“Claire, Claire, wake up!” Rick nudged the pink core impatiently as Claire sluggishly surfaced from her hibernation. Creating the corridor defences had depleted her functional capacity to an almost critical level, not to mention her processing speed. The way things stood right now she was almost certainly the slowest kid on the block.
At least she had managed to do something with her corridor. And at least she was in a position where there was at least better life-force circulation than she had available down in her cavern.
What is it, Rick? she queried groggily.
“We’ve got people coming - you’re going to have your first dungeon run!”
It took Claire a moment to process the full meaning of what he said, and then excitement bubbled up in her. What? Ow, wow, yes! Claire replied as she expanded her consciousness over her territory. Indeed, two people and one donkey were slowly nearing her entrance.
Seeing the adventurers approaching woke the urge to review her creation and status, so she opened her main status to check on her progress.
Claire
Type: Life-Mind
Level: 1
Integrity: 64%
Processing speed: 28%
Functional capacity: 32%
Progress to next level
-510/250 LF Performance provision
643/500 Dungeon Investment, consisting of:
498/≥125 LF
145/≥125 ME
16/250 Skill Share Value
Core defence enabled
Cutting thorn barrier
5 LF to initiate
Continuous drain of 10 LF per day
Resources available
Biomass: 9
Mental energy: 5
Raw material: 486
Her bare bones dungeon creations had originally dropped her functional capacity down to 30%, but with the better flow of life-force, she had recovered some of the loss already. Not to mention the additional life-force income her new creations provided, amounting to 196 life-force (or about 20% functional capacity) per day.
Most of her biomass was gone and she would need to replenish it. However, that didn’t bother Claire as it would replenish naturally when she started digging the formal dungeon rooms and corridors for her next dungeon iteration. She did lose 155 units of raw material and 31% functional capacity, in creating the corridor floors, walls and ceiling. It was fun experimenting with some of the textures she had available to her, as well as creating mud, uneven floors, and angling corridor slopes.
Claire’s inspiration for the corridor was “spooky jungle”, in honour of a certain adventurer who didn’t like getting her hair dirty. So, there was a lot of mud involved. One feature of which Claire was especially proud, was a dynamic where a flow of muddy sludge steadily dripped from various points across the ceiling. And, of course, there were the corridor constructs.
Claire was able to squeeze seven cockroaches, three gliding tree frogs and two chameleons out of her resource budget, at a total of 110 biomass and 145 life-force. More interesting was the creation of plant life, which had a different creation dynamic. For plants, “planting cost” was one unit of biomass and one unit of life-force each, after which Claire had the option of letting them grow “naturally”, or to enhance their growth for a cost of five life-force and three biomass per growth enhancement. Claire opted to create three mountain ferns of which she enhanced two twice and added four enhancements to the third. These creations totalled 27 biomass and 43 life-force.
Most interesting was the mental energy constructs. Such constructs had no life-force or biomass cost attached, likely because they were neither alive nor, strictly speaking, real. Instead, the mental constructs added an additional drain on her processing speed and were “priced” as follows.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mental constructs
Note: Adventurers with sufficient perception and resistances will be able to negate these effects, constructs, and experiences to varying degrees.
Type
Mental energy cost
Processing speed drain
Mental energy harvest
Ambient effects
5*x
Mental energy cost divided by 10 and rounded up.
Variable, determined by adventurer’s base emotional state, susceptibility to effects, constructs and experiences, and personal level of mental volatility.
Minimum per adventurer reaction = 1 mental energy per encounter
(Slight reaction)
Maximum per adventurer = 1,000 mental energy per encounter
(Death as result of mental reaction to encounter)
Non-tangible constructs
10*x
Mental manipulation
15*x
Tangible constructs
20*x
Hallucinatory immersion
25*x
Effects, constructs, and experiences can be strengthened by multiplying the mental energy cost (x) by the persistence and severity of impact wished to achieve. See table below for the value of x.
Cost calculation rubric for persistence and severity factor
Cost indicated by number, which equals x in calculating mental energy cost
Persistence
Fleeting
Brief
Periodical
Prolonged
Persistent
Severity
Edge-of-awareness
2
3
4
5
6
Noticeable
3
4
5
6
7
Intrusive
4
5
6
7
8
Tangible
5
6
7
8
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
9
Indistinguishable from reality
6
7
8
9
10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These were the most complex cost calculations Claire had encountered thus far, and she had felt a pang of nostalgia as she studied the cost calculation rubric. How often had she used this type of rubric in her previous life as a teacher? She could still remember her initial confusion the first time she was confronted with one of these rubrics. Well, she supposed it made sense that mental type dungeons would involve more advanced mental gymnastics.
