《Dungeon Divided》 Prologue: Collision Course Dungeon Divided Prologue: Collision Course The darkness gave way to light, and the light to dark. He could remember dying, not much of what came before; his memories lost to time and decay, but his death was as clear as cut glass. He remembered pain and then warmth and then cold and the cold continued. His body fell away while whatever was left, be it the mind, the soul or some fleeting hope drawn upwards into the unknown. He remembered fear, and panic, and pain; lots of pain. He called away, his soul dragged to the very corners of the universe, the edges of reality. Galaxies passed him by, as he drew ever closer to the edge of existence itself. He felt music dance upon his skin and heard the light of colours blasting through his ears as any conceptions of physical form melted away before him. His mind was subjected to a dreamless sleep of ages waiting for the next page of existence to turn. He was without time or space or matter, he existed in a place beyond the bounds of anything he knew or could comprehend, a human soul adrift amidst the seas of possibility. He saw stars born and watched them die, the cosmic wheel, the ebbon flames, the wild roaring of time flailing in the hands of physics, and slowly he slipped through the hands of fate and continued unknown into the light. The light gave way to darkness, and the dark to light once more. The pattern continued faster and faster, until he could no longer tell the two apart, the dark, the light, dark, light, dark, light... Dark... Light... Dark... He had no eyes or hands or mouth or skin or brain; he was consciousness alone. He was alone... Adrift, partking in a journey that could have spanned eons, or perhaps mere moments, either way his path was slowly drawing to a close. Presence Detected: Lesser Consciousness, 37% Intact... A voice lanced through the silence, the gentle flicker of black to white beginning to fade colours resolving from the monochrome landscape as death gave way to something else entirely. Preparing Integration... The darkness expanded filling all creation but for the tiniest specks of light, bursting through the heavens. He saw stars twirling and twisting, raging balls of heat and life, doomed to grow until they collapsed under the weight of their own existence. Origin species: Human Correlatingspecies: Yes Compatible Host: No- Damage too severe Searching for compatible species... The disparate stars gathered into galaxies and planets, swirling together in infinite majesty as he felt the force of gravity take hold like the remnants of a long forgotten dream. It swung him down, his consciousness speeding past all the limits of space and matter.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Compatible species Found. He stopped whatever force that ws pulling on him holding him aloft in orbit as he came face to face with a world much like his own, his earth. This was a land of green forests and blue waters, high mountains rising towards the two moons floating in dark sky above; one a pale yellow and the other a glaring blue twin eyes watching the world unfold below. Compatible species: Dungeon Core Compatible Host: No No Compatible species available. Well Maybe it wasn¡¯t quite like earth... the continents seemed off, long slender tendrils of land amidst a roiling ocean, swollen with life wild and dangerous. He drew closer to the land, orbiting this new world an invisible satellite, passing over high walled kingdoms of gold and granite stone. Farms and villages dotted the landscape as expansive castles rose high overhead. He saw people and animals, their lives played out in tranquil beauty free of the endless shifting void of dark and light, and yet he could not reach out to them. The crashing tides of his own sanity were bearing down against him in a world without sound or touch or any sense beyond the constant nagging reminder of his own existence, and as he flew a crackling roll of laughter burst from him, a sense of unease coming over the people below. Compatible Host discovered. Generating Anomaly: Creating CompatibleDuplicate Success Confirmed Preparing Integration process. He laughed but without a mouth or throat or voice the sound unheard, as his mind shook, it''s flimsy barriers that had withstood the trials of dimensions flailing. His slingshot around the planet drew to a halt his body drawn down towards the earth and a vast range of mountains spreading over it''s surface. The mountain peaks were capped with snow, deep valleys and narrow gorges coursing through their ancient stone and here too life brimmed violent and beautiful, small towns and villages scattered across the land alongside sporadic mines and vast forests of trees with pure white bark and dark blue leaves. He was sucked into the stone dragged beneath the earth, his former blistering speed now slowing to a crawl before coming to a stop, his incorporeal form bursting into the heart of a small cave. The walls were carved by time from dark stone, riddled with insects, moss and other stranger form of life, all blind having never known the touch of the sun against their skin, and there standing centre piece to this array of the stranger proclivities of biodiversity was a large gem embedded in the far wall. It was roughly the size of a fist pulsing with light, like a heartbeat, feeble but determined, giving off a dull green glow. From that gem, something was emerging something profoundly... different. It lacked the same lively pulse of light, seeming empty and hollow, it¡¯s shape smaller, maybe half the size of its¡¯ counterpart, its¡¯ sides smooth flowing like water into the shape of a tear drop. He watched for what felt like months as the new crystal slowly formed detaching itself from the original body and tumbling down to the ground below imbedding itself into a patch of moss. Preparation Complete. Beginning Integration... He felt his body shift and turn drawn into the newly formed gem. His consciousness slowly blinking out as he was plunged into a peaceful sleep, unaware of the unspoken laws of logic, science, nature, magic and a thousand other disciplines he had just broken. When he woke there would be hell to pay... Chapter One: Greetings from the Other Side Chapter One: Greetings from the Other Side A pale blue light shone down from above as he awoke, mind slowly beginning to tick and turn, the cold glow shinning down from above seeming down into his... Surface.
NAME - [N/A] AGE - [0] RACE - [Dungeon Core Variant] LEVEL - [0] STRENGTH - [N/A] AGILITY - [N/A] ENDURANCE - [N/A] INTELLIGENCE - [3] CONCENTRATION - [2] WILL - [8] SKILLS - [N/A] TRAITS - [Minor Insanity / Cosmic Inspiration]
In some respects not a awful lot had changed between now and his time in the infinite drifts between realities; he still had no hands, no eyes, no mouth, the diiference was now he had a body. He was trapped in some kind of crystal, or maybe a gem? A stone? A Mineral? He wasn¡¯t really sure what the difference was. He had considered taking Geology as a subject during high school, but he¡¯d decided agaonst it. Afterall it would be a lot more fun to point and laugh at all the weirdos spending their lessons staring at rocks - no he was much happier spending all of his lessons staring out of the window at clouds, now clouds were interesting! He hummed lightly to himself, a shallow giggle escaping his... Mind? A gentle crackle passed through his ''skin'' in response, his body scattering fragments of light in all directions. He ignored the pulsating light shinning from his surface Finally his attention turned up towards the source of the pale blue light; a glowing screen gently bobbing mere inches above his surface, shinning down on him like a spotlight. The light felt nice, although at this point anything would have felt nice; had a body now, it wasn''t human; not in the least, but it was a body none the less and for that he was grateful, the cold empty depths of dimensional space could suck it! He continued to laugh his surface breaking out in motes of pure white light as he regarded the information on the floating blue window. He didn''t really understand it, but he did recognise a couple features here and there. It looked like a character sheet you''d find in games on earth. His memories were hazy on the subject, but something about the screen just felt familiar; almost comforting... he couldn''t put his finger on it. It said he was a dungeon core; and here he was thinking he was just a rock - whether that was an improvement or a not he''d have to decide later His name was listed as N/A. He let out a derisive snort. He had a name, of course he did, it was... Something. He felt like it began with an L or maybe an A, a G? Yeah his name began with a G. Not that he could remember exactly what it was. Anyway the point was at one point in time, whenever or wherever that point was he had had a name. You¡¯d think a magical floating screen, or whatever mystical or divine forces that controlled it, could at the very least get something as simple as a name right if it were capable quantifying things as abstract as intelligence or will. He¡¯d try to remember his actual name later, for now he was going to need a new one. It''d have to bee a good name, a glorious one, and it would have to start with G... G... Gamble Gurgle Gimble? Gimble! From now on he would be called Gimble. Gimble the dungeon core. He nodded to himself, or at least he tried to before remembering that nodding required a neck a feature no longer supported by his current anatomy. A moment later the screen overhead trembled before changing to reflect his new name. NAME - [Gimble]
NAME CHANGE - [N/A]
Name change Name - [N/A] to Name - [Gimble]
Perfect! Maybe this floating blue screen wasn''t so bad after all although the rest of the window still seemed somewhat problematic. Firstly, he had been at least thirty when he died, he couldn¡¯t remember the exact number but he was certainly old enough to drive a truck; seeing as crashing said truck into a lamppost was what wound up getting him killed. The second problem was his race, apparently he was a [Dungeon Core Variant]. Oddly enough it wasn¡¯t the fact the had been reborn as a dungeon core that was bothering him, no ¨C these days it seemed like everyone was being reincarnated as a dungeon cores, that or they became a skeleton, a snake or a slime; something beginning with S. He couldn¡¯t quite remember whether that information was just something he got from reading trashy online novels or through actual experience. His memories felt... uncomfortable. In any case he was just going to assume this was a perfectly reasonable situation to be in.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. He shook his head turning his focus back to his race - he''d gone off topic there. He wasn¡¯t angry about being a dungeon core, no he was mad about the ¡®variant¡¯ tag sitting next to it. Was this screen implying that he wasn¡¯t normal? Sure; a dungeon core with a human soul didn¡¯t really fit in the brackets of ¡®normal¡¯ but being told that still hurt! He was an inanimate object sure but that didn''t mean he didn''t have feelings. He felt life he was going to cry, expect he couldn''t seeing as he didn''t have eyes. Of course that was not the end to his problems, no there; crowning glory of his pile of complaints; although most were little more than petty minded gripes, were his traits. The moment his eyes, or rather his awareness focused on the words printed on the screen two new windows opened up.
TRAIT - [Minor Insanity]
You have experienced that which would have driven others beyond the point of no return and survived, however you did not walk away unscathed. Your mind has been damaged beyond repair. + complete immunity to mental attacks - Concentration based abilities suffer
TRAIT - [Cosmic Inspiration]
You have seen all there is to see, all that the vast desolate reaches of the universe has to offer; all of its'' beauty all of its'' depravity, all of its'' fury. Having experienced the untouched corners of reality you can now bend them to your will. + structural limits removed + Logical limits removed - Guidance System removed
Hmm... Honestly he wasn¡¯t sure what to think about this, firstly because he wasn''t entirely sure what a ''trait'' was. Quite frankly [Minor Insanity] wasn¡¯t as bad as he¡¯d been expecting while [Cosmic Inspiration] wasn¡¯t nearly as positive as he¡¯d hoped. He supposed it made some kind of sense he did only have ¡®minor¡¯ insanity after all, and as far as the penalty to his concentration went well it didn''t really bother him; his concentratiom stat was already absolute junk to begin with (not that he had any clue what it did. Going by his character sheet, window, thing the only ability he was half way proficient in was will power (although he didn''t know what that did either), hell half of his statuses just had [N/A] slapped on them. Meanwhile he didn¡¯t like the look of guidance system being removed. He had no idea where he was or what he was doing, some guidance sounded pretty good right about now. Removing limits didn¡¯t sound very comforting either, even if it did have a little plus next to it ¨C in his experience limits existed for a reason; usually because something bad happened if you crossed them. He was fairly sure his interdimensional flight had broken a few firmly established limits already. Gimble frowned, or at least attempted to, before letting out a short internal sigh. How was he supposed to get rid of these windows? As soon as the thought crossed his mind the three boxes vanished, leaving him once more alone in the dark. It seemed like these windows responded to his thoughts or something, probably for the best seeing as he was in no state to use a touch screen. He called up the image of the original window that had contained all his information the window appearing with a pop. He let out a short biting laugh before dismissing the window with a summary thought, the screen disapearing with a poof. He then repeated that action several hindred times watching the window appear and vanish giggling to himself as he did before becoming bored with the phenomenon. Gimble sighed turning his attention away, to focus on his surroundings instead. He was still in a alone in a cave, that hadn''t changed since he had entered the strange black rock he had seen in his vision. Yup he was alone, all allone in the world, well except for the original dungeon core out of which he had grown from. Gimble turned his ¡®gaze'' upwards towards the far wall where said core was currently embedded deep in the rock. He almost felt sorry for the dungeon safely ensconced in its wall not knowing the pleasures of the cold grey moss on which he was sitting and the sensation of tiny insects jabbing at its'' sides with their weird antenna things. He felt so much pity it hurt! It was at that moment one of the cricket like insectsthat had surrounded gimble and his pile of moss after his arrival in the cave hopped up landing on his surface a ripple of disgust washing through the dungeon core''s new body. The other insects watched and waited for something to happen before copying the actions of thefirst and joined it in sitting on top of him. So much pity it hurt... It hurt! The experience of watching these ''events'' take place without eyes was... disconcerting to say the least, although he was rather glad he couldn''t feel the insects ontop of him. His awareness seemed to form something like a large bubble of sight, stretching a few metres across in all directions, but with things growing ever more hazy the further it was beyond his little ring of sight. He could move this area of awareness quite a good distance from his gem, at least enough to encompass the entirety of the hundred or so square-feet of cave he currently occupied, although he could only get the faintest impressions of the far wall and the high ceiling above. The Original dungeon; or as Gimble was going to call it Origin (a name he had plucked from his non-existent arse) continued to pulse happily above with its'' warm condescending glow. Where exactly the light was coming from he couldn¡¯t tell but he was going to assume it had something to do with the pale blue wisps of light currently being drawn into the glowing green gem. Well, light really wasn¡¯t the right word it was closer to smoke or mist, something intangible yet perfectly visible, seeming to glow despite the dark, but casting no light upon its'' surroundings, rising slowly upwards before being drawn into Origin¡¯s lascivious grasp. The strange mist suffused everything within the cave, from floor to roof but was most prominent in small pockets surrounding each living organism in the cave; the insects, the rats, the snakes and of course the fish. Actually if he was forced to guess he''d say those creatures were the source of the mist itself. Gimble paused regarding each abeast, then he looked up at Origin and then down at the animals, and up and down; and this went on for a while. He wanted some of that mist too. This desire wasn¡¯t born out of anything quite as clear as a logical decision, or the deduction that if the other dungeon core wanted mist then he probably should as well, yet neither was it as murky as a base instinct, the intrinsic awareness that this strange resource that he could see would somehow be of value to him. No, it just peeved him that everyone else had something that he didn¡¯t, even the horde of cricket like bugs sitting on top of him had the strange mist. It just wan''t fair! If they weren''t going to share with him willingly, then he''d make them share through force! The dungeon core let out a laugh that no one else could hear, the surface, of the strange black rock bursting with bright white light. Chapter Two: The Gift of Life Chapter Two: The Gift of Life Gimble lay on a small patch of thick grey moss a wave, the air damp overhead, a steady trickle of condensation forming over his surface. The dungeon core was surrounded on all sides by the poking and prodding of dozens of different insects currently munching on said pathc of grey moss. Most of the cave floor seemed to be covered in the same greasy plantlife, or at least a variety of it some stretches of moss were a pale red in colour, others a faintish blue; but of course Gimble of all dungeon cores was stick with plain old grey. The only areas of the cave that the moss hadn''t conquered were the grimy puddles that had formed in between the stalagmites rising from the floor but it was these puddles and pools of brackish water which formed the basis of the cave¡¯s complex internal ecosystem. At the bottom of the food chain sat the humble baby mudfish (an improvised name care of one slightly deranged dungeon core) that lived half submerged, a myriad of frills jutting from their gills filtering for food amidst the mud, a single small hole in the middle of their faces allowing them to eat anything larger than dust mites that they might come across within the water. Then there were the cricket like creatures which made up the bulk of most of the insects int he cave; large bugs, with powerful legs covered in spikes and a jagged horn jutting from the top of their forehead, Gimble dubbed these creatures spiny-hoppers. The spiny-hoppers ate the grey moss and swarmed over the leftovers of any other wayward predator and standing above the cricket and all others insects in the cave on the strange ecological ladder was a species of eyeless, hairless rat with six legs which ate both the spiny-hoppers and the baby mudfish. Of course the wonders of this strange and magical cave did not end there no, the interesting thing about the rats was that in order to kill their prey they first spat small plumes of fire from roughly a foot away lightly toasting, blinding and otherwise discomobulating their prey before launching an all out assault. Of course it took a rare breed of beast to even be willing to eat such disturbing prey as the rats as matter of fact it took a breed slender snakes with scales as white as snow and a penchant for ambushing their prey, and coiling around them, but rather than constrict there meals these snakes chose to freeze activate their trap card emitting a wave of cold which froze their prey solid before the snakes swallowed them whole - which did make just about as much sense as fire breathing rats. But not even the snakes would dare to challenge the might of an adult Mudfish, the elder variants of the little brown filter feeders were a good foot long and simply inhaled anything that approached them which very few creatures did, so in their down time they instead spent their days nibbling on the edges of the moss and then excreting their left overs into their home puddles where the younger mudfish filtered out anything of ¡®nutritional value¡¯. Ah the circle of life could truly be a wonderful thing. Of course this abundance of life meant an abundance of the strange swirly blue energy that seemed to staurate every living creature, to