《Dungeon Rails》 Prologue & Chapter 1 Prologue Clank..Bang...Clank the constant sound of hammers hitting steel rang through the room. I went to pick up another sheet of pig steel to place on the boiler of the new model that we were putting together, when I heard the yard whistle go off. ¡°Hey Drew! We got some guests here on a field trip mind filling them in on the place?!?¡± I turned around to see my boss an older gentleman that has been running the place for 20 years.Standing next to him was a group of 5 kids and a teacher. Placing down the sheet I was caring I walked over. ¡°Sure boss. Hi and welcome to the repair yard of the station.¡± Wave to the kids and the teacher turned to speak to the kids in a different language. *Ah foreigners not to common to see them here all the way in Ohio, they¡¯re here for a field trip must be rich.¡± I motion to the boss in an asking manner and he grins. ¡°Yes they are not from around here they are from Japan and their parents along with their school allowed them to pick a location for a field trip and for some reason we got pick as the destination.¡± Puzzled but not really caring I turn to look at the kids to get an idea of what is going on , 3 boys and 2 girls all dressed in similar clothes. *Well guess the boss is getting paid a little more than usual since we never give tours of the place* ¡°So what do you all want to know about the place?¡± Directing my question at the kids as i walk back over to one of the trains at the workstation, an older model from WW1 that we were fixing and preparing for display at a museum. The teacher asked some generic questions varying from how long a repair would take to the maintenance of one of the units for a regular work service.After about a half hour of questions everyone at work beside me and the field trip left and we walked to the back of the station to where their bus was waiting for them. Stepping around the side of the bus to see them off I suddenly heard a screeching noise and the sound of a pin dropping.Looking at the bus the world seemed to slow down as the bus exploded into thousands of peices.In this period of time I looked to the field trip and saw a circle form under them and pull them away. *Ok looks like this is it* With that last though i was hit by the deprie and thrown through a window onto the train we were working on and pierced to the engine. As the world fades to black I see a outline of the trainyard glow. Chapter 1If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ~Drip¡­...Drip¡­~ As I slowly wake up I glance around and see darkness, not just no light and you still see the outline of things but I can¡¯t even see my own fingers 2 inches away from my face darkness. *Ok what the hell is this and why am I still alive* Reaching for my chest I suddenly notice that I don¡¯t have any sensation at all in my body. *Shit am I paralyzed did the shrapnel go and break my spine!* Starting to panic now *O man, O god this is nuts who leaves a person paralyzed in a dark room if only there was some light to look around with* With that thought a multicolored light began to flicker into existence in front of me. *This looks familiar¡­¡­.* Taking in my surroundings in the light I notice I have a large pipe surrounding me that is welded to a gear the side of a car on the floor at the edge of it is another set of gears that lead to a lever this is all in a circular room with a metal door on the end. *Is this a round house¡¯s turntable ?* For those who don¡¯t know a turntable is a large piece of machinery used to rotate trains on their tracks to face the way the came from they are also placed in roundhouses to turn them for storage and holding more than one train for service. *Wait a minute where is this light coming from and how did it turn on?!?* Regaining my thoughts (you thought I was gonna say it didn¡¯t you) I try to turn around but light follows me and I notice that I can see in a 360 sight line *Ok the lights coming from me¡­.. can I even look at myself?* We ever I look at myself the light would blind me and not let me look anywhere near me. *Can¡¯t see myself alright but what of outside the room can¡¯t leave it but can I look outside side.?* Thinking those words my vision is dragged through the ceiling to above the turntable. Looking above I see pure stone forming a large room over a building in front of me.A building with 5 large double doors with space for rails leads to the turntable my vision floats over. *So there¡¯s the roundhouse looks like the one from work is missing a few doors but the size of it is massive.* Looking away from the roundhouse I see the tracks lead to a loading dock and train station. The dock had room to load 3 cargo cars at the same time while the station could load about 5 passenger cars. *So a fully functional train yard in a cave in who knows where¡­..* Looking passed the station my vision follows the tracks to a wall. Just a flat wall with the tracks leading into it no rubble telling me there was a landslide just solid rock.Seeing no way passed this I go back to the roundhouse to look around. *What¡¯s this here?* Looking at the center door I see a note nailed to it.
