The fae queen pauses to let it sink in. [Yeah, this system integrates the main monster into a dungeon core by making the core ride along through the lives of monsters of that type. How the system knows to stop this is it detects the core has fallen fully into the monster. That is why he is still stuck in it. That core of his identity won't fall. Good for him as he won't lose himself. Bad for him as he will be stuck until an outside force interferes or it overwrites his entire personality. Doyle is lucky to have you because We just submitted the bug report and they have decent response times. This should be fixed in the next couple hours.]
Ally doesn't know how to deal with this. She throws her hands up in the air, "okay, what now?" [Why we catch up of course! Don't think We would let you get away with how long you went without calling. We don't blame you for not wanting to be around the court but that is what regular communication runes are for.] Cornered Ally has no choice but to talk about her life. Not that she doesn't like it but the court nobles will hold it against her. Just another thing to target her over.
Doyle on the other hand has gotten into the stranger range of goats. The system has run out of normal earth goats to show him and so it is all about other-wordly or even other-dimensional goats. It shocks him how many goats end up taking on the fire element. In his opinion that isn't a goaty element. Something like earth sure, but fire is just weird. Best he can tell, whatever dimension the system pulls from had some fire god with goats who pulled their chariot. The number of goats being raised by temples with that sort of imagery points to that at least.
It took well over five hours for someone to show up to help. When they did, it was quite spectacular. The system's designer sent along an intern but their biology didn't match up with this dimension very well and they weren't powerful enough to ignore it. Instead, they showed up like one of those 'ascended energy beings' you would see in earth's science fiction. It first showed up in the queen's court and after they learned the basic details stepped through the communication portal.
The being exists next to Doyle's core and pulls up a system panel. "Yep, there's the problem. Stuck in a life loop. He has gotten deep into it. Though I guess the system is new here and there are few local lives to pull from so having to reach into the backup database would make sense. Okay, don't want to force quit the current life or things could get messy. Going to put a short circuit in the loop before it starts the next one. Yep, right there and he should finish up his life soon enough. And he is done, out like a light as well. He will come to in an hour or so as his core settles. Anyway, time for me to head off. Have a nice day!" and the being blinks out of existence.
The fae queen has watched this all through the communication portal and now speaks up. [Huh, I did not know you could travel through these portals. You learn something new every year. Guess I have something else for my security to worry about. The good news is your friend will be up soon. Bad news is we will have to cut our chat short. You will keep in touch with me after this. There will be no hiding as the mail service delivers to dungeon cores and you gave me his name already.] Ally pouts, "yes mother." They continue to talk for the remaining hour. Though once Doyle stirs the queen closes the line and the natural rune stone crumbles in Ally's hand.
Doyle lets out a long suffering mental sigh, 'I really need to stop this black out thing. This is like the third or fourth time I woke up like this in the last. In the last. Actually, you know what? I have blacked out so many times I don't even know how much time has passed. How long was I out this time and what in the world was that?'
Ally sighs in relief. The intern and the queen had both told her that Doyle would be fine but to hear him and have him sound just like before was a weight off her shoulders. "You were only out for a few days. As for what happened, well congratulations, you found a bug in the system." She then goes on to explain what the queen had told her. "And then the energy guy kicked you out of the loop and an hour later here we are."
Doyle can understand some of what she explains and accepts he can't deal with what he couldn't. 'Well, I have my starter monsters now. Though I think I got more out of the main monster choice than intended. Bet it costs me half of what they intended it cost me to summon one. Now though we need to move on. It would be nice to rest but I assume we are on some sort of clock?'
"Not a strict clock mind you." Ally admits, "but it isn't like you stop using energy. Our situation is like a human stuck in an airtight room. This hypothetical room is quite big and with you not having much to maintain will let us squeeze out some more time. Overall, I would give us a solid eight to ten days of time. Technically, it is more like two weeks but we have spent some time already. You really shouldn't cut it so close to death when you don't need to."
Stolen novel; please report.
"As for what's next, well we get to choose your first path. Though by choosing I mean you get to pick the Dungeon Core path. It will be your only choice and required to live. It is considered a class path. You will have seen on my status page the path Dungeon Companion one. It is a class path as well and shows off their special feature. Instead of cluttering your path section it just keeps advancing when you fill it. When I next put a point into a path there will be the option of Dungeon Companion two with ten out of probably 25 points already in it. My fae magic one path despite looking similar will instead stay on the list with a fae magic two path showing up and starting at zero points in it. One final interesting fact about a class path is they will always be listed first on the list in order of which has the most points in it. Regular paths appear in the order you get them."
"Now to pick your path you call up your status. You should have one path point given to you for taking part in the tutorial up to this point. Select the path section and it will bring up the screen that lets you pick your path. The Dungeon Core path should be completed with a single point." Doyle pulls up his status page.
{Name: Doyle Huxley
Race: Dungeon Core
Companion: Ally Huxley
Paths: [1]
Level: 0
S[6] A[7] C[9] I[10] W[9] P[5] D[12] K[20] L[16]
Skills:}
'Yep, there's a point there. [Paths]'
{Path Points: 1
Completed Paths:
Invested Paths:
Available Paths: Dungeon Core 0/1}
'Very empty but Ally said this was to be expected. [Put a point in Dungeon Core] please.'
{1 Point applied to Dungeon Core path...
You have earned 2 Stat Point, Constitution set to 10, +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, and +2 Destiny
Dungeon Core path completed...
Completion Bonus: Territory Control lv0, Dungeon Rules lv0, Universal Deconstruction lv0, Dungeon Pattern Database lv0, Creation (Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv0}
Ally takes a glance over the screen and nods, "okay, everything that should be there is. I would say as expected but we just had a bit of a snafu so it is nice to see everything is back on track. As a side note so that next time you complete a path you aren't disappointed. The number of skills you got for completing the path is completely out of whack with the norm. Class paths do generally give skills but not that many at once. A good example is my class of Dungeon Companion. For taking it I got the skill tutor and upon completion of Dungeon Companion one I got fae glamor. The fact I got a second skill right away is also somewhat rare. Most classes give one to three skills when taken and stat points afterwards."
