《World of Telduria》 Prologue The world is ever-changing. The world never stops for a single person. No matter how powerful someone gets; there is always someone more powerful. The powerful laud over those without power. While some try to hide this fact, it is just that, an undisputed fact of the world. And the most powerful in the world, is the world itself. Or so it seems at least. Whenever a country grows too powerful, something always seems to happen. The Ool incident, the Protectorate breakaway, the extinction of the dragons. Something disrupts and changes the balance of power so that it returns to equality. This strange balance seems to be kept out of nowhere, it''s absolute, or at least it''s been so far.
In a cozy little house a young woman was sitting in front of the computer. She was working on her latest design for an airsoft defense system. It had been her pet project since school, to create a fully functioning IFF auto-turret for their airsoft games. She started designing her first prototype as her graduation project from her robotic engineering class. Her teacher had said that if she actually was able to make it fully functioning then there would be big money to be had. Both military and civilian contractors would be interested in such a system as long as it was foolproof. The first design was a simple tube with a hop-up gearbox launcher fixed on a frame which could turn back and forth due to servo motors attached to gears and chains. The turret used a simple PLC program which said that IF target has radio transmitter AND within range, which was measured by a laser, move servos towards signal and open fire. Fire in bursts of a few seconds while having an ammo counter on the side. When it reached a certain number it would shut down for that round. It could also be shut down by shooting one of the many pressure sensors on the frame itself. Then a simple reset button would reset and ready it for the next round. As time passed the designs got more and more advanced, bringing her to the current prototype that was next to the woman. She ran a hand through her blonde hair and groaned before closing the voice reader. "Why would you ever give the adventurers tips? I get that it''s not supposed to be too hard; but why would you ever give them the whole solution to your puzzle? Bloody ell. Too many stories just give too much away. Not like that dungeon in a book about an Inn with an innkeeper with a disposition towards frying pans. Now that''s a proper dungeon. No mercy, yet adventurers still dive for treasure. Greed in a nutshell. Especially the ones who reincarnate into a dungeon. Like, why does no one think of anything useful part from a few stories in which they exploit the system or uses the resources to it''s fullest?" Kim sighed and stretched her body before getting up from her seat. She turned her face and looked to her left at the poster on the wall. It was a printout of her favorite character that she had ever written. A woman with wings, and horns. Once an angel, but now nothing more than a fallen one. Kim smiled wryly before leaning down to the keyboard and pressed enter, sending in her work assignment. Another day of looking over the blueprints she had been sent by the company she worked for. It wasn''t the most interesting task. Turn a 2D blueprint into a 3D model then send it along to the next person in the chain.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. She wished her life was a bit more interesting than what it currently was. Day in and day out of simple jobs while tending to the house. It was nice in a way though. Having a simple job that pays relatively well while working from home. She was planning on doing this for a while longer during her studies. Just another year of engineering classes, and she''d finally be done with it all. No more school, no more homework or lectures. Finally, she would be able to go on her little trip for a couple of months across the world. Suddenly a bright light enveloped her form while she was making her way over to the kitchen. "Please standby for summoning and character adaptation." The light got brighter and brighter until she could see nothing else. "Adapting from wishes and drives, granting appropriate power." Just as quickly as the light appeared it was gone, along with the woman. When the light cleared from her eyes, and she looked around her new environment she could see the shocked faces of the people gathered. Kim guessed she was not what they were expecting. An above average looking young woman in her underwear, standing in what looked like a throne room. She raised a hand up to wave at them and was met with a wall of swords. "The summoning failed. Kill the daemon!" Daemon!? What the heck? They''re all humans as well. She turned her body slightly and it felt heavier and a bit weird. A whooshing sound came from behind her as she looked around the room. ''Shit!'' She could see an arrow coming towards her from the corner of her eye. ''The heck!?'' Her body moved by itself as something white threw itself in the path of the arrow. Ping! A wing of beautiful, white arrows with some gray and brown mixed into the feathers. Like the wings of a bald eagle. She could feel a power welling up inside of her which she directed towards a nearby wall. An invisible blast blew out the wall and Kim quickly jumped out from the building. Her wings unfurled like if it was instinctual, and she quickly took flight away from these people. Both arrows and spells flew her way, but she managed to avoid them all through some miracle and that strange power she felt within her mind. "Shit, damn. This is not how I expected things to go at all! Who bloody thought that adaptation would turn me into her? While I really like her, bloody ell, things are going to be difficult. She reached up towards the top of her head. She could feel two protrusions sticking out from the sides of her head. "Yep, the horns are there." She sighed deeply. "I wonder how much I am like her. The looks seem to be there. But will I change? My personality? What about her abilities?" Kim flew towards some mountains that were in the distance. She wasn''t sure how long she had been flying when she finally touched down and walked into a crack in the earth. Hopefully this would provide a good enough hiding spot until she could figure out just how much she had been changed. She felt like she was about to cry when her foot knocked against a black piece of something small. Kim looked down and saw that it looked like a shard of some kind. She reached down and grabbed it and inspected the item. It was glass like. "Obsidian?" she asked into the air.
Secondary abilities initiating due to suitable material found. Initiating dungeon core construction.
The obsidian shard flew out of her hand and into the right side of her head near one of her horns. "Oh come on!" was the last words she uttered before her screams of pain echoed throughout the crevice, making her black out from the sheer amount of pain she was experiencing. Chapter 1 "Husband, look!" a slightly frantic, melodic voice called out. The woman was clad in, if you could call what little thing she was wearing for clothes, green and red garments that looked like they were made out of leaves. Her long hair in a neat braid that hung over her shoulder. Her hair looked like it was in all the colors of the year, shifting constantly from the muted colors of early spring to the height of summer before shifting into autumn and eventually into a white winter land and then the cycle starts again. She was relatively average in stature in comparison to the women of the land but with a gorgeous face and nicely proportioned. Tiinra was acting all giddy about the new development, the aberration, that had occurred within the world. For one, it was a new creature within the world. Secondly it had passed through the shield and layers across the world that protected it and sealed it away. How this happened, she had no idea. It was something that should never been possible. Even for a goddess like herself, she was restricted by the seal across the world. It was not something she could do anything about. So why was this woman in this world? She scanned the ritual that the humans had used. "Oh...oh...that doesn''t look good. She''s going to have one rough time that one." Her eyes and now the Stoic eyes of her husband was following the developments.
Error. Error. Dungeon location not specified. Error. Mobile core makes location invalid. Choose location before proceeding.
Kim groggily woke up to the worst headache she had ever experienced. Her head felt like it was going to split apart from the pounding headache that she was experiencing. She could not even open her eyes and instead just clutched her head. She tried to rub the headache out of her head. What had she been drinking last night? The summoning, dungeon, everything had to be a horrible dream didn''t it? It''s not like such things happen outside of novels. She chuckled lightly as her hands explored her head. Her hand brushed against the protrusions on her head, and she froze. "Oh come on...that''s bullshit." She sighed deeply as she felt her two horns curving upwards from above her ears. Kim slowly sat up and her wings covered up her mostly naked body. "I guess it''s real after all." Not that she would complain too much about it. It was something she had wanted in her heart. But perhaps in their own world or a world of her choosing instead of being thrown into a random world that she had no idea about. Another sigh escaped her lips as she came across the third wrong thing about her head. The shard that was sticking out from her head. When she touched it she could ''feel'' something coming from it. A desire to claim and expand. A desire to harvest materials, living or not. She let out a laugh. "Dungeon huh? Guess all the flame I heaped on others for their inefficiency is coming back to bite me in the arse." Another deep sigh escaped her lips as the headache slowly started to dissipate. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Shakily she tried to put some strength into her legs and arms. Her body slowly rose from a sitting position to a standing one. Her arms wrapped around her chest along with her wings, tightening the grip and making her feel less exposed. "Not that the character herself would care at all, huh." It was really hard to accept that she really was in a different body, in a different world. Had she been split away from her old one? Perhaps the Kim of earth was living on, oblivious to whatever happened to the Kim here. Since she no longer looked like her; should she become the character that she now was? Or was that going to happen no matter what? Would their personalities merge or would the character''s personality overwrite her own eventually?
Error. Error. Dungeon location not specified. Error. Mobile core makes location invalid. Choose location before proceeding.