Dear Soul, Due to some mishaps on the citizens of this world you were sucked into a summoning ritual by accident.Unfortunately your body was damaged beyond repair and we were only able to salvage your soul, because of that we had to pull the surrounding area into the summoning.Your soul was then used to ¡°hold¡¯ this place together so the summoning could complete. For our mishap we will be giving you an early ability while your guardian is prepared please you it to help your self thrive in your new life. Signed,Oros,God of Chaos
*So what''s this ability? And what did he mean by guardian* With that thought a blue box appears
Special ability acquired: Summon Golem
*Ok so I can summon golems now? So i just think of it again?* Doing just that the ground in front of the roundhouse began to swell till a statue standing 10 feet tall. The color was plain but the body was formed like a cone with a larger upper torso than lower and hands the size of excavator scoops on the small head housed 2 gem like eyes and in the middle of them was a silhouette of a train in a rainbow color pattern. Thinking back on the end of the line that I had found passed the train station and how getting out of here would be pain, The golem began to move there without commands and started to scoop the wall apart in a straight line. *Welp guess that works I wonder what else is in this place?* Chapter 2 3 months have passed...or what feels like 3 months having no natural sun or way of keeping time screws with your thoughts pretty badly.The golem I summoned is still digging out the tunnel. The letter I read about a ¡°guardian¡± still hasn''t appeared but maybe that''s because im underground? While the digging countinuses I summoned 3 more golems that were smaller and had them start digging through the back of the cave to see if they could find the surface that way .. ironically it took them 2 weeks to dig into another open area of this place, a large underground river flooded the tunnel dragging 2 of the golems into it. Ordering the remaining golem to collapse the hole and dig in an upward slope i found a river leading into a rift in the earth pouring gallons of water into what seemed like a never ending hole.Sensing the 2 golems that were sucked into the current on a ledge about 50 ft from the edge of the waterfall. The water so heavily pressurize shot the golems all the way across the raven onto the other side! Looking around I couldn''t see the end of this place but a cave dripping water into the hole was about 10ft to the left of the golems.Having one of the golems watch the cave the other began to mine the edge to enlarge it. Letting the golems be I begin to push my vision down the rift to see if there was a bottom.Traveling downward for about 40 minutes I located several more ledges that hung by the waterfall that I had come from. *Well this is getting depressing.* Looking down further all I could see was darkness,the water kept going but the idea of a never ending hole seemed more likely the longer you looked at it. While my vision kept going down i suddenly felt a pull coming from above, not like someone yanking on your arm but just a pull on your sleeve to get your attention. Looking back up I heard a soft voice call down to me. ¡°Um¡­. hello? Spirit? I was told to come to talk to you.¡± *Holy shit someone''s here!* Bringing my vision up to the ledge i see a small ball of blue light floating at the cave. *Okay¡­.. I see a light but no ones there.* With that statement the ball bounced in the air ¡°That''s me I¡¯m a dungeon wisp,and i can hear you just so you know.¡± *Ah so what brings you hear?* Swaying left and right the wisp spoke. ¡°I was told by my queen that my partner had been born and I was to meet them¡­. The Queen said that a letter was sent ahead of me .¡± *There was a letter but that must of been sent over 3 months ago. I assumed that it was vague and no one would come here* With these thoughts the wisp seems to look away in shame. ¡°Well¡­.. You see,,,,¡± *Yes? What is it?* *I couldn''t find you until yesterday¡­* Looking at the creature i sighed internally. *So what kept you?* ¡°Well when a dungeon is spawned they are usually in a cave or cavern system before hand this lets their mana have a free flowing action which draws it to the surface, When this happens the wisp or other dungeon caring species will pick up the mana trail and follow it to the core¡­¡­.¡± looking around and over the edge into the canyon below she looks up at where my perspective was at ¡° speaking of which where is your core?¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. *I''m guessing that the crystal that I awoke from?* Nodding at that witch was more like a quick bob up and down ¡°Yes your core is the most important part of you it lets you and everything you control live comfortably in whatever ecosystem it finds itself in. ¡° *So is there something you need from me then?* ¡°Yes I was assigned to be your partner the queen got a message from the gods saying that a new home would appear here and that we were to be the ones to help and take care of it. I was chosen because my age is still young enough to let me bond with another and grow from it. ¡° *So this bond what does that do for me then?