the point it overflowed spilling into the air. Each one of the cave¡¯s inhabitants was practically swimming in a small vortex of the stuff, exactly what the strange blue mist was he couldn''t say, it could have been ki, or ether or magic, or possibly even fragments of the little animals souls. Of course after pondering that particularly horrifying image Gimble just decided he was going to call it mana for now, because he was a very simple dungeon core at heart, and too many years of playing videogames, had rotted his mind long before he''d lost any of his memories. Of course he was rather skeptical of the whole ''floating soul mist'' hipothesis, after all it seemed like every creature had a slightly different variety of mana cloud, the hoppers were swathed in a thick black smoke, where the mud fish were doused in a swirl of muddy brown, the rats were a dark red and the snakes a pale blue, almost white. Going by the colour schemes he was assuming there was some kind of elemental relationship. In any case once the excess mana surrounding the creatures had vented off into the air it formed the pale blue mist which was slowly being hoovered up by Origin ¨C greedy green mana loving bastard. Gimble continued to glare at the green gem inlaid safe in the wall high above. He gave a quick snort and turned his attention back to his current goal, his modus operandi, his raison detre; he was going to steal all of said mana for himself! The young dungeon core released a wave of internal maniacle laughter, his surface bursting with small pinpricks of light. Now all he needed to do was figure out how to absorb mana and he could dethrone that glowing green moron. Hmm... Hm... He had no idea what he was supposed to do, he gave out a long low sigh, staring wistfully down at his cold damp bed of moss. Even the moss was giving off plumes of energy he just needed to find a way to get at it. If he had been a fairy tale princess this would have been the point where he started singing about wanting to steel of the shiny blue energy for himself, but being no kind of princess he let out a frustrated grunt his inability to move slowly beginning to grate on his nerves. He just wanted some of the magic juice, was that really so wrong? It was roughly around that time that he noticed that a tiny portion of the mana mist from the mos was slowly being absorbed into his body, a gentle trickle of that energy fueling the tiny pinpricks of light illuminating his otherwise obsidian black body. He could feel it a trickle of energy slowly drawing itself up into his body soaking in through his surface, like water through a rag. It was a truly insignficant portion of mana, so small as to be barely noticeable, but it was a start. Gimble reached down, metaphorically, and tried to tug on the cloud of energy seeping into his gem an attempt to illicit some kind of response, and in accordance with his wishes, a moment later he felt a strange sensation pass through his new body almost like he had taken a deep breath, just without the part where he needed lungs. As the sensation of breathing grew filling the entirety of his body the tiny stream of mana practically doubled in size, which all things considered still wasn¡¯t a lot; Origin had to be guzzling down a few thousand times more mana than he was getting with his piddly little mana sucking skills, but it was progress none the less. Gimble frowned pulling on the thread of mana once more the influx of energy spasming briefly before expanding once again a few milimiitres wider, from there he just kept pushing. Soon his entire surface was a gigantic plug hole for the dark green mana of the moss and even some fragments of the pale blue mana began streaming down from above to meet him snatched from the lascivious grasp of the green eyes dungeon core.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. He let out a cry of triumph before he felt the threads of mana pouring into his core snap, severing him from the magical mist, his intake of mana tumbling back to where it had been before he began his efforts in grasping mana. He supposed there were limits as to how much mana he could draw at once, at least that seemed to be the case for now. Soon enough his mana gathering abilities would be able to suck the whole world dry. He smiled at the thought before taking in a deep breath of mana and continuing to suck ever more energy into his body. Over the next few hours he continued increasing the power of his suction before waiting for it to inevitablysnap back or for a dense wave of fatigue to wash over him informing the young dungeon core it was time to stop. Eventually he settled on a moderate size that allowed him to indefinitely absorb a reasonable amount of mana, it still wasn''t anything compared to Origin but everything started with baby steps. Now he could settle back and enjoy the pleasant sensation of draining the magical energy from the moss below him and the air above. It really did feel like breathing, well almost, it felt kind of like trying to breathe underwater, his body bloated and swelling just with energy. Ding! Gimble was startled from his rest by a sharp ringing sound, his mana vacuum briefly shutting back down as his concentration broke. He turned his sphere of vision around in search of the source of the sound finding the answer resting just at the edge of his awareness, in the form of a small text box gently bobbing up and down.
Dungeon Core - [Gimble]
DURABILITY - [92%] MANA - [1/???] LIFE FORCE - [2/???]
Huh, well that was convenient, still after all the effort he¡¯d put in he had only just reached one measly point of mana, although he did already have two life force which was pretty good by comparison. He wasn¡¯t entirely sure what the difference between the two was, but as far as he was concerned more was better. He turned his attention back to his mana vacuum widening the nozzle waiting to see any changes in his stats... ¡­ ¡­ Time is a funny thing... ... ... Gimble sighed, it was hard to tell how much time he had spent in the cave, in this new body, his recent experiences had served to warp his sense of time more than he cared to admit. How long had he been alive, how many days and weeks and months did his memory record? He couldn''t remember all that much of his past life, at least no more than hazy images half forgotten; sun-bleached white. He had seen stars born and turn to dust, heard the roaring flow of time itself, and fallen deeper into the mire of his own insanity. It didn¡¯t help that he had no access to the outside world, a sun to record the passing of his years, no he was subject just the comings and goings of the cave¡¯s little inhabitants from which he was currently absorbing a stream of mana. This was his all, his life... He was thinking about this too much, he knew that, honestly he felt more sane now than he ever had when he had been a regular human driving his truck into lampposts, but he suspected every crazy person felt that... One day he would find a way outside of the cave, one day, but for now he was just going to keep absorbing mana. If he kept training his suction it would grow more powerful and then all the mana would be his! It was best to start with small goals ... After what might well have been days or could easily have been months Gimble saw his life force count jump to three, though is mana remained stuck at the very bottom of the barrel. He raised his none-existent eyebrows still unsure of what he was supposed to do with life force. He didn¡¯t think that life force had anything to do with keeping him alive, he already had a metre for durability which seemed close to health in terms of purpose that it made life force kind of unneccessary. As a matter of fact his durability counter had been steadily ticking its'' way up towards one-hundred percent healing the tiny hairline fractures caused by his fall from the wall above. Still that didn''t provide him any clues as to what he was supposed to do with his life force. Gimble frowned, there had to be a way for him to use these resources, otherwise there would be no purpose in either Origin or himself gathering them, maybe if he... A small shiver ran through his body, his surface reverberating momentarily, a physical movement that sent the spiny-hoppers scuttling away from his patch of moss. He felt the flow of his manner halt before reversing, a seamless cloud of energy slipping out through his hard exterior as his life force dropped down to zero. However unlike the pale blue of the mana cloud above this one was a deep hearty shade of green thrumming with life, not too dissimilar to the light pulsing away in Origins¡¯ body up on the wall. Gimble grinned, now what was he going to do with his newfound power? Huh, hmm he watched as the pale green light wavered in front of him, first swaying right and then left, forwards and backwards. He had a rather limited control of the energy now that it was out of his body, but he did have some power over it, it kind of felt like trying to put out a candle by just by waving his hands at it, except instead of using his hands he was batting at it with his mind. Still he could encourage it to float up or down, or sending it twisting into ellaborate shapes, the young dungeon core slowly played with the glob of glowing light before the sensation of a growing headache forced him to stop. It seemed like he had mentally overextended himself with his little game Controlling energy with just his mind was more taxing than he had imagined, but at the same time it had been a good bit of entertainment. He sighed watching as the wave of green light sank down resting towards the grey moss slowly spreading out across its surface. The mass of vegetation quivered briefly as the free lifeforce sank deeper permeating into its body, its¡¯ edges that had begun to recede from the feeding efforts of the hoppers quickly perking up the moss spreading outwards at an astounding pace, at least for a plant, gaining four or five centimetres in a matter of minutes. Of course that wasn¡¯t what was drawing Gimble¡¯s attention, no that honour was reserved for the new screen that had appeared in front of him flashing red
WARNING! - [Life ForceInsufficient]
You have insufficient life force to create amonster. Attempt tosubsidiescost with:[Sunless Cave Moss]Failed.
It seemed like he''d dounf the true purpose of his life force; to build him an army of monsters! Gimble let loose a low chuckle which quickly rose to a bout of maniacal laughter. The world would rue this day; for every parents knows there is a reason you don¡¯t let children play with dynamite, let alone the fundamental driving power of life. In time countless terrors would be born from the sinister power wielded by this inane dungeon core - enough to fill the pages of legend and history - but it all began with an unassuming clump of grey moss. Chapter Three: The Power of Death Chapter Three: The Power of Death He kept time by the turning of the numbers; a one became a two and a two a three. His mana and his life force both continued to steadily climb as he lay in the dark drawing the mana haze down into his core. He had learned to be patient of nothing else. He''d tried a dozen times to turn the grey carpet of moss resting beneath his core into a monster but it really hadn''t done him much good. Once his life force had climbed back up to two, he had drawn out as much of the energy as possible and shoved it straight into the moss, this time there was no playing games. His attempt at annimating the moss had resulted in the little pathc of vegetation expanding an inch or two but that was all; no new monsters bound to his unerring will. So, Gimble had started to wait once more letting his life force tick up to three before trying again, and then four and then five, and so on and so forth. Each time he failed in turning the lump of moss into a monster the greasy grey carpet of lichen just expanded; at this point it was beginning to climb the walls and had gone so far as to start consuming the nearby patches of blue and red moss by absorbing them into its¡¯ body directly. The good news however was that the increased size of the moss meant it was generating more mana and more life force for him to siphon off. Of course even then the mild increase in output was nowhere near enough for him to offset his expenditure placing him firmly in the red, but overtime he believed his most recent investment would pay dividends. However his time messing around witht he fundamental forces of his new world were not a complete waste, he had finally managed to notice it, around the edge of every spiral of mana which coated living beings was a thin film of green; this was life force, unlike mana this energy was not jettisoned into the air but rather seemed to cloak every animals, plants, insects and any other form of life like a barrier. Even Gimble himself had a thin layer of life force covering his crystalline surface proving he was more than a simple rock left lying alone in a cave... Haa... Yup, he was not a simple rock left lying alone in a cave; he was a magic rock left lying alone in a cave - what fun! Quite frankly the endless hours of waiting had begun to take their tole, he missed humans, or to be more precise he missed conversation, the silence ate at him, it gnawed at him from the inside, the pure and simple desire for companionship. Everything in the cave was blind bar himself and Origin he supposed, there was no light, no wind, no warm touch of sun, it was cold and damp and depressing. Gimble sighed, a steady pressure slowly beginning to grow beneath his surface, rising in discomfort, his core flashing with apoplectic bursts of light. Suddenly he felt his mind jerk forwards, the dreary patience of an unchanging existence waiting for his life force to reach fifteen points drawing to a halt. His attention turned, swivelling towards his various resource gauges only to find that the mana he had neglected for so long was finally full.
Dungeon Core - Gimble
DURABILITY - [97%] MANA - [30/30] LIFE FORCE - [13/???]
He was at maximum capacity for mana and he could feel it, his was core thrumming with volatile energy, each new drop of mana he was abosrbing seeming to push up above and beyond his limits and something deem down inside of the dungeon core, his heart or whatever counterpart his current anatomy suported was telling that thism this would be good! He let out a small laugh his surface sparking with bright white light, now he just needed to figure out how he was supposed to use his mana. It was at this point that a sensible person would have paused, they would have stopped to consider the ramifications of their actions, the untold consequences they would bring about. They would have laid out a plan, a guide, a method to prevent things from exploding in their face in the most spectacular manner possible. Of course Gimble was not a normal person, he wasn''t really a person to begin with, and while he was patient that did not mean he had the foresight not to do something incredibly stupid. Gimble did not consider his actions, instead he did what he knew best, he used the only skill at his disposale; he drew the entirety of his mana out of his body, the energy leaving him in the form of a slimy black haze quickly ballooning outwards like a storm cloud released from a battle. The dense miasma that rolled out of him began forming a dark vortex of energy upon contacting with the air. The spiral drew in ambient mana, it¡¯s depths expanding outwards. The spiny-hoppers freezing where they sat hunched on the carpet of grey moss, and while the creatures couldn¡¯t see the swirling mass of energy growing above their heads, they seemed to sense what was to come, which was more than can be said for the young dungeon core. Gimble let out a long ''oooh'' inside his head, watching as the vortex grew, sparks of pure white light bursting from within, like synapses firing generating flashes of light bringing true illumination to the dark world outshinning origin''s green flow. Then the vortex collapsed. The ball of dark energy exploded outwards over the corse of an instant, a wave of sound and light, sending a rippling through the air. The cave froze, every inhabitant of the dank recess hidden deep beneath the earth, turned to face Gimble; the duneon core sat atop his princely throne of moss. Then there was a sharp pop! Followed by two small blue windows bursting into existence and for one single shinning moment the cave was calm.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
CONGRATULATIONS! - [You Have Discovered a New Skill]
[Mental Magic ¨C Insanity] The mind is a funny thing, when placed under extreme pressure it can turn and twist into any shape, wild and wonderful; horrifying to behold. Some of the greatest feats in existence were born from this madness, the willingness to push the bounds of what is possible. But for every blessing there is a curse, it is up to you to decide which your magic shall become.
CONGRATULATIONS! - [You Have Discovered a New Spell]
[Mania Bomb] - [mental magic ¨C Insanity] This spell induces hysteria in its¡¯ targets leading to sudden bouts of aggression, fear or depression depending on the target''s predispositons. Once cast the spell will spread over an area with a radius of ten feet afflicting all those within. Mana Cost: 12 Area: 10.sq ft Duration: 60.sec (+10 sec for additional mana)
Then the moment passed. Gimble had read through his messages and had finally come to understanf what he had just done, but there was no way to turn back the clock all he could do was watch as the cave descended into a living hell. All of the surroundings insect, the snakes, the rats and the mudfish began to tremble, a shiver passing through his little corner of the cave as one by one each beast seemed to freeze up, breathing in the dark mist eyes popping in their head, swelling a dark black. Then a gentle wail began to shake the earth, first one then another, the monsters began to hiss, screech and roar however they were able to, some did so in anger, others fear, and a few simply collapsed down to the ground in silence. Then with their battle cry rung, the horde of creatures washed outwards to assault the rest of the cave. Some of the innocent cave goers fled in terror, some roared and screamed slashing stabbing and firing what limited magic they could muster. Meanwhile others simply collapsed trampled beneath the wave of bodies washing towards them. There was a clear divide between the area effected by his newfound spell and that which was not, but it made little difference as the storm blew outwards engulfing the cave in the tide of battle. One of the adult mudfish had lumbered out of its¡¯ puddle sluggishly charging over the stones inhaling anything in its¡¯ path including other mudfish, blind eyes swivelling atop it''s head gills fanning out about its neck as it unleashed a roar of challenge bowling through the rioting crowd. There was a flash of white, as one of the snakes launched itself forwards slender fangs biting down into the mudfish sinking into saggy grey flesh to little effect as a small black circle of frostbite expanding across the fishes skin. The fish gurgled rolling over and crushing the snake under its¡¯ mass along with maybe a dozen spiny-hoppers before engulfing the debris in its¡¯ cavernous maw. That was when a mass of fire rats decided to rush the creature blasting it with plumes of flame before sinking their teeth down into the mudfish''s hide. The fish let out a howl slowly drowning it in a sea of bodies as even some of the non-affected animals rushed forwards in the hopes of grabbing a piece of the beast. Gimble watched in horror, it was almost reminded him of watching the newsfootage after a riot, or the aftermath of a black friday sail, except instead of angry drunk people and crazed parents swinging toddlers like a yard stick this riot was made up of hairless rats, giant fish, magical snakes and thousands of angry black grasshoppers He shivered watching as the scene unfolded. But the rampant slaughter wasn¡¯t even the most usual thing about the situation (at least for him). The thing that was currently holding his attention was the veritable flood of ambient mana that had just been vomited into the air tinged with streams of bright green life force. The death of each creature was like a miniature supernova of mana, and all of that energy was being drawn straight towards him. Gimble let loose a luagh cranking up his mana suction as high as he could hold it as the wave struck home. Huh... That was strange, he could feel the mana flowing into his body but his mana gauge wasn''t going up. His life force had been steadily rising point by a point with each new death but his mana remained fixed at zero. Gimble watched as his life force climbed upwards before drawing to an abrupt halt as he hit twenty points revealing his maximum capacity for life force. Then there was another sharp pop! Gimble flinching inwardly as a new message appeared.
