The Casual Dungeon

Chapter 1

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You have been disconnected.

You have been banned from playing Rising Heroes for 14 days.

Reason: “Excessive verbal abuse.”

Due to your previous incurred infractions, your ban has automatically been raised to 36 days and 16 hours.

 Milo pulled his VR headgear from his head and slammed it against the bed. If he wasn’t too worried about the cost of his extremely expensive toy it would have smashed against something more solid.

“How the hell could they do this to me!” The young man raged. Furious with the decision, the man got off his bed and jumped behind his desk in order to browse his game profile on the computer.

And there it was. Someone placed a comment just a minute ago. Some asshole – the same one who he’d been trying to teach how to play the fucking game correctly – had loudly celebrated his unfortunate departure from the match.

“Haha b1tch! Fcking show you how to play carry. In yo momma’s basement!”

The players Milo met were always so fucking ungrateful when he showed them how to play their roles better. Was it too much to ask for them to defer to his higher rank, and think that perhaps he knew more about the game than their juvenile minds can ever grasp? Milo had been playing Rising Heroes since the first alpha came out, goddammit! He played the game earlier than most of the developers had jumped the bandwagon after the game became a major hit and took off.

The college student sighed loudly as he reminisced about the ‘good old days’ when the game’s population numbered in the thousands instead of the millions today.

“No need to worry about running about your mouth. It didn’t matter what kind of smack you talked.”

But now it was all gone! A ban of more than a month was more than enough to screw his ranking for the remainder of the current game season. He almost felt like vomiting at the thought of all those win streaks going down the drain. Before this ban, if he’d ever decided to sell his account, he’d get more than a thousand bucks with ease. Now, with the all-but-certain trash tier season ranking he’d be lucky to get more than two hundred.

“All that progress, fucking GONE!”

After a few minutes of mindless raging, Milo started to feel depressed. It wasn’t really unexpected that he’d get banned for running his mouth. It wasn’t his first time, after all. Yet even though half his matches in Rising Heroes made him feel like an erupting volcano, he played very little else ever since he bought his virtual reality gear. Despite the ups and downs of the game, he always managed to turn around when he decided to quit. There was a certain charm in outplaying the enemy and seeing certain strategies work out. Nothing could ever replace the love for the game in his heart.

It hurt to be parted forcefully from the game like this. Not only could he do nothing to save his seasonal ranking, he also had pretty much nothing else to do until the end of the semester.

“What the hell am I gonna do? Go study for the upcoming exams? As if I need more than a week to read through a couple of books.”

If he had been a more normal guy, then Milo could have done plenty of other things besides play a VR game. ‘Yeah right. How about I hang out with my nonexistent friends who are – spoiler alert – nonexistent?’

A little desperate to stop thinking about the size of his friend list, Milo quickly turned his thoughts to another direction. ‘What the hell am I going to play for 36 godawful days?’

A game on his computer? Pffff yeah right! Pretty much all games felt like Stone Age antiques compared to the sheer graphical depth and realism of modern VR games. Pretty much all computer and console games tanked overnight when the first psuedo-sensation VR system came out.

The latest advances in technology made VR into something more than fancy glowing glasses. Through some digital brainwave technology that Milo didn’t care to study, players were able to be brought into a state of dreaming that simulated whatever reality the game they played had projected. Not only sight, but also touch, taste, smell and hearing were reproduced to a pretty amazing fidelity, though Milo’s relatively cheap headgear had the lowest performance among all the models available in the market. Not that it mattered too much. You don’t need 100% percent fidelity of getting punched in the face.

Still, the same sensations Milo experienced in Rising Heroes made him loath to any other past time than another game in VR. But developing games that simulated sensations to an almost realistic degree was expensive. All the best games were developed by Triple-A studios with matching prices. The worst thing was that not only did Milo pay upfront for a copy of Rising Heroes, he also had to pay a monthly subscription that even now he could not avoid paying even when he got banned!

With his meager funds, he could forget about purchasing another game, let alone pay the prohibitive subscription cost that followed such a foolish action. What else could he play?

“Shit...” Milo murmured as his mood sunk even lower. “There’s always the casual section.”

Though most serious VR gamers only paid attention to the traditional Triple-A games, the VR marketplace was not limited to such a small selection. In truth, some of the companies behind the latest VR craze wanted to pull in more than nerds and people who would rather play games all night than go watch a baseball match. It was just that up till now, the reputation for the so-called ‘casual games’ left much to be desired.