"The skills you received are all needed to run your dungeon and that is the only reason you get so many freebies. Universal deconstruction does what it says on the tin. Territory control lets you shape your dungeon how you want to and dungeon rules will then let you make things stay that way. A good example of the two is you can use control to make a room freezing cold and then set a rule which keeps it that way. The rules only let you keep things the way they are. Without control you can make the room stay the current temperature. The control is an active thing so without the rules when you make the room freezing it only stays that way until you stop controlling it. At which point it would warm up again."
"Now we come to the last two skills. Dungeon pattern database and creation with the pattern modifier are special. Creation is easy enough to explain. It has two modifiers, what it uses and what it creates from. In this case it uses energy to make things and what it can create is based on whatever patterns you have. Patterns which will be organized under the, you guessed it, dungeon pattern database. Of course if you get another method to store patterns you can use that as well but for now we can focus on your database."
"Long story short, databases are special collections which prevent crafters from ballooning their path points while also preventing someone from just grinding out nails then making a legendary sword on their first attempt. If you pull up your status panel now the database skill will not be at level zero. Instead it will be, at the moment, the level of your best pattern. Later on once you get a lot more patterns you can level up the skill even if you are unable to improve your best pattern. I don't really know the full rules for that but then again no one really does. It takes everything from how many patterns you know, to how those patterns relate to one another into account. This also means you will get some path points right away. Not that you can use them as even dungeon cores are restricted to a single path during the tutorial."
"Anyway, that is a general rundown of your skills. Each of them have some quirks to them and that is without getting into the concepts of skill splitting, combining, and altering. About the only other important thing to note about skills is the limit. Without a class you can get up to five skills at once. A class path will start let you get five additional skills which fit it. For instance, a warrior could learn dodge and it would count towards his class skills and not his general skills. The only problem is that it is criminally hard to remove a skill and class paths have requirements to both gain and advance. Of course since you received 5 skills from you class it is a bit of a wash. You got five extra skill slots only to have them filled right away. But let's go back to the warrior example."
Ally uses her glamor to create an image of a warrior in leather armor. "Let's take the dodging warrior as an example. He gained his class and filled up all his skill slots." The illusionary warrior goes through a few actions to show his ten skills. "Later on though he gets drafted and ends up on the front line and shoved into heavy armor. Not something his dodge skill would be useful for. When he completes his current warrior path all he can choose is the next warrior path." The little warrior looks happy but then another illusionary warrior appears next to him. This new warrior slaps his full plate armor in glee. It looks to fit much better than the original warrior who now has his face turned down.
"His friend there had almost the same paths and skills. The only difference was he never learned dodge. This gave him the chance to learn the skill for his full plate. Now instead of just getting an ever increasing number added to the warrior path he had the option to instead chose a better path. He was able to receive the heavy warrior path. While not some legendary path it does two important things. One is it resets how many points it takes to complete the path. Along with the fact that better paths provide more stats he will be able to learn more skills. That's right, he gets more skill slots."
"When you open the skill panel, it will normally note how many skill slots you have and of course your skills. The exceptions to this is that skills like your database will expand to show what they contain and when you have advanced a class. The heavy warrior will find that despite the warrior path being gone in his paths the skill screen still lists the warrior skill slots."
"However advancing your class like this is not some easy path to power. While the higher on a path you go the more it costs it also increases the rewards." The original illusionary warrior is now living through a sped up life and never changes from his warrior path. Then what must be years later Doyle watches the scene of the warrior meeting the heavy warrior again. The heavy warrior gloats at the regular warrior and shows a system panel which says he is now a Heavy Chaotic War Infantry II. The regular warrior takes a glance at his class path which is still warrior but it has advanced to Warrior X. They fight it out and despite all the skills the heavy brings to bear on the warrior he loses. The warrior showing greater power and skill in what he knows.
"Some of the most powerful beings under the system have only a single path which they never upgraded. Mind you, this is somewhat a matter of survivors bias so don't think you shouldn't. Rather, the takeaway is that they focused on what they are good at and became masters of it. If you get the choice to upgrade your dungeon core path don't turn it down without at least a look. Read the description and see if it goes with what you believe fits you best. After all, while those powerful beings didn't they are also the oldest beings born in this dimension. All the other powerful ones who did not take just a single path are all much younger. Slow and steady will get you there but it takes a long time and is filled with more danger."
Doyle nodded his core, 'that was interesting. So what's next? I have a path and skills. Do we just start building now?' Ally flies over to a wall and touches it. "This is as far as you can currently see and you can only build in your territory so we wouldn't have much we could do. No, first you need to expand. This will be both easier and harder for you. A dungeon more rooted in their dimension would have somewhere to dig into. You, however are floating next to your dimension in the void between. What you see is all there is so while you aren't limited by physical matters like having to dig down because the surface is above you. It limits you as it will cost a lot more to expand. It is much harder to create a literal space from nothing than convert some that is already there into your own."
"To expand your territory will be one of the few things you can do that is not a skill. Similar to how humans don't get a skill for growing up. The expansion is your natural growth even if you can control it on a conscious level. Now to get this right will take some time. In fact, I expect you to spend the lion's share of the time we have left on this. The first step will be easy enough, you need to sense your territory. Go ahead and give it a try. Meditate on yourself and try to sense not just the material the room is made of but the level below that."
Finished with her instructions Ally settles down on top of his core and meditates while she waits. Doyle doesn't pay much attention to this as he has gone into a state of mediation as well. As his thoughts fall away the first thing he notices is how much he knows about the room. Everything from the composition of the air which is being kept at the earth standard mix to how the walls mimic a lava tube even if they are a little too uniform and flat. But that isn't what Ally told him to look at so he goes deeper.
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There is what almost seems like a breeze but isn't. This too isn't what he is feeling for but after he meditates on it for a few hours, he realizes what it is. This flow is the mystical energies from outside his territory. Weak to the point of unnoticeable. If there had been any stronger stimulus, this influx of energy would have been lost. Now though it provides a clue for Doyle. As the energy comes in from each of the walls, he can sense it slowly be whittled down until none of it reaches his core.
This siphon in the space must come from his territory and so he focuses on it. More hours pass until he can pinpoint where he stops and the material begins. Now that he can feel the difference it is like one of those 3d images where you have to cross your eyes. Even though it is all lined up, he can still tell it isn't one image.
