ã€ŠThe Dungeon that should not beã€‹


 Chapter 1 The beginning of the end

    Global warming had done its job well, making most of the surface world uninhabitable. Turning previously hot, desert climates into fields of glassed earth. Creating dry deserts where seas and lakes used to rule. Turning oceans into puddles and causing mountains to crumble from heat.

    The ozone layer had been completely eradicated due to ignorance and stubbornness and the accumulated greenhouse gasses had created a thick layer covering more than a third of the whole planet, reflecting and trapping the heat between the surface and the stratosphere.

    But humans, like a giant cockroach, refused to perish even in these impossible conditions. The race clung to life like a moss clings to walls, like vines cling to a wall. They did any and all possible actions to save themselves. Pouring impossible amounts of concrete into huge blocks above the ground to absorb heat, to at least delay it slightly before it reached the underground shelters. Digging as deep as they possibly could to get away from the heat. Mining vast tunnel systems and mobile cities to move according to the planets rotation to stay on the dark side of the planet. Any and all plans had been put into action, no matter how dumb they sounded they may be the thing that saves them.

    The entire race had been reduced to just 1/18<sup>th</sup> of the previous population leaving humans with a population of just under 1 billion. Soon the human race was going to face total annihilation on account of the food situation. The arctic seed vault had been raided of all its useful seeds which were used to grow crops to feed the shrinking population of edible animals in each mobile city, which in turn were made to breed to produce more animals and then killed for food for the humans.

    The humans were struggling to grow the plants without natural sunlight. The amount of usable crops was decreasing with each harvest and the animals were producing less and less offspring each generation. Soon the humans would run out of their only food source left on the planet.

    But alas the group of geniuses from mobile city #3925 managed to create the forcefield just in time.

    The forcefields were designed by using a small gravity generator to create a spherical, hollow gravity field, this field would then be connected to a device that would absorb the forces acting on the barrier and transfer it to a material used as the ¡®host¡¯. The so called ¡®host¡¯ material would be changed depending on the force acting on the barrier. A strong physical impact required a tough, almost unbreakable material like diamonds. Meanwhile, a high temperature required a material highly resistant to heat like ceramics.

    The discovery and creation of the forcefield was a breakthrough for the humans, however they still had to be tested against the challenges of the surface world.

    So after nearly 100 years underground the humans prepared for what they thought would be a noble sacrifice by the research team who planed a trip to the surface for a very toasty and well-deserved vacation they would not be returning from.

    Taking a tunnel that had not been used for nearly a hundred years, the research team began a month-long journey to the surface where they would test the newly created barriers with many different materials to determine which could be used to support the forcefields and which could not.

    The tests took a little over month. The researchers drilled holes for sunlight to pass through and set up a barrier with a different host under each hole. They then retreated far underground and waited for the day to pass. At night, they would wear space suits with cooling liquid running through it to check on the host materials, replacing any failed ones and recording the survival time of the successful ones.

    Finally, after over a month of waiting only a few materials were left. A few experimental ceramic materials were left. And only one of them looked to be nearly unscathed. Next, a barrier wide ultraviolet filter was developed to protect the people inside. Trying different gasses and concentrations, the researchers finally found a combination that could imitate the ozone layer of the past while still being breathable for humans without causing health issues. The researchers jumped with joy and hastily left back to the mobile city tunnel.

    Getting back to their research facilities, the researchers made plans to produce the first large scale gravity generator and a huge amount of the successful ceramic material to conduct a final city sized scale experiment on the surface.

    Production of the two started almost immediately after the researchers revealed the results. Most people didn¡¯t expect the researchers to come back at all, much less with results that could possibly save the entire race.

    The creation of the generator took longer than expected and but finished without issues 1 year after it started, by that time the production of the ceramics had long finished with nearly 3 times as much as was originally planned.

    The final preparations were finished and the research team as well as a surprising number of individuals willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good volunteered to head to the surface with the researchers to conduct the final test that had the potential to save the race.

    Two months after departure the generator was set up underground and the host was hauled into position to be connected to the barrier. The generator was moved to the surface on a mobile platform at midnight and the special anti-UV gas was spread in the barrier. All the researchers and volunteers could do after that was wait and pray for success.

    As the morning sun rose over the horizon the researchers and volunteers felt the temperature rise drastically. After merely seconds 25 C, 27 C, 31 C, 35 C, and then it stopped rising. Throwing a small, heavy-duty thermometer outside from one of the holes leading to the surface from underground resulted in a temperature reading of nearly 1800 degrees Celsius. The temperature inside the barrier reached 35 degrees Celsius and rose no more. The researchers congratulated each other and the volunteers cheered and clapped, overjoyed with the results.

    A year later the signs of the first mobile city, protected by the new forcefield, could be seen ploughing its way through a cave way too small for the behemoth. The mobile cities were constructed underground, made from the remains of the giant tunnelling machines used to make the tunnels around the world.

    When the first mobile city finally made its way out of its earth prison all the citizens cheered at the sight of the sun. Most had been born underground and didn¡¯t know what the sun was, some had been told about it by past generations and some survived long enough to see the human race descend underground as small children.

    After the first mobile city, the rest followed. Creating generators and ceramic hosts. Making their way to the surface. Civilisation was beginning to rebuild itself from the scorched, glassed and melted ground up.

    And so, after another hundred years, mobile cities were deconstructed and stripped for parts in favour of regular stationary cities.

    Nuclear fusion was also made possible thanks to the genius of the group of scientists who managed to harness the incredible power of gravity to create a stable and almost indestructible forcefield.

    They then discovered that although safe and stable nuclear fusion was thought to be impossible on earth, if contained within a tiny forcefield it could be used to produce immense amounts of energy. Thanks to this group, power became almost infinite.

