《The non-adventures of a Dungeon Core》 Chapter 1: Newborn
core
"What? What''s happening?"
"I have no idea what''s going on here. Can someone please explain to me what''s happening?" I waited for a few minutes but nothing happened. All I could see was the blue box. Eventually I got bored. "Fine, Access Status."
I didn''t know why but I could understand all that was written in the blue box. A small relief at least. Apperently my race is something called Dungeon Core. Whatever that is. I''m also a newborn. Just 5 minutes old. Wait... how do I know how long a minute is and how can I count?
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A while after finishing reading the new blue box is disappears. Well that didn''t help much. So I''m supposed to know what my purpose is when I''m born? Then why am I so confused? I have no idea what''s going on. Maybe... I try to relax and remember something, anything really. After a while I give up. Seems like whatever knowledge I was born with isn''t something I know or at least not something I can remember knowing. It might show up later. I comfort myself with the fact I''m a newborn. I''ll have time to learn I''m sure. I check my blue box containing my status again. Aside from the fact my age has gone up 9 minutes everything else has stayed the same. I wonder if this blue box will disappear too? Just as I thought it the bue box disappeared and I was in darkness. Don''t panic. You can do this. I try thinking "Status" again and the blue box appeared again. It''s comforting to have something to look at. I wonder.... maybe I should try the other thing I could do? "Access Menu"
Well that''s not much. It doesn''t tell me anything. I try to focus on the word that isn''t menu. Maybe something will happen. If not I''m out of ideas.
Where in the world I want to be placed? How am I supposed to know something like that? I wish there was someone that could help me with this.
"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" Anthing to make this less confusing. Well I guess I''m not getting any help with this. Since I have no idea about the world I''ll just go ahead and select "Random". "I select "Random placement"
"Prepare for location transport. What does that mean?" I never did get an answer as the next thing I knew darkness returned and my body was filled with pain. Chapter 2: Home The pain slowly fades and I shudder as I recall what just happened. That was not at all very fun. I notice a few blue boxes has popped up again but that''s not important to me right now because I can see something else. In the darkness there''s a soft yellow glow in the distance. Light! Non-blue blox light! What is that? I want to get closer to it. I... seem to move towards it until it fills up my entire vision. I see different colors. Brown, green, red and when I look up I see blue and white. Oh and a glowing orange ball of light. I try to move away from the darkness to see more of this place. but the pain comes back until my thoughts disappear. The pain fades again and I find myself back in the same place I woke up earlier. I''m starting to dislike pain. It''s not fun. Maybe I should look at my blue boxes, they might tell me more about what happened. I look at the box on top of all the others.
Dungeon Core thoughts ventured too far away from main body. Resetting
Hmm. My thoughts were too far away from main body? I look around in the darkness away from that alluring light and I spot another soft glowing light. It''s a little white pebble on the ground. I try to reach out with my mind towards it and one of the blue boxes I haven''t looked at yet fills up my vision.
Name Unknown
Age 3 hours
Race Dungeon Core
Health 1 Health
Mana 90 Mana
Size 1 floor
Fame Unknown - Newborn dungeon undiscovered by any sentient race
Oh, that''s me. I''m a tiny glowing rock. I look around and see several other rocks around me but none of those are glowing. Ha! I''m so much better then these other rocks, none of them are glowing. I try to focus on one of the other rocks to see what happens. After a while of nothing happeneing I give up. I guess it''s not a dungeon core. Oh well, back to looking at the blue boxes. I decide to look at the box buried beneath the rest and as I think it it comes up above the rest.
Transportation complete. Dungeon Core has reached the selected destination. Core room placed and requested help has been called. Time until arrival: 11 minutes.
I look at it for a bit until it changes from 11 minutes to 10. So at least I''ll soon have help figuring out what I''m supposed to be doing. I feel happy about that. Otherwise I manage to figure out all on my own that this place must be my core room. Not much else to say about that apart from the fact I feel a little sad that I apperently am going to spend the rest of my life in this darkness when that alluring light is so close. There''s so much more to look at over there in the light. Since I have 10 minutes left until I can get som help I decide to look at the other boxes.
With your Core room placed you can now begin building your dungeon. Rooms and hallways unlocked in the construction menu. Remember that your Core room will always be placed as far away from your entrance as possible.
Stone discovered in your dungeon. You can now build using stone in your "Construction" menu.
Granite discovered in your dungeon. Alternative to common stone, building with granite has a slightly higher mana cost.
Cavemoss (common) discovered in your dungeon. "Cavemoss" added to "Plants (non-combat)" section of your "Life" menu.
Water (fresh) discovered in your dungeon. "Water (fresh)" added to "Enviromental" section of your "Constuction" menu.
Various forms of insects discovered in your dungeon. All different speices found added to "Critters (non-combat)" section of your "Life" menu.
Iron ore discovered in your dungeon. "Iron ore deposit" added to "Enviromental" section of your "Construction" menu.
I suspect that box with all the things added to my menu is important but no time for that. Help will soon arrive to answer all my questions. I can deal with that then. There''s just two more boxes to go and then I''m done.
Attention young Coreling. Remember that if your Core leaves your dungeon you will die. If your Core gets attacked and losses all your health you will die. If your core leaves the Core room it will start to take damage in relation to distance from Core room. Wildlife and sentient races is responible for 97,3% for all Dungeon Core deaths. Make sure to protect yourself well. Please select and add protection from them in your "Life" menu.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
That''s scary. I was just born, I don''t want to die already. Last box left to read and I still have 4 minutes left until help arrives.
Select your initial combat race. You will be able to summon them in order to protect your core. Summoned creatures are utterly devoted to protecting the Dungeon Core that summoned them. You can only select 1 of the races currently but you can get additional races as your dungeon grows if you wish.
Race Description:
Elementals Born of fire, water, earth and air. These creatures are immune to the element they are born of but weak to elements that oppose thier own. Born as tier 1 creatures but can evolve later.
Kobolds Lowest of all life that shares the blood of the ancient dragons. Able to communicate with each other at a basic level. Small creatures slightly stronger then others thier size. Born as tier 1
Goblins Once counted among the sentient races but their base instincts eventually overcame them. Able to speak with each other and posses a slightly higher intellect then other creatures thier size (small). Born as tier 1.
Fairies Tiny flying creatures, this race in born with an innate connection to the nature around them. Able to speak with each other and others that has a close connection with nature they have a small ability to cast nature magic but are weak to physical attacks. Born as tier 1.
Slime Small blobs of goo. Each slime is born with a core, if the core is damaged the slime will die. Slimes lack all but the most basic of instinct to eat whatever is around them. Evolutions depends on what the slime has eaten. Normally seen as one of the weakest creatures but given enough time a slime can become an unstoppable terror. Born as tier 1.
Plantoids Plants come in many variants. Dungeon born plantiods are born to eat and eat they do. Plantoids come in many different forms. They lack intelligence until higher evolutions relying on basic instinct. Born as tier 1. Size varies depending on plant spieces.
Wild animals Animals are everywhere, even in dungeons. Lone hunters or travellers in packs. Animals are the most varied of the starting options. While only tiny creatures are possible to summon at tier 1 bigger and more variation is unlocked later.
Undead Bane of all living things. Undead live for one thing and one thing only. The eradication of life. Little else needs to be said. Only skeletons can be summoned at tier 1 but more undead variations unlock at later tiers. Skeletons have low/mid resistance to physical attacks but has a severe weakness to holy magic. Skeletons are born with average size.
Demons Unlike the Undead, Demons prefer to corrupt instead of kill. They lack the ability to cast all forms of magic aside from demonic magic but are instead given more strenght. Unable to evolve beyond their summoned form the only way they can grow stronger is by consuming blood. Only Imps (small) can be summoned at tier 1 but later tiers offers stronger demons capable of great destruction and curruption.
Insectoids Insectoids are insects born influenced by the Dungeon Core''s mana. As a result they are bigger and stronger then their natural born relatives. Do not underestimate them. Insects were alive on this planet long before the first sentient races were born and they''ll be here long after the last of the sentients have died out. Only tiny spieces possible at tier 1 but each new tier unlocks bigger and bigger insects.
Aquatic Creatures born in water. Unlike most land born creatures these creatures live in seas, rivers and lakes and will die if away from water for more then a few moments. Strongly advised if Dungeon Core finds itself in a water enviroment and strongly discouraged if the Dungeon Core is not. Tier 1 creatures are tiny.
That''s alot of options. Too much for me at least. I try to read it all carefully but I''m soon interupted by something touching me.
Lilly (designated dungeon helper) requests a mind link. Accept?
