《Demesne Core》 1. Welcome to I woke up with a start. Everything was immediately strange and unusual. If it was morning, there should be some sunlight coming through the windows of my bedroom. The room, however, was enveloped in a deep, pitch black darkness. Even in the dead of night, my house did not get this dark. I was well-versed in the midnight bathroom run. My vision felt strange, but I could not identify the problem due to the lack of light. Instead, I tried lifting myself up out of the bed but found that I could neither move nor even feel the bed. I had a sudden realization--I may be suffering another bout of sleep paralysis. It was a condition I sometimes suffered while sleeping where my mind would wake up before my body. It felt like a dream state where I was lying in place and could not move no matter how much I exerted. In fact, I had had it happen to me enough times to often realize what was happening. Even though instincts pushed me to try to desperately move, the rational part of my mind knew that the easiest way to deal with it was to simply wait for me to wake up for real. I stop fighting to move and wait to wake up. I wait some more. The paralysis continued; the room remained shrouded in deep darkness. This was taking too long. Panic once again started to rise in my mind. Am I truly in a coma? Am I now a ¡°Johnny Got His Gun¡±--my face, arms, legs, all blown off so I can¡¯t sense the world around me? No, Johnny could feel his body and at least move his head. I tried to move just my head to the side, but it was futile. I tried banging my head against the pillow to make ¡°SOS¡± but nothing happened. There was no resistance or pain when I tried to move; there was no feeling at all. It was as if the phone was disconnected. Was I in a coma? No, that didn¡¯t seem right. It felt as if my eyes were working even if strangely. My panic reached its highest level, a fevered pitch. Was I dead? A lost soul floating in the abyss. That wasn¡¯t true either. Despite the complete darkness, I could feel that I was in an enclosed space, a room with no windows or doors. I pushed my senses further and confirmed that there were walls, a floor and a ceiling. The distance on all four sides was equal, meaning I was in the exact center of the room. How was I seeing four sides of a room simultaneously? That was impossible! I realized I was not seeing the room, I was sensing it somehow through my mind¡¯s eye. This was why things were so disorientating; a human being was not used to perceiving things so fully. I picked one side of the room and tried to focus on that, trying to ignore the other directions. The wall appeared more clearly than before, as if I was looking at it through some glasses that brought it closer. There are no windows on the wall like there were in my bedroom. The wall is made of solid stone, perhaps, that is perfectly smooth and flat. There are no seams, lines, or mortar to show the masonry work. Although I couldn¡¯t tell if it was a block or carved out, whatever method that had been used was completely perfect. I am definitely not in Kansas anymore. To be fair, I had never been to Kansas. I definitely was not in Rhode Island anymore. My vision suddenly shifted incomprehensibly, as if I was now suffering an out-of-body experience. The room was still pitch black dark and yet I could see everything clearly, but from a skewed perspective. The room appeared to me as if I was completely immersed in a game that was played in isometric. I could rotate my view in every direction and angle. The view felt oddly comforting, suggesting that this was supposed to be the natural way to see things. With my new perspective, I could see that there was more to the room than just the walls. The wall opposite the one I had first looked at contained a doorway. The door¡¯s frame was made of stone blocks put together so neatly that the seams had no gaps and appeared only as thin black lines. The top of the frame was arched with stone, and a keystone jutted out at the top. The inside of the portal was completely black. At first, I had assumed this was a door, but upon inspection I realized there was no door, it was an open entryway. I could not penetrate through this blackness and see the other side, which was quite strange. Leaving that mystery for now, the only other feature of the room was the middle. In the center of the room rose a pedestal, made of the same stone as the walls, floors, and ceiling. The pedestal rose to approximately half the total height of the room. Sitting on the flat top of the column was a glowing spherical stone. I felt an emotional connection to that stone that defied all logic and reason. I felt that I was looking at my own body, if not my very soul. Suddenly, in an instant, something pushed at my mind and entering my strange view:
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF URO
A message in a strange box! I can still see all corners of the room I am in, but this message appears clear as day in the forefront of my mind¡¯s imagination. While I was confused by how I was perceiving things, that confusion was subsumed by the contents of the message. The world of Uro? I have never heard of such a thing; in fact it sounds like some sort of fantasy . . . oh. The thought had been only momentary before, but now it came back more strident and painful than ever. I didn¡¯t want to think that thought, but I could not put it away. Did I die? My last memory before waking up was, naturally, when I went to sleep the night before. I could also remember things that I had done that day. It was a Tuesday, I had gone to work and came home like I had been doing for years. I had dinner with the family and spent the evening on my computer. Everything was as ordinary as could be. I was a relatively healthy--if not a bit pudgy--middle-aged man. If I died, I must have died while sleeping. Maybe I died by natural causes, but I felt this was probably the wrong answer. It made no sense, but flukes were known to happen. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Ultimately, if I really was in a new world, there were only two ways I got here. Either I died and was transported here or I was still alive and transported here. I had no hints as to which way was correct. I hoped it was the latter, of course. I pushed away the big question for now because there was more to the message I had in my vision.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF URO The world of Uro is a planet imbued with vast amounts of mana. Mana is intrinsic to the planet¡¯s very being and is the means that those of this world use to achieve power and greatness. You are a special type of being¨Ca ¡°Demesne Core.¡± As a Demesne Core, you are a vital element to the cycle of life. Mana is the source of your life and the means for your own growth and the growth of what is within you. But be warned! Your demesne also protects you. There are those of this world that would seek to use you, consume you, or destroy you and yours. Use the mana of this world to not just grow, but protect and defend yourself. You are your Demesne. Uro is not allowed to assist you directly; however, you are not alone. You carry within you a companion who can help guide your growth, provide companionship, and is a powerful defender in their own right. Good Luck!
The message answered a lot of my questions, left many others unanswered, and generated a bunch of new questions. First, it was not clear that I was no longer on Earth. In fact, if the message was to be believed, I wasn¡¯t even human any more! I was a demesne core? I was a good nerd and knew my fantasy story cliches, this one included, so I wasn¡¯t completely blindsided by what that meant. I think this might mean the same thing as a ¡°dungeon core?¡± Or maybe there was a difference, and I would have to figure that out. The popular literature called this seemingly absurd phenomenon ¡°transmigration.¡± However, that word seemed strictly incorrect, at least in my circumstances. After all, the word ¡®migration¡¯ implies some agency on the person doing the migrating--they choose to migrate for one reason or another. I had no choice in either coming to this world or in becoming a dungeon core. No god or benevolent entity met me and offered me any options. One day I was on Earth. The next day. I was here--Uro. No. If anything, I considered myself to be a ¡°transrefugee!¡± Semantics aside, the letter provided the answer as to my strange perception and inability to feel my body. I didn¡¯t have one. Instead, I now knew that I was that baseball sized orb sitting on the top of the pedestal in the middle of the room. On Earth, I was little more than a corporate drone. I had worked ten years at the same company and the same position, commuting five days a week to a drab suburban office building where they used blinds to keep you from looking outside and daring to dream. In that respect, I decided that being a Demesne Core was actually a step up. Congratulations to me for my promotion! I had read many ¡°dungeon core¡± stories over the years, and they tended to be some of the crunchiest fantasy stories, usually involving a System with stats, skills, etc. The Letter didn¡¯t mention anything about game mechanics, but I felt confident they were there¨Cafter all, there was a game-like message right here! Hm. I lacked a mouth or vocal chords so saying ¡°status¡± or other words would not work. Therefore, it had to be some sort of mental command. Fortunately, my internal monologue came to my rescue. I thought the words ¡°status,¡± ¡°dungeon core status,¡± ¡°dungeon status¡± without anything happening. Undeterred, I tried ¡°core status¡± and was rewarded with the sudden appearance of a new box of text. Unnamed Demesne Level 1 Mana 99/100 Demesne Traits: Outworlder Demesne Skills: Demesne 1; Absorption 1; Landscape 1 Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1 Demesne Points: 3 The first thing that jumped out at me as I looked at the status screen was the first line: ¡°Unnamed Demesne.¡± My ire rose as I was absolutely sure I was not unnamed! I clearly have a name, and that name is . . . that name is . . . my name . . . I can¡¯t remember my name. Why can¡¯t I remember my name? I went back and brought up my memories of my old life on Earth. Most of my memories were there and I had no difficulty with them--faces, places, events seemed easy. I could remember the names of my family--Theresa, my wife and Samuel, my son--as well as the names of friends, relatives, and even coworkers. I definitely remembered that my boss, Terry, was a total dickwad. However, no matter how hard I tried, nothing I remembered showed or said my name; when I tried to focus on my name I only got a haze that made me feel dizzy. ¡°I¡¯ve been transmigrated, a dungeon with no name . . .¡± No. I am not going to spend my new existence without a name. I will get my name back. I will choose my name and I will choose it now. The only time I had to choose a name was when my son was born. My frame of reference for children¡¯s names initially came to his many classmates. Jayden? Kayden? My son had too many middle school friends with names like those. No thank you. I preferred something simple, something classic. Augustus? Socrates? Nebuchadnezzar? No, that¡¯s going too classic. I refused to concede my lack of name. I thought long and hard about what name I wanted to give myself. I ignored everything else until the issue was decided. After all, I figured, how can one live (even as a dungeon) without the sense of self that a name gives? Impossible! Finally, I decided on a name: George. Simple. Class. The way I figured it, Saint George killed a dragon, and since I definitely am not a dragon, I can at least be the second half of the classic combo. George the Dungeon. My name is George! I shouted in my mind. I checked my status again and saw no difference. My name is George!! I shouted with as much mental exertion as I could. Again and again I screamed silently. Suddenly I felt something ¡°pop¡± into my mind and a new text message box appeared:
Skill Obtained: Demesne Interface 1
My mental exertion resulted in a new skill! I quickly check my status one more time hoping that the reward indicated success: Necromancer¡¯s Gorge Demesne Level 1 Mana 96/100 Demesne Traits: Outworlder Demesne Skills: Dungeon Zone 1; Absorption 1; Landscape 1; Dungeon Interface 1 Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1 Demesne Points: 3 What the hell!? 2. Gorge the Demesne ¡°Necromancer¡¯s Gorge Demesne¡± I was flabbergasted. I had screamed the name ¡°George¡± but somehow the name given to me was a perversion of it--¡±gorge¡± was a homophone but was a type of terrain and not a name. Worse, this place--my name--was related to some necromancer. Was I a minion of this necromancer or just a resident of his lands? My inquiries were met with only silence. There was nothing I could do about this necromancer until I actually met him or her. Instead, I stared at my status screen and screamed at it to try to change the name to what I wanted. Screaming had worked the first time, albeit imperfectly, so I kept at it. Unfortunately, there were no changes or reactions and eventually I got mentally exhausted. I decided to give up on the naming problem for now. I had so many things I needed to learn about in order to understand my situation and inform me of what to do. Outside the introductory message that I had, I had my knowledge and memory of reading cheesy fantasy stories about dungeon cores. While these memories could be useful¨Csuggesting paths of progression and other ideas¨Cit would be prudent not to rely too much on them. Finally, the status screen itself was a source of both explicit and implicit information. In my anger, I had mentally ¡°swiped¡± the screen away so it disappeared from my mind¡¯s eye. I brought it up again and looked over it with a more discerning eye: Necromancer¡¯s Gorge Demesne Level 1 Mana 96/100 Demesne Traits: Outworlder Demesne Skills: Demesne 1; Absorption 1; Landscape 1; Demesne Interface 1 Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1 Demesne Points: 3 This screen was everything I had to learn about how dungeons operated in this world. Fortunately, it either gave me a modicum of direct information or alluded to other unsaid dungeon components. Nothing stood out to me as being critically important, so I decided to simply review everything in the order they appeared. Listed first were my Traits, of which I had only one--¡±Outworlder.¡± I concentrated on the word ¡°Outworlder¡± in the status screen to see if I could dig for more information. After a few moments, the information popped up in my mind''s eye: Outworlder - This demesne core has something not from this mana sphere. As a result, you have an improved chance to learn new skills. In addition, bonus experience is earned when the demesne¡¯s monsters are defeated. The trait was both expected and unexpected. Even though my memories were partially scrambled, I knew without a shadow of doubt that ¡°I¡± was born on a planet called Earth. And Earth did not have dungeons. Therefore, it made sense that coming from that world to this world rendered me an outsider. The unexpected part was the apparent bonuses that the trait gave. The first bonus gave me a bonus for learning new skills. I assessed that bonus as being both immediately and immensely useful. The second bonus was stranger, however. People who killed my monsters would gain bonus experience. How was that helpful to me? If anything, it would encourage people to enter my dungeon! That could be a good thing, but it could also be a really bad thing. I would have to keep this facet in mind once I started to actually build out my dungeon. Continuing to review the status screen, I moved onto the skills. I selected each skill and brought up an individual screen for each one that had a short, useful, description. Demesne 1 - Demesne allows the creation and manipulation of the area the demesne encompasses. Within the demesne, the demesne core is the master. All features of a demesne can be created within, including the creation of floors, special zones, objects, and monsters. Absorption 1 - Absorption is the ability of the Demesne to absorb certain tangible and magical material. When the dungeon absorbs certain materials, it may gain the template data that can be used to create replica material. Only material within the Demesne may be absorbed. Landscape 1 - Landscape is the ability of the dungeon to create and manipulate terrain and biome features within the Demesne. Demesne Interface 1 - The ability of the Demesne Core to directly perceive its demesne. The Interface can also gather and present data and information on almost all aspects of the Demesne. Each of these skills made intuitive sense insofar as each of these things covered things that a Dungeon core needs or wants to do. Dungeon Demesne did exactly what it said--it was the means by which I expanded the space around me that was under my control. Absorption did two very important things. First, it let me empty my demesne of tangible stuff, such as stone and dirt, that filled it. Presuming that I was underground, this would be the main way for me to create empty rooms and hallways. Second, it gave me a means to replicate almost anything I absorbed, although the description implied some restrictions. The last skill I had was Demesne Interface. I had not started with this skill, but gained it only upon triggering the name change. So the skill was definitely related to interacting directly with my status screen and notifications. I think it was also through this skill that I was experiencing such strange vision. Unfortunately, while the description said I could see data and information, it did not tell me how to view said information. I felt like I was sitting at a computer with an operating system I had never used before. In fact, all of the skill descriptions are unusually vague about how they work. Worse, no further options are presented either, such as sub-skills, sub-menus, or other screens. For example, Demesne lists a number of dungeon components like ¡°floor,¡± ¡°special zone¡± and ¡°monster.