He comes out of his state of self exploration to Ally having just gotten up again. She nods and with a big smile comments that he was, "relatively quick for an intelligent dungeon. Most of the time you lot get caught up on something that blinds you to what is right in front of you. Though it helps that your dungeon territory is so dense right now. You need enough to spread out a good bit if maybe not a full floors worth and it is all stuck in this one room. A small room at that. There isn't anything for you to judge it against so you might not have noticed. An average sized human would need to duck to stand in here."
"Anyway, now that you have a feel for your territory you need to let it disperse outward. Later on you will be able to control the direction but for now an even expansion is more than enough. It is all kept together at the moment or else newly born dungeons would all die as their territory tries to just keep expanding. In the normal course of events a newly born dungeon core would just sit around until the density reaches a point that it explodes outwards. You can't do that as to support your mind you need more energy than you take in. Quite fatal for those who turn into a core without any guidance. But enough about that, measure the edge of your territory. There should be a layer that is denser. You could look at yourself like an egg and now you need to hatch. There is no wrong way so just try a lot of different methods."
Doyle bobbles and then focuses again. He had already felt along the edge of his territory. The room that he was is a perfect square which would help him. His territory was already trying to push outward. While somewhat evenly spread this attempt to move outward gathered more of his influence at the corners. This would be where he started.
Doyle could not move his territory yet but in such a compressed area he would have more to work with. A poke here, a prod there. Try to twist it and twirl it. Though what finally worked was a simple push. The territory wanted to go outward so while the other attempts would make it twitch, a good shove proved successful. This shove at the lower corner opposite of Ally exploded outward. Not literally, the stone stayed where it was, but his territory flooded out.
At first it sprayed out like from a hose but soon this wanton spray petered off. Instead, at the dense border this bound up territory started to ooze outward. Now that it wasn't streaming out so forcefully Doyle was able to see what was happening. While his territory could move through itself any place that wasn't his already would absorb it like a sponge. After enough of his territory disappeared into the void, it would instead become a part of him.
This discovery was almost enough for him to miss the other big change. The burst corner allowed a stream of mystical energy to enter his realm. It was a mix of all kinds of things but once within his territory all these energies soon broke down. Before he didn't notice because the inward flow of energy was so slow but it seemed everything ended up as the same thing when he was done with it.
'Hey Ally, I did what you said but I also have a question. I have all this mystical energy flowing inward like you said but it all seems to turn into the same stuff. Is it all the same or am I missing something? You seemed to be very careful to call it mystical energy or some specific type like mana.'
Ally forms a circle with her thumb and finger then glances through it. Doyle is able to notice a glow to them before she stops though the purpose is clear. She easily points out the opened corner and flies over to it. With her hand flat against the ground an invisible pulse radiates out from her along the ground. As this pulse passes around the room all the territory still caught up in the older border bursts as well. She claps the nonexistent dust off her hands and turns back to Doyle.
"A little of column a and a little of column b. At the moment what you're making is quintessence. All mystical energies break down into it, however the conversion rate is abysmal. You do need quintessence to run your core but that is like a glass of fresh water compared to a sea. That fresh water is needed for a human to live but if all you want is to put out a fire either works just as fine. As all you need at the moment is quintessence, that is what gets made. Once you have some monsters and other such consumers of energy, your core will only create as much as you need."
"Instead, it will reduce all the mystical energies to basic types. Stuff like mana, qi, and prana. Then that will be mixed up nice and fine into what the System will call world energy. I compared created monsters to balloons. Quintessence would be the thin rubber wall while the air is the world energy."
Doyle rotates his core to the side, 'so we can just call it world energy? Because not having to pussyfoot around what to call the stuff would be nice.' Ally rolls her eyes, "sure fine, we can reduce this complex subject with so many implications down to a simple two word label. Sigh, anyway now that you freed your territory I advise you shape it into a ball centered on you for now. Later on you will have to focus in certain directions but territory is your early warning system. That and since your territory forces reality on the unreal it will also hold back some of the void beings."
"At the moment you're too small to be noticed so are safe in obscurity but once you get adventurers that won't last. Once you have your territory expanded out big enough to fit a handful or so more rooms in any one direction, we can continue."
'Bit of a scholar are we? Anyway you can teach me all that later. If I am guessing right that dense layer of territory was a lot more like an eggshell than you implied.' Ally is about to speak up but Doyle continues, 'don't worry about it. Knowing or not wouldn't change anything for me so you want to keep it on the down low. At least part of the secret is somewhat obvious when you think about it though. That dense layer kept bad things out and for lack of a better term my scent in. Now the layer is gone and we need to work at some actual defenses. I won't rush because a stable foundation is more important than short-term safety. Now I should get to work'
Ally settles down on the floor muttering about uppity cores while Doyle focuses on his new territory. At the edge, the density is so low a thought is enough to move it. Much easier than when his territory was stuck in his core room. With this greater control he is able to cast a net out and reign in the expansion. As it is, his territory is shaped like a cube with a water spout coming off of one corner.
Instead of taking back his control Doyle focuses on smoothing out the shape first. A little work later and his territory is now egg shaped but he doesn't stop there. Now that he has the hang of it he pushes his territory outward. At least that was the plan but he quickly stops. Actively taking over territory is quite wasteful. Besides that the void resists him which is more alarming than wasting his territory. Resistance means a clash which might be visible to others. For someone whose only defense if obscurity this is quite alarming.
Not ready for trouble Doyle sits back and lets his sphere of control expand on its own. Soon though he comes upon a problem. There is only enough space for a couple of rooms but his excess of territory has run out. The sphere continues to expand of course. However this is at a much reduced rate as it takes time for his core to generate more.
'Hey Ally, I have a sphere of control now but it is still kind of small. Problem is I ran out of spare territory.' Ally wakes up and shakes her head, "huh wah? Ran out already? Oh right, you're expanding into the void. Takes a lot more to do that so that is a decent size. I guess the first thing we should start on while we wait is to create your first room. You are a cave type dungeon but I advise you control the first few rooms to be normal rooms."
