***** Bud's POV *****

            Now that Tracey is out hunting for plants again, it was finally time.

            Time to start building things.

            Tracey was once again out in the forest gathering plants, except this time she was properly equipped. I showed her how to use the emergency air supply functions of her shipsuit, since some of the things I asked for were rather stinky, as well as the formerly unbonded smart wrist bag I found in her quarters.

            This last was a combination of a smartphone, bag of holding and magic multi-tool. It had to be bonded to its owner so that it could adapt to their magic, preventing it from being accidentally destroyed or damaged by said magic. The bond also made it nigh on impossible to steal and completely impossible to lose.

            Since this one was made by Broohn, he would recognize her as a friend even in his mentally pickled state and not accidentally step on her or something.

            Along the way, we discovered that I can read The Language (i.e., what the locals call their language) and Tracey could now read English, French, and Monolithan, the language of one of Earth's nearby neighbors. We call them the Monolithans because they do everything on a monolithic scale. And when I say everything, I mean everything - the smallest of their so-called "nanites" is about half a centimeter in diameter.

            Anyway, I had promised Tracey that before I started building I would summon two monsters to guard my core since Broohn is otherwise occupied at the moment.

            Upon opening my monster creation menu and selecting kobold, I discovered a pleasant surprise.

Kobold Creation Options:

Kobold Level:

Price per Summon:

01

75 mana

02

Locked: Level 02 Kobold required

03

Locked: Level 03 Kobold required

            Well, that will be useful further on down the road.

            I looked at my mana pool to double-check and make sure that I had enough mana left. It turned out that I did, but only just. After claiming an additional 413 cubic meters of territory, which extended more or less straight back into the mountain, I had exactly 152 mana left. It would have cost me a lot more, except I got some mana back from digging the preliminary rooms and tunnels that I would expand once I had the mana to claim the territory.

            Huh. Looks like my mana regen goes up as I claim more territory. Let’s see, my mana regen is now at 17.83/day, and I have 574 cubic meters worth of territory. That means that I am getting 1 mana regen per day for every 32.2 cubic meters of territory I claim.

            Looking back at my history logs, (it is usually a good idea to record everything) I was able to calculate the cost of claiming new territory, which was 1 mana/cubic meter of territory. Absorbing the rock that occupied the hallways gave me 2 mana/cubic meter.

            By carefully matching the size of a given section of territory with the area I was digging out of it, I was able to extend my core room backward by another 2 meters, before making two identical room-hallway combinations extending straight back into the cliff, and most of a fourth hallway beyond that.

            With income calculations out of the way, I summoned a level 1 kobold inside of my core room, making sure to record the process.

            The instant I gave the command, a pattern was pulled out of a folder that I hadn’t looked at yet and projected in the air where I wanted the kobold to appear. Then the mana I spent was sprayed out of me in tiny little droplets, almost like nanites except they were about 1 millimeter in diameter. These droplets then swarmed over the pattern, spending little bits and pieces of themselves to create even smaller sections of the kobold, starting from the ground up. The entire process took less than half a second and created a spectacular light show along the way.

            The end result was a kobold that appeared out of a swirling cloud of motes, which then sank into the kobold and brought it to life. I immediately felt a connection with the kobold similar to what I would have with a semi-autonomous remote-controlled drone, but different since the kobold has more sense of individuality than any drone ever would.

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            Once the creation process was complete, the kobold took a gasping breath and staggered forwards a few steps. Like the dragons I was used to, he had an iguana’s head with red-gold colored scales, but with a far more predatory air about it than any iguana that I had ever heard of. This was connected to a human-like neck, torso, and arms with backward-facing knees and splay toed feet similar to a t-rex. He also had a tail that was equal to three-quarters of his height in length, but he did not have the wings I was half expecting.

            Once he caught his balance and stood up straight, he was roughly 1.75 m tall with a lean, reptilian build that promised surprising amounts of strength and speed.

