The Dungeon of Eternal Embers'' Point of View


    "We need to make a plan for those Living Trees on floor 6," Dave said, scratching his horns.  "The adventurers who are strong enough to defeat them already went past that floor while the lower level adventurers are complaining that we''ve stuck them in an unwinnable situation."  The satyr clutched his clipboard to his chest.  "My lord, you have to do something about that culinary mage!"


    The Dungeon had been hearing many such reports from Dave ever since it had allowed Hazel to become a culinary mage.  It was all she''s-breaking-the-system this or she''s-ruining-the dungeon that.  How could Dave not see the sheer joy she was creating too?  Sure, there was a bit of chaos, but she hadn''t done any of it intentionally.


    Everyone had to learn their class somehow.  She was just working out the kinks.  And while she did that, the Dungeon got to enjoy the most amusing sights it had ever seen.  Never had such an innocent adventurer caused such a monster surge!  Not only had the Living Trees grown and become stronger, but they seemed to be sticking to her request to not to hurt adventurers.  They just...toyed with them a bit.


    The baker was like a monster whisperer at this point. She gave them food, and in return, they obeyed her requests.  It was marvelous and highly irregular.


    The Dungeon had read about food before and knew that humans required it to survive, but it hadn''t realized that the taste changed the experience so much.  It was still the same ingredients, but Hazel''s food had an entirely different effect on people.


    What would such powerful food taste like?


    The Dungeon had never eaten food before, but to fully understand this new culinary mage class, maybe it would need to change that.  One could only balance a power if it knew how it worked after all.  The Dungeon would need a human body for that though.


    Maybe it could construct a living spark like how the Dungeon had created all the Daves.  With a shard of the Dungeon Core''s embers, new life could take shape, slowly growing and evolving until it surpassed its original creation and became real.


    Yes, that was exactly what the Dungeon would do.  It couldn''t wait to meet Hazel face to face and to try the cookies she thought could defeat the boss on floor 100...


    "My lord!" Dave shouted as he fell on his backside, frantically patting out embers that had drifted into his hair.  "Every time you think about that woman, you almost burn my eyebrows off!"


    Oops.


    The Dungeon relayed its apologies to Dave.  It never wanted to cause the poor satyr harm, but it just got so excited whenever it thought about Hazel that its flames couldn''t help but blaze up.  The Dungeon had gone from a smoldering pile of embers, about to be snuffed out, to a raging flame that would fuel the entire dungeon for years to come.


    How did one woman have such power?  It was exhilarating and the Dungeon wanted to know everything about her.  To balance the system, of course, not because it wanted to try her cookies that badly.


    As Dave went back to his report about the Living Tree incident, the Dungeon drifted off, creating its new body.  It had many choices to choose from: short or tall, round or skinny, long hair or short, the possibilities were endless.


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    What kind of body would Hazel prefer?  Based on the situations it had seen so far, she seemed to prefer small adorable creatures, so maybe short and plump would be best?  Possibly something shaped like that sweet potato she always spoke so fondly of?


    No, it didn''t want to be confused with the slimes.  The Dungeon wanted to make her feel safe, like she could trust it to protect her on tougher floors if needed.  To help her adventure, of course, not to impress her.


    So a tall body then, one with an athletic build and lean muscles, but what about the custom characteristics like hair and eye color?  And what class should the body have?  Fighter?  Archer?  Mage?


    Or maybe the Dungeon should take a page out of Hazel''s book and create a whole new class...


    "Sir, are you even listening?" Dave asked, sighing with exasperation as he walked closer to inspect the embers in the walls.  "Wait, are you creating a new spark to help me with all this?  Oh thank the gods, I really appreciate it!"


    The Dungeon had no idea how to answer that without upsetting Dave, so maybe it would need to make two living sparks.  One for its own secret use and another to help Dave and keep him busy.  Too busy to notice if the system went on autopilot once in a while...


    "This was a great idea," Dave exclaimed, sitting next to the Dungeon Core and marveling at all the different character creation options.  "Oh, the long black hair looks great.  Very dark and mysterious.  I bet the adventurers would listen to somebody like that better than me."


    The Dungeon thought Dave was doing a wonderful job, no matter what the adventurers said about him.  The satyr was a dutiful worker with an attention for detail that none of the other sparks had ever fully developed.  Dave was the only reason the Dungeon would even consider getting away with a secret like this, because it knew the system was in good hands with the Daves around.


    If anything truly serious happened, they’d be able to find the new body.  The Dungeon would leave a trail of breadcrumbs for him to make sure of that.  Its flames danced in amusement at the thought.  Soon it would be trying real breadcrumbs that had fallen off actual bread.


    Together, the Dungeon and Dave spent the afternoon messing with all the possible options for the new sparks.  It settled on a fighter class for its own body with dark armor and a sword that had red gems in it that would glow with a bit of its flames.  For Dave''s new assistant, they chose a kindly older woman with a hidden strength who nobody would feel comfortable saying no to.


    Not twice, at least.


    The decision made Dave cackle with glee, which in turn, made the Dungeon happy too.  This was a nice way to pass the time.


    "Wait, what''s the second spark for?" Dave asked, tilting his head.


    The Dungeon tried to shove it aside in a place far away from Dave''s reach, but the satyr was like a dog with a bone sometimes.  He leapt up, staring down into the Dungeon''s flames.


    "You''re trying to escape!" His eyes widened, glancing at his piles of reports from earlier that all mentioned the new baker.  "And I bet I know where you''re going..."


    Alas, the Dungeon had been caught red-handed.  Actually, once it had hands, it wished to get them caught in a cookie jar.


    Before Dave could get too anxious, the Dungeon reassured him that this spark was only for emergencies.  It was the Dungeon''s plan for dealing with the Living Trees and any other issues that might come up.  Not that it would interfere directly, but with a body, the Dungeon could pull a few more strings.


    Dave''s eyes narrowed.  "Just for emergencies, huh?"


    The Dungeon''s flames shone brighter.  It wouldn''t lie to the satyr, but it didn''t have to tell him everything either.  It was the ruler of this Dungeon after all, so if it wanted to deal with a cookie emergency, it would damn well deal with it.


    With that, the Dungeon continued to design both new sparks, eagerly awaiting the day when they would be ready for use.  Hopefully Hazel would be just as excited as the Dungeon was.