"Because of your type if you order up a room it will end up themed like a cave with rough walls and such. This isn't a problem but forcing the rooms into a shape right now has two benefits. The first is it provides you more room to work with. You can fit more squares on a piece of paper than you can squiggly shapes. Most important though is the practice you will get. Later on such simple manipulation of your dungeon won't do much but at the moment this will rocket your territory control skill's level up into the stratosphere."
"To get started though you need to do a little work first. Normal dungeon cores would simply dig around with deconstruction but you're in a void. That means you need to create everything you want to fill your dungeon with. This includes the rock and air. In fact, if it wasn't for me being prepared you would be stuck with just the rock and air your chamber is made with. Sure adventurers will drag stuff in with them but that only goes so far. First though we need to deal with universal deconstruction. Let's pull up your status real quick and check on your current patterns." They sit there for a moment before Doyle remembers he has to be the one to pull his status up.
{Name: Doyle Huxley
Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)
Companion: Ally Huxley
Paths: [9] Dungeon Core 1/1
Level: 0
[2] S[8] A[7] C[10] I[12] W[9] P[5] D[14] K[20] L[16]
Skills: Territory Control lv0, Dungeon Rules lv0, Universal Deconstruction lv0, Dungeon Pattern Database lv9, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv0}
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{Dungeon Patterns: goat lv9, kobold lv3, assassin vine lv3, shrubbery lv2, vines lv2, horned rabbits lv1, clover lv1}
Ally's eyes go wide at the goat pattern. "Well, there is your silver lining for getting trapped. Most people don't get out of the tutorial with a skill higher than level ten. Not that it is hard to get to ten but the System puts a soft cap on such things while in the tutorial. I bet the pattern gains levels like crazy once we are out of it. Anyway move those windows to the side and focus on the air. Not all the air, just the smallest section of you can and it still is just air. We don't want molecules and atoms."
It takes Doyle a moment, not because it was difficult but because he felt the need to perfect it. There is a breakpoint where his senses go from seeing the air as air and then flips to being a mix of stuff like oxygen and nitrogen. 'Got it.' Ally nods, "Okay now activate your skill Universal Deconstruction on just that spot."
A couple tries later and Doyle activates the skill. For just a moment the space was empty. Not like the void he sensed outside his walls but just a vacuum. Though the surrounding air soon fills in the pocket of space. He can sense the air pressure had dipped but this soon corrects itself as well.
He is about to ask Ally about this but she beats him to it. "You just noticed the air pressure fixing itself. Every dungeon starts with their core room under some dungeon rules that keep it stabilized. But now that you have done that check your system messages"
{Universal Deconstruction level up
Earth standard air mix pattern gained at level 1}
"Good, now do the same thing for your wall. Be careful though as the dungeon law won't replace material if you make a hole to the outside. Just try and skim some stone off the inner layer. This is actually why I had you start with air. They limit the shape you can deconstruct at level zero to a sphere. Once you have an actual level in it though you can take what you want. Now get to it." Some more focusing on Doyle's part and this task is soon complete as well. With it deconstruction gained another level and the volcanic rock pattern is added to his library.
"Perfect, we can start on your creation skill and a room. Imagine a cube of rock about the size of my fist. Small, I know, but what do you expect from a level zero skill? Though once you do create it I want you to focus on your core. I know you can't actually sense it but treat it like you were still a human meditating on your own body."
One perfect cube of volcanic stone later and Doyle has centered himself. While a human he had dabbled in meditation so it comes easily enough but he still can't sense anything. Then Ally interrupts him, "have you noticed anything yet?" With Doyles negative response Ally sighs in relief, "at least you aren't that much of a monster. Genius can only take you so far. Up till now you have picked things up much too quickly. Anyway, whenever I say cube I want you to form another and try to sense again. We will continue until you can sense the change. Cube."
Another cube and more sensing. More cubes until there enough that Ally has built a small castle out of them. Cubes, cubes, cubes and the castle has a nice wall and the start of a village around it. Cubes for the cube god. The entire floor is littered with cubes before he senses it. A single particle of quintessence was being used. In fact, now that he can feel it Doyle gets the sense he could have made the cube a good bit bigger without using more.
Ally swipes her hand, knocking over her castle. "Since you stopped making cubes, I have to assume you got a feel for the energy use and it only took you a few short of a thousand cubes to do it. That was an important milestone for any being that uses energy under the System. Look over at your status and you will see the change this has caused"
{Name: Doyle Huxley
Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)
Companion: Ally Huxley
Paths: [13] Dungeon Core 1/1
Level: 0
[2] S[8] A[7] C[10] I[12] W[9] P[5] D[14] K[20] L[16]
Quintessence(/R per hour): 512/10(.01)
Skills: Territory Control lv0, Dungeon Rules lv0, Universal Deconstruction lv2, Dungeon Pattern Database lv9, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv2}
"Yep, you now have quintessence listed on your status. Also, you're reading it right. You have a few hundred stored out of a possible ten and you only recover one every hundred ish hours. The system might round up there as it doesn't like to deal with smaller numbers for energy pools. Oh, and by hour it means the system standard hour. Luckily what you used was already based on it though days and such go world by world. One of those conveniences built into it as the wavefront of dreams also nudges people to use similar measurements."
"Another thing to note is that your creation skill is still only level two. That stems from you not really creating things so much as just copy pasting a cube. From how I understand it the first level is for the use of the skill period and the second because you have shown enough skill to repeat it perfectly. Now if you make enough stone cubes, you would eventually get a third level and maybe even the pattern. Though the pattern is less likely as the system doesn't really bother with normal shapes. Your either able to make a cube or your can't no matter how much work you put into it."
"Now don't get used to quintessence being on your status. Once you spawn a critter or plant, it will all start to convert over to world energy leaving you with only that last ten points of it. This is fine as your stockpile of it will stick around until you have used it all. Just a little bonus the multiverse gives to dungeon cores when they first open up their territory. Once it is gone though your status will no longer show it as it will just end up as one of the hidden resource pools everyone has. After all, a human doesn't need to know how many calories they have stored up and it is the same with you and quintessence."
Ally picks up one of the stone cubes. "Now there are a few things we could do with these things. Deconstruct them, move them around, or throw them at intruders. What we will do however is combine them with your current walls. Dungeons are known for their near impenetrable walls. In the older dungeons the walls can even heal faster than some gods can damage them. This doesn't come from nowhere."