CONGRATULATIONS! - [You Have Levelled Up]
[Level 1] INTELLIGENCE +1 [+] CONCENTRATION +1 [+] WILL +1 [+] +2 free points
As the screen burst into his head his capacity for mana and life force each jumped ten points allowing Gimble¡¯s life force to begin ticking upwards once again. The dungeon core paused turning his attention away from the ongoing massacre to the glowing blue window floating before him as he pushed his other notifications into the background, discovering a new type of magic could wait. It seemed like the increase in his stats from levelling up affected his ability to store energy - still he couldnt be sure of the specifics. Gimble proceeded to use his two free points to experiment with adding points to his various mental stats watching his different gauges rise and fall and In the end he cracked the code. It seemed that his intelligence correlated to his mana while his concentration was related to his life force, it was a pretty simple one to one relationship too, well it was one to ten if he were being specific. He didn¡¯t have a clue why this was or what exactly ''Will'' was for yet but that was just a matter of time. In the end Gimble placed his two free points into concentration, and watched his life force counter nearly double in size and continue to fill, though his progress was slowly beginning to ebb, the last fires of the riot dying low. Gimble bided his time soon enough he would have enough life force to bring his first monster to life and stake his dominance over this cave system! Chapter Four: Dungeon Life Chapter Four: Dungeon Life What is Life? The simple preservation of matter or something more... potent? In any case it remains a fundamental force of the universe. A power that now rested in the palm of his nonexistent hand, ready to be moulded like clay! Gimble let loose a rolling laugh, at long last his life force had been filled. He was ready.
Dungeon Core - Gimble
DURABILITY - [97%] MANA - [8/40] LIFE FORCE - [50/50]
He took a deep breath before expelling his life force an unnerving chill slowly beggining to spread from the centre of his core outwards. The life force left him in a flood of thick green mist slowly gathering above him in a flurry of motion forcing the energy into a tight knit ball before slamming it down into the carpet of moss beneath him. A sudden sense of unease shook his body as the orb of light vanished absorbed into the moss. This was going to work, it had to, he would create a monster, the why¡¯s and the wherefores of his actions didn''t matter, not here. He craved success but more than that he needed companionship. The days had begun to grow together, marked only by silence and the steady rising of his stats. He couldn¡¯t take it much longer the endless night of the cave. His body might have been that of a dungeon core but his mind was human, he was still a human and the isolation was beginning to take its tole. The pale grey moss pulsed in an emerald light. Unlike his previous attempts to animate the moss there was no explosion of growth only a steady pulse of warm green light. It almost reminded him of Origins core but where his fellow dungeon core was a bright and cutting shade this was a deeper colour something far more raw and primal. Pop!
CONGRATULATIONS! - [Monster Created]
You have imbued a living being with your life force. Creature [Sunless Cave Moss] can now be edited in the monster menu.
Monster menu? Gimble frowned at the term before a sharppop! sounded at the edge of his consciouness as a new window burst to life.
MONSTER MENU
[Sunless Cave Moss] x1
The menu had only one option, sunless cave moss'' Gimble briefly turning his attention away from the screen to note the green glow flowing through the mossy carpet beneath him already beginning to fade. He let out a small huff, quite frankly he¡¯d been expecting something a little bit more dramatic, when he''d considered making his first monster but no... No. He was stuck with a lump of glowing green moss. Well he might as well see what he could do with this monster. He mentally pushed the only available option. A moment later the menu began to tremble a small section of the splitting off from the main body before slowly beginning to expand forming a large diagram displaying the carpet of moss with an array of six buttons running down the right hand side; [Stats], [Skills], [Loot],[Create], [Edit], [Information]. Gimble¡¯s attention wavered over the stats button mildly interested in what kind of stats a lump of moss could possibly possess before his curioisty landed on the edit button and he made his choice. The diagram warped briefly shifting to gain a new dimension forming a transparent blue cube with a small pile of grey moss sat at its'' centre next to three faded blue silhouettes of what Gimble was going to assume were a human an elf and a dwarf. He was guessing about the races of the figures based on the fact one of them was inhumanly skinny, like a fashion model, and had pointed ears. The next was short with broad shoulders and the compulsory beard of a dwarf while the third was as bland as bland could be, just barely taller than the elf and maybe half the width of the dwarf. Three buttons floated at the top of the display one of which was crossed out; [COMPLETE], [LIFE FORCE - [47/50] and [Blueprints]. Gimble briefly looked up to check his life force finding the metre resting at a steady zero before turning his attention back to the glowing mound of moss as a small smile cracked its¡¯ way across his none-existent face. it seemed like the diagram functioned just like every other window requiring him to mentally prod at it until it did something, of course editing a living organism wasn''t quite as simple as smashing a button and the interface responded to even the smallest stray thought and it just so happened that Gimble''s first thought was to give the creature some eyes and a mouth. The next moment he notice the cube flash red as his life force metre dipped into the negatives as an oddly human set of facial features suddenly grew out of the moss, and ti wasn''t just one face either, it was a couple dozen, slowly breathing in and out, white pupilless eyes stared into the dark. The dungeon core recoiled in horror quickly erasing the travesty of life it had just created, before turning his attention to a design that was slightly less... harrowing. He was rather limited by the limit of his life force and it didn''t help that his life force continued to count down as the minutes passed. In the end Gimble decided to base his design on one thing, the feature he would find most useful; mobility. After having the shaped the lump of glowing grey moss into his preferred design, his life force having dropped down to forty-five in the process, he completed his work and Gimble promptly slammed down the complete button, a gentle shiver passing through the carpet of plant life beneath. The dull green glow vanished returning the plant to its'' former death like pallour as the moss continued to quiver, GImble¡¯s body sinking deeper into the plant as slowly several fronds began to rise around him, they snaked their way up around his crystal gripping tight to his surface. The changes didn''t stop there though at the far edge of the mossy carpet another two dozen or so tentacles of slimy grey moss began to lift from the cave floor. This was the creature he had designed; something that a cursory examination of his [Monster Menu]had dubbed a [Sunless Moss Horror] the creature was still just a carpet of moss stretching roughly two square feet over the cave floor except now it had two rows of tentacles one set of tentacles on top of its¡¯ body to hold onto Gimble¡¯s core while the creature moved and another row of tentacles at the beasts edge to help it latch onto prey and drag its'' hideous writhing grey mass across the floor. Gimble let out a cry of joy before opening the creatures'' stats
NAME - [N/A] AGE - [0] RACE - [Sunless Moss Horror] LEVEL - [1] STRENGTH - [6] AGILITY - [2] SIZE- [8] CONCENTRATION - [1] SKILLS - [N/A] TRAITS - [Overgrowth]
TRAIT - [Overgrowth]
Having repeatedly experienced the life-giving force of life force you are capable of utilising this power yourself to slowly increase size and strength over time.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. +The Concentration Stat
Gimble sighed regarding his new monster''s information wincing slightly at the agility score, he hadn''t been able to see the creatures stats when he was designing it but two agility seemed a little low. He supposed considering the creature the monster was based on was a plant that score wasn''t too bad, it was infently better than his own agility score but seeing as he was a rock that wasn''t all that impressive. He supposed tentacles just didn¡¯t make for very good transportation, he''d probably have to design a new monster if he planned on getting from A to B any time in the next year. No, that wasn¡¯t fair, this was his first monster and he was going to love it and care for it. Of course every sunless moss horror needed a name and Gimble felt he was going to go with George. Now he just needed to figure out how to steer this thing. The young Dungeon core sighed giving his new monster the mental instruction to move forwards, several vine tentacles slamming down into the cave floor with a monstrous thud a moment later. George dragged itself onwards the nearby spiny-hoppers standing around in awe. The unwitting creatures of the cave bore witness to a sight that no mortal eyes had ever witnessed before; a dungeon core, riding to battle atop a pile of sentient moss tentacles. One of the insects promptly approached the sunless horror the spiny-hopper leaning forwards to bite down onto one of George''s legs, the unfortunate creature probably under the assumtion that moss no matter what form it took was bound to be harmless - it was wrong. George reacted with arboreal fury, his tentacle lashing out to batter the insect its'' shell letting out a sickening crunch as the insect was beaten down into the ground. Gimble winced, before taking note of the fact his life force had just risen several points as the insect breathed its'' last a small pulse of mana shooting into his core. George regarded the bug splatted against the cave floor with a certain level of disdain before reaching down to grab the creature and hurl it at a nearby wall. Gimble sighed directing George to turn in a large circle, he supposed he¡¯d just gained access to a new method of harvesting life force, but it would probably be a bad idea to just bulldoze through the cave right now. Even if George could take on any other creature in the cave if everything was dead then he¡¯d run out of mana and life force for good, it would also be best if he didn''t fire off any more magic insanity bombs either. The dungeon core and the sunless horror slowly began to make their way towards one of the darker recesses of the cave, and at George''s pace it would likely be an arduous journey. For now he''d just keep out of sight and try to puzzle out what he was supposed to do next as a dungeon. He hadn¡¯t known the monster menu existed until the system had told him that it was there, there were likely other menu''s that he''d never seen or heard of simply because whatever was controlling the prompts had simply decided he didn''t need them, he was assuming it was due to the part of his cosmic inspiration trait though he wasn''t going to rule out the idea that the universe just hated his guts. He really needed a tutorial or something, because fumbling around in the dark for answers, both literally and metaphorically, was starting to get old; he just needed some kind of explanation, someone to help him understand whatever the hell was going on. Gimble frowned, if there really were other menus, then he needed to find them before a random alert just told him they existed... Okay so what kind of things did dungeons normally do? They made monsters yeah, they built traps, designed mazes and killed adventurers lots and lots of adventurers... Oh lot''s of dungeons had puzzles as well, and loot; every good dungeon had loot, rewards, gold weapons, etcetera. Come on he needed a menu for that. If the system had any love for him, a wayward soul lost on their infinite journey through the cosmos, it could do him a favour an give him a menu. A deep smooth pop¡¯s as a new menu burst intoexistence.
[DUNGEON MENU]
[CREATE DUNGEON] [MONSTER MENU] [TRAP MENU] [TREASURE MENU]
Gimble let out a cry of victory, a brash smile cracking across his face as his mind reached out promptly slamming into the [CREATE DUNGEON] option the instant he had read through the word. A sharp bark of sound crashed into the side of his head as a new warning appeared in front of him flashing a violent red, the warning grating against his mind as it warned him away from the action.
WARNING! - [Requirements Not Met]
In Order to found a dungeon you must first: Reach Level 1 Have a route leading from Dungeon Core Room to Surface Have At least 50 Mana
Gimble frowned at the new information. It seemed creating a dungeon wasn''t quite as simple as he''d hoped. His maximum mana was forty not fifty and he didn''t exactly have a method of carving through the stone up towards the surface. He was sure there was some kind of tunneling skill specially made for dungeons but he didn''t have it and he doubted George would be very useful when it came to excavation. He didn''t have the slightest clue hwo he was going to reach the surface... Well at least he''d already reached level one, so he supposed he had met at least one third of the requirements. Well he supposed this was just another goal for him to work towards now that he''d created his first monster. A dungeon would come in time and when it did he would begin his rise to power, slowly but surely reaching out towards the very pinnacle of all creation. The world would bow before him! He let out a raucous laugh which only he could hear as a hellish quaking shook the cave. At first Gimble had assumed that the shaking had all been in his head, however as the sound of his laughter faded the rumbling of stone sliding against stone only grow louder; his gaze was drawn upwards towards Origin, his elder dungeon core shinning with a vibrant green light. The large green gem began to shake in its'' socket. The wall behind origin had begun to crumble falling to the earth as sand, seamlessly melding into the ground below leaving only a single pillar of stone standing proud at the rear of the cave brimming with bright green light cast by the dungeon core mounted at its top. But the shaking continued as a massive crack appeared in the opposite wall, a narrow passage slowly beginning to form, a dark red screen bursting into existance before Gimble, an uneasy energy filling his body. Soon all people would come to know what transpired that day, as the mana around the Pourya mountains began to swell and burn, It would travel as rumour from the lips of kings and queens and spread far across the disparate lands of Yarl. A new dungeon had been born. Chapter Five: A Pre-Emptive Strike Chapter Five: A Pre-Emptive Strike The earth quivered, the floor of the cave began warp and melt slowly becoming smooth. Origins core sat firmly stationed atop a plain stone pillar near the rear of the rapidly expanding room, the air seeming to practically swell with mana before everything began to still. The sound of shattering stone could still be heard from deeper within the newly formed tunnel as the spell that had just been cast moments before continued to bore its'' way towards the surface. Elena watched the scene unfold before reaching out and pressing a button on her interface, a sudden sense of glee filling her body as she waited for the next notification to appear.
CONGRATULATIONS! - [Dungeon Founded]
You have founded the [Natures Origin Dungeon], Ambient mana levels have set dungeon¡¯s base level to Level 2. You now have access to the [Dungeon map], [Monster Menu], [Trap Menu], [Treasure Menu] and [Dungeon Statistics].