* Seeming to smile at me the wisp went on ¡°The bond will tie our souls together and denies the ability to harm one another in any form, it will also let us cycle mana together to help you and me grow much stronger and be able to manifest your will in a larger area.¡± Seeming to bounce it also added ¡®Also with the give of you letting me live here I''ll help you with anything I know¡± *So by doing this you and will be stuck here with me what happens if you die, or by that fact others of your mind come here to try to bargain with me?* With that the wisp seemed to harden over and become solid ¡°Um if I die nothing will happen to you but if you do I¡¯ll die as well , other wisps can make deals with you but the position of partner will never change, so I guess you can say you will be forming a hierArchy in your domain¡± *Okay this doesn¡¯t seem to be downsizing to me and anyway and at least I¡¯ll have someone to talk to¡­¡­ The golems just work* On the last statement the wisp brightens to a sky blue color. ¡°Great to make are pack final I need you to repeat what I say word for word¡± ¡°By the powers of the world my are souls entwine, I now name you my bonded partner.¡± Repeating its phrase a beam of rainbow light shot down from the waterfall and entraps the wisp in a ball when the light disappears the wisp stood in a shimmering light of blues that changes to green and purple like the spectrum of colors themselves. Looking up the wisp spoke ¡°Okay¡­..What the Eternal happened! Why am I changing types!¡± Looking down to it I flatly said *I spoke the words and I light wrapped you and you started to change colors* Getting flustered the wisp spoke louder ¡°I know that! When a wisp forms a bond we gain the affinity of the dungeon we bond to so we can stay alive in whatever biome it creates!¡± Pointing at me it continues ¡°The thing is new dungeons only have one affinity to start with but you have more then one you have at least 3 Wood,Death,and Water I can feel more but they didn¡¯t mesh well cause it the ones closest to my own affinity to become dominant while the other faded to the back to get strength¡± Looking at itself the wisp shot a look at me that made me shiver ¡°Where is your core at? The light came from above but I could''ve sworn it was in the caverns below.¡± *Oh the stone that the light came from is passed the waterfall up in the station* ¡°Can you take me there? We need to finish the contract it¡¯s best done face to face so to speak¡± Following me up the waterfall the wisp stared at the large buildings till we got to the round table and she entered through an air vent to the gear room where my core sat. ¡°An elemental core¡­¡­¡­...HOW THE HELL IS THIS POSSIBLE!¡± *Well what¡¯s so special about an elemental core?* ¡°Elemental cores are the starting point for all of the high races depending on their growth and color they can produce a permanent race that can rival the others ! The high races are The Fae , Dwarves,Elves,Humans,Dragons,and the Beastfolk. Theses races can use high magic and other rare talents to rise above the others. Of course it does not make them immortal but the race will never pass into the dust of history but he constantly reborn even if the dungeon dies.¡± *So does that mean I can create those races then?* The wisp laughed ¡°No, no you can¡¯t but you have the potential to make a race that can stand amongst them as equals.But enough of this talk for now let¡¯s finish our bond with the final part.¡± Flying over to my core it spoke again ¡°With the sealing of our pact we name one another for my these names ring forever in our hearts, I name you Ether ¡± looking towards me she motioned ¡°now what¡¯s my name?¡± Thinking of her actions up till now i decided *Your name will be Cera* The light gathered around us both and my rainbow light diminished and her body grew, gaining an outline of a 2 cm tall girl the wisp spoke again. ¡°I¡­.I evolved?!?¡± Looking at itself closely it continued ¡°I¡¯m a phantom dungeon wisp now ?!? How the¡­..¡± Finally looking back at me ,¡±Oh right a elemental core would have this effect¡­.¡± *Mind clueing me in please?* Floating closer to my crystal it sighs ¡°You see when caretakers bond at a young age if the crystal is strong enough it will force an evolution to happen so the caretaker can keep up with the abundance of mana the core produces.¡± *So mind telling me what this mana dose?* Tilting her head she motioned to everything around her. ¡° I¡¯m assuming it because no one told you but cores are one of the only things that can produce mana from the world, they pull the life force from everything around them and compact it till it almost becomes a solid and then release it into the surroundings to see and touch. It¡¯s more or less a by product cores make when they grow that helps the world and makes it well¡­ magical¡± raising her hands in the air at the last word she smiled. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 *So your telling me I produce mana? Can others do this? And how do I use it?¡± Hearing my questions Cera stood tall and started to enlighten me ¡°Well you see dungeon besides gods and ancient beings, natural produce the most mana from their environment most of the three produce a certain type. Gods produce celestial and infernal mana the most based on their role in the world ancient ones which are mainly the oldest in the world some even before the gods arose produce one of the main types of mana witch are earth water fire and air, Dungeon are said to have spawn the ancient ones and produce all types of mana including the ones I¡¯ve stated along with dark,light,soul,time, and finally space.