Black as night, the crow, Alexandria, looked at the clump of ten mana before her. Her beady, red eyes glistened with a reflective yellow coming from my mana. But madness also reflected from her eyes. Alexandria cackled, creepily laughing up at my barren ceiling that held nothing but some pointed stalactites, dangling from above.
“Bwha kwa kwa! Just you wait, 96! Never will I forget your treachery.”
With one hop, Alexandria jumped onto the cover of her book which glowed with the colors of an iridescent rainbow. Clamping onto the edges with her claws, she then flapped both of her black, ethereal wings. Fluttering them with quicker speed, Alexandria lifted into the air, pulling up her legs and, subsequently, her claws that clamped onto the binding covering the spine of the book. The crow hovered while peering at the ball of shimmering mana with a crazed look.
“Soon, 96. Soon, I will come and eat you,” Alexandria said in a deranged voice - never taking one eye off the ball of golden mana.
With one strong flap of her wings, the crow pulled her upper body back while kicking her legs forward and tossing her book into the ball of mana. Then she, herself flew and dived in head first afterwards.
My ball of mana blooped like the surface of water, rippling out as if disturbed by a rock thrown inside. Tips of black feathers poked through the ball of mana in odd, repeated rotating motions. It was as if Alexandria leisurely swam inside. But then the feathers disappeared. Alexandria suddenly popped her head up through the top surface of the mana - bursting out with a refreshed exhale.
“Aaaaahhh, that’s the stuff,” Alexandria said, lowering her beak and taking a sip of my mana.
But oddly, the black feathers of her head momentarily flickered and receded into a pure white. As if sludge and grime were being washed away.
“Oh, my!” Alexandria exclaimed. “Are my sins being forgiven?! Am I being purified?! Is He Who Knows finally showing mercy?!”
Alexandria extended her feathers in front of her with shock, closely examining them as the black color peeled away. But no, Alexandria’s feathers soon reverted back to their dark color of night.
“How fascinating… I almost thought Nous forgave my little mishaps. Guess not. Oh, well. Is it not a greater sin to keep knowledge to only oneself? Knowledge should be shared. A god should be benevolent. Besides, it was only one book… Why be so upset? Well, it was “The Archives,” of course. Whatever. It is now mine. Hehehe.”
The crow stopped creepily staring at her feathers and looked back at my core.
“Master, what pleasant mana you have! Its quality is rather pure! Untainted - yet to be twisted by evil and corruption. Maybe you are different, Master. Your mana is rather gentle for a Dungeon, to be honest.”
Confused, I was, by Alexandria’s statement. I did not know how to reply.
A shimmering light, glowing in various colors, beneath the thinning ball of mana caught our attention, and Alexandria was once again astonished. The ball of mana was quickly sucked away, pulled into the book that slowly opened like a blossoming flower.
“Oh! Even the Archives of Nous appears to resonate with your mana, Master! I did not think unlocking the Archives would be so easy. But strange. How odd that opposing forces meld together so easily in harmony? Why is something of the Divine so willingly opening to the essence of one of the darkest existences?”
Shrug, I wanted to do. “I do not know, Alexandria. If you do not, then how will I?”
“Oh, dearest Dungeon Master. Haha! You do have a sense of humor!”
I was not joking.
“Of course, I was not asking you, Dungeon Master. I know you do not understand the significance of this little book of mine. Let me show you.” Alexandria said with a grin.
The crow landed and held out her wings, and the opening book slowly descended from the air after consuming all of my offered mana. The book gently landed on Alexandria’s wings, and the corners of her beak perked up.
“Hear me, Archives! By my authority forever granted by He Who Knows, open the Library of the Bastille!”
Upon Alexandria’s command, the cover of the book that glowed in an iridescent rainbow was yanked completely open. When closed, the book seemed whole - not missing any pages. But now that the book was open, large sections were clearly missing between the pages. Regardless, the first available pages of the book quickly flipped over, fanning through as if blown by a strong gale. However, the pages abruptly ceased moving, stopping at the first section of missing pages.
“Come forth, Library of Bastille! It’s time to spruce up this cavern with some decor!”
As if marked by Alexandria's words, the section of pages that moved slowly flipped back. However, every time a page flipped over, mysterious items - mostly aged books - shot out of the pages and haphazardly filled my cavern, expanding many times larger than from the pages of the book where they came.
My stomach felt bloated. More and more items flooded out, growing many times in size as they clogged my room.
“Master, I will now build my nest. Please give me the permission to do so.”