"There are innumerable methods to store stuff from shrinking the item to some flavor of dimension magic. Dungeons, especially those who unlike you start in the ground, end up with immense amounts of rock. To store that through conventional methods is impractical. Instead, what every dungeon stumbles upon to where it is probably some deep instinct is to compress the walls."
"Because you are out here in the void, you're actually a bit at a disadvantage with this. Many dungeons will form new rooms by starting in the center and pushing material outward. This provides some basic toughness but afterwards most go farther. Some dungeons even go too far with it and collapse into a black hole. So yeah, don't do that. It won't come up for a while but something to keep in mind."
"Honestly, you can just thicken the walls after a certain point, especially since all you have is space. Oh, and the healing thing is a dungeon rule. Get it high enough and low level adventurers won't be able to fight their way out of a paper bag as it heals around them. But yeah, use your territory control skill to add to your core room. These few cubes won't do much but it is a start. Now give it a try."
Doyle had gotten the hang of using skills so it wasn't hard to activate. Though once it was active, he was a bit stumped. To create the cubes was a matter of imagining it, same with deconstruction. Well, he activated territory control and was thinking real hard at the cubes. Ally floats, Doyle floats, the cubes sit.
A little time has passed, when Ally facepalms. "Right, didn't tell you everything you need to know about the skill. All the skills up until now have been very imagination based. You want to make a cube of stone? Just imagine one. Need to remove some rock? Imagine it gone! Territory control falls more in line with another style of skill. They have a lot of different names. Hydrokinesis, earth bending, fire shaping, air control, and so on. What it comes down to though is you are taking a pre-existing object and moving it around."
"Each of the skills have a pre-defined limit. Most are restricted to a material as their names make obvious. Yours is as obvious but the limit is everywhere you have spread your territory. So now that I have informed you of all the details give it another try."
Doyle activates the skill no problem. Though now that he knows what to do he notices something else. When he focuses on his walls or any other feature a faint 3d grid appears. In fact, the more he focuses on the grid the more pronounced it becomes. Doyle looks at one cube and it has its own grid not connected from the walls.
He sighs, 'upside is I won't have to worry about everything snapping to some universal grid. Downside is of course everything won't be snapping to some universal grid. I will have to twitch things back and forth to get it perfect. Though can I make the grid smaller?' As smartphones had taught him, he poked two spots and then pinched his mental fingers.
Good news is he was able to use his skill. Bad news is this just deformed the cube and did not change the grid size. More pokes later only results in a messed up cube. Doyle figures it out soon after though. The grid worked on the same controls his previous skills, imagination. With that he can soon change it up with a triangle based grid and some wireframe sculptures. 'This will be a great help with planning out stuff'.
Done playing with the grid he moves on to merging cubes into the floor. This shift from playing to work definitely had nothing to do with Ally's scowl as she taps her foot on the floor. It seems being able to deform the cube tipped her off that he had figured out how to use the skill. Yes, best to ignore her so he can focus on the cubes.
First, he flattens one. It doesn't merge with the floor so he stops when it has more in common with a pancake than a cube. A couple pokes at the plate just deforms the floor as well. This has the amusing affect where the plate gets raised up like a small table when the room fixes itself. Not merging though so he continues. To be a bit more cautious and not rupture his core room's wall he tries to put two cubes together.
Turns out the skill is still very intent based despite what Ally had said. Likely just a matter of either the system being used or some things being more instinctual for normal dungeons. After all, think of how hard it would be to explain breathing to someone who doesn't even have lungs.
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Once he has the right combination of the intent to combine and the desire to compress the process goes smoothly. One cube combines with another leaving the second cube looking almost the same but with twice the mass. The only visual difference was the grains of mineral in the stone had shrunk. This actually disappointed Doyle, he had liked the courser pattern. A few more combined cubes and he can't seem to stop this change.
After some consideration Doyle decides he could figure out a way to prevent this. However he has also figured out a better option. Maybe later on when his skill levels slower he can come back to this but for now a simple facade will do. He shrinks one of the combined cubes by a smidge and creates a coating of stone over the outside. The test cube now restored to its original appearance.
The test cube does however tick him off and it takes some investigation to figure out why. Despite the cube appearing to be normal the inner and outer parts are still separate. On a human level this doesn't bother Doyle that much but something about his dungeon core side can not stand this. It is easy enough to fix though as just a touch of territory control welds the two pieces together as if they had always been a single piece.
This annoyance spurs him to try something else with creation. It would annoy him if every time he made a facade he would have to go and fuse it afterwards. So Doyle takes a few moments to see if he can create material pre-fused. Though now that he actually intends for it to happen it does. This ease of use makes him question how much other control skills rely on intent without people realizing it but he doesn't have a way to find out.
Plus at this point Ally figures he has practiced it enough and speaks up. "Okay, you figured out how to combine stuff so how about you work on doing so with the walls? It might not be any harder in theory but you have to make sure the material is dispersed. One section of wall be extra dense doesn't do you much good if invaders can go a couple feet to the side and dig through there. So many young dungeon cores fall prey to the illusion that a strong door will keep anything out. Only for them to be disabused of this notion by a dwarf with a pick."
"Not saying your doors and their frames shouldn't be marginally tougher than the walls. Adventurers have the same hang-ups with trying to go through them first as well so a little investment isn't bad. Just don't make diamond doors while you make your walls of chalk or some other silly combo." Ally now having said her piece goes back to using a few of the blocks to build things.
Doyle on the other hand is back to work. Once again not wanting to mess with the walls the test cubes come in handy again. It seemed like he had it down already but a quick test proves him wrong. Up till now he had used cubes of matching sizes so it seemed the mass was evenly spread. However when he compressed one cube down to half the volume and stuck it in another Doyle notices, he was wrong. The only part of the bigger cube that had a greater density was where the smaller cube would have ended up.
He tries to swirl the mass around but that doesn't work. Well, it sort of works except it causes the same mental twinge that the un-melded facade did. Now though he knows what the twinge is and lets it guide him. The mixed up cube seems to be mixed but in reality his dungeon senses can tell otherwise. There are denser sections mixed with regular rock and on some level that just will not do.