“Well, it’s not like I have anything better to do. Better to play something in VR than go torture myself into playing something even cavemen would find antique.”

Milo went back to his bed and put on the VR gear. The operating system jumped out of standby mode and projected Milo back into the default white space that every VR player welcomed the first time they tried it out. Unlike most people, Milo never bothered to decorate his personal space into a forest or a beach. ‘Perhaps I did have too much of a one track mind concerning Rising Heroes.’

Well, perhaps he could put up something more festive now that he had all the time in the world. But first he opened the browser and brought up a screen showing all the *shudder* free games.

The bright colors and cheap cartoon characters made Milo gag. Half of the games available seemed to be aimed at little girls or braindead retarted people. His eyes watered when they passed through titles such as Groom the Cat 2: Calico Confetti and Farmer’s Market VR Edition. Where was the shooting? The slashing? He couldn’t even spot a single explosion in the games so far. Did he end up in a kiddie section by mistake?

After thoroughly checking things out, it turned out there was no other place that offered free VR games. Apparently, all the games that involved something more than paper cuts were too expensive to be sold for free.

“Wait a minute.. what’s this?”

Amid all the cute anthropomorphic animals and horribly outdated graphics, there was one title that stood out with its realistic visuals. Milo zoomed closer and inspected the strange addition.

Master Dungeon (BETA)

It is a time of survival. The age of ancient civilization has passed and monsters have overrun the wilderness. Wild magic and divine intervention have given birth to strange places ruled by insidious minds called dungeons. Hungering for flesh and blood, these dungeons lure unwitting adventurers into their midst with promises of strength and riches.

Play now as a dungeon and decide how you wish you use invaders to your benefit. Will you construct an ancient tomb filled with gold and treasure, or a cave leading to a hellish dimension offering dangerous bargains? Shape your dungeon to your wishes and strive to become the legendary Master Dungeon.

Game features:

Build your very own dungeon with unprecedented freedom

Let your imagination run wild with virtually endless customization

Interact with the living world of Angvar and affect the course of history with your development

Robust time progression allows the dungeon to grow both offline and online

Interact with a wild variety of friendly monsters in order to turn them into bosses

Form rivalries with fated heroes and blessed champions

WARNING: This game is currently in beta-testing and is not a finished product.

“Well that’s a bit different. Looks interesting.”

Certainly, the dark castles and demonic pits didn’t mesh with all the other more age-appropriate games. Could it be some market inspector slipped up and leaked this unfinished game onto the market? Whatever the case, it hardly mattered to Milo. In fact, he felt thankful someone screwed up so he had an alternative to puppies and farms to play with in VR.

It was not like Milo had to spend actual money to download the game, so he immediately set it up. When the wait was over, Milo turned on the game and entered into a world of dungeons.

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Philia the dungeon fairy smiled as she flitted around the floating blue gem she discovered in a remote cave. She spent months traversing mountains and forests for an unclaimed dungeon core. Considering how most cores were stolen by mages to be used as mana batteries, Philia had been extraordinarily lucky in encountering a decently sized dungeon core in the middle of a rocky desert. Not only was this location remote enough to allow a dungeon core to survive for years without risk of bumping into looters, it had also matured its mana and grown its domain without interruption.

“Hehe look at how big you are. You must have been absorbing world’s mana for at least a year. Too bad this area’s too remote. Getting your first adventurer will take some work.”

The edge of the Great Desert was a poor environment to foster young dungeons. It would be difficult to overcome the lack variety in plants and monsters. The relative scarcity of water would also inhibit the growth of a thriving town that would send a steady stream of adventurers to the dungeon.

‘Well, it’s not like desert dungeons have never succeeded. Just look at the Grand Tomb of the Sands.’ Philia thought, already trying to recall what made the famous undead dungeon become to most iconic attraction in the desert. ‘Oh, I remember. There’s a small oasis linked to an underground river.’

Though Philia’s magical senses could detect the mana fluctuations of a dungeon core from leagues away, she wasn’t able to do something as simple as penetrate through the earth to find water. ‘Let’s just think about that later. There’s enough fauna here that there should be a source of water around.’

What was important now was to bind this unclaimed dungeon before some rival dungeon fairy or a greedy mage showed up. Philia raised her tiny arms and lightly touched the surface of the gleaming gem. She summoned her mana and delicately tried to make contact with the young dungeon core.

“In the tradition of the fairy ancestors, I, Philia, wish to form a pact with you.”