[Notification]
Your spirit assistant is evoking her ability: Library of the Bastille! Additional requests for the authorization to integrate are pending approval per the status granted to the spirit assistant.
Allow evocation of ability and integration of the Library of the Bastille?
(Yes) (No)
Note: The ability, Library of the Bastille, will become permanently a part of the Dungeon, and thus, will also passively consume mana. Available mana will be reduced permanently by five.
Yellow Screen showed me some troubling information. Short mana, I already was. But if I allowed Alexandria to proceed, then even more limited in mana, I will be. But if I choose to reject Alexandria, then what will happen to the Library? What will become of our understanding of one another?
I gritted myself. There was no turning back now. “Yes, go ahead, Alexandria.”
Alexandria shouted with glee, “Yes, Master! You will not regret this!” She then looked at the items that kept coming out of the pages of her book. Pointing and waiving her wing, the crow ordered commands at the various items in the continuously growing pile.
“You! Shelves! Line the circular walls of this cavernous chamber! Books! I want blueprints on my right, skills, and techniques, particularly defensive ones, in the middle near Master, and all other miscellaneous knowledge and enhancements on my left! You, fancy desk! Position yourself below my master’s core! Make sure to bring out the remaining Griffin feather pens and Kraken ink! But keep the paper of the World Tree tightly locked away! I can’t let those imbecile Ogres wreck such treasures.”
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By Alexandria’s command, pointing her wings as she aimed around the walls of my cavern, the enormous shelves pulled themselves from the pile, shaking off the items on top of them, before flying off and slamming into the walls of my stomach. Continuous thuds echoed in my chamber as the shelves hit the walls in a repeated cascade, touching the foot of my belly and reaching high up to the ceiling.
Then grinding of rocks, I heard. The shelves wiggled themselves as they dug and mounted into place - almost parasitically attaching themselves onto the sides of my stomach, leaving only the entrance and the area around my core untouched.
As if possessed, a myriad of books flapped open and flew like swarms of birds all around my cavern. Some knocked into each other, some even feistily fighting each other by beating their cover against one another, as they all followed Alexandria’s command and organized themselves on the shelves.
A huge, ornate desk, chiseled from thick pieces of deep red wood, clunked awkwardly on the ground as it dragged and seemingly crawled itself below my heart. It left enough distance between me and itself as it opened its many embellished drawers, throwing out a set of fine, deep brown feathers and shimmering octagonal, ribbed bottles of black ink. They floated and hovered by themselves before neatly settling onto the top of the desk.
Alexandria flew and hopped onto the desk, examining the tools laid out on the top of the piece of furniture.
“Master, do you know how to write? Can you imbue mana, enchant, or make talismans?”
None of what Alexandria spoke of sounded familiar. “Write? What is that Alexandria?”
I heard a big sigh from the crow. “Caaaaaww… None of the above, I take it?” Inhaling a deep breath, Alexandria perked up and stated, “OK! No problem! I am certain the Dungeon Master will be easier to teach than Ogres! Master can then help me teach his three Ogres!”
I looked at the crow. I saw the sly glimmer in her eyes. She just tried to dump her work on me. But fine. We shall see who teaches the Ogres in the end. I can play that game too, Alexandria! If I seemingly don’t understand what you taught me, how can I possibly teach my creations, right? Meaning, you, crow, will have to teach my strong ones to become stronger!
“Ok, if I can,” I coyly responded to Alexandria.
“Of course, Master, you most definitely can! Master is atypical of Dungeons. You are most qualified! You already surpass most infants. I dare say you may be even a young adolescent in ego. Therefore, of course, you can properly train your Ogres!”
The piles of items from the first section of Alexandria’s book did not stop sqeezing out. Alexandria refocused her attention.
“Alright!” The crow said, seemingly brushing up her wings as if she had sleeves on. “Let’s finish livening up this place!”
Sleeves? Not now.
Pointing to the many luminescent items in the pile, Alexandria pointed her wings at my ceiling ridden with stalactites and other obscure corners in my chamber.
“You! The smaller Eldor’s Lanterns! Softly illuminate the ceiling! I want stars in the night sky, got it! Glistening stars! The larger ones! Brighten up the many corners! I want volcanoes in the dark! This place shall become the Library of the Bastille! Now move!”