Doyle figures since his dungeon side knows what is wrong it might also know how to fix it. He lets go and relaxes. In fact, as he does he realizes this is the first time since he has had his own territory that everything isn't being held in place by his will. A sense of relief washes over him. As if he had been flexing his leg and a doctor had been attempting to get a response from him with that little rubber mallet.
Now that he has let go a few things all happen at once. First is that the facades he had done all melded on a deeper level. Instead of being welded each connection turns into a smooth density gradient. In fact, now that he has relaxed he can tell that those welds he had done were bothering him like the mixed up cube had, just not to such an extent. Speaking of the mixed up cube that was also fixed. Though instead of a gradient the density of the cube equalized.
The most important change however was the one that happened between him and Ally. Before he relaxed, there was a connection but it had felt like they being handcuffed together. Now though it is as if the link melded into his soul like how the facade combined to the cube. No longer is it him and Ally but rather they. Ally was still Ally just like the facade still kept the amazing patterns. Doyle was still Doyle, keeping his inner strength like the cube had stayed dense. Together though they were the dungeon and he had to wonder how some cores went without a companion.
To say that Ally noticed this change is an understatement. She knocks the block tower she was working on over as she sprawls out. She stares at the ceiling in a daze and asks, 'What was that?' Doyle absentmindedly combines one cube with the floor and answers that, 'I relaxed for the first time.' Ally snorts, 'this is a bit more than relaxation, mister. In fact, it feels an awful lot like how a soulbond would. We were already companions so this really shouldn't have happened.' She lazily waves her hand in the air and calls up her status panel.
{Name: Ally Huxley
Race: Autumn Court Dungeon Fae
Soulbond: Doyle Huxley
Paths: Dungeon Companion I 10/10, Fae Magic I 10/10, Autumn's Jester 3/100
Level: 10
S[12] A[9] C[12] I[15] W[7] P[9] D[7] K[18] L[10]
Skills: Tutor lv10, Fae Glamor lv10, Courtly Manners lv3}
They both stare at her status. Ally's race had changed and now with the addition of the word dungeon she was an Autumn Court Dungeon Fae. Along with that the section that had once said that Doyle was her companion now declared she was soulbond to him. They both glance over at his status that was still up. He was soulbond to her as well.
Ally sighs, 'so what did you mean by relax?' Doyle is about to answer when he notices something, 'hey Ally, you're not talking anymore.'
She scoffs, 'of course I am, how else would I be asking you to explain yourself!' Doyle shakes his core, 'no, I mean you're not talking aloud. Before you spoke words and now you send thoughts like I am.'
This gives Ally pause, "Testing" 'testing' "one, two, three." She rubs her head and sighs, 'well at least I can still speak aloud. It does however seem that when I am speaking to you, I use telepathy. Telepathy that I did not have before mind you.'
Doyle frowns or at least attempts to. Instead, his core floats a little lower. 'That doesn't seem right. Testing' 'testing.' He shakes his core, 'no we aren't using telepathy. I was originally and still can but I think this is something different. It doesn't feel different, in fact the only reason I know there is a difference is an instinctual thing from my dungeon side. We are speaking over the soulbond.'
His core floats back to its usual position, 'what I meant by relaxation was until now it is as if I was tensing. Not physically but rather mentally. As I was combining cubes, there was these feelings of wrongness when I did something but not right. Whatever part of me is now dungeon was trying to guide me. It came to a head when I tried to distribute a smaller cubes mass throughout a bigger one. I felt that I knew on some level how to do it and was holding myself back.'
'When I released my control all the little niggling problems fixed themselves. One of those things my dungeon instincts noticed was a problem with our bond. To my dungeon side then and now is the difference between someone having tied us together with a piece of rope and actually being one.'
They both fall into silence after Doyle finishes explaining. As he waits for Ally to say something he fiddles with the cubes, mushing them together and combining them with his walls. After he has taken care of half the cubes Ally finally gathers herself. She lifts off the floor and settles onto his core, sitting cross-legged.
'Maybe', Ally postulated, 'this is how things are supposed to be. Your metaphor of being tied together is probably closer to reality than you realize. No system can create a soulbond, in fact no outside force can do that. Sure there is magic to mess with other people's souls but a bond requires the involved parties to be in on it and do it to themselves.'
'Maybe systems initiate a companionship to foster this potential bond as they cannot do it themselves. Who knows how many dungeon duos have been soulbond? This is something that we can not share with others. The only soulbonds that have been researched at all are those that sometimes forms between twins and never resulted in anything good.'
More silence and Doyle goes back to cleaning up the cubes but this time he finally notices something. There is a change in how he uses the skill. If he had to put it into words, he isn't using a skill anymore. Instead, his use of territory control is like moving a body part were as before it was using a tool. A quick check shows that the skills level has not increased. Still at level four after his instincts had combined the cubes.
As a test he makes another cube and the same thing happens. His dungeon skills are a part of him now on some deeper level. It isn't quite to the point of breathing but if before he had been writing with a pen or eating with chopsticks, now he was using his fingers. Soon though he is out of cubes and his walls are denser.
Ally notices this and continues her instructions. 'Okay now that you have figured that out we can talk about making rooms. First thing is you will want your basic room to be bigger than your core room is right now. A core room will always match the size of the core. Yours is currently about a half meter across, yes the rest of the dimension runs on metric, and your current room is a meter and a half tall and four and a half meters to a side.'
'The sides aren't that bad of a size but the height is much too low. Now some dungeons can get away with it but humans will be your first customers as it where and we want them to come back. Plus you humans are about the average size of sapients in this dimension. There is something about the rules that make it efficient. Though you will want to make the ceiling height a smidge taller, an even three meters for a basic room, as some tank builds end up bigger with time. Not that there aren't bigger sapients out there, dragons in particular have infested every known dimension. You, however will not have to worry about it as your starting point is earth.'
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'Anyway, I want you to set up three rooms. One that is three meters on every side, a room six meters to a side and three tall. Finally a veritable hall at 18 meters a side and of course three tall. There are uncountable ways to make rooms. You, however are starting from nothing, being in a void and all, so you might as well just use creation. Your current walls are very thin and you don't want that. About half a meter is a decent width so create the new rooms with walls of that size and while you're at it extend the core walls as well. Also keep all the rooms sealed.'