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The gem responded to her wishes and a burst of sky blue light erupted from within its center. A rush of mana – accumulated for many months without rest – permeated through Philia’s body and washed throughout the dark and lifeless cave, claiming all within its range as its territory.

Philia felt euphoric as some of the energies intertwined with her mana. “So this is the birth of a dungeon.. it’s so amazing!”

Awakening its domain was the dungeon core’s first step. Pretty soon the blinding light dissipated into a mellower brilliance, with specks of mana particles roiling from within the confines of the gem. This represented the formation of the dungeon core’s intelligence, a spiritual entity that controlled and depended on the dungeon to grow.

Most dungeon cores were newborn existences, barely able to speak the language bestowed by the dungeon fairy upon forming a pact. This was the crucial time in which she had to shape the personality of her dungeon. Though mature dungeons eventually grew into frightening minds, their early days made them highly amenable to suggestions by their fairies. Philia was determined to take advantage of this period in order to ensure her dungeon did not pick something smelly like goblins or undead as its first monster breed.

The activity in the gem eventually died down. The dungeon core regained its previous calm, though Philia felt the difference in atmosphere. Even now the flows of mana grew more active as the dungeon core continued its slow expansion of its fledgling domain.

‘This is going to be my new home now.’

Eventually, the Philia felt a vague sense of being observed. That meant the core had gained a soul and became conscious!

“Welcome dungeon core. Nice to meet you, I’m Philia, your bonded dungeon fairy at your service.” Philia perked.

“Whoa..” The ethereal voice of the dungeon core sounded in her mind. “This place looks duller than I thought. The graphics look as realistic as the screenshots, at least. At least I don’t have to ramp up my gamma in order to see in the dark.”

‘Gamma? Screenshots? What nonsense is this dungeon core blabbing about?’ Philia was confused, but chalked it up to the weirdness of the spontaneous birth of a new soul. “Ahem, dungeon core, shall we start with teaching you how to control your mana? We need to move quickly and develop your dungeons before someone unscrupulous finds you unprepared.”

The core stayed silent for a few moments. “Fuck, I can’t find the settings menu. Oh fuck it, let’s just get on with the tutorial.”

The foul language shocked Philia. She never heard of a newly bonded dungeon core that was smart enough to curse. It implied several unheard of matters that she didn’t dare dwell on at the moment.

“I.. ahh.. okay then. Let me explain.” Philia said, trying to regain her composure. “The land we live in, Angvar, is a source of ever-present mana. Dungeon cores such as you are birthed from unusual concentrations of mana, so fundamentally your instinct to control the world’s mana is fairly developed. Even without thinking about it, you are constantly absorbing mana from your surroundings. Try feeling the sensations of mana around you and see if you can manipulate the flow of mana.”

The core grew silent, this time longer. From what she learned from her parents, cores that have just been awakened needed hours or days to comprehend the concept of mana and the methods of influencing it. While the cores were innately capable of manipulating mana, they needed to be pushed and prodded to do so while giving exhaustive explanations on what mana and dungeons even are in the first place.

But then something happened with threw all her expectations out the window. The core bloomed in light, indicating that it successfully increased its rate of absorption.

“Hah, I didn’t expect this game to rip off Rising Heroes’ control scheme! This is too easy.”

The core then moved beyond simple amplification. It emitted a stream of bright blue mana and formed it into a vague shape of a ball. This was inconceivable to Philia. Most dungeons shaped their floors first before learning how to express their internal mana, but this one is a natural at magical manipulation.

“I swear, if you’re not a magician moonlighting as a dungeon core, your magic affinity must be through the roof!” Philia exclaimed as she whirled around the shivering mana ball. “You should stop now though. Your internal mana’s capacity is still limited. You need to save it to expand your floor.”

The core immediately stopped and let the ball dissipate. “Oh right, I’m supposed to be building a dungeon.”

‘As if you needed to be reminded of that?’ The fairy thought. “Now that you can absorb the world’s mana faster, you just need to keep doing that in order to expand your capacity. The larger your capacity, the more your domain reaches, which in turn allows you to reach out to more of the world’s mana.”

“How long do I need to keep doing this?”

“Just enough to expand your domain to a basic floor. Since you’ve passively been enriching your mana for some time, perhaps a month or two.”

“What!?” The core exclaimed. “That’s way too long. Is there some kind of fast-forward button around here?”

“...” Philia was stumped, then shook her head. Her mother always said the first few days were the hardest. “You know, let’s do something else. Since your cognition is so highly developed already, there’s no harm in tunneling a small entrance to the surface.”

