I wasn’t exactly the most focused while carving out the prison layout. In my defense, my mind was still reeling from the Story Morrígan had told. A part of me still didn’t believe it could possibly have actually happened in the past. Surely Dungeon’s didn’t steal souls from beyond the grave to make their creatures? My instincts hadn’t indicated anything at all about that being the case, and I felt like if that was how Dungeons worked it definitely should have been mentioned. But Morrígan’s Story was much too detailed to have come purely from me, so the only other explanation would be if the System itself had made it up from nothing. Though for what reason it would have done that I had no idea, as it went way above and beyond what I’d even imagined while creating the Floor. Thinking of it some more, there was also a third option, which was a mix of the first two. If this third option was true, the events Morrígan had described had actually happened in the past, but she wasn’t the creature or soul that had experienced them. She was something wholly new, yet implanted with memories of a false past that was similar to the Story I was creating, to make a sort of duplicate or copy of the person who had once existed.
None of the options made me that comfortable, if I was honest. That last one especially I hoped wouldn’t be true, since if that was the case Morrígan wouldn’t even have a Story of her own. It would be someone else’s, and she’d just be forced to play it out because I wanted that kind of player.
I shook myself. No use getting drawn down by could be and what if’s. I’d definitely need to ask someone about this as soon as possible, but for now the best thing to do would be to drop it and focus on what I was actually doing.
The prison would be a chasm, I decided. A deep hole going from the entrance at the top all the way down to the bottom of the claimed fifth Floor. The edges would be a spiral staircase going all the way down, with occasional rooms, or cells, that stuck out from the central shaft into the rock. These cells would hold the creatures of the Floor. Initially I had thought to only have a few very strong creatures, but unfortunately even with my newly found freedom thanks to [Dungeon Management] I was limited to a single Guardian per Floor. And judging by the [Vampiric Spawn], there was an enormous gulf between even the strongest of my normal creatures and the strength of a Guardian. The creatures would have to come in groups, like normal.
I could however make changes to the victory condition. From beating the Guardian to sealing it back into its cell. That fit much better with the narrative, and would also give the Guardian a stronger buff since the party didn’t have to fully defeat it to clear the Floor. I would scatter clues to how to perform this sealing throughout the various cells to make the Challengers have to be on constant lookout if they wanted to learn the ritual. That would also make them pay more attention to the Floor’s narrative, as the Floor’s ritual would be found within the Story. The sealing itself would be triggered by a variant of mana-powered traps, that I changed to be allowed to be activated by Challengers if done properly. If not the trap would instead blow up in their face, making the job of Guardian-Sealer a risky one.
As I was working on the cells a faint buzzing to my senses told me there were people walking around outside my entrance, but after giving them a glance it didn’t look like they were planning to go inside any time soon, so I ignored them and went back to work. After telling Stalker to send a message if their attitude towards that seemed to change, of course.
Getting back to the prison I finished up carving and claiming the cells. There would be seven in total, each one containing the solution to one step of the Guardian sealing process except the final one, which would contain the order in which to perform the steps in. Once I was done I looked everything over.
After thinking for a moment I added a secondary clear condition of killing the Guardian outright. That way if a party missed the proper way to handle the Floor but were still able to rise to this much harder Challenge they wouldn’t be barred from completing the Floor.
After that came the rewards. I had much more freedom regarding those with the new Skill. I could still give out the Rewards Chest for a random item relative to the level of the Floor. But now I could also be more specific, granting specific items I’d designed myself, or even grant more esoteric rewards such as Experience or even Talent Points. Though my instincts were against those last two for this level, thinking them too valuable for a level 4 Floor reward.
I wondered for a brief moment why they were against this reward and not the Quest one I’d done earlier, before it dawned on me that this would be repeatable, while a Quest reward only happened once. I still wasn’t quite clear on exactly how valuable Talent Points were, but a large and repeatable chunk of extra Experience… Even I could tell what kind of allure that thing would have.
Alright, no Experience or Talent Points for now. But I still wanted to be a bit more personal with my reward than to just give a Rewards Chest, and I also wanted to differentiate the rewards between clearing the Floor using the ritual and clearing it by just killing the Guardian. Maybe clearing the floor “normally”, by defeating the Guardian, would give the normal Rewards Chest, but actually performing the ritual would grant a more special item. Yeah I liked the sound of that more and more the more I thought of it.
Exactly what that item would be I hadn’t decided. It would be tied to the narrative of the Floor of course and to the Guardian itself, so eventually I decided to leave it for after I’d selected the Guardian and populated the Floor with the rest of its creatures.