Ha... Ha! Ha, haaa haaaa! A crooked laugh resounded through the dark, dancing across the hard-packed walls of volcanic stone. Elena leaned back into her seat regarding the System¡¯s latest message. Honestly the dungeons level wasn''t quite as high as she had hoped, but it was cause for celebration none the less. It had been roughly half a year since she had been assigned to her post and her hard work was finally beginning to pay dividends. She had seen the dungeon core''s abilities grow at an alarming speed, its'' rate of cognitive development truly astounding. She honestly felt sad for those unfortunate souls doomed to be assigned to mediocre dungeon cores. Origin had surpassed all of her expectations, not only had the core taken to cultivating qi but was an adept at channelling mana. These two resources were a dungeons life blood, the power to create monsters and shape the earth. Her preliminary examination of the cave system she had found herself in after her summoning had placed her in the Pourya mountains, oxygen levels and mana concentration suggested a high altitude while the volcanic rock placed her at the heart of what had once been an active volcano. The mana density was comparatively low for the area, only measuring at level five, however now that a new dungeon had been established it would begin rise not just within the cave system but the mountains beyond. Having the dungeons starting level dropped by three levels to level two was a serious blow, she wasn¡¯t going to lie about that, it would limit their initial progress, but it was something which could be overcome in time. Under any other circumstances establishing the dungeon so early would have been a fatal error, the kind any reasonably trained individual would have avoided at all costs; however things in this cave had not been normal for quite some time. Elena turned her attention to the source of her more recent frustration; her eyes focusing upon the intermittent flashes of light coming from the far corner of the newly founded dungeon. She had no information about where dungeon cores actually came from, no one did, the village¡¯s records had been suspiciously empty on that front, but now at least she had some insight. Roughly two months ago her dungeon core had undergone a change: a small black growth had begun to form on its¡¯ surface. Her records held no accountant of any similar event having ever taken place before, she had assumed that her dungeon core was in possession of some abnormal defect and with no other alternative she made the decision to turn to a higher power for aid. Her summary request to the System for additional information had been denied leaving her scrambling in the dark, both literally and metaphorically. Not that it bothered her overmuch, dungeon fairies all possessed a single trait [Systematic Insight], which provided a limited form of night vision among other more... salient benefits. In the end she had been powerless, unable to do any more than wait and watch. Slowly the dark growth had expanded forming a pure black crystal which after several weeks of growth had simply tumbled to the floor landing atop a large patch of moss. At first, she had assumed the strange new crystal was just another rock, a lump of stone that had somehow found its'' way into the dungeon core when it formed and had just been excised via a natural process to banal to include in any official records, but then it had started to glow. A closer inspection revealed the crystal was in actuality drawing in an infinitesimally small stream of mana, marking the stone as at least magic in its'' origin; not surprising seeing as it had literally popped out of a dungeon core. It was shen she noticed the thin layer of qi surrounding the stone that Elena had begun to grow concerned. The stone¡¯s physical construction was identical to that of a dungeon core, the infinitely complex lattice coursing with natural veins allowing for the intake, storage and output of various different energies, an orb of solidified mana and qi resting at its¡¯ centre allowing it to generate more of both products. There were plenty of magical stones out there in existence, highly prized for the tools and weapons they could be used to create, but only dungeon cores could generate qi, in that feature they were unique. A dungeon was more than just a collection of stone hallways, more than just traps and monsters and loot; they were alive. Even now she had no clue what the meaning of this warped dungeon core just popping out of the literal stonework was meant to be; but the system had to be involved in this one way or another. Perhaps this was a new experiment to increase the number of viable dungeons, in any case it was an unknwon variable in her plans and that made it a threat.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. It wasn''t long after the new dungeon core arrived before things had begun to take a stranger turn. Not only did its'' dungeon fairy fail to greet her, violating the impromptu regulations to which all dungeon fairies agreed, but it seemed to be actively hiding its¡¯ presence. Certainly, that was the wisest decision given the circumstances; when dungeon cores interacted things were bound to start going south, still she found it mildly irritating. Decent conversation was one of the things she actually missed from her time in the village. Origin was a newly formed dungeon it¡¯s sense of self wasn¡¯t yet developed enough to sustain a proper conversation; it was barely able to summon up mental images of even the most simplistic ideas which given its'' age was still rather impressive. Of course, what it lacked in intelligence this particular dungeon core made up for with its¡¯ trait [Natural Inclination]. Even more so than in most creatures'' traits were essential to a dungeons growth and this one was a masterpiece; the trait not only formed a connection to the nature element but also provided the dungeon core with a mild prophetic understanding of whether a course of action would be beneficial or not. Its'' predictive powers were not perfect, Elena would have to drill that fact into the dungeon cores mind as soon as it was ready to accept the concept, but for now it remained a useful tool in getting the unruly core to obey her instructions. Of course, this didn¡¯t improve the dungeons actual intelligence, just its¡¯ ability make helpful decisions. She had been mentally grappling with recent events and she would have loved to just blame them on the dungeons trait however that seemed presumptuous in the extreme. Still she couldn''t understand just where had the dungeon''s name come fron. Dungeons did not name themselves, that was a fundamental fact of the system; it was the right of whoever first discovered a dungeon to name it. So when she had performed her routine check on her dungeon core¡¯s stats the day of the new core''s arrival it had taken several seconds for her to process the name printed at the top of the notification. She had responded almost immediately scanning the surrounding area for any signs of sentient life that could have come into contact with the core. She found none - not so much as a goblin in this cave or any one of its'' neighbours. It was at that point she had made the decision to expend a portion of her personal mana to use the [inspect] skill on the faux dungeon core that had invaded her cave and take a quick peek at its'' stats. She had not been impressed. Not only was its¡¯ name ridiculous, its¡¯ stats were abysmal. Ignoring the fact that it had literally pointless physical stats for whatever reason, it¡¯s concentration and intelligence were low even in comparison to the other denizens of the cave, a [Scorched Sunless Rat] would have an average intelligence of at least five, and none of those little vermin grew higher than level four. Although she supposed its¡¯ decreased stats were only natural, this was a dungeon core variant a litteral a knock-off of the original, the only improvement she could recognise in the new core was the second trait it had been born with. She couldn¡¯t read the cores traits without expending more mana than she was willing to waste. Besides in a few minutes it wouldn¡¯t matter anyway. Now that the dungeon had ben founded things would start to take a more drastic turn in reconditioning the surrounding environments. Elena sighed, the wait was somehow exhilerating though her gaze never strayed far from the variant core huddled in the corner, ocasionally flashing with intermittent light. It was so clear that it had yet to start cultivating qi, she had to wonder what its'' dungeon fairy had been planning forgetting to instill such basic discipline. She shook her head. Even unable to cultivate qi Gimble had proved too great a threat.
WARNING! - [A Dungeon has been Established Nearby]
The [Natures Origin Dungeon] has been established nearby, all lifeforms in the immediate vicinity will now be assimilated into the dungeon core as raw resources. [10]¡­ [9]...
Quite frankly she had given up on understanding the strange dungeon core placing all of its¡¯ bizarre abilities under the bracket of it being a unique variant. Not only was the core capable of casting spells, one of which had already decimated a good portion of the cave¡¯s population summarily reducing the areas ambient mana level contributing to the loss of potential levels in the newly formed dungeon, but the knock-off core had already been able to produce a monster. It was an empirical fact, a law of the system; without access to the monster menu that was only available once you founded a dungeon you could not create monsters. If the dungeon fairy puppeting this strange core decided to take aggressive action there was nothing Elena could do. She had been backed into a corner here, this was not a threat she could ignore, whatever bonds of fealty she owed the rest of her race aside. This would likely kill the dungeon fairy in charge of the variant as well but she had no choice; this was a pre-emptive strike. Chapter Six: The Green Eyed Monster Chapter Six: The Green Eyed Monster
WARNING! - [A Dungeon has been Established Nearby]
The[Natures Origin Dungeon]has been established nearby, all lifeforms in the immediate vicinity will now beassimilated into the dungeon core as raw resources. [10]¡­ [9]...
The shaking had stopped. The cave had descended into an eerie calm its¡¯ inhabitants hunkered down, bodies pressed low to ground in anticipation some imminent disaster. All they could do was watch and wait to see what would happen next. Gimble blinked, gazing about the cave, the rough jagged stone walls within she he had spent the beginning of his new life had been ground down to form a smooth rectangular room the black stone practically shinning in Origins brief glow high upon its'' pedestal. A large crack had appeared in the opposite wall leading outwards into the dark. He mainted his stunned silence, gaze slowly reading through the notification time and time again, watching as the counter worked its'' way down to zero.. All lifeforms would be assimilated. All Life... He didn¡¯t like the sound of that. He was alive, he was a living being, at least he believed so. Gimble shook his head, a strange tinge of fear slowly worming its'' way down into his core where it began to grow; an irrational fear slowly bubbling up across his surface. He barked out a mental command ushering George forwards the moss horror moving as quick as its¡¯ flabby grey body would allow, tentacles wheeling about in massive arcs drawing it forwards across the cave creating a steady rhythm of thumps from the stone floor. If he made it through the crack he''d be safe, Origin was a dungeon core just like him, that meant it also had to follow the same rules, to establisha dungeon it would need to create a path upwards towards the surface. Gimble charged ahaed but it seemed he was not alone in his moment of panic. A low rumble had begun to grow until it shook the cave walls; a cacophony of sounds unlike the grating and cracking of stone from moments before but a biological thunder as mudfish, spiny-hoppers, fire rats and frost snakes all began to hiss and cry and screech swarming forwards rushing from the darkened nooks and cranies they called home, meeting in a storm in the centre of the room. Gimble directed George around the mass of bodies writhing ina bloody rending mess; these creatures were blind they had lived their entire lives at home in the dark and they survived on instinct alone. Now those same instincts were screaming of death and danger which could not not be avoided, this was not something they could run from, they had no way to hide, there was only option left within their power to take: they would fight to the bitter and bloody end. Several of the smaller fire rats rushed forwards breaking free of the battle stumbling onwards bloody and bruised a frost snake trailing behind them pursuing its'' prey. Gimble turned pushed George forwards encouraging the monster to ignore them and push towards the exit before three small plumes of flame burst launched from behind them striking George''s side before the rats slammed into the monster heedless of the snake launching itself at them as they sought to take down the moss horror. Gimble paused, a sudden tension tugging at the corner of his mind as George resisted his instruction lashing out with a tentacle ribbing one of the rats from its body. Gimble turned up gaze latching onto the notification, flashing red, as the counter continued to tick down. [4]¡­ They weren¡¯t even halfway to the exit yet, if this kept up they were going to die! He let out an internal cry, attempting to rest control away from his monster, George continuing to slam one of the rats down into its¡¯ compatriots slowly turning the group into an indescribable pile of visceral mush, a trickle of life force seeping into Gimble¡¯s core as the snake launched itself at the moss horror its'' original prey now no more than a pink stain on the dungeon floor. [3]... George swung a mossy tentacle swatting the serpent away knocking it back intot he crowd of monster as Gimble let out a viscious mental yell. A small burst of mana and life force swelled from his body, George. George seeming to stiffen, a faint vibration rushing through the creature as it seemed to grow aware of the oncoming danger, it¡¯s tentacles slowly reaching upwards encasing Gimble within. [2]¡­ Two...There was nothing he could do. He was going to die; he was going to die again... His spirit would float free of his body drifting up and up and up. He¡¯d leave this universe behind; he¡¯d be forced to travel endlessly through the infinite void of time and space, the chain of causation stretching out and contorting in on itself for all eternity. He didn¡¯t want that... He couldn¡¯t... Never. Never! Origin would pay for this! [1]¡­ Not again. [0] Gimble felt his sphere of vision contract, working on some ingrained instinct, his area of awarness curling up shrinking down away from the cave, down into ththe darkened space formed by George''s impromptu shield. His vision shrank and shrank until he was the only thing in existence, a sea of black and flickering white light amidst currents of bright bluye and green. He was a crystal built like heart, filled with valves and passages, connected by tiny capillaries that rushed through his surface crisscrossing through his body like a neural network, except infinitely smaller more refined. Each conduit led to the surface and traced its¡¯ origins back towards a pulsing seed of life at his centre, a mix of solidified mana and life force constantly swirling in an endless vortex of green and blue, a yin and a yang, hard and solid, energy flowed inwards and it rushed out, stored in dark chambers secret through his core but it always passed through him through the pulsing energy at his centre, through his heart. He could feel it, a gentle beat, the natural quaver of an artificial heart. He took in a deep breath mana and life force streaming into his body. In that moment he felt profoundly comfortable. He waited for whatever would come next... He waited... And he waited... And then he got bored of waiting. Gimble frowned drawing his attention up and out of his body, expanding it out across the cave as far as it would go before swinging his bubble of vision around in a wide arc like a five year old with a yo-yo. A thick mist had begun to fill the cave, coloured the dark green of the last leaves of summer before the onslaught of autumn cold, and while the fog spread slowly it travelled with intent. He saw the dark green cloud rush out slowly warping around the horde of rampaging wildlife fencing them in before working its¡¯ way inwards. Every creature it began to melt Howling and screaming as they were dragged down into the earth slowly disintegrating into sand. The mist progressed through the cave nothing capable of escaping its¡¯ reach, spilling outwards like a slow moving wave. Maybe there was still home to escape? Gimble pushed George forwards with a light mental prodding the moss horror unfurling like an eldritch flower. Even the moss monster seemed to understand the threat present to its¡¯ life as it raised its¡¯ pace powering towards the exit.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The mist followed biting at their heels, several thick strands seeming to lurch forwards detaching from the main cloud that filled the cave, tendrils of the dark green fog reaching for them gliding low over the dungeon floor. Still it seemed like George was outpacing them, not by much but by enough. Gimble let out a small laugh as the duo neared the exit, the narrow crack in the wall towering above them. Then he felt it, another tremor passing through the earth, a brief vibration passing through the mana filling his body. Something was wrong, Gimble pulled tight on George¡¯s mental reins. The monster briefly resisted GImble''s command before slowly grinding to a halt as over a dozen thick spears of dark stone ripped through the floor at an angle aiming to seqewer the duo right then and there. If they had been a little slower to react then... Well it wouldn''t have been pretty. Gimble shook his head something hot beginning to rise within his core a burning heat rolling through his cyrstiline body as he forced George to run rushing away from the tendrils of mist using its'' tentacles to spring forwards in inellegant leaps. This wasn¡¯t some random attack; they were trying to kill him! Like hell he was going to die like this! George continued to retreat the mist closing in... He wasn''t going to die like this, cowering and hiding, if he was going to die he was going to get at least one good hit in on the son of the bitch that was trying to get him! George froze unable to retreat any further, hey had been backed into a corner; quite literally. Gimble glared at the oncoming wave of fog, his attention focusing on something glinting in the distance as his orb of sight zoomed forwards. His gaze zeroed in on the source drawing to a halt resting around Origins core. That glowing green chump seriously thought he was going to die so easily! Gimble let loose a growl directing George to curl itself up into a ball once more, but retreating down into his core once more. He began to draw energy inwards, mana sucked from the dungeon outside forced down and compressed tighter and tighter under the sheer force of his will. The mist had reached them now, slipping over George''s surface in gentle flesh dissolving waves, the [Sunless Moss Horror] shrinking away at their touch it¡¯s limbs beginning to tremble, its'' moss tentacles constircting ever tighter around Gimble¡¯s core. Time ticked by as the fog swamped the monster thick clouds swirling over its¡¯ surface. Slowly the pressure slowly beginning to ease on Gimble¡¯s core. George had stopped trembling the monster pausing to flex its tentacles waving them forwards through the mist, the deadly clouding seeming to have no effect. Gimble paused his efforts in attempting to concentrate the mana deep within his core as the moss horror slowly began to draw its¡¯ arms downward exposing Gimble to the magic fog... Pain! It hurt! It hurt! The dungeon core let out a shrill screech as the dark green mist speared his body, his perfectly smooth black surface being eroded away. A wave of shattering cold enveloped his body as his surface beginning to crack his durability dropping several points as he screamed several minor streams of mana drifting off of his core. Gimble forced down a mental order on the moss horror its¡¯ arms snapping back up to reassert the protective barrier against the fog keeping Gimble safe within. Hmm... This situation was trickier than he¡¯d been anticipating. His sole intention had been to fire off a blast of magic in Origins general direction hoping to do some damage to his opponent, but now he had a way to get in close, he might even be able to fire off a shot before the other dungeon core had a chance to respond. He was going to make that glowing green bastard pay for all of this; it was bad enough that he just sat there safe in his wall all superior like while his fellow dungeon core slept in the damp grey moss among the bugs and the beasts, but outright trying to kill him was taking things a step to far! This was definitely going to put a damper on their friendship especially when Gimble shot a blast of madness magic right into Origin¡¯s face! The dungeon core let out a small chuckle. Now he just needed to reach his target without getting burnt. Gimble gave the mental order for George to unfold as many tentacles as possible while keeping his core covered, forcing the monster to stop the moment even a slither of fog broke through the tentacle barrier sending a wave of agony up through the dungeon core. With its¡¯ free limbs the moss horror was now capable og making its¡¯ way forwards through the cave and towards the enemy core waiting at the other end of the room, trudging along at a snails pace. Gimble let out a roaring laugh spurring his valiant steed onwards, failing to notice