'As for where to make them you can't create the rooms floating out in the void. They have to be attached to your structure, another thing easier to deal with for normal dungeons.' Ally pauses for the barest of moments and Doyle take the chance to interrupt her, 'I get it. Me being in the void is odd. You don't need to point it out every time now. I'm not angry or anything but goodness gracious you have been saying it a lot.'
Ally holds up her hands defensively, 'woah there, I just figured you might want to know about normal dungeons.' Doyle tilts to the side, 'really now? And you wouldn't happen to just be very into dungeons? This totally isn't you gushing on about a subject you love and you totally aren't a dungeon nerd?'
Ally lowers her hands and settles to the floor. 'Well I might be just a little bit of a nerd on the subject.' Doyle tilts the other way, 'no complaint from me. I've gotten way into things before as well. Plus you knowing so much about my new existence definitely won't hurt. Just remember this is the tutorial, not the in-depth high level college class. Explain what I need to know now and we can talk about the deeper things later.'
She perks back up and smiles, 'that seems reasonable enough. Anyway, as I was saying, everything needs to be connected. Even a vacuum counts but what is out there is void. Once you have made all three rooms fill them with air. Then use a dungeon rule or two so that they stay filled with breathable air and the walls fix themselves. We don't want people suffocating in a normal room unless it's a trap. Oh, and you might want to just start the rooms with their walls twice as dense. Later on you can improve it but that would be a nice starting point.'
Ally sits down on his core and lets Doyle get on with it at this point. He doesn't start creating rooms right away though. First, he goes back to the grid. When messing around with its size he had tried to get it into measurements he was used to, inches and what not. While that didn't work he now suspects that he knows why. One mental request for a meter grid later and it is proven, the system has metric built in. He can just imagine how some will respond to this. Avoiding the metric system was practically a cult.
Back on task he starts with the width of his core walls. After having how thin they were pointed out to him, he felt practically naked. Doyle begins by upping the density of his current walls to double the norm. One facade of pretty stone on the inner layer later and he pushes outwards. He isn't quite able to create enough stone with one use of the skill but another gets him the desired half meter thick walls.
That done he moves onto the smallest room. He stops though as he considers later having to move rooms around to reorganize stuff. 'Hey Ally, how hard is it to move rooms around later? Do I have to worry about placement at this point?' she dismissively waves her hand, 'won't be a problem for a while. Territory control will let you slide rooms around each other easily enough. You just have to worry about trying to slide one room through another as for some reason that matters to a dungeon.'
Worries quashed he just makes the small room right off the side of his core room. Medium room goes in front of both and because of size restrictions of his territory he places the big room behind everything else. Rooms finished he is soon filling all of them with what the system calls the Earth standard air mix. This is even more convenient than he first assumed as it lets him just start creating it and the skill stops once it reaches the standard atmospheric pressure.
All that out of the way and he is onto the final task to complete the rooms. Using the only skill he hadn't touched yet, dungeon rules. He activates the skill and nothing happens. Well not nothing, he can now see the rules in place on his core room, but nothing changes. Since he can see the rules already around though it gives him a starting point. Not the best as the deeper he looks at those pre-existing rules the more confused he gets.
In the end he gives up on those. It seems like he will need to level the skill up quite a bit to even come close to understanding what is happening there. Doyle does manage to catch a couple of ideas though and proceeds to the small room to experiment. First, he tries to keep it exactly as it is right now but his instincts stop him before it goes through. He dives into this repulsion further only to realize how stupid that would have been.
The rule wouldn't have tried to keep things how they are. Rather it would have tried to put it in stasis, nary an atom moving. Doyle can sense this might be possible in the far future but definitely not now and it isn't what he wanted anyway. Instead of proceeding to the next test though he tests the first one out more. It was taken literally, much too literally. So far the system had easily understood the meaning of what he wanted and not just the rules. This was the first time it felt like a genie's wish or a monkey's paw sort of situation.
'What is different about it? I activated the skill and put my intent into the wish. Though that might be the problem. Not the fact it was a wish but rather while I had the intent my words didn't match it. The system is powerful but clearly not omnipotent. It was like I was trying to make something blue with intent while telling it to make it red. The system probably just fell back on the literal meaning of my spoken words.'
To test his hypothesis, Doyle tried another rule, this time just for keeping the air fresh. In fact, that is all he asked, 'keep the air fresh'. Unlike the first test it worked. He could even notice when focused on the room that it was not quite flowing as if being slowly circulated. This discovery soon led to all three new rooms being kept fresh and the walls sturdy and repaired.
Ally claps, 'rooms complete and you started them with some denser walls. Convenient as the system seems to have set that as your basic room setup. You do have a bit of space left to make a few more small rooms but we can wait till you have more space. Let's work on connecting the rooms together. While they share sides, you haven't opened them up so someone could move from one to the next. For this we can cheat a bit. Instead of cutting each doorway yourself just let the system do it. Think about how big you want the passage and tell the system to connect the small and medium-sized rooms. When you've done that do the same between the small and the large room but instead of a doorway just imagine the wall gone.'
Doyle thinks about it and order the system to [from the small room make a doorway to the medium room and remove the wall to the big room]. With the order input into the system he can feel his skills being used. Not quite the same as it was much quicker than he could use them and all at once. There is now a hole and a missing wall.
Unlike the rest of the rooms though these passageways are rough. The doorway is like someone hacked their way through with a hammer and where the wall had been was even stranger. If the doorway at least looked normal the now meter of ground between the big and small rooms looked out of place. It is as if someone had transported a small slice of a natural cave in between the two rooms.
'This is your dungeon type coming through.' Ally gestures at the rough stone. 'Whenever you create terrain without being specific on how it should look the system will automatically style it like a cave. This design can even be forced upon you in special instances. A good example of this is those space station types you could have chosen. While the inside of the rooms is under your control, the system would force a space station like design on the outside of the dungeon.'
'However these styles are not the end all be all of your future dungeon. As you did with the three rooms, you can design each room. Also, the more floors you get more options become available. With those space station dungeons as an example the later levels allow for them to create attached asteroids and other such features. The strange caverns option you chose mentions a few styles. Ancient ruins, mushroom forests, and even regular forests. Beyond that it inherits ravines and underground lakes from the basic dungeon style. Now focus on your existing rooms and think about changing them to the cave style.'