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But before I did that I wanted to experiment a bit with the [Spatial Connection] Skill. Something about the Skill was nagging at me, that there was some way for me to use it better than to just ferry people from the entrance to the proper Floor for their level… According to the Skill description, the Skill made a connection between two Floors of the Dungeon, either temporary or permanent, and could be between any two Floors even if they weren’t next to each other. That way I could send high leveled people directly from my first Floor to the fourth for example, and wouldn’t have to endure them slaughtering their way past defenses that had no chance of stopping them. It seemed pretty straight forward, but my instincts were telling me there was something I was missing. Some way I could use it to enhance the Story of the Dungeon…
.
.
Oh I’m an idiot! I thought. I could make the connection permanent. Meaning I could use the portal as the main way of travel between Floors, and I wouldn’t have to use a literal staircase leading downwards every time. The realization lit a fire of enthusiasm within me. That was the perfect solution to the narrative dissonance I was feeling about the connections between my Floors. Because what kind of cave had a staircase that led to a mausoleum, which in turn had a staircase that led down to a castle courtyard?
It just wasn’t realistic, but I had accepted it as a necessary cost of everything needing to be connected within the same Dungeon.
But with this the connection didn’t have to be so literal. With this I could really turn my first two Floors into proper parts of the Story. Putting down hints that would connect the narrative thread between the cave and the castle, yet keeping the locations ostensibly separated.
I turned my attention away from the fifth and turned towards my second Floor. With shaking metaphysical hands I activated the Skill, making a permanent portal between the second and third Floors. Then I used [Dungeon Management] to remove the system protection on the stairs leading down from Krazad’s chamber… and filled the space with conjured stone.
Yes! I pumped a mental fist. It worked! I didn’t need to have a literal connection between my Floors anymore!
Instantly ideas started rushing through my head of how I could alter these first two Floors and really make this Story flow. I got to work.
***
Aira walked near the back of the group as they trudged across the leaf covered ground. As a level 6, she wasn’t really in a position to help out against most monsters of the Lashwood, but she was still a member of the Guild as well as a native of Coltmoon, so she was asked to help set up the new outpost. Or rather, Athilana was asked to help, she was more of someone that tagged along due to inertia. But it was still a great opportunity. A new Dungeon was rare, and one so close to home even rarer still. As a native to the area she and Athilana would be given priority access to this new Dungeon once the outpost was set up. Though considering everyone else here also had priority access and there were many at the peaks of their Tier ahead of her in line, it was a minor boost at most.
No. Aira corrected herself. It is still a world’s difference from the waiting list I'd be on if I’d gone somewhere else. That could be years.
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” Athilana’s voice came from behind, causing Aira to jump. She coughed awkwardly and tried to play it off as if nothing had happened as she answered.
“Just the future, and the Dungeon.” She said. “We're lucky it’s so close, since it means we won't have to go on the list in Lashwood.”
“That’s true.” Athilana said, coming into step beside Aira and joining her in pretending that the moment of fright hadn’t happened.
“I thought you were with the others up front?” Aira said. The elf shook her head.
“Nah, they’re boring.” She said. “Most of the ones from the Guild are all organizers and paper pushers. And the Adventurer’s themselves keep pretty close to their party, and aren't quick to open up to strangers.”
She pointed to a red haired woman in leather armor and twin daggers at her waist. “That one was the only good conversation up there, but since she’s a scout she has to leave and come back all the time.” Athilana shrugged. “So here I am, talking to the only person here who’ll speak to me that's actually interesting.”
“So I’m not the second, or even third option? I’m the…” Aira counted on her fingers in mock outrage, but there was a smile on her face. “Your last option?”
Athilana laughed a bright laugh and opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the sound of a whistle coming from ahead of them in the forest.
“A monster’s been spotted nearby.” She said gleefully. She grabbed Aira by the hand and started off towards the sound. “Come on. It might be low enough level for the other parties to leave the job to us.”
“Not likely this deep in the woods.” Aira said as they ran.
“A chance is a chance.” Athilana said. Aira shook her head with a smile, but kept on running alongside her friend.
***
Nicomedes surveyed the array of specimens in front of him. Each wiggled slightly in their tubes, as if in response to some wind that they all could feel and he couldn’t. On the table in front of them the [Infernal Blaze] was roaring and in full conflagration, but thanks to the barrier he didn’t even feel slightly hot. He reached down towards the first specimen. He grimaced thinking of the thousands of hours of work that would go to waste with what he was about to do. But it couldn’t be helped. Lenore hadn’t returned, which had come as a surprise and would likely mean that the Dungeon, or possibly even the Guild, had learned of her enhancements. Thankfully their workings together had been kept secret, apart from what could be expected between a Bishop and his priests, but the risk of keeping these things here was still too high. Just shutting down the experiments wouldn’t be enough anymore. Especially with Bishop Harean coming to the Chapel.
He tossed the tube into the fire, and the thing inside screeched as it burned.