“The weirdest part of being awake has to be the concept of time,” the dungeon lamented to no one in particular. “The people of this world have lives short enough that they need to measure time and its passing. They care more than just saying snow season, or sun season.”
The dungeon had learned what boredom was over the month it since it was invaded. Its monsters respawned, the forest regrew, and the magma slime had made a cave to call home in the northernmost mountain the dungeon could reach.
The birds flew overhead in lazy circles. It was dark and all the delvers had learned to set up their overnight camps in the various safe zones dotted throughout their adventure. While good for not starving to death, it made for boring nights.
It was the one downside to being smart. The dungeon needed more stimulation.
The dungeon turned its attention towards the Empress to check on her experiments. It found her doing battle against a clock, a hard fought war of attrition as she used every skill she had to make it stop its eternal ticking for just a moment.
She had seen minute progress every time a Chrono Shard of Robert dropped by, but it never seemed to be enough. The thought was enough for the dungeon to call for System’s help to look at something.
Race: Lich Moth (Ant Queen Caste)
Name: Empress
Spawner: Phylactery
Speed: 10
Strength: 10
Int: 95
HP: 10
Emotion: Determined
Diet: N/A
Species Ability:
Last of Her Kind
A spawner dedicated to only one, all species upgrades adjusted for one.
Title Ability:
Theft of Family
As the matriarch of her empire, she can barrow skills of those trapped in her webs.
With a quick thanks to System, the dungeon could understand the Empress’ project. With the combination of her grimoire of blood, and the syphon spell trap she had stolen samples of magic from every delver she encountered.
The dungeon always had some idea that monsters would affect each other as they grew, but it never realized it was to this extent. She had seen Shimmer’s Synthesis and used it to learn how to combine spells rather than poisons. The monsters taught each other.
The realization hit the dungeon hard and made it want to do better. It was the master of this dungeon, and everything it knew was a tool for its monsters. It was the foundation; the center of it all.
The dungeon was the location, and the house that they all lived under, but as an entity, it was the Core. A crystal that sat at the center of it all, and its very breath gave life to this world. Life it needed to exist to save it from the horrors of the mortal world. It didn’t need a reason to exist; it didn’t need a name. All it needed was the strength to survive.
So it studied the world around it.
The delvers had awoken from their nightly naps and begun their morning routines of adventuring. All things the dungeon watched from above, a hundred people all living their individual lives as it took in everything it could.
It watched as they got dressed. Noticed how some strapped armor to their bodies, how others hide knives in their clothes. Some wore thick fur to fight off the temperature of the fading summer, while those who had grown up here cast faint spells with their breath to stay warm.
The Core studied the farms at the edge of its domain. Humans grew the dungeon’s grain only to refine it further. They turned grass into bread, beer, and so much more. It knew the importance of food for the mortals, but just recently had been told monsters needed the same. It drank in all the information that laid before it. Nothing escaped the Core’s gaze as it watched the world tick by like the clock, both it and the Empress powerless to halt time itself.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
As night descended, all the adventurers stopped to eat a meal. Without communication, they all knew to eat this ‘dinner’ of theirs, a wonderful word for the last meal of the day. It was a realization that made System ding with excitement as the world disappeared from the Core’s sight. Filled with the messages System loved.
> Understanding Increased: Culture - the ways people live their lives. The mundane rituals of day-to-day life as it applies to food, clothes, and even professions.
This message was the same as every other, annoying and useless, but there was more. For the first time, the Core noticed the sub messages that hid behind it. Prerequisites of cooking and tools, knowledge the Core had collected about different materials to make clothes out of. It was all so much and helped the Core actually realize the subtle knowledge that System provided with every message.
But it didn’t care.
It had a dungeon to run. Playing dress up with monsters based on human fashion was not very high on its list of priorities. Its ability to survive was at the top of the list, so it blew away the notification and went back to its work.
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The dungeon, no, the Core had decided it was too busy to acknowledge System. Clearly, it was confused with emotions as it tried to play human, teacher, and ecosystem all at once. Too busy to notice all the work System did in the background and so dismissed the work as useless.
The Core had become a person in more ways than one, and was beyond just being called ‘the dungeon.’ It was a sentiment they both agreed on. No one thing was the dungeon, as the dungeon was a place. One full of monsters that heavily reflected the land they lived on.