Broken out of her own thoughts by the blue box that popped up in her vision she decided to actually try to figure things out. "All right," she took a few deep breaths. "Guess I''m the core. Like, merged with the core. I''m in a different world, in a different body, as some hybrid thing... Fuck me sideways..." Kim started looking around at her surroundings. She was in some sort of crevice. She could faintly hear running water in the distance. Part from that it was just coarse rock wherever she looked. "Who knows if I need to eat with this body or not, so running water is a good start," she said to herself, mainly to keep herself from thinking too hard about what a heap of trouble that she was in. "It said something about founding my dungeon. Choosing a location where to place it." Her eyes looked up towards the sky. She could see a few stars from her position in the crevice. Kim took a few deep breaths before she uncurled her wings from around her body and let herself feel them. Somehow she knew just how they worked and how she would be able to fly. "All right, finding water it is." Her wings flapped once, and she shot up into the air. She knew from pure physics and what she could feel and knew about her body that such a thing was impossible. Angels can''t fly, not from a logical standpoint. But angels themselves weren''t very logical and based in facts; were they? She could feel the airflow against her skin but it never became as bad as it should have been with the speed she was flying. It actually felt quite nice, not to mention the view from up here. She stayed hovering up in the air for a long time, taking in the sight, until she was reminded by another blue box that she should choose the location for her dungeon. Kim focused her mind, drawing on the power she felt from within to enhance her hearing. It wasn''t that hard to call upon the powers, she had written all of them originally after all. She knew all the powers that the character was supposed to have. However, they were quite muted in comparison to what they were supposed to be. Perhaps this was due to the dual nature of her new body? It didn''t matter too much though. She felt the need to found her dungeon getting stronger and stronger. Perhaps it would overwhelm her soon and force her to just place it instead of choosing a location. And that was something she really wanted to avoid. She focused on the sound of the river and started flying towards it. It didn''t take her long to locate the river from above, it had only been perhaps a few hundred meters away from where she woke up. Kim slowly started descending towards the location, making sure that there was nothing else nearby. The last thing she needed right now was even more trouble in her life. She found out that the river had made a canyon type formation in the rock. "Not too bad of a location I must say." she said aloud and touched down near the riverbed. She focused the wall near the river and stretched out her mind towards the rock itself and ''tore'' out a small cave, barely enough for her to fit in.
Dungeon location chosen. Dungeon startup initiated. Please hold.
"Here we go." Chapter 2 Tiinra looked down at the woman. Normally she didn''t care much about those that didn''t follow her faith. At least not paid them much mind. Not that she disliked anyone or didn''t want good health and life on them. More like they were background noise rather than a person she held the conversation with. It wasn''t like mortals were beneath her notice, she did bless quite a few people. Priests and priestesses of her faith, good people that got her notice. Her husband is quite selective in comparison. He normally only blesses those who dispenses justice and keeps the order, no matter if they''re his followers or not. Even his own followers don''t always get his blessing. More merit than devotion. "Lets help this mortal out a little shall we? Gift of life from me and justice for her summoning. No?"
Building core room. Error, mobile dungeon core. Creating path to surface from core. Error, mobile dungeon. Rebooting initialization program. Please hold.
Kim stared at the blue screen in front of her. This was getting absurd. More absurd than the situation she already found herself in. Like; what the heck!? She groaned loudly and clasped her head only to prick her finger on the obsidian shard sticking out from her head. How was she even alive with this thing sticking out from her head? She closed her eyes and focused on herself. On her head and the shard. What she saw made her open her eyes wide in shock and horror before throwing up. The bloody thing was poking her brain! The question of how she even was alive came back up again in full force. She had thought that it was just protruding from her skull like the horns. But no, it was receiving and sending signals directly to and from her brain.
System rebooted. Restarting dungeon placement with new parameters. Now needs to select a room as throne room rather than a core room. Corridor to assist has been granted. New rules written for mobile core. Restrictions lifted.
Kim was sitting on the ground clutching her head, rocking back and forth as her breathing started going out of control. Her heart pounding like a jackhammer as she stared into space. This crap could not be real. This situation was already messed up. She frantically stared around her for anything that could potentially bump into her and thus send the shard rocketing into her brain. Her hazy mind didn''t realize that she had felt no pain touching the shard. Nether had it budged a single millimeter when touched. All she could think about was how to get the bloody shard out of her head without killing her. Suddenly she felt a calming aura descending on her mind. Like if this was nothing to worry about. A voice called out from inside herself that if it was so dangerous then she would be dead already. That she would have died in her sleep due to her rolling nature. That she would have died when she touched it before. It was like someone spoke to her from within, with a calm and collected voice. She could ''feel'' that it was herself speaking to her, her other self. The character that she had become. Her logical and cold mind was spilling into Kim''s own. While it terrified Kim, of what that might mean in the future, for now at least it was helping her. Slowly she looked at the number of screens that she had missed while in her panicked state.
Basic dungeon starter kit has been granted. Hallway placed inwards from entrance.
You can now summon basic traps.
You can now summon basic treasures.
You can now summon basic plants.
You can now summon basic minerals.
You can now summon basic assorted critters.
Blessing of the goddess of love and life. Blessing of the god of justice and order.
Access to expanded starter race list. All things in your dungeon grows faster and stronger. (Tiinra) Notification of malicious intent upon entering your dungeon. (Nicarious)
Kim blinked several times until she caught up with what had happened. Two Gods of this world had blessed her? Why? What was their game? What did they stand to gain from giving her their blessing? Not only that, Gods existed. Sure it was all magical and fantasy here, but it''s kinda nice, and scary, to have it confirmed. But still. Why? She could not figure it out. Perhaps they were just bored and hoped that she would do something interesting? She had read enough novels that it might be a real possibility in this world. And she didn''t think that they would explain themselves anytime soon anyway. OK, time to get started with that starter race selection. She thought about the subject and another window popped up.
Starting races. Choose two. Depending on your choice the sub-sections may vary drastically. More races will become available as you grow or absorb them.
Goblinoid Goblins are creatures that have adapted to survive. This means that they can live anywhere and not just survive, but thrive. Breed like the plague and posses average intelligence, but are excellent at adapting things for their own use.
Animals An Animal dungeon starts with various small animals from a list of choices. The easiest starter race to make a functioning ecosystem from. Various animals breed at different speeds. Animals are also the most versatile when it comes to evolution due to the sheer number of animal species.
Plantoids Creatures made from various plants. From the smallest mushroom to the tallest tree. Anything growing from the soil can be turned into a creature in service of the dungeon. Starts out with evolved forms of the basic plants in the starter pack.
Fae Fae (Commonly known as Fairies) are magical bug-like creatures that, despite their size and varied appearances, can converse in the common tongue. They possess Insect-like physical features and are often around ten centimeters tall. They are best known for their large wings and the colorful, often mesmerizing sparkles and lights that emit from their bodies. Fae also loves to play pranks on the unsuspecting.
Undead Numerous theories exist concerning the nature of undeath, and though some hypotheses compete with or contradict one another, others reinforce or overlap each other. While these conjectures may not agree on the origins of unlife, most of them at least assert that this condition is generally visited upon the bodies of recently deceased creatures. From the simple zombie or skeleton to the mighty Lich lords. As long as there is a body, it can be turned to serve the master.
Automatons Created not by a god, assisted by magic, or by pure science, an automaton is a construct designed to emulate life. Gears and cogs turn within their carapaces. Thinking, processing, learning. Depending on the creator, an automaton may have a very life-like face or a single curved surface with holes where the optical sensors reside. Automatons can be modeled after any of the races, usually human or elf is the standard choice. However, if the creator wants a strong servant, they may be modeled after an orc, or a half-orc. If they want a nimble spy, the automaton may be modeled after a gnome.
Daemons Due to your nature as a fallen you can choose daemons as a starting race. Daemons come in all various forms. They are shaped by their desires and lineage. A daemon of wrath is most likely powerfully built and strong, while a daemon of gluttony is big and fat. Those without the strong desire look mostly like humans. But the daemon race have one trait that is universal, red, slightly glowing eyes. While stories of the other races tell of horns, fangs and tails, this is not true in most cases. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Daemons are as varied as any other race. But they all share the strength that is within their race. Depending on lineage and desire it can manifest in a multitude of ways. Some have magic, some are strong, others are good diplomats while others can move objects with their minds. You''re not too likely to see two daemons looking the same.
Angels Due to your nature you can choose angels as a starting race. Angels appear from the heavens in the shape of humans to watch over all life. Some are here to protect, some are here to destroy, and some to guide. They vary from innocent and peaceful to unyielding and wrathful in nature. Angels as guardian beings created from the divinity of good-aligned gods are loyal to their home and while their power in the material plane is limited to some extent even the weakest of their kin are strong enough to overpower most mortals. While the ''redacted'' are rare creatures, angels, even minor ones, are practically unheard-of walking among mortals. However, sometimes gods create and send young and minor angels to the material plane with some sort of divine purpose.
