《Dungeon City: A Dungeon Core story (Abandoned for the foreseeable future)》 Prologue Prologue No one truly knows where the Dungeons came from, they were just always a part of the world. Whether it was The Great Ruins of the Clitholian Empire or The Barrow of the Nubonian Nation, they had simply been there, providing adventurers with a chance of both risk and reward. There was so little knowledge about the true nature of Dungeons, that when a young adventurer, after delving into the depths of The Nest, a low level Dungeon, found a small blue stone and he thought it not more than a mana stone. Mana stones allowed for far stronger enchantments to be placed upon the object they were set into. After completing his crawl, a term the adventurers used for a dive into the Dungeons, the young adventurer went to the nearby weaponsmith. ¡°Smith, I would like a sword, with this mana stone set in it.¡± Declared the young man. ¡°The gem is too small for a sword, my friend. I could make you a dagger, what metal do you want?¡± ¡°This will be a gift, so the best I can receive for 5 Platinum.¡± It was all the coin the adventurer had, as the dagger was to an offering to the publican of his home village, whose daughter he wished to wed. ¡°I can make you a blade of Elven silver, with a mithril edge for that price. Abyss, I could even set a few lesser gems in the guard. Are you sure that you want to spend so much on such a weapon?¡± The smith seemed to almost have a heart attack over such a large amount of coin. ¡°I am sure, Smith. It will be the price for the hand of the girl I love, nothing is too much for her.¡± With the deal struck, the weaponsmith set about making the dagger. Being a high level smith and of Dwarven blood, he was able to make daggers easily enough, but this weapon was something else. First he forge an ingot of Elven silver into the shape of a blade, he then used a Skill to merge Dwarven mithril into the edge allowing for a sharper blade than any other metal he knew of. Having completed the blade, he then set about making the guard and hilt. For the guard he used some more Elven silver and set in a small sapphire into each side, for the grip he used a piece of wood, leftover from a staff he a made for a mage, wrapping the handle in leather to protect the high quality wood. Finally, he formed what appeared to be a small cage around the blue stone and affixed it as the pommel. Connecting the different pieces, and finally forming the dagger, caused several notifications to appear for the smith:
CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE CREATED AN ARTEFACT The Gods have seen your skill and talent and have decided that it is worthy. You have created: The Dagger Of Promises
CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE RECEIVED A NEW TITLE ARTEFACT SMITH This title allows others to see that you are no mere smith, your skills are the stuff of legends and even the Gods have taken notice.Stolen story; please report. Using this title provides: + 20% chance to create a weapon of Masterwork quality +5% chance to crate a weapon with an inbuilt buff +500 renown in the eyes of others Please note that titles can be combined to create new titles and combine buffs provided, but be warned, the new title may lose or lower buffs instead of enhancing them.
You have created a new item, you receive: 500,000 Smithing XP
New Level You have reached Level 100 in Smithing You now have the skills and Skills to forge weapons and talismans the likes of which the world has never seen.
CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE RECEIVED A NEW TITLE MASTER SMITH This title allows others to see that you have persevered through all levels of your skill and are now the better for it. Using this title provides: + 45% chance to create a weapon of Masterwork quality +10% chance for a created object to upgrade +100 renown in the eyes of others Please note that titles can be combined to create new titles and combine buffs provided, but be warned, the new title may lose or lower buffs instead of enhancing them.