Monsters that didn’t hate System for zero reason. Monsters it could talk to.
Monsters that gave System an idea.
Most dungeons created monsters that were made to fit into boxes that defined their existence. Labels ruled the dungeons scattered across the world, but this one was different. It had creations that transcended the usual dynamic of System’s influence. Here, knowledge didn’t rewrite their subconscious, but added to their memories. A slight difference, but it meant there were a few of the monsters here that could interact with the higher world.
Of them, only one was always open to a new friend.
System located Shimmer, her light affinity allowed her the ability to perceive the floating text boxes System communicated with heavily. The slime was in the midst of a game of tag with her kin, darting around the mycelium fields they called home. While only a brisk walk for most, to the eternally slow slimes, this was the height of speed.
> Greeting: Hello Shimmer
Too caught up in her game of tag, she failed to notice the words as they manifested directly in her path. Unable to stop in time, she flew right through the words as they dissipated on contact.
She kept the momentum and continued her sprint, as she called back “now you’re it!”
System was the operating system of the universe. It crunched code and made sure existence itself continued unimpeded. It was above such silly little games, yet when presented the opportunity… System couldn’t help but give in.
A dozen message of mana and light formed at System’s command to give chase to all the slimes currently caught up in the game.
> I’m ‘it’
> This is going to chase you now.
> Run faster
> I am going to get you
> [Please insert more terms to say when playing games]
Many slimes fell to the onslaught of the chase, but Shimmer continued her deft movements to keep the game alive. It passed at a snail’s pace, but the game was the game, and System had no desire to end it so soon.
That was until the trap was set. Her trajectory had been calculated. She had fallen into the trap System had devised. There was no escaping his calculations. The final box appeared just as she leaped to what she thought was safety.
> Knowledge increased: Bonemeal - a pulverised form of bones to add nutrients to the soil.
It wasn’t the message he they planned to send, but it was one that caught Shimmer off guard as she dove through it, thereby relieving System of the status of ‘it.’
“Bones can help plants grow? That’s so cool. Does that mean anything can become nutrients for plants?” She asked as she ran in circles around the message. Eager to learn the full power of bonemeal.
> Answer: The circle of life proves that all things grow, but in their death they provided nutrients to the soil to perpetuate the cycle. If it is alive or dead, it can aid in plant growth.
Shimmer ran around excitedly as she collected various bits of scrap that laid in her mycelium field to create her own mulch pile. It was small, as the fields were pristine with all the slimes that roamed it to clean, but the actions kept her entertained.
With Shimmer being busy again, System had to check something. Where did the knowledge of bones come from?
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The Core got a notification about knowledge and dismissed it just as quick. An itch in the back of its mind unnerved it, and it could tell something was wrong. Where did the knowledge come from, and why did it feel dangerous?
The answer was the forest.
A shattered corpse of bones laid beneath a tree that had turned it to dust. Its roots were like parasites as they snaked over the skeleton to feed on the marrow in its bones. Any sign of flesh on its body never present, no blood on the ground, no sign of life.
The forest had manifested bones to feed itself.
‘No,’ the Core thought, ‘that’s not right. It has an axe. It came to the forest expecting a fight. But it was dead, so how could it?’
The thought trailed off as Echo fought two skeletons that still walked. Slow and their movements clunky, they were crushed quickly, but not until after chopping off a branch with their weapons. The skeletons had been alive and attacking.
The Core expanded its view. It looked past the forest and nearby in its search for these weak monsters that attacked the forest. It found plenty more that made their way through the dungeon. Dark magic clung to them and forced them to animate beyond death.
‘This was the work of another Lich,’ the Empress’ knowledge added to the Core’s own.
System joined up as they all overlooked the army as it marched. Banners held high, tools in hand, but very few weapons in their ranks.
“Well,” the Core said, relieved. “I only count a hundred, and they re-die quickly, so that’s not too bad.”
There was a moment where it could feel System have an emotion, and calculate its response.
> Understanding Increased: Counting Past 100
“Oh…. ok, so maybe that’s a little closer to a thousand. That might be a slight issue.”
It was another invasion.
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> Corruption of Core has reached 9%