Chapter 3: Help Being touched for the first time in my life feels weird. I¡¯m not sure how else to describe it. Anyway, I early look forward to this ¡°Lilly¡± helping me. I could really use it. ¡°I accept¡± The blue box disappears and I feel something intruding in my mind. ¡°Hello? Helllloooo? Answer me already silly Core.¡± That must be Lilly. I push the race selection box away from my vision and focus my vision to see my Core room. There I see a tiny creature sitting next to myself tapping its foot as it looks increasingly... hungry? Sad? Upset? I guess I¡¯m not that good at telling emotions in whatever race Lilly is yet. Well whatever she is I guess it¡¯s better to answer soon before she leaves. ¡°I¡¯m here. I¡¯m here. Are you here to help me?¡± I hear a sigh. How does one sigh in thoughts? ¡°Yes, silly Core. That¡¯s why I¡¯m here. To offer guidance to a newborn Core. Since you¡¯re the only newborn Dungeon Core around here that would mean I¡¯m here to help you.¡± ¡°Oh wonderful! I¡¯m so happy to have someone to talk to. I¡¯ve been so confused ever since I was born.¡± ¡°Before we continue coreling I need to know. How many previous times has your Core been destroyed?¡± ¡°What does that mean? I was just born 3 hours ago.¡± ¡°Oh, well that¡¯s a change. Dungeon Cores are blessed by the gods to be reborn every time they die so that each time, they can figure out how to survive longer. That or the gods really hate dungeons and made it so that you¡¯re stuck in an eternal cycle of death until your will to live disappears. Cores don¡¯t reincarnate if they really don¡¯t want to. A small mercy if you ask me. Eternity might sound nice for young people but eventually I figure it would get pretty boring.¡± ¡°How can I be sure I¡¯m not an old Core?¡± ¡°You would know. If you say you¡¯re 3 hours old then you¡¯re a new one, trust me. Oh right, you¡¯re not some traveling soul that just woke up as a Dungeon Core?¡± ¡°What? Didn''t I already answer that?¡± ¡°So, you weren¡¯t just killed is some hilarious way and then found yourself talking to a lady or man before blacking out and waking up as you are now? Nothing pops into your mind as I say that?¡± ¡°No, other than confusion there¡¯s nothing else going on in my mind.¡± ¡°Thank the gods! That¡¯s good. Those type of cores never have a happy ending. Sure, at first, they¡¯re interesting and bring fresh ideas but give it 100 to 150 years and they start to go mad. Something about the soul not being suited for a long lifespan. Of course, by then they¡¯ve usually grown too much to easily kill them. Not good for anyone that is. Ironic that, those cores usually start the most averse to killing but, in the end, they kill far more than a normal Dungeon Core ever would.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°Well I¡¯m not sure what I should say. I¡¯m just me. No old soul or previous life. Just a very confused newborn. Can I get some help now please?¡± ¡°Oh, all right. Let¡¯s take a look at where you¡¯re at.¡± I feel control of my mind slip as different windows pop up and disappear again in my vision for a while until it stops. ¡°You haven¡¯t even done anything yet. In fact, you¡¯re not even supposed to be able to call me for assistance until you¡¯ve at least picked a starting race. That¡¯s when the ¡°Call Help¡± part of your menu shows up. How did you ever manage to call for help?¡± ¡°Well before I was sent here, I really wanted help so the blue box asked me if I wanted help and I said yes.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not how it¡¯s supposed to work. In the void you should only have your ¡°Status¡± and ¡°Menu¡± options enabled. Once you¡¯ve seen both you get sent away.¡± ¡°That¡¯s how it was for me too. But before I picked a location the blue box offered to send me help. There wasn¡¯t some option in the menu that I picked. It just kind of asked me.¡± ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s all there was to it?¡± ¡°Well, I was panicking at the time and really wanted help so that box really calmed me down.¡± ¡°Interesting. If I¡¯m not mistaken one of the gods must be looking over you at the moment. This works out great for us.¡± ¡°What? How do you know a god is watching out for me?¡± ¡°Not looking out for you. Just looking over you. The gods get bored easily so they like to mess with mortals from time to time and manipulate the system, what you call the blue box. Those blue boxes are something the gods made long ago to stop having to run around and answer basic stuff. All living things have a system the gods designed to handle most of the stuff that comes up in their life. Why pray to a god and ask what¡¯s wrong with you when you can just call up your status to see you¡¯ve been poisoned. Anyway, since the system is just what the gods put in place to avoid dealing with mortals then can just take over for a bit and manipulate it. That¡¯s how you got help before you were supposed to.¡± ¡°So how is that great for us?¡± ¡°Well I¡¯ll have you know that you¡¯re not the first dungeon I¡¯ve helped in my life. In fact, you would be the fifth. Others from my village has also had their own dungeons in the past so we know a fair bit about your kind. I¡¯ve even wanted to try something for a while now and you are just the perfect little Core that can help me with it.¡± ¡°I am? Help you with what?¡± ¡°Well, sooner or later you will be discovered by the sentient races. When they decide you aren¡¯t evil, they will start to delve into your dungeon for loot and resources. Don¡¯t worry, that¡¯s a good thing mostly. Aside from a few fools looking to kill you it a mutual beneficial relationship. They get things from you and you get to kill some of them to help with your growth. The things they bring with them when they die will help you unlock more things in your menu.¡± ¡°Like the granite and cave moss from before?¡± ¡°Yes, like that. But you can only absorb it once the person has died. Or if it¡¯s offered as a token once you build your altar. Anyway, adventures coming is good. But eventually people will no longer come to you and you¡¯ll be cast aside for some other dungeon. Before you ask, it will happen because they will grow bored with you. Dungeon Cores meanwhile will grow bored with no one venturing into them. Dungeons try to overcome this by a variety of ways. They offer better loot, more resources to find and collect. They might even start causing trouble around them is a desperate bid for attention. But in the end, it doesn¡¯t help. The better loot and resources attract resentment from rivals to the town or nation the dungeon is placed in and they kill the dungeon just so their enemy won¡¯t have access to it. A dungeon causing too much trouble is likewise killed to restore tranquility to the area. No, young coreling. I think to be a truly successful dungeon you must offer them something no other dungeon can offer.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that Lilly? ¡°Thank you for finally calling my name. Anyway, what I want you to offer them is something they all crave. An adventure!¡± Chapter 4: Lillys plan and expansion begins ¡°What¡¯s an adventure? If the people going into dungeons are called adventurers aren¡¯t they already having adventures? I could feel Lilly growing more excited through the mind link as she answered. ¡°Of course not. Essentially all they¡¯re doing in dungeons these days is risking their lives for better gear, gold and the chance to grow stronger so they can get even better gear and even more gold. Whatever adventure they think they¡¯re having is all in their minds. Like ¡®This place is cursed and we must cleanse it to protect the kingdoms citizens.¡¯ even though the dungeon they¡¯re exploring wouldn¡¯t even notice if they reached the 50th floor or just stayed on the first and nothing would happen if they had never showed up in the first place.¡± ¡°Why should that matter? They¡¯re still growing stronger and getting gold, right?¡± ¡°Ah, you coreling. No adventurer ever becomes an adventurer just to get wealthy. All of them join the adventurers¡¯ guild hoping that one day they will go on an epic quest to save the world from unspeakable evil. Of course, there are people that only wish for power and do unspeakable evils in order to get it but those are far fewer and in no way would they help you grow. There¡¯s simply not enough of them. No. Young would-be heroes waiting for a chance to fight for justice and glory is a far larger part of the adventuring population. Give them an epic adventure and adventurers will flock to you. What say you young coreling? Do you wish to indulge an old woman and work together to make your dungeon a place where heroes fight to save the world?¡± ¡°Uhm. Why do you think I can help you with creating such a place? Aren''t I just like all the other Dungeon Cores?¡± ¡°You are but a god is watching over you. At least for now. If we don¡¯t take advantage of that it would be a pity. Besides, this will be your first time building a dungeon. Let¡¯s make it special and if it doesn¡¯t work, you¡¯ll have the rest of time to do what every other dungeon does. You aren¡¯t really missing out on anything.¡± ¡°Fine, I need your help to figure out all this anyway so what did you have in mind. How do we create a place where people can have an adventure?¡± I sensed Lillys spirit rise when I agreed to work with her. ¡°Marvelous! I can¡¯t believe I will finally get to test out if my ideas will work. Now the most important thing to create a good adventure is a good story. If your story is ¡®Kill this dangerous thing or little Allan in the village will have nightmares¡¯ aren¡¯t going to attract anyone to you.¡± ¡°But what if people really like Allan?¡± ¡°Pfft! Adventurers rarely cares that much for children. Many of them keep adventuring just so they never have to deal with kids. No, what we need is a gripping tale of life and death. Loss and sacrifice. Of heroes standing up to impossible odds and prevailing to save the innocent to leave behind a tale of the heroic adventurers that saved the world. That will make them love you and even if people leave, they will spread the story we¡¯ve created for them around the world. Luring people in to experience you thereby ensuring you¡¯ll always have visitors. But first things first. We need you to build your first floor, at least the basic structure. ¡°So how do I do that Lilly?¡± Call up your ¡®Construction¡¯ menu and start adding the hallways and rooms of course. Try to form the hallways to be at least 2,5 meters wide and 2,5 meters tall. Just to ensure people can move around without too much trouble. You can vary the sizes a little bit to not make them all the same but keep it in that size-range. The rooms should be more varied in size. Make about four of them big rooms with seven or 8 smaller. Make sure the rooms have at least 3 hallways connected to them until the end. So that adventurers always have to choose what way to go. No one likes a long tunnel at the start of an adventure. Much too boring.¡± ¡°Are you sure I can do that? I¡¯m feeling a bit overwhelmed just listening to you describe all of that. Besides, don''t I have to open my menu before opening the construction section?¡± ¡°Not if you already know what section you want to open. Each section has a different name and the system is smart enough to undearstand what you mean and don''t worry. You¡¯ll do fine. You might not feel it now but building your dungeon comes naturally to all of your kind.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I wonder if Lilly is right about that. I certainly don¡¯t feel like it. Nevertheless, I call upon ¡®Construction¡¯ menu in order to start expanding my dungeon, and fail at it I¡¯m sure. ¡°Construction Menu¡±
Construction Menu:
Build Hallway
Build Room
Build Path to lower floor
Build Floor accessories
Add Enviromental aspects to floor
It worked. Nice to know I can do that, even if it only saves a little bit of time. Let¡¯s try doing what Lilly wanted first. I have an idea on what I want to do based on the advice Lilly gave me. When I fail I¡¯m sure she can help. I select the Build Hallway option and a new blue screen pops up to replace the old one.
