Consulting SOP-ACRP.Anomolies.FPP.subroutines…
Requesting authorization for Soul ID: 0.0.irori to serve as PPP for Core ID: 0.0.931-48…
Failure! Central servers unresponsive.
Granting temporary authorization for Soul ID: 0.0.irori to serve as PPP for Core ID: 0.0.931-48…
Terminating SOP-ACRP…
Wait, wasn't that longer the last time-? Oh, right. My soul already has a value now.
Initializing "SOP-HelloWorld!"…
Greetings! Welcome to the Dungeon Core tutorial! Please remember your responsibility to report any errors you encounter to the proper authorities. Note that your session may be terminated at any time, for any reason, as outlined in your orientation.
Select your Base Danger Level (Difficulty):
0_Harmless (Insane)
1_Saintly (Hard)
2_Safe (Medium)
3_Mild (Medium)
4_Moderate (Easy)
5_Dangerous (Easy)
6_Risky (Easy)
7_Belligerent (Medium)
8_Violent (Medium)
9_Murderous (Hard)
10_Genocidal (Insane)
With a slight sense of urgency, Rori checked his drafts. If he had a mouth, he would have grinned at what he saw.
Yep. Still there. No downsides to my destruction other than a forced do-over. Which means…
His imaginary grin stretched even further.
…that I CAN explore all the options after all!
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Clac's illusory eyes blinked at the relatively quick respawn. Strange. That had taken less than two hours this time. But he wasn't complaining. He wasted no time in calculating the spawn location.
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Select 'Ordinary Heights' variant:
Perilous Plateau
Crumbling Cliff
Mountain Peak
Terrace Summit
Humble Hill
Confirm: 'Mountain Peak'?
Confirm.
Finalizing SOP-ACRP…
Success!
Spawning Core ID: 0.0.931-49…
On a spear made of stone, topping mountain all alone, surrounded by windy moan, white crystal sphere shone. (Attracting more than man made of bone.)
I can't believe it, thought Rori. That is the most UNDERwhelming view I've ever seen. I'm actually impressed.
Unlike human eyesight, his core-sight stopped at his spherical range of influence. He could perceive everything within that sphere, but nothing beyond. So he could see some of the mountain extending beneath him, and some of the clouds drifting above, but his perceptions abruptly ended at his dungeon's border. In a cave, it wasn't overly odd to human sensibilities. But in a place as open and free as this, he felt small and constrained.
At least I don't have to pay for an obvious path to the core this time, he thought.
He had half expected a staircase of light to lead to his core. Instead there was a more ordinary path carved into the stone of the mountain, with spaces to accommodate rooms. How convenient.
First thing's first, let's see if this works. Interface. Structures. Rooms. Riddle Door. The long list of rooms filtered down to the only option he wanted. He Placed the room in the slot furthest from his core, then Affixed it into a fixed template. Rooms. Crystal Cube. Place.
Action not allowed! Insufficient room capacity.
Oh. Right. I'm level 1 again. Level Up.
Action not allowed! Insufficient stored mana.
And it looks like the starting allowance can't be used to level after all. Good to have that confirmed. I guess I'll just affix a few traps instead. Place. Affix. Copy, place-
Action not allowed! Traps may not be adjacent.
Fine, I'll spread them out. Place, Affix. Place, affix. Place, affix…
And just like that, most of his starting allowance was gone. His templates were being 'built' from the ground up, going from glowing glass to solid stone. In the case of his traps, pits were being carved out from the ground beneath their placement.
No efforts had been made to cheese-proof anything. He was well below the 500 mana threshold. He was an enticing 'harmless' dungeon.
Perfect. Now for a bit of research. What does THIS button do.
After messing around with the 'Set' action, Rori eventually worked out that it was a queuer of sorts. Setting a template did not immediately make a Temporary version of it, or begin the affixation process. Instead a ghostly outline of the template was left where he had Set it. He could make as many of these ghostly outlines as he wanted, heedless of any limitations, but he could only Place a set object if he had the resources and available capacities.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
That was as far as his testing got before he felt a sudden intrusion.
"SCREEEEEEE!"
From above dove a hawk. Two, actually. They aimed straight for his core, landing upon and crushing it without hesitation.
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Clac pinched the bridge of his illusory nose, his pen rolling away from his unfinished worksheet. Now the core has set the record for 'quickest destruction time'. Or tied it, at any rate.
__________________________________
Alert! Integrity Failure Detected in Core ID: 0.0.931-49.
Despite being ready for a string of resets, Rori was still surprised to see the typeface scroll by. He patiently waited and observed. Aside from exactly one minor change, everything was exactly the same as the previous time, from the typeface verbiage to the threat of termination.
Once the stopping point of the 'danger level' menu was reached, then he allowed himself to focus on his 'failure'. He'd been expecting delvers to be able to climb around his rooms and up to the peak. He had not expected to be dive-bombed from the sky. What's a dungeon core even supposed to do against that?