¡± I tried to focus on each of the terms just as I had done on the words of the skill while viewing the status screen. Nothing came up. I went back to my Status Screen and tried the next obvious route. ¡°Help?¡± I made a mental nudge for help in a similar way as I had brought up the Status Screen. Nothing happened. A dozen variations later without success I gave up. There was no ¡°Help¡± screen. Okay--what else could I glean from the Status Screen? Each of the skills had a number after them. Each of those numbers was the same: ¡°1.¡± When I got the Demesne Interface skill, the notification also gave the same number. I had played many computer, role playing, and board games in my life to be confident as to what the numbers represented. Each number represented the level of the corresponding skill. That clearly implied that I could improve these skills over time. Since nothing told me how to level any of these skills. My limited experience of being a dungeon core suggested a methodology, however. I had gained a new skill from screaming at the world, after all. My Outworlder trait probably helped with that, too. Regardless, it made sense that things worked in a similar fashion when it came to increasing skill levels. As such, if I expended energy on things or activities related to the skills, they would likely level up. For example, if I expanded my dungeon¡¯s area enough, the Demesne skill would probably level up to 2 eventually. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I wanted to test my theory out, but held off. I still had more information from the Status Screen to review. Next up, I reviewed each of the ¡°Creatures¡± I had been given. Disappointingly, I was given no choice as to my starting creatures and had been automatically assigned three types. I worked my way through each. Cave Flora 1 - Ability to create various flora of a cave biome. Cave Fauna 1 - Ability to create various fauna of a cave biome. Undead 1 - Ability to create basic undead monsters Argh! The lack of descriptions or specifics was incredibly frustrating. The creature templates were so vague as to be functionally useless--how was I supposed to know what was included in each of the three templates? I knew only the basics about what creatures and plants lived in caves and all I knew about undead came from games. I forced myself to calm down and reassess my criticism. It was possible that the lack of specifics on plants and animals was not to my detriment, but actually for my benefit. Suppose that a template gave a list of things in one of the templates--¡±Cave Flora 1 - Ability to create spiders and bats,¡± for example. That might mean that I could only create those two exact types of animals or would make me think I was restricted to those two. Worse, I still wouldn¡¯t have the knowledge to know what kinds of spiders or bats I could create. The vagueness of the templates gave me a lot of room to maneuver and try different things. I decided to test my theory. Before I had woken up as a Demesne Core, I had been a middle-aged family man who worked as a low-level corporate drone. I had personal interests in games of all types and was quite the geek. I knew enough about undead to easily come up with some simple examples from pop culture. There were two obvious choices for a starting undead monster: skeletons and zombies. Personally, I was never a fan of zombie movies and television shows so I decided I would make my first monster as a skeleton. I began the mental process of imagining a skeleton warrior and how it would be materialized into existence. I could sense an energy flowing out through me and intuited that I was going about creating the monster in the right way. Still, it takes a little bit of time for me to fully understand the nuances of the creation process. Eventually, I sensed that the process had completed and knew I had created my new monster. My dungeon senses showed a simple skeleton standing in the corner of the room I was in. The bones were a natural white color and were held together to keep the skeleton standing by some unknown force. Instead of empty eye sockets, the skeleton had two small glowing balls of red light. It also lacked any armor or clothing but in one hand held a large club that was also made of bone. I easily recognized the skeleton¡¯s form and shape to be humanoid. I was curious if it confirmed that the human species also existed on this world. It would make sense that the skeleton would follow a native of this planet, but it was also possible the design was pulled from my own memories. I focused on the skeleton and found that I could inspect it. Skeleton Fighter (Undead) Level 2 I also checked my own status and saw I had 74 mana now. The skeleton had cost me a whopping twenty mana. How was I expected to make a decent dungeon with such high monster costs? Also, the description box of the skeleton was severely lacking in information, only stating it was level 2. That was weird itself, since usually starting monsters were level one, not two. Maybe the wooden club upgraded its threat level by one? I was bereft of enough information to understand even my most basic of monsters. I pondered the reasons for such a bare bones System. As a gamer, I could understand the rationale. For almost any game there were players¨C¡±Min-maxers¡±--who sought to exploit the game¡¯s mechanics competitively or even just for fun. Eventually, they could often find ways to completely break a game, such as infinite resources or unkillable units. Now take a similar system of game-like mechanics and install it into a real world with real people (and dungeons!). They all had the advantage of time. Given enough time and information about the rules of the System, they could try to find ways to exploit it. The more information that can be learned, the more likely an exploit or an optimal choice can be discovered. At that point, the System becomes less about choices and merely a formality. Human recorded history stretched over five thousand years. If the people of this world had that much time to poke at the System, they probably knew quite a lot about it. So how would the System¡¯s designer prevent such abuse? You could have the System utilize a ¡°black box¡± method. Keep as much of the details and numbers hidden so it is harder to calculate specific marginal advantages. Another option would be to make as many things as possible have some degree of variability. For example, maybe each level 1 skeleton I create has slightly different values. These slight differences wouldn¡¯t change things generally, but could be decisive occasionally. In this way, results couldn¡¯t be perfectly predicted. There was a third option I suddenly thought of. Maybe my Dungeon Interface skill was just too low of a level to get more information. Theoretical ¡°System-etics¡± aside, I needed to continue my tests with monsters. I concentrated and began to push mana through my core in order to create a zombie, the second type of basic monster that I knew of. Suddenly, I felt a mental blockage, as if I hit a wall and couldn¡¯t proceed further.
Cannot create additional monsters.
I stared at the notification for a bit. The prompt explained why I couldn¡¯t create a zombie, but didn¡¯t give a specific reason as to why I was blocked. I supposed it made sense there would be a population limit for a dungeon and since I had done absolutely zero expansion, I might literally be at my limit. So new Monsters were off the table for now. I would have to experiment on my existing skeleton for now. I focused on the skeleton fighter standing in the corner and tried to will it to be removed or deleted from my dungeon. After a few moments of concentration, I feel the mental pressure release and see the skeleton dissolve into little specks of mana that dissipated into the air and walls.
Absorption 2 obtained.
That was unexpected! Checking my status I was also surprised to see my mana went up by one as well. This meant that I could recycle a small portion of my used mana back into my well. Perhaps the system wanted to encourage me to experiment a little by making mistakes a little less punishing in terms of resource cost. With the skeleton deleted and my monster count back to zero, it was time to try once again to create a zombie. I did the same method I used for making the skeleton but this time focused on the concept of a zombie. However, I still encountered the same mental block as before.
Cannot create additional monster templates.
If I could make a sound, then the room would have been filled with an audible groan. Did making the skeleton lock me out from making any other type of monster or creature? There must be some rules regarding monsters that I was not yet privy to. At this point, the combination of lack of information and stilting restrictions was vexing me to the point of total frustration. I then remembered something: the very first message said ¡°Your dungeon companion may provide additional information to guide you through your first year.¡± There was supposed to be someone here to help me! I wanted to kick myself for forgetting this critical tidbit. But also, why hadn¡¯t this companion reached out to me to say hello? That was odd. I guess I just had to take the initiative¨CI mentally called out Hello? Hello?! Companion¨CI need you! Silence. I called out over and over again, in whatever combination of words that I could think of. If my status screen required a certain trigger, I desperately guess that I needed to summon my companion in the same way. After several dozen attempts at triggering the arrival of my helper, I gave up. A sense of doom came over me as realization set in. I really was going to have to do this all by myself. 3. Making Moss of Things I had been abandoned. Left to fend for myself. Whatever the cause, my helper was not here and there was no sign they were coming to help me. I sat in the room and did nothing. I repeatedly flipped to the introductory message to confirm what I read or read over my status in the hope something changed. Nothing had changed. The fact that I was alone really started to sink in. Even though the room I was in was pitch black, I felt like it was getting darker and darker, an abyss slowly engulfing me, so stifling that I couldn¡¯t even think ¡°doom!¡± But after a little bit, I snapped out of my despair spiral. Actually, it seemed a little strange that I did so so easily. I ruminated about it and came up with a basic theory: human beings required social relationships as part of our very biology; now, however, I had a very different biology, if I even had that. Ultimately, maybe it was impossible for me to get truly depressed. Look on the bright side of life, and all that! In other words, I should be fine. I will be fine. I am F.I.N.E. Time for a distraction¨Cstatus! Necromancer¡¯s Gorge Demesne Level 1 Mana 71/100 Demesne Traits: Outworlder Demesne Skills: Demesne 1; Absorption 2; Landscape 1; Demesne Interface 1 Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1 Demesne Points: 3 Nothing has changed except I did gain one mana. This must be due to a passive mana regeneration ability, which probably ticked over because I had spent so much time in existential crisis management mode. Unfortunately, my sparse status information did not contain any information about mana regeneration. I hoped to get that data soon, but I forced myself not to fret about it. Because I am F.I.N.E. I moved on to the very last line of text in my status, which said I had three ¡°Demesne Points¡± available. Hurray customization! In gaming, it was often advantageous to hold onto your points until you knew exactly the build you were going for. I was not under any short term time constraints so I could see myself holding off on spending them. However, the dearth of descriptive information and the lack of a guide forced my hand. If I judiciously spent them, I could gain important information. I focused on the demesne points and willed one of them to be spent towards my interface skill.
Demesne Interface 2 obtained. 1 DP used.
Success! I checked my status again to see any changes: Necromancer¡¯s Gorge Demesne Level 1 Mana 71/100 Demesne Traits: Outworlder Demesne Skills: Demesne 1; Absorption 2; Landscape 1; Demesne Interface 2 Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1 Demesne Points: 2 Frankly, at this point I was not expecting much to be different and my low expectations were easily met. The only substantive change to my status was the skill I had boosted to level two now showed it was level two. Yay. Then a simple idea came to me. I had previously been able to pull up descriptions of my skills by focusing on one individually where it appeared in my status. There was no harm in trying to do the same with one of my creature sets. I chose ¡°Undead¡± and focused on it. Sure enough, the information popped up in my mind, providing a description. Creature Data: Undead (Monster) Level 1 Templates 1/1 Would you look at this¨Cbarely any information, again! But at least now I understood one of the system¡¯s imposed limitations. I was currently allowed only a single template for undead monsters (skeletons), which had likely been locked in when I created that skeleton. Zombies must count as a separate type of undead. That made a certain amount of sense. Beyond that, I was also allowed only one monster type from that template--the Skeleton Fighter. At first, I was severely disappointed¨Conly one creature?--but upon a second reading, I realized there were levels here too. That meant I could get more types of skeletons and more types of undead monsters, eventually. Zombies might still be on the table! Someday. Somehow. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I went back to my status and checked the other two categories. Creature Data: Cave Flora (Flora) Level 1 Flora 0/3 Creature Data: Cave Fauna (Fauna) Level 1 Fauna 0/2 Interesting. Flora and fauna were treated as separate from each other. They were also separated out from the Landscape skill. Even within each of the datasets, I still had only a limited number of choices I could make. For Cave Flora, I was allowed a maximum of three templates; for fauna I was offered only two. For Monsters, I was only given one template slot. So flora and fauna must be considered inferior to monsters. That made sense. If I populated my dungeon with a dozen fully white rabbits, they were not going to be any threat to any adventurers, Caerbannog excepted. Hmmm . . . I¡¯ll have to store that idea for later. Three plants and two animals for decorations seemed sufficient for a starting out, but the numbers seemed oddly arbitrary. I didn¡¯t understand why I was restricted in the number of types of harmless plants and animals I could use. Plus, Absorption said I could gain new templates by absorbing things. Whatever was going on, I couldn¡¯t puzzle out a reason for the contradiction. I decided the only course of action was to experiment like I had with the skeleton. My first monster cost me a massive twenty mana, a full quarter of my starting amount. Hopefully, creating a plant wouldn¡¯t be nearly so expensive. I wanted to know what the mechanics and costs would be, and the only way to do that was to make something new. I searched my memories to see what I could remember about cave ecosystems; I had enough general knowledge to know a few things that lived in caves. None of them were really interesting or appealing enough to warrant a spot. I then thought about instances of dungeon delving and caves that came from pop-fantasy and science fiction. There were some more interesting options, but I didn¡¯t know how creative I could get. I determined the best course of action was to try something fantastical first, and if that failed, something more realistic. Thus, I began my effort to create a moss-like plant that gave off light. I focused on creating a patch of moss nearby on the floor of the room I was in. As I felt the mana flow through me, a growth of green mass began to sprout much like many loaves of bread suddenly expanding while in an oven. The moss stopped growing and settled back down slightly as it finished. The moss gave off a soft, slightly green light that gave some illumination to the otherwise completely dark room. Creature Data: Cave Flora (Flora) Level 1 Flora 1/3 Success! I was well on my way to being a true fantasy underground cave dungeon now! As for a second type of flora that lived in caves, the only thing that came to mind were mushrooms. Since I already had glowing moss, I didn¡¯t need glowing mushrooms. Any basic, regular mushroom would suffice. This time I wanted to see if I could create the template without having to go through the process of actually creating a physical manifestation. I focused on simply adding mushrooms as a template. It takes a while, but eventually I figure it out. I had to imagine creating a mushroom while at the same time restricting my mana from being expended.