Please set the dimensions of your new hallway:
Length:
Height:
Wide:
I set the size of hallway to 20 meters in lenght, 2,5 meters in height and 2,4 meter wide.
Please select construction material of hallway:
Common stone
Granite
I select the stone option here. No need to be fancy and I remember reading earlier that granite would be more expensive to build with.
Based on dimensions given to the system and material used the calculated cost of construction is 40 mana.
Confirm/Abort
¡°Lilly, I only have 90 mana and this hallway is 40 mana to build. I won¡¯t have enough to build everything you want, not even close.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. It won¡¯t build instantly so you¡¯ll get some mana back while we wait and when the hallway is done your capacity to hold mana will increase by 10 so you¡¯ll have 100 maximum mana when it''s done.¡± ¡°So if a hallway adds 10 mana why is my max mana 90 now?¡± ¡°As a new core you have a base mana of 30, your Core room currently gives you 50 more and the path to the entrance counts as a hallway so that¡¯s another 10. For the sake of avoiding more questions. A room gives you 25 mana and you can¡¯t make them too small in order to try and cheat your way to having a highest maximum. Also, since we¡¯re currently on floor one your build cost is only 30% of what it would normally be. The same hallway on floor 2 would be 40%, floor 3 50%, floor 4 65%, floor 5 would be 80% and finally when you reach the sixth floor you pay full price since by then the system no longer thinks you need help to survive. Now place your hallway in one of the back corners of your room and confirm it. Oh, and your hallway don¡¯t have to be in a straight line. You can curve it or corner it however you want.¡± I do what she tells me to and confirm the 40 mana cost. I don''t try to curve or corner the hallways though. I prefer to see if it works first. Next a map of what I assume is my floor shows up, it seems to be an overview from the top with my entrance and my Core room is at the top of the map with a path leading to what the map tells me is the entrance. There¡¯s a lot of room below my Core room to place my hallways and rooms. I place my new hallway in the bottom right corner of my Core room and confirm. The room begins to vibrate a little as I feel energy flowing out of me. It takes about a minute until it stops. I check my status to see that I now have only 50 mana left. I look back with my normal vision and see that the place where I placed the hallway have already started to expand. I¡¯m fascinated by the process of the hallway forming as it doesn¡¯t seem to require me to do anything. ¡°Youngling, wake up!¡± I pull my attention away from the building hallway and see that Lilly seems to be tapping my Core for attention. ¡°What is it? I wanted to watch the hallway form.¡± ¡°You still have mana left little one. Build the other hallway on the opposite side. When you¡¯ve done that you can relax and watch it build.¡± ¡°Promise?¡± ¡°I promise, now hurry up. The sooner you build it the sooner we can really get started.¡± I copy what I did earlier and place the hallway in the other corner of my room. Yet again I feel the energy flow out of me and when it ends, I¡¯m feeling very tired. I check and see that I only have 14 mana left, so if I have a low mana pool I get tired. Got it. I return my focus to the first hallway and by now it has reached over halfway of what I planned. I feel pride as the hallways simply melts further into the mountain forming a straight and clean hallway of stone. This is me. I¡¯m growing and it feels good. I hope I never lose this feeling. It¡¯s so nice. When the hallway stops growing, I turn to focus on the other hallway that still have a small way to go until it¡¯s done when an uneasy feeling struck me. There¡¯s something I¡¯m missing... what was it? I try to remember what it was when I finally remember. ¡°Hey Lilly, shouldn¡¯t I summon some creatures to guard my core? You¡¯ve distracted me with your talking and making me start building my floor that I forgot I¡¯m totally defenseless. What if someone or something comes and kills me?¡± Chapter 5: Finally selecting my first combat race Lilly laughed at my question. I didn¡¯t see why. I thought it was a very valid question. It was about my survival. My life is very important, at least to myself. ¡°Why would anyone care to enough to kill you now? Right now you¡¯re barely increasing the mana density around yourself that I can barely feel it and I¡¯m right next to you and very sensitive to mana. Once you have a second floor your dungeon will begin to attract wildlife. Not stong animals but the small ones easily killed by your starting creatures. Even if something or someone were to wander in here while you¡¯re busy expanding your floor I¡¯m here to guard you. I certainly won¡¯t let anything happen to you. You¡¯re the key to all my future fun after all.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t I at least pick my starting race of creatures and summon a few? It would make me feel safer.¡± ¡°No, that would ruin my... I mean our plans. But if you insist, we can at least select your starting race of creatures but I won¡¯t let you summon any yet. Ok?¡± ¡°Really? You''ll let me do anything besides expanding my floor. I feel... excited.¡± ¡°No, no, no, no. If our future plan will work you can¡¯t pick just anything. You have to pick Fairies as your starting monsters. It all starts with them. Now be a good Core and pull up the initial combat race screen in your ¡®Life¡¯ menu and select them. Remember that I see whatever you see so don¡¯t try to pick anything else or I¡¯ll leave and then you¡¯ll never get any more help from me. I can¡¯t stand being tricked, even if a little glowing stone does it.¡± ¡°Fine, but why Fairies? Are they strong? Why them and not one of the others?¡± ¡°They¡¯re not really strong. But most sentient races treat the free-born fairies as just another sentient race and that¡¯s the key for our epic adventure to work. Trust me.¡± Helpless to argue with Lilly, I don¡¯t want her to leave me all alone, I call up the page with all the combat races I can pick from and reluctantly pick Fairies. Some of the others looked nice, it would have been nice if Lilly had at least told me the reason why we didn¡¯t select any of the others rather than just telling me to trust her and that it was all part of the plan.¡±
¡°There, I selected Fairies. I guess I didn¡¯t really have to argue with you. One of them are already more than I can afford at the moment.¡± ¡°I will take that as an apology. Yes, they are quite costly compared to some of the other options but that doesn¡¯t matter right now. By the way, do you know any names suitable for fairies?¡± I think about it for a while before giving up. I guess I¡¯m no good with names. ¡°No, I don¡¯t know. I haven¡¯t even seen a fairy. I have no idea what a name for them would be suitable.¡± ¡°Well you know at least one name. Mine. ¡°You¡¯re a fairy? I had no idea.¡± ¡°If I didn¡¯t know you were a newborn I would be offended. I¡¯m a rather nice-looking fairy if I say so myself, for my age at least. You should have seen me 100 years ago. I had all the men in my village wrapped around my finger. Sadly, time spares no one and these days I¡¯m merely considered attractive for my age. But getting back on topic. Yes, I¡¯m what fairies look like. Small human looking with wings on my back and green skin. Oh, and pointy ears. I do so love my ears. They¡¯re my best feature. Don¡¯t let people convince you elves have the best pointed ears. They¡¯re wrong. Elf ears are far too big.¡±The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. I haven¡¯t known Lilly very long but I¡¯m starting to suspect that she likes to talk, a lot. So, before she continues talking about how beautiful she is I decide to cut her off before she started talking more. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re right. Now why ask me about fairy names?¡± ¡°Well, the third Dungeon Core I helped let me know an interesting thing. You see, in his previous life he had grown up near several big goblin settlements and learned much about them as he grew up so he decided to start his new life with goblins as his starting race. Once he was old enough to get his first chance to upgrade, he found that he now had the option of summoning goblins that had names right from the moment they were summoned. Normally dungeons name monsters as a way to make them stronger. For example, if you summoned two young fairies and gave one of them a name the named one would be stronger then the unnamed one. There are a limited number of mobs you can name on each floor so you can¡¯t abuse it to make all your monsters stronger. It¡¯s usually used to make floor bosses and wandering mini-bosses on floors. So instead of ¡®Goblin brute¡¯ they would have a name in addition to being a goblin brute. ¡°So, did that upgrade cause all his goblins to became named monsters? That sounds powerful¡± ¡°Yes and no. Yes, all the goblins he summoned after getting the upgrade all had names but no, they were no stronger than any other goblins he had already summoned. He was very disappointed and read the upgrade again. It turns out he got that upgrade since he knew so many goblin names already but that it would never affect their combat prowess. If he wanted them to become as strong as normal named monsters, he would have to bless the goblin he wanted stronger with one the limited spots he had for normal named monsters. He considered that upgrade utterly useless and a mistake. But for us that¡¯s just the thing we will need. ¡°How so?