“Why would I do that? Wouldn’t adventurers discover me when I’m still in my underpants?”

“An entrance increases the circulation of the world’s mana. Right now you’re only absorbing the ambient mana embedded in the rock and soil. Since new dungeon cores like you haven’t chosen elemental affinities yet, you need to balance out the earth element mana with air element mana. You can absorb mana up to five times faster when that happens.”

The core pulsed with strange lights. “Sounds bullshit to me, but okay. So tutorial, what do I need to do to dig a hole around here?”

At least the dungeon core managed to learn the ropes without a hiccup this time. The core meticulously sent out its mana and let the cavern rock aborb its personal energy. This not only strengthened the walls, it also allowed the core to crumble the rock from within and reform the remains elsewhere. Until the core learned to summon rock with his mana this was the best they could do to turn the area around the dungeon core into a proper square room.

“Man it was novel the first minute but this is getting boring.” The oft-complaining core said for the umpteenth time. “Can you tell me what’s the lowdown?”

“The lowdown?”

“The lore. History and shit.”

Philia was rapidly getting a headache from listening all the nonsense her core had let out. She tried to convince her core to moderate its language but her request fell on deaf ears. Helpless, she could only give a brief overview on what she knew.

“Dungeon fairies like me don’t study civilized history very much so I can only tell you a little about what I know. There was a big war about fifty years ago, mainly pitting the human kingdoms and empires against each other. Strangely enough, the other races like the orcs and elves didn’t get dragged into the fighting and only meddled secretly.”

“Ah. Let me guess. A lot of humans died and nothing really changed.”

“… That’s a little simplistic. The Ribault Kingdom fell entirely when their entire royal family died off. The neighboring Five Swords Empire annexed the territories of the former kingdom, including this backwater province.”

“Is that a good thing or bad thing?” The core asked as it continued to excavate an extremely narrow tunnel to the surface. Only a mouse could fit in a tunnel as small as this, but Philia advised the core that if it wanted to develop itself quickly, it was better to make a connection to the air first before widening the tunnel later.

“Like their name suggests, the Five Swords Empire pretty much worship swords. They disdain magic so magicians don’t enjoy as much prestige as elsewhere. Some nobles and knights think that dungeons are pure magical creations and must be destroyed, but most are not as extreme. After all, without dungeons they can only grow stronger by hunting beasts in the wilderness.”

“So am I in trouble if I get discovered?”

“I don’t think so. The land around us is poor so there’s only small barons and landed knights around. My mother said that since they suffer the most from wild beast attacks, they are more likely to appreciate dungeons. The civilized races have an endless greed towards the riches dungeons can provide.”

“And I suppose dungeons don’t offer these things for free.”

“Of course not!” Philia exclaimed. “There are limits to everything. Dungeons like you depend on mana of a very high purity to survive and evolve. There’s no better source of high purity mana than from harvesting the civilized races. You just need to generate enough bait to attract the desperate and the needy first. Once you develop more floors and stronger defenses, well.. that’s when the good stuff happens.”

The dungeon fairy giggled at the thought of sampling the fine pure mana of a high level magician. In the meantime, the dungeon core monotonously excavated the tunnel while extending its domain in the narrow direction of the surface. Soon enough, a light broke through.

“Finally!”

“Whoa, this is a bit of a rush.” The core remarked as the outside energy rushed inside. The temperature increased slightly as the high concentration of earth mana in the tunnel and cave began to harmonize with fresh air mana.

“Now we need to wait until the mana in your cave finishes refining. Once that’s done, you can expand your domain a lot faster. This will take a while so you can rest.”

“Hmm, I think I need a break anyway. This tutorial sure drags on a lot. I guess I’ll see you later.”

The dungeon fairy almost forgot something crucial. She slapped her face once she realized her error. “Oh wait, before you go, you should think about what kind of monsters you will first want to summon. Even if you don’t do anything, the mana that you spread out into the cave will eventually crystallize into monster cores. Without direction all kinds of abominations might pop out, so you better make a choice now.”

“Can you tell me what my choices are?”

+Semi-intelligent race that is capable of cooperation in battle

+Able to utilize simple weapons and armor

+Fast breeders when stimulated by dungeons

-Arrow fodder at low levels

-Weak attribute and ability development

-Possesses inferior night vision

“I can do you one better.” Philia replied with a grin. She summoned a tiny bit of her mana and formed a descriptive blue box directly in front of the core.