I'm sure I'll figure something out by the time 'heights' are up again. Zero. Select. Confirm.
Select Dungeon Type:
Heights
Depths
Expanse
Next on the order is Depths. Confirm.
Select Dungeon Nature:
Ordinary
Fiery
Arctic
Watery
Dry
Overgrown
Ordinary, Confirm.
He didn't stop to get the descriptions of the different Types or Natures, having gotten them the first time around. He doesn't plan to respawn as every single variant, but he does at least want to get all their names and descriptions, which means at least ten more iterations. Going in the order provided by the menus, he's going to cycle through the list in the order of Heights to Depths to Expanse, seeing everything Ordinary has to offer, then Watery, Dry, and Overgrown.
In the future to, he might be willing to see if a different danger level would allow him to choose 'fiery' or 'arctic' dungeons. But he's not going to do that until he's confident he can stay harmless at any danger level.
Select 'Ordinary Depths' Variant:
Bottomless Pit
Silent Crypt
Cavernous Cave
Underground Labyrinth
Hole in a Hill
Bottomless Pit. Description. Drafts.
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Thirty minutes later, Clac felt the core spawn once again. He checked the hour. It was only three in the morning. Still enough time to hunt it down before dawn.
He got to work once more, not allowing his frustrations over the recent past impact his work. The previous spawn locations had almost certainly been poor ones. Or the core was a slow learner. Probably a combination of both, actually.
Not a minute into his worksheet, he stopped short. He recognized where the calculations were leading. He already knew the location, and how to get there quickly. It's a place once occupied by a previous failed experiment. Unfortunately, due to the actions of that very same disaster of a dungeon core, the spawn point is now a popular tourist attraction.
__________________________________
"Tickets," said a bored attendant, standing at the cave mouth.
A family of five handed over their tickets and walked forward, ignoring the line on the floor as they crossed it, aside from the occasional dreadful shiver. One of them, a teenage boy named Irangus, hesitated just as he was about to cross it. It was the slimmest of chances, but a lucky dungeon core spawning, perfectly timed, is one of the only ways for a kid like him to have a chance of making it to level 10. He stood just before the threshold, wishing with all his might…
"Keep moving."
Irangus sighed and kept moving, crossing over the line and into the foreboding cavern that would have made his grandmother blush. He tried not to be too down about it. That slim chance is only half the reason why this place is so popular. The rest of the attraction is the… ah… artwork aligning every available inch of space on the inside. Suffice it to say, it's not for everyone.
"Tickets," said the attendant. Irangus glanced behind him to see a mother, daughter, and son hand over their tickets.
Moments later, he was blinking off the feeling of disorientation that comes with teleportation. He instantly knew what it meant, and he instantly started screaming obscenities at the magnitude of the missed opportunity. Two more seconds! TWO MORE SECONDS and he would have been the first to enter! Instead, Irangus and everyone else within the dungeon's borders were teleported away the moment a new dungeon core spawned.
__________________________________
Confirm: 'Underground Labyrinth'?
Confirm.
Finalizing SOP-ACRP…
Success!
Spawning Core ID: 0.0.931-50…
Winding tunnels made of rock, some that loop, others blocked. The location many a man has mocked, having taken the shape of a giant-
…I don't even know what to say, Rori thought. Except, of course, G-
It wasn't just the shape of the dungeon itself. Carvings covered the ceilings. Artistic imprints adorned the walls. Filling the floors were countless collections of fissures, each forming the same unmistakable figure. Continuing the trend in three dimensions were scattered stones and elongated boulders arranged into groups of three. And more than a few monoliths. And statues. And ornaments.
Rori was half-tempted to focus entirely on research. Putting up zero defense would allow him to get out of this place as soon as possible. But then again, none of the degenerate depictions were detailed. They were all on the level of crude graffiti – the product of a juvenile sense of humor, not an aspiring artist for the adult industry. For that reason alone, Rori decided not to throw this attempt entirely.
Men have been carving that into places since before Ancient Greece. I guess the tradition continues in over-the-top fantasy land. Also… he giggled. I'm in danger.
The first invaders had arrived the instant he spawned.
And hey, look at that! Actual humans this time! Description!
Names: Alitha Faquarl, Floditha Faquarl, Trathicus Faquarl
Levels: 9, 9, 9
Species: Human
Class: Commoner (Common)
Delver Count: 6
He'd been hoping an underground labyrinth would buy him a bit of time even if he didn't build any defenses at all, but maybe he should have been hoping for a remote spawn location instead.
On the plus side, the caverns were arranged in a highly defensible manner, despite what the overall shape might suggest. His core was at the tip, and the home stretch before his core was a long straightaway containing a series of choke points along the shaft of the…
Okay, enough of that. Time to get started. Interface. Structures. Rooms…