¡± ¡°Well, how else can we create a story if none of our actors have names for adventurers to remember? I dare say that is one of the most important upgrades we will need. Our problem now is that you don¡¯t know any fairy names so the system will never give you the naming option as an available upgrade.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you have a way around that though. You don¡¯t look upset at my lack of knowledge.¡± ¡°Of course I do my little pebble. While you expand your floor, I¡¯ll simply recite all the fairy names I know to you. We should have enough time to let you hear enough names by the time you¡¯re a day old so the system will give you the option.¡± ¡°A day old? Why are you sure I¡¯ll get an upgrade when I¡¯m a day old? ¡°Oh, I forget how much you still don¡¯t know but so quickly summarize. Dungeon Cores are presented upgrade options periodically, so that as they grow older and stronger, they can do more and more and eventually create works of wonder and terror. A dungeon filled with 35 floors of nothing but tier 1 goblins is no one''s idea of a fun time. Not even the gods are that bored or mean. All Dungeon Cores get their first upgrade when they reach one full day of life. That''s 24 hours by the way. Then after that it start to diverge between dungeons. Some might get the next upgrade at day three and others at day seven. It¡¯s influenced by how much mana you have and how many things from outside your dungeon dies inside you.¡± ¡°What else does the system offer to upgrade for you, aside from that naming option?¡± ¡°All sorts of things my dear pebble. It¡¯s needed to access lower floors, add ¡®themes¡¯ to floors, unlock higher tiers of your starting creatures, unlock more races to populate your dungeon with and many other things. You needn¡¯t worry about it now though. You might have wanted to select another race other than fairies but given time, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll get to play with all of them.¡± My mood becomes better when I hear I¡¯ll eventually unlock them all. There was some that locked interesting and I didn¡¯t like being forced to pick one. ¡°Well, little pebble. Enough chatting, you need to start working again. Start building your first room.¡± ¡°How? I don¡¯t have enough mana for even a fairy at the moment I doubt I have enough for a whole room.¡± Lilly smiles and touches me again. I feel something rushing into me in a large wave from her palm. It¡¯s mana. So much of it. Merely a moment and I feel myself filled with it. I quickly check my status. "Status"
Name Unknown
Age 5 hours
Race Dungeon Core
Health 1 health
Mana 110 mana
Size 1 floor
Combat races Fairies
Number of tier 1 creatures 0
Fame Unknown - Newborn dungeon undiscovered by any sentient race
I¡¯m mildly chocked when I see my mana. It¡¯s bigger than what it used to be. Lilly must have given me some of hers. I can even see that my status has updated with the race I selected. Even if I don¡¯t have any summoned right now it¡¯s still nice to know I can summon them now. Chapter 6: Expansion and even more expansion
vulnerable you are. You can delay moving your core pending further expansion for a day. Do you wish to move now or delay? Move now/Delay
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Chapter 7: My first upgrade I wake up to a feeling of something tapping me. Without even extending my senses I¡¯m pretty sure who it is. ¡°Lilly, why does it hurt so much every time the system transports me?¡± ¡°It is so naughty young cores will eat their vegetables.¡± ¡°What? What does that mean?¡± ¡°Just a joke that I guess is lost on you. If you think transporting your core is painful you really don¡¯t want to get killed. The cores I¡¯ve talked to seem to think that the pain of transportation is a comfortable backrub compared to death. That¡¯s why every time a Dungeon Core gets reborn it does everything with the goal of surviving longer than before. It¡¯s also why some of them just decide to die. They felt they built the perfect dungeon and still got killed so they just don¡¯t want to suffer any more pain.¡± ¡°That¡¯s depressing. Something so painful you rather wish to die permanently.¡± ¡°Well us non-cores only have one chance at life unless you somehow get lucky and a god intervenes to give your soul another shot at life. But hoping for that is like hoping to find a specific corn of sand in the desert. Anyway, little pebble. Good job on finishing the basic structures of your very first floor. I flew around a bit while you were moving to look at it with my own eyes. Maps never tell you about the feel of the place you know. Give it some more decorations, some doors maybe, a few traps some monsters and maybe a little light so you can actually see anything and it¡¯s almost ready for adventures to come explore.¡± ¡°It sounds like you¡¯re saying I still have a lot to do. Also, what do you mean ¡®so you can actually see¡¯?¡± ¡°You certainly do have a lot left to do and not everyone can see inside your dungeon as you. You need light to see anywhere. You can see everything fine without light since essentially this dungeon is your body. Anyone else however will still need some source of light to see passed the first room.¡± ¡°That¡¯s so strange.¡± ¡°Maybe for you, it¡¯s normal for everyone else. Now check your status screen. Maybe you¡¯ll figure out what we¡¯ll do next.¡± ¡°Really? Open Status.¡±
Name Unknown
Age 23 hours
Race Dungeon Core
Health 1 health
Mana 610 mana
Combat races Fairies
Number of Tier 1 creatures 0
Size 1 floor
Fame Unknown - Newborn dungeon undiscoevered by any sentient race.
My mana has certainly increased a lot. To think I started out at just 90 mana and now I have over 600. I do some quick math and it does seem to check out. Every room gives me 25 mana capacity and all the hallways give me 10 each. I¡¯m a little sad my two hallways that diverge only counts as a single hallway but I can¡¯t really complain. I¡¯m sure no other core has ever done that so the system probably doesn¡¯t know that it should really count as two. However, all my mana isn¡¯t really a hint of what Lilly and I is going to do next. I look over it again and then I spot it. ¡°I¡¯m almost a day old. That¡¯s the hint, right? I¡¯m about to get my first upgrade according to what you¡¯ve told me. Also, did I spend so much time building? I swear it took a lot less time.¡± ¡°Very good pebble. That¡¯s what we¡¯re doing next. Now we just sit around and wait. Should I tell you a few more names while we wait?¡± ¡°Please no. I mean, I rather spend the time looking over my first floor. If it¡¯s as you say, my body, I should get to know it better.¡± I shift my attention away from my new Core room to the entrance. Hopefully Lilly won¡¯t mind me fleeing her. I¡¯ve spent so long just listening to her telling me what to do and then doing the things she told me to I¡¯ve never had time to be alone. I know she¡¯s still mind-linked and can hear my thought but I want to pretend for just a little while. I decide to pretend to be an intruder entering me for the very first time. ¡°What¡¯s this cave? It looks so scary.¡± I move into the first room. ¡°Gasp, the path. It splits in two. Wherever will I go? It¡¯s so hard to pick.¡± I go to my right and advance down the hallway until I reach the next room. ¡°I see two more hallways. What mastermind designed this place. I¡¯m afraid if I go any further in, I¡¯ll get lost.¡± My imaginary explorer decides to pick the right path again. The hallway this time takes a very sharp turn left after a bit. ¡°Oh no, what if a monster is just around the corner? I can¡¯t see. I¡¯m so very scared.¡± I spend a few more minutes getting pretend lost in my dungeon before a blue box pops up. Before looking at it I know Lilly will start tapping me again so I abandon my little game and return my attention to the Core room where Lilly is waiting without having read the box.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°I¡¯m back, I¡¯m back.¡± ¡°Hope you had fun playing. Now hurry up and see if me spending hours telling you names worked or not.¡± I take a moment to collect my thoughts. I¡¯m not sure what I want. Either the option shows up and I¡¯ll have to do what Lilly says or she¡¯ll be angry with me or it doesn¡¯t show up and I have to listen to her telling me names for days. She said it could take almost seven days for some cores to get a second upgrade. Never mind, I really hope the option shows up. I can¡¯t stand listening to names for so long.
Congratulations! You''ve survived your first full day as a Dungeon Core in the wild. As a reward you have been given a chance to upgrade your dungeon as you wish from a list of options. Keep in mind that after today the system will only notify you when you''ve gained a ''upgrade point''. To apply it you will need to go to the ''Dungeon upgrades'' in the main menu. May this be the first of many days to come.
Possible upgrades Description
Mana upgrade (1) Gain 100 additional mana to your mana pool.
Health upgrade (1) Gain 20 heath to your Core.
Mana regeneration (1) Gain 5 mana/hour regeneration.
Additional floor (1) Grow by expanding down to another floor.
Fairies (Tier 2) Unlock stronger Fairies to fight and guard you.
More combat races (1) Unlock one more race to fight and guard you.
Loot Create and set loot to drop when your creatures are killed.
Trap upgrade (1) Gain access to more complex traps.
Treasure Gain ability to create chests with loot for those lucky enough to find them.
Locked doors Gain ability to place locked doors in your dungeon. Note that key must always be accessible before the door.
Cheaper summoning (1) Summon combat creatures for 1 mana/summon less.
More critters Bring life to your dungeon by unlocking ability to summon more critters.
