Novels2Search
Subject Zero
Chapter 14: My Own Personal Dungeon

Chapter 14: My Own Personal Dungeon

Encrypted Message to Jax999: I would like an FDVR if you have one.

Encrypted Message to Quality Life: I would like an FDVR if you have one.

Encrypted Message to NTTT: We can get you one. Thank you for your help. QOL

Encrypted Message to NTTT: I don't have access to one, but I can get you a supped-up char if you want one. Lmk

Encrypted Message to Quality Life: Thank you. Can I expect it at my residence soon?

Encrypted Message to NTTT: You can expect it in the next 30 minutes. QOL

Encrypted Message to Jax999: Yes, I would

Encrypted Message to NTTT: Got you, sending now…. Sent. Enjoy NTTT

Isa came out staring at all the screens that had been in her vision for the last…. Who knows how long. It felt like hours, but was probably only minutes.

How long have I been in game now? Maybe I should log out soon.

Be Aware: You have completed the instanced dungeon: Thieves' Den. Rename Thieves' Den. Override. Thieves' Den was renamed without your consent. Thieves' Den is now called Luck's Folly. Transformation to generic homely dungeon in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

Suddenly, Isa was lifted off the ground by a couple inches. Everything around her changed. Instead of being blood-soaked and cold, torches were now everywhere with a central fire that burned white. It was not hot… it was just heat. Chairs and tables appeared, and a tavern-like look overcame the place. Then a bedroom was made available in the back, with a locking door!

As Isa was lowered back to the ground, she knew everything about this place. She could feel it in her mind. She knew the temperature of the rooms, how to change it, the amount of food and drink stored, how to replenish it, and much more that she didn't even understand.

Defenses, Offense, Concealment…. What?

COME HERE!

The central fire turned mirror white and a figure appeared.

YES, CHILD, IN THE FIRE. COME TALK WITH ME.

Isa approached the fire and said hesitantly, "Who are you?"

I AM LADY LUCK. I HAVE BEEN WATCHING YOU SINCE YOU CAME INTO THIS WORLD, AND I THINK WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER. YOU MAY CALL ME LADY.

“That’s all well and good, but could you lower the volume of your voice? It is at a level I think the skies can hear.”, Isa boldly responded.

Oh, sorry, I am used to talking through a funnel of some type, like a godly premonition or something of the like. As I said, you can help me, and I can help you. Do you want more details?

Isa responded rather quickly, "Yes, please."

If you let me bind myself to this dungeon, I can take care of all the petty stuff that will need to be done, such as hiring workers, upgrading the dungeon, and building certain helpful buildings for your advancement as an adventurer. You may also fast travel here anytime and your health, mana, and stamina will recover in Luck's Folly. The only other I need from you is for you to get me my statuettes. They increase my abilities. They are located in various dungeons and towns across the world. I will be able to send you close to where they are and then you can get them and fast travel back. I will also upgrade your overlay and give you a dimensional storage space. What do you say?

Isa had no idea how to respond… This seemed too good of a deal for her.

What is Lady looking for? All of this sounds too good to be true. And you know what they say. If it seems too good to be true. It probably is.

Also, that power you were given is above even my ability to grant, even at full power.

Isa answered Lady's original question, "I'll take that deal."

Okay, all you have to do is say to the mirror, "Mirror, I grant thee the power to bind Ladisifur, the ability to manifest in this world and bind herself to this dungeon space named Luck's Folly."

Isa repeated the saying, “Mirror, I grant thee the power to bind Ladisifur the ability to manifest in this world and bind herself to this space, this dungeon space, named Luck’s Folly.

You used my full name, but you may call me Lady, as stated earlier.

Then the mirror fire shattered and Lady came forth from the broken shards of the mirror. Lady emerged into this world and waved her hand.

Isa felt a swell of power go through her, and her overlay changed, and she felt the storage appear.

I am tired after giving you that. I will need to rest for a while before I start to complete the other things I said I would do.

Isa wondered out loud, “How long have I been in the game world?”

With your deaths, restarts, and everything you have been in the game world for 6 days. But in the real world, only 2 hours have passed. You will notice that you will be tired when you leave the game world. That is the time compression at work.

As soon as Lady finished saying that, prompts flooded her view. Most of them were old prompts that she hadn't dismissed earlier. The new one she saw rewarded her for completing the mission and the subsequent conquering of the dungeon.

