~~Hello New Dungeon, and welcome to the world.
Your first question, I imagine, is what is a dungeon? What are you?
To put it simply, a dungeon is a creature whose soul is housed within a crystal, whilst their mind is free to move around their domain – land under their control. They feed off of mana and without it a dungeon will die.
But how does a dungeon get mana?
Death. Though more specifically, the grey mana that is released upon sudden death. Initially a dungeon can survive off of the animal deaths within its domain, however they quickly surpass this ability, and must move onto more complex life. As the native elemental mana flows through a dungeon core, it is altered slightly, purified, as any grey mana is extracted. This pure mana is a potent draw to the shorter-lived races, as it allows them to grow far stronger and it is also the reason why dungeon cores are exceptionally valuable.
Dungeons, in response to this danger and in order to facilitate their feeding, create defences and floors of danger, in order to both protect their crystal and to draw in more complex life, in hopes of feeding upon it.~~
The rest of the book was fairly useless, just giving a few examples of what other dungeons had done and it felt wrong. Cramped, not at all what I wanted for myself.
Ughh, no.
But that first bit, it answered exactly what I had wanted to know. What I was. And it explained the insects and the blue mana mystery. Though it had scared me; people wanted my crystal.
Well, it is beautiful; I am exquisite after all. I thought smugly. Who wouldn’t want me?
Nonetheless, the idea that I would have to start small, weak, and vulnerable did not sound good.
The requirements to reach the next level were greater each time, and each time my mana reset to zero. How could I possibly build a decent dungeon with that restriction.
Ridiculous.
I also needed to use mana to build it. As far as I could see there was no possible way to build up enough defences before I surpassed the ability to feed upon animals.
It was something to ponder, for sure. I had plenty of time before that happened, time to figure out what to do.
For now, though? I decided I needed a room to start with it was awfully cramped, more so than I remembered.
Looking around myself, I saw it, no longer did my length from tip to tip fill up a quarter of the room, no, it was more like half now. I had grown, and with it my domain must have grown, so much so I felt cramped, pressed up against the walls. Like being stuffed in a too small box.
I needed space…
But how to go about it.
I tried to absorb the stone in the walls, much as I had the mana, a spectacular failure. Nothing happened at all, not a slight wobble, or a crack. Nothing, just a slightly more tired dungeon.
Hmmm.
Perhaps there was some sort of limit to how much I could absorb. Focusing on the walls in smaller amounts yielded nothing either. On a whim I focused on the small dirt clumps that the big invading insect had dislodged.
It worked! I shouted to myself, surprised at that. Yes, success.
~~Congratulations: You have absorbed your first material. You can mentally choose if you would like the material to be voided or stored. You can store material up to your mana maximum where each 1 point of mana is equal to 100g of material.~~
I mentally voided the soil.
Now about those walls…
Over the next, however long – I still wasn’t sure how to measure time, especially as it kept slowing down and speeding up depending on my focus – I tried many methods. Almost all of which failed.
Two worked, one was using my mind as a pickaxe, to widen the cracks in the walls, applying pressure and force until it broke. Then I could absorb it. The other was to mentally pick up a stone and hurl it at the wall.
I chose the first method and set to work, carving out a large sphere with a central column to support my crystal.
Just how big that was, I had no idea, but it was many, many times my own size, and the pressure I had felt had lessened significantly. I was a lot happier now, feeling far less squeezed, though it still wasn’t comfortable, I wanted lots and lots more space.
I kept working, expanding the bottom of the sphere, flattening it until I had a kind of dome.
I paused for a moment bringing up my menu.
Menu
Crystal
Dungeon
Store
Close
Name:
???
Level:
10
Race:
Dungeon
Health:
65/65
Titles:
/
Mana:
280 of 4354
Renown:
Undiscovered
Dungeon Points:
650
Rating:
1E
Attunement:
/
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Only 280 mana left!
Oh God, this wasn’t good, there was no way in hell I was opening up my dungeon anytime soon, how on earth would I protect myself. Just making this room had spent almost all of my mana.