More plants Bring life to your dungeon by unlocking ability to summon more plants.
Fairies named when summoned Thanks to your extensive knowledge of fairy names, gain ability to summon named fairies. Note that this does not increase the battle power of your summoned creatures.
Donation altar Some adventurers gives an offering to the dungeon before they enter. With the altar at your entrance they can now give donations to you and you can absorb the items right away.
This is a long list and there¡¯s so many good things to pick from. I can even get more health. I haven¡¯t told anyone this but having just a single point of health is something I¡¯m a little concerned with. There¡¯s also the floor option. I¡¯m guessing this is how I will grow from now on. I wonder if I could get away with picking it right now? I keep going down the list and seeing more things I want. Higher tier fairies, that sweet, sweet promise of more races to summon. There are even useless things here. More critters and plants? Pass please. Treasure? Why, just why? That does nothing for me. My heart or whatever I have instead of a hearth drop however when I reach the end of the list. I got what Lilly wanted. I curse you, system! Why lure me with so much good stuff and then give the naming option at the end? That¡¯s mean. Mean I say! I already hear Lilly laughing. ¡°Hahaha! We did it. This is excellent. Quick little pebble, pick the naming option. Hurry, hurry.¡± ¡°Are you sure? Can''t we pick something else? Maybe another combat race?¡± ¡°Hush little one. I¡¯ve already been here a day. I can¡¯t guard you forever and don¡¯t you want to start summoning your own guards?¡± She does make a good point. I¡¯ll finally be allowed to summon creatures to guard me. I would feel a lot safer that way. I can always get more upgrade points later. Let¡¯s get that horrible upgrade for now.
Upgrade gained: Fairies named when summoned.
As a reward for selecting your very first upgrade you will recieve an additional upgrade from the same upgrade tree. Revive named creature.
Upgrade gained: You can now re-summon named combat creatures after they die for a slightly higher mana cost. They will retain the memories and skills they had before death.
I read through everything and almost begin to cry. If these messages mean what I think they mean Lilly just tricked me in a horrible, horrible way. ¡°Lilly! Why did you make me select that awful upgrade!?¡± ¡°What do you mean? This is even more perfect then I could¡¯ve wish for.¡± ¡°What do I mean!? I could¡¯ve gained not one but two more combat races. I could even have gained the ability to summon Tier 3 fairies. I could¡¯ve gained access to two more floors. Instead I got two useless upgrades.¡± ¡°Useless? Oh, the ignorant are truly lost without elders to guide them. Your useless upgrades will serve you far better in the future than anything else on that list. Why don¡¯t you try summoning your first guardian and I¡¯ll explain to you why you¡¯re wrong?¡± I¡¯m still angry but the chance to finally summon my first creature is too attractive to hold off. I open the Life section from the main menu and see the ¡®Summon¡¯ button calling out to me. I even spot a ¡®Revive creature¡¯ option. Now I¡¯m getting slightly mad again. Stupid option, I never wanted you! ¡°Summon one ¡®Young Fairy¡¯¡± A small trickle of mana leaves me and slowly takes shape before my core. It takes a moment before I can finally see the result of my first summoning. I see before me a smaller version of Lilly. I really hope this one doesn¡¯t lecture me as much. I focus on it and text appear above her head. I guess that¡¯s the name. I read it and... never mind. I love this upgrade! I¡¯m the best core ever for picking it all my own. Chapter 8: Buttercup, failures and a farewell Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Chapter 9: Gathering, traps and doors I took a moment to just be. I hadn¡¯t really been alone since Lilly showed up so for most of my life she had been there. I was aware of the fairies occasionally coming back with new things for my dungeon but I ignored all of that to just enjoy not having someone else in my mind. After a while I decided to go through my construction menu to see what I could do. Without anyone around there really wasn¡¯t much else to do. I found several things I hadn¡¯t noticed before. For example, I could now place traps. Lilly did mention those before. According to the description by the system they were mean to stop or delay intruders, even kill them but to get really lethal traps I would have to upgrade that ability. Right now, all I had were pitfalls and the ability to drop rocks from the ceiling of my hallways and rooms. I wonder what the more complex traps are like. Maybe deeper pitfalls and bigger rocks to drop? I kept looking around and saw the door option. That was something I needed too apparently so I decided to build one between myself and the boss room. Just to see what it looked like and it was the closest spot I could place one. It¡¯s something called a ¡®Weak wooden door¡¯ and it costs 30 mana. More expensive than a summoned fairy. The door forms from my mana quite fast. I focus my attention on it and can feel that I have the power to open and close it at will. That¡¯s good. Otherwise my summons might not be able to leave or enter my Core room. Lilly did say they were good at stopping wildlife so this door must be stronger. My fairies certainly didn¡¯t fill me with confidence when they didn¡¯t even scratch my wall so I needed something better to defend myself. Happy with my new door I summon 6 more and place them in different hallways. I could place them at any point in the hallways but never inside a room so I make two doors to block the path to my first big room that¡¯s behind my old core room and two more where the two different paths converge after the two circular rooms. The last two I place in the middle of the long winding corridors that I built to reach the edges of my map. Now whoever comes to kill me will have to get by at least three different doors. I like to see them try that. I feel so much safer already. I check my status and see that I have 300 mana left mana left. Plenty of things I can do with that. I decide to place some traps. Doors are a good defense but I doubt they¡¯ll hurt anyone. At least I haven¡¯t been able to make them talk to me so they can tell me if they can yet. Traps might offer up something more than just pure defense. A pitfall trap is 51 mana and the option to drop rocks when something passed underneath was 60 mana. With 300 I can only make five of them total. I wisely decide not to spend all my mana on five of the falling rock ones. I remember the last time I blacked out due to using up all my mana. I decide on three pitfalls and two rock traps. I place the first pitfall right at start in the hallway when you just enter my dungeon. If that doesn¡¯t stop whoever is intruding it should at least slow them down for fear of more traps. I then place a rockfall trap in the middle of the first room. Yes, just when they think it¡¯s safe to advance, I¡¯ll hit them with a different trap. I place two more traps behind my first two doors that lead to my first big room. Whoever is strong enough to get passed those when there was an unobstructed path is clearly trouble and needs to be dealt with and finally, I place the last rock trap in the hallway right before my ¡®Boss room¡¯. A last-ditch hope to stop my impending death. I¡¯m a bit surprised that I can¡¯t spot the pitfall traps. I mean, I can sense they¡¯re there. It¡¯s part of my ¡®body¡¯ so of course I can but when I look without using normal dungeon senses the spot where its place looks like any other part of the floor. That¡¯s amazing. All will fall into my pitfalls of death! I now only have 26 mana left. I¡¯m not sure how fast I regain mana so I decide to wait and see. I¡¯ll wait for my status to change the hour part of how long I¡¯ve lived and then see how much I gain until it changes again. As I wait the only thing that happens is the notifications about my fairies continuing to gather things. I¡¯ll admit it was a good idea of Lilly to make them do it. Once my experiment to see how much mana I gain in an hour is over I¡¯ll summon some more fairies to help out. It should make them collect more things and having more things unlocked seems good. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m forced to summon everything they bring back after all. There were a few surprising things collected that I might summon in the future. Something called ¡®Red-tailed squirrel¡¯ was brought back but I still needed to unlock the ability to summon wild animals before summoning them. Later I got a ¡®Blue-spotted snake¡¯ that also remained locked for now. So, some combat creatures weren¡¯t given to me by the system but had to be gathered on my own. I wonder if there are any other sort of fairy my minions can get me to unlock different fairy summons since that was the only thing I had unlocked right now. Otherwise it seemed that my little gatherers were mostly collecting flowers. Lots and lots of flowers.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The hour finally passed and I checked my mana again. I started the hour with 31 mana and I now have 92 mana. After thinking about it I regained exactly 1/10 of my total mana capacity. That ¡®Mana regeneration¡¯ option from the upgrade option only gave me 5 extra per hour so that¡¯s the same amount as just two rooms. I feel a bit better about not selecting that upgrade now. There were so many other things more useful. I still picked the most useless one, aside from my sweet, adorable, Buttercup of course. But in the future, I¡¯ll know more about my options as select them wisely. Since I can only afford to summon 3 more fairies now I do so. All three fairies look male and Buttercup was a female so I don¡¯t even bother checking their names and instead just order them to join the other six and help out with the gathering. I decide to use a few points of my remaining mana to spread some cave moss near the entrance. It doesn¡¯t help me with defending or attacking invaders but at least it¡¯s something other than just stone. My whole floor is stone so even I¡¯m a bit bored of looking at it and I¡¯ve only been here for a day. Nothing much happened after that. I just waited a few hours, summoned some fairies to send them away, spread some flowers and moss around my dungeon to give it some variety and then just kept on waiting. I really started to appreciate what Lilly done for me earlier by suppling me with so much mana. Having even less mana regeneration then I currently have would mean I would have to wait even longer between doing things. I might actually listen to her if she comes back. After about two days I no longer got any notifications about unknown items being brought back by the fairies so I decided to call them all back to my core room. I made sure to open all the closed doors so they could come to my core room so I could talk to them. I could¡¯ve not bothered making them come all the way back to my core room for me to do that but I wanted to see how Buttercup was doing and I figured it would be unfair to the others if I only called her. They might not have an excellent name but they all worked hard for me so I can¡¯t call them failures I suppose. It didn¡¯t take long before more and more fairies flew into my room. More than I had thought I summoned but I wasn¡¯t really keeping track. When they were all here, I counted them all. I had managed to summon 84 fairies in two day while also decorating my dungeon. All of them gave of a light glow and together it made the room quite bright. Aside from a few glowing flowers I still hadn¡¯t found a way to light up my dungeon. There was so many fairies trying to get close enough to see me on the ground that to make it easier for those in the back and stop them trying to shove each other for a better by creating a small rock pedestal directly under me. As it formed, I got a bit dizzy. It seems movement is not something I¡¯m all that good at. The fairies stopped moving as they gazed at me with worship in their tiny eyes. ¡°Settle down, settle down. I called you all here to offer my congratulations to you all for your hard work on gathering things we might need in the future. I know it must have been hard to leave our home but if you look around the dungeon, I think we can all agree that it was well worth it.