Add ¡°Mushrooms¡± as a template?
Having the option prompt was definitely superior to creating the thing in the first place, since this way I had the possibility of not accepting the template. Since I lacked better alternatives for cave flora, I figured there was no reason to decline the option and mentally sent a message of ¡°accept.¡± Mushrooms were added as the second flora template. Next up was cave fauna. I definitely had a better grasp of animals that lived in caves. There were bats, snakes, spiders, and even . . . a moment of inspiration came to me. Most bears hibernate in caves, so would it be possible to have bears as one of my cave animals? Having a bear as a cave fauna would be like choosing a half-monster--something mean and nasty that could also fight. If I followed the moss example, I could also pick a specific type of bear to fill the template as well. Brown bears were the most common type of bear, but black bears had a particularly violent reputation. Going with the latter, I focused on adding black bears to my creature fauna template list. After a moment, the option popped up and without hesitation I selected ¡°yes.¡± I have bears! I decided to reserve the last template slots for flora and fauna for later, should the need arise or inspiration come to me. Necromancer¡¯s Gorge Demesne Level 1 Mana 71/100 Demesne Traits: Outworlder Demesne Skills: Demesne1; Absorption 2; Landscape 1; Demesne Interface 2 Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1 Demesne Points: 2 There was still no change in my status. Even my mana was the same; wait, even my mana was the same! That meant that creating the moss either cost no mana, or, more likely, cost negligible mana. All I needed to do was mass produce moss to get an idea of its cost and the value of a single point of mana. Wait, wait. My mana was the same. That meant I hadn¡¯t gained any mana either. All this time since I had first checked my status and I had yet to gain any mana. That can¡¯t be right. Worse case, it was right. I¨CI needed to carefully budget my mana expenditures until I could get some more mana. It was time to do some thinking. 4. Theorycrafting I poked at my status and other information boxes a few more times just to make sure I didn¡¯t miss some other important information. Nothing appeared so I was confident I had about as much information as I was going to get at this juncture. I felt tempted diving right in and expanding my dungeon and filling it with monsters, traps, and other interesting things. Ideas danced around in my head as I thought about what I wanted to create. I had both big ideas, such as theming the entire dungeon, and little ideas related to only specific elements. But it would do me no good to begin building things haphazardly. Developing an overarching plan on what the dungeon would be should be done before I spent a single mote of mana. After all, the introductory message warned that demesne cores could suffer some pretty nasty ends. Proper planning was essential. It was time to do some theory crafting. The first thing I needed to answer was the question of what my purpose was- what did it mean to be a demesne core? The initial introductory message gave me a couple of hints. First, I was essential to the cycle of life. Obviously, I lacked any further information on what this means, exactly, but it must be important. My best guess was that this function was related to my use of mana in some way. Second, in some of the dungeon core stories I had read in my previous life, dungeons had symbiotic relationships with the inhabitants of the world whereby both sides helped each other become stronger. I was fairly certain this was not the case for me based on the warning portion of the message. Finally, the message seemed to suggest that I should grow. Important to the cycle of life, protect myself, and grow. Nothing I could do about the first one, but the second and third ones? Yeah. I can do that. First up, defense. The greater the ease that ¡°delvers¡± had finding my physical core, the greater the likelihood that one of them would do something nefarious to it. So, I had to maximize the defense of my core and avoid that scenario at all costs. Doing so seemed easy: make my dungeon as deadly and difficult as possible. However, if a dungeon was too strong or too dangerous, then the locals would have a strong incentive to destroy it whatever the cost. Nobody likes ¡°rocks fall, everyone dies.¡± But going too far the other way might be just as bad. Yes, if my dungeon was relatively easy or delver friendly, then people might be incentivized to protect a useful resource. However, being friendly could also incentivize my destruction. If the value of being subjugated was higher than my value as a resource, then simple cost-benefit analysis would push for my destruction. Not only that, but my defenses would be easily run through if a change in mind ever happened. Worse yet, the people who gained strength from my dungeon might find me no longer a challenge and be further incentivized to get rid of me (even if it was to pull up ladder behind them). And that brought things full circle. A dungeon that was too strong was a dungeon too dangerous to keep around; a dungeon too weak did not provide enough value to keep. From a relational perspective, I needed to sit squarely in the goldilocks zone--not too hot, not too cold, but juuuuust right. Protecting myself was an easy maxim to adhere to and one I was already committed to in my mind. To balance this, I needed to provide sufficient value to the delvers. What were they looking for from a dungeon? If this world hewed to the way role playing games worked, then they likely wanted similar things. The first thing they would want was experience (and if the system governed them similar to me, then that might very well be literal experience). Second, they might expect financial or tangible rewards, such as money, magical items, or other loot. Third, the delvers may specifically want to destroy or capture my dungeon core. The second benefit I listed--tangible loot--could also be a problem. Tangible loot included money, items, magical items, artifacts, crafting materials, or anything else that could physically be removed from my dungeon. I remembered reading an old article in a roleplaying magazine that wondered what would happen if dungeons existed in real life or how people should react to them realistically. The author reasoned that if a dungeon contained a large hoard of treasure, then every nearby king or ruler would be heavily incentivized to take as much gold and treasure as fast as possible. Armies and wars were, after all, extremely expensive and free money would be a boon any king would be desperate for. Such an endeavor would surpass simple raids and be conducted as a large-scale excavation project. Did the Nazis seek out the Ark of the Covenant with a crack team of adventurers? No, they had hundreds of soldiers and thousands of workers digging in the ruins of ancient Egypt. And that was just for one artifact! A mound of treasure or a powerful enough artifact could lead to the local rulers trying to strip mine me with nary a thought towards dungeon sustainability! I ruminated for some time about what factors would allow me and my dungeon to sit within the goldilocks zone. The two purposes were not per se incompatible: I could provide delvers with value while striving to maximize my protection. For example, I could do what was typical for dungeons in many computer games, making my dungeon progressively more difficult the deeper one delved. Then again . . . screw balance! I was promised an assistant and they were nowhere to be found. That was squarely the responsibility of whoever put me here and they had failed. I was insulted that they wanted me to do this job when they didn¡¯t give me the resources I needed! I would not design my dungeon for life cycle whatever or being friendly with the locals; I would design it solely for my defense and my growth (for more defense). I¡¯m going full Vauban. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. So, what defensive paradigms should I follow to increase my survivability? First was accessibility. A dungeon was functionally the equivalent of a fortress. The purpose of both was to keep people from reaching the inside. Likewise, the biggest weakness of both a dungeon and a fortress was the same thing: they both existed in a static, fixed location. In the history of Earth, fortresses could be extremely difficult for an enemy to take, but that cost need only be paid if the enemy had to take the fortress. If the enemy needed only to go around the fortress, then the strategic value of the fort quickly became zero. My dungeon¡¯s fixed location would also be a significant weakness. Once the entrance to my dungeon was discovered and that information propagated, then anyone with that knowledge would know how to access my dungeon. Even hiding my entrance would only delay the information spread, not prevent it. There were other problems derived from accessibility. The quality of delvers as well as the number of delvers could be problematic. Suppose, again, that a king or ruler wanted to get all of the loot in a dungeon, why would they limit themselves to small numbers of mercenaries over an extended period of time? Besides literally digging out a dungeon, a determined general or ruler could simply overwhelm a dungeon with numbers. Instead of sending ten people in at a time, send one hundred or a thousand, overwhelming the monsters and traps with sheer numbers. Even though that seemed unlikely to me, a large number of contemporaneous delvers would be a real problem. Therefore, I would need to research a way to limit the total number of delvers allowed in my dungeon at any one time. Similarly, the quality of opposition could overwhelm any defenses I create. Until I became a powerful dungeon with loads of defenses, I simply had no way to defend myself from powerful delvers. They could stomp through my meager defenses and do whatever they wanted. Admittedly, such powerful people might not waste their time with a low-level dungeon, so the risk of their intervention might be mitigated somewhat. Of course, if someone overpays for their services¨Cbah. I don¡¯t see how I can control this risk without a way to simply bar overpowered people from entering. So, controlling who, what, and how many enter my dungeon was important. The next issue I foresaw was also related to fixed defenses. Static defenses either don¡¯t or are difficult to change. Given enough time and information gathered, enemies could and would find a way to defeat a dungeon. Suppose I make a spiked pit trap in my first level.The very first group who comes into my dungeon may very well be surprised and killed by it. As long as every person who enters my dungeon and learns of that trap does not leave then that trap will remain at its highest level of effectiveness. Once people leave my dungeon with information about that trap, then some people will have the knowledge to bypass it. The trap¡¯s effectiveness is thus reduced. Over time, information on that pit trap would become common knowledge until everyone who enters my dungeon knows to avoid or disable that trap. At this point, the trap becomes completely neutered. Thus, over time, more and more of my dungeon will become easier and easier. Worse, those delvers that are successful and leave my dungeon alive would likely come back stronger each time. My dungeon would have the negative effect of making threats to my survival even greater threats. It was an arms race I could only hope to keep up with, never win. The only viable answer I had was to utilize the few advantages I could create to slow the diffusion of information about my dungeon or to reduce the value of such information. The best ideas for that I could come up with right now were modularity and variability. In short, if I found a way to efficiently change and modify existing elements of the dungeon from time-to-time, then information about the dungeon would become obsolete or useless. I played my fair share of games that utilized something called ¡°procedural generation,¡± a system where each level followed certain rules but each instance was slightly different than any other. If I could implement that type of system for my dungeon, then my dungeon would be far more difficult to ¡°solve.¡± I began putting together a list of priorities in my mind, etching out the words as if writing them into an invisible empty status. Gorge¡¯s Keys to Survivability The name came out that way. The interface was well and truly fucking with me. I kept that thought there and went to add the objectives. The words seared into the interface and I felt them gain permanence. They disappeared for but a fraction of a second before appearing again, but this time in a status box of their own.
Gorge¡¯s Keys to Survivability
  • Access Control: Control who can enter my dungeon; how many can enter my dungeon; and what power level can enter my dungeon.
  • Modularity: Minimize information creep on my dungeon by maximizing variability.
  • Core Survival: No matter what happens, the core must survive.
Did I . . . just create my own notepad?
Demesne Interface 3 obtained.
I just did. I laughed and then laughed some more. For all I escaped my corporate perdition to come to a world with magic and wonder, it was not so willing to let me go. The dreaded office memo had followed me from the pits of hell to haunt me even here. 5. Read the Room The foremost question I had now was the question of building short-term versus long-term. In other words, building something that would be defensible now but would require substantial rework, or building the pieces to a more complete vision and saving mana. The lack of information on how my mana worked and how to get more was extremely problematic in that regard. I needed to balance learning new things with saving my precious resources. First, I needed to assess what I had to work with. I didn¡¯t have eyes, but I could see, in a way. Everything in my demesne I could sense. From a humanistic perspective, it probably would be strange and disorientating, but for me it actually felt quite natural. What I saw was . . . not much. There was some empty space and my demesne¡¯s edge seemed to coincide with the walls of a rectangular-shaped room. I was confident the walls were artificial because they were very straight and flat, although there was no stone masonry. Well, three of the walls were that way. One of the walls looked like it had collapsed inward and a landslide of rock and debris had stopped just short of where my Core lay on the floor. That was it. I decided to start with the absolutely most basic thing: my Demesne skill. First, I kept my status on and then simultaneously centered my mind on trying to expand my demesne in no direction in particular, in every direction rather like blowing up a balloon. I felt a mana streaming out and my demesne started expanding beyond the room and into the rock walls and rubble. I pushed harder and the rate of expansion increased a little bit, but I started feeling strained. I kept going until I saw my mana level tick down by one, and immediately stopped. When I did, the headache¨Ccoreache?--immediately went away. So what did I get . . . I estimated my demesne had expanded in every direction by about a couple of feet. It didn¡¯t seem like much, but I understood the cubistic style of expansion meant I had taken on quite a bit of space. What had I gotten for it? A lot of rock, dirt and . . . oh, interesting! In two separate places, the stone rock was thin, a few inches, but still uniform and without seams or masonry work. Beyond these two spots were further empty spaces. The first thin section was actually door-sized and located in the middle of the room opposite the collapsed wall. The second section was a small square in the floor near the center, just next to my core, in fact. What an excellent opportunity to try more directed use of my Demesne skill. Which one to do first¨Cthe trap door, of course! I once again start pushing my Demesne out but only where the empty space below the trap door is. I followed the contours of stone and I quickly realized it was a steep staircase that curved as it went further down. I used the opportunity to shape my Demesne space to match the staircase as I went down, each step being just a little easier than the last due to the repetition.