¡± Floating around the room touching the walls she continued ¡°Now your second question is a little tricky. For most races besides dungeons and gods, they consume the mana you make and then with the effects of their spells and skills they release the essence or life force back into the world where you then again can collect the essence and produce more mana.Gods use this mana to perform miracles and great events they can produce mana on their own and rely on followers to pray to then to make mana.You on the other hand can pull it from the world itself to gather into mana.¡± Looking in my direction she smiles and points at me ¡°Dungeons can make their mana do many things the one you seem to have done unintentionally is expand your domain this takes time as mana likes to gather at lower points before rising making the closest place to your core the densest overall.The only odd part is that your core is above the raven where i met you so the mana is traveling down your tunnel into the river where it is dragged to the bottom of the raven. For now i want you to focus on the raven and tried to imagine a wall formed about twenty feet down from the edge where we met.¡± Taking her words I began to imagine a sort of bubble at that point and suddenly lost vision into the bottom of the raven as it turned completely black like i was blind again. Going back out the tunnel to my raven she looks and preens down the raven. ¡°Good job this will help you for now the cave I flew through is pretty long so that will be where we start your dungeon. Try pushing your mana through that cave and lead it to the surface.¡± Doing as she said I began to see a small creek leading up the cave after about and hour i was able to see about four miles up the cave following the creek I saw many types of moss some fish and even small insects.The cave seemed to open up every once and a while forming large pools of water where the fish conjugated.After another two miles of this, I finally saw daylight. When the mana touched the edge of the cave i felt a sudden shock rush from the opening to my core. *AHHHHH* screaming as the blot of the backlash hit me Cera yelled. ¡°It''s going to be okay! That''s just your core adjusting to taking out side essence into your body all dungeons have this happen to them.¡± As the pain disappeared she looked over my core and sighed *What was that?*Groaning as i looked at Cera ¡°What you just felt is what all dungeons feel when expanding their dungeons. Dungeons cores can expand into the surface world if they already have a formed a functional dungeon.So you know a functional dungeon consists of at least one complete floor which include at least five mobs and one boss which is a mob that is stronger than the others.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. *Really mobs? They even use that term here for real, I never thought that was possible. * ¡°Oh so you know that word? About 2000 years ago a hero started calling monsters that and everyone just followed.¡± ¡°Yeah where I came from people used that term to shorten the saying Monster Or Beast , it was a gaming term when you had to fight something to continue,or just to describe a large group of them * ¡°Huh makes sense I guess most dungeons won¡¯t let people go to the next floor without beating the boss it controls the death count soothe gods don¡¯t get angry at them for killing large groups of adventures to quickly.¡± Waving her hands dismissively ¡°Anyway we need to decide on your starter race of course you don¡¯t need to use it but it will have a chance of growing quicker than any other race that appears in your dungeon¡± With a wave of her hand a large blue box appeared
Starter Races
Goblin One of the weakest of the sentient races goblins can learn many tactics and use weapon (Quick breeders)
Kobold Lowest level of the draconic races they have little wisdom but as their bloodline thickens they will become wiser and stronger (Medium breeders)
Imp lowest form of demonic races performing hard work to please their evil masters they will try to swindle other races into working for them(Medium breeders)
Fae sprite Ranging from the elements sprites have a long lifespan with a low power to start but when they get older they produce nearly twice as much mana as other races (Slow breeders)
Slime Low intelligence slimes can eat almost anything ,left unchecked they will take a region by storm (Quick breeders)
Plant Starting plant monsters vary on the biome the dungeon starts with, this can cause the choice to be unreliable(Varys on breeding)
Animal Any animal that has entered the dungeon is classified under this category after capture they have a higher chance of becoming beasts or monsters (Varys on breeding)
??? A CHOICE GIVEN TO ELEMENTAL CORES , THIS CHOICE WILL BE RANDOM OR A COMBINATION OF THE OTHERS CAUSING A NEW SPECIES TO BE BORN OR VARIANT OF A CURRENT RACE. WARNING DEPENDING ON THE RESULTS RACE MAY NOT BE MADE TILL THE DUNGEON REACHES A CERTAIN GOAL.
