Oh crap Rick, there’s water! We’re flooding!
“What?! Block it! Quick!”
How? I don’t know how!
“Construction menu! Construction menu!!!”
Claire flipped through her menus in panic, until the right one displayed.
Create/alter structure
Barrier
Room
Steps
Staircase
Support pillar
Wall
Other
Choosing ‘barrier’ created another prompt.
Create barrier?
Yes/No
Yes! Claire frantically accepted, and then quickly input the parameters and barrier placement. Claire and Rick both breathed a sigh of relief as the gushing water stopped.
Say, looks like there’s some kelp in there. And is that a piece of coral? Claire said, eyeing the pool of water and sand now beneath her.
“Oh, coral is good news. Depending on the kind, it likely means that we have some land pretty close to us.”
And if we don’t? What happens if we’re in the middle of an ocean?
“Dungeons normally develop on land, although ocean-based ones are not unheard of. But even for them the access point is usually above water. My guess is that there is land around us somewhere.”
I hope so. Have to say though, digging around blindly doesn’t feel very productive. What if I get washed away?
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine even under the water as long as your structure doesn’t get damaged. Maybe you can dig out some diagonal exploratory shafts in a couple of directions? They don’t have to be very large.”
Okay, like a centimetre or two across should be fine? I’m guessing we’re still going up. Or is it possible to have an underground civilisation beneath us?
“It’s possible, but not that likely. I would suggest going up diagonally in maybe three or four different directions first. If we don’t find land, we can try down next.”
<>
Bastian stood on a dune by the ocean side, glaring at the compass in his hand.
“Hey boss, what’s up with this dungeon compass?” Bastian jumped as Hillah suddenly spoke from behind, staring at the compass over his shoulder.
“Get away from me,” he snapped at her, and she hurriedly backed up a little. Why did that woman always have to stand so close to him anyway? Stanley had fallen over in the shade of some palm trees. He lay there gasping for breath after their brisk march on top of his hangover.
The dungeon compass was behaving strangely though. The needle was supposed to align towards the source of dungeon energy, but it was just randomly pointing in five different directions. It would start pointing one way, then jerk around backwards to another, then jerk to one side, and on and on.
“Hey Perez, come look here,” Bastian called to the rogue who was leaning against the trunk of a palm tree, intently scanning their surroundings.
Perez sauntered over at his request and observed the jerky movements of the compass needle.
“Well, the established dungeon is that way,” Perez commented pointing in one of the directions. “I don’t know where these other directions would lead to. Do you think there might be multiple dungeons?”
“It crossed my mind, but we only felt the one dungeon flare. Could multiple dungeons have flared all at once?”
“Possible, but I don’t think so,” Perez replied. “The flare we felt would have been much stronger if more than one dungeon had flared at the same time.”
“So what is going on here then?” Bastian asked.
“I’m not sure. Maybe multiple entrances? That’s been known to happen.”
“But that’s usually in older dungeons. New dungeons don’t just aimlessly create entrances.”
“Unless it’s an anomalous core,” Hillah contributed from the side. “Those cores do all kinds of weird things.”
Bastian and Perez shared a look.
“Hey, remember that anomalous core down in Zeestone?” Stanley called from where he was lying on the ground.
Bastian shuddered. Levi died in that dungeon in a pitfall crush that was situated right in the damned entrance. The ground had simply given way beneath him, followed by a wall segment slamming down on him where he fell. And it had happened so quickly that the rest of them just stood there staring like fools, Perez included. Whose fricking job it was to watch out for traps in the first place. Then that crazy core tried to collapse the core chamber in on them once they had taken it. They barely survived. And then they had to carefully dig through at least ten metres of collapsed and unstable tunnel to get out. What was supposed to be a quick in-and-out, took days. During which their food and water ran out. They were lucky to be alive.