Demesne 2 obtained.
Excellent. The skill-up, while nice, also confirmed important information. First, increasing skill levels was independent from my own Demesne level (although in some stories I had read, there was a related skill cap). Second, I could raise a skill separate from spending Demesne Points, by either using the skill a lot or, as in this case, by utilizing a skill in new or more sophisticated ways. I kept going down, down, down until the stairs reached a short landing. It was short because only a few feet from the stairs was another wall and an actual door! The door was made of sturdy wood that had stood the test of time, but the iron handle and hinges had severely rusted. A good kick would probably easily knock it over, but the door was no impediment to me anyway. I just pushed my Demesne through it and into the empty room beyond. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I burned more mana and expanded into the room. The room was larger than my starting room, about twice the width and even the ceiling was higher too. As my demesne pushed through what was the middle of the room, a sharp, disconcerting tingling sensation hit me, though it passed quickly. The reason became apparent: there was another door in the middle of the room. It was a door¨Cno, door frame in the shape of a half-oval. It was made of some strange black material that even now, felt a little weird, a little off. Oh my god. Oh. My. God. It looked like a stargate. It looked like a stargate! PLEASE be a stargate!! I poked and prodded the mysterious black gate, but received no feedback. I tried to closely inspect it for any writings or runes, or marks, but there was none of that either. I even tried to will up an Inspect, but that was also a complete failure too. What this thing was, it was pleading the fifth. There was still hope though¨CI had another tool that could be of use: Absorption. Even though I was extremely excited by what I hoped that thing was, I took a moment to reality-check myself. It was just as equally likely that that thing was dangerous or bad. I had no way of knowing. Did I want it? Yes, yes I did. But first, a few tests of my skill were needed. So far, I had only absorbed the skeleton that I had made, not any material that made up my home. So, using the skill again, I absorbed the stone trap floor that led to the hidden stairway. It was actually cool seeing how the rock slowly faded from reality until there was nothing there. I instinctively knew that what I had absorbed was {stone}[1], but that knowledge did not extend to the molecular or even granular level. It was as if I was a guy who looked at the stone floor and said ¡°I know that floor is made of stone.¡± Next, I absorbed the wooden door at the bottom of the staircase.
Absorption 2 obtained.
It felt good to see my numbers go up (except my mana, which did not go up). As for what I got from the door, it was basically {wood} and some rusted {iron}. With the basics of my Absorption skill determined, it was time for the other door. I started absorbing the door by working on one end, but the blasted thing completely rebuffed my attempt. Undeterred, I tried again and pushed Absorption stronger. This time, there was a stalemate and I once again felt that strange feeling¨Ca cross between a record scratching and the sound of static on a television¨Conce again came back. Only the more I pushed my skill onto the black frame of the strange door, the sensation got stronger too. I kept pushing my skill, and started feeling around the door with Absorption. More and more I surrounded the stargate with the power of my skill, but still, it would not be taken. Eventually, I had completely surrounded the thing with Absorption and the sensation was becoming overwhelming. Losing the ability to think clearly, I did the only thing I could think of and started to crush the black stone with my skill. Then, suddenly, the estranged sensation reached out from the gate and touched me. My very mind locked-up as I felt the intense scrutiny of something extremely powerful, extremely alien. Worse, I felt an incredibly strong sense of wrongness about this presence¨Cit could easily crush my very soul out of existence. But equally suddenly, the feelings disappeared and a new, strange, notification came into my mind:
Do you wish to absorb this portal? Yes / No
Um. Ummm. . . . Yes. The option box disappeared and immediately all resistance from the black gate also went away. But the gate didn¡¯t just fade from reality like the other materials. It coalesced into a small mass of ephemeral dark, eldritch energy. The ball shot like a bullet upward, through the stone and went straight into my core. A spike of searing pain bore into my soul like I had been stabbed with a spear made of molten metal covered in lightning. My very being was ripped and torn open as the energy dug further into me. I couldn¡¯t even comprehend what was happening, but it was already too much. I lost consciousness and blackness took over. 6. Trapped When my consciousness returned, the first thing I did was immediately confirm that I was, in fact, still alive. Yup¨CI think, blah blah¨CI¡¯m alive. As well, I didn¡¯t feel wrong¨Cno screaming headache, unimaginable pain, ennui, or other ailment. I felt the same as before whatever happened that knocked me. Of course, feeling fine didn¡¯t mean I was fine. I knew from playing many roleplaying games that status ailments were a thing, so I brought up my status. Necromancer¡¯s Gorge Dungeon Level 1 Mana 71/100 Demesne Traits: Outworlder Demesne Skills: Demesne 2; Absorption 3; Landscape 1; Demesne Interface 3; Tenebrous Portal 1 Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1 Demesne Points: 2 Nothing debilitating or outright negative appeared in my status, which was definitely a good first look. My status did have two changes from before I blacked out: the first was the addition of the skill Tenebrous Portal and the second was my mana. Tenebrous Portal 1 - Tenebrous Portal allows the creation of special gates. These gates allow for transit between two gates when they are connected. Tenebrous Portal¨Cwhat a cool yet ominous sounding skill name. As for what I experienced while absorbing the thing, it was definitely, clearly, no-good, very bad. Also, the name appeared to me in my status differently than my other skills, as if the name itself was darker, tenebrous. On the other hand, I had portals! I couldn¡¯t help but squeal in giddy excitement. Later¨CI would play with portals later. The second change was the amount of mana I had. It had increased! I had spend a couple points of mana expanding down to the hidden portal room, which meant I had gained mana somehow. I was confident I did not gain any mana from absorbing the scary eldritch portal. That meant I had gained the mana while I was unconscious. However, I did not know how long I was unconscious for, meaning I still was in the dark on my true rate of mana regeneration. Overall, considering the amount of time I felt I was spending, I was certain that it was really slow. I wanted to scream in total frustration! I could probably work out a solution given enough time and stubbornness, but I also had nothing but a door to defend myself with right now. I didn¡¯t even know what was on the other side of that door either. Plus, I was clearly inside some sort of underground structure, so exploring the rest of the place might yield something useful. I went back to expanding my demesne through the next room and beyond, slowly mapping out the place. I took this time to continue to practice using my Demesne skill in more precise ways, expanding in increasingly narrow spikes of my demesne, trying other shapes, trying to push it out faster or slower, and any other manner I could think of. This was kind of fun. In a bit of inspiration, I wondered if I could delete and shrink my demesne. I tried pulling a small section, somewhat like I was trying to suck air through a straw. At first nothing happened, but I kept pulling harder and eventually a part of my demesne retracted inwards. I continued to practice expanding and retracting my demesne in different ways and then I used the two methods to get really crazy. Increasingly complex shapes, animal shapes, trees, whatever I could think of I tried to recreate it using my demesne. I even went so far as to create the Statue of Liberty out of my demesne (granted, my first few attempts were a little lumpy and simplistic, but I kept at it and my final version was pretty good!). This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The system naturally rewarded me accordingly.
Demesne 3 obtained.
Demesne 4 obtained.
Demesne 5 obtained.
All throughout my playing with the skill, the total area under my control continued to expand. I finally stopped when I had covered the entirety of the underground network of rooms and passages that made-up whatever this place used to be. Immediately outside my room was a narrow hallway that went for about twenty feet before opening onto a central spiral staircase. Whereas the spiral staircase below my room had been built as tightly and as small as possible, this staircase was much wider. It had both an external and internal wall, with an inner empty space about ten feet across that went from the top all the way to the bottom of the staircase where it emptied into another chamber. That chamber was spread out from the hole in the central staircase with a ceiling that sloped downwards towards the walls. The chamber was circular, and the floor was actually convex, the middle dipped down compared to the edges. The whole arrangement gave the impression of a building that looked like a chemist¡¯s flask. Back to the central staircase. The inner wall sported numerous large arched openings into the empty interior shaft, only slightly slightly smaller than the door to my room. These openings very often coincided with landings that had hallways that led to other rooms (the hallway from my room too had an arched opening into the shaft opposite it). In total, there were six other hallway/room combinations. The rooms were all of different sizes but they were all very much empty. The top of the staircase opened to a large antechamber room with another passageway with stairs going up. However, this passageway had completely collapsed from above, sealing in the entire complex. The last feature was the very top of the central shaft, which extended a little ways above the staircase to a ceiling with a smaller hexagonal shaped cupola. Weirdly, the top of the cupola appeared to be plugged with stone or cement. The topmost room exhibited blackened stone and had a covering of black ash, suggesting a severe fire had occurred. So too did the center of the bottom of the pit. I absorbed the ash and got, predictably, {ash} with no other information as to what made it. There was nothing else of note for me to absorb in the entirety of the complex. That seemed okay though?¨CI wasn¡¯t sure I wanted whatever this necromancer was getting up to. Overall, I felt a bit more secure. The underground complex was not accessible to the outside world, meaning it was unlikely anyone was going to find me. The complex gave me a functional base that I could work with, although it would need a lot of work. The complex¡¯s design with a central staircase meant that the side rooms would be useless absent a way to force people to investigate as they descended. Since I had time, I could go back to doing some experiments. I really wanted to play with portals, but I suspected the mana costs would be too high for me right now. I had an idea on how I could solve some of my problems and get some more information. One of the things I noticed was that as I spread my demesne upwards, I sometimes would feel an unusual but soft resistance to my demesne continuing through. This resistance happened at certain points at the very top of the complex, particularly when I worked through the cement plug and stone walls of the hexagonal cupola. I hadn¡¯t pushed through the resistance (although I believed I could) because I suspected the system was telling me that I was close to the surface and the outside world. There were a number of reasons that doing so could cause detrimental effects. The first step in my admittedly convoluted plan was to see if I could move my core. It was now time to turn to a skill I had not even sniffed yet: Landscape. First, I tested whether the skill could create new material. In this instance, I willed stone to be created to replace the trap door, sealing the lower staircase and hidden portal room yet again. Next, I tried to create stone out from the floor below where my core was resting. I failed to create stone exactly underneath the point where my core sat, but around that I could. However, when the stone got so close that it was almost touching my core, I was stopped again and again, resulting in my core effectively sitting in a stone bowl. That was stupid! My core was already touching the stone floor! I absorbed the stone bowl. Then I started carefully cutting away at the stone ceiling, leaving a round piece of stone attached by a thin extension directly above. I absorbed that and the stone ball fell, hitting my core off-center just like a cue ball hitting a billiard ball. My core rolled away from the force of the impact. The stone hitting my core reverberated within my being but I didn¡¯t feel any pain from it. The act of rolling, however, caused my demesne senses to go blurry and dizzy. When I stopped moving and my vision cleared, I noticed I had a notification waiting for me.
Trap Creation 1 obtained.
WHAT. 7. Let the Sun Shine In I took a minute to think about why I suddenly received that skill. The best that I could figure, I may have gotten very close to a self-inflicted ¡°rock falls, everyone dies.¡± I looked over my core with my meticulous, discerning senses. It was about the size of a human hand and perfectly spherical, not a single bump, groove, or crack marred the surface, even after being hit with a large chunk of rock. The edge seemed crystalline, but the color was an opaque white, giving the impression of a very large pearl with an unusual sheen. In fact, my core was giving off a small amount of light, which only served to highlight it even more. Overall, it looked perfectly fine. Still, I resolved not to drop things on my core again. But moving my core?--yeah, that was still a definite priority. At least I knew now that it could be moved, I just had to figure out a better method. First, I tried a different method based on common game mechanics for strategy games. I tried to ¡°pick¡± my core up and move it to a new location. I kept trying it in different ways, including with my status showing and without, and focusing more on my desire as much as I could. None of that worked. Next, I tried to use Landscape not to directly move my core. I visualized that my core was part of the landscape of the dungeon itself, and thus a piece that could be moved (just as if it was a statue or piece of decorative art). That did not work either. For my next attempt, I envisioned myself taking my mana directly and pushing it out of my core in order to generate magical thrust. I didn¡¯t move, but I did feel just the slightest sensation of something inside my core. I repeated the action and again felt the sensation. I did it again and focused my mind on what the sensation was. After some more movement of mana, I had figured out that it acted like a container of mana¨Ca dungeon core version of a stomach or bladder, perhaps¨Cand I could push mana into it. With the mana inside, I could manipulate it just a little bit as if heating up water by agitating the molecules with energy. I kept putting more mana, and more focus on this strange organ, when I started to see the mana start to swirl around as if being stirred. I decided to go with it and stirred the mana harder and harder, whipping up into a furious speed. Then I felt like part of me was burning inside. Instinct took hold and I expelled the burning mana out of my core. The next thing I knew, I was flying across the room! I slammed straight into the wooden door and burst through it like a bullet, flying straight down the hallway towards the central staircase. The mana stopped expelling, but I was still going too fast. In a panic, I did the only thing I could think of in that moment: I grew as much mass of moss as I could on the inside of the wall facing the shaft where I knew I was heading towards. I hit the moss and the soft material blew off the wall, but cushioned my hit just enough. My core bounced off the wall and fell down the shaft. I dropped down into the bottom chamber and landed with a thud on another bed of moss I had created. After almost killing myself, I managed to almost do it again! But I had notifications.