¡± They all cheered at that. I had caught a few snippets of conversation between them and it seemed they really liked when I had spread dirt and planted flowers in random places all over the dungeon. Flowers couldn¡¯t grow on stone so I had to experiment for an hour or two before I figured out the needed to be placed in dirt. The flowers offered no protection but some did give off a little light and others seemed to smell nice and if it made my fairies happier, I figured it would only motivate them to fight harder to defend our home if we got intruders. ¡°Since you¡¯ve all worked very hard and we can¡¯t gain anything else outside I want you all to spread throughout the dungeon. You never know what can happen I want to at least start to prepare for when adventurers will arrive. I¡¯m counting on all of you to defend me.¡± More cheering and a few of them shouted ¡®Death to all intruders!¡¯. ¡°For now, I don¡¯t plan to make more of your kind and will instead focus on giving you all weapons and armor, starting with those born first and working my way back all the way to the last-born fairy. Don¡¯t worry. I promise to give them to all of you but one dagger and one armor costs a lot of mana so I can only hand them out to a few at a time. Buttercup, come forward.¡± I sensed Buttercup make her way to me. When she arrived she looked nervously at me. Then I gathered the mana I needed and summoned the dagger and armor. Below the pedestal Buttercup reached down to pick them up. She even had a tear in her eye. I could sense her pride and joy in being the first one that had been given something from me. Just as I was about to congratulate her, I sensed vibrations from outside my dungeon. The ground was shaking. I tried to sense what was happening but I had a very limited range I could do so outside of my actual dungeon. The shaking became bigger and bigger until I finally saw the cause. A huge wave of animals was running as a herd down from the mountain. I panicked and quickly shut all the doors in my dungeon. The fairies didn¡¯t know why I hadn¡¯t said anything for a while but without an order they were reluctant to leave so they were all inside my core room when the doors closed trapping them with me. Then I got a message from the system that made me scared for the first time in my life.
Chapter 10: The first defense Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Chapter 11: Restoration and gear
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Chapter 12: The return of Lilly If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Chapter 13: Summoning the first Tier 2 creature
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Illona walks out of my core room without me giving her an order to. It must have something to do with being a ''Floor Boss'' I guess. I didn''t get to check how much stronger she became but since she''s my first Tier 2 creature I wouldn''t even know how much being a ''Boss'' boosted her. More importantly, I could now begin to expand again. Chapter 14: Planning the second floor Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Chapter 15: The path down It was finally time. I selected the option to build a path to what would become my new floor and was prompted to select how far down I wanted the path to take me. Keeping in mind the warning by Lilly I selected 10 meters. That should give me plenty of space to build whatever I wanted without worrying about getting too close to my first floor. I decided to make the path down out of stone again. If I could only do a part of my new floor with it, I was going to make it count. A few of the bigger rooms and maybe some really long hallways. Lilly did promise me to supply me with enough mana if I didn¡¯t have enough. Considering I only have 103 mana left I suspect I¡¯ll need it. After I decided to make the path out of stone, I thought that would be it. Normally I would get the estimated mana cost but something different happened now. A new blue box with options.
Please select the kind of path used to reach your new floor:
Sloping path - 240 mana
Simple stairs - 280 mana
Spiral staircase - 400 mana
Well that¡¯s new. I know what a slope is. My entrance is on a slope after all. But I¡¯m not sure what stairs are. Spiral staircase seems related but I¡¯m equally clueless about what that is. All I know is it¡¯s the most expensive option and since I can¡¯t afford even the simplest without help from Lilly I might as well pick the most expensive option. ¡°Lilly.¡± ¡°I know what you want. Are you sure?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re willing to give me some mana, I want to try it.¡± ¡°I said I would. I won¡¯t ruin the surprise of what a staircase is if you promise me not to look while it¡¯s being built. Deal?¡± ¡°Okay, as long as I get the mana that¡¯s fine.¡± I feel mana rush into me. This is so much nicer than having to wait for hours for more mana. I wonder if my Fae can give me their mana like Lilly does? I haven¡¯t really read the status pages of everyone around me apart from their names so I¡¯m not sure how much mana they have but with over 80 Fae I¡¯m sure it will be helpful. I pick the spiral staircase option and I soon find myself drained of much of my mana again. It seems either Lilly can¡¯t give me more or she gave me just enough to build it. One of the walls of my core room started to deform. That must be where the path down will start. Lilly started tapping me quite hard however as I looked at it. ¡°No looking. You promised me, little pebble. I know you¡¯re good at ignoring things if you want to. You did it when I spent all that time telling you names. Something you still haven¡¯t thanked me for that by the way. Not that I expect you to. It would just be nice. Just to let you know. You can¡¯t make your Fae supply you with mana.¡± ¡°Why not? You can, why can¡¯t my Fae do the same?¡± ¡°They are a part of you, made from your mana even. If they try to give you mana it¡¯s just like me focusing my mana in the right hand and then shifting it to the left hand. My body doesn¡¯t gain anymore mana from moving the mana. Just like your Fae are a part of your body you can¡¯t gain more mana from they since they are just another part of you. There are many theories of how Dungeon Cores work. The theory most favored by those like me, those that help and can see all that your kind can do. Is that what you see as your available mana is just a small part of your actual mana. That is the only way to make sense of the fact your kind can provide mana to so many creatures and create things that should be impossible for so little mana. That you can even radiate enough mana to cause it to become denser. All of that would not be possible without a vast reservoir of mana far greater than what can be accessed by the cores. Your Fae are connected to you with that reservoir but that also means any mana given to you by them simply returns to the reservoir. I¡¯m not connected to you in any way so the mana I channel doesn¡¯t go to the reservoir but to what you can use.¡±Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Is that true? Do I really have that much mana?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a theory, little pebble. Remember how I told you about the greatest magics being made by crazy people? Trying to figure out anything related with magic using logic. That¡¯s just foolish. Magic works because it¡¯s impossible and fantastic. Logic can explain a great many things but magic is not one of those things. If you meet a wind mage from the west, he will call out the name of the spell he¡¯s casting and soon he¡¯ll fly on the winds, but it you meet a wind mage from one of the southern continents he will just gesture with his hands and take off in flight. It has nothing to do with how they were thought or the gods they worship. A mage from the south calling out spells like a western mage is just a shouting fool, nothing happens. Just like a western mage that learned all the gestures needed from the southern mages will just end up waving his arms about. Why that is, well, who can really know? I find that it doesn¡¯t matter as much how you can do things little pebble, the thing that truly matters is that you can.¡± I try to take in and understand all that Lilly told me. In a way she¡¯s right. I don¡¯t need to know about mana I have that I can¡¯t use anyway. Or why my Fae can¡¯t help me generate mana. I just need to know what I can and can¡¯t do and do the best I can with it. ¡°Well that¡¯s enough distraction. It seems like the path has been completed. Feel free to ignore everything I told you. It''s meaningless drivel. Now, go and explore your new spiral staircase, while I leave all the books I¡¯ve brought with me here. I¡¯ll head back home now. You¡¯re not the only thing in my life after all and I¡¯m sure that without me you¡¯ll spend weeks building out your new floor. Or at least it should take weeks. Try and understand what¡¯s written in the books and maybe you¡¯ll find some more inspiration. I¡¯ll be back before winter really sets in in a month or so. Remember to save the upgrade points. Thankfully you didn¡¯t mess up this time but I rather not risk the plan on your impulsive behavior again. Oh right. You have no idea about winter, do you? Well pretty soon, the snow will begin to fall outside your dungeon. That¡¯s why the aurochs migrated. They needed to reach lower altitude where they can wait out the winter. It¡¯s terrible further up the mountain in the winter. I know you can¡¯t really feel the cold but trust me. If you could you would not want to be there during a storm.