Humanoids Due to your nature you can summon humanoid creatures. Humanoids range from the simple human, to the sleek elf, to the powerful beastman. The stout dwarf to the tallest giant. The options are endless. However, you may only choose one species of humanoid as your starting race.
Now this was one mighty hard choice for Kim. While undead would be the perfect workforce, never tiring or needing repairs like Automatons probably would; would undead be accepted in this world? In most worlds and fictions she had read, undead were the bane of life and most would hunt them down when able. And since there was at least two Gods in this world there was no telling if there were more of them around. And perhaps a few of them or at least their servants really hated the undead. So while she really wanted to choose them, she probably would not. Perhaps she could learn some necromancy somewhere else later on. Automatons though were a legit choice. Another workforce that did not tire. Something that could easily be adapted to suit her needs and wants. And if she got far enough down the tech-tree perhaps she could actually have some proper robots and AI running around. But on the other hand, simple Automatons should be easy to build with her skills and knowledge. Perhaps if she created one then she would just learn how to make and improve them later. Angels and daemons, especially daemons suffer from the same problem as undead. Other people. When Kim had been summoned they had called her a daemon and attacked on sight. So perhaps it''s not a good option. But it did mention in the option that daemons were extremely strong if their were focused right. Their wants and desires, was it? But angels were also powerful enough in their own right. And what was that about ''redacted''? Some hidden race or something that does not exist any longer? Humanoids. Where to even start. It was more or less perfect. Unless she was in a really racist...oh who was she kidding, of course it would be racist as hell here. Probably a lot of slavery as well. She had only seen humans in that throne room after all, part from one servant looking person. So if nothing else they''re elitist in this place. The fact that she didn''t know if there was only one nation in the world, or if all non-humans were servants, or if it was just here made choosing a non-human precarious. She didn''t think that she had flown so far away that it would turn into humans being servants in wherever she was currently residing. "Fuck...they all have their own pros and cons. I can probably exclude animals, plants and goblins though. They should, hopefully, be easy enough to gather through other means. Even if my own creatures can not leave the dungeon, hopefully I''ll be able to without any problems." She rubbed her chin and cheek in contemplation for a while. "Undead probably has to go due to the whole, ''everyone hates em'', factor. Fae would be good scouts but it''s not powerful enough for me when I can have other things scouting for me. Automatons I should be able to build, hopefully. At least machinery that my other races can operate would be good enough." Kim sighed deeply before choosing humans and angels as her starting races. Suddenly two flashing lights appeared in front of her. They then split into four independent beams of light before disappearing and leaving behind four young children. Two males and two females. "Greeting mother, we have come to serve the dungeon!" They all said in unison. "Ahh crap..." Chapter 3 This is not at all what she had been expecting. Not even close. She had been expecting grown-ups, not young children. This was going to complicate things by leagues and bounds. Not only did she have to take care of four kids, she felt a bit bad about sending them to dig or kill things. Hopefully with the blessing they would grow up quickly. Right now she almost wished she was more like her character. One of the girls, the little angel, looked up at Kim with a sad expression. "Mother. Do we displease you? Are we not to your liking?" Tears started appearing in her blue eyes. She tugged at the hem of her white summer dress while the other three children started hugging the sobbing one. The other three gave Kim a judging look. As if it was saying; how could you? ''God damn it.'' Kim thought to herself before sighing again. She slowly crouched down and gently caressed the girl''s hair. "While you''re not what I was expecting, you don''t displease me. You''ll make this dungeon into something great." She looked at all of them. "But it''s time to get to work. Can you guys see if you can find some animals, fruits, and other things that are edible in the area. Don''t fight anything, just take a look around." Kim smiled at them before she got up and walked into the hallway of her new dungeon. "All right, time to get to building. Let''s see, how does this system thingy work. Menu? Console? System?" Kim was standing in the hallway, calling out random phrases for a couple of minutes until she started trying mental commands. When that didn''t work she focused on what she wanted and the system finally complied.
Name: Kim Nelson/ unnamed Race: Fallen Angel dungeon core hybrid
Age: 23-error/1 day Mana: Error/ 500
Level: 1/1 Status window
Dungeon creatures Traps and constructs
Items Traits
Abilities Rooms and hallways
Kim looked over the options that popped up in a blue screen in front of her. She ran her finger over the screen. It was like she could feel it. As if it was a physical thing. It was strange really. A thing that she had to focus on for it to pop up in her mind. Then it gained a physical form that didn''t exist in the outside world. There was no blue light shining on the walls from the screen in front of her. Yet it was clearly shining in front of her. "Magic..." she said and sighed. Most things in the base menu made sense. Name, age, race, level, it was what she was expecting it to be. Mana as well she guessed since her character didn''t use mana for her powers but instead her mind. It was. psionics after all, and psychic powers, not magic in that way. She hoped that the system would recalibrate so she could actually see how much she could use her powers and such.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. She ignored the status window for now. It was not as important as getting the construction process going. Kim clicked on the ''rooms and hallways'' button and only found one item in it. The hallway that she was in. If she focused on it she could see that it was like a template rather than an overview. "So I have to make a room before I get its template huh?" She looked towards one of the walls next to her. It was smooth, like perfectly carved rock. She reached out with her hand to focus better and sent a ping into the rock, acting like a sonar. In Kim''s mind she could see all the rock in a radius from where she sent the ping. Like a white wave went through the wall and a transparent image appeared which detailed the things on the other side. It was just various types of rock. She didn''t know which ones from a glance. But if novels were to be belived she would figure that out soon enough. She then started sending out pings at different frequencies in the specific area she wanted the room to be. She was hoping to find the right frequency so that it would resonance with the rock. After what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes she could feel and see the rock vibrating. She focused her powers so that it would remain contained as the rock started to grind itself to dust due to the massive vibrations. Soon enough a room had formed where she had been focusing. It was smooth just like the hallway. A simple, empty 25m2 room that when she walked into it she could feel it becoming a part of her dungeon.
Skill unlocked. Room creation.
"That was easy enough. Lets see if we can turn this into a bedroom. Then I''ll need a bathroom, a kitchen, other living quarters before I actually make the dungeon proper. Should not be too hard to figure out teleportation or at least make entrances in the back." Kim focused on a what a simple bed would look like and in her mind a blueprint came up which also displays a transparent figure on the ground where she was looking. She nodded to herself before placing four children''s beds before placing a proper queen sized bed for herself. They were simple wooden beds with coarse cloth draped over them. No beautification at all. Kim walked up to a wall in the back of the room and made a small hallway that then connected to three other rooms. She could feel the drain on her mind as she placed the last room. She could tell that she would not be able to continue digging with this method for much longer. She wanted to conserve the dungeons mana as much as possible since she was not sure on how it made more. A quick look at her mana showed her that she had used up about 100 mana from making all the beds, but that it had went up to 500 again after absorbing all the rock dust. She went about the rooms and created simple counters and scrappy daggers and knives for the kitchen. A table and a few chairs before moving on to the bathroom. She just made a few holes in the ground as toilets for now along with a simple dugout as a bath. Once she redirected water in here it would be much better. The living room she didn''t touch yet as it wasn''t needed. Afterwards she walked back out into her main hallway and thought for a moment. Eventually she decided on making a shabby door at the entrance so it would look like some homeless, or cavedwellers had set up shop. "All right. Time to collect water and wait for the kids." Kim conjured a bucket and started hauling in water while waiting for the children to get back with news. She didn''t want to adapt her dungeon for something that might never enter so now it only left waiting. Chapter 4 As she sat there waiting for everyone to get back she realized that she had not actually tried to leave her area of influence. She knew that at least the children could leave her domain since well, they were obviously not here. Kim looked around to see if they were stuck somewhere. But she could not see them. So by process of elimination that would mean that they had left her domain to carry out her orders. "All right then..." She said quietly to herself and walked up to the ''border''that she could feel surrounding her territory. She tentatively stretched out a toe towards the barrier. Kim had no clue if she would lose the toe, be blocked, or pass through. So if the worst option came to pass, better to lose something small then something more important. Kim took a few deep breaths before she finally stuck her toe outside of the barrier. Nothing happened. She felt a slight resistance but that was about it. Her toe was still there. She had not received any popups from the world either, so she was pretty sure that there would be no problems with her leaving her domain. Slowly an entire foot was extended, then her slender leg, then finally she took the leap of faith and fully walked outside of her domain. This was different than what she had been doing before. Before she had walked around in areas she had created, intent on claiming them. But now she had just walked outside, no intent on claiming or expanding her domain. And it had worked, perfectly in fact. She felt around for her dungeon. She could still feel it in the back of her mind. But it was not like before where she felt it all around her. It was more like she was drawn, or guided towards the dungeon, still feeling the connection but it was not embracing her like a gentle hug like it had done before when she was within it''s domain. She reached out towards it, and she could feel it once again become a part of her. She tried to picture placing a room like she had been able to before, and she could feel that it would indeed work. The feeling was a weird one though as it was like seeing something, feeling something, that was part of you, but it had been detached, yet you could still feel it with your senses. Like a phantom limb, but not really still. It wasn''t missing, it was still a part of her, but it was detached. She wondered if this was how a skeleton felt if it lost its arm. Slowly she turned back around and walked back into her domain. Her domain as it were stretched out so that the river just outside of her dungeon was included and stretched out about five meters in each direction from the entrance. She guessed that she had unintentionally, but fortunately included the area outside of her entrance when she had claimed this spot as the location of her dungeon. She could feel that she could expand her dungeon, and domain outside of this area, claiming more space before people actually entered her halls. With this she was glad that she had created living areas in the dungeon that she had already claimed. This probably meant that she could theoretically expand her dungeon at least across the river or perhaps create more entrances and it would count as her dungeon still. She had no idea how the whole, floor and dungeon building system worked, but at least it gave her some form of hope to create decoys or perhaps a town for people depending on how the dungeon collected mana. With that in mind she decided on taking another look at her menu.