Landscape 2 obtained.
That had to come from my hasty and immediate making of my moss. The two clumpings of moss were now softly glowing blue, bringing a bit of color and light to the otherwise completely dark complex.
Vestigial Propulsion 1 obtained.
At least it wasn¡¯t shaded in black, but I wondered what was with that unusual name. Vestigial suggested that what I had was leftover from something before. I brought up the description. Vestigial Propulsion 1 - The remains of a lost function that can still provide a limited ability to use stored mana to move the demesne core. There was a lot to unpack in that description. First, apparently I had had an ability to move but that ability had been lost. I don¡¯t have any memories of what happened between my old life and waking up in this room, so this fact hinted that there was more going on than. Second, whatever ability I used to have had degraded and I only had what little bit was left and still functional. If it was possible, I definitely wanted to get the full ability back. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The last part was less mysterious, but potentially useful: it appeared, based on the skill description and my own experience, that this skill had a physical component literally inside of me. And if that component was separate from my normal functions, I may have just gained a way to store extra mana. I checked my status and saw that I had used four mana, but I wasn¡¯t sure the exact number I had burned to fly since I had also done that emergency explosion of moss. I pushed mana into the ¡°vestigial¡± container until it felt full. Checking my status, I could see that my mana had gone down by ten, meaning I could store an extra ten mana there.[1] I could move the mana out of the special storage (and my mana number went up), which meant that the two were completely interoperable with no efficiency loss. Even though the cost seemed high, I simply had to do a few more tests. So I grew moss on every part of the bottom chamber, padding it out for safety. I topped off the gas tank and took my core for a few flights around the room, bouncing off the cushioned walls. I tried to get a feel for the skill and to better control it. After a few attempts, I was able to modulate the power level and reduce my speed a bit. My tests resulted in the commensurate reward of a skill-up. Unfortunately, I was burning a little too much mana so I stopped the fun. I really needed to get a better handle on my mana. I had an idea¨Ca simple idea, a risky idea, but an idea. I absorbed the stone plug at the top of the central shaft that was now directly above me. Sunlight immediately came through the hole and lit up a section of the stairwell. I was now open to the outside world. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t see the outside world, as my senses only worked inside my demesne. I cut away some of the side walls of the hexagonal well and then built a new platform.[2] I then made some thin lines of iron overlaid on top, and then a triangle jutting out in the center. Thus, I had a sundial. My plan was two fold: first, I would use the sundial to get a measure of how much time there was in a day; second, I should be able to get a sense of my mana generation in relation to a measured day. It was currently daytime, but I could tell from the shadow case on the sundial, but I suspected, based on the shadow¡¯s length, that the day was soon going to end. Regardless, I waited and watched my status and the sundial. Finally, I saw that the amount of mana I had ticked up by one, and I marked that spot on the sundial. Then I waited again. Then the sun went down. Dammit! But then inspiration hit me again. I had a lot of moss around me right now, and it was currently giving off its own light, colored green since it was, well, moss. I absorbed a line around a section of moss, separating it from the rest. I then tried to change the color it emitted. That did not work, so I absorbed the moss and recreated it, this time willing it to glow a different color. That worked! Now I had a small patch of moss that glowed a light blue color. Then I went through another series of tests to see if I could get the moss to turn off the glowing. Eventually I was able to get it to work. Trigger conditions were required and it seemed I could not directly interface with the moss (I couldn¡¯t, for example, command it to turn on or off). Rather, I made the trigger condition attachment to a mushroom. If I created the mushroom, the blue moss would start glowing; if I absorbed the mushroom then the blue moss would stop glowing. What I really needed was a plant that could turn itself on and off automatically in a regular rhythm. If I had the ability to get down into the molecular or genetic level, I felt confident I could make something, but the system didn¡¯t give me that level of granular detail. I changed tactics. I landscaped a protrusion of stone from one of the chamber¡¯s walls and then shaped it into a bowl. At the bottom of the bowl I made a tiny hole and then covered the underside with a tuft of moss hanging down. I filled the bowl with water and waited. The water slowly seeped through the moss and started dripping onto the floor. After several adjustments, I got the spacing of the drops to be about one second (through the hyper-scientific application of counting ¡°Mississippi¡±s). Thus, I had created a water clock. I was not going to spend a whole day counting. So, I remade the moss so that it turned off or on whenever it gave off a drop of water. I extended it to the wall and connected it to a group of ten different sets of moss on the wall. The triggers were such that they would light up in sequence, one to ten. Then I repeated the line of moss in a row above that would use triggers to count every sequence of ten seconds, and so on for hundreds and thousands. Not only did I now have a timer, I also got skill-ups for both Landscape and Trap Creation. Now, all I had to do was rest and wait for one full day-night cycle and I would have a lot of answers. 8. Interventionist Tables Waiting sucked. It sucked because, being a fantasy rock, I did not have a biological need to sleep, and because, not wanting to mess up any measurements (again), I didn¡¯t do anything. So I did a lot of thinking and planning: I started building a Wikipedia-like set of notes for all the information I had gleaned so far (mostly skills). I also thought a lot about what dungeon I wanted to make¨Csoon! I really wanted to make my dungeon play off the original underground layout of the facility. However, it clearly had been built with a purpose other than defense in mind, considering how easy it would be to breach to the bottom via the central shaft. Fortunately, the day passed by without any incident, as did the night. As soon as I was reasonably certain I had the relevant information, I sealed the top of the well again. From a combination of the sundial and my moss clock, I learned two things: first, this planet¡¯s day was twenty-five Earth hours; second, I received one mana about when the sun rose and I received a second mana about when the sun set. This meant that in one Uro day, I generated two mana. Necromancer¡¯s Gorge Dungeon Level 1 Mana 52/100 Demesne Traits: Outworlder Demesne Skills: Demesne 5; Absorption 3; Landscape 3; Demesne Interface 3; Tenebrous Portal 1; Trap Creation 2; Vestigial Propulsion 2 Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1 Demesne Points: 2 My considerable time doing nothing had also led me to consider the dichotomy of my system. On the one hand, when I leveled up a skill or when I first woke up, I received a notification box. However, when I checked my information, it came to me differently, as if I was seeing it envisioned only in my mind. Also, my status was woefully inadequate. Demesne Interface first leveled up when I had brute forced it to do so by using one of my free DP. It had leveled again when I created my dungeon notes. Now that I thought about it, there was probably a lot more to the skill than I had discovered. The skill¡¯s name and description did suggest that it helped me to perceive the world, and perhaps my status and notifications were a part of that. I brought up my status information and then focused on the mana section. Using my knowledge of my mana generation, I tried to etch the information into my status, replicating the sensation when I created my first note. After only a second or two, the information appeared on my status. Necromancer¡¯s Gorge Dungeon Level 1 Mana 52/100 (2/day) Demesne Traits: Outworlder Demesne Skills: Demesne 5; Absorption 3; Landscape 3; Demesne Interface 3; Tenebrous Portal 1; Trap Creation 2; Vestigial Propulsion 2 Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1 Demesne Points: 2 As a further experiment, I removed the mana generation stat and tried to recreate it, this time specifically stating my mana generation was ¡°3/day.¡± Nothing happened, suggesting that I could only have ¡°true¡± information in my status. So the next option was to add true information that I did not know. In this instance, I tried adding another sub-section to my level indicating how much experience I had and how much I needed for level two (a common thing in these systems). Unfortunately, this time nothing happened either. To confirm my understanding, I went and added my secondary well for the Vestigial Propulsion skill and it appeared. Then I tried moving it to appear next to my mana stat, and that also worked. Then, I reorganized my skills in alphabetical order. Then I organized them in reverse alphabetical order. More and more, I tried different things to push what was possible. I thought about what I could do to push the interface even further, and the obvious answer came quickly¨Ccould I merge my status screen into a notification box? As an added bonus, having everything appear as a nice table would please my old corporate worker sensibilities. So I did what anyone who knew how to make a spreadsheet did: I opened an empty note, built in some lines to give it a nice format, and then individually pulled each piece of information in my status into an appropriate cell in the sheet. But even that wasn¡¯t enough, so I took the memory of seeing a notification screen and willed that feature into the new status. There was some resistance, but with enough pressure, it took and the note disappeared as everything clicked into place. I brought up my new status screen.
Necromancer''s Gorge Dungeon
Level 1
Demesne Points 2
Mana 52/100
Supp. Mana 0/10 (Vestigial Propulsion)
Mana Regen 2/day
Traits
Outworlder
Skills
Absorption 3
Demesne 5
Demesne Interface 4
Landscape 3
Tenebrous Portal 1
Trap Creation 2
Vestigial Propulsion 2
That looked much better!--and I immediately after got another skill-up for it too. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Changing tack, one of the other things I had thought a lot about was the fact that I had not leveled up yet. I was not idle and had already gained a lot of skill levels, expanded my demesne, and engaged in a bunch of experiments. Despite this, I was still only level one and the system refused to let me know how far I had to go. I suspected that the means to gain levels was to either have delvers present within my demesne or kill delvers outright. So, I needed to build an actual dungeon and make it accessible (with only half of my mana left). However, before I did any of that, I had one more thing I needed to do: spend my demesne points. As a gamer, my first instinct was to hoard them as the most precious resource I had. My second instinct was to use them only on the most effective system mechanics to maximize their impact. The answer already seemed obvious to me¨CI would be best served by increasing my mana generation. More mana meant a bigger dungeon, more monsters, more traps, more everything. Thus, I was fully committed to spending my DP to increase my mana generation and yet I remained hesitant to pull the trigger. The reason was the same as many of my other problems¨Ca lack of information. I was convinced that the system, parsimonious as it was, would give me the absolute minimum in bonus mana generation. But what if I really tried to game the system. In other words, I put my DP into something that seemed balanced, but over the long term would be extremely good or even ¡°OP.¡± Now, anything in my status that I could use them on probably would not give me such a benefit, except for one thing. During my ruminations, I had wondered about traits. When I woke up in this world, I already had one, ¡°Outworlder.¡± The natural implication of having a trait was that there must be other traits. And if there are other traits, it may be possible to outright buy a new trait. I already had the model for what I wanted the trait to do. Instead of boosting my mana generation now, I wanted a trait that would boost my mana generation every time I leveled. Pay now, rewards later¨Cit would be totally fair, right? Yes, I had completely convinced myself of its fairness. I focused on the trait section of my status and willed my spending my DP on a new trait. Weirdly, my status seemed almost incorporeal to my intent, as if I was pushing through it, rather than interacting with it like before. This was a good sign! I wasn¡¯t being outright denied; I just had to figure out the proper method. Perhaps a trait couldn¡¯t be bought through the status because it wasn¡¯t related to the interface itself or anything there, like skills. After all, my Outworlder trait likely preceded the system and interface. Perhaps it was something that arose out of the essence of my being, even my soul. So instead of focusing on my status, I focused on myself. This should seem to be impossible¨Cwhat person can look inside their own body¨Cbut my core was inside my demesne, which meant it was subject to my senses. I also knew from my experience with Propulsion that I had some internal features. I zeroed my senses onto my core and started trying to push into it, to feel my core and develop a deeper understanding of its physicality. I poked and prodded and pushed at my core and began to feel out its nature. And it worked, I began to gain some simple insights into my core. My core was not a completely solid crystal or mass of magical stone. It seemed as if it was slightly permeable (perhaps to let mana in?). I tried to push my demesne through this outer membrane of my core, but it felt like I was pushing against a steel door. Pushing harder only made the strain stronger, with not a single iota of progress. But I did notice something. I had felt something coming out of my core, as if escaping like a small puff of gas. I closely monitored the edge of my core and waited until I felt it happen again. I kept monitoring and the leaks kept happening at a consistent pace. I think I was leaking mana! I checked my status screen, but it was not showing any loss of mana. Perhaps my problem wasn¡¯t losing mana, but with storing mana. The next time mana was about to be expelled, I tried to focus on wrapping my core in a barrier in order to keep the mana inside. However, the mana expelled just like it had before. Since I was fairly certain the mana was not coming from my internal reservoir and since creating a barrier didn¡¯t push into my mana well either, I decided to try redirecting the flow mana towards my internal mana well. This time, I imagine the mana circulating inside me and rushing towards my mana well. Oh! I forgot about using my points. So I imagined a sort of ¡°v¡± shaped drain that would attach to my mana well, both catching any excess mana and redirecting it to the proper storage place. At the same time, I willed one of my demesne points to be spent to manifest the changes to my core. I felt an intense pain within myself building up but I maintained my focus. Then one of my DP disappeared, but I knew I had to keep going to finish. Then the pain got worse and my last DP went away too! Suddenly, everything stopped. The pain went away. My focus broke. And then two notifications popped to the fore at the same time:
?Missing Parameter Fault. Resolving . . .
