"A contract, like an employment contract?" If Stew had a head, it would probably hurt.
"You. Summoned. Me."
"It's my first summoning, I don't know how any of this works."
"Really? Isn't that interesting." The cow chewed her cud for a long moment in thought. "My status looks odd here. I don't think I've ever seen a System this simple." She scuffed a fore hoof at the stone floor. "No diagrams, no candles, no whiff of binding magics in the air." She made an audible snort that came as a delighted laugh in Stew's mind. "You summoned a demigoddess, unbound, right into your core room. I'm starting to see a pattern in your behavior, little dungeon."
Stew felt a chill deep in his core despite his lack of body. He could sense the hard rear hooves of the cow so close to his exposed core. She was all muscle. How much damage could she do with just one kick? Would it be enough to kill him? Again?
"Easy, little one. I am a daughter of the Moon Goddess. You are very lucky you summoned me first, and not some greedy goblin or kobold who might pry you up and sell you to some wizard or demon." She shuffled around until she was facing the core.
She could tell how he was feeling somehow, but she wasn't doing a great job of comforting him. Was she serious about goblins? Did she know that was his other option? Could she read his mind?
"A contract is how you bind a summoned entity to your service. Usually you offer something of value and specify exactly what you will get in return. If you summon an imp into a binding circle, the only thing you might have to offer is to release it in return for signing the contract. That sort of coercion is all too common, sadly. It wasn't always that way." She swished her tail and waited.
Stew realized he could feel her mind even when he wasn't in her body. She felt. Warm. Amused. Curious. "I'm not sure what I have of value to offer. I'm very new at this."
"Well as a contract entity, I would be able to subsist on your mana without needing food or water. As long as I was in your domain, I would heal automatically, and since you are a dungeon, I would have opportunities to gain skills, grow in strength and evolve. And if you name me, then I will be essentially immortal as long as you exist yourself. Not," She waggled her head displaying her horns which Stew realized were a perfect crescent. "That I wasn't already immortal, after a fashion. Are you sure you aren't deceiving me with all of this?" She gestured at the tiny, empty chamber with her prehensile lips. "You've just done a very good job of making me sell myself on signing your contract."
"I promise you, I'm. Well I'm just what I seem, whatever that is. What…" Stew thought fast, he had learned so many things in just a few minutes talking to the demi-goddess, but not what he really needed to know. "What could you do in return?"
She raised her head and turned to look at the door.
Afraid he had offended her, Stew added, "I apologize, I really don't know what to ask for. I just need any advice you can provide, your… your goddesshood."
She laughed again. "Bright Lady will do fine for now, but you continue to surprise me. It's rare to find a polite dungeon. Especially a young one." She flicked her tail. "First I could help you understand the perils of this world, and the defenses you might need. I can help defend the dungeon myself, and command a level for you. And, of course, I can provide as much divinely infused milk as you need, if we can create the right conditions."
Stew wanted to ask about the milk, but first things first. "How long do these contracts last? Are there. Other things. Standard terms or whatever that aren't explicitly stated?"
"I'm relieved, Little One. You seem smarter than I thought at first. Not your first life? Contracts are until the death of the parties unless explicitly released or a condition is set in advance. Standard terms include the parties may not directly harm each other, and the summoned entity may not enter a contract with another summoner or be summoned by another."
Stew thought about it. Forever was a long time. Stew had been through enough labor negotiations to sense the traps in those standard terms. Words like "directly" really stood out. A lifetime of bad jobs stretched out in Stew's memory and he decided he had enough of it. No more. "OK. I think I have an offer, but I don't like this idea of entering into a contract with no termination clause, and that all sounds very one sided. I'd rather offer you an agreement as equals. I'd rather have you work here because you want to, not because you have to. So how about this. I offer you mana, healing, growth opportunities, and name you as my, what? I guess my first level boss? In return, you will provide me honest and helpful advice, help defend the dungeon, train my, um, monsters? And provide magic milk as required. Neither of us will ever intentionally cause harm to the other, and either of us can terminate the contract at any time with thirty days notice. How does that sound?"
