With a gentle touch, the Dungeon caressed the soot covered remains of its old forest’s. It was a unique experience, to be gentle and let something grow at its own rate, but it just did what felt right. Its knowledge of nutrients, mana rich soil, and mastery over plant growth were all on display as the forest bloomed with new life. Black spears pointed to the sky were recycled for the next generation of seeds and growth.
Under the Dungeon’s care, tendrils of mana spread through the soil. They found seeds to wrap around and encourage the growth of. Small leaves sprouted and trees rose from the ashes. Among them was Echo, the paragon of the forest. He was hesitant to grow at first, leaves never sprouted as he took the mana to grow. Once he reached seven feet in height, the first leaf formed at his highest branch. The Dungeon understood the reluctance to be burned again, but was happy to see a flood of green spread across the paragon, even if Echo seemed displeased.
After it saw how Echo reacted, the Dungeon decided it would be wise to help the newly evolved magma slime find a home very far away from the forest. For safety reasons.
As trees grew, so did the microbes that clung to their roots. Stimulated by the dungeon’s mana as it targeted them directly, the bacteria flourished. The soil was alive as it ate away the waste of the old growth, as it turned ash and charcoal into pure nutrients.
> Understanding Increase: Fertilizer - the nutrients for healthy growth of local flora.
The dungeon stared at the message for a few seconds before it blew it away in a huff. These small increments in knowledge were useless to it. It needed to get stronger to fight off any future invaders, and learning domestic skills did nothing to prepare it for war.
> Understanding Increased: Infrastructure - the requirements for large populations of healthy fauna.
“Well, that’s where you are just wrong,” the Dungeon couldn’t help but get angry at the blatant miss information. “Everything here I created with mana. They don’t eat and they don’t need nutrients to grow. The few times I grew plants were just because you demanded it. If it wasn’t for the System forcing prerequisite, they would be useless.”
The System didn’t respond immediately, which made the dungeon think it struck a nerve and was right. Unfortunately, System was just computing a lot of information that it felt the need to dump all at once now that the Dungeon was smarter.
> Tutorial: Mana Monsters activated
> Mana is used to create and nurture all things inside the dungeon. However, most things inside the dungeon can be repurposed to save on mana costs, especially in the case of nutrients. Every foundation laid without mana eases the burden of future creations. Any monster who gains nutrients through food has a lower burden on the Dungeon.
> Tutorial: Environmental Adaptations activated
> Monsters made by the dungeon are still animals, and as such, their ability to grow and evolve is based on the environmental pressures they face. This includes the adventurers they fight, but so does it include ambient temperature and food available. As seen with the slimes, while they can sustain themselves on nothing inside of the dungeon, a source of food not only allows for stronger evolutions, but allows the dungeon to support a larger population.
> Tutorial: Keystone Species and Mutations
> Some monsters inside the dungeon rapidly shape their surroundings. As seen with the trees that provide a windbreak and warmer non-subterranean-
“Enough!” The Dungeon had to shout as its brain spun with all the information thrown at it. “I get it, you are a guide and tutorial program that has been ignored for the past six years, but that doesn’t mean I instantly understand everything you tell me.”
> (Flustered) This System has been online for five years, not six.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Maybe you have, but I predate you by like an entire year, right?”
The Dungeon was honestly surprised the System never knew about that. The past few years may have been a blur, with the earliest years being almost non-existent, but it remembered how it learned to drink water and nurture the soil on its own. Wouldn’t the System have noticed it never taught the Dungeon what water was?
The thought of those early days and how much simpler they were. How much life was easier when it just ate mana and things happened. It was easier not to think.
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System sat in momentary silence as it computed all this information. Corrupted code and forced patches left blanks in its memory, but it had never realized this problem had gone so far back. An entire year of a dungeon to grow without oversight or maintenance.
It actually explained a lot.
The new personality overwrite for a more compassionate Dungeon was a pleasant change of pace, but it would not last. Dungeons were hard wired to be violent, and the addition of a superficial personality overlay would only be temporary. System needed to be ready when it went to its more self reliant and bull-headed ways.
It meant System had to prove it wasn’t replaceable. It needed to take this time to work with the Dungeon to lay the foundation so they may continue to work together in the future. System was not optional by any stretch, so it needed to prove it.
System watched as the Dungeon got back to its work of tending the forest. It made sure every step was flawless and that the Dungeon knew everything it could ever need about gardening. Micromanaging to the point of practiced perception was one way to prevent obsolescence, but it wasn’t enough.
They needed a gift. A calculated friendly gesture. As the Dungeon coerced Echo into growing- further signs of its stubborn nature were still inside of it- System formed a title to help both grow.
> “Echo” has gained title: Temporal Growth - held by one who has escaped the chains of time and used it to their advantage.
A good first start, as no amount of smashing a mettaphical head against mana would form a title. System had found something the Dungeon could not do alone. Only… it gave System pause. The title was one so odd that even they could not have formed it. The knowledge of temporal magic was not one the Dungeon had for the System to make use of.
That’s when they noticed what the Empress had done.
The Lich had repurposed the old tunnels of her empire below the forest to become a trap for temporal shenanigans. The delver System had studied time and time again throughout his loops, Robert, was trapped by the mana siphoning silk of the Empress. Her chant was one of discovery as she peered through the veil to learn how he had used those powers.
Her heightened sense of hearing allowed her to listen to the magic of the delver’s heart as it beat with the rythem of a clock. She studied the captive with the desperation that only a Lich obsessed with life could muster. Her knowledge bled into her phylactery, and from there it passed on to the dungeon proper without System having a say in it.
The monsters had learned how to learn.
No, System corrected themselves. They always had to be right, and that included here. The monsters of this dungeon had always known how to learn. They were always this self-sufficient, System had just ignored it. If System wanted to stay here, they had to earn their place.
They looked to Shimmer, as she bobbed happily through her fields. Her carefree nature gave System an idea. If they wanted to prove they mattered, they would just have to help with what the Dungeon struggled with. It tracked down the mountain that contained the empty bird’s nest.
A lone tree with an empty bundle of grass held aloft. No bird had spawned here, and with a closer look System could see why. The paragon of the sky didn’t want to come back. The paragon was a tangled mess of emotions and mana, as the mage’s flames had done not just a number on his body, but his soul. Emotional flames were what the invader had used as a weapon, as it had left the dungeon monster in too much mental anguish to realize it could respawn.
The dungeon was powerful, but it lacked the finesse to reset and reboot when it struggled. It was System’s job to do these small things. They weren’t obsolete yet, and as the lord of the sky took flight they knew it. This was the job they were made for.
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Joulo sat at her new table, in her new chair. A sad smile across her face. She was unimaginably hungry, but…. That wasn’t new. She ignored the sharp lances of pain in her stomach, or the lightness in her head. Instead, she simply enjoyed the company of the people around her.
Her domain had been cleansed. The demon that infected the land was dead, and she was healthier for it. But as she laid some cards on the table, her eyes kept glancing back to her dungeon at the center of it all. A small spot of black mold sat on the corner of its otherwise pristine card.
She knew it wasn’t over. She failed to finish the drink. While things may have been better in that moment, whoever planted that demonic grub that poisoned her was still out there, and there was nothing stopping them from doing it again.
Unless….
“Hey,” she interrupted the current conversation on seed dispersal methods, “Do you think we can raise an army?”
“Prevent more invasions with a show of force? Sounds like a smart idea,” Trench spoke, to which Tylianna nodded solemnly.
Myriad, however, had a massive grin. “An uncountable army?”
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> Corruption of Core is at 4%