Resolution Denied.
Like someone who just realized he accidentally deleted his thesis, I felt like my stomach had dropped from my body. I willed away the ominous notifications to look at my¨C The notifications didn¡¯t go away. I tried to swipe them away, close them, anything, but they refused to budge. Worried, I quickly went to bring up my status screen, but I couldn¡¯t. I couldn¡¯t bring up any screen, status, or even my notes. Crap. Crap. Crap. In a pique of paranoia, I went to expand my demesne and realized I couldn¡¯t even do that. Create a skeleton? Nope. A stone door? Bupkis. More moss? Nada. Nothing worked! Oh, the moss clock still worked. I think I broke the system. And there was no one to fix it! But¨Cbut with computers often the easiest solution was a simple reboot! REBOOT! REBOOT!! I tried to get a reboot for almost five minutes, but nothing changed. I had no dungeon; I had no monsters or traps or anything to protect me but a plugged well and a collapsed staircase. I was royally screwed! I kept trying everything I could think of, then repeated them over again in different ways or as forcefully as I could. But ¡°Resolution Denied¡± continued to mock me. . . . . Forty-two minutes, twenty-four seconds elapsed when the stuck system messages disappeared, only to be replaced with a series of strange messages.
Intervention Accepted.
Intervention D?????????????????????????e????????????????n???????????????i????????????????e??????????????????????d???????????????????????.?????????????????????? A??????????????c????????????c????????????e???????????????????p???????????????t???????????e???????????????????d??????????.?????????? Accepted.
Intervention Accepted.
As unusual as those messages were, it was the next one that came shortly after that that knocked me off my proverbial feet:
Multiple Interventions Accepted. Choose Applied Resolution:
The Hunter
The Warlock
The Builder
9. A Question of a Quest The string of messages was the most the system had spoken to me since waking up. Even so, it stubbornly refused to give anything but the bare minimum of information. As I stared at the three options before me, I tried to review what had happened. First, somehow I had broken the system by trying to increase my mana generation viz-a-viz making a new trait. Auto-resolution not possible, the system had moved to the next step of getting someone to fix it, perhaps an administrator-type being. As I remembered it, generally in these stories, the system was fairly quick on the ball, and by quick I meant pretty much instantaneous. And yet, it took more than forty minutes to get someone on the line. Only, I apparently got three responses¨Cthree different solutions offered. And these solutions only gave me information in the form of RPG-like classes: hunter, warlock, and builder. Hunter. A very common class archetype. A person who hunts animals or even people. Related skills typically went towards archery, tracking, perception, traps, and the like. What would a patch fix from a hunter do for a dungeon? I wasn¡¯t exactly mobile, so tracking and stalking prey was useless. The boon could be related to traps, though. Either way, I suspected the fix would almost certainly have a relationship to killing, the essence of a hunter no matter the means. Did I want to be a hunter? On the one hand, being more lethal would improve my survivability. But my instincts, my nature, rebelled at the idea of actively pursuing death as a means. Defender? Yes. Hunter? Not really. Warlock. The creep vibes were high with this one. First was that strange message that looked all messed up. I had no idea what that was about, but it was never a good sign when a system acted up. In any event, warlocks traditionally gained their power from some powerful benefactor, usually some terrible eldritch cosmic entity. In other words, picking this option probably would give me some cheesy, powerful cheat skill, but with some rather heavy strings attached. However, it held some interest to me; there was potential to make my dungeon really unusual and interesting. Not only that, but part of my core felt a connection to this option, a feeling that seemed like a vibration of excitement like a throat making noise and calling out when seeing a long lost cousin off in the distance. Builder. Now here was something that was simple, classic, and meshed entirely with my core conceit: building a dungeon. But therein lied the rub--this option would probably just give me more of what I already had. I spent about a minute thinking over the options, but the choice was pretty clear. Safe was the place.
Builder Selected. Applying Resolution.
Inchoate trait obtained. Sigilmancy 1 obtained. Creature slot (unique): Demesne Warden obtained.
I felt a great twist within my core as if my internal organs (such as they were) were rearranging and re-orientating themselves. At the same time, things that were broken stretched and became connected again. Then I felt myself filling with energy until I was near bursting.
Necromancer''s Gorge Dungeon
Level 1
Demesne Points 0
Mana 100/100
Supp. Mana 10/10 (Vestigial Propulsion)
Mana Regen 6/day
Traits
Outworlder Inchoate
Skills
Absorption 3
Demesne 5
Demesne Interface 4
Landscape 3
Tenebrous Portal 1
Trap Creation 2
Vestigial Propulsion 2
Sigilmancy 1
Verily, I was once again full of mana, even my propulsion well was filled. But my status had also automatically updated to show that which I had wanted¨Ca substantial increase in mana generation to 6 mana per day!--as well as my new skill.[1]This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. This had to be the product of the trait I was given (thank you, Bob!).
Inchoate - If you really need help, just make it yourself.
Sometime ago, I would have screamed in frustration. Now, I just sighed in resignation. No, that wasn¡¯t right. On a second look, there were hints of meaning of something bigger, something really cool even. On the surface, the meaning of the word ¡®inchoate¡¯--incomplete¨Cdid not match the description. In addition, the text of the trait was unique too. Whereas other descriptions were descriptive, this one was hortatory, suggesting I do something. A theory began to form in my mind, but I checked my other rewards first.
Sigilmancy 1 - The ability of the Demesne Core to perceive, record, alter, create, and imbue sigils.
What¡¯s a sigil? I didn¡¯t know. Moving on. I opened The Monstruary (for indeed, time, space, and reincarnation were no barriers to the power of Dad humor) and looked for the new item.
The Monstruary
Demesne Warden [Empty]
Monsters
Archetype Undead 1
Template Skeletons
Units (?/?) 1. Skeleton Fighter (lvl. 2)
Fauna
Biome Cave 1
Units (1/2) 1. Black Bear2. [Empty]
Flora
Biome Cave 1
Units (2/3) 1. Bioluminescent Moss2. Mushroom 3. [Empty]
When I had created my status screen, I had left out creature and monster information and I did not think I needed to check that information as often. As a result, I had put it into a separate status screen, The Monstruary. Checking that screen now, I saw that Demesne Warden has been added at the top. Interestingly, it was not under the monster category but its own section. It was, after all, apparently unique. Putting it all together, I think the message was clear: I was missing my companion and I was incomplete and these two things were absolutely connected. But now I had the skill, the capacity, the mana, to build a new companion, stronger, better, faster. . . . I needed to think about this very carefully. Making a Demesne Warden was a singular important task, and I did not want to fuck it up. I mean, I had to make some sort of undead creature to be my guy¨Cwait. The demesne warden didn¡¯t appear in the monster category or in the undead category. YES!--I could make my companion any creature I wanted! Dee. Ar. A. Gee. O. EN. Boom. Done. With the what being settled, only the how remained. I probably didn¡¯t need exactitude as much as will and intent, letting the system fill in the gaps much like it did when I created the skeleton fighter. I was too excited to wait or to vacillate; I went straight to the warden item in The Monstruary and put every ounce of my focus and will, and tried expending some mana too, into setting it to ¡°Dragon.¡±
Sigil core is not unique. Insufficient resources (?/?????????).
Nuh uh. This was not acceptable. I focused the full weight of my intent on those dastardly question marks and pushed my interface to bring clarity. The system resisted, but I could feel that resistance wasn¡¯t complete. I kept pushing and pushing, and the question marks slowly began to melt and morph until letters took shape. When it was done, the words brought everything into a new light.
Sigil Core is not unique. Insufficient Resources (0/1 Essence).
I knew what I had to do. 10. Beginner Dungeon Inflation, at least as it was commonly understood, represented the rise in prices of goods and services over time. In a more technical sense, it was often related to ¡°money printer go brrrr.¡± In a well managed economy, inflation was kept under control and prices and wages rose slowly. Managed poorly, high inflation could lead to major economic problems, or even go into the stratosphere of hyperinflation. What was interesting was that inflation was also a problem in many games, particularly massively multiplayer online games. You login to an online role-playing game, pick your race, choose a class, make your vitals big, and off you go into the virtual world. You probably started by going to some local NPCs and picking up some easy quests¨Ckill 10 rats or deliver this letter or whatever. You completed the quest, you gave 10 rat tails to the NPC and you received bronze, silver, gold coins! But where did that money come from? It¡¯s not real money or precious metals, and there isn¡¯t a fixed supply¨Cthe program made the money when you completed the quest. In other words: money printer go brrrr. So, game developers figured out a solution to the problem of an ever expanding money supply in their games: have two currencies. The first currency was the standard currency like gold or coins you earned by doing regular activities of the game, such as completing quests. The second currency, crystals or such, was very limited, and almost impossible to get. The former could be used for most of the basic features of the game, but the latter was used for special features. The first key was you could only use crystals for these special features. Want to buy an item from the auction house?--you could use gold like any other player. Want to buy that new awesome mount in the game shop?--sorry that¡¯s only available in crystals. The second key was that converting gold to crystals carried an abysmal exchange rate. Overpaying for crystals means the amount of gold sloshing around is reduced; the game¡¯s economy is balanced. Then there was a kind of inflation in many ¡°gamelit¡± stories. The writer set up the basics¨Cclasses, skills, attributes, traits¨Cand swore that in this story, they were going to be meaningful. Really! ¡°Cross my heart, hope to die!¡± Over time, as the plot goes on, the stats kept going up and up and soon they ¡°go brrrr¡± to the point of being meaningless. So the author introduced a newly discovered stat to compensate for the power creep and the cycle repeats: aura! concepts! bloodlines! embodiments! And now, I found myself in this very hell. First, I had mana. Simple thing (even if alien to my past life sensibilities) that was simple to use. Spend mana, get mana over time. Mana printer might someday go brrrr, but I was not even close to that stage of the story! But no, there it was. Essence. What was essence? No answer. How did I get essence? Again, no answer. Nevertheless, I had a strong idea of what it was about. After all, words held meaning, and essence was a commonly used word in fantasy stories that it seemed plausible it held similar meaning for me in the here and now. Which brought me back full circle to my keys to survivability. I had to build an effective defense. And this dungeon, I believed, would not only serve to defend me but also probably was the means to gain this essence. Build a dungeon, kill the delvers, profit. I knew I wanted to use the existing facility and have the central deep shaft play an important role, but for now I put my focus on the first room of my dungeon, which also was probably going to be the most difficult one to make. I decided to start my dungeon with the existing top-most room with the collapsed stairs and use it largely as-is in terms of its general size and shape. My plan here was to increase the effectiveness of my skeleton fighter by turning one into a trap. I turned my attention to one of the corners near the open doorway that led to the central staircase and pushed to create a skeleton fighter. However, as I did so, I envisioned the skeleton sitting on the floor with its back at the corner and its legs splayed out. I also wanted one of its arms to be on its chest, held about where its sternum was. My mana felt like it started to move, as if to pay for the fighter, but it all fizzled out and nothing happened. A couple more tries with the same results indicated the system did not agree with my idea. Skeleton fighters, I guess, came ¡°as-is.¡± But!--there was more than one way to skin this cat. As a test, I used Landscape to create a simple bone, which actually worked quite easily. I reabsorbed the test and then put an actual Skeleton Fighter in the exact spot where my core had started. The Skeleton Fighter looked exactly the same as the very first one I had made, which I now expected. Anyways, I used the Skeleton Fighter as a frame of reference as I meticulously created the sitting skeleton bone-by-bone. I had to firm up the bones with connecting bone or dirt as this skeleton was not put together by animating magic, but after several hours of work, I had a respectable replica. I finished the set piece by making a large iron ring, clenched by the skeleton¡¯s hand that was at its chest, and four smaller rings strung onto the large loop. On three of those rings, I created three skeleton keys¨Ccomplete with skeleton shaped head¨Cand each the same except for slightly different teeth. Originally, my idea was that when a person came and saw the key ring, they would try to grab it out of the skeleton¡¯s hand, at which point the Skeleton Fighter would jump up and attack the person. Since using a skeleton fighter this way was not an option, I needed to change the trap to be more simplistic¨Cin this case, a dart trap. Trap Creation was a skill I had received purely as a byproduct of other activities, meaning I had never actively tried to use it. Now, I leaned into the skill and began working on creating the trap. The first thing I noticed was that it was surprisingly intuitive. Just as the system filled in most of the particularly when I created my skeleton fighter, here the system largely worked to put into place the mechanics of the trap without me having to get into exacting mechanics. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. What really made the whole thing a snap was when I forced the system to show me what I was doing by means of showing each part as an overlay before installation. First, I placed a trigger mechanism on the hand with imprinted instructions that if the hand was forced open or moved, the trap would trigger. Then, I willed a dart thrower into existing inside the mouth of the skull, linked to the trigger. This was pure plug-and-play and it was great. I made the thrower fit three darts that would fire at the same time in a spread pattern.