“Can we please not talk about it,” Hillah said, looking haunted. Perez just kept quiet. At least he hasn’t walked away like he usually does when this sorry episode came up in conversation. Not that any of them wanted to talk about it. Except Stanley.
Still, crazy core or not, their reward would be the same once they got their hands on it. And this time they have more experience and are better prepared.
Bastian made up his mind, “Okay, so here is what we’re going to do. Each of us will follow one of the directions the compass is pointing to and see if we can find an entrance. We’ll meet back here in an hour’s time. Do not, and I repeat, do not enter by yourself.”
“Don’t have to tell me, boss,” Stanley said. Perez and Hillah both nodded their agreement.
<>
Further into the island’s foliage, Lily was also struggling with her borrowed pendulum. It had worked perfectly at the start, consistently pulling one way. But now it was spinning and pulling in various directions. She sat down on a rock, fiddling with the hunting knife she took from her father’s gear. At least another petty theft notification hadn’t popped up when she took the knife. Skill notifications could be so annoying sometimes.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Most ordinary folk would simply focus on the ones they could craft an income with and ignore the rest. What set adventurers and other specialities apart, was that their skills would combine into a specific class which tended to provide added bonuses. If someone like her wanted a class, they had to join a guild to receive guidance toward that class in turn for guild service. Adventurers could do that too by joining an adventurer’s guild. Even so many class users were independently trained if they had wealthy enough families. Others would simply opt for dungeon challenges, which would often have the same effect. Although, without a person to turn to for guidance, dungeon challenges could lead to haphazard class development. But having a class in the first place was mostly such an overall advantage, that many didn’t particularly care about their build. It was all about having a class.
Right now Lily didn’t care about a class. She just needed a healing skill – any healing skill. Without access to a healing guild or money for a trainer, the dungeon was her best bet.
But which direction was she supposed to go in? Come on Lily, she thought to herself. What would an adventurer do in this situation?
Carefully she lifted the pendulum and studied its erratic movements. Was there a direction it was pulling towards with more force? It was hard to tell. Finally she just picked a random direction and started walking again. Her legs were tired, but she kept going. She had to get to the dungeon soon, before others found it and claimed the starting bonuses.
She hoped her father was still okay at home.
<>
Claire sighed in satisfaction as the last of her four exploratory shafts broke ground. The two shafts on either sides of her first tunnel had both ended up still being in the ocean. However, this time she had been prepared to block them off at a moment’s notice. With the other three she had found beach, jungle, and cliff side, respectively.
What was really nice was the way her perception simply opened up to the outside world around each aperture she created. She had a perfect 360 degree view of about five meters surrounding each hole. She could perceive some of her other senses, like ‘feeling’ the heat of the sun, ‘seeing’ leaves slightly stirring in the breeze, and ‘smelling’ the fresh ocean air. Almost like being human again. Even better, she could monitor the area around all the apertures at once, with no problems. Being a core definitely had some advantages.
“Hey what do you see now? Show me!” Rick was bobbing up and down in curiosity. The fourth shaft had taken a lot longer than the others to reach the surface.
Just a sec… Claire quickly got her bearings and then projected the outside view. She had improved the projection considerably for Rick’s benefit over the course of the last three shafts. Now her projection included a 360 degree view around her core, with the particular aperture opening she was focusing on as the centre.
I think this one came out on a mountainside, from what I can tell from its angle and length in comparison to the others. It is difficult to tell more than that with how limited my sight perception is. I wish I could see the view, instead of just a bounded surrounding area.
“Don’t worry, your perception should increase as you level your core, including your ability to sense through the ground around you.”
Speaking of, how do I level my core?
Rick took a breath of whatever he breathed, and shone a brighter, steadier red as he entered instructor mode. “There are typically three requirements that dungeon cores need to meet, in order to level up. To start with, you need to reach an excess of life-force equal to one quarter of the current life-force needed for functional capacity at your present core level. This ensures enough functional capacity to perform at a higher core level, and is referred to as the ‘performance provision’.”