Be Aware: You have completed quest: Find The Thieves’ transformed into Thieves’ Den

360 XP awarded

No Talents gained

No Abilities gained

All items received overridden

Isa pulled up her character sheet.

Name: Isa

Level: 6 Experience: 27/800

Disposition: Neutral

Reputation: Not worthy of thought

Constitution: 1

Vitality: 1

Strength: 1

Wisdom: 1

Intelligence: 1

Dexterity: 20

Endurance: 1

Charisma: 1

Luck: 450

2 Attribute Points Available

Health: 180/180 Health Regen: 5/s

Mana: 0/0 Mana Regen: 0/s

Stamina: 250/250 Stamina Regen: 1/s

Be Aware: You can now convert Attribute Points to Soul Points in a 2:1 conversion.

Isa looked at her sheet and thought it was a little disappointing after all the soul stuff that came up and the orb before that. It truly appeared that those powers were literally out of this world.

Isa decided to convert her Attribute Points to a single Soul Point. Isa already knew what she was going to spend it on…. Attributes Level 1 to Level 2.

You have chosen to upgrade Attributes Soul Talent to Level 2, cost 1 Soul Point. Confirm

[Yes] or [No]

Isa confirmed it.

Attributes Level 2: You now have increased attribute gain per level gained. Current increase: 10%

That did it. That made sure that she got stronger, faster. She was already tired of dying, even if she had every advantage she could possible imagine. Death still was jarring. Not painful, but jarring.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Then, another prompt popped up in her vision.

Be Aware: You have gained a familiar. This familiar is a Mistwraith Panther. Age 1 month. You must now name the panther. Name determines sex. This familiar is soul-bound.

A rent appeared before Isa and a panther fell to the ground. Isa heard a word reverberate in her mind, "Master?”. Isa jumped backward and looked around for the source of the sound. No source could be clearly seen. No one was here except for Lady and the panther. Isa looked at the panther again, and again, a voice came through, "Master?”

Isa, without thought, said, "Yes".

Then, a beep happened.

Must have been in my head.

And Isa heard another word, “Name?”

Be Aware: Your familiar is asking for its name. The name chosen will determine sex, as well as, personality. Intelligence will only be granted to the familiar upon being granted a name. Would you like to name your familiar?

[Yes] or [No]

Isa thought about it………. Long minutes passed, and then she finally decided on a name: Evie. It was perfect, described her perfectly and was reminiscent of Isa's, no Rory's, favorite Pokémon. This is confusing… who Rory is versus who Isa is… the line blurs.

Be Aware: You have named your familiar Evie. This name shall forever be cemented in its personality. Because of the name chosen, your familiar is a female. Congratulations on receiving a familiar. You are the first settler to have received a familiar.

Be Aware: You have claimed this dungeon. This dungeon is still in beta. You will not be able to use this dungeon until game becomes available to the public. As such, you will not have to worry about anyone taking this dungeon away from you. Your dungeon will be locked to you until that time.

Be Aware: Your familiar has unspent Attribute Points. Would you like to take a look at her status screen?

[Yes] or [No]

Isa chose [Yes] and then saw Evie's status screen for the first time.

Name: Evie

Race: Mistwraith (Demon) Panther

Age: 1 month

Sex: Female

Disposition: Loved (Master), Untrusting (all other settlers)

Body: 12

Mind: 1

Soul: 0

Luck: -0.5

Attribute Points: 5 unspent points

Health: 450 Regen: 5 health/sec

Mana: 50 Regen: 2 mana/sec

Stamina: 120 Regen: 10 stamina/ sec

Skills: Reflexes, Barbed claws (cause extra bleeding damage)

Abilities: Poison Claws, Abyssal Scratch, Slowing Claws

Poison Claws: Claws are charged with poison and will cause 12 Damage Per Second (DPS). Can also cause blindness, confusion, and rage. As you level Evie, chance of confusion increases, and the chance of rage decreases. Cost: 15 mana

Abyssal Scratch: Causes an enemy to become wraith-like. It cannot attack or be attacked in this state. State lasts as long as enemy attack lasts. It may not be canceled. As you level Evie, the time the enemy is in the abyss lengthens. E.g., Upgrades from 1 attack to 2 attacks. Cost: 20 mana

Slowing Claws: Upon contact with claws, will cause debuff Short Slow. The slow effect lasts 5 seconds. As you level Evie Slow, debuff lengthens, and cost decreases slightly. Cost: 10 mana; 40 stamina

Debuff: Clumsy. Evie is young and can barely walk. Has a + 1% chance to trip when walking during combat. +10% chance during any running, in or out of combat. Debuff will naturally lessen over time. Training will increase the reduction rate, as well as Attribute Point investment.