[1] Finally, I made another trigger on the skull¡¯s jaw bone to drop down and open so the darts could fire into the room. In the case of the dart thrower, three small tubes were instantly mounted against the wall and preloaded with darts. I blocked off the old entrance to the central stairway and created a new one on a different side. I then absorbed stone and made a new twisting passage going from the skeleton key room to the next room down the complex, which sat at the opposite side and was about a floor lower. I detailed the passageway using Landscape, making one section where the ceiling had partially collapsed and a second section where there was a pile of rock debris partially blocking the way. The effect was that in some places, a person would have to clamber over difficult terrain and in others they would have to crouch uncomfortably low to squeeze through. Again, the second room I pretty much left it as it was, but I did create some stone shelving set into two of the walls. On these shelves, I created various amphora and jars all made of iron. I even scattered a few extra containers around on the floor to make the room look like it was an abandoned store room. I picked one of the amphora on the shelves and created another iron skeleton key inside. Now, it was time to put in the danger element. For this room, I wanted to put in some poisonous spiders, but since they did not match my monster type, I would have to use my last fauna spot. I was pretty sure spiders lived in caves, and there must be some sort of poisonous cave spider, so I focused on the slot and demanded it to be filled. I had to push against the system for a few seconds, but it quickly relented. I checked The Monstruary and saw I now had ¡°Wandering Spider (Poison)¡± listed. I put a Wandering Spider into the amphora with the key. It was brown colored and fairly large, about the size of an adult human¡¯s hand. I tried to give it some orders to attack anyone reaching for the key, but I didn¡¯t think the spider took direct orders (at least with my current abilities). I wanted to put something else into the amphora to better hide the key and the spider, and thought that clumps of moss could do the trick. I wanted the inside to be as dark as possible, which wouldn¡¯t work with shining moss, so I tried creating moss that gave off black light. While normally this was impossible, but the power of magic meant I actually succeeded. The effect was exactly what I wanted: the insides of the amphora was unusually dark, hiding both the key and spider. A delver would have to stick their hand and rummage around inside or dump the contents out, either way they were in for a surprise. I liked the results so much, I went and filled the other amphora with a black moss and even put spiders in two more of them. The second room was done. The second room¡¯s exit led to a short hallway then the central staircase with a window to the shaft. I walled-off the staircase and enlarged the window to match the hallway. I made a matching exit on the other side of the shaft. In between, I constructed a walkway made of wood that had widely spaced planks so it looked really rather dangerous to cross (although, as far I could tell, it was more than stable enough for someone to cross on). At the top of the central shaft, I remodeled the well plug significantly and set up the second part of the bridge trap. I hollowed out the plug and changed the bottom from solid stone to an iron grate. I made a bunch of large stones to sit in a pile on top of the grate, and then used Trap Creation to designate the iron grate to open from the middle and the two sections to swing down so the rocks would fall towards the bridge, which would then cause the bridge to collapse and plummet bridge, rocks, and anyone caught on the bridge down. But that wasn¡¯t enough. At the bottom of the cone-shaped base of the shaft, I made a mess of iron spikes, such that anyone falling would have a nasty end. And just as a bonus, I covered the bottom room in black moss as well as the walls and trap grate at the top of the shaft; thus, someone crossing the bridge would only see darkness when looking up or down. The trickiest part was how to set the trap to spring. Obviously I wanted the rocks to fall onto the bridge when someone was near the middle of the bridge. My initial thought was to make a sort of pressure plate two thirds of the way across, but then I remember how people could easily avoid the trigger by simply walking over it. So I created a trigger mechanism with two conditions: if someone stepped on the board or if there were four ¡°feet¡± on the bridge at the same time. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but it seemed relatively reasonable. I guess if someone figured out how to bypass both of those conditions, they probably deserved the free pass. At this point I still had a little less than two-thirds of my mana. Considering the cost for each skeleton fighter, I think I would limit myself to just one more room. I sealed all the other entrances and windows of the central stairway, except for the very bottom one that went towards the room I woke up in. The first thing I did was make a new door to the room. However, instead of using Landscape, I used Trap Creation.[2] The door was actually a double door that opened in the middle and the two doors swung into the room. In addition, the doors were locked by Trap Creation and could only be opened if the right key was put into the keyhole. Of course, the correct key was the key hidden inside the amphora with the spider. For the room, I only made two simple modifications. On the same wall that had the new door, I absorbed some stone on each side of the door and created two small alcoves, just large enough for a person to stand in. I then put a Skeleton Fighter in each of the alcoves. This was an old trick from one of the original classic first-person shooter games: Wolfenstein 3D. When a delver opened the door, the two skeletons would not be visible, hidden within the alcoves and further obfuscated by the doors. The delver would be looking forward when entering the room, and would not see the skeletons attack from beyond their peripheral vision. To keep eyes forward, the skeleton "model" I had put in the room before should serve as a stark warning of imminent danger that had to be addressed. To further encourage delvers to be greedy, I then made a large iron box that sat right over the stairs, hiding them from view, but also enticing people with the potential for rewards. Making the three skeleton fighters had taken most of my remaining mana, but I felt the beginner dungeon was largely complete. My buffed mana generation really helped and after one day, I had enough mana to place a second skeleton next to the iron box, completing the room. I think I had just enough mana for the last piece of the dungeon. In the very last room, the portal room, I built a stone plinth in the center that rose to about chest height. On the top, I worked to create a facsimile of my own core, copying to as close a detail as I could. Hopefully, anyone who made it the ¡°core room¡± would take or destroy the fake one instead of me! As for my true core? I created a crawl space in one of the corners of the walls and ceilings in the funnel room, the entrance hidden by a bunch of moss, and stashed my core there. 11. Sigilmancy 1 With the dungeon largely done, all that was left to do was actually open it (formally, this time). It was a relatively easy thing to do¨CI merely cleared out the rock and debris clogging the collapsed stairwell in the top room. Although making a grand entrance seemed like a fun idea, I didn¡¯t want to go further into my mana reserves, so I planned to leave the entrance from the ground as it was. However, I realized that if it rained, water would drain into my dungeon and cause problems. To forestall this, I made a stone mound that covered the stairs so they had a roof and a proper entrance. It looked sort of like a bald underground root cellar. Overall, it wasn¡¯t going to win any architecture awards, but it was . . . something. I wished I could say this was the part of the story where someone¨Cpreferably a nice fat weakling¨Centers my dungeon shortly after its opening. Unfortunately, that didn¡¯t happen so I took some time to review my gains.
Necromancer''s Gorge Dungeon
Level 1
Demesne Points 0
Mana 3/100
Supp. Mana 0/10 (Vestigial Propulsion)
Mana Regen 6/day
Traits
Outworlder Inchoate
Skills
Absorption 3
Demesne 5
Demesne Interface 5
Landscape 4
Sigilmancy 1
Tenebrous Portal 1
Trap Creation 4
Vestigial Propulsion 2
Building out my dungeon had netted me four skill-ups: a level each in Interface and Landscape, and two levels in Trap Creation. For Demesne Interface, I had gained the level when I forced the system to clarify that Essence was the missing component. I just now realized how much of a revelation that was, not just the specific information that I learned about, but the deeper understanding of the skill Demesne Interface itself. Interface was not just about information, notifications, status, and tables, it was the¨CTHE!--very means by which I interacted with the world. The ability to manipulate my interface was also the ability to manipulate how I interfaced with reality. In addition, it seemed that the higher my level in the skill, the more the system let me direct and shape, well just about everything. The fact that I was able to push the system to give me the information about Essence lent credence to the fact that this happened because the skill itself was higher leveled (in other words, the system would have ignored me if this had happened at skill level 1). Pushing Interface to a higher level was simply a must. Landscape had also bumped up only a single level, which was surprising considering how much I used it to build my dungeon. In fact, I only received that level when I made the light-reducing black moss. Still, the skill was a core skill and it was very versatile, so it would surely level up naturally as I did more things. Finally, I got two levels in Trap Creation. The skill, a mere byproduct of other things I was doing, has quickly become a favorite. Amazingly intuitive and flexible, the skill screams ¡°yes you can!¡± when other skills or mechanics of the system say ¡°no¡± or are rigidly silent. Trap design just worked, no need for prior or detailed knowledge, and gave me exactly what I wanted. Not only that, but Interface just synergized with it so well. I was able to create and incorporate little scripts for different trigger conditions, and that just hinted at so much more I could so, so, much more with this combination. Well, in these types of stories, someone, whether a person or an animal or a monster¨Calways weak¨Cwould wander into the dungeon shortly after the doors were opened. However, even after a few hours of being opened, nobody had come so . . . This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Sigilmancy. The description of the skill implied it was another important resource, something with many different uses. It was time to start learning how it worked. Once again, the system gave me no instructions. However, I knew that sigils related to this ¡°Demesne Warden,¡± seeing as I got them at the same time. I also knew that that was a type of unit, so sigils probably had something to do with units. I picked one of my skeleton fighters and re-inspected it. And there was an explosion of light and color. Extending out of the skeleton was a brightly glowing swirl of lights and colors that looked much like an artist¡¯s interpretation of a galaxy. The center of the galaxy was a dense sphere of intersecting swirls, whorls, lines, and dots. It looked like it was constructed of overlapping three-dimensional runes so thickly that they seemed inexorably intertwined. Extending out from that in all directions was a flat disk, made of much the same patterns. However, where the center was so dense as to be almost solid, the disk had three circles that were empty. Each of these was located in a cardinal direction from the center. The fourth direction had another set of lines, swirls, and lights embedded therein. It looked like someone had inserted a magical coin into the slot. It was beautiful. And also a bit incomprehensible. I spent some time trying to suss out what the sigils were supposed to be, but best I could guess was this was mana given shape and form and ¡°imbued¡± into the Skeleton Fighter. The complexity was unbelievably high, but even though I could make out some small patterns of lines or swirls that seemed meaningful, I was unable to interpret any meaning. I wasn¡¯t upset by this though, because I thought up a probably solution. If this was a manifestation of the system in a unit, that meant this magical array¨Cthe sigil array, perhaps¨Cwas showing the traits, powers, skills, and such of the unit. All I needed to do was to get the system to interpret the data for me¨Center Demesne Interface. So I made an Interface overlay on the sigil array, giving the form of an improved status screen that had the whole and the parts. With a mental push it set into the sigil array and it locked into place as the system accepted it. I inspected the skeleton again and this time a proper status screen showed up near the glowing array.
[Empty]
[Empty] Undead Skeleton Fighter (Level 2) [Bone Bash]
[Empty]
Demesne Interface 6 obtained.
The Interface now made manifest what the sigil array was. The sphere at the center contained the core of the monster unit, the archetype, template, unit type, level, and all the mechanics for it to work. The disk seemed to be the area where skills could be added in. The Skeleton Fighter had three empty skill slots and one skill slot filled. The system even gave me a name for the skill: ¡°Bone Bash.¡± I tried to inspect Bone Bash to get more information, but it didn¡¯t work. I pushed at the system but it didn¡¯t give up anything. Then I realized it couldn¡¯t give up anything¨CI hadn¡¯t set up the interface to give detailed information. So, I made a new status screen of the skill, and then linked that to the Skeleton¡¯s status screen. Bone Bash - Make an empowered strike against the bones of the target. The description wasn¡¯t particularly insightful¨Cthere was no specifics on mechanics, damage type, damage amount, or anything else. However, I suspected that the word ¡®empowered¡¯ was meaningful and started a note to keep track of what I learned about it. With Skeleton Fighter reviewed, I went and performed a similar check on the wandering spiders. They also had an array, but it was only a smaller sphere shape with no disk or holes. It seemed this meant that fauna did not have system-given skills (even though the spiders were categorized as ¡°poisonous,¡± that variation must be innate to the spiders). Finally, I checked the moss. The bioluminescent moss had an even smaller sphere of lights as its sigil array, albeit there was a nub that extended just a bit off of one side. When I looked at the black moss, its sigil array was noticeably different. The sphere was the same size, but the nub was gone; instead, on another side there was a long drawn-out flare that looked like someone had stretched a part of the array out like putty. In this spike, there were more lines, whirls, and dots that likely made up the black moss¡¯ ability to absorb light. Unfortunately, trying to translate the two different protrusions through Interface didn¡¯t work (likely due to my low Sigilmancy skill level, the fact that they are system-given skills, or both). In any event, I continued to try to experiment with Interface, plan future expansions and improvements, and let my mana recharge while I waited for my first vi¨Cvisitor. On the eighth day, a creature finally entered my dungeon. 12. Initial Run The moment the creature fully entered into my demesne, the atmosphere became thicker and constricting. My demesne was locked up; I quickly tried to make some changes, even simply expanding my demesne, and confirmed I couldn¡¯t make any changes to my demesne. All I could do was watch who entered and how my dungeon fared. As for what it was, I couldn¡¯t help but laugh. It was a little more than three feet tall with green skin, a sharp face sporting two big, wide ears, a round flat nose, and wicked sharp teeth. There was no doubt in my mind that that fit the description of a fantasy goblin to a tee. The goblin was dressed in leathers¨Cpants, a sleeveless tunic, and well-worn boots. He carried a knife that glinted sharply in the low light in one hand and he carried a rucksack over his shoulder. While the goblin scanned the room, I tried to use my Interface to inspect him. Fortunately, the skill did not seem blocked and worked normally; I was able to see his sigil array.