With rubrics such as these, the trick was to remember that you are determining the value of a combination of two metrics. In the case of her dungeon, she had to decide on the quality of two effects (persistence and severity). So, if she wanted to create a tangible construct with a prolonged persistence and intrusive severity, she had to find the intersection of these two qualities on the rubric, leading to a value of seven for x. The mental energy cost of this mental construct would then be equal to 140 since you multiplied 20 by seven and the processing speed drain would be equal to 14% (140 divided by ten, no rounding up needed). Of course, this potential construct was way too costly for Claire to afford, but she was still able to add a few well-chosen mental effects to enhance the atmosphere of her corridor. Which she did.
For mental effects Claire opted for three complementary effects to her spooky jungle concept. The first one was an ambient effect of a fleeting, edge-of-awareness sound of a chittering insect swarm. She thought this sound effect would pair well with her cockroaches. On top of this she also added two mental manipulations. The first was a prolonged and noticeable feeling of being watched, which she intended to strengthen with actual watching chameleons, while the second was a brief and edge-of-awareness stench of decay, which would be a nice touch to enhance the sensation of dripping mud. All in all, the mental effects cost her a total of 145 in mental energy and 15% in processing speed. Sadly, there was no room in her budget for more glasswing butterflies, so Claire had to postpone her dream of a dungeon butterfly kaleidoscope.
The impact of these developments on her status were all too clear. On the negative side, Claire’s processing speed had dropped so low that she faced real impairment in her thinking ability and reaction time.
On the positive side, she had easily achieved the dungeon investment portion of her levelling-up requirement. Rick had assured her that the excess would be applied to her progress in her next level, so nothing would go to waste. She just needed to get her life-force performance provision up to standard and entice enough adventurers to comply with the skill share value, and she would be well on her way to the next level. All in all, it was very satisfying to see.
<>
Feeling satisfied with her creation, Claire switched back to focus on the approaching adventurers. It took her a moment to focus on their familiar features, and then to connect them to the people she had already encountered in this life.
Look Rick, it’s Lily! Claire exclaimed, feeling gladness in her metaphorical heart at the centre of her currently functionally-impaired core. Yes, she knew that Lily had no idea who she was, let alone anything about Claire’s previous relationship a lifetime away with Lilah. But still, seeing a somewhat familiar face lifted Claire’s mood immeasurably, though they were barely acquaintances in her previous life.
“So it is!” Rick replied. “But who is that elderly human accompanying her? She won’t last three seconds even in our little dungeon.”
Claire focused on the old lady with Lily. Even this simple action felt harder and took longer than the previous time she had employed it on the beach.
Base identity
Thagnea Darkblade
Assassin Level 20
Alias
Agnetha Broombottom
Herbalist Level 7
I don’t know, Rick - take a good look at her class, or rather classes.
“Very interesting, but what is an assassin doing here? You usually find them in the larger population centres, not remote islands like this one.”
Claire mulled over his question for longer than normal. Finally she was ready to reply, Maybe she retired? She does look quite old. Wait, why does she look old? Wouldn’t class enhancements negate ageing?
“Not completely. The more physical enhancements adventurers have, the more the ageing process will slow down, but it is never a complete negation.”
They kept watching as the pair paused in the clearing in front of the dungeon entrance.
<>
Lily studied the dungeon entrance doubtfully as she and Agnetha approached. It didn’t look like much. In fact, if her dungeon compass weren’t pointing straight at it, she never would’ve thought it might lead to a dungeon. All she could see was a hole in the ground with some roughshod edges. As she watched it, a clod of earth peeled of the top of the hole and plopped to the ground.
“Is this what all dungeon entrances look like?” she asked Agnetha. Receiving no response she turned to face Agnetha, “Agnetha?”
Agnetha was also staring at the snaggly hole.
“No, I’ve never seen one like this before,” she replied. “On the other hand, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a dungeon entrance of such a new dungeon either. It might be normal.”
Agnetha’s answer didn’t inspire Lily with confidence. She turned back to contemplate the entrance once more. “One of it’s chambers collapsed on the beach yesterday,” Lily stated.
“Oh? That is unusual.”
“I’m glad it did though. If it weren’t for that I wouldn’t have been able to get away from the bad people.” Lily paused as another thought occurred to her, “Do you think the dungeon did it on purpose to help me?”
“No, likely not,” Agnetha replied. “Be careful not to personify natural phenomena, especially dungeons - it’s a good way to get yourself killed.”
Lily frowned at that statement. Somehow it didn’t ring completely true to her. But what did she know.
<>
Rick, I don’t think they like my entrance, Claire slowly said from where she and Rick were observing the exchange.
“Don’t mind them,” he replied. “What matters is what is inside.”
Like… don’t judge a book by its cover?
Rick gave Claire a strange look, “What do you mean? You should absolutely judge a book by its cover. How else do you know whether you want to read it or not?”
No, no, Claire replied. That’s not what it means. It means… she stopped short, trying to direct her foggy thoughts into a good explanation. Luckily, Lily and Agnetha started advancing towards her entrance, having tied up the donkey in some of the shrubbery first, saving her the effort of trying to marshal her thoughts on this particular issue.