Primary Dungeon Monster Selection Dungeons must designate a monster race from a limited, randomized selection as their first inhabitants. Failure to do so will incur an increasing risk of summoning dangerous creatures outside of the dungeon core’s control. Choose wisely as this selection will influence the development of the dungeon to a large degree. Monster Race Strengths and Weaknesses Goblins +Semi-intelligent race that is capable of cooperating in battle

+Able to utilize simple weapons and armor

+Fast breeders when stimulated by dungeons

-Arrow fodder at lower levels

-Weaker attribute and ability development

-Night vision inferior to other dungeon monster races Turtles +Immense defensive strength

+High potential with elemental magic

+Convenient source of high quality minerals at higher levels

-Sluggish movement and attack speed

-Low mutation potential

-Low intelligence Harpies +Capable of flight and possesses high agility and speed

+High magic potential

+Fast breeders when stimulated by dungeons

-Weak defensive attributes other than dodging

-Incapable of following instructions due to strong instincts

-Highly territorial and hostile to most other dungeon races Golems +Large variety in abilities

+Strong defense and offense

+Capable of remembering and following advanced instructions

-No magic potential

-Inflexible intelligence

-High mineral requirements for advanced golems Chimera +High evolution potential

+Limitless variety of subraces

+Fast breeders when stimulated by dungeons

-Low attribute growth

-Fatal weakness to fire

-Lower probability of creating high level subraces Random Draw a random race not included in this list.

“Hmm?” Philia seemed surprised as she went through the list herself. “That’s strange. Slimes aren’t included for some reason.”

“Slimes are boring.” The core replied immediately. “There’s no fun in seeing a bunch of blobs bouncing around attacking adventurers with their fat jello bodies.”

“I’ll have you know that slimes are super cute!” Philia pressed her fists against her hips. “But anyway, nevermind slimes, you’ve lucked out and got something better! Chimeras are one of the best starting choices. By getting this choice, you gain the ability to meld different beasts together into new species. Normally, dungeons need to nurture and temper their dungeon monsters for an extended period of time, but with this ability you can instantly form new species from whatever you can already summon!”

She didn’t say those words without reason. Her father’s dungeon partner became famed when it started to produce never-before-seen chimeras with exotic magical attributes. Each unique species possessed parts never seen elsewhere that made alchemists and smiths go wild. That was why even though the dungeon had one of the highest death rates in the civilized lands, it still managed to attract a lot of fortune seekers. In fact, the country that hosted the dungeon routinely sent out prisoners sentenced to death to farm resources in exchange for a stay in execution.

‘Dad isn’t the wealthiest dungeon fairy for nothing.’

Unfortunately, her own dungeon core had other ideas.

“Chimeras are too fucking tedious and boring. I don’t want to get stuck playing biologist.”

“W-What? You don’t know how great chimeras are, you can build a huge dungeon filled with millions of monsters and it won’t strain your resources.”

“No. I’ve already made my choice. I bet every dungeon is some kind of dark cave or ancient labyrinth filled with traps and monster encounters. Well if this game really boasts that it gives me unprecedented freedom, then I want to create something different, and I need monsters that fight like humans. That leaves either goblins or golems. And while goblins sound interesting when I invest in training them, I have a feeling that only golems will allow me to fulfill my ambition.”

This sounded absolutely crazy to Philia. Who would want to pass up on strong and adaptable chimeras as their very first monster race just because they can’t fight like the civilized races?

Furthermore, to choose golems instead! What in the world was her dungeon core partner thinking? Golems were boring, lifeless hunks of statues whose only virtue was they didn’t need to eat anything. Instead they had a high consumption of mana and their weaknesses in battle were well-defined. The only good thing about golems were that they could fit in any dungeon as supporting guards. Nevertheless, her core remained obstinate.

“Let me ask one question tutorial fairy. Since golems are magical constructs, am I able to take direct control of a golem?”

“Well yes.. but why would you want to?” Philia asked, still not having a clue what this stupid core wanted. “You don’t have a body of your own, so there’s no possible way you have a talent in controlling golems better than they can do themselves. Dungeon cores like you are supposed to direct your monsters from afar.”

“Who made those rules? As far as I’m concerned, I’m a god here, so I’m going to do whatever I want until I hit a roadblock. Anyway, I’ll pick golems now and call it a day. I need to visit the bathroom anyway.”

And that ended the first day of the dungeon’s new awakening.