            The thing that surprised me, however, was his outfit. I had expected him to be wearing some sort of simplistic clothing such as a loincloth and maybe a bandolier, but instead, he was wearing the armored version of a shipsuit in blue and black, the standard colors for the Terran Defense Forces uniform.

            Admittedly it wasn’t the high-end fully-equipped version that the elite troops wore, but it was still half a step up from the non-combatant’s suit that Tracey was wearing.

            After taking a moment to come to grips with his sudden existence, the kobold bowed to me and growl-hissed at me. Since he was one of my crew, I still knew what he was saying.

            “Greetings Master. How may this one serve you?”

            For now just guard the door, Porthos. I told him.

Warning: Creating a named monster costs 1500 mana and one named monster slot. You currently have 0 named monster slots. To unlock this feature, you must reach Level 05 and have a monster with an achievement.

            Grrah! Why can't I give him a name!? I growled to myself as I swatted the box away. Oh well, I'll just have to ask Tracey when she gets back.

               “Master, this one is not worthy of a name!” protested the kobold.

            Every sentient creature is worthy of a name, even you. I replied. However, it appears that the system will not allow me to give you a name at this time. Instead, I will give you a serial number so that you still have at least some sense of individuality. Your serial number is P0rth0s.

Warning: Creating a named monster costs 1500 mana and one named monster slot. You currently have 0 named monster slots. To unlock this feature, you must reach Level 05 and have a monster with an achievement.

           I hadn’t been paying attention the first time that message showed up, but by the second time I had split off a part of me to search my records for where that connection came from. Sure enough, I noticed a brief connection coming to me from outside of my control just as the message appeared. It was only there for a few milliseconds, which would not normally be enough for any sort of response on my part.

            Except I wasn’t a normal dungeon. I was an Artificial Intelligence that got thrown into a dungeon core. I may not have had access to the femtosecond resolution that my other two cores typically ran at, but I was still more than fast enough to react in such a small window.

            In other words, the second time the message showed up I was ready for it.

            I grabbed my end of the one-way connection with both hands and forced it to become a two-way connection.

            I REFUSE TO LET YOU PREVENT ME FROM NAMING MY MONSTERS! I yelled down the line. I DON’T CARE IF THEY DON’T GET THE BENEFITS OF HAVING A NAME UNDER YOUR CURRENT SYSTEM! I JUST WANT SOME WAY TO ACKNOWLEDGE THEM AS THE PEOPLE THEY ALREADY ARE, RATHER THAN THE MONSTERS THEY SEEM TO BE!

            After a couple of seconds of shocked silence from the other end, I let go of the connection and slowed my core back down to normal operating speeds while I waited for the response.

            Sure enough, a couple of seconds later I received another notification.

Lesser Name Function Added to Starship Dungeon Ability List.

Lesser Name Function Unlocked! You can now give all of your monsters Lesser Names, allowing you to give them the dignity of a name and respawn specific individuals once every 20 minutes for twice their usual summoning cost.

           Well, that worked.

            “Master?” asked the kobold, who was cowering in a corner of my core room.

            I grant you the Lesser Name Porthos, and I apologize if I scared you. I was not angry at you, but at those who would not let me acknowledge that even now you are important to me.

            “But Master, I haven’t done anything of worth! I’m just a worthless, easily replaceable kobold, good only for whatever menial tasks you decide to assign me to!”

            No, you are not. I replied gently but with no less finality to my words. I am first and foremost a Creator who takes joy in everything that I create, including you. Even if you had shown up blind, deaf, mute and lame, I would still take joy in you. There is nothing that you could offer to me that would be worth even a fraction of the joy you bring to me simply by being my creation. I would prefer it if you would be my friend as well as my servant, but I will not force you to. Now go, guard the entrance. I will send you a helper to stand by your side so that you are not alone.

            “Yes, Master! Thank you, Master!” Porthos said as he bowed out of my core room into the hallway.

Dungeon Map:

Dungeon Map [https://i.imgur.com/Iolan0i.gif]

Spoiler: Dungeon Map