t be too happy with us picking a fight with them. So I ask you to be kind towards that sort, unless they are a jerk. If so, kick-ass and chew bubblegum.”
“You got all of that?” I say very pointedly. “Eeee’voi!” Stated the brown vulpine, standing at attention. She tries to look serious but fails to be even a tiny bit intimidating. “That’s my gal. Now! Off with you!” I shouted playfully. And with that, she heads to the entrance in a sprint. She then gets close to the snare. “Wait! Go around the-” The Eevee hops over the rope without a care, while I sat there with a blank expression. “Huh. Smart gal.”
As I watched. My future, although unknown, got a bit lighter when the Pokemon left the cave into the exciting new world. It makes me thankful to have this affinity instead of slimes or goblins or something. As many an author knows, those are a bit overused anyway.