I pondered this issue for a long time. Unfortunately, thinking on it hadn’t helped much and I was still stumped. How could I possibly remain safe, with such limited defences. Perhaps it was down to luck, perhaps others of my kind just got lucky and didn’t get killed. Perhaps there were only a few dungeons out there that survived.
There was no way I was allowing luck to dictate my life. There must be some sort of solution, and I would find it.
The problem was, I had no idea where I was. I might be in the middle of nowhere, but I might be just outside wherever those shorter-lived races lived. So, what to do? I questioned.
Menu, I thought flicking over to the store page and then to items. Perhaps there was something that would help.
Menu
Crystal
Dungeon
Store
Close
Monsters:
Bosses:
Items:
Materials:
Points to spend: 650
Pitfall trap blueprint:
Danger level:
N/A
Points: 100
Pitfall trap
Danger level:
0.3
Points: 25
Rockfall trap:
Danger Level:
0.3
Points 25
Expand to see more…
The traps were interesting, but they didn’t help me. I expanded the page and set about searching for something, something that would help.
It took me a while, but eventually I found it.
Menu
Crystal
Dungeon
Store
Close
Points to spend: 650
Above Ground Map:
Description:
Danger level:
N/A
Points: 3210
The Above Ground Map provides a detailed account of what lies upon the surface, including the topography, natural features and any settlements that are nearby. The map comes with several scale options and can only be used once.
Expand to see more…
The map seemed like the answer to my desires, it could tell me where I was and if I was in any danger. But it cost a huge 3000 dungeon points. I only had 650, it would be a while before I could afford it, but I didn’t see any way around it, I would just have to level up.
A quick calculation found that without any additional points, only the ones from levelling up, I would need to reach level 25 to be able to afford the map.
At level 20 I would get my next perk, but I wasn’t sure if I should use it for dungeon points, it felt a bit wrong, surely it should be used for more important things. Right?
I decided that I didn’t know, and that there were many things I didn’t know. For now, though, I knew I needed to grow and so I set about doing so.
~~Level up: 11~~
~~Level up: 12~~
~~Level up: 13~~
~~Level up: 14~~
I had to stop, once again I felt confined, the room was too small and I just couldn’t stand it, it needed to be bigger, much, much bigger.
Excavating the room again took far longer than I would have liked and far more mana than I would have liked; draining me several times as I worked to expand it.
~~Level up: 15~~
~~Level up: 16~~
I stopped, taking time to expand the room again. I was reaching the limit on what I could absorb from the elemental mana that flowed through me, and each refill took me weeks. All told, these six levels had taken me 42 weeks of work and only the ability to speed up the time I perceived had kept me sane during my struggle.
Sometime around week five, I had grown annoyed with my inability to measure the amount of time that had passed. It kept me feeling disconnected and lost.
Fixing the problem had kept me thinking for a while and eventually the answer came to me. Bugs! Though I had found out they were called ants, having seen them one day while looking through the animal options in the store.
Seemingly at random an ant would stop. Why? I hadn’t a clue, but they continued on a moment later none the worse for wear. Careful observation had shown that each time they stopped they paused for exactly the same amount of time. I called this a minute. But it was far too small a period of time to use. I could accomplish almost nothing in a minute and so I used 10,000 of them to be a week, which was further subdivided into days and hours.
A useful system, and once I had it figured out, I no longer needed to observe the ants, I just knew exactly how much time had passed.
I was very pleased with myself for that one and it seemed the system was too, because shortly after I had finished refining my system it popped up.
~~Congratulation: you have successfully completed a hidden achievement, developing time. For developing time and not buying a clock you have been awarded 1,234 dungeon points.~~
The reward had made everything feel far more achievable and I was proud of myself. Now I only needed to reach level 19 to get the map, and I wouldn’t even have to use my perk, I would be able to get the map, make a plan, and then make the most out of the perk.
Things were looking good.