[Change these rooms to cave style.]
One simple command and everything changes. What was once simple rooms with smooth walls are now caves. As if plucked from the remains of a volcano. In fact, the small room looks more like a lava tube connecting the other rooms.
This change takes Doyle some time to process. While the actual change happened in less than a second it lags his mind out as it goes through each change. The rooms stayed the same size on the outside with only some material flowing inward. This means that he will have to add more stone later but most important to him is it solved his one problem with creation. The only reason he had gone through the effort to create the facade on the outside of those cubes was to keep the stone's natural grain. To put all his work to shame the system just styles it. Doyle can feel how it happened. Can't make heads or tails of what the system did but there it is. Best he can figure is with a few more levels under his belt for the creation or control skill will do it.
Ally is oblivious to his annoyance so after the system alerts her that he has succeeded she continues. 'You can use the styles like wallpaper as well and just color walls like any of your stone patterns. At the moment it bases your style on a volcanic region so lots of obsidian and stone bubbles. A nice starting option as most people expect the classic limestone variety of caves. Might attract more people for the novelty.'
'That aside your territory has expanded. Not by much but enough you could fit another large room to any side. This should be just enough to create the first level. You will just have to spiral around your core. Oh, and by just enough I mean on a 2d plane. My advice and the common wisdom is to keep your floor design free of massive changes in height until later. You aren't designing for birdfolk. Just fill the rest of the area in with stone. Honestly, this is a safer design for you anyway as the voidbeings will have a harder time phasing through solid stone.'
'A good ten to twenty rooms depending on how big you make them should do for the first level. Once you have them setup, give me a heads up and we will continue. Oh and don't open up your core yet. We want that closed off as long as possible.' Instructions done Ally sits down on his core again.
Doyle takes a step back and observes his rooms so far. The core room is surrounded on three sides. There is the medium-sized room to what he has taken as the front, the small room to his left, and the large room at his back. The medium room leads into the small room which acts more like a tunnel to the large room.
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This setup looks fine to him but he feels a bit exposed on the right so the first thing he does is add a medium-sized room except it extends to match his other medium room so half again as long. Though he can see this way of describing the rooms to be confusing later on. While he has a perfect mental sense of his floor, a way to communicate it to Ally would be convenient.
'Hey Ally, from now on I am going to take the small rooms as a basic unit of measure for everything else. Just ignore the core room, going to expand the walls out to match a small room. That means a medium room is two by two and the large four by four.' She rolls her eyes and goes back to reading her book. Doyle does a double take as he didn't notice when she took it out but ignores it for now. He can't read what the title is anyway.
Back to room design that means his new room is two by three. Now Ally had suggested a spiral but Doyle has other plans. Instead of continuing his counter clockwise direction he plans for a more u shaped design. Next room is another large one lined up with his previous but with an actual hallway. By his unit of measure the hallway was two long and puts the new room right at the edge of his territory.
From there he places four medium-sized rooms. The first four to the right and the rest going down with hallways two long and alternating the side the hallway comes from starting on the right. Off the last room a short hallway leads to a small room on the left and then into a two wide but twelve long hallway of a room. A medium room above that which opens at the bottom left and then opens into another large room to the top right. This large room from the center leads to a winding hallway and his final room, another large three above the last.
This brings him to 14 rooms which with the size of them he figures will match what Ally wanted. It was quick to explain but the actual creation took a couple hours to complete. Now ready to show her what he has done Doyle shapes some white and black stone into a blocky representation of the layout. A little C to show his core room and everything was ready.
A couple pokes with the little stone square gets her attention and she takes a look at it. 'Decent layout. Did you have any plans for the various rooms?' Doyle bobbles, 'lots of goats? The long room I made sure had a bunch of protrusions so it is a good place for an assassin vine or two. A kobold tribe at the center might work out as well. Otherwise just goat it up.'
Ally shrugs, 'eh, not much else you can do. Maybe have a rare chance for one of the assassin vines to end up in that twisty hallway to mess with people but good enough for the first level. Now though you are ready for one of the few things the system let me keep to gift to you.' She reaches into her leaf dress and pulls out a small pinch of dirt. With care she places it in a pile.
'This portion of dirt is worthless to anyone else but to you is worth more than any precious metal. More scientific communities have special names for it but don't they always? Don't be a snob and just call it dungeon soil. All it does is turn small amounts of world energy into nutrients. A useful feature for anyone but especially so for a dungeon. While your energy field will feed and care for every living creature that is a part of the dungeon it isn't the most efficient. Dungeon soil on the other hand is specialized for it and for a fraction of the cost keep any plant or fungus growing on it alive.'
'There are of course some plants, most notable is common dungeon moss, that does this as well. However you don't currently have access to any of them. Instead, you will want to put down a layer of this stuff everywhere. In fact, that long room could do with a double coating of the stuff or even more. If you're going to stow your assassin vines in there you will want it to be a veritable jungle with vines hanging down everywhere. Now deconstruct the dirt and spread it out.'
Doyle tilts his core back in exasperation. 'I will but come on. This is a two-way relationship yet you just seem to order me around. Sure you have to give me the tutorial but would a please here and there kill you?' In a huff he takes apart the dirt adding another entry to his database. Ally flies up and backward away from him.
With her hands held out in front of her, Ally apologizes. 'Sorry about that. A lot of this is from a script and I might have fallen into it. However there isn't much we can do about it at the moment. During the tutorial I give the orders because you don't know anything yet. Plus there are only so many ways I can ask you to do a thing before it sounds impolite. Now have you spread the dirt around? We are so close to summoning your first monsters and from what I have heard that is a lot of fun.'
Doyle rolls his core some, 'fine. I can see where you're coming from. Just give me a moment to track dirt all over the place. Whatever it is made of has a butt load of meaning behind it and will take me awhile to place.' Ally nods, 'yeah it does. While no one knows the exact origin of it at this point, it is tightly bound to dungeons now. This is both good and bad. Good, because as a dungeon you have a deep connection to it so will be cheaper. Bad because all that meaning increases the creation cost so high even with the nice discount you get it still sucks you dry.'