Peeking over the blue screen to look at the options Cera¡¯s eyes go wide. ¡°Sooo¡± Looking up at me she seems to smirk ¡°You going to pick the ??? or do I have to point out the obvious?¡± *Really you think I''m going to pick that? It sounds like a scam if I''ve ever heard one* Puffing her cheeks she retorted ¡°Just because it sounds off doesn''t mean its bad , most of the other choices can be grabbed naturally with those races wandering into the dungeon this choice is only given to your type of core just pick it !¡± Fine if you are going to keep insisting I¡¯ll pick it Focusing on the choice a large roller wheel appeared before us and began to spin. After a few moments it stopped on a selection of words Imp,Fae,Animal With that another blue box appeared
Congratulations you have rolled a new combination of race traits please think of a race now if one is not thought of manually we will pull a race design from your subconscious.
I have no idea what it make of this how are you supposed to think of something so quickly? The box changed
User is unsure will now pull design from subconscious¡­.. Race design found will now show traits and name of new race Race Yordle Average Height 3ft Age range up to 300 Magic capacity High Physical strength low Intelligence high Yordles are a small race related to the fae with mixed blood of imps and small beasts they have evolved a race where the males have a more beastly look with fur growing on their bodies. This causes the race to have a diversion between the sexes. Females are more inclined to magic while males have a higher endurance. With the limited knowledge of the elemental core that brought this race into existence the race will have a base of a female dominated society. This race is too strong to be created now they will be born when the dungeon has 5 floors. The race will have the goal of reaching the bottom floor of the dungeon to unlock the rank of high sentient race to join the likes of humans,elves, etc. Warning this new race will affect the dungeons grow through their myths and legends this will make other high elemental cores may make contact with you to fill out the gaps the new race make while they interact with other races belonging to theses cores or gods.
Well I feel like this might go bad for me¡­¡­ Not really have objectives given to you will help you grow in strength causing you to grow quicker and larger with the higher influx of mana coming to you from the race but considering you need to make 5 floors before they start to show up in the world might make it difficult. Also what¡¯s a ¡°Yordle¡± , is that a race from your old world?¡± No it¡¯s not a real race like a living one but a race from a story that was made from a game. It¡¯s kind of hard to explain without knowing what a computer is, so I¡¯m not going to go down that rabbit hole to explain all of it. ¡°Your old world is weird ¡°going down a rabbit hole sounds like something a fox would do.¡± Chapter 4 *Okay enough of this for the moment we can¡¯t even create them anyways yet until I make five floors so how do we do that you said each floor has to have five regular monsters and a boss right do I need to make a certain number of rooms and how do I carve those out do I just use the golems I have or is there another way?* Putting her hand to her lips she says ¡°Well you could let the golems do all the digging but it would take longer for you to do it that way. Alright you know that feeling when you pushed your mana to the entrance I want you to now push it into the rock surrounding the tunnel and go till you hit any ore vanes. Typical ore you will find is copper and iron but gold might show up we are in the mountains.¡± Following her advice I began to push the mana I was using to see into the rocks when the walls absorbed my mana the color changed to a lighter brown as it pushes further. After a few hours of this, I stumbled along a small copper deposit. *Okay I found a deposit of copper what do I do with it?* Sending her own mana out into the wall I indicated had the ore she nodded ¡°About twelve feet into the rock before a vein huh ? Not bad I guess too bad about the other types though we will just have to make veins of them after we get some samples off of weapons and jewelry.¡± ¡°Well to begin with just study the copper till you have a high level of understanding of it once your done you can either leave it there or completely absorb it to make more of it later. Once you know the pattern for it you¡¯ll be able to make an infinite amount anyways. Most of the time the sentient races come to dungeons for this kind of stuff.¡± After about an hour of studying the base compounds of the copper I was able to make a bar d of it appear in front of Cera. Knugging if with her foot ¡° well that didn¡¯t take too long I¡¯m surprised you were able to refine it to pure copper though.¡± ¡°I guess we might as well get into how you make monsters to protect yourself and me¡± Flying over to a wall in the cavern she grabbed a spider off of it as it flailed in the air she continued to speak. ¡°Dungeons mainly survive by making it monsters and traps to use to fight invaders since your core is too new you don¡¯t have any minions besides that golem skill you were gifted, golems while powerful are limited in their action so unless you can make them truly sentient the won¡¯t move till you command them making it much more difficult for a dungeon to survive trying to split it focus into multiple monsters that require complete control to fight at top performance. Making monsters with base instincts is better and they let you still control them but they have a base survival level that lets them know if you die and they are still in the dungeon they will die too.