But now I had another problem, having reached level 16 I had just about surpassed the ability to grow passively. Needing more complex life to give me the mana necessary.
Yet without buying traps or creatures from the store, I had no way of killing anything.
I continued the grind, slowly expanding my room and pushing up through the levels absorbing and refining the ambient mana and continually declining the elemental affinity prompts that kept popping up.
~~Level up: 17~~
~~Level up: 18~~
~~Level up: 19~~
Menu!!! I thought excitedly.
Menu
Crystal
Dungeon
Store
Close
Name:
???
Level:
19
Race:
Dungeon
Health:
200/200
Titles:
/
Mana:
308 of 12849
Renown:
Undiscovered
Dungeon Points:
3234
Rating:
1E
Attunement:
/
Yes!!! I celebrated.
I had done it. I had garnered 3234 dungeon points; 24 points more than I needed.
Without too much delay, I bought the map. Navigating through the menu to it. It was under my list of items, in the dungeon tab, which now numbered two, the unused map, and the dungeon guide for dummies.
Opening it up, I got a request for the scale of the map.
~~Please select a scale option for the map to use:
1:10
1:100
1:1,000
1:10,000
1:50,000
1:100,000
1:500,000
Would you like to use the map: YES NO~~
I was confused, what did it mean?
Stupid
I cursed at myself, annoyed at not being able to understand it. What did it want from me?
I sighed, hoping I wasn’t making a big mistake and picking the middle option, before selecting yes.
Please, please, please don’t have wasted over three thousand dungeon points I pleaded with myself.
The map filled in, the large canvas blossoming into rich colour.
A huge mountain range sprawled across the centre of the map. Towards the peak, a small white diamond sat. Myself.
That’s good, I thought. I wasn’t too close to any settlements. The nearest one being a small village called Littlebrook. Still several kilometres away. Though how far that was, I still wasn’t sure. Following around the mountain to the west was a town, Oar’s Rest. It was situated on the edge of a small lake, at the foothills of my mountain and I was glad to see there were no other villages nearby.
The only city on the map was near the very edges. Barkamsted. So, I dismissed it. I wasn’t threatened at the moment, and that shouldn’t change anytime soon. It looked to be a difficult path to the peaks, and I couldn’t imagine why anyone would bother.
To the north was a small forest, dense trees shutting off exploration to my northern side, and beyond that, great plains of flowing grass.
To the north-west, bordering the plains, was a great forest. Many times, the size of the one to my immediate north and on the edge of it was another small town. In the north-east, a lake took up a significant chunk of the map, with two towns located on its banks.
To the south, at the edge of the map, were more trees, though I couldn’t see their extent, perhaps it was only a small copse, or perhaps an unending forest. I couldn’t know. Similarly, to the east, the potential for a desert seemed likely. With sandy dunes marked on the map, bounded by a flowing river that ran from the lake in the north.
A small campground was south of the dunes, and there was no name marked. I dismissed it.
Overall, I felt fairly comfortable, with my position. There were towns nearby, sources of food. And if the book were right, once the thieving bastards found out I was here, I could expect more people to trickle in. Plenty of deaths to fuel my growth.
I smiled to myself imagining it.
Yes, it would be great.
But first. Perk two.
Getting just one more level took me a week of absorbing mana. And in that time, I had worked out how far one kilometre was. Ten thousand of my body lengths.
~~Level up: 20~~
~~Congratulations: You have reached the milestone: Level 20 and as such have been granted a perk. The following perks are available:
Heal
800 dungeon points
1000kg of soil/stone/wood/…
Item: Treasure Blueprint Set 1
Mana boost: 25%
2% off next store purchase
Two Free monster/trap within basic tier.
BONUS: For making it to level 20 without killing anything, you have been offered a special one-time deal:
1 passive mobs pack, Treasure Blueprint set 0.5, 500kg of surface foliage materials and 600 dungeon points. Try not to remain so passive.
Choose wisely, your next perk is available at level 30~~