Personal status Dungeon status
Mana: Error, mana calculation faulty Mana: 500 out of 500
Health: 150 out of 150 Core integrity: 10 out of 10
Level: 1 Level: 1
Strength: C Creatures under control: 4
Dexterity: C Creature types: 2
Constitution: D Traps: None
Intelligence: B Trap types: None
Wisdom: D Rooms: 4
Charisma: C Dungeon traits: 0 out of 3
Equipment: None Items: None
Status effects: None Intruders: None
Kim frowned at her status. A letter told her jack shit. What''s the average? Does it start at A and climb to Z? Or perhaps the reverse? Does it start at F and go to SSS as she''s seen in a few novels? It was absurd really. Like, what the hell system? It was useless. However, a few things gave her hope in her status. The number of abilities, the amount of traits she could select. There was one thing though that she was slightly worried about. The error on her personal mana. While she thought she knew the reason for such an error. She did not use mana after all, or at least it wasn''t magic, unless the world classified it as such. But it seemed like the world did not. Otherwise, why would it give her an error? As if the world was listening a blue box appeared in her vision after a few seconds.
As per request, an explanation of the attribute system follows. A person is ranked from F, failure, to A, apex. The ranks are as follows. Failure, Disappointing, Common, Better, Apex. An untrained person is D, someone who is worse, F, the average in the world is C. A seasoned warrior would be B, while the best in the world are A. For example an F in Intelligence would be considered, intellectually challenged, while an A would be the smartest 5% in the world. For a rating of A to be awarded, you need to be considered in the top 5% in the category, while an F would be the worst 10%.
Kim blinked a few times before contemplating the information that she had been given. It made sense in a way she guessed. A bell curve for everyone''s attributes. That meant that she was considered the average in the world when it came to her abilities. She did consider herself pretty smart though, and was granted a B, while granted a D in wisdom. She wasn''t sure if it was due to her age and had not yet acquired enough wisdom of age yet. But it did say average. Did that mean average for her race? Or the average in the world? She would assume that it was for the entire world. That could mean that a lot of people were quite old, or just that the world did not think that she learned enough from her experiences. She clicked on traits next, then into available traits.
Chosen traits Available traits
Traits available, more unlocks at higher levels. 0 out of 3 Traits chosen
Creature loyalty Biosphere
Puzzle traps Dungeon laws
Dungeon helper Dungeon instances
Advanced traps Advanced items
Advanced critters Advanced materials
Advanced treasures Advanced plants
Improved creature attributes Advanced creature abilities
Her first two choices were no-brainer to her. Creature loyalty was a must because she could summon sentient creatures, even her normal critters and if she gained stubborn or rowdy creatures later it would make sure that she could keep them in line. The second was improved creature attributes. They were her first and probably last line of defence, before she would have to put herself in danger at least. She was also wondering if she herself would be buffed by this choice. The third option was a bit harder though. Abilities could be hit-and-miss. Would they gain similar abilities to herself? Would they gain magic? Or was it more like, abilities to find water, construct things? She wasn''t very sure, so she hoped that she could find out more info about it. But the information she was given was not much more than her own speculations on the matter.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. She was pretty confident that she could create a functioning biodome or biosphere, given enough time at least. Same with the advanced items, traps, materials and such. She could probably acquire them from somewhere else or construct them by herself or at least imagine how they would work and perhaps the dungeon would recognize her efforts like it had with the room before. Then a dungeon helper would help out a lot in her development. Dungeon laws were given the limited information that abilities gave. In the lines of; you can set laws that invaders has to follow to progress. Were there no limits? Was she restricted to a certain number? Similar with instances. It was too hard to put a finger on what it actually did. What were the limits. The information she was given left a lot to the imagination. Could she set the law that invaders may not kill a single defender while the defenders aim to kill? Kim closed her eyes and chose the helper, along with creature loyalty and improved creature attributes. It did say that she would be given more options as she gained levels. Hopefully, most likely, that meant that she would unlock more trait points later on. Shortly after a light began gathering in front of her, a shape taking form inside of it.
Traits chosen and applied. All creatures had their attributes randomly improved by one fraction. Creatures will now do anything and everything commanded without question. A dungeon helper summoned based on core''s mind.
Kim did not like that last part. The summoned based on core''s mind. That part she really did not like. So far the things that had been summoned and due to her nature and stuff had been based on her character, not really Kim herself. She was honestly afraid that it would summon that one person in her character''s life. Just because of what that would mean. Especially if she would get more and more integrated into her own personality. Kim sighed deeply, taking a few deep breaths while waiting for the light to vanish and in its place stood a young woman. "Gods damn it..." She could not decide if all of her worrying about it made it happen or if she could not do anything about it. The young woman in front of Kim was short, no taller than 159cm in height. Her long blonde hair flowed down her back, coming to an end at the small of her back. It was slightly curly, but well brushed and maintained, straightening out the further it went from her scalp. Expressive, green eyes looked up at Kim. Her thin lips curving upwards into a sweet smile. Kim''s eyes travelled across the pale skin of the young woman, taking in the pleasant view. But Kim could not help but smile wryly at the situation. "Hello Lilly. I kinda expected this to happen when I selected helper." Lilly smiled brightly and launched herself into Kim''s arms, wrapping herself around Kim''s waist with her legs. "Hello lover. Or well, at least the appearance of my lover." She said and let go. "And yes, I''ve been granted all the knowledge that you''ll need to start up and make a successful dungeon. I''m at your disposal. While I know that you''re not her, I can''t help but feel the attraction towards you all the same." Lilly said and winked. "You know, that she is also the reason for your torment right? Because you recognized the appearance with the horns, with the wings, which means it''s after she revealed her nature to you. After everything that happened and that she did to you." Kim looked sad as she spoke. It was her character after all. She knew all about their circumstances and what had happened to them all. Suddenly a finger got placed on her lips. "Shhh... I know all about it. But I loved what she was, before that, after, my mind was locked. I could not feel any bad things during it. You know that, you wrote it. Oh, don''t look so shocked. I know what you know. I am your helper after all. At least I know the things that you wrote about me, and that you are the author of my life. Kinda like a god." She said and giggled. "I also know everything you might need to know about how to manage your dungeon, as I said before. And I''ll try to ignore my feelings for the persona that you inhabit." The smile was back on her lips as she finished speaking. "Anyway, let''s go through your abilities shall we?" Kim nodded to that and opened up her menu again and clicked on the abilities tab and it displayed both hers and the dungeon''s.
Errors present. Merging abilities, revaluating abilities to fit scale.
Dungeon abilities Description
Expansion of dungeon The ability to expand the dungeon through the creation of rooms, hallways, paths and the like. This ability also stretches to the takeover of territory that are adjacent to the dungeon''s domain. The use of this ability destroys, assimilates and creates the desired design that''s been selected. However, this ability can only create pre-existing blueprints and not create from scratch.
Create and destroy The ability to create and destroy items, objects or material. When creating, you can either select from a list of blueprints and already created or constructed things listed in its respective menu. This ability can also be used to create entirely new things but the design has to be specified. Same goes for the destruction aspect of this ability.