that the bright glow that had once filled origin had begun to fade. Crack! Crack! He froze two blasts of sounds rocking the small stone room, directly preceded by two bright flashes of pure white light, lancing through the mist. George froze in his tracks the barely several feet out of his corner when a pair of dark figures emerged from the fog, and like george himself they seemed immune to the mists more unpleasant effects. George toppled under the weight of the sudden impact, the ball of tentacles beginning to bucke, shaking Gimble from within. The dungeon core was forced to watch helpless as what appeared to be two deformed fire rats began to gnaw on George¡¯s body, the Moss horror retalliating as best it could tugging at the bodies of the two beasts grabbing and squeezing in a vain attempt to constrict the rats. Gimble frowned watching the fight continue, large teeth slicing through soft moss slowly peeling away George¡¯s arms beginning to reveal Gimble from within sharp biting bouts of pain exploding through his surface as the mist worked its¡¯ way inwards through the gaps. These fire rats were not normal, as a matter of fact now he got a closer looker, other than their general shape they didn¡¯t seem much like fire rats at all, each was as large as a mudfish the normal bare pinkish skin replaced by what appeared to be a layer of thick brown bark, wooden needles filling their elongated mouths and sharp wooden claws ending each of digit on their six limbs. A single great staring eye was planted in their forehead shinning with ominous green light matching the dungeon core from which they seemed to have spawned. These were not animals, they were real mosters. Gimble snorted; was getting rather sick of the colour green, at this point even George¡¯s sickly shade of grey was better. Gimble let out a savage cry, as the face of one of the creatures burrowed its¡¯ way down through between a gap in George''s tentacles a long vine-like tongue slipping out between its¡¯ teeth, revealing a mushy pink maw within. The beast lashed out thorny barbs grating across Gimbles core several scattered blasts of pain grating through his core as the attack left narrow gashes in his surface, his grip on the eneryg in his core loosening once the once blue glowing cloud turning a pronounced black. A wave of mist slipped through the gaps created by the rats entrance, Gimble¡¯s mind seeming to jerk backwards at the shock as another wave of biting agony wormed its¡¯ way through his mind. Hnng... Hah... Huh... This- This was nothing! The dungeon core let out wild cry that teetered somewhere on the border between pain and glee, the miniature ball of mana condensed in his core flickering briefly as Gimble unleashed his inpromptu attack. A small pellet sized sphere blasted into the wood rat¡¯s face before exploding in a cloud of dark mist. The rat fell back George sealing Gimble away once again. The rat hit the stone floor hard a new notification popping up at the edge of Gimble¡¯s view, he ignored it. The rat writhered on the floor its; body beginning to convulse as the cloud of dark energy rushed forwards seeping in through the creates eye, noes and mouth. Its¡¯ eye rolled about in the middle of its¡¯ forehead as its'' body stifferened, it wasn''t dead just immobilised, its compatriot continuing to gnaw on one of George''s free limbs. George reached out with one of his more intact tentacles grabbing the tail on the fallen wood rat before swinging it in a wide arc overhead and bringing it down atop its¡¯ partner like some kind of meaty flail. There was a savage crack as the [Sunless Moss Horror] truly earned its¡¯ moniker, grabbing the stunned second rat by its'' own tail, swinging both rats through the green mist wacking and slamming them as it saw for against any available surface the creatures teetering just on the brink of death. Gimble let out a long sigh, the battle more or less concluded he turned his attention back up towards Origin the dungeon core resting on its¡¯ pedestal as pompous as ever, or at least as pompous as a giant magical rock could manage to be. Gimble let out a roar of victory as George slammed the two rats together, a massive wave of energy rushing into Gimble¡¯s core as another notification popped into existence at the edge of his awareness. He might have been out of magic now, but now he still had a weapon, or to be more precise George did, in the form of two rat shaped flails. He was going to make Origin pay one way or another but this; this was poetic justice. Gimble let out a long rolling laugh George proceeding to swing its'' trophies through the air as it made its'' way forwards. Gimble''s laugh grew louder as he approached an earth shattering Crack! bursting through the air. Gimble froze his attention sweeping through the dark green haze in search of the next assailant. Whatever origin threw at him, he could handle it! But there was nothing. The room was silent, still and empty, except for the network of cracks spreading across the ground beneath their feet. Crack! Grnnnd! Crack! Bang! The floor gave way beneath them as Gimble and George dumbled down into a dark abyss dispearing from view dragging the rat corpses with them. Elena let out a long sigh popping her head out from the small doorway she''d cut into the stone wall, a wave of sweat dripping from her forehead. Damn... Why couldn''t things just be easy. Chapter Seven: Little Miracles Chapter Seven: Little Miracles Elena lurched forwards, a grating sigh rattling through her chest. She shook her head before stumbling back into her chair, reaching up to daub her forehead with the sleeve of her shirt a steady trickle of sweat drenching her from head to toe. The dungeon had been burried in complete silence, even Origin was devoid of the gentle bubbling concepts and images that she had been training herself to tune out for the past six months. She had used everything, every last drop of mana and life force available to deal with that knock-off! One hundred mana to reshape the room and carve out a tunnel leading to the surface, fifty mana to establish the dungeon itself filling all nearby rooms and corridors with Origin¡¯s aura dissolving any living creatures caught within that had drained Origins supply of energy pretty handily. Then the faux core had made a break for the exit and she¡¯d been forced to use ten points of her own mana to create a barrier to prevent it escaping, not to mention the fact she did this while she was flipping through an endless sea of blue prints. Once she had established the dungeon it took a while for the system to implement all of the neccessary changes and part of that change was deciding what kind of blueprints the dungeon would have available based on the creatures it dissolves shortly after forming and the dungeons own traits. Needless to say even with the addition of nature a damp cave full of every category of vermin did not make for excellent material. She''d just selected the cheapest option possible and even that had cost fifty life force to pump out the pair of [Woodland Star gazer Rats], and then she¡¯d had to watch the [Sunless Moss Horror] practically rip them apart. Now that she had access to an actual dungeon the number of records she could access would increase, hopefully she could find out some more information on the creature, it wasn''t especially strong though it did appear quite versatile. It could prove a useful addition to their dungeon. In the end she had been backed into a corner, they had no life force, no monsters and Origin had run out of mana. So she had done the only thing she could ¨C she opened a hole in the floor dropping them down into the massive cavern which rested below the newly formed dungeon. Things would have gone so much easier if the fake core had just melted like everything else but she supposed dungeon born monsters must possess some king of immunity to the corrosive effects of dungeon auras. Of course that was just a guess, this wasn''t exactly a normal situation so she was doing the best with what she had. The dark green glow of Origins aura was already beginning to fade, it was still their marking the current borders of the dungeon invisible to mundane eyes, but clearly visible to Elena''s sight. If the battle had continued much longer, the aura¡¯s potency would have dropped so far that it would have been little more than a minor irritant for the opposing dungeon core, that would have left them defenceless to the moss horror. It would just be a matter of shattering Origin and it would establish its'' own dungeon in their place. She had yet to see Gimble''s dungeon fairy, it was beginning to grate against the back of her head, Gimble''s aura should have penetrated everything in the vicinty going so far as to sink into the stone itself, yet she had no notification about absorbing a dungeon fiary. She could see dozens of fish, rats and snakes, with hundreds of insects added in for good measure but not one fairy. There was no point worrying now, she groaned slumping deeper into her chair as mana fatigue begam to set in. For now she¡¯d take a break, but as soon as she recovered there would be work to do. They had founded a dungeon and that meant soon enough adventurers would come knocking in search of treasure and glory. Currently the[Nature''s Origin Dungeon] was just a long tunnel and an empty room and that would have to change. Winding corridors filled with traps, hordes of roving monsters - nothing overly complex. It was best to keep things simple on the first few floors. She sighed, her gaze turning towards the hole she had formed in the corner of the room, leading down into a dark abyss. She''d found it during her initial survey of the cave, an open expanse stretching beneath the earth, she wasn''t sure what lay below them or exactly how far down the tunnel went, what she did know was that the passage had been formed when the volcano was still active and that the hole was deep. If she were lucky the fake core would shatter on reaching the bottom, that or melt in a pool of lava but after recent events, well she just didn¡¯t trust her luck. Lately things had just kept going wrong. She''d need to start preparing precautions.
Thud! A sharp jab of pain lanced upwards through Gimble¡¯s core followed by a nasty crack! He remained silent for a moment, mind going blank, as it took a moment for the pain to register and he let out a screeching howl. Moments later several other dull thuds! crashed to the ground around him. Falling had been a strange experience for him, his little bubble of awareness had remained floating in the room above for several seconds watching as the ground continued to fall away tumbling down into the hole, before he felt the sphere reach the outer limits of his gaze. His bubble had snapped back into his body moments later as he continued to plummet down and down falling ever further into the earth surrounded by darkness on all sides before landing across a barren outcrop of stone. He wasn''t sure how long he''d been falling for, he''d forgotten to count, but it was certainty long enough for him to reach his terminal velocity before making impact He let out a long internal groan his attention flickering to the gauges hanging at the periphery of his vision.
[Dungeon Core] - Gimble
DURABILITY - [36%] MANA - [0/40] LIFE FORCE - [25/50]
His life force had made a significant recovery, probably from splatting the pair of wood rats in the battle above. Still he was completely out of mana and his durability was starting to peter out. It would probably take him weeks or maybe months to regain his lost durability, going by how long it had taken for him to recover from his initial arrival. Gimble hissed, a dull pain filling his core though his outward expression remained as stony as ever...Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Hah... he felt better already, laughter truly was the best medicine - or at the very least it made his wounds hurt less by comparison. His gaze turned to the two windows that had appeared during his fight with the rats in hopes of distracting himself from his most recent shame.
CONGRATULATIONS! - [You Have Levelled Up]
[Level 2] Intelligence +1 [+] Concentration +1 [+] Will +1 [+] +2 free points
CONGRATULATIONS! - [You Have Discovered a New Spell]
[Delirium Bolt] - [mental magic ¨C Insanity] A small projectile sphere of solidified magic infused with the mental magic element insanity. Causes those hit by the spell suffer the hallucination debuff, chance of inflicting stun. MANA COST: 5 RANGE: 15 ft DAMAGE: 10 HP DURATION: 1 sec (+1 sec for +3 mana)
Gimble groaned, normally this would have been good news; he had a new magic spell, and he¡¯d gained a level. The Dungeon core sighed before slamming his two free points down into intelligence raising the stat up to seven points giving him a total of seventy mana and six life force. Yay, now he was slightly stronger than he was a moment ago, but that didn''t do a thing for his headache. Well headache really wasn¡¯t the right word, it was something else, something less physical. He no longer had a head or any way to feel actual pain but over the last few minutes he had been subjected to a battery test of agony, the sharp acidic pain of being melted by magical gas, the grating blast of physical damage from the spines on the wood rats tongue, the blunt force trauma rattling around his consciousness like a toddler with their christmas present. His crystal had been cracked and unlike before these weren¡¯t just hairline fractures; they were thick gashes running over his surface, burning brightly with white light. He had to wonder whether they would leave a scar. He lay there for a long time drifting in an out of focus. He hadn¡¯t slept, not once since he had arrived in this new world, his body simply didn¡¯t need it. But now, now he needed it, he needed to rest. He began siphoning mana drawing it into his core, the action eliciting a small wave of prickling pain to rush over his surface. He ignored it continuing to hoover up the ambient mana watching his gauges began tick up as the minutes passed. He really hadn¡¯t noticed before, just how much mana origin had been taking for itself, without the competition Gimble was able to fill his mana gauge in a matter of minutes although he was just guessing about the specifics, his measurement of time had been a little off ever since his little journey through the cosmos. Slowly, over what Gimble guessed was probably a couple of hours, the grating pain inside his core began to abate, the glowing scars beginning to dim as he expanded his bubble of sight to its'' upmost limits before sending it out to regard the features of his landing site He couldn¡¯t grasp the full scope of his current location no matter how he straned his sight, but it was large he knew that, he couldn''t see a cieling, a wall or any other form of barrier. If he hadn''t known better he would have assumed he was just resting on a normal hill in a normal field in the middle of the night, except for the pitch black stone beneath them and the waves of glowing red grass that spread beyond. George and the rats had come down just as hard as Gimble. The Dungeon core frowned his gaze focusing in on the unmoving lump of moss. Gimble reached out with his awareness and for lack of a better term mentallyclicked on George a notification window popping up.
[Sunless Moss Horror] - George
HEALTH: 27/80 LIFE FORCE: 2/10
Huh, Gimble regarded the notification with George¡¯s basic stats, the[Sunless Moss Horror] seemed more or less fine which only made sense now that he thought of it - the monster was a literal pile of moss; it had no bones to break - the fall hadn¡¯t done a thing to harm the dashing young horror. Still it looked like George had taken quite a bit of damage in its fight with the two rats,several of its tentacles now mere stumps the rest heavily gnawed on. Gimble sighed looking on at his little friend. They must have been quite the sight. He let out a long sigh, they really needed to heal up quickly if they wanted to keep themselves from ending up in a worse siutation. Gimble frowned, it wasn''t like he knew any healing magic, no all of his spells seemed focus on making any situation actively worse, he''d have to put that on his to do list: find healing magic. Well there was one thing he thought might work. He let out a long groan before sending George the mental order to crawl over to him as best it could before drawing eight life force out of his core, keeping a careful eye on his own gauges as he did in order not to waste any excess energy. Then taking a deep breath he sent the energy forwards drifting uneasily through empty space before crashing into prone monster. The pale green light of the life force sank down into the lump of grey moss, a pale green pulse burning through its body as its¡¯ tentacles grew several centimetres longer. They didn¡¯t heal or anything, they just grew... Hah, well that was a complete waste of his time and effort. Gimble grumbled to himself, he felt like someone had dropped him down a flight of stairs into an acid bath. He really needed that healing magic some time soon. Still at least his mana was full now; that meant he could found his own dungeon, that would probably come with a couple of benefits, maybe there''d be something that could help him heal himself or George. He was still alive, he had unparalleled access to mana (at least in comparison to his previous supply), he had gained a level and expanded his magical arsenal with a new spell, not to mention soon he''d have a dungeon of his own; Little miracles, it¡¯s all about the little miracles. Chapter Eight: An Arrow Chapter Eight: An Arrow
WARNING! - [Requirements Not Met]
In Order to found a dungeon you must first: Reach Level 1 Have A Route Leading From Dungeon Core Room to Surface Have At Least 500Mana
What the hell! Gimble let an internal roar, flailing his theoretical arms up over his head, george seeming to take this as a mental command to do the same, several mossy tentacles flailing around the creature as it approached him. Of course things could never be this simple, never, never, the universe just looooved to screw him over, didn''t it! Ha... Ha, ha ha ha; the mana cost required for him to found his dungeon had just been multiplied by ten, ten! Where was the justification for that? Nowhere! He let out a long groan, slowly letting the iritation wash through him before giving George the mental order to stop its'' frantic arm waving. It was good to have company again. Hah, there was no use moping around; he had a problem which meant there was someone who had a solution and he was going to beat it out of them whatever the cost. Huzzah! Gimble laughed as the Moss horror scooped up his collapsing body, the damaged dungeon core letting out a low hiss as Georged secured him in his inner ring of tentacles. He still didn''t have a clue about healing magic, life force was clearly useless on this front unless he intended to just swell Gimble up to the point where this level of damage would mean nothing to the moss monster. Of course that sounded like a logistic nightmare, he was going to need to focus on using mana. Currently he had a total of two spells, the first being the magical equivalent of announcing a tax hike while cutting off medical and shoving the minimum wage over the neighbours fence, while the other... well he still wasn¡¯t sure what that[Delirium Bolt] actually did. Apparently the spell caused momentary hallucinations and did a little bit of damage, of course he wasn''t quite what the spell would actually do, create a flash of white? A burst of sound? a spike of pain? There were lots of different Hallucinations. Now that he thought about it he''d never actually tried to deliberatley cast a spell, so far things had just been happy accidents, well at least they were happy from his perspective. Eh, he''d figure it out later, now he had some rather more pressing concerns. Gimble turned his attention back towards the notification. [At least 500 mana] a small shiver coursed through his core, his mana veins practically shuddering beneath his stony surface. Hopefully the increase mana requirement reflected an increase quality of any dungeon founded in his new location.. The only thing that had changed about his situation after his battle with origin was his location, durability, level and the fact he now had a new dungeon waiting somewhere overhead. He doubted his durability had anything to do with it or his level for that matter, otherwise it would become practically impossible to found a dungeon. So that left either Origin''s new dungeon or his location as the cause. He was more incined to believe it was the former; when origin had formed its'' dungeon it had released that acidic mist melting everything, Gimble was assuming that mist had something to do with founding dungeons and of course if he was going to makea dungeon in a bigger area he''d need more mist and he was going to bet more mist meant more mana. Ah fantasy logic - he finally felt like he was fitting in. George wobbled in approval of the sentiment In any case even if he had all the mana in the world he still wouldn''t be able to found a dungeon. First he''d need to dig a tunnel to the surface, which he was guessing, going by how far he had fallen was quite a way away. Hmm... There was probably some kind of spell he could use in order to tunnel his way outwards or in lieu of some magical sollution to all his problems he could probably make a monster who''s soul purpose was to tunnel its'' way up to the surface. Digging the tunnel would just take time, it really wasn''t a major concern right now, his mana on the other hand was slightly more worrying. So far every level he¡¯d gained had come with a flat increase in stats of plus one to everything (with the exception of his physical stats) and two free points he could allocate to any stat he wanted. That meant he would have a maximum increase in his intelligence of plus five per level. Gimble frowned opening up his status sheet.
