“Fuck… My head. That kegger must have been insane.” Red muttered as he manifested where he had previously collapsed onto the ground. He clutched onto his head and frowned as he felt the shortness of his hair, realizing that it wasn’t the long luxurious locks he was used to. His mind swam for a moment, it occurred to him that he had been well out of college when he died. Why had he thought that he was back in the old days when he was still in college? He was… that’s right he was dead and revived over half a dozen times.

He took the facsimile of a breath through his nose as he looked around the room that he had improved. Addison wasn’t in her bed, which made him jump as he realized that he must have been unconscious for a while if she wasn’t asleep. He looked around the room and didn’t find her, or any of his fairies for that matter. His crawdads were happily scuttling around the room eating algae in the stagnant pools or snipping away at any lazy flies that still found their way inside. Though as he turned, he saw another opening that had not been there before his 'nap'.

He walked through the simple wooden archway, no particular flair or features within the hallway beyond. It was just big enough for a grown man to walk through and wide enough to extend one’s arms just below full wingspan. “Gotta say, Ivy is putting that Foreman title to good work.” He said with an appreciative nod as he walked through the hallway and into the next room. He found himself in a room lit only by the windows facing north and south, the scant traces of the sunrise casting beams of light against the back wall. That wasn’t what he was paying attention to at the moment, rather the center of the room and those gathered around it.

Lotus sat placidly on the edge of a wooden pedestal, looking down at her sister and the other girl of the dungeon. She was sitting upon a soft pillow similar to the one he had given Addison, in which sat his core. The beautiful perfect crimson sphere sat undisturbed with mana flowing in a constant vortex within. Below the apparent altar to his greatness, Addison and Ivy were playing a game of chess. The pieces were somewhat crude, which led him to believe that Ivy had made them on Addison’s whim. Though after moving her knight to C6, Ivy finally noticed his presence in the room.

“Oh! Hey there, boss. You sure are a heavy sleepa, didn’t even notice me movin ya core to the new core room.” Ivy said with a smile, causing Addison to look up from the board game. She looked around with some confusion, though it was clear that she didn’t see him. It was going to become a real pain if his monsters could see him and no one else ever could. He would wait to look at himself and see if he couldn’t find some upgrade options to the avatar.

“Good morning Ivy, Lotus, and Addison. I hope you all had a pleasant night.” He addressed the entire room, giving a smile as he saw the box appear before Addison and dissipate once she was done with it. It was good to know that generalized statements would work as blanket commands in the system. For a moment he was worried that talking to someone and his dungeon monsters would be either/or. It was a relief to know that he could just blanket talk to everyone.

“Oh! They mentioned you weren’t around. Good morning, Red. Thank you for the breakfast. It was really good.” Addison said with a smile, gesturing to a plate that had a small pool of syrup remaining on it. As much as he wanted this information overload to stop, he had to admit it was all useful. His dungeon would take care of itself if he was actively watching or not. Addison was fed using his mana pool, and the fairies had taken up watching over her. It warmed his heart to know that they were making sure the girl wasn’t alone.

“Glad you liked it, Addison. If you need anything, just ask. I promise I will try to give you whatever you need.” He said to her with a smile, squatting down and looking over the chess game as the little silver-haired girl looked over the message. She beamed in a random direction and gave a confident nod of her head. She seemed much happier than when she had barged into his dungeon, though her dress was still a mess. He would need to do something about that soon, as well as figure out how to make a bathroom for her. The last thing he wanted was her to get sick or an infection from her clothes turning disgusting.

“Uh… Ivy do you think you could get pipes working? Like if I summon up the materials do you think we could get a toilet, sink, and tub working?” He asked as he looked at the carpenter fairy, hoping he wasn’t asking too much of her.

She seemed to think about it for a moment, before giving a confident smile. “Yeah, we could get that set up real easy. Though do you want that to be this room? Bit weird for a core room.” She muttered with a frown as she looked around the unfurnished room. It wasn’t always going to be his core room, so it didn’t seem to matter too much.

He opened up his build menu and frowned as he realized that there wasn’t a bathroom specific option. “System. Is there any way to denote a room for a particular purpose?” He asked the air, having found that it had managed to get him some information in the past. This time, however, it simply opened up the menu for the room. It showed the number of creatures in the room, the number of guests, and the overall theme of the room. To Red, this meant that only one thing could be done. He began to randomly tap on the menu until a new dropdown appeared for him. A grin spread across his crystalline face as he found once again he knew this system well enough to predict it.