¡± Holding the spider up to my line of sight she motioned ¡°Just like how you made the walls absorb your mana feed it to the spider to make it into a monster. Now be warned some monsters won¡¯t obey you if the have some intelligence ,this spider might so first you either need to kill the animal or monster or force it to submit to your will beforehand. ¡° Trying to connect to the spiders mind to speak to it all I got were pieces of it killing small insects. Sending an image of the insects it killed but many more in number the spider froze as it took in the sight. After a moment the connection to the spider became clearer and the desire for the insects I showed was strong ¡°Well the spider has calmed down so I guess you bonded with it?¡± Cera hinted at *I think so I gave it an image of food being in abundance and it sent back a strong desire for it. * Looking down at the spider she had placed on the ground she noticed how it acted like a small puppy waiting for a treat. ¡°Well gaining its obedience by an offer of food is one way but just remember though the spider is expecting food. When a creature makes a deal with a dungeon or is born of it the need for food and water disappears for as long as they stay inside of it. It makes them last longer than starving or going cannibal on the other inhabitants.¡± Glancing up at my sight line again ¡°Well give it a small amount of mana and push it into is body we will need to make base mobs before a boss can be made so they have a hierarchy.¡± Pushing a small amount of mana into the spider it began to shake slightly. Growing to the size of a dog the spiders legs became robust with a tinge of flexibly to them the body of the spider became darker and looked to be made of rock forming a crude outline of a bolder sitting in the tunnel.the eyes of the spider formed a pair of two squares on the sides of it face its fangs grew wider as a smaller second set appeared below them being longer than the top set. The spider stood up seeming more intelligent than before scanning its surroundings before hunkering down in the corner of the room to wait. ¡°Okay that looks cool. Cera quipped. I think it is an ambush predator seeing as it went to the corner to wait for food. Kind of looks like a large rock.¡± ¡°Why not give it a command to catch more insects for you , that way you can make mobs out of all of them.¡± After giving the large spider the order it walked off into the tunnels to catch anything. ¡°Well since we have that going why don¡¯t we start by making some rooms while we wait for the spider to comeback.¡° Pointing to the walls she smiled. ¡°You do this kind of like how you made the spider grow take the mana you pushed into the rocks and tell it to move till you have enough space to build what you want.¡± ¡°Now a good thing to know is that once your mana seeps into the stone it will naturally spread away from you giving you more control because I had you sink your mana into the whole tunnel the spread will be slow but continues just know that you can stop the mana the same way you made the bubble on the entrance. ¡±Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. The spider wandered off down the tunnels to look for prey, following Cera¡¯s tips I enlarge the tunnel we were in into a set of 5 rooms making them completely dry except for the stream that was flowing down the middle thinking about it I decided to lower the surrounding ground around the river making a large swamp that spanned the first five rooms in the fifth room I expanded the bottom making a large pond that was about forty foot deep. At the back of the room the rivers current went into the wall and flowed into the rest of the tunnel.by the time I finished this task the spider had killed a variety of animals including a frog and a catfish somehow! Lots of insects died too so there was now a great range of animals I could turn into monsters. Putting the catfish into the pond I made on the fifth room I add mana to its body causing the catfish to grow from a mere two foot long to a whopping fifteen feet long with it was the size of a bear it¡¯s whiskers on its face lengthen to about six feet growing large barbs on the side giving it a sinister look. Filling the rest of the swamp I made with other smaller mobs made from the insects, I turned to look at Cera *So how does it look?* Flying around the level she seemed to be impressed. ¡°Looks good you have a great range of mobs here I see you didn¡¯t use the spider though.¡± Glancing down past the fifth room the spider was heading towards the raven to look for more food. *I didn¡¯t think it would like to live in the swamp most of the floor is covered in water that would go to my waste if I was still a human.* Small mounds protruded out making island chains where the land based mobs scurried about those who couldn''t claim one fled to the ceiling or deeper into the dungeon.Plenty of water based life has flowed into the cave now making the types of non mob food swell so I thought it could go scout out the raven for use.