Assimilation The ability to assimilate any material, item or object, along with any biomass or other non-living thing that enters the dungeon. Assimilating any object, item, material or biomass will add said thing to the blueprint roster. The more units of the same kind assimilated, the less mana it''ll take to make said thing.
Summoning life The ability to summon living things. Be it simple bacteria and moss, to the complexity of the monsters and creatures available. The ability is limited to summoning things that has been absorbed or purchased through the menu system.
Shape and sculpture The ability to shape and sculpture existing things to fit the dungeon''s purpose. Instead of relying sole on the ability to create, this ability lets the dungeon mould things to the purpose that the dungeon wishes. Be it to shape a rock to sphere, or make intricate art.
Personal abilities Description
Psionics: A/C The ability to alter reality with the power of the mind. Mostly associated with the ability to move items, communicate telepathically, read minds. But also with being able to see into the future and get glimpses of what''s to come. Added intelligence is also attributed to the sheer power of the mind and will of the user to manifest the powers. Theoretically the powers of the Psion are unlimited in scope, but takes lifetimes to master. And only the ones who gather enough understanding of the universe can hope to use it to it''s fullest.
Psychic: A/C Similar to psionics, the Psychic can channel the power of the mind to commune with the spirits and immaterial. While psionics are the physical manifestation of the powers of the mind, the psychic powers manifest in the spiritual realm.
Weapon usage: D The ability to use weapons in any capacity. The usage of weapons are split into subcategories based on the weapons themselves, then further split into the individual weapon. Only weapon listed, longsword.
Well then, those were some interesting abilities indeed. Kim took mental notes about her abilities. Not really that she had to, she could just call up the menu and take a look if she needed to. But it felt nice not to overly rely on the menu system and instead remember everything that she could. And at least from her experiences with the system so far she could probably make up her own abilities or discover new ones as time went on. It did feel like her potential was unlimited, and the body she was in was eternal, at least as far as she knew, so time should technically not be an issue. The real issue however was securing herself from any potential pursuers. Hopefully they had not been able to track her through the air or at least would take some time to arrive. In that time given she was hoping to create enough dungeon for them to give up on her and instead focus on the dungeon itself. Kim looked at Lilly and smiled softly. "I think our first order of business would be waiting for the children to get back and then work on constructing the dungeon based on what they''ve found in the area. I''ll take a more in-depth look at what I can summon and create at that time. They should be back soon after all." Chapter 5 Kim was standing by the river that flowed just inside of her domain and stared towards the south. Or perhaps it was Southeast from where she was standing. She wasn''t entirely sure which way went where, but she knew that she had flown north in her semi-dazed state. And guessing by the shadows being cast around her then it was probably eastwards. She looked upwards, towards the peak of the canyon. She could clearly see where the river had eroded away the rock and over millennia formed the canyon she was currently standing in. But even then she could not clearly see the top of the mountain range that she was located in. From the little scouting she had done she had noticed a small forest to the north, lake to the south. Otherwise, the area just looked like mountains and plains. The more she thought about it, the worse her prospects for the future looked like. It did not feel like they would be able to get a lot of things by happening upon them. Neither did she think that she was too close to other people. The fact that she wasn''t too close to other people was a boon and a bane. She really did not want to kill people, but she would kill, probably, to defend herself and her new little family. But it was also not good for a quick growth and the ability to barter for goods would not be readily available. She wasn''t really sure what to think about that. The lack of animals would probably not be good for her though. But that remained to be seen, mostly depending on what the children brought back. She could hear some giggles and jolly voices from around a bend in the river. She and Lilly turned towards the voices and Kim smiled gently as the children rounded the corner. They seemed to be carrying a few things that might be of use. Most notably was that they were leading a donkey, or was it a mule perhaps, over towards the pair. "Where did you get that mule from?" Kim asked after the children rejoined them. She walked closer and started inspecting the animal. It was in good health. The teeth looked fine along with a good mix of fat and muscle on its body. No matter how much of a boon it was, the bridle was going to be an issue. "Did you steal it from some farmer?" Kim asked and raised an eyebrow. When she did the children looked a bit guilty for a moment, but then they composed themselves and looked at Kim with determination in their eyes. "We stole it from a farmer nearby, but not like he needed it. He had been mauled by wolves or some other clawed beast, and we found the mule just standing near a pond some ways away. Not like he was going to make it back to his home anyway." Kim facepalmed when she heard that. "Why didn''t you just bring him here? Perhaps we could heal him. And while I''d hate for him to die, it would probably be a good thing for the dungeon if he died within it''s influence." At this the children looked at each other before handing Kim the reigns of the mule and started running back towards where the man supposedly was dying. Kim sighed. "Children... I don''t know how much of their personalities are that of actual children, along with their knowledge, and how much is what the dungeon tells them to be." Kim mumbled to herself, not expecting an answer. "They are just like normal children, with the knowledge and morals that a child should have. That may change as you change though. Currently they''ve got similar morals and values to what you have. Or what they would have if you had taught them. Like your real children." Lilly said from beside Kim. "Once you get more used to summoning and how your menu works you can set their knowledge, morals, and much more based on your wishes. You can do this with anything you summon. You want a servile slave, you can get that. You want the most haughty noble, you can get that. There are no real limits to what you eventually can make if you put enough effort into it. Kim looked towards Lilly and sighed. "I guess that was expected with the traits that I chose I guess. Anyway, now that I''ve got a mule with some basic riding equipment I guess I should assimilate it and make a few more." While she was not keen on killing people, animals she had no qualms about. At least until they reached sentience, then it would become a moral question. She reasoned that the reason why most did not eat dogs, cats, horses and the like is due to the simple reason that nowadays they''re seen as pets, and not as food or beasts of burden like in ages past. If it was between dying and eating your dog, most would probably eat the dog.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. She reached out and touched the being''s mind with her own. She calmed it with her own powers before quickly and mercifully killing the mule by destroying the brain. At least this was the quickest and most merciful way that she could think of. It would feel nothing, suspect nothing, not be stressed or worried. After all, she had felt what it had felt before the beast collapsed in front of her. Kim then focused on using the assimilation skill that the dungeon had and tried to absorb the remains of the mule. At first, she could feel resistance as the body died without the brain going. Then it felt as if some force was being drawn from within her and enveloped the animal. To her it looked like a golden light was gathering around the mule before it slowly started vanishing, becoming particles of light. But the feeling that Kim was experiencing was nothing but orgasmic as the life force from the creature was being sucked into her being. She could feel that her mana was being expanded and it felt as if she was bloating up from eating way too much. The need to spend the mana that was overflowing from her core was quite strong. Kim quickly decided to summon two mules and just as quickly the bloating feeling was replaced with a sense of emptiness. A quick look at her mana showed that she had spent probably 100 mana each on the mules since she was now sitting at a solid 400 mana. The feeling though of assimilating the mule had been a dangerous one. That feeling of ecstasy was problematic to say the least. Now she understood why dungeons killed living things. A shudder ran though her body as she thought about possibly becoming a soulless, devouring creature, not too dissimilar to a junkie wanting it''s next fix. Kim vowed to herself never to let that happen. She''d rather be a peaceful dungeon that helped people than loosing herself in the bliss. "Now that''s dealt with..." She said quietly andonce again turned towards the dungeon proper. "Lets get to building." Kim started walking back towards the entrance before she looked towards a spot about 50 meters down the canyon wall. She quickly made up her mind and used mana to push her aura down towards the spot, the river on one side and the wall on the other. It was exhilarating to be honest. The feeling of expanding her domain was extremely pleasant. Now that she was no longer in a daze she could really take in all what she had become, and the feelings that it brought. She was walking a fine line between loving it, and being afraid of it. The instinct and desire, and not to mention the rewards of doing what a dungeon was ''supposed'' to do was great. Kim did her best to push it out of her mind as she finally made her way to the spot, exhausting about half of her mana to do so. She walked up and placed her hand on the wall and sent her power deep into the rock. She could feel the composition of the rock. Tiny traces of metals and other minerals which would be helpful later on. According to the menu, the higher amount of a material she absorbed the less it would cost. And the miniscule amount she had found so far would probably cost a lot unless she could find a vein of the stuff. No matter though, now it was time to get to building. She sent her shockwaves into the rock in a path that she desired to excavate and it quickly turned to dust. She then used her assimilation skill on the dust and her mana shot up again. Perhaps she could automate this given enough time, but for now she would have to do it manually. An entrance was taking shape in front of her. On each side of the hole she shaped columns out of the rock with her powers. They were dull and grey to the eye but on a closer inspection you would be able to see that they had been perfectly cut. There wasn''t a single crack, a single