<>
“Okay,” Agnetha said at the entrance. “We’re going to take this slow. Also, remember that even though I will accompany you to provide guidance, I will neither help nor rescue you. I’m too old for all that. Besides, you will reap the most benefit if you complete the dungeon challenges by yourself.”
Lily nodded, and then knelt to peer inside. It was very dark. Also, from the little that was illuminated by the outside light, there wasn’t much space inside.
“Agnetha, I don’t know if you’ll be able to make it inside. It’s so small, it looks like we’ll need to crawl, or at least hunch over. A lot.”
“Are you sure? Maybe it just connects to a larger chamber once inside?”
“I don’t know…”
“Well, after all I’ve done, I’m sure these knees can crawl a little bit more,” Agnetha groaned as she slowly bent herself down to the ground level, getting ready to enter. “You go first Lily, but wait right at the entrance for me to get inside as well.”
Lily entered first and then helped Agnetha shuffle inside. Aside from the darkness, it was extremely muddy.
A sound made Lily froze, and she looked around in alarm. But it was too dark to see much. “Did you hear that?” she hissed to Agnetha.
“Hear what?” Agnetha replied, having finally managed to move herself inside with painfully slow movements.
“I don’t know. It sounded like some kind of swarm of insects. Why did I hear it and not you? Wait, there it is again!”
In the shadows cast from the sun outside, puzzlement briefly appeared on Agnetha’s face, before comprehension dawned.
“Insects you say? You know what, I think this dungeon is going to be the perfect start for you.”
“What do you mean? Lily suspiciously asked.
“Don’t ask so many questions,” Agnetha quipped in good humour. “Let’s just rest here for a while and enjoy the ambiance.”
Lily could feel herself sinking deeper into the mud by the second. Enjoy the ambiance? Her mentor was losing her mind.
“I think something is looking at us,” she replied.
“Is that so?” Agnetha leaned back against the wall, getting comfortable. “Well, let’s see if you can find out what it is and where it might be hiding,” she continued as she produced a dim glow stone from her robe for Lily.
<>
Later in the morning Tamrin and Layne finally stumbled into the clearing. Tamrin had almost walked past it, but Layne stopped. There was something, something familiar there. And looking to the side he had spotted the hole.
“Hey Tamrin, hold on a moment.”
Tamrin stopped and gave him an annoyed glare.
“What is it now? We still need to find the entrance to this stupid dungeon and half the day is gone already.”
“I know, I know, but just wait. See, there is a hole over there. We should take a closer look.”
“That hole? Do you honestly think that’s a dungeon entrance? Is the heat affecting you?”
Ignoring her, Layne slowly walked up to the hole himself. He was about to peer inside, when a rustle from the bushes made both him and Tamrin whirl around, weapons at the ready. They gave each other a look, and carefully circled from each side in the direction of the bushes.
“A donkey??” Tamrin said. “Layne, we’re not even the first ones here! You really should’ve sent some servants out to search for it first.”
Layne just turned around and looked at the grubby hole again.
<><><>
Character sheet summary at the end of Chapter 11
Claire
Type: Life-Mind
Level: 1
Integrity: 64%
Processing speed: 28%
Functional capacity: 32%
Progress to next level
-680/250 LF Performance provision
643/500 Dungeon Investment, consisting of:
498/≥125 LF
145/≥125 ME
16/250 Skill Share Value
Core defence enabled
Cutting thorn barrier
5 LF to initiate
Continuous drain of 10 LF per day
Resources available
Biomass: 9
Mental energy: 5
Raw material: 486
<>
Lily Hunter
Rogue Level 1
First-tier skills
Basic herbalism 2/20
Deception 2/20
Lock picking 5/20
Petty theft 1/20
Pick-pocketing 4/20
Quick thinking 2/20
Sneaking 8/20
Sleight of hand 2/20
Second-tier skills
Spying 0/50
Summary of construct cost and daily life-force absorption
Construct size
General cost
Biomass multiplies by a factor of 3 for each level
Life-force increases by 5 for each level
Max daily LF absorption
Life-force increases by 1 for each level
Constructs
Standard size for constructs indicated. All constructs can be created smaller or larger for the appropriate general cost and benefit.
Animals
Tiny
5 Biomass
10 Life-Force
15 Life-force
Coral polyp
Glasswing butterfly
Cockroach
Small
15 Biomass
15 Life-force
16 Life-force
Chameleon
Gliding tree frog
Crab
Sea horse
Medium
45 Biomass
20 Life-force
17 Life-force
Flute fish
Parrot fish
Sea turtle
Large
135 Biomass
25 Life-force
18 Life-force
Gigantic
405 Biomass
30 Life-force
19 Life-force
Titanic
1215 Biomass
35 Life-force
20 Life-force
Plants
Planting cost
Growth cost
Max daily LF absorption
Constructs
1 Biomass
1 Life-force
Normal growth
No cost
Enhanced growth per enhancement
3 Biomass
5 Life-force
1 LF per square metre
Mountain fern
Palm tree
Blue moss
Phytoplankton
Red algae
Coralline algae
Seagrass