Isa had one last message appear, but she wasn't entirely sure what it meant after what was told to her just before it. The status screen of the dungeon popped up suddenly and without any prompting.

Dungeon: Luck’s Folly

Level: [1]

Defenses: N/A

Incubation Period: N/A

Health: N/A

Mana: 100,000

Mana regeneration: 7 per second

Mana siphon: 1%

Mana siphon equals just under 1 mana per second to the Owner

Be Aware: You have gained an increase in your mana regeneration. You may change the mana siphon percentage however you would like. However, if the dungeon has no mana it can have no defenses.

Error… Error…. Dungeon in beta. Mana not needed until beta ends.

Isa had no idea how to take this; it was just that she had close to 1 mana per second more than she had previously had when she had had this dungeon.

So now I have 0 mana and 1/s regen. I wonder what's going to happen now. Errors galore, probably.

Be Aware: You have no mana and a mana regeneration. This will cause your meridians to forcefully expand with mana over time. The process will be slow and very painful but will suffuse your body with mana if given enough time.

As soon as that message was read entirely, a pain started in Isa's diaphragm and started to radiate out from there. Isa was aware that she could turn off the pain at any time by changing the mana siphon, but she was curious about what it would do to her body.

Now Isa had to decide what she wanted to spend the Attribute Points on for Evie. Isa pulled up just the status part of the screen; she didn't want the ability names and descriptions.

Name: Evie

Race: Mistwraith (Demon) Panther

Age: 1 month

Sex: Female

Disposition: Loved (Master), Untrusting (all other settlers)

Body: 12

Mind: 1

Soul: 0

Luck: -0.5

Attribute Points: 5 unspent points

Health: 450 Regen: 5 health/sec

Mana: 50 Regen: 2 mana/sec

Stamina: 120 Regen: 10 stamina/ sec

Isa looked at the screen and wondered what Body, Mind, and Soul stood for.

A combination of multiple attributes maybe. So upgrading the body would be like physical training style attribute, mind would be mana-related attributes, and soul is…. What exactly?

I'm going to move forward with this as my understanding until I learn more through wiki pages or trial and error.

Isa could see that most of Evie's stats were in the physical realm, which made sense with her abilities. But it occurred to Isa that Evie would only be able to use Poison Claws three times, Abyssal Scratch two times, and Slowing Claws three times, without considering the mana regen that Evie had, without upgrading the Mind attribute. It seemed wise to upgrade the Mind attribute so that those abilities could be used more often.

Did the Body, Mind, or Soul Attribute affect stamina? Time for a little test. And what was Luck? For either me or Evie. I wonder if it’s different between us. I’ll have to look this up soon.

Isa invested one attribute point into Body, one into mind, and one into Soul to see how things would change. Isa pulled up Evie's whole sheet again after doing that.

Name: Evie

Race: Mistwraith (Demon) Panther

Age: 1 month

Sex: Female

Disposition: Loved (Master), Untrusting (all other settlers)

Body: 13

Mind: 2

Soul: 1

Luck: -0.5

Attribute Points: 2 unspent points

Health: 550 Regen: 7 health/sec

Mana: 100 Regen: 5 mana/sec

Stamina: 200 Regen: 15 stamina/ sec

Skills: Reflexes, Barbed claws (cause extra bleeding damage)

Abilities: Poison Claws, Abyssal Scratch, Slowing Claws

Poison Claws: Claws are charged with poison and will cause 15 Damage Per Second (DPS). Can also cause blindness, confusion, and rage. As you level Evie chance of confusion increases, chance of rage decreases, and DPS amount increases. Cost: 15 mana

Abyssal Scratch: Causes an enemy to become wraith-like. Cannot attack or be attacked in this state. State lasts as long as enemy attack lasts. May not be cancelled. As you level Evie, the time the enemy is in the abyss lengthens. E.g., Upgrades from 1 attack to 2 attacks. Cost: 20 mana

Slowing Claws: Upon contact with claws, will cause debuff Short Slow. The slow effect lasts 6 seconds. As you level Evie Slow debuff lengthens and cost decreases slightly. Cost: 9 mana; 38 stamina

Debuff: Clumsy. Evie is young and can barely walk. Has a + 0.5% chance to trip when walking during combat. +8% chance during any running, in or out of combat. Debuff will naturally lessen over time. Training will increase the reduction rate, as well as Attribute Point investment.