NAME¨C [Gimble] AGE - [0] RACE - [Dungeon Core Variant] LEVEL - [2] STRENGTH - [N/A] AGILITY - [N/A] ENDURANCE - [N/A] INTELLIGENCE - [7] CONCENTRATION - [6] WILL - [10] SKILLS -[MentalMagic ¨C Insanity] TRAITS - [Minor Insanity / Cosmic Inspiration]
He¡¯d need to gain nine levels before his intelligence would be high enough to meet the five hundred mana requirement. The only method of increasing his level he had come across so far had been killing monsters. Assuming that his new world followed standard videogame logic, or at least what logic he could remember, then every time he gained a level he''d have to kill an even greater ammount of monsters to get tot he next level. He wasn''t sure how high nine levels was, at least in comparison to everything in his surroundings but without a doubt he would end up killing a lot of monsters. Lots and lots of monsters. Of course all of that effort might just prove unneccessary. After his battle with Origin Gimble had developed a hypothesis on exactly why killing monsters seemed to be increasing his level and if he was right, well, there would be nothing on this planet capable of keeping him from world domination! Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
¡°Listen kids, with enough weight and enough speed an arrow can pierce through anything, it just keeps moving forward - that is what it means to be an adventurer, to move forward no matter what stands in your way. But there is one thing you must remember: an arrow is an arrow.¡± A cold wind blew insahkingthe long fronds of pale green grass dyed in an inky blue by the encroaching night. Long blades of grass were whipped into a frenzy about his feet as he took in a long breath, cold air seeping into his lungs.Nizoragaspoke evenly leaning against his stout bow, an easy smile splitting the hard features of his face, or at least the portion visible beneath his hood, a dark red beard fluttering in the breeze. ¡°An arrow can fly forward to meet the foe but just as easily the wind can turn it back on you. An arrow is a tool and nothing more, you have no control over it, that goes for all of us whether you are a magic caster or a martial artist. You cannot bend mana to your will. You must guide it direct it, let it flow and most importantly never trust it with your life. otherwise you will never join the adventurer''s guild.¡± He let out a rolling laugh a sudden gust of wind peeling back hishoodtoreveal the blotchy face hidden within. The man was a dwarf from the northern city ofInkarad, a people famed for their stalwart nature and rugged appearance - Tarma supposed the man did fit the description in at least in oneraggard- he looked like someone stuffed an old warty-potato into a sock and used it as a flail in a battle with a troll lord and if that couldn''t be considered rugged she didn''t know what could. ¡°This has got to be a new record.¡± Eloa sighed glancing up in the direction of the laughing dwarf, and the two short figures standing before him with a mix of awe andtrepedition. "Hmm?" Tarma glanced up dropping theoillyrag she had been using to polish her staff to the side as the Demi-human girl let out a low hiss. "We''re barely a day out ofOdemereand he''s already started rattling off to the new recruits." She huffed unhooking the large metal from where it hung just above the softly glowing embers of the fire before dropping it down into the ash, a plume of sparksrising upinto the air before she plunged herladdledown into the broth. "They''re not exactly recruits, at least not yet; brats haven''t even earned their first cord." Tarma snorted in response pulling out a coarse sheet of cloth from her pack and running it along the smooth metal surface of her staff removing the last of the oil before giving the weapon a brief once over before planting it end down in the groundfunnelinga fragment of her power into the staff a faint light rising from the dark blue crystal mounted at its'' top. She had purchased the staff specifically for this mission and it made a welcome addition to the half-a-dozen other magic staffs she owned all of which were currently stashed into her bandolier which itself had been strapped to her bag. It was probably best they didn''t walk around the countryside like one of the kings'' patrols. She''d even tried to get Niz to wrap up his bow while they were travelling, of course the dwarf had refused; stubborn bastard. "If we let him fillthereheads with all of thatnonsensethen they''ll never earn a cord." Eloa sighed rubbing at her scaled face before pausing to lift theladleto her lips and take a brief sip before giving a stout nod and adding a dash of spices to the pot of horned rabbit meat before giving it a quick stir. "Eh, they''ll get a cord one way or another; you know what nobles are like, and this far out in the sticksits'' not like anyone with any real power''sgonnatry and tell ''emno." Tarma snorted before grabbing one of the wooden bowls gesturing for the snake girl to fill it. Eloa frowned before turning to yell in the dwarf''s direction "Hey Nizget your fat dwarven arse over here if you want something to eat!" She spoke, a rough hiss rattling her throat as she did Tarma watching as the two children froze Niz letting out a cheery laughbarrellingover in the direction of pot, lit by the pale blue light of Tarma''s staff. The dwarf clapped his hands before grabbing one of the bowls and moving to dip it into the pot. Eloa lashed out with the speed of... well a snake, strikingNiz''shand the dwarf recoiling before ending the snake woman a glare. "You are disgusting!" She hissed jabbing the ladle in his direction before seizing his bowl and pouring out a portion of soup Niz dropping down into the grass dejected. The two children shuffled over into the pool of light, bodies hidden beneath heavy cloaks, a boy and a girl each roughly ten years old. The boy had dark hair, verging on a deep shade of red while the girl''s hair was blonde touching on hints of green at its'' edges her facial features strangely sharp speaking of a heritage that was not quite human. Nobles certainly did have some rather weird hobbies. "Young masterAinslow, MistressGaulmere, are either of you planning to join us?" Tarma called the two skirting there way towards her as Eloa filled a pair of bowls before reaching out to pass it to the children as they sat down between Tarma and Niz. The duo watched the young snake girl cautiously Rid Ainslow reaching out slowly to take the bowls, with a slightly nervous nod, Eloa letting her tongue briefly flit out of her mouth, a narrow frown crossing her face. Tarma shook her head before downing her soup in one go barely stopping to chew the chunks of rabbit meat before it settled down into her stomach. Reptile demi-humans were rare outside of theUramoanempire and even in UramoaEloa''scase was rather severe. Scales covered her body from head to toe, a long thick tail descending down her back while her head was as far from human as you could get. She had asnakeshead, a long oval of pale red scales, blooms of darker scales bursting through on occasion here and there, her throat a pale white andhereeyes strangely human.Dalagarnwas a human nation and like most human nations, it existed on the fringes of the main strand, you didn''t see a lot of other races, especially this far out in theboonies. They were afraid but that didn''t mean she was going to let this slide, for an adventurer trust meant everything, if you cannot trust your teammates well then someone was liable to wind up dead come morning.Nizoragahad been right about one thing; you couldn''t trust tools to keep you alive, you had to rely on each other, that was the only way for weak species to become stronger. "Do you know what you two ''redoin'' here?" Tarma questioned glaring down at the two children who had begun to slowly sip from their bowls of soup, IraGaulmereseeming to struggle keeping theweek oldboiled rabbit down. "That idiot may call us adventurer''s, and sure that might be what our guild badges say, but we aren''t some mythical heroes. We''re mercenaries, we take jobs and the jobs get done one way or another." The two children were looking up at her now, mouths clamped shut as they huddled beneath their cloaks. Rumour had it that this entire debacle the result betweenMaroganAinslowRid''sfather and Duke Ulmo Gaulmere Ira''s father. It was no secret thatRidand Ira were close friends and rumour had it their parents had gotten into a disagreement over whether or not the two would be able to join the adventurer''s guild or not. Tarma wasn''t clear on the specifics but what she did know was that a drunken bet between the two competing parties later she was dragging a pair of snot nosed brats through the wilderness, at the behest of theOdemereadventurer''s guild master "Your fathers asked us to bring you, I do not know why or how, but the only reason you are here is because of the bonus they''re offering us to escort you on this mission." The children shrank back eyes wide, pale faces seeming to shine in the blue light of her staff. "Word is a new dungeon has spawned in the Pourya mountains and we have been tasked with securing the location before the dungeoneer''s guild can set up shop and begin handling all of the logistics. We will make our way north to the village of Par Pourya where we will meet with a representative from the temple of Lowith. The journey will take us two months and we will cross a vast and dangerous terrain on foot. You will see things you could hardly imagine cooped up in the walls of your city and meet new people who have their own way of viewing the world. Hunting monsters, raising levels, protecting people; that''s just a job, a true adventurer is someone who seeks out the beauty of this world amidst the strange andbizarre, and trust me where we''re going we''re going to be seeing a lot of that." Chapter Nine: What Lies Below Chapter Nine: What Lies Below Magic is not a fix all, you can''t just wave your'' hands start screaming made up words and make all your problems go poof, Gimble was forced to learn that the hard way. During his battle with origin he had taken a long hard look at his core, and inside of his core he had found another core; a core-core if you will. In any case this inner-core was compruised of a mix of life force and mana compressed so tightly together they had solidified. He believed that this was where the mana from the creatures he had killed went. Whenever he, or George splatted a monster, both its'' life force and its'' mana would drift into Gimble''s core, but for some reason even though absorbing that energy did increase his life force it did nothing for his mana, which meant the monsters mana had to be going somewhere else in his body. As far as he could see all of his mana was contained in the billions of tiny veins rushing through his core so it couldn''t be going there so that meant to had be being solidified into the core. Now to any reasonably minded person making these deductions that would lead to but a single conclusion: increasing the mana in his inner-core increased his level and therefore by forcing mana into his core-core he could jump right up to level eleven in no time. Actually why bother stopping there? He could just kep increasing hi intelligence until he reached level twenty, then level, eighty, then level one-hundred-and four, and then it was all the way up to infinity and world conquest! Ahh... It had been such a sweet dream. Needless to say, stuffing mana into his inner-core had resulted in a miserable failure. He hadn¡¯t gained a single level, his mana simply passing through the core before slipping into one of the side chambers that acted as sort of run-off chambers for mana in his veins when he absorbed more than his body could take, allowing the mana to diffuse back into the air. Those run off chambers were also the reason he couldn''t just flood his whole core until some of it was forced to condense; the whole process was kind of like trying to fill a swimming pool, or a toilet, after a certain point his core just started to drain away. Thinking about it there was probably a pretty good reason that he had a limit to his mana capacity, he was going to guess something bad would happen if he pushed his body too far beyond its'' limits. He''d probably explode or something equally catastrophic. Forcing himself to level up by cheating the system seemed to be a dead end, It was probably for the best really, afterall what sounded like more fun than mindlessly slaughtering hordes of monsters for experience? Gimble huffed giving George a mental prod; the plant monsters rising unsteadily before lurching forwards on fraying limbs. Raising his level aside he really needed to get around to figuring out healing magic before they both fell apart, although it seemed like George wasn¡¯t losing any more health actually quite the opposite.
[Sunless Moss Horror] - George
HEALTH: 28/80 LIFE FORCE: 1/10
It seemed like George was healing naturally. Really he shouldn''t be too surprised about that, healing is just one of those things living beings did naturally. Gimble''s rate of healing was much slower, counted in days rather than minutes; they could probably find somewhere safe to hide and wait until they were in top condition to take on all the challneges their new environment could throw at them. They could do that, but Gimble was already beginning to get restless after his failed attempts to artifically boost his level. You¡¯d think spending a couple of months in a dark cave with no source of entertainment would teach even a dungeon core at least some modicum of patience, well you''d be wrong, there was no way he was just going to wait around the heal, especially not when he needed to give Origin a good old punch in the gut, or at least the dungeon core equivalent. George began to descend the little blackened heath on which they had crashed after falling through the floor above thick grey tentacles sliding over dark stones and blackened plants. Gimble had already given the cave, or at least what he could actually see of the vast expanse iwth his bizzare new form of sight a cursory once over, but looking at it now without a fog of adrenalin and a mild shock to shake his awareness it felt like he was watching a British nature documentary, staring out over the vast vistas and wild expanses, just with a healthy dose of magical flare thrown in for good measure. Long grass spread out across the open cave, rising high overhead, at least from Gimble¡¯s perspective; each blade gave off a warm red light from the tips as each needle of hard grey grass burned bright like tongues freshly pulled from a fire, sending up the coasional flurry of sparks which rained down upon the grassy floor piled high with ash and dirt. Scattered trees rose here and there amidst the grass, their trunks slender and covered in thick black, or ocasionally snowwy white, bark long drooping fronds of frigid blue vines and jagged leaves hung from their twisted branches. But the real beauty of the scene lay in the creatures that lived within the grass and all their wonderous absurdities; from bright red toads the size of beach balls drooling molten stone from open mouths to pure white cats that seemed to vanish and reappear of flurries of ice and snow. Packs of fire rats scavenged amidst the darker corners of the glades scurrying around burrows built into hillsides snatching up insects all of which were a beautiful shade of glistening white flecked with dark blue. The Fire rats down here were different than the ones from the cave though, where the rats above were fat and hairless, these ones were slender and sleek with black coats of fur, standing out against dark red eyes, though they still maintained the characteristic six arms. The grass, the trees, the insects even the animals all gave off a strong bioluminescent pulse dousing the cave in light, but brightest of all the beasts were the antelopes. Well at least they looked like antelopes - they were massive, probably slightly larger than an adult horse, male and female alike adorned with a thick set of rigid antlers jutting straight up, black as night and doused in flames. The light danced off their pinkish red fur as they moved galloping across the open spaces moving in hers that appeared almost like a wave of flames washing over the grasslands, the smell of smoke and ash heavy in the air where they passed, the light dimming only when they stopped to feed on the grass. Gimble shuddered slightly, this was the first thing he¡¯d smelled in ages other than damp and moss and stale water. He found it to be a pleasant improvement though he felt like his sense of smell had become strangely acute after becoming a dungeon core just like all of his other senses, just limited to the small area of perception he was capable of summoning. He didn¡¯t really understand it so he was just going to ignore it for now ¨C he had more important things to deal with at the moment. Gimble paused George grinding to a halt in front of one of the fallen bodies of one of the wood rats that had tumbled down with him from above. He still needed to found his own dungeon, after all that was kind of what dungeon cores did, and was going to need to raise his level before he could do that. He needed at least five hundred mana, meaning he''d need to gain nine levels before he had enough mana to pull off the task. He wasn¡¯t entirely sure whether level eleven was high or not he really didn¡¯t have enough off a basis to make any assumptions just yet, he couldn¡¯t even see the levels of other animals or monsters, which made things all the harder to understand. Hell other creatures might not even have levels, maybe being shuttled through the space between realities had messed him up in ways he just couldn''t understand? In any case if he wanted to increase his level he needed to increase his levelling ability when meant he''d need more monsters under his command to do the actual hunting. Luckily he already had a candidate for his next monster. Gimble looked down at the creature its¡¯ spine bent backwards mouth open revealing row after row of wooden teeth as it stared towards the heavens through an unseeing eye, it was one of the giant wooden rats that origin had sent after him. Gimble had managed to locate one of the beast using his bubble of awareness; but no matter how far he searched he hadn¡¯t yet been able to find its¡¯ partner. Either it had fallen further into the grass than he could search, which he doubted considering his considerable range of just over a hundred metres, or one of the native inhabitants of the fire cave, the arbitrary and very literal name he had just assigned his new home, had wandered along and eaten it. Gimble let out a long sigh regarding the resources he needed to bring the little monster under his control.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
[Dungeon Core] - Gimble
DURABILITY - [36%] MANA - [70/70] LIFE FORCE - [19/60]
There had been no real change in his durability, it was still worrying low. His mana reserves on the other hand had practically skyrocketed after his last level up and the absence of Origin to take all the magical goodness for himself meant it was an awful lot easier to gather the mana he needed (taking a little over an hour for him to gather the seventy mana needed to fill up his tank). of course his Life force was beginning to run a little on the low side especially after his failed attempt to heal George. He sighed George poking at the falen rodent, hopefully his limited life force would be enough to reanimate the monster. Gimble let out a long sigh releasing a cloud of life force before wafting it forwards towards the mangled corpse. The mist drifted down settling over the body of the rat Gimble waiting for the mist to sink in and for a new notification to appear. That didn¡¯t happen though. Instead the rat shuddered briefly as if its nerves had just been shocked its body coiling up as slowly it began to dissolve. The rat had begun to crumble apart turning into a pile of sand slowly melting down into the floor below in an almost identical fashion to the acid cloud that Origin had spewed when it founded its'' dungeon and tried to off Gimble. The young Dungeon core frowned regarding the scene, watching as the edge of his life force shifted from pale green to a deep black which began to fade as the process reached its¡¯ natural conclusion the last of the rat vanishing from existence leaving only a brief new notification, and the excess life force, in its¡¯ wake. Gimble regarded the messages before sucking in his excess life force noticing he was down roughly five points from absorbing the rat.