blemish along the perfectly smooth rock, as if someone had polished them to perfection. Two sheets of rock made up a kind of door that would slide into the sides of the hallway, removing the need for hinges as she used a smaller amount of mana to make some wheels that the sheets could roll on. She made a few more wheels and rolling pins to make sure that the doors slide easily. She then added a lot of bars to the ceiling, behind the doors that would slide down to create something akin to a cell. She then added another bar on each side of the doors that would slide down behind to the sides so that the doors would not be able to be slid open. Kim scratched her head before deciding to make it a bit more mechanical and added in a couple of hatch wheels to the sides of the entrance which she connected to the bars so that you could winch them up into the ceiling. However, you had to winch them in a specific order otherwise the safety latch would pull away and the bars would spring down again. Just with this little entrance, her mana was now completely spent. Since she had not been able to produce or make the items herself but had to rely on the dungeon to create the things that she imagined in her head it drained her reserves very quickly. It was one thing to make something that she had absorbed, but making something completely new was apparently very taxing. She stared at the hallway that she had formed behind the now open doors and smiled slightly. Now it was time to expand this hallway and keep scanning for material within the rock. For now, she did not create another room, instead she kept making hallways, digging deeper, searching. She had the hope that since she was the mobile core, that if something would happen she could always run away. There was no dungeon core at the end of the dungeon to find after all. Not if she left the dungeon at least. She would dig, until she got tired, then she would perhaps make the rooms after her mana had regenerated. Chapter 6 This was such a cheat system. She had broken the system. It was really stupid how easy it was to break, and now she felt slightly conflicted on how it worked. Sure, she was gaining massively from the brokenness of the system, but it didn''t feel ''right''. After a while of digging tunnels, hallways, and absorbing the things she broke down with her mind into the dungeon she had got mentally fatigued. Kim had then asked Lilly if there was a way to wipe away exhaustion. And sure, there had been. Just use a little of the dungeon mana to ''heal'' her. Gone was the exhaustion, and from a few tries she found out that her psionics were back up to full power again. And the mana she gained from breaking down the materials that she destroyed way out scaled the meagre mana she had to spend on healing her mind from the exhaustion. It was cheating the system, and Kim knew it, but she did not stop. Perhaps the gods of the world would take notice eventually and by that point she wanted to have expanded her dungeon as much as possible. Kim had pushed her dungeon influence quite far with the mana that she was gaining from the materials she absorbed. Now a good section of the canyon was within her influence. She was still worried about a ''floor'' limit, but so far nothing had popped up. So she just kept spreading it. Even if there was a floor limit, she could just break it again by manually forming hallways and rooms with her powers and just not claim them for her dungeon. If this wasn''t exploiting the system she didn''t know what was, because right now it just felt silly. By this point she had started experimenting with her dungeon influence and had started pushing it into the walls as well, or rather on an X-Y plane that makes up her first floor. She did realize that not spreading up in a Z-plane would make her vulnerable towards aerial attacks, but she hoped that would be a negligible weakness especially once she started digging downwards. It took a while but eventually she found the maximum floor size limit. It was stupidly big if Kim was being honest with herself. She had now claimed from the entrance of the canyon where the water ran in, to almost the other side of the canyon, through the mountain, and about equal distance in a symmetrical pattern with a centre at her ''dungeon'' entrance and into the mountain itself and the other side of the river. Now it was up to the test if she could circumvent this limitation as well. Because she had claimed in an X-Y plane, and ignored the Z plane, the technically did not own anything but the floor itself. So if she placed a room would she own the entire room or just the floor? "Here goes nothing," she said and selected a generic room from her menu and placed it inside of the mountain on the other side of the river from her entrance. Kim waited for something to happen, a box to tell her that she had exceeded her limit. However, nothing happened, and she now stared into the room across from her, all of it claimed and not just the floor. She also checked that her actual area of influence had not been lowered and indeed it had not. "Oh come on..." she said quietly to herself and sighed. She was not about to complain about her fortune, but really, this was too easy. She shrugged her shoulders and was about to continue working when she felt the children returning with a bleeding person. Surely they should have returned way earlier? She had got so much work done, and they returned just now? Kim looked up at the sun and estimated that only two hours had passed. She was stunned. It felt like she had been working for many hours yet it had only been two. What was going on here?
Personal trait gained: Psion''s mind, level 2
This trait allows the user to perceive time much slower than the average person. In truth the Psion''s mind works much faster than the average person and thus allows them to analyse, make decisions and take action faster than normal. The ability to multitask is also vastly increased. Cognitive functions increased at all levels of this trait. Multiprocessing increased at all levels of this trait.
She blinked a couple of times and could ''feel'' her mind going into overdrive as it processed the new information and the emotions in relation to the information. It was as if her brain got upgraded, and her ability to deal with most things. She felt though that perhaps her mind went even more logical than what it was before and did not allow her emotions to take over and panic. Instead, she took a few deep breaths and started walking towards the children. Kim could feel herself being able to act in ways she had not been fully aware of before. Now while she was walking towards the man that was clearly bleeding out she kept placing rooms while absorbing the materials that the rooms converted for her. It was as if it was in the back of her mind now that she was not focusing on it. Like something, she was aware of happening, something she was directing but not thinking too much about. At the same time she was digging out hallways to connect the various rooms that she was making. It was an extremely weird, yet refreshing feeling. Her mind finally settled on the man, and she could feel the fear dripping off him. While he could not speak, his lips moved and made out, ''daemon''. The sheer terror in his eyes was...intoxicating to the darker side of Kim''s mind, to the creature which she had become. She did her best to suppress the urges that were flowing up to the front of her mind as she bent down. "I am no daemon. No more than the four that helped you here." She said in her clear, melodious voice. To the man it sounded like a pure and beautiful voice that made him want to trust her. How could someone with such a saintly voice be evil? He slowly calmed down and instead looked up at Kim with wonder and awe instead of the pure terror of before.
Personal trait gained: Angelic voice, level 2
The voice of a pure and beautiful angel carries the wishes, dreams and hopes of the listener. It calms the soul and makes the speaker more trustworthy. The voice carries power enough to be heard over others and makes others pause up and listen to the wisdom that surely must be laced in the words spoken. Men would fight for a chance to hear a single note, and die for a song carried by the voice.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Kim sighed internally. It seemed like she had plenty of traits that she was not aware of and probably would not manifest into something she could figure out and level until she actually became aware of used them for the first time. While she technically knew all the powers of the fallen angel she was portraying, it would probably take a while until all of them were within the system. She directed her gaze towards the man that she now held in her arms and scanned his body. What she saw made her grimace. She could see internal bleeding, a skewer wound, probably from a tusked animal or monster. Blunt force trauma and broken ribs as he had been charged by the beast. She peered into his brown eyes and brushed away the strands of black hair that obscured his face. He wasn''t that bad of a looker. A rugged, ''manly'' appearance that would make a maiden''s heart flutter. Chiselled body from long years on a farm and hunting. Kim could pick up titbits leaking from the man''s mind. About his family, his children, his wife, all which might not make it if he were to die here. But parts of him were at peace about dying in the arms of such a beauty as the woman holding him.
Personal trait gained: Angelic appearance, level 2
Your appearance calms the soul, makes the viewer at peace with themselves as they gaze upon the majesty that is your being. Your presence is as if the divine itself appeared in front of them. Men would kill for a chance to be with you for a single night and wars over the chance to be your companion. Your horns are off-putting though and makes people think you''re a daemon, striking fear into the hearts of men.
Once again Kim sighed deeply, while useful she did not want people to fight over her. She really needed to get the transformation powers to work. She did not want to be attacked because of her horns, and she did not want to be drooled over because of her angelic appearance. "You are most likely going to die here. I don''t know if I can save you. It''ll probably hurt and I''m not even sure if it''ll work. But do you want to try?" she asked the man to which he nodded. She detected a faint glimmer of hope where there had been none before. Kim closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This part she was not too fond of, but if all of her powers had actually been transferred, then this was her best bet. She slowly closed the distance between their faces and with trembling lips kissed the man on the lips. Surprise in his eyes and mind turned into peace and bliss as Kim kissed him. She felt her powers envelop the man and invade his body until every fibre of his being had been permeated by her spirit. She used her powers to move the blood he had lost back into his system while making sure that all bleeding stopped. His skin started reknitting itself, repairing the damages that he had taken. Kim could feel the option to make him a dungeon servant, but she pushed that option away for now as she did not want to do so without his consent, however she did copy his memories. After what felt like hours to Kim, but was merely a minute or two she broke off the kiss as the man was fully healed once again.