Room Menu

Theme: Swamp House

Size: 5 x 5 Squares

Room Type: Core Room ↓

Room Type Selection:

Core Room - Selected

Potion Lab

Alchemy Lab

Summoning Room

Witch’s Brewery

Bedroom

Latrine

Study

With a bit of smugness, Red raised a finger and pressed upon the Latrine option, finding that it would be perfect for what he was looking for. The room shifted around, Lotus taking to the air as the pedestal began to sink into the ground. It was quickly subsumed by a massive fountain in the center of the room, slowly pouring water with the red core bobbling in the center. It seemed to be perpetually kept in the center of the ever pouring fountain. The sides of the room shifted, a stone sink growing out of the wall. Red did not enjoy the imagery of stone pulling from the wood, but found the unique wooden throne that appeared close by was far more visually appealing. The wood of the seat was expertly carved and smoothed down for safe use during private business. Red wasn’t sure where the pipes of these fixtures went, and had no intention of learning.

The final feature that was now in the room was a single hooded lantern, sitting in the corner so that anyone needing the latrine at night would be able to do so. It was not the most glorious of bathrooms, and didn’t actually have a proper shower as much as they would be throwing water from the fountain over their back. “Suppose that’s what I get for using random generation instead of making it by hand. But it should be good enough that Addison can keep clean.” He muttered as he watched Lotus approach one of the streams of water coming from the head of the fountain. She leaned forward and took a gentle drink of the water before turning and giving a thumbs up.

Stolen story; please report.

“Glad to get your seal of approval.” He chuckled as he looked down at his fairy. He considered her for a moment before he acknowledged Addison. “This will be your bathroom, so use it as you please. If you need anything more, then I will happily provide it. All you have to do is ask.” He said happily as the message appeared before the young girl. She gave a happy nod and a particularly cute cheesy smile. “I am such a sucker for kids.” He muttered with a shake of his head as he considered all the lengths he was shaking his dungeon just for this one girl.

“I’m gonna work on the dungeon some more, so just have fun and try to stay safe.” He messaged her, another nod coming from the girl.

“Thank you, Mr. Red. I’ll just keep playing chess with the fairies.” She said with a smile as she looked at the box, it seemed that she had finally decided that as the best place to keep her eyes when speaking. It was better than those gorgeous violet orbs scanning around the entire room at once to catch a glimpse of his manifestation. He was confident that she wouldn’t be able to, since he wasn’t sure how his own monsters were able to see him at this point. He couldn’t even speak with her directly. It made him wonder if there would be a day when he could talk directly to people.

He stepped back through the hall, making sure to mind his boxes until he arrived back into the main entrance of the dungeon. He didn't want his thoughts to be clouded by the children playing at their little game. There was also the fact that if he wanted to play, he would have to request someone move all his pieces for him.

He cast the thought off with ease as he opened his menu and began to look through the build tab once again. He wasn’t quite sure why he had passed out when the new room had unlocked, but it seemed that his menu was more than happy to explain. A new pop-up appeared over his build tab, explaining that he had gotten a bit of luck.

Alert! You have completed goal: Create Second Room

Reward: An additional monster, critter, or minion slot.

“Oho! Looks like I’ve already surpassed all of my previous attempts at this life. Suck it, previous me. Seems like a pretty simple option to me. I have minions and critters, so the only viable option is that I need to get a monster.” He mused to himself as he clapped his hands together, looking down at the buttons before pressing the monster one. He watched with bated breath as the pop-up appeared. Though his crystalline approximation of a human face slowly turned to confusion as he leaned into the options.

Slime: A basic monster that can be found in any dungeon. Will become dangerous with specialization.

Bonus: Due to being in an area of concentrated evil, you can immediately upgrade this creature to [Demonic] specialization upon purchase.

Bullfrog: Take the bull by the horns, but watch out for the tongue. Decent range and size but low constitution.

Boggart: A mischief-making fae that dwells in abandoned homes. Initially weak, but gains strength for every fae/Boggart found in the dungeon.

“Well… an area of concentrated evil sounds bad… Like really bad. If I really am in an evil swamp, then who knows what kinds of things I could be dealing with out there.” Red muttered as he scratched his chin, still trying to grasp at what beard should have been there for him to stroke. There was a lot to consider when it came to the area outside of his walls, and how it would affect people coming in to exert energy on him. He was never going to receive mana from dungeoneers if he couldn’t actually get them to brave the swamps to see him.