¡± ¡°Guess that works,¡±she said while crossing her arms. ¡° Make sure you grow some plants in here too even if they don¡¯t need light they can still thrive because of your mana , Also don¡¯t be afraid to experiment and find different combinations. ¡° With that the water filled rooms and tunnels began to burst with flora causing the insects to chirp and sing finding a stable food supply. The catfish sat at the bottom of the pond awaiting for food or some of the larger insects I made and random depree coming into the cave After I was satisfied with the look a blue box popped into my vision Congratulations you have completed your first floor! By making it an ecosystem you have succeeded in making an essens generator. Be warned by producing more mana you will cause other races to come to investigate the new source, dungeon cores though rarely found are considered a high mana compound these newcomers might try to use your core for their own personal use. Reward dungeon mana may now leave one hundred feet from any entrance granting vision for the core ¡°So you got a reward huh?¡± *Wait can you see the box too?* Nodding she pointed at the box ¡®Yeah most dungeon wisps can see their bonded partners quests and rewards it helps us make sure the core is on task we can also give quests to the core that have the core complete major tasks.¡¯ Another blue box appeared You have received the quest Birth of a new Race with your base race design made your wisp has decided that it is one of your top missions completing this will grant you one mana seed. *What¡¯s a mana seed?* ¡°Mana seeds are a reward dungeon wisps can give it will have one of a 100 rewards inside that can be a new mob or material for the dungeon.¡± *Soo more gambling huh?* ¡°Eh most dungeons have a large dosage of greed so the gods and us wisps figured it was a good way to keep them in line. Also mana seeds are the highest reward wisps can give. There are other rewards so never feel like you collected all of them.¡± She said matter of factly Digging a little ways down the tunnel from the end of the first floor I extended down and form a second floor giving this one a maze like structure I created ten rooms with paths leading back to the first room,the rivers flowed through all of them leading to holes in the walls where the water would regroup in the final room and continue to flow through the tunnel. *Hmm maybe just continue with the maze design for now but what to put into the second floor* Placing many different types of plants down all over the maze I noticed a plant that looked like it had a maw on the tip of it. Thinking of a certain plummer I placed the plant in the final room and fed it mana with a certain image in mind. The plant shook as its maw expanded to the size of a small car and its stem expanded spawning more off shoots growing smaller maws the size of a large dog. The roots of the plant burst from the ground and rushed up the small holes in its room leading to the other rooms there it grew another head the size of a cat. ¡°Well that looks interesting what kind of monster is it?¡± *It¡¯s called a carnivorous plant jaws variation. It seems to have an ability called main body hydra.* ¡°Oh! I know that ability it¡¯s named after the beast that created it hydras are a multihead giant lizard that can regenerate its heads after they are cut off.Im assuming main body means as long as one of the extra heads are alive the main one will grow back.¡± *So it¡¯s able to live forever? that seems overpowered.* ¡°Eh not really if the body is too damaged it won''t be able to regrow the head, lots of different types of magic can stop it as well so it''s not invincible.¡± The new boss plant quickly took over the rest of the room causing its roots and leaves to block the tunnel leading further down to the canyon. ¡°Seems like your boss mobs have the right attitude, they instinctively cover the exit so they have to be fought to continue.¡± *Oh yeah, I read a lot of books in my world and in those stories people would run by the bosses to steal the better loot so the first floor forces them to fight to find the stairs down I think the way it show is gonna turn some heads.* ¡°Well I wouldn¡¯t build anymore floors for now too many after a dungeon is born causes people to be scared and possibly want to destroy or seal the dungeon for being advanced for its age. For now cause a cave in after the 2 floor boss and fill it with water as well this will make it nearly impossible for mages and average people to continue.¡± *Isn¡¯t that just as suspicious* ¡°Nah most of the intelligent races think it¡¯s because the core is scared and think the next room is the core they won¡¯t try to get in because if you die the loot never appears again.¡± Dropping the tunnel after the second floor boss I filled it with boulders and raise the water level up to match the second level. ¡°Okay your first two floors are done now you can continue building or we can work on the entrance.¡± *Do I need to do the entrance don¡¯t I want to stay hidden?* ¡°Nope.¡± She said with a pop at the end ¡°Dungeons that stay hidden usually get killed for their core by a dark guild because no one else knows about them. The more groups that find you the better¡±. *Okay makes sense. Anything I should do to it beside make it open like the tunnels?* ¡°Make sure the water flows in still , Oh maybe a tunnel from the source that will feed no matter what happens outside would be good.¡± Sending my sight out of the cave entrance I was able to see a large pond directly in front of the tunnel entrance to the left and right of the entrance was a cliff that must of went up fifty feet or so in the shape of a crescent moon the cliff lessened till there was a spot on the other side that was slightly higher than the tunnel. *Guess I¡¯ll make the cliffs steeper so no one can com from behind.