¡± Winter? Cold? So many questions but Lilly was already taking blocks out from her storage bag that I assume was the books she mentioned. Then she left the Core room without saying a word. Once she left my dungeon the mind link ended. That¡¯s right Lilly. Leave without even a goodbye. It¡¯s not like I care... much. There were 17 books in total for me to learn from but that had to wait. It was time for me to see my path down. I once again pretended to not be me and instead something that had to walk to see what was ahead of me. I came to the opening in the wall and found a circular room that stretched down beneath me. A small path to walk on lead to the center of the room where a large pillar stood. Several flat stones extended from the pillar in a pattern starting from the path I was on until the lowest stone touched the bottom of this new room. I tried to imagine walking down on the stones. Aside from the height between the different stones being a bit big for my imagined adventurer I could see myself getting down the pattern easy enough. Maybe my idea of how tall an adventurer is, is wrong? Maybe adventurers were bigger than Lilly? She did tell me tall ones were over two meters and she¡¯s hardly taller than 60 centimeters. Well either way. I¡¯m quite satisfied with my new stairs. If that evil herd of monsters from earlier came in here, they would fall down quite far. I can¡¯t see them being careful enough to get down without falling. Since I still had to wait on my mana to regenerate, I decided to read the books Lilly gave me. Shouldn''t take that long to do. I find them all in the ¡®Floor Accessories¡¯ menu. I haven¡¯t gotten anything else in that menu so I pick one at random to summon. It just lays there. Motionless. After a while I grow frustrated. Where¡¯s the blue box window from this thing so I can read it? Maybe if I move it a bit? Since it was summoned by me, I can at least influence it enough that I can move it around. After moving around a bit, the book finally opens. I was afraid I had destroyed it but it seems the book was designed to work that way. I look down and see lots of squiggly lines. This is horrible. If that¡¯s supposed to be writing I can¡¯t understand them. How am I supposed to learn from these books? If the others are like this they¡¯re impossible to read! Chapter 16: Learning to read This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Chapter 17: The second floor
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Chapter 18: Winter comes
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Chapter 19: Rocks
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Chapter 20: Things forgotten ¡°I¡¯m just trying to make you grow up. So far you haven¡¯t had one of your Fae die but it will happen eventually. You can¡¯t get so attached to them that you try to keep them safe all the time. The creatures you summon only live to ensure that you survive. Maybe forcing you to not summoning them until they were summoned with names was a mistake? It seems to have made you not treat them like what they truly are. I¡¯m sorry if it sounds bad, but your Fae dying isn¡¯t a bad thing. It¡¯s normal. Do you think adventurers will just walk around in your dungeon and let your Fae attack them? All of them will slaughter everything they can inside a dungeon in the pursuit of going deeper and deeper. You¡¯re lucky that you were born in a region that¡¯s far removed from anyone that could recognize you for what you are. It has let you grow up in peace. I know you want to mention the aurochs as something to prove you haven¡¯t been safe here but that¡¯s nothing compared to even a small group of adventurers. You¡¯ve been given a chance to grow far removed from the chaos caused by other sentients. You¡¯re so lucky and you don¡¯t even realize it. You¡¯re even lucky I was the one that got your request for help when you were born. I¡¯m sure most others would just end up spreading news about your birth the moment they got the request and then you would be in a fight to survive relying not on yourself or your creatures but on dumb luck in the hope that no one would kill you before you could defend yourself. I know you¡¯re feeling weak now but imagine if a large group of people came, people that could murder Tier 1 creatures like they weren¡¯t even there and all you had to defend yourself was a hallway with a pitfall and four fairies. Imagine that they had gotten the idea that killing a Dungeon Core could be used for something silly like making the one that killed it a god or something? You would be dead before you even knew what was happening. Instead, here you are. On your second floor. Protected by over a hundred creatures and, if you hadn¡¯t been so caught up in your statue, many traps. Still unknown and able to grow stronger before anything like that can happen.¡± The longer Lilly talked the more my anger subsided. I was still upset at her for treating my Fae like they didn¡¯t matter but I could reluctantly tell she was right. If something strong came for the sole purpose of killing me I doubted that I could stop them right now. Trying to imagine stopping something like that back before I even had a boss on my first floor would be even more impossible. Maybe I had been lucky I was here by myself and that Lilly had been the one to come to my aid that day? I knew so little of the world outside my dungeon after all. There were still a few questions I had to ask though. ¡°If I¡¯m so far from anyone. Why do I need your help? Maybe no one will ever discover me and I can just grow slowly and make my own decisions. I expanded to this floor and got my Tier 2 Fae without your help after all. I might not make perfect decisions but I can take care of myself. Besides, maybe I¡¯ll never be discovered? I could just be unknown all my life as I grow and explore life at my own pace. Without you telling me what abilities to get or how to make my own dungeon.¡± ¡°Little pebble, for your sake I truly wish that were possible. Sadly, it¡¯s not. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve already noticed the local wildlife starting to notice you. As you expand deeper and deeper your attraction will likewise radiate outwards further. Eventually you will be noticed by someone sensitive enough to mana. They will send people to investigate and find where you are. After that it would be all over. They would report that they found an unknown dungeon and people will come to you and slaughter your Fae to eventually reach your core. After that your fate would be in their hands. If you lived or died would no longer be up to you.¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°And how does you helping me change that?¡± ¡°With me helping you we can at least try to guide the people that come here to act according to terms you decide on. We can influence how they see your dungeon. Not as just a place to go deeper and deeper until they reach the core in pursuit of power and gear. No, we¡¯ll make them feel like heroes defending the innocent and maybe even saving the world while they¡¯re at it. Together we can create a story in your dungeon to make you able to tell those greedy and without morals from those that simply wish to help and explore you. Those that wish you no harm, you can leave be since your life won¡¯t be in danger even if they reach your core. While those that wish harm upon you, can be led to their demise.¡± I had to admit it, it sounded good. Being able to tell those that wanted to kill me from those that didn¡¯t certainly sounded appealing. The only one I had met that wasn¡¯t summoned by myself was Lilly so I needed her help to create a story that would let me tell them apart. If I tried it, I was sure to fail miserable at it. ¡°Nice of you to finally acknowledge that you need me even if you don¡¯t say it. Now, I seem to remember telling you last time I was here to do some things I still see haven¡¯t been done.¡± ¡°What? I¡¯ve been so busy on my second floor I haven¡¯t had time for anything else.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you have, but too busy to summon Tier 1 Fallen Fae to replace the others on your first floor? Too busy to even evolve those Fae that you like so much to Tier 2? Too busy to even experiment with new forms of traps?¡± Okay, when she listed all the things like that it sure seemed a bit careless of me. Especially the part about making my Fae evolve. If I didn¡¯t want them to die, they should be as strong as I can make them after all. Maybe spending my time adjusting the height of my rooms and scattering rocks isn¡¯t the most effective way to spend my time at the moment? I should try to do better. I should start by evolving those that can into Tier 2. I send out a summon for all those able to, to gather in my room. 53 of my 84 Fae end up arriving. So maybe I really should¡¯ve evolved them sooner. At least I took comfort that my intention to help more of them be able to evolve by rotating the guards in the first room of my dungeon had paid off. Even Lilly seemed impressed that so many had come when called. I navigated my menu and selected the ¡®Evolve¡¯ option in the ¡®Life¡¯ part of the menu.
53 Tier 1 ''Young Fae'' can evolve at this moment. Evolve all/Evolve specific individual
I¡¯m not sure how much it will cost me to evolve one of them so I might as well select them all. If I don¡¯t have the mana, I¡¯ll just have to spend some extra time to evolve them individually.
Evolving all creatures able to will cost 265 mana. Proceed? Yes/No
That was cheaper than I thought it would be. A Tier 2 Fae cost 50 mana to summon. Even with the cost of evolving it¡¯s only 30 mana each for these Fae. I saved over 1000 mana by evolving so many of my Tier 1¡¯s. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s cheaper to evolve them little pebble, but they have to stay alive long enough to be able to. If adventurers keep killing them before they got the experience needed you wouldn¡¯t have a single Fae to evolve.¡± Lilly was right. How lucky it was that I didn¡¯t have to deal with people killing them. The process to evolve my Fae was fascinating to me. After my mana left me it formed around each of them like a cocoon of light. It only lasted a few seconds and then the cocoons shattered to pieces and in its place were 53 Tier 2 ¡®Adult Fae¡¯ standing. Chapter 21: More upgrades
Mana upgrade (1) Gain 100 additional mana to your mana pool.
Health upgrade (1) Gain 20 health to your Core.
Mana regeneration (1) Gain 5 mana/hour regeneration.
Additional floor (2) Grow by expanding down to another floor.
Elementals Tier 2 Unlock stronger Elementals for fight for you.
Create and set loot when your creatures are killed.
Gain access to more advanced traps.
Stronger doors (1) Gain access to doors that are harder to break through.
Bring life to your dungeon by unlocking the ability to summon more plants.
Respawn your creatures 1 day after being killed at no additional mana cost.
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Gain access to more advanced traps.
Gain access to doors that are harder to break through.