Currently 250 LF, in other words.
“Yes. In addition to this basic requirement, there will be some unique requirements related to dungeon investment – referring to how you have improved your dungeon and what you have invested in said improvements. The dungeon investment requirement usually amounts to a number of half the core’s current functional capacity. Lastly, there will be a certain skill share value you need to obtain, which in most cases also equals a number equivalent to one quarter of your functional capacity.”
Adding up to exactly whatever number my functional capacity happens to be at. Claire took a moment to give the information some more thought and then asked, What do you mean by ‘skill share value’?
Rick had the answer ready.
“Whenever adventurers level in your dungeon, you receive a share of the value of whatever skill or class level has been gained. This requirement has two functions. First off, it shows that you have attracted and led to the improvement of enough adventurers to justify your advancement. Secondly, during the core levelling process, the skill share value condenses to physically improve your core structure, leading to a growth in size as well as an improvement in core capabilities.”
That sounds complicated. And I know nothing about skills or classes.
“That’s okay, I’ll explain it in more detail as your skill share value starts improving. You can also keep track of it on your main status screen – it should have been added once you reached your full functional capacity.”
Claire mentally accessed her main status screen, projecting it so Rick can see it too.
All core processes are functioning optimally within normal parameters.
Type: Life-Mind
Level: 1
Integrity: 100%
Processing speed: 100%
Functional capacity: 82%
Progress to next level
-180/250 LF Performance provision
0/500 Dungeon Investment, consisting of:
0/≥125 LF
0/≥125 ME
0/250 Skill Share Value
Indeed, there were three trackers indicating her current progress towards becoming a level 2 core, which Claire studied.
Rick, what does ME stand for?
“Oh, that would be ‘mental energy’, which would be related to the mind part of your Life-Mind dungeon type.”
Claire was about to question him further on that topic, when she noticed something else.
What’s happening to my functional capacity? And I’ve got negative 180 LF towards level two??
“What? Oh no, that’s normal. Remember that life-force is basically the fuel for every action you take, including the purchases you make. You’ve also been operating in a life-force constrained environment, since you weren’t connected to the surface initially. Even right now you don’t have much life-force circulation with only four tiny access points and just your automatic core ability for absorption. Plus you’ve been tunnelling and creating water barriers, which would’ve used up even more of your functional capacity.”
Oh, I didn’t realise the effect would be so profound, Claire mused. Is this okay? You don’t think I should enlarge my surface openings more?
“No, you don’t want that many access points this early in your development. Why, you don’t even have a single dungeon monster for defence yet! We can create a nice big opening once we’ve decided on a good spot.”
Speaking of the surface, Rick, I think there’s something happening up there.
Claire switched the projected view from the mountain side to her perception around the beach aperture, showing a man holding what looked like a compass standing almost on top of the hole. He was conferring with another man, while a very muscular woman with an axe strapped to her back stared out over the ocean.
Claire fiddled around, adjusting the projection and then sound started filling the cavern. Just as the garbled voices of the two men cleared up, there was a third male voice calling down the beach.
“Hey boss, look what I found up in the shrubs!”
A dishevelled looking man with two mangy dogs came into view. He was roughly marching a girl towards the group on the beach, with two dogs following and occasionally snapping at her.
<><><>
Character sheet summary at the end of Chapter 4
Claire
Type: Life-Mind
Level: 1
Integrity: 100%
Processing speed: 100%
Functional capacity: 82%
Progress to next level
-180/250 LF Performance provision
0/500 Dungeon Investment, consisting of:
0/≥125 LF
0/≥125 ME
0/250 Skill Share Value
Core defence enabled
Cutting thorn barrier
5 LF to initiate
Continuous drain of 10 LF per day
<>
Lily Hunter
Basic herbalism 1/20
Petty theft 1/20
Sneaking 5/20
Spying 0/50