The Dwarf stared in shock. ¡®I created...an artefact?¡¯ Artefacts were rare, powerful objects. Only the greatest of artisans, masters of their crafts, could create them, and even then many masters still never made such an achievement. This was the crowning jewel in the life¡¯s work of the smith. For the faintest of moments, he considered keeping the dagger, but no, he was an honest man who had no need for the tool of death. Still, there was no harm in examining the objects stats:
The Dagger Of Promises This unique dagger, crafted by the weaponsmith Babed Hardrock, is filled with a power lost to time. This dagger has an unknown power that the Gods themselves respect: Quality: Artefact Durability: Unbreakable Damage: +1000 Ability: Unknown
This weapon was beyond anything the smith had ever seen, a damage output of +1000 was unheard of except in legend and an unknown ability? No enchantment was ever labelled as Unknown, even if you didn¡¯t have the Skills to read an objects stats, it just showed as illegible runes. When the adventurer returned, the Dwarf handed him the dagger with the awe it deserved. Amazed at the weapon, the young man paid the 5 Platinum happily and left for his home. He had been away for 5 years, earning the coin to start a family, and he was finally able to pay the bride price to the publican. After travelling weeks to arrive in his village the adventurer walked straight into the tavern. ¡°Barkeep, I must speak with you.¡± The owner of the tavern grumbled but followed the adventurer into the back room. ¡°What is it boy? I thought we were rid of you when you had left this town.¡± ¡°I have brought you a gift, a bride price for your daughter¡¯s hand.¡± The young man produced the dagger. Taking it, the barkeeper started to laugh at the boy. ¡°You really think some shiny weapon makes you worthy of my daughter? Catherine is worth more than you could ever provide. I¡¯ll keep this trinket as payment for wasting my time.¡± The publican spat the man before him. The adventurer lunged at the man, whose daughter he loved, had loved for years. The with tears of anger running down his he swung at the old barkeep. Caught by surprise, the tavern owner raise his hand to stop the boy, forgetting he was holding the dagger. The knife plunged deep into the chest of the adventurer, straight through his heart. Suddenly, the blue stone in the hilt blazed brightly, blinding the murderer holding the small blade. The small gem started to drawn mana from the surrounding area, draining the entire tavern of both magic and life. Having filled itself with all the power of the area, the dagger disintegrated into a fine silver dust, leaving a hole in the chest of the young man and the blazing jewel, floating and spinning in the air. Suddenly, the stone shot straight down, drilling a hole through the floor and deep into the sewers of the town. For the next decade, no one knew exactly what happened in the tavern, only that a young man and the local barkeeper had fought and that every life in the inn had been ended where they stood. The guests enjoying their ales, the rodents raiding the pantry, even the daughter of the publican, and her husband of 5 years, dead in their bed on the first floor, with their newborn baby laying between them. Chapter 1 Chapter 1 I faded slowly into consciousness slowly. So slowly in fact, I couldn¡¯t even say when I realised I was an I. All I could see was the box floating before my eyes:
CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE AWOKEN You are a Dungeon Core. The heart and soul of any Dungeon, the Core controls all aspects of their Dungeon and anything dungeon spawned. The Core is a powerful, magical object that, under the right conditions, can be used to create powerful magical items or even spawn a new Dungeon, and as such must be protected.
Huh, I''m a Dungeon Core, although I didn¡¯t like the part about me being used to create items, it sounded kind of...destructive. I also didn¡¯t understand how I could read, or how I knew what reading was, but having read the notification, I just wished it would go away. As the thought crossed my mind the box disappeared, only to replaced by another:
CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE RECEIVED A NEW TITLE LEGACY REBORN Having been centuries since the birth of the last Dungeon, this title allows others to see that you are an important piece of history. Using this title provides: +5% control over creature mutations +10% chance creatures to gain intelligence +250 renown in the eyes of others Please note that titles can be combined to create new titles and combine buffs provided, but be warned, the new title may lose or lower buffs instead of enhancing them.
Awesome, it seemed that I was going to be an important guy, or core, as it were. Wishing away the second box I was greeted by darkness. That didn¡¯t mean I couldn¡¯t see, but rather see the darkness was a layer that didn¡¯t effect my sight. Come to think of it, I didn¡¯t have eyes so how could I see? And thinking about it, I wasn¡¯t really seeing, but it was more like I knew everything happening in the area around me. The fact I knew of concepts like seeing or eyes seemed to hint at some intrinsic knowledge that was an inherent part of a core. That could prove useful. Looking around, I could see I was in a brick lined tunnel, that sloped downward with a trough in the centre of the path and sludge built up on either side. I was laying on the small walkway alongside the channel. A faint trickle of some fluid slowly inched along the base of the trough. My ability to see stopped after a few meters, it was as if the world just ended, no sight, no sound, nothing. Interesting, was the world really that small, or could I just not see the rest of it? Examining the sludge a new notification appeared:
Sewage. The excrement of animals, sewage can be turned into biomass which, in turn, maybe turned into fertilisers, plants and monsters. Do you wish to absorb sewage?