Alexandria issued command after command. The crow had a talent for decorating, I must admit. Albeit, I don't know or remember much about decorating. A rolled-up carpet, embroidered with intricate design and shades of deep royal purple, hopped itself over to the entrance of my cavern before it rolled itself from the open entrance of my cavern and underneath the wooden desk. More carpets, this time with many hides from fluffy black creatures, wiggled themselves over and covered the areas near the shelves. Large empty metallic vases hopped on their flat base and placed themselves on both sides of the entrance and in front of both corners of the desk. Long, sturdy, metallic tables, that Alexandria called ‘study tables designed for Ogres,’ clinked with a metallic ringing noise as they walked and aligned themselves perpendicularly from the roll purple carpet.
Looking around, Alexandria sighed. She was not as impressed as I was. “Haaaa… It’s still nothing much, but what else can a spirit assistant do with so little mana and only a piece of the Library? But I say it is already an upgrade from the barren place earlier. And finally, an added touch with some ‘bars’ for insurance. Mostly, to keep away Ogres, of course, but also from potential thieves. I can’t be losing hard stol- Ahem! I mean, earned. Hard-earned books, now can I? I am not some benevolent god.”
I glanced at Alexandria. Silent. Flabbergasted.
Thin, reinforced black bars, or should I say columns? They shot out of the book, glowing in an iridescent rainbow, and grew many times in size. Ginormous, the metal columns were! They rolled towards the bookshelves, clinking against the ground before reaching the bookshelves and flipping themselves upright into standing. Grew even taller, they did! The bars kept growing and growing, turning into thick, grooved columns!
I gasped. The top and bottom of my belly were pierced by the metal columns. I felt them connect with my belly, hollowing in the middle and allowing my mana to flow through.
This is possible as well?
Thick metallic arms like tree branches sprouted all over from the columns, shooting off, wrapping, and crisscrossing themselves to the other columns. They entered my walls, rooting themselves like rhizomes as they reinforced the other side of my belly. My chamber was surrounded by a forest of twisting black metal, leaving only the entrance to my room open and a circular window in front of the desk that sat below my core. The cage barricaded all the bookshelves, almost restricting even me from access.
[Notification]
Congratulations!
The Dungeon has leveled up to LVL 4!
New enhancements to the Dungeon have been partially made and infused!
The Dungeon now has added attributes!
Added Attributes/Effects/Additions:
Iron Ore:
Infuses veins of Iron ore into the walls of the Dungeon, increases durability, but may also draw unwanted predators.
(Note: Currently, this only applied to the Core Chamber)
Black Steel:
Infuses veins of Black Steel ore into the walls of the Dungeon, increases durability, but may also draw unwanted predators.
Nothing but Studying:
Increases and enhances the rate of learning inside the Dungeon, but most prominently near the area of effect from the Library of the Bastille. Increases the rate of learning by fifty percent. The increased learning rate drops the further the distance from the core.
Dungeon Floor Durability - First Floor
Entrance Section: 10/10 -> 60/60
Split paths - Each path: 10/10 -> 60/60
Right Room - Strong Defender: 10/10 -> 60/60
Left Room - Strong Helper: 10/10 -> 60/60
Final Room - Strong One: 10/10 -> 60/60
Core Chamber: 50/50 ->100/100
Note:
Recommendations from Hive Mother advise a minimum of 500 points of durability for all sections of the dungeon.
Find more ways to increase the dungeon’s durability.
Also note, that a reduction of floor durability to zero means a breach through the dungeon walls. Possible collapse of the section may occur.
Alexandria flew through the circular window gap near my heart, dragging her book through the air and placing it on the desk. Hopping off, Alexandria looked around and nodded her head proudly at her metallic handiwork. “That is more like it. More bastille-like. Good, but there is still more to do.”
Turning to my core, Alexandria continued, “Master, the more we obtain fragments of myself, the more we can upgrade the library. If we obtain the missing sections of the Archive, then the specialized rooms of the Bastille that are currently not in my possession can also be infused into the Dungeon.”
“Oh? More rooms in addition to the four types you have? More specialized rooms of the Bastille, there are, huh? I see. We should do so then, shouldn’t we, Alexandria? We should eat these pieces you mention. All of them.”
With an evil grin, Alexandria nodded, “Hehe. Yes, Master. We most definitely should.”
My conversation with Alexandria came to a stop as I heard an excited Strong One skip his way toward my room, shaking my belly with each heavy step as he bellowed, “Master! Master! Guesses whats, Master!? I saws Yellow Screen, Master! I saws Yellow Screen!”
Strong One abruptly stopped as he entered my cavern. “Master? Master! Whats happens, Master?! Master, you’s okays?! Who dids this to Master?! Who Strong One needs kills?! Who?!”