* Evening the cliff to a flat wall and curving the rest to the pond like a large broken bowl I decide to raise some pillars out of the water big enough for one human to stand on placing them about six feet from each other it took twelve of them to reach the other side. Outside of the cliff face I could see about twenty more feet to the beginning of a forest , nothing ¡­¡­. nothing at all total darkness. *Hey Cera where are we exactly?* Fluttering over to my core she peered into it. ¡±Well location wise we are on the northern continent real far to the top in the mountain range called Spine of the Giant. It''s an old belief that this mountain range is actually a corpse of a giant and that why it sucks up all the mana in the area no races live up here but adventurers will come here for resources and training.¡± *Wait a minute it sucks up mana? Doesn¡¯t the ground already do that and why a Giant?* ¡°Well the ground here sucks up more mana because littering this place are stones call Grim Touch they are pure white and negate magic so a lot of people¡¯s magic skills fail here because they drink up the mana used in the spell¡± Putting her hand to her chin ¡°the giant part I think is because of what it looks like from the south. The mountain range looks like a giant was toppled and the ribs and the spine are all that remain also grim touch is believed by shamans to be the fragments of the giants body.¡± *Will anyone even come up here because of the danger? Am I even safe I literally make mana.* ¡°Your fine she said waving her hands grim touch only absorbs mana you feed on essence so your fine. People will come once you show yourself the races are drawn to mana for wealth and power they¡¯ll come¡± *Okay so now what? how do we get people to come I know you said earlier that just by having the entrance that people will come but any other way?* ¡°Well you do have a lot of extra mana packed into the dungeon¡­. I think if you let half of the mana you have into the air the signal will be much stronger. ¡° Pushing the mana to the entrance I released it all at once causing a pillar of white to shoot up into the sky Cera slowly turned to me. ¡°You did not just do it all at once right?¡­¡­..¡± Feeling like sweating for the first time since arriving here i replied¡­¡­. *I did what you told me to¡­* ¡°Well shit instead of a slow signal now you just dropped a bomb! People on the other side of the world will probably feel that!¡± pacing back and forth ¡°We got to get ready!¡± Chapter 5 (Part 1) *So how much time do you think we have?* After flying in circles for over half n hour Cera stopped and started panting on the floor. ¡°I...huf¡­....don''t know...huf¡­...maybe a month or so.¡± Floating an inch off the ground after catching her breath. ¡°Maybe more like two months we are really far north. *Okay then we have time to get ready is there any¡­¡­.* freezing in the middle of my question my vision cuts in and out. ¡°Any? You can''t just start talking and then cut off whas up is something happening?¡± *Somethings cutting my connection to a golem I had running.* ¡°Where is it?¡± *There is a tunnel in the room above me that i had it digging.* Flying through the vent shafts above me Cera zipped down tunnel the golem had dug. ¡°How long has this thing been digging?¡± *I don''t know. Mabey about a month, 3 month before you arrived, I summoned it the day i came to this world.* Coming to the end of the tunnel Cera saw that the golem had dug through the mountain and out the other side. Standing less than ten feet from the exit it had made the golem had fallen face first into the ground unmoving.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Huh looks like it left your influence and stopped working.¡± Landing on the back of the golem she lightly kick the back of the head. ¡°Yep no mana left.¡± *I thought I could use my mana at least one hundred feet from any exit why did it stop here?* ¡°That''s only for exits that you have designated, I''m assuming because i showed up and the building of the dungeon that this thing was running on autopilot.¡± Looking around her mouth dropped open. ¡°This place is huge, I never knew a place like this was hidden inside the mountain range!¡± Designating the tunnel as an exit the darkness surrounding the tunnel shrank back. When the darkness stopped my eyes bulged. What it¡¯s¡­.. it¡¯s all in the open. On both sides of the tunnel snaking up to the sides of the mountain were vanes of minerals of black stone leading about forty feet up. What is it? If I had a guess it¡¯s coal Looking at it with a bored expression ¡°oh well that cool¡± *Do you even know what coal is?* Nodding her head ¡°it¡¯s the stuff amateur blacksmiths uses because they cant find any magic ore deposits.¡± *So there are better things to smelt with?* ¡°Yep. Coal is about the lowest of the low only new or poor blacksmiths use it.¡± Concentrating on the coal I memorized the patter with that done a blue box appeared in my vision.
Congratulations you have found the base power source for multiple structures in you dungeon. Once they are powered you may use them,the amount of coal required to start up is 100 tons.
Amount collected or produced 0%
Making the golem scale the hill it scraped off a sizable amount of the coal and dropped it into the cave. The counter in the blue box went up by 1. *Well looks like it¡¯s time to get to work* ¡°Damit! Not more digging¡± sighed Cera