Huh. What harm could absorbing it do? As I accepted the prompt, all the sludge surrounding me vanished, and I received yet another box:This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
INVENTORY Biomass ¨C 10/100 units
Now that I had removed the sewage, the liquid flowing through the tunnel picked up speed, but not by much. It made sense to me that there was probably more sewage, outside of the area that I could affect, blocking the flow. Well, that was a project for the future, my current one was to figure out how this biomass worked. Examining it in my inventory seemed to only bring up the information I had already received. Deciding to try and place it down I found I yet another box, I was beginning to think that the world itself was a box at this point:
Biomass Please select placement option Fertile Soil Sewage
Having already seen the sewage, of which I was not a fan, I selected the fertile soil option. The channel was suddenly blocked by a bunch of dirt. Playing around with the dirt, I realised I could remove and add the dirt as I wished. I also realised that the sewage I had absorbed turned into a lot more dirt than I would¡¯ve expected, it appeared that a unit of dirt was different to a unit of sewage, which would be useful as I could fill the channel in dirt and still have biomass to play with. While I''d been playing with my biomass, the liquid had begun to pool where the soil blocked its path. Examining the fluid I discovered it was called Water (Dirty). Choosing not to absorb it, I watched as the pool continued to fill. Reabsorbing the dirt allowed the water to flow downward again, where it crashed against something just outside of my vision. Slowly the water dispersed into the unknown. Interesting. Absorbing a little of the water and placing it back down unlocked a Water category. Next on the list was the stone bricks used to create the tunnel itself. Absorbing some of the fallen stone I discovered Stone and Clay. It looked as though the bricks were held in place by hardened clay, an interesting technique, that I planned on ¡°borrowing¡±. Looking around for other stuff to absorb, I noticed some green growths peaking out of the cracks in the wall, providing me access to Moss, and mushrooms at the edge of the trough, providing Fungus. I decided it was time to try to build something. While I was exploring my tunnel, I had been thinking on how to prevent people coming and attacking me and had come up with perfect plan. First I absorbed all the fallen brick in the tunnel and then placed small rocks in the base of trough. Next I placed even smaller stone over the top of the rock to fill in the gaps, allowing the water to flow though while allowing me to fill the rest of the channel with fertile soil. Using the last of the my biomass, I placed moss over the dirt. I couldn''t create a lot of moss with my limited supplies of biomass, but I knew that over time the moss would spread. How do I know these things? The final piece of my plan was to move my core from where it lay, into the patch of moss. Raising a small pedestal of stone under myself, I gently slid my core over to the greenery. Brilliant, I know. No one would think to look for me there. Now that I was safe, I watched the moss grow. It sounds boring but it seemed that I couldn¡¯t get bored, so I happily sat and watched my garden flourish. After some time had passed, and the moss had grown to cover two thirds to of the soil, something caught my attention. That something had just entered the edge of my awareness, and was leaking red. As the thing continued across my tunnel, I took a closer look.
Name: Unnamed Race: Rat Class: Scavenger Level: 1 Title: None Rats are small, short lived rodents, with long tails. Rats are hierarchical, with the stronger dominating the weaker. Exhibiting aggressive behaviour when threatened, Rats carry many diseases harmful to other creatures.
So the something was a Rat. Strangely, there was no absorb option, although when I tried on the red puddles left behind I discovered Blood, that was a type of biomass. The rat continued its journey until it reached the moss, where it looked towards me. I began to worry. The rat slowly inched its way ever closer to my core. Oh Gods, if I survive this, I will do a much better job of protecting myself. Just as the rat¡¯s claw was about to touch the edge on my core, it stopped moving.
NEW LEVEL You have reached Level 1 You have begun the journey of a lifetime. +5 Skill Points
Having absolutely no idea what skill points were, I decided I needed to upgrade my protections, apparently the moss didn''t hide we at all. I started by absorbing the soil directly underneath my core, allowing it to fall in, next I replaced the soil above me. There, perfectly hidden. Until I started to suffocate. I pushed the dirt out of the way, and expelled my breath...Wait, I can¡¯t breath, I¡¯m blue stone. Focusing on my core I couldn¡¯t see where why breath was coming out of. I searched for any cracks or flaws on my surface but I couldn''t find a single one. Replacing the dirt once again I began to experience the suffocating feeling again. Ok, I can¡¯t close myself completely, good to know. I needed something to protect me. Examining the rat again, I discovered I now had the option to absorb it, I guess when something wasn¡¯t moving within my area I could absorb it. After choosing yes, I received a new notification:
CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE DISCOVERED A NEW MONSTER BROWN RAT Monsters are often described as the protectors of a dungeon and drop experience when killed. Monsters can evolve naturally over time, be force evolved through mana or receive buffs through certain skill selections in the skill trees.