“Maybe I should see if there is a way to purify the evil, get it to where people can pass unmolested. Then again… do people have to fight when they arrive at me? I get mana from Addison just living inside my walls, so maybe I can just be a rest stop. I doubt there is any kind of village or adventurer's place nearby, since Addison was simply attacked on the road. Hm. Maybe there can be a dungeon without danger for the average person? At any rate I will still need to defend myself.” He mused to himself, having sat down in his chair so that he could contemplate his future goals. If those goals were feasible remained to be seen, but Red was already hopeful for some aspects.

He looked down at the option that he wanted and selected the Slime, the other options graying out before a secondary pop-up appeared. This one didn’t surprise him, considering the system had warned him about it in the first place.

Alert! Your creature template [Slime] has met the requirements for specialization: [Demonic]

Convert the entire template?

Convert?

Or

Convert partial to retain base form?

Warning! This option will make the creature cost more than the base form.

Convert?

“I get to choose! Thank goodness, because I didn’t want to have to lock everything in so early when I don’t even know what they do.” Red said with a sigh as he pressed the second option. He had considered the mana cost for a moment, but would rather that than complete lockdown of a path. He was trying to think of the future, and how he could have specialized slimes for each floor of his dungeon. The concept alone of having more room for specialization was plenty of encouragement. He eyed over to his monster menu and raised a brow in surprise, having expected to only find his slime and demonic slime there.

Monster Menu

Slime: A basic monster that can be found in any dungeon. Will become dangerous with specialization. Tastes like Limes. - 5 Mana

[Demonic] Slime: A slime connected to the dark powers of the underworld. Higher damage rate to holy enemies. Is capable of corrupting territory into [Evil] zones. Tastes like grapes. - 10 Mana

[Locked] Bullfrog: Take the bull by the horns, but watch out for the tongue. Decent range and size but low constitution.

{Purchase]

[Locked] Boggart: A mischief-making fae that dwells in abandoned homes. Initially

weak, but gains strength for every fae/Boggart found in the dungeon.

{Purchase}

[Locked] Ghoul: A feral undead creature filled with rage and an unending hunger. Fast

and brutal, but especially weak compared to more durable undead.

“Okay… So there is a lot more to all of this than just mana and dungeon rooms. Good to know. I think i’m gonna get a headache if I try to figure all of this out at once… So let’s take this piece by piece.” He said with a sigh, rubbing one of his eyes as if he had been staring at a computer screen for hours, that familiar sting fading when he dwelled on it for too long. The phantom feelings were going to get annoying fast, and he hoped that they wouldn’t stay phantasmal forever.

He selected the option for the demonic slime, figuring he might as well put some of the mana Addison generated to good use. Though he didn’t notice anything in the entry room change, causing him to stand from the chair he had been sitting in. He headed towards the bathroom and found that there was a splash that came from the sink that had grown from the wall. Once again he was there without having actually walked to the destination he was heading towards. He pushed aside the thoughts of his apparent teleportation as he saw something beginning to bubble out of the sink drain.

A glob of purple goo appeared, slowly growing in size until the entire basin of the sink was filled. A watermelon sized slime sat in the sink, a small orb forming in the center of it. Red leaned closer to look at the orb, realizing that it must have been the core of the slime. He wondered if slimes were anything like single celled organisms, and that was just simply the nucleus. It would explain the voracious nature of these very unintelligent monsters, at least in his own mind. “Well… hello there little guy. Nice to meet you.” Red said with a smile, giving the slime a phantasmal pat on the head. Though as he touched the slime, a new pop-up appeared over the squishing form of the purple creature.

Congratulations! You have unlocked a theme!

Theme: The Heavenly, The Hellish, and the Fae.

Requirements: Have 1 [Holy], 1 [Demonic], and 1 [Fae] creature alive on the same floor of the dungeon.

Theme Bonus: +50% [Holy] attacks, +50% [Demonic] attacks, +50% [Fae] abilities

“Well… that’s nice. Does it automatic-” Red stopped as a splitting spike of pain went through his head. He gripped his skull, screwing his eyes shut as the floor beneath his feet began to shake. “Fucking goddammit this hurts so fucking much!” Red screamed out as he gripped his head like it was in a vice.