Personal trait gained: Angelic Kiss, level 2
A kiss say more than a million words. The blessing of being chosen to receive such a gift is beyond measure. No matter how much time passes, you''ll never be able to forget the softness and tenderness of the kiss received, always yearning to feel it once again. Allows full access to the kissed individual.
For a moment she wondered if she did the right thing. Hopefully this would not come back and bite her in the arse. Kim tried to clear her mind of doubts and then spoke in that singsong voice of hers. "Go back home, then bring your family and everything you own back here. Take multiple trips if you have to, but bring your family on the first trip. You''ll all live here now." Kim laced her voice with her powers to make the weakened mind of the man accept what she was saying and not question it. No matter how she looked at it, she needed people here. And she could not help people that were not here after all. At least that was what she told herself as she watched the man starting to walk away after being handed a mule to help him. She did feel bad about forcing her will on the man instead of convincing him. He would probably agree after a lot of convincing, but she did not have that time. While that conversation was going another thread of her multi-thread mind had already started creating a farm for the new family on the other side of her dungeon proper, inside of the mountain. It had taken some finagling, and a lot of mana, but she had been able to recreate growth lights in this world. She did have the knowledge on how they worked after all, but it had taken quite a long time in her overclocked mind to find the right frequencies and amount of light needed. That was another benefit of her new mind, the ability to remember and recall information she had gathered. But in the end she had been able to create a day and night cycle of growing lights in a big cavern that would generate enough light and heat to grow plants and keep animals. Instead of electricity, which she was planning on fuelling her things later, she had created a kind of battery which would recharge itself based on ambient mana during the night cycle and then turn on the lights during the day cycle. She tried to keep the caverns as close to natural and muscle carved as she could for appearances. She could make everything perfectly straight with not a single grain of sand out of place, but that didn''t sit right with her. After all, she wanted people to live here. For now, she''d start out small, but eventually she planned on creating a full on city within her domain. Once she got her transformation spell going, she could come out as the guardian of this place, which would not be a lie if they had truth spells in this world. Perhaps lead the city into a bright future while gathering their mana and the eventual fool that would perish in her dungeon. Kim noticed how quickly she was throwing away her already loose morals. A grimace spread across her face at the thought. Sure, she had never cared much for anything, emotional detachment in all its glory. But she was already considering taking over people. She had already manipulated one soul due to a wish to not waste time. When she thought about it, if she had this kind of power in the old world; would she not use it there as well? The answer was probably. She was not deluded enough not to acknowledge that she would fall sway to the temptations now and then. However, how long would it take until she actually just threw her lacking morals out the window entirely? Hopefully it would take a long time until that came about. She looked towards where the man had by now exited her domain and spoke a few words that carried power. "Xlange ozazm raasi fvue beal whixl ol zirop aspt lasdi fam sa xlange ozazm raasi fvue murifri fvuat ol rvulmva zir."
Magic unlocked, assigning mana points, transformation in progress...
Chapter 7 "Hey...is she allowed to do that? That''s totally cheating!" Tiinra was staring at the; was it mortal? The girl, woman, thing, that had been summoned to this world. The woman had spoken a couple of words that did not belong in this world. How did they have power in this world? Tiinra had not understood what had been spoken, but the result was obvious enough. The system had granted her powers, and was transforming the woman. Tiinra did not know what she should do. Perhaps she should do nothing. It did not seem like the woman was a bad person since she did heal the farmer. That should also not have been possible in the way that she had done it. You could only heal with magic, and medicine, could you not? But if it wasn''t possible then the system would not have given its consent or approval of the actions being taken. Perhaps she should look into the system a bit more.
A blinding light was enveloping Kim''s form. In the shimmer of the fluctuating lights her form started changing. Her shoulder-length hair started shortening slightly, and started turning from the dark brown that it had adapted after her change into her old, natural blonde one. She also started shrinking slightly going from about 190cm to about 170cm, her form also turned a bit more curvy from the slimmer, agile build she had just inhabited. The wings on her back also started flickering out of existence as she fully changed from her new form into her old, normal self. Kim''s hand reached up towards her head and felt that the horns were now gone, and gone was also the black, obsidian looking core stone that was sticking out of her head before. She started rubbing the spot where it was before and tried to figure out where it had gone. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the feeling of the core, a feeling that she had felt the entire time it had been stuck in her head. It felt, quite nice actually to be back to her old, or rather normal self. Kim''s eyes scanned the surrounding area. She did not feel weird. She had spent a few days in her new form but now that she was back in the old she did not feel too weird. Neither had she in the new one to be fair. Part from getting used to the wings, the change in height and body type had not hindered her. However, she could feel a portion of her mind wanting to go back to the form of the Fallen one. She was suspecting that it was that person''s personality trying to assert dominance, something Kim would not allow. At the most perhaps a merging of her real self and the constructed self. If she was being honest with herself, some aspects of that person was quite nice to have. The more evil parts...not so much. She sighed. It felt like she sighed a lot nowadays. Her eyes met Lilly''s before she opened her mouth to speak. "I think this appearance will be much better for our current goals. Fewer people will suspect two humans with a few children running around than an angelic being with horns roaming around the place. While I''m in this form we''re sisters," she said and pointed towards Lilly. "The man and his family can be our neighbours while the children our wards. We can mask the area as an orphanage. There are bound to be wars, fights, disasters and more which would cause children to lose their parents." Kim turned, her mind already trying to work out the best way to conceal their presence until they were ready. "How common is magic in this world Lilly?" She eventually asked. A lot would ride on this question. "It''s not too common, outside of bloodlines that is. However, mages pop up here and there now and then. And earth magic is one of the more common types of magic so your plan have some merit." Lilly said, already getting an inkling of what her summoner was thinking. "Great, that makes things a lot easier." Kim turned towards the extra room on the same side as the dungeon and decided that this would become the orphanage. She removed the shabby door, absorbing it and turning it into mana once again. She tapped her chin as she thought about how the orphanage should look. Kim decided to go the humble-brag route and created two flat pillars on each side of the hole. They were fancy, but not exquisite, with no real embellishments part from still having the grooved marble pillar look from the ancient Greeks in her own world. Above the hole she created an archway with a slightly nicer look to it. It was arched with what looked like a scroll going across it which read. "The Angelic Sisterhood Orphanage." "A bit cheesy of a name; don''t you think?" Lilly said and raised an eyebrow but Kim ignored her and started thinking of the gates which would now adorn the entrance. She decided on solid oak, or at least what looked like oak in this world. She fitted the double doors with simple hinges, loop door handles with a knocker under one of them. They looked relatively simple, something that could perhaps be grown and ordered by a mage and blacksmith respectively. She also decided to redesign the interior of the little cave that she made earlier. She added some more lights, places where oils or wood could be burned for light. Kim thought about it for a while longer and decided to add a groove that travelled along the ceiling from the entrance, adding a smaller venting hole along with a vent, and into and from every room. This way there would be airflow along with getting any and all smoke out of the caverns so that there would be no lack of oxygen and no build-up of smoke.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. In the same vein she decided to make a channel going from the kitchen and the stove there and through the mountain at a somewhat steady slope and to the outside so that the kitchen smoke would travel out, adding a small cap at the end so that rain would not get in. Along with that she turned the beds a bit lower quality looking along with the sheets and the room decor in general. She added a few more dressers and turned the beds into bunk beds just to sell the illusion better. However like any great illusion or lie, there would be a truth to it. She would honestly start up an orphanage in this location. As for funding, she could conjure coins, so money would be no problems. For now, she would not expand the little orphanage further than two bunk bed rooms along with an office, kitchen, cafeteria staffroom and the staffs sleeping quarters. Everything could be expanded as the need arose. For now there were two staffers and four children. Along with whatever the farmer would bring with him. She would just create a little barn and garden for him so that he could keep providing for himself and for them. It was almost worrying how easily she slipped into her calculating and planning mindset with everything that was happening. "At least I''m adapting well." Kim thought to herself and chuckled sadly. She was in a magical world, a fantastical world. She had the powers of shapeshifting, psionics, magic and who knows what else. And all she could think about was how to plan and prepare for the future instead of gushing over how wonderful, or horrific her situation really was. It was a dream come true. Yet her emotions were being suppressed by her nature. "Why can''t I just be normal and react like a normal person now and then? It would make my life so much easier." "Because neither you nor her are normal. At least in that sense. Your life and upbringing along with a few genetic predispositions has made it so. You, bullied and broken in your childhood, a