"That seems unreasonably fair for a dungeon contract. I notice you left out any penalties or punishments. Was that intentional? They are superfluous, in that neither of us can break a contract's terms anyway, but they are traditional."
"I didn't know that, but I don't think I want to add any of those. That sounds awful. I'm hoping neither of us will want to break the contract since we each get what we want from it."
"I would like that. Agreed."
Cow - Level 1
Mana Cost - 1 / day
Health 10/10
Agility 2
Strength 4
Constitution 5
Actions: 1/1
Action Recharge: 1 / day
Produces Milk
Offer A Contract To This Minion?
Y / N
"Yes"
Cow - Level 1 enters your service!
Name Cow?
1. Tanit-la
2. Selene Ascendant
3. Aegyptia
4. Other (select your own name)
Stew described the options he saw.
"I don't recognize those names, so they are all somehow connected to you and your former life, but they probably come with some unstated implications. Names are powerful. You should pick something that has meaning to you."
"OK. And you won't be offended?"
"I will be fine. I have plenty of names already. I didn't choose them either. Go ahead."
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"OK then."
Bossy - Level 1 Boss
Cow (Demi-Goddess) - Level 1
Mana Cost - 1 / day
Health 10/10
Agility 2
Strength 4
Constitution 5
Actions: 1/1
Action Recharge: 1 / day
Special attack: Scold
Produces Divine Milk
"As I said before, your System is a strange one, but I believe you will see some new options now."
Unnamed Core 17:12
Rooms: 1
Minions: 1
Mana: 1/10
Actions Remaining: 0
Action Recovery: 1 / day
Stone: 0/10
Use mana to create a minion
1. Generate Mana
2. Create A Room (10 Stone)
3. Create A Monster (1 Mana)
"It looks like I can create monsters now. Well, tomorrow, after my actions recover."
"Your monsters will be based on the theme of a specific level. You haven't created any rooms, so you don't have a level or a theme, but having placed me as the level boss your monster options should be based on that."
"It's asking for stone to create a room. How do I get stone?"
Bossy cocked her head again. "You live in a hole in a mountain and you wonder where to get stone? Can't you just extend yourself and devour the mountain? That's how it usually works."
Stew concentrated, imagining roots growing out into the stone from his core, but nothing happened. He tried to imagine absorbing stone or dissolving stone, but still nothing. "I don't think it works that way for me. Or maybe that needs actions too?"
"Such a strange system. I see that I have an 'Action.' Are you able to use it?"
He selected "Create A Monster"
Select a Monster Type 17:35
1. Golem (produces stone)
2. Slime (produces mucus)
3. Kitten (Very active!, requires a Cow Minion)
4. Skeleton (produces loot, requires a Cow Minion)
5. Giant Rat (produces meat, requires a Goblin Minion)
"It sounds like you need a golem then, to dig," Bossy said when he described the list.
"Yes, although, you said the theme would be based on you as the boss. I wonder." Stew tried to make a selection, imagining using Bossy's action, but nothing happened. "It looks like we'll have to wait."
"Then I believe I will get some sleep." Bossy folded her legs and lay her head across her own shoulder. She closed her eyes and was immediately asleep.
Stew was about to ask a question, but thought better of it. She slept through the night, the next morning and into the afternoon. He was starting to get worried, but as soon as his actions refreshed she woke and stood as if she had set an alarm.
Achievement Unlocked: I've Created A Monster!
Level Customization Options Unlocked
Kitten - Level 1 17:10
Mana Cost - FREE
Health 3/3
Agility 10
Strength 2
Constitution 5
Actions: 0
Action Recharge: Special
Special attack: None
Can Convert Each Divine Milk Into Two Actions
Name kitten? (Y/N)
A small bundle of fluff and razorblades appeared next to the core and immediately began to purr. Stew named him "Fluff."
"You picked a kitten. Your first monster to defend the dungeon. I hope you're only expecting adventurers made out of bells and feathers." Bossy bent down to sniff the new arrival. "I hope there's more to you than meets the eye, little warrior."