ABSORBED - [Lv1 Overgrown Star gazer Rats]
A species of rat found in nature dungeons and dark forests in the dead of night. These rats use their singular massive eye as a focus when casting simple spells, making the eyeball a valuable commodity for most mages and alchemists. MATERIALS MEAT: 438 g SKELETAL STRUCTURE: 245 g VEGETATION: 201 g
Huh, he supposed this was what this world''s version of ¡®looting¡¯ but rather than getting a plus-one sword of water resistance he was saddled with a bunch of rodent body parts, which to be honest was kind of killing the RPG vibes he''d been getting from his new world. Gimble paused frowning at the message before casting a brief glance around himself, acutely aware of the fact he wasn''t covered in a mass of monster guts. He had just asborbed the rat, or assimiliated it or whatever, in any case It''s body parts should have gone somewhere they couldn''t have just winked out of existence. Maybe he had some kind of inventory then? He tried to call up a window using the concept of an inventory as his basis but the notification system seemed unwilling to cooperate on this one. Gimble frowned before opening up his dungeon menu.
[DUNGEON MENU]
[CREATE DUNGEON] [MONSTER MENU] [TRAP MENU] [TREASURE MENU]
Treasure menu seemed like the most likely place for him to keep his all of his junk. He clicked on the button and watched as a new miniature menu appeared listing his options.
[TREASURE MENU]
[Items] [Supplies] [Equipment] [Currency] [Materials] [Blueprints]
Hmm, another crossed out blueprint screen. Gimble wasn¡¯t sure if this was another side effect of his trait preventing him from receiving any reasonable level of help or guidance, or if he needed to unlock it somehow. Gimble zeroed in on the materials option before opening it and finding himself relatively non-plussed. It seemed like his resources were being stored in some kind of inventory, divided into the classic endless number of little blue boxes, however he didn¡¯t see any option that let him take any of the stored items out. In the end he just gave a mild snort before closing all of his notification and sinking down into a moment of quiet contemplation. He needed monsters but it seemed like he couldn¡¯t just turn dead animals into his undead army which left him with two options; either he focused on turning the living into monsters, or he utilised what he already had available and started churning out some moss horrors like some eldritch factory - If he remembered correctly there had been an option in his monster menu letting him create new moss horrors. In the end his choice was kind of obvious. The theme for this cave had been pretty clearly established, hot versus cold, frost versus fire, it was essentially the feud between the fire rats and the frost snakes from the floor above taken to a whole new level ¨C moss didn¡¯t really come into that equation and if it did Gimble suspected it would be incinerated or frozen solid in mere moments. If he was going to fight in this new cave system he was going to need a new type monster, luckily he had all the plants he needed to make that happen. Still Grass seemed like an even worse choice for creating a monster than moss, too brittle and too weak, no making a monster out of grass was probably a very bad idea. Actually now that he though of it... Gimble urged George forward leaving the little blackened patch of earth behind as the moss horror sidled up to the wall of grass proceeding to use its¡¯ more intact limbs to grab onto the grass before yanking it up out of the ground and into the air. Gimble saw a miniature slither of mana and life force slink its¡¯ way from the plant into his core. It didn¡¯t seem like he would be able to just harvest his way to level eleven the increase in mana was just too small, maybe a hundredth of a spiny-hoppers input into his core, but at least he had found a way to speed up the process of gathering Life force now. Gimble nodded to himself, before letting out a long sigh. He needed a living specimen on which to base his new monster and the only place he was going to get that was by catching one. Hah... This was going to be a long day. Chapter Ten: Unnatural Chapter Ten: Unnatural The air was still and heavy, the grass bending beneath a non-existent wind, flashes of black and grey shifting through the grass. It slithered forwards; unseen, unheard, drawing ever closer towards its¡¯ prey waiting for the perfect moment to strike. It would come soon enough... Soon enough...
He roared rearing back onto his hind legs, two sets of deep red claws slashing through the air as thick black fur bristles across his back, gleaming red eyes peering forwards aover the low grass filling the glade. He dropped down back onto all six of his legs sending forwards a scathing glare towards his enemy encamped high within the roots of the [Glacial Oak], a massive tree with snow white bark and leaves of pale blue, a gnawing cold spreading out from the trees base, causing the[Red-Needle Grass] to wither losing its'' signature red glow, fading to a singy shade of grey. A set of eight pale green eyes stared him down, locking his body in place; devoid of any sign of true emotion. This would be a battle for the ages, one that would be written of the annals of history, told by grandfather to grandchild; the final showdown between the [Scorched Rat King], and the [White Pugilist Spider Queen]. The king snorted shaking the rough main of black fur coursing over his neck, long steel grey teeth gnashing in his skull. Several days ago he had been content to scurry amidst the grass, crawling through narrow caves, dodging[Molten Toads], and [Frost Vipers]. But now, now he was something new, now he was something important he had evolved into the rat king. Every monster was born with a single skill and a single trait, this was an immutable fact, a law of reality itself, but where other creatures sought to gain ever higher stats and more advanced skills monsters were always searching for their next trait, something they could earn only by evolving, reaching their maximum level and consuming the resources necessary to push them up into the next grade of monsters along. Evolving had placed The King into the second rank of monsters, and ever since he had been searching for a worthy oponnent, a foe truly capable of matching his new found magnificence and he had found such an enemy in the form of the Pugilist Queen This hadn¡¯t been The King¡¯s first attempt at taking the Arachnid down, no, every day for the past week he had launched an attack on the eight legged horror. Each of his offensive campaigns had been met with a fierce rebuttal sending him scurrying back to his den to lick his wounds and try his luck on another day. Pugilist spiders were far from the most dangerous foes the cave had to offer, but that was only when they were alone. The spiders span their webs in glacial oaks, protected from larger carnivore and herbivores alike, and in from those webs they spawned their young, hundreds of thousands of them. Even many of the higher ranked monsters simply refused to attack the nests; the spiders were very far from nutritious and the amount of experience they provided was minimal. Of course, that only referred to the run of the mill [White Pugilist Spider]s, the foot soldiers, the fodder, sent out on life threatening journeys'' across the empty wastes of the cave in search for food, all in the hopes of returning alive and delivering their finds to their mother and their queen. The queens wove the nest, they birthed new spiders and directed them out across the hellish landscape in small packs relying on numbers to overpower vastly superior prey, and that tactic worked. The Queen could pump out hundreds of spiders everyday the beasts able to swarm almost any monster unwitting enough to enter their nests. Normally even The King wouldn¡¯t have dared to mess with a fully established pugilist spider colony but this was no normal situation. This spider wueen was nought but a neophyte, a newly born arachnid ruler yet to spin her nest, born into the second rank of monsters she lacked the additional trait he possessed from evolving under the power of his own will ¨C this made her a prime target. She would be the first sacrifice to his next evolution! So there they stood The king, a three foot long rodent; sleek black fur and dark red eyes, with curving claws and a long whip like tail covered in tiny red scales lashing in the dirt, facing down the Queen; a massive spider with short stubby legs, and swelling abdomen, covered in tiny raised ridges, her mandibles swelling forwards to absurd proportions ending in hardened balls five inches across covered in glowing blue bump like protrusions which radiated a freezing aura. The King let out another screech waving its¡¯ tale behind its head, the spider remaining silent watching him from above camped behind its'' arboreal barricade. The rat snorted throwing back his head, this arrogant spider would face his wrath, if it was unwilling to meet him upon open ground then he would burn its¡¯ precious tree to ash and cinders! He reeled back, pulling his long snaking body up onto his hind legs before taking in a long breath, something small and hot beginning to spark within his chest slowly swelling as it rose up burning at the back of his throat, a glob of glowing red flame launching forwards, hissing and steaming as it met the cold air surrounding the tree. The glob flew in a graceful arc with pinpoint accuracy all thanks to The King''s birth trait, the ability that had allowed him to evolve in a time unheard of for the rest of his race; [Telemetric Judgement] a unique ability that extended his senses, he could feel his target; the warmth of their blood and the beats of their heart. His aim was perfect and the blast of flaming liquid flew towards the mass of white webs currently spreading through the roots of the tree that would sooner or later become this spider''s nest. The bolt of fire struck home, the webs ingitinng practically bursting into flames, sparking and flashing through the dark and winding knot of roots that the spider call home. Finally the queen made her move, The King jittering below squeaking in amusment as she raised her massive club like mandible high overhead the pale blue glow surrounding her weapons seeming to itensify. He chittered in glee as he watched her approach. Things were going exactly as he planned, after so many defeats he had finally come up with a stratergy capable of putting an end to this insufferable rivalry. Before the end of the day she would be no more than a light afternoon lunch. He screeched before activating his newfound skill, another byproduct of his recent evoltion; his tail bursting into a wave of flame as his body turned, twisting over itself, whipping his flaming appendage at the incoming arachnid faster than her eight eyes could follow. The Tail struck home, hardened scales cracking through the spiders steely exoskeleton, the greasyoil the tail secreted plattering over the spider''s body causing several globs of flame to linger blackening its¡¯ snow white armour. The Spider ignored the attack, whatever damage his tail had done seeming to be limited to the monster''s exoskeleton, The spider closed in before lashing out with a savage jab striking The Rat King''s side knocking the rodent back several metres rolling through the grass.. The King let out a shriek scrabbling back onto his feet before drawing up another blast of fire from his stomach, this one several times weaker than his opening salvo as he lacked the time needed to funnel the mana into the attack as The Queen closed in. The spider took the blow head on seemingly unphased as its'' face began to smoke, under the searing goo, its'' body slowly beginning to turn black scorched by the attack, but the damage was not enough to deter it in its'' course, within moments the arachnid had reached him. It lashed out striking downwards, Catching the King''s skull and forcing him down crashing into the ground with a dull Thud!The Pugilist Queen stood still fo severak long moments, a grinding rattle escaping the arthropods jaws in a horrid faximaly of laughter. The King turned, a dull creping rage beginning to rise from deep within his chest, as he turned towards his foe. The Queen responded in an instant several lightning fast strikes boring down into his midsection eliciting a symphony of sharp cracking noises exploding from his ribs. The King Howled rolling back and forth, head tossing as The Queen watched in indeferrent to his plight.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. This had been a bad idea, why had he thought this was a good idea? It was a bad idea, abad idea! The rat struggled rolling on the ground before lashing out kicking at the spider as it leered down at him from above. The Spider stumbled slightly The King taking the opportunity to rise ignoring the throbbing pain of his ribs, as he kicked off in the direction of the tall grass. This was the part of the story where he ran away and lived to fight another day. He''d try to take the spider on tomorrow and then he''d win, no doubt about it, and even if he didn''t he could just return the day after that... Thud! The King paused, a jolt of pain rushing through his body as the spider slammed one of its¡¯ stubby pointed legs down onto his tail. The Queen tilted her head briefly, a wicked glint shinning off its¡¯ blank green eyes. Slowly the monster began to reel him in using its¡¯ forelegs to tug at his tail inch by inch widing awy and drawing him closer, dragging him through the dirt and the dust. The Rat King turned shaking its¡¯ head struggling against the spiders grip, a cold chill slowly riding up his spine as the arachnid¡¯s pseudo fists began to glow with a pale white light a wave of frost washing out across the glade expanding over several feet. The Rat screeched tugging and pulling as its'' tail began to freeze, dark black patches stretching across his skin, before he remembered he could set his tail of fire. The King hissed taking in a hard breath forcing his mana down and into his tail, the scales beginning to flow a deep red before igniting the oil the tale secreted as the heat continued to rise until the limb was a blistering white to match the oncoming cold. The Pugilist Queen released the rat as The king took the opportunity to coil its¡¯ tail around one of the spiders legs before yanking it backwards the limb practically popping off as the tail burned its'' through its'' armour and the flesh beneath. This spider wouldn¡¯t find him such easy prey! The King laughed to himself letting out a wicked screech before the spider, unperturbed by the loss of a limb, lunged forward and slammed a fist down into the rats head a wave of frost spreading over his fur. The oil he secreted was not enough to mitigate the damage of the oncoming wave of cold as several bloody cracks opened up across his skin, the blood in his veins rapidly beginning to cool. He... He wasn¡¯t dead yet! With a howl he turned lashing out with his tail once again, failing to take note of the fact his reserves of mana had run dry his tail harmlessly bouncing off the spiders exoskeleton before a second fist crashed down into his head. His vission swam, the rat king twisting backwards, the world seeming flash in a mix of black and white before a strange shudder passed through his skin. The king shook his head clear of the image, teeth barred waiting for the next strike to come. But it didn''t. The Queen stood paused mid strike arm raised above him, her body seemingly frozen in place. A dark black smudge seemed to be her face, different from the charing of his fire attacks the black stain was slowly bubbling away, fading moment by moment as it dissolved into dark steam. The Arachnid swayed, tilting on its'' seven remaining legs before falling to the floor attempting to drag itself back up onto its'' feet. The rat tilted its'' head for a moment considering the creature before him and the strange turn of events before deciding to take the opportunity and attack. He lunged forwards, out of mana but with teeth strong enough to gnaw through steel given time and enough concentrated effort. Then he noticed a black blur twisting through the grass, at the corner of his eyes before a dull Thump! Impacted his side and his vision turned black. The world seemed to fall away before his eyes a howling void stretching out beneath his feet. He stood in a world without light, or dark, cold or warmth, it was an empty. And through the endless night a silence howled so loud it crept down through his skin and his bones and settled somewhere deeper within, it latched itself to his soul and would not let go. So he waited alone in the dark. Then the image was gone, the void was replaced with light and sound, a wave of it strong enough to stun his senses sending his stumbling back. He stood in a cave the amidst the grass and the monsters and the sound and the light of a living world. That was when he noticed the slowly parting fronds of grass and the gentle sound of a creature that should not have existed creeping forwards out into the open air. It¡¯s body was corpse grey, eyeless, mouthless and devoid of anything that could have marked it as truly alive, several sickly grey limbs waving about above its¡¯ head another dozens of the long tentacles dragging its¡¯ body forward over the earth. A dark gem was mounted in its centre cracking with white light, the monochrome horror lumbering forwards to meet them, several small orbs of darkness floating about the creatures crystal. The King turned to run before noticing the Spider Queen slowly rising from the grass floor jaws clicking, in rage before rushing towards the creature that had just interrupted their fight as one of the a black bolts zipped from the dark stone in the monster¡¯s centre striking the spider across its'' face, its'' body locking up and tumbling back to the ground. The King shuddered backing away. From the day he had been born he had lived in the cave and its'' surrounding tunnels, scurrying between the dark red grass, gnawing on the roots of trees and fighting for his life with the inhabitants of their dark little world. Once he had even had the opportunity of seeing the lords of ice and fire themselves do battle for dominance out on the burnt plains. But this creature was new. He couldn¡¯t feel its¡¯ aura, faint and weak, barely a trickle of mana escaping its; form, it was more like an animal than a true monster in that regard, but that didn''t quite the growing sense of unease rising through his body as the beast approached. A thick twisted limb slammed down into the spider pinning it to the floor, its¡¯ body suddenly pulsating with a fierce green glow, shinning brighter and brighter by the second. The Pugilist Queen seemed to have once again snapped out of the state of confusion the monster''s attack had inflicted as it began to struggle against its'' oppressor for several long seconds before a third and final blast of dark magic exploded in its¡¯ face. Her legs fell still by her side, her swollen mandibles clattering to the ground the dark substance bubbling off of her carapace. It seemed like the tentacle monster was focused on the Pugilist Queen for now. The Rat King shuddered before turning to run, wincing at the pain sparking between his ribs, barely managing to limp out towards the grass before a sharp Ding! Filled his¡¯ ears, a notification popping up before his eyes
CONGRATULATIONS! - [You Have Been Offered A Contract]
The Dungeon Core [Gimble] Has Attempted to Bind You to it as a Subordinate Monster. Do you Accept? [Yes]/[No] Accepting Will Form a Contract with Dungeon Core [Gimble] and will provide you increased life force, mana and status points, but will also prevent levelling through traditional means.