Chapter 22: The prologue So, it turns out Lilly didn¡¯t want the fish upgrade. Something I was made painfully aware of after suggesting it. I don¡¯t know why she got so upset about it. It was perfectly reasonable to think that was what she was after she wanted me to refresh the upgrade options. No, instead she wanted me to invest even more upgrades into my Fae, something I should¡¯ve known. It seems like whenever Lilly wants me to spend upgrades it¡¯s always on my Fae. ¡°What does that ¡®Basic classes¡¯ do that you¡¯re so adamant about getting?¡± ¡°Teaching you can really be a pain, little pebble. I don¡¯t know anyone that would argue against unlocking classes for their creatures. I¡¯m really starting to worry about your future if you really thought that fishes were the best thing on that list of upgrades.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t think that. I just thought that since it was something new maybe that was what you wanted.¡± ¡°New doesn¡¯t mean better. The only use fish are in a dungeon is getting adventurers to stop a while to try and catch them if they¡¯re truly bored. It does nothing to protect you. Anyway. You need the class upgrade. It will make your Fae stronger and after this I promise to not suggest anymore upgrades for your Fae. In fact, after I tell you the story your dungeon can tell that I had in mind, I¡¯ll leave you alone.¡± ¡°How does classes make my Fae stronger?¡± ¡°You can make your Fae warriors to reduce the damage they take from physical attacks. You can make archers to do damage from a distance even without your Fae using mana. You can make healers to heal the damage your other Fae take from invaders. In fact, you should get this upgrade just to ensure you can do what I think you¡¯re planning on doing with your boss on this floor.¡± That confused me. I hadn¡¯t even thought about the boss on this floor. Why did Lilly think I had something planned? I just placed the pool of water there to make it harder to move around if you couldn¡¯t fly. That can¡¯t be a clue to whatever boss was going to be there aside from it being a Fae and I already figured that my first five bosses should be those heroes mentioned after we made the boss on the first floor. ¡°I haven¡¯t planned anything Lilly. I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± ¡°Really? I thought it was pretty clever of you. Using your new elementals as minions of the mage-class boss. It would make a wonderful boss. Most dungeons don¡¯t make anything other than a single creature a boss this early normally. I thought you showed a little potential by changing it up without me even mentioning it. It was the reason I offered to leave you be for a while since you showed me signs that even if you didn¡¯t do everything I wanted to, you could still make it work. I guess I was wrong.¡± What? No! If Lilly decides to stay, I¡¯ll never escape her grasp. In response I do the most sensible thing I can think of right now to ensure my future freedom.
Ability gained: Basic classes (Fae) (2)
You can now make your Fae warriors, archers, healers, mages, herbalists and rogues. Note: After selecting a class for your Fae they will be restricted to certain kinds of equipment depending on the class they become.
¡°See Lilly, I picked what you wanted me to. I¡¯ll even make a mage the boss of this floor. You really don¡¯t have to stay.¡± I don''t even consider what the system meant by restricting what my Fae can wear depending on class. I just nervously hope that my rash action has made her decide that I can be trusted and leave me alone for at least a while. It would be nice to not have to worry about what Lilly will think about everything that I do. I might even find time to finish my stone, after making sure I¡¯m safe of course. ¡°You grow up so fast little pebble, am I really that awful to be around? You wound this old heart of mine. But I suppose you¡¯re right. If you keep your head down so to speak, we shouldn¡¯t have any trouble letting you grow in peace. Especially now when it¡¯s winter. Well then, since you¡¯re so eager to have me leave I¡¯ll just tell you the story we¡¯ll craft with your dungeon. At least the start of the story. You¡¯ll survive long after I¡¯m gone hopefully so I hope you¡¯ll be able to make any future story by yourself. You¡¯ve read all the books I gave you, right? That should¡¯ve given you some ideas.¡± Oh right... the books. To be honest, I hadn¡¯t really thought about them after learning to read. I figured learning to read was good enough but Lilly seemed to think it would help me so maybe I should make time to read them? Either way I¡¯m not telling Lilly that I forgot all about them.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Let¡¯s start the story from the point of view of the adventurers. It will help you to consider them when making up things in the future. Now then. Our would-be heroes arrive at your dungeon and find your dark, fallen Fae. They¡¯ve heard the tales of an evil taking over the Fae here and battle the first group. They see a caged normal Fae and they free him or her. Sadly, it is too late to save him or her. Your Fae tells them that there are other Fae deeper inside, others that the heroes need to rescue. As a final act the dying Fae cast a spell on them allowing them to open the door to move deeper inside.¡± ¡°Wait. My Fae will die? Why? Also, I thought locked doors required a key. Not a spell.¡± ¡°The ¡®key¡¯ is just an expression. It doesn¡¯t have to be a physical key, only a way to unlock the door. So long as you create the door with the way to unlock it in mind you can create wonderful puzzles and other things to force the adventurers to do as you wish. You¡¯ll simply create a locked door that can only be opened with the people in the group has had a special spell on them. Then you create a Fae capable of casting that spell at the cost of its life and place it before the door. That way the key to opening the door is before the door and the system will accept it. You¡¯ll probably be forced to re-summon that dying Fae fast though. The system doesn¡¯t like doors that can¡¯t be opened in a dungeon for an extended period of time. Now, to continue. Your Fae must die casting the spell to set the mood. Normally dungeon mobs don¡¯t die without adventurers killing them and we want to at least plant a tiny little seed of doubt about you. Are you a dungeon or maybe you¡¯re something else? Plus, no one rejects a request to save the innocent from a lovely little fairy. Not anyone with a heart at least. Remember that I told you we would find a way to figure out good from bad people? This is the first test. If they rescue your Fae, it will cast the spell on them but if they kill it instead the spell will be cast on them all the same. Only now, you¡¯ll know they¡¯re bad people that are more likely to kill you. So instead of letting the difficulty slowly rise like you¡¯ll do for the people that rescue the Fae you can manipulate your dungeon to make it almost certain that they die. Of course, if they¡¯re strong enough it won¡¯t matter how much you try to manipulate the odds but at least now you have a chance. After the group that rescued your Fae reaches and defeats your first boss, they¡¯ll find another Fae that was captured by the fallen Fae. Now this Fae will follow the group after asking them to escort it to a safe place for its kind rumored to exist. The Fae doesn¡¯t know where exactly, only that it''s deeper inside. As the group manages to fight their way down the Fae that follows them will start telling them about the fallen heroes they¡¯ve fought. Hinting at some tragedy in the past that caused the heroes to turn evil. Then, after successfully managing to defeat all five heroes they find a small village of other, normal Fae. The Fae of the village surround them but the Fae your brave adventurers have escorted convinces them that these people are here to help. This can be one of the ways you kill people that have bad intentions. Without an escorted Fae the villagers will simply attack the group all at once. Anyway, the group is lead to the leader of the village that tells them this isn¡¯t the Lost kingdom of the Fae the Fae that they''ve escorted there has given hints about. It¡¯s simply a place for those that have escaped the fallen Fae to survive. They¡¯re trapped here. They can¡¯t escape since the mana on the surface is so thin that they would die up there and they can¡¯t go deeper since it¡¯s too dangerous." ¡°Wait. If the village isn¡¯t ¡®The Lost kingdom¡¯ in our story, where is it? I assumed you would make me create it.¡± ¡°I''m sure you''ll create it in the future but it''s still way too soon for that. We or at least you have plenty of time to expand. About the villagers we can just tell the people that make it down to them something along the lines of that the fallen had captured them and sent them here for some reason we¡¯ll make up later, and since they¡¯re only normal Fae and not soldiers the wilderness of the floors below is too dangerous, trapping them here. The fallen doesn¡¯t care since they know they¡¯re stuck here even if they escaped thier grasp. The leader of the village then pleads with the group to find a way to save them. To go into the wilderness and find a way to their home so that they can return to their families. That should be a good start of the story at least. We can work on it more later but at least now you know the basics of it. Pretty nice right? You have innocents that need the adventurers help to get home and the evil fallen Fae they can fight against.¡± ¡°Are you sure this will help me to not get killed? It sounds like you want me to let the people that follow your story just pass through me without me fighting back.¡± ¡°I want nothing of the sort. I guess since you haven¡¯t met any adventurers yet so you don¡¯t know but most adventurers aren¡¯t really that strong. If you only made tier 2 Fae on this floor it would be enough to stop a good number of them. You don¡¯t even need to give the Fae a class to make them stronger. There are those adventurers that are really strong but they wouldn¡¯t waste their time on a newly discovered dungeon. I doubt you¡¯ll see any adventurers here capable of reaching past the fifth floor for at least a year after you¡¯re ¡®discovered¡¯.¡± ¡°You said I was safe once before and I almost died.¡± ¡°That was just a random chance. No way to predict it. You can¡¯t blame me for that. Now, I have some new items you¡¯ll need for your Fae and then I¡¯ll be on my way. Do try to grow to at least be a 5-floor dungeon by the time I return. You shouldn¡¯t need to spend more upgrades on your Fae and I¡¯ll leave a list for you to read with the upgrades you¡¯ll need for our story. You should be able to manage to grow to that size by spring. I¡¯ll come back then and we can fix whatever you overlooked and then I think it¡¯s time to invite your first group of adventurers.¡±