For a moment, Stew was afraid the Fluff would swat her and start a stampede, but the kitten leapt onto her back and started to knead and purr instead.
Bossy relented. "Aww, He's hungry."
"I have an idea." Stew entered the kitten's mind and for a moment was disoriented by the totally different senses. The room was as bright as daylight and he could hear Bossy's heart beating and her stomachs working. She was very warm, and it was making him hungry and sleepy at the same time. He shook off the kitten's feelings for a moment and thought about using Bossy's one action to produce one milk.
He was a little worried about what might happen next, but a glass bottle of milk appeared in the corner of the room glowing faintly.
Stew/Fluff jumped down and walked over to the bottle, eyeing it warily. He reached out a paw and swatted it gently. The milk vanished and he suddenly felt energized. Checking Fluff's stats, Stew saw just what he had suspected. He now had 2 actions, and there didn't seem to be an upper limit for the kitten.
"Interesting," Bossy could apparently see Fluff's stats too, maybe because she was the level boss.
"Now let's see how far this can go. Do you have a limit on how much milk you can create in a day?"
"With this System? I have no idea. I didn't even feel it, it's strange, but I don't miss the old way, I can tell you that."
For the first time in this new world, Stew finally felt like he understood something important. Something useful. He used Fluff's two actions to produce two more milk and those two milk to produce four actions and so on, watching for any sign of exhaustion or problems with Bossy or Fluff. He was shocked when there weren't any at sixteen. He was dumbfounded at one hundred twenty-eight. This had to be some sort of error. It seemed like the only limit was how quickly the little kitten could back and forth between the bottles and Bossy.
He used two of the actions to generate mana and produced two more kittens, a piebald kitten with a black eye he named "Socks" and a pure black kitten he named "Boo."
The tiny chamber was a bustle of activity, and crowded with all of the milk bottles.
"I think you might want to start digging," Bossy said.
"I think you're right." Having proved out the cycle he stopped and converted all the milk. "Everyone over in that corner with Bossy. I'm going to make a golem, and I don't know how big it will be."
He opened the menu and selected the golem. A two meter tall stone mannequin appeared with a crude angular face and a barrel chest.
Stone Golem - Level 1
Mana Cost - 1 / day
Health 10/10
Agility 2
Strength 5
Constitution 3
Actions: 1/1
Action Recharge: 1 / day
Special attack: Bash
Assign Task (1 action):
1. Dig
2. Defend
3. Delegate Action
He moved his focus into the golem, and again, his senses changed, but these were much more like human senses than those of either the cow or the kittens. He could see and hear and feel. He didn't try to taste anything and he didn't seem to have nostrils or a sense of smell, but when he looked at his crystal he could clearly see it was gray, and looking out the door, the grass and leaves were bright green and the flowers were many colors, not just yellow and tan. The kitten and cow didn't have full color vision, but the golem seemed to.
Then he noticed something, a flicker of red in the treeline. It was like a haze that moved and changed. It took a few moments of staring, but he realized he was looking at the heat from a deer's body as it grazed just beyond a bush. He looked back at the cow and kittens and saw heat from them as well, and something else. Something intricate and purple. Mana? Thin lines of it connected each of them to the crystal. The golem had a similar thread coming out of its chest.
His pondering was interrupted by another flicker in the treeline. One. Two. Three. Half a dozen, moving lower than the deer and they seemed to be moving to surround it. They had to be wolves.
He looked at the empty door frame, then down at the kittens.
He set the golem he was in to "Defend" and sent it out the door, then generated another and sent it to follow. They both took up positions on each side of the door, so he created another one and stood just inside, blocking the door.
The heat aura of the deer froze then bounded away. He was hoping the wolves would follow, but they seemed to turn back and gather at the edge of the glade, watching the golems. They stayed hidden in the shadows between the trees. He couldn't see anything except their body heat.
They seemed smarter than he had hoped. He stepped forward in the third golem. I can't underestimate these wolves.