I should’ve done each one and looked at what it did comparing them. Well, time to try that and see how it shakes out.

Isa invested one point into Body and pulled the screen back up.

Name: Evie

Race: Mistwraith (Demon) Panther

Age: 1 month

Sex: Female

Disposition: Loved (Master), Untrusting (all other settlers)

Body: 14

Mind: 2

Soul: 1

Luck: -0.5

Attribute Points: 1 unspent point

Health: 650 Regen: 9 health/sec

Mana: 100 Regen: 5 mana/sec

Stamina: 250 Regen: 18 stamina/ sec

Skills: Reflexes, Barbed claws (cause extra bleeding damage)

Abilities: Poison Claws, Abyssal Scratch, Slowing Claws

Poison Claws: Claws are charged with poison and will cause 15 Damage Per Second (DPS). Can also cause blindness, confusion, and rage. As you level Evie, chance of confusion increases, and the chance of rage decreases. Cost: 15 mana

Abyssal Scratch: Causes an enemy to become wraith-like. Cannot attack or be attacked in this state. State lasts as long as enemy attack lasts. May not be cancelled. As you level Evie, the time the enemy is in the abyss lengthens. E.g., Upgrades from 1 attack to 2 attacks. Cost: 20 mana

Slowing Claws: Upon contact with claws, will cause debuff Short Slow. The slow effect lasts 6 seconds. As you level Evie Slow debuff lengthens and cost decreases slightly. Cost: 9 mana; 38 stamina

Debuff: Clumsy. Evie is young and can barely walk. Has + 0.33% chance to trip when walking during combat. +6% chance during any running, in or out of combat. Debuff will naturally lessen over time. Training will increase the reduction rate, as well as Attribute Point investment.

Okay, it appears that Health and Stamina are disproportionally affected by Body. So mana must come from Mind, then. If that's the case, what does Soul do?

Isa decided to put the remaining point into Soul to see what that did since Isa deemed it okay to bypass more mana at this point. Isa invested the last Attribute Point into Soul and brought up the screen.

Name: Evie

Race: Mistwraith (Demon) Panther

Age: 1 month

Sex: Female

Disposition: Loved (Master), Untrusting (all other settlers)

Body: 14

Mind: 2

Soul: 2

Luck: -0.5

Attribute Points: 5 unspent points

Health: 650 Regen: 9 health/sec

Mana: 100 Regen: 5 mana/sec

Stamina: 250 Regen: 18 stamina/ sec

Skills: Reflexes, Barbed claws (cause extra bleeding damage)

Abilities: Poison Claws, Abyssal Scratch, Slowing Claws

Poison Claws: Claws are charged with poison and will cause 15 Damage Per Second (DPS). Can also cause blindness, confusion, and rage. As you level Evie, chance of confusion increases, and the chance of rage decreases. Cost: 15 mana

Abyssal Scratch: Causes an enemy to become wraith-like. Cannot attack or be attacked in this state. State lasts as long as enemy attack lasts. May not be cancelled. As you level Evie, the time the enemy is in the abyss lengthens. E.g., Upgrades from 1 attack to 2 attacks. Cost: 20 mana

Slowing Claws: Upon contact with claws, will cause debuff Short Slow. Slow effect lasts 6 seconds. As you level Evie Slow debuff lengthens and cost decreases slightly. Cost: 9 mana; 38 stamina

Debuff: Clumsy. Evie is young and can barely walk. Has + 0.33% chance to trip when walking during combat. +6% chance during any running, in or out of combat. Debuff will naturally lessen over time. Training will increase the reduction rate, as well as Attribute Point investment.

"Nothing's changed?" Isa commented to the air. "What's up with that?"