The rat froze at the sudden wave of information that had just been forced into its¡¯ brain. He did not understand what the symbols on the blue screens meant, but he could feel there meaning, concepts and ideas slipping into his head, worming deeper and deeper into his thoughts until he understood them entirely. He understood the message that he had been provided and he shuddered. The rodent turned slowly, looking back to face creature its'' arms and legs resting easily at its'' side, a small glob of black mana solidifying in the air over the creatures head to replace the several bolts of magic it had just fired at The Pugilist Queen. The rat¡¯s mind flickered back to the strange sensation that had passed through his body a moment before, the endless void and the dreadful silence. The King Closed his eyes, something deep within his chest beginning to turn, contorting itself as he made his choice. It agreed to take the contract. Chapter Eleven: Awareness Chapter Eleven: Awareness Well things had certainly gone better than he had expected. His life pool was nearing empty, and his mana had dipped a considerable deal as well, still he hadn''t had much choice in the matter; even if he was happy with the results things hadn''t quite as he had planned, them. Contingencies were required. Capturing monsters had proved to be a far more difficult endeavour than he¡¯d originally suspected. Of course the biggest problem by far, the reason it had taken them so long to actually get this done right well that was their speed, George¡¯s speed to be precise although by comparison he wasn''t much better. Everything they had come across up until this point had simply run away the moment Gimble had started firing off [Delirium Bolt]s or George waded out of the grass towards them. He had tried tackling cats, frogs, rats, mice, even a tortoise, and they had all been to fast for him, that or they had tried to attack and he was forced to blow through a huge chunk of mana blasting them with magic to get them to leave. One bolt or two really didn''t have that much effect, monsters would stumble and fall, some would freeze for a couple of seconds but then; nothing, either they''d run away from them or they''d turn around and attack and when they did he was forced to charging up the bolts of magic. A charged bolt didn''t do any more damage but it did knock the monsters out for considerably longer after which it was practically guaranteed that they would flee. They had gotten close to capturing monsters a couple of times, especially with the tortoise - but that particular monster had had some kind of magic nulification ability, that allowed it shrug off his attempts to capture it with realtive ease. So he¡¯d had to come up with a solution, a method of catching monsters that removed speed from the equation. An ambush attack seemed like the natural solution to his predicament; and luckily he already had a target in mind He''d notcied a strange looking white spider, constantly spinning a tightly woven web in the roots of a large white oak tree or fighting off a massive, six-legged black rat that appeared every now and again. GImble hadn''t attempted to take the spider on before, becuase it seemed like the creature would just hide in its'' nest the momment he attacked, as a matter of fact the spider would only leave its'' nest on one single ocassion; when the black rat appeared and started spitting balls of fire at its'' web. That was the main reason he had chosen the spider as the target for his ambush; every day or so the rat would reappear raid the spiders web, get thoroughly beaten and run away, the battle between the two monsters had actually been happening with such frequency that he had started using it to measure time during his monster hunt. So far the spider and rat had fought each other a total of eight times so he assumed he''d been stumbling around in the cave for a little over a week. His initial plan had only been to capture the spider after the rat had worn it out, but he''d spotted an opportunity in the middle of the fight and decided to snag the rat as well. Things certainly had gone better than expected Gimble smiled looking down at the pair of creatures currently lying still at George¡¯s... tentacle¡¯s. He had started his assault with a [Delirium Bolt] to the spiders face as George stumbled out of the grass to chase the spider down, of course it was when he was so close to victory that things had taken an unusual turn. The Dungeon core huffed casting a momentary glance to the wall of notification windows that had popped up during the battle
WARNING! - [Contract Rejected]
The Monster You attempted to form a contract with, the [White Pugilist Spider Queen],has rejected your offer.
The moment Gimble had forced his mana into the monster the notification had appeared informing him that his contract had been rejected. He¡¯d used up roughly thirty mana attempting to convert the monster to his side but with no luck, of course failure hadn''t been unexpected, but the whole contract thing was new. Now that he thought about it when he first started experimenting with life force he had turned George into a monster, but these creatures were monsters from the get go so maybe the system worked differently? Frankly he didn''t have a clue, although this could become a problem later on if he tried to bring other monsters under his control. After his initial attempt to connect to the Spider had failed, the arachnid had proceeded to attempt an escape from George''s iron grip, the creatures oversized mandibles striking at the lump of moss causing George''s body to slowly freeze, his lovable moss horrors skin beginning to flake and crack as the moisture within began to freeze. George really wasn''t suited to the new terrain. It was at that point Gimble''s none existant hand had been forced, he''d firing off several [Delirium Bolt]s in quick succession. He''d found it a necessary skill to prepare spells before hand, calling them into existance and then keeping the mana floating nearby ever so carefully restrained to prevent, raging balls of insanity randomly ripping through the grass. With each repeated attack it seemed like the spider had begun to weaken, its'' assault falling still, as its'' arms and legs began to quake. Then without further ado he''d recieved a second message
CONGRATULATIONS! - [Contract Formed]
The monster you attempted to form a contract with, a[White Pugilist Spider Queen] has accepted your. You can now access the [White Pugilist Spider Queen]s profile from your monster menu.
The spider had fallen still after that, curling up in the grass its¡¯ remaining limbs curled in upon itself as the dark gloop that his magical attacks had plastered over its'' smooth carapace began to melt giving off a hellish black steam. So, with his main quarry pinned down, Gimble had turned his attention to the rat, the beast inquestion having tried to limp away. It seemed that the rat had noticed his gaze one way or another and had come to a halt. Of course not being one to look a six-legged-gift rat in the mouth, GImble took the opportunity to send a cloud of life force drifting forwards towards the creature, the green haze engulfing the monstrous rodent. Several moment later he had received another notification congratulating him on forming a new contract, this time with no extra hassle needed. After he had formed the contracts the monsters had grown as docile, calm as new born lambs, new born lambs that would grow up into mounstrous sheep of death, and destruction, just lying there in the grass, George slowly waving his tentacles slowly through the air ocasionally prodding the one or the other. Gimble frowned, now he just needed to decide what he was going to do with these monsters. Currently he had two main objectives; dig a tunnel leading to the surface and raise his level high enough to found his dungeon. Luckily he''d managed to catch two monsters which meant he''d be able to divide the workload up between the two, now it was just the question of which monster he gave which job... The spider was obviously the strongest of the two but it was also a good deal slower than the rat. What Gimble and George needed in their team dynamic was speed, they also needed some way to deal real damage, heal any injuries and find a method to prevent George from freezing solid or going up in flames in any of their confrontations, but for now Gimble was focusing on speed. The rat was by far faster than the spider, afterall whenever the two fought the rat had always managed to flee before it could be killed, but the rat seemed like it wasn''t all that strong, it could do decent damage but it really couldn''t take a hit. Hmmm. He made up his mind; for now he''d give the spider the task of tunneling to the surface while he added the rat to his own team and they set off on a whirlwind adventure to turn the fire cave into a smouldering crater, and raise Gimbles level in the process.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. He gave himself a resolute nod, or the mental equivalent anyway, and pulled up the [White Pugilist Spider Queen]s tab in the monster menu before diving straight into the edit screen. This was his favourite part. From what he could racall of nature documentaries only a few types of spiders could dig, forming underground dens, the largest group, in every possible sense of the word, being tarantulas. The good news was, that the spider queen wasn''t too disimilar to that particular branch of the arachnid family tree, although the massive club like mandibles seemed a little out of place. He''d probably need to get rid of that particualr feature of the monsters anatomy, had been a couple of minutes since he had first flooded her with his life force but the energy was already beginning to ebb away. If he wanted to get to make any significant changes then he''d have to start right away. So, humming lightly to himself, Gimble began rewriting the laws of nature. He spun the little diagram, that the edit button had opened, getting a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the metre-long arachnid. She really did look like some kind of tarantula on steroids; her legs were thick and stubby ending in a veritable forest of tiny pale blue spikes jutting from the white shell, her abdomen was tear shaped and accounted for the majority of her body mass, covered in the same little spines as her legs although they appeared slightly smaller and nowhere near as sharp. He had to hand it to the rat, it had done more damage than he had expected it to, the spiders normal set of eight round little eyes had been reduced to six, two of the little bright green orbs were now nothing more than a putrid melting mess and one of her legs having been removed just below the joint. But even with those injuries considered he still had a lot to work with; he just needed to figure out how he was going to get the spider to start digging its'' way towards the surface. Several options rattled through his head in rapid succession, the spiders form suddenly warping to meet the shape his errant ideas as drills began to sprout from the monsters legs, alongside giant shovel like protrusions jutting from her mouth as a gigantic screaming face burned itself into her back, dark green eyes staring upwards in unending anguish the mouth opening and closing as if wheezing for breath. Gimble recoiled at the sight reverting the spider to its previous more... wholesome state. It seemed like he''d forgotten how hard this could be. He was essentially rewriting another creatures DNA, or whatever the magical fantasy equivalent of DNA was here. In any case he was going to need to focus on the task at hand. He decided to pick a single solid attribute that would allow the spider to dig, no overcomplicating things. Several rushed experiments had revealed that trying to give the spider drill hands would cost far too much life force although the aesthetic was quite pleasing. He shook his head, he needed to keep things simple and cost effective. He focused in on the spiders mandibles mouldering the white carapace down into a rough shape mimicing a pair of shovels, the little blue bumps gathered forwards towards the edge of the impromptu tools giving them a rough serrated edge of glowing nubs, any excess material being compressed and hardened into the spiders new-fangled facial equipment. This little alteration it turned out had barely cost him any life force, he wasn¡¯t entirely sure of the reasons why but he was going to put it down to the fact he hadn¡¯t really added all that much to the spiders design, there were no new limbs, no magical death rays, no weird creepy faces, just shovel-hands. Next, he turned his attentions to the spiders legs, warping the front legs into long pick axe shapes, once again shifting the blue spikes towards their edge giving them a bright blue glow and condensing the left over material into hardened points. That had cost slightly more than his previous alteration as he was essentially adding an extra joint to the spiders limbs, leaving him wihth roughly twenty life force left to spend as he wished. Really he couldn¡¯t think of much else to add - it seemed like the spider would be reasonably capable of carving a passage towards the surface. In the end he decided to replace the missing body parts that the spider had lost during the fight two eyes and a leg summarily popping into existance, he would have liked to say they were as good as new but that would have been... misleading. The spider¡¯s eyes had changed in colour shifting from the previous mint green to an ominous shade of black; dark as night and flashing with the ocasional burst of white light. Her leg was likewise now a shade of deep unyielding black, but where the other legs were thick this one was narrow and pointed, white bumps covering itself surface, instead of the previous blue. Gimble sighed, taking a moment to glance up at his life force counter. He was down to three points... Gimble shrugged and threw the last few points into raising a couple more of the pale bleu bumps across the monsters body before happily slamming down the complete button and watching as the window blipped out of existence. Now he just had to wait for a window to appear telling him what effect his changes had had. The seconds dragged by but no new notification emerged, instead Gimble¡¯s attention was drawn down to the spider as the insect began to stir, libs quivering as it writhing across the floor, its¡¯ carapace cracking and shifting; reforming into a strange new shape at a disturbing pace.
She had failed in her duty! She had failed! Failed! Failed! Failed. ...This was what she deserved. The Queen turned, legs spasming out at wild angles striking the earth and ripping up chunks of dirt and stone, the movements weren''t voluntary; she had lost control. From the moment she had been born she had known her duty, she was a Queen and would build a kingdom to equal her might. She would rule her subjects with an iron fist and conquer the land of fire and frost. This was her duty, her goal; the reason she had been born, the one thing that gave her pitiful life meaning, and now it was ruined! She was ruined. She turned, the ends of her mandibles ripping open strange new protrusions erupting from them as her flesh began to melt and twist into a brand new form the likes of which the world had never seen. First it had been the rat, whenever she was nearing the completion of her nest it would rush in and light the place on fire, her work went up in a plume of flame and smoke and there was nothing she could do other than punish the beast for its¡¯ insolence, but even there she had failed. She had tried to kill the monster time and time again, but every attempt ended in failure as it used its¡¯ greater agility to flee in the face of her might but this time, this time she¡¯d had the rodent in her grasp; prepared to deliver the finishing blow when, her world had descended into silence and darkness. It had lasted but the briefest moment, but the sensation was unsettling in the upmost degree. It left her with an unknowable fear pressed against her mind, gnawing at the edges of her awarness, It did not compare to the pain currently running through her, as her limbs were broken and rebuilt, but she could tell it would stay with her until the day she died. Then the vission ended and she had woken up to face a new threat, a strange creature that was of neither ice nor fire; it was unaligned to any force of nature which she knew or understood. In that moment she had prepared to do battle only to find her mind pushed back into the abyss with a strange blast of black magic. The next time she had woken a notification had arrived for her from the system on high, informing her that the strange new beast had attempted to place her under its¡¯ command, as it pinned her to the earth. She was a Queen she would not be ruled, she would not be broken by such trifling matters as rats and freakshows! Then another strike of magic had come, the dark swallowed her up once more, but this time it seemed to last longer, and that little seed of fear blossomed in her heart, growing at an immeasurable rate. She had thrown herself back and forth in the shadpws railing at her invisible prison until at last the light of day and the living world had seared itself into her brain. Then the offer had come again, this time softer and weaker, coaxing her towards it. She had looked up at the monstrosity standing above her and She had agreed. It had been a moment of weakness that had consigned her to this fate, so suffering was what she deserved. She could see it now, the horror looming before her, warped tentacles slithering through the air and dark core flashing with erratic light. She could feel her mind growing numb and distant. Yes... this was what she deserved. Pop!
CONGRATULATIONS! - [Your Race Has Been Changed]
Through abnormal circumstances and shifts in the patterns of fate your race has been changed from[White Pugilist Spider Queen]to[White Shovel Spider Queen]Your stats have changedaccordinglyand you have gained the additional trait[Founders proficiency]
The Queen shuddered, as the last of the changes to her body began settle, her limbs continuing to twitch and spasm but the pain began to abate. She lay still for a very long time before she felt something touch against her consciousness, a single lonely thought, transmited over a bridge of consciousness, a sad idea and a strange sound. [Oops]