[Empty]
[Empty] Dark Goblin (Level 2) [Brave Hearts]
[Empty]
The goblin¨Cand it was actually named a goblin¨Cwas level 2, just like my skeleton, and also had one skill. Brave Hearts - Improves courage and fighting skill scaling while in the presence of other Dark Goblins. If I understood the skill right, this little guy would get stronger and braver the larger group of goblins he was with. I wondered why he was¨Cah, here came another one. Then a third one, and then a fourth and even a fifth. Two of the newcomer goblins were dressed similarly to the first one, although they held wooden javelins that were just taller than they were and tipped with flat iron spikes. They also had very short knives in sheaths held by loops attached to leather belts. The second-to-last goblin was a little taller and filled out than the other four. In addition, he sported actual leather armor over his chest, along with leather bracers on his arms and even a reinforced leather cap. For a weapon, he carried a much longer dagger that probably was close to a short sword (for a human) and a small wooden buckler. I inspected each one as they came in. They were all the same as the first goblin, except the one wearing armor and wielding the sword.
[Empty]
[Skulk] Dark Goblin (Level 4) [Brave Hearts]
[Darkvision]
Darkvision - Improved vision in low-light or dark environments. Skulk - Enhanced sneak and hiding while in low-light or dark environments. Now this guy was a goblin. I assumed that he was the leader of this little group. But he wasn¡¯t the most interesting¨C ¨Cthat would be the fifth and final goblin and came in. He was the smallest of the goblins that came in, and an inspection revealed he was level 1 and lacked any skills. He also wore patched up clothing, and carried no weapons. But what he did have was a large bag strapped behind him, much like a camper¡¯s bag. And my demesne¨Cor maybe Demesne?--let me ¡°see¡± in the bag.[1] Inside, there were some small knives and other tools, a couple horns that have been carved hollow, one holding some dried food and the other fresh water, a lash of rope, a bunched up net, and a few other sundries. I really hoped I would be able to absorb all those goodies. The scout moved through the room and stopped before the skeleton propped in the corner of the room. He peered over the skeleton then looked back towards the leader of the group and said something in a guttural language that I couldn¡¯t understand (I now knew that I did not have any universal translation or language comprehension ability¨Clovely!).Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. The leader barked a command back to the scout. The scout promptly turned back to face the skeleton, and then proceeded to¨C ¨Ckick the skeleton as hard as he could. The skeleton immediately crumbled under the force of the kick, the rib cage shattering inward and the whole thing collapsing. This did trigger the dart trap, and in the moment after, the darts flew out. But the skull was falling already due to the kick, and the darts had nowhere to go. They hit the inside of the skull and transferred their force such that the skull flew forward and smacked the scout right in the crotch. The goblin gave a loud screech, dropped his knife, and bowled over in pain. The other goblins laughed loudly, especially the big guy. The scout rolled around and whimpered some more and the goblins kept laughing. Eventually, things settled down and the scout, not permanently debilitated, recovered. The leader and scout had a short shouting match, but the group proceeded from the first room towards the second. They did not take the keys. In the second room, the goblins saw the clay pots along the walls and floor and got visibly excited. The scout and hunters spread out and looked into some pots that were closest to the floor. One of the hunters reached into a pot, grabbed some of the black moss, pulled it out, and inspected it. The second hunter did the same, but he had chosen one of the pots that had a spider in it. As he rummaged around inside, he aggravated the spider, which struck out and bit the goblin¡¯s hand. The goblin screamed and pulled back his hand, clutching his hand in pain. The goblins converged on their injured brother and the leader inspected the bite marks. The group held a brief discussion and then the leader made a decision and issued orders. The other goblins went to the amphora on lower shelves and one by one grabbed them and threw them onto the ground, smashing them (the goblins were a little too short to grab the jars on the top shelf, so they used their javelins to push them off instead). When a jar with a spider was smashed open, the leader moved in quickly and stabbed the spider, dispatching it easily. The goblin with the spider bite was starting to struggle and had a harder time breathing. He went to a corner and sat down. The other goblins, finished with their destruction, looked to their leader for direction. He made some commands, and the porter goblin left his bag near his injured comrade and took the other¡¯s javelin. It looked like they were going to continue on. They ignored the key on the floor. They marched on and reached the bridge. The scout stood at the lip of the entrance and looked up and down. The leader shouted something, causing the scout to hesitantly walk onto the wooden bridge. Nothing happened, of course, so the scout walked forward and crossed the bridge. The hunter started to cross and about halfway the leader, in a fit of impatience, also began to cross the bridge. With a great rumble, large stone rocks dropped from the top of the shaft''s ceiling. Both of the goblins looked up at the noise and then reacted as quickly as they could. The hunter rushed towards the far side, while the leader turned and tried to jump back. Unfortunately, neither was faster than gravity, and the rocks crashed into them and the bridge. With great cacophony, the two goblins, rocks, and the bridge''s shattered wood all fell into the spiked bottom. The scout and porter both looked down the pit towards their dead brethren in shock and dismay. Then they started yelling at each other. After a brief argument, with some trepidation, the scout turned and headed down the stairs. He made it all the way to the door, but without a key (without any keys) he was unable to open it or even force it. The scout trudged up the stairs and yelled more things at the porter across the gap. The porter goblin then went back and gathered the key in the spider room and the keys in the remains of the skeleton. He pulled the lash of rope from his backpack, looped it through the skeleton keys and tied it as a knot. Returning to the bridge, he then tried to toss the keys to the scout goblins, but he missed. Fortunately, with the rope, he was able to pull it back up and try again. All in all, it took six attempts, the scout providing loud, colorful commentary the entire time. The scout took the keys and returned to the door. He took the first key¨Cthe correct one¨Cand put it into the keyhole and unlocked the door. While I had been waiting for some delvers, I had made some tweaks to this room¨Cspecifically, I added a little bit of light moss on the box, just to make it more visible and added black moss on the walls and alcoves to make everything else less visible. If the goblin had another level, he would have easily and immediately spotted the two skeletons near the box. I don¡¯t think he did notice them, at least not from the door, but he did seem a little spooked. One step, two steps, then the skeletons moved to attack. The goblin dodged a clumsy strike from one skeleton, turned heel, and ran back up the stairs. The skeleton fighters walked after him, even the two hidden ones joining in the conga line. When the goblin got back to the broken bridge, he absolutely screamed at his friend. While I couldn¡¯t understand goblin, I¡¯m pretty sure the gist of it was something like ¡°THROW ME THE FUCKING ROPE NOW!!¡± The porter goblin furiously started tying the rope to the only thing he had¨Cthe javelin. He managed to complete the knot quickly and threw the javelin across the chasm like a javelin. The scout goblin ducked down as the javelin sailed just over where his head used to be, and went right into the rib cage of the first skeleton who had just arrived at the landing. The javelin didn¡¯t do much damage to the bones of the skeleton, but it was firmly lodged there. The scout goblin recovered quickly and dashed in to try to retrieve the javelin. He grabbed it with both hands and yanked it back, but the skeleton was relentless. I saw the skeleton¡¯s sigil node flare with mana and the skeleton attacked with a swing of its club. The goblin tried to deflect the attack with the javelin but was still off balance from pulling it out from the undead. The club smashed into the goblin¡¯s shoulder with a crunch, breaking the bone. The goblin screamed in pain but did the only thing he could¨Che turned and jumped. The scout jumped forward into the shaft, holding the rope for dear life primarily with his one good arm. At the same time, the porter goblin braced and pulled the rope. Unfortunately, when the scout swung across and slammed into the wall, he hit the wall with his bad shoulder. He screamed in pain, lost his handle on the rope, and tumbled down screaming until he was silenced with a loud thud. The porter dude, ran to the entrance of the shaft and looked down. Then, his head snapped back up to look at the skeleton monster silently staring at him from the other side of the shaft. Brave Hearts must have lost its courage buff, because the porter, bereft of his leader, friends, and weapon, bolted in retreat. The goblin didn¡¯t even stop to help his poisoned and now unconscious friend, grabbed his sack of stuff, and booked it out the front door. The poisoned goblin hunter lay on the floor unconscious for nearly two days, before finally, mercifully, dying and ending my first dungeon run. 13.1 AAR When the last goblin died, I felt like I had exited a claustrophobic cave and could once again breathe fresh air as the system returned control of my demesne to me. During the incursion, the system had been completely silent, but now that everything returned, new notifications also showed up. Specifically, I had two notifications: one fairly small and one significant. The first was that Sigilmancy had gained a level. I guessed this must have been due to inspecting the goblins¡¯ sigil arrays and seeing several previously unknown skills. While that skill-up would be useful, the second notification was far more impactful and one I had been waiting a long, long time for:
Demesne Core Level 2 obtained. 6 Demesne Points obtained.
Thank you system! Thank you very much! As I had theorized, killing some delvers¨Cjust goblins, but still sufficient¨Chad been the condition I needed to meet in order to level up. And with the level up, I had gotten a veritable bonanza of DP, double what I had started with at level 1. That seemed oddly suspicious, so I checked my status and¨Cyup, literally everything else was the same. While the system could be extremely frustrating, I didn¡¯t feel particularly disappointed this time. In fact, I felt the opposite¨Cempowered. The system could have given me free stuff, free stuff that it chose, but instead it had given me purchasing power. My limited use of Demesne Points hinted that it was possible they could be used to buy anything. My first thought was to immediately throw all six points right into mana regeneration. But then logic took hold and I quickly discarded that idea. I would spend these points soon, but not without due consideration. So, first things first, I needed to clean up my dungeon. I absorbed the goblin corpses, everything they had left with them, and the debris and ruin they caused.
Absorption 4 obtained.
2 Essence obtained.
The four dead goblins yielded two Essence.[1] I also received a whole slew of new patterns. From the scout¡¯s knife and hunter¡¯s spear, my {iron} pattern was updated to include hardened iron, as well bladed and polearm variants for {weapon}, while from their clothing I received {leather}. From the swordsman, {weapon} added more bladed variants that could be characterized as ¡°sword,¡± {leather armor}, and finally {steel}. (It was notable that the leader had a steel weapon while the hunters and the scout were using only tempered iron weapons. Perhaps the goblins had an extremely hierarchical society, or were scavengers, or as my archeology professor in college would have said, for religious purposes). Finally, it appeared our goblin leader had been carrying a bit of this world¡¯s money¨CI got a pattern for another metal alloy called {Silverium}.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Absorbing the Silverium coin was a pretty big game changer for two reasons. First, from what I could intuit by assessing the pattern was that Silverium was a special alloy of silver and mana, essentially mana-infused silver. It seemed probable that a magical metal had a lot of uses for, well, magical things. Adding it to my repertoire would open up a lot of doors for me. The second reason was that the coin was, in fact, enchanted. But the enchantment didn¡¯t come as a pattern. Instead, I understood it through Sigilmancy. This meant that enchantments were also sigils! So what was the enchantment on the coin? Even after absorbing the coin, I didn¡¯t have immediate knowledge, so I needed to manipulate Interface into giving me the information in a readable form. First, I recreated a single coin in the iron chest and then I inspected it. As I looked at the coin, I could see a sigil array overlaying it. The sigil array on the thing was very small and arranged into a triangular shape with three distinct sections at each of the corners, each section clearly a sigil in its own right but with fewer marks and a far simpler design. Next I used Interface to connect, and thereby read, not just the coin, but also the sigil array, and return the information as status box.
Silverium Coin Lesser Sigil , 10/10 Integrity ¡°Mawukacik Mint, ONE True Sterling¡±
It all came together, and I even got some world information too! The system returned the entire enchantment as a ¡°Lesser Sigil;¡± however when I checked the component parts, I was able to get the concepts they represented[2] but not what they were classified as. In any event, this enchantment was called. What the enchantment did was to act as identifier and integrity checker. Presumably there was a way to check the coin and read the information the enchantment showed (much as I did through Interface). I think that this was a way for a person to confirm the source and authenticity of the coin. The second part of the enchantment monitored the coin¡¯s physical integrity. If the coin lost a certain, small amount of mass, the enchantment would disperse itself. So, the enchantment was the embodiment of ¡°legal tender¡± and also worked to prevent debasement. I made another exact copy of the coin. Hah!¨Cthe enchantment did not prevent forgery viz-a-viz me. Oh . . . I was losing focus and getting swept up in all the sweet loot. I needed to repair my dungeon first and foremost. So I immediately did that. I rebuilt the bridge, reset the traps, and recreated the pots and spiders. It wasn¡¯t too mana intensive (this time), but if my skeletons were killed, they would be expensive to replace. I worried that in the long-run, maintaining the dungeon this way would be too mana inefficient. There was a real risk I couldn¡¯t maintain it if dungeon runs were short and frequent. My new bounty of DP came to mind. The total disaster of what happened last time also came to mind. Yeah¨CI needed to collect my thoughts before rushing any solutions. So, I decided to use my previous life skills as a corporate office worker to write a report.