child unable to understand why things turned out the way they did. A person who turned off their emotions and distanced yourself from everyone to avoid hurt. Her, a more fantastical and romantic fall from grace, a being that represents who you were, and what you could have turned into if you had power with very few consequences." Lilly was whispering into Kim''s ear at this point, her voice soft like a snake, words like poison. "Every dark thought, every lustful want, the power to do what you wanted to do to those who kept hurting you. The tragic story of an angel of love and compassion, naive of the world, who fell from the heavens and into the darkest pits of hell, giving into her passions and lust for power." Kim was standing still, eyes barely open as tears fell freely from her eyes as memories of the body she inhabited, of her life, was flowing through her mind, as clear as a film. Every detail in splendid clarity. Even audio, sounds, when there should have been none. Voices calling for her judgement, as the angel was sentenced to be cast out as a fallen, the nephilim cut down before her eyes. Crying and screaming she was thrown out of the halls of God, only her good deeds preventing execution. But what awaited her was even crueller in some ways. Her form and purpose was twisted into something dark. Something that took what it wanted, cold, manipulative and with little regard for anyone. No morals except what she decided on herself. A being that most would call evil, or at the very least chaotic. A snap brought Kim back to reality as she hazily looked at Lilly who was now grinning an evil grin. "That''s for giving me such a horrible life in your story. A little payback on my creator. After reliving those memories I hope that you understand while it was just a story to you, to me, that was my life. And it was Her life, which you now possess. Or at least the memories of said life." Lilly backed away and shrugged her shoulders. "Things aren''t like your stories any longer. For one, I can tell that you are weak in comparison to her, oh so weak. And just like your world, if you die, you die. There are no do-overs. The people you kill are people that''ll never return. They are just as alive as any person in your old world. This is your real world now. Are you up for the challenge?" Lilly asked with a smirk on her face. "You''re a bitch. Did you know that?" Kim said and wiped the tears from her eyes before closing them and sighing softly. She honestly did not want to kill people. Especially before getting to know the people of this world. If they were all dicks, people who abused their powers to opress, rape, or do generally evil things, then perhaps it was better to take them out. Kim opened her eyes once again. Her gaze focused on Lilly''s face and there was a steely determination behind the gaze. "We won''t know those things until we''re at that point. However I think it might be better to prepare for the worst and deal with the consiquences as they appear." She looked towards where the farmer had left. "But at least I''ll do whatever I can to survive. Hopefully that does not mean killing. But if people are stupid enough to ignore any warnings that I''ll place in front and in the dungeon and perish inside, then perhaps the world is better off without them." Kim decided to draw upon Her personality and perhaps this would discourage people from entering. The people that valued things in this world. The ones that was ready to throw away everything, well, she didn''t honestly know. She turned towards where she was building the dungeon and walked into the first hallway. She focused her powers and erected a statue of Her. At her feet, a pedistal came up from the ground with a small bowl in it. Kim then made a pillar appear on each side of the corridor which looked like a scroll was hanging down from the top if it. She then turned back to the stature and made a sword appear in one hand, in the other there was a scroll. On the scroll she made words appear. Any who enters here, prepare for death. This is the dungeon of the Fallen One, and here she rules supreme. Are the lure of treasure and strength worth your lives? Are you willing to throw away everything for the gain? If so prick your finger and drop your blood in the bowl and register your sacrifice. If you perish, your name shall forever be displayed for all to see your foolishness. Chapter 8 Kim stared at the screen in front of her, mouth slightly agape. This had to be a joke, right? Not just the fact that the screen was in front of her, but what that would mean for her and the dungeon itself. The fact that after creating the statue and the pillars, this box appeared. She wanted to kick herself in the behind for not thinking more about the consequences, before taking action. To create what she now had created would mean a lot to her dungeon. Perhaps it had been a huge mistake after all. But only time would tell. It might have big repercussions, or none at all.
Statue of the Fallen?
A statue dedicated to the Fallen Angel which reside within this domain. Those who want to challenge the domain of the Fallen must sacrifice a part of themselves to tread these halls. This rule is absolute and any breakers will be punished.
She got a message thrown into her head about the same time as she finished reading the note. That message made things even more strange in her mind. Something like that should not be possible. Should it? It was as if something was always watching her. Which she guessed this, along with the previous messages, and the entire damn levelling system, proved just how messed up things were. That something was always watching her, and her every move, was extremely creepy. Did this also mean that she had no choice in her actions? Kim wasn''t sure any longer. She glanced towards the message that got her going, blurring when not focused on. This rule is enforced by the world system, error, Lacking Dungeon Law trait. Those words sent shivers down her spine. But no matter. Apparently she had formed a contract with the system itself about her dungeon; but it did not actually do anything right now! There was nothing she could do about it. Or at least nothing that she could think about. Besides, did she really want to possibly piss off the system by tearing down the statue or trying again? What if that punished her future heavily? What if it killed her? Kim was not interested in taking any chances at this point. Wasn''t that the entire purpose of creating such a statue in the first place? That no one should be able to sneak in and exploit her? Even if it was not active right now. Perhaps she could research into blood magic...that was actually quite viable. Blood into the bowl, it was like it was blood magic already, but instead of normal magic it would activate through a trait later on. Her? Was it really her? Or is it more like an arm? She could feel the insides of the dungeon, but she wasn''t really it. Or that is how it felt to her. Because the crystal was sticking out of her head, and she was moving, and not stuck inside a room somewhere like the novels that she had read. Even the ones where the ''core'' can move and interact, they have a centre or a crystal somewhere inside the dungeon still. Kim did not. Technically perhaps she IS the crystal itself, or the core of the dungeon. She wondered if there were spells which could detect the crystal like in some novels. Would it direct towards the lowest part of her dungeon? Or towards Kim herself? Could she extract the crystal from her head and separate herself from the dungeon itself? Would that make her lose control over the dungeon? Or would that mean that she was still in control but if the crystal in the dungeon was destroyed; would she die as well? Were there spells which could take over a dungeon? Or enslavement magic? Would those work on her? There were so many questions and no real answers. Even if she asked Lilly, Kim just got the feeling that she would not know the answer since Kim''s existence was so unique. Even what she could gather from, somewhere deep in her mind, was that dungeons in general could not really think. It was more of a, blueprint that it followed and didn''t really stray from that blueprint in its existence.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. While she could drown herself in questions, now was not the time. She had to expand and build her dungeon before people would discover her creation. So now it was right back to it before things went to hell. Kim cracked her fingers and stretched her body before undoing her transformation again. It felt releasing, nicer, to be back in her new natural form. It aggravated her quite a bit. She wanted to be able to change forms without any conflicts. She did want to be able to move around in the world, and she did not think that she would be able to do so in her fallen form. But then, was it just an illusion? No, she felt that it changed her body in its entirety. So perhaps she would be able to hide amongst humans if she wanted to leave. She shook her head. It really wasn''t the time for these questions. Now was the time to build and fortify. She looked at her statue and decided to add a door behind it and link it to the statue, just in case, but could she really do that without the required traits? Kim thought about it for a while before shaking her head. It would just have to wait until she had unlocked more traits. She looked towards the spot where she would place the door and decided on a somewhat plain door made out of wood and stone with iron hinges that could easily be opened. She also decided on slamming down a door to the left and to the right of the statue as well. The dungeon needed to grow a lot bigger, or at least be complicated enough so that people would either leave her alone, die inside, or perhaps... She didn''t actually know what to expect or what she really wanted. All she knew was that she wanted to be safe. "I guess this might be as good as it gets for now." Kim said and looked at the doors. "I''ll have to sit down and actually figure out what I want to turn this disaster into. And to look through and make up new blueprints for traps." She was talking to herself, counting on her fingers to keep better track of things. She didn''t really have any paper and it seemed like her new abilities improved her memory and ability to retain information was good enough for now. "Perhaps I should look into getting a few more ''monsters'' up and running as well. Geezh, I really need to get a proper going with this place, and the orphanage. If people start finding this place soon then I really want to be prepared." She knew she had repeated that to herself a lot. Along with contradictions along the way. She knew that much. She had complained about dungeon''s being easy or coddling in the other world. Then here she had not wanted to kill anyone. Then it was not too big of a deal any longer. She was confused, hypocritical, and probably didn''t make too much sense, but what else was she supposed to do? Kim honestly didn''t know. So perhaps the answer was to build a dungeon so dangerous, so difficult, and so challenging that it would drive away everyone but the insane? She sighed deeply and plopped down on her butt on the cold stone floor. She looked around for a few moments before conjuring a tablet of stone and a pencil. Now was the time for planning.