    The newly established cities thrived on the ruined planet thanks to the barriers and fusion generators. New additions to the population were given a choice: learn and work in the labs to help better mankind or train and become a farmer. Farming had become one of the most important jobs on the surface. All food was being produced by farmers. Crop and animal farms were the only ways of acquiring food on the planet, and so it became vital that all farms are always full of workers to keep up with the growing population.

    Now on the first day of the year 3286, over 1000 years after the resurfacing of the humans, technology had advanced far thanks to the almost inexhaustible power of nuclear fusion. Everything that needed any other type of fuel was replaced with nuclear powered versions. Space exploration flourished thanks to the forcefields and many new planets were found and colonised. However as of yet no alien races have been found. Medicine was also one of the core research fields, prolonging human life, cryogenic sleep, preventing and curing diseases and curing cancers. Most of the population could live to nearly 300 years old if they so choose.

    It was supposed to be a normal day like any other. Wake up in the morning, around 7 because later would mean being late. Wait for the automated butler to finish his breakfast, buttered toast with a sunny side up egg, before taking a quick shower and heading to work on the newly acquired fusion powered motorbike.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    After waking up Daniel felt a strange sensation, like that gut feeling that something bad was going to happen. A quite almost inaudible whisper, speaking words of a disaster the world had yet to experience.

    Daniel, since young, decided he would be a researcher. Hoping to be like one of the heroes who saved humanity not with swords and strength like in ancient stories but with genius and perseverance. He loved learning new things. He wanted to know how everything worked and why it worked. How it did what it was made to do and how it was made. He would spend days on end disassembling and assembling everything he could get his hangs on.

    As soon as he could choose he chose to learn and become a researcher and scientist. The world had never seen a person like him, repeating school 7 times to complete every course the school had to offer.

    Before starting university, he volunteered for an experimental procedure of having a memory chip installed and connected to his brain to help him store and sort more information.

    After the successful procedure, he went on to repeat 3 years of university 12 times and then on to complete a degree in each of the 12 subjects. Finally, at the age of 130, James was accepted as a core member of a research and development team researching new ways of storing huge amounts of energy.

    Many of the researchers were well over 100 years old and had been part of the same team for over 30 years, working together to create the chip installed in Daniel¡¯s head and many other advanced information storage and processing units.

    Today, unlike normal, the sound outside didn¡¯t sound like the usual sound of the city. The deep, quiet, steady hum of the forcefield generator and fusion generators was as always ever-present, however the usual sound of the city was not there. As if everyone in the city was still asleep, the streets were empty of the familiar buzz of hundreds of thousands of fusion powered vehicles. Noisy neighbours, silent as a mouse. Even the usually noisy school kids walking past his house to reach the school nearby couldn¡¯t be heard.

    (Did I suddenly go deaf or something?) thought Daniel as he threw off his covers and looked out of the window.

    (Can¡¯t be, I still hear the generators.) thought Daniel after concentrating on the familiar hum of the generators.

    (What the hell is going on here?) Daniel quickly turned on the TV on the wall of his bedroom.

    ¡°We have recently received an update on the strange shockwave traveling through the universe. It appears to have passed the 74<sup>th</sup> colony planet not long after the message was sent and since it passed we have lost contact with the planet.¡± The news was on every channel, no matter where he looked it was always the same emergency broadcast.

    The reporter looked quite shake as he delivered the news, probably knew more than he was allowed to say.

    ¡°The shockwave has caused us to lose communication with over 200 colony planets so far, yet we still do not know what caused the shockwave or how it is interfering with our communications¡­¡± the reporter looks down as he finishes his words.

    ¡°Screw this, they deserve to know in case we can¡¯t stop it!¡± the reporter shouts to someone out of the view of the camera before turning back and looking straight at the camera.

    ¡°All the planets we lost contact with so far have been destroyed. That¡¯s right the shockwave destroys everything it passes through, be it asteroids, ships, planets or even stars. Can you believe it? Its destroying stars like they weren¡¯t there to begin with.¡± The reporters face sinks as he looks down.

    ¡°There goes the 3<sup>rd</sup> star ship fleet¡­ and the 56<sup>th</sup> colony planet they were visiting. God this is horrible to watch.¡± The reporter takes out his earpiece and puts it on the desk before standing up and leaving.

    The screen cuts to an automated message.

    ¡°The shockwave is estimated to arrive at Earth in approximately 7 hours and 28 minutes. All research personnel are requested to head to their work places. Instructions will be sent to the head of each facility.¡± The automated message finished with that and turned off. All TV channels remained on blank emergency broadcast standby screens.

    Daniel rushed to his wardrobe to get dressed and rushed out of the door. On his motorbike, he reached the research facility in less than 20 minutes. As he stumbled through the door of the largest lab he found most of the researchers sitting in front of a computer screen.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± asked Daniel looking at everyone one after the other. Terry the head researcher in charge of the facility. David, Terry¡¯s younger brother. Jack, the oldest one of the team, nearing 260. Laura, Jack¡¯s wife. Chloe, David¡¯s crush.

    Everyone turned from the screen to Daniel and Terry spoke dryly.

    ¡°Unless you can come up with something stronger than graphene on the fly then this is one mission we are not completing.¡±

    ¡°Ooh. Well how about just stacking loads of graphene sheets together. We tried that once, right? It withstood the explosion of a fusion generator no problem, right?¡± Daniel said hopeful of at least a semi positive answer.

    ¡°Whatever we set as a host has to be one solid object. Layers will only act as backups instead of sharing the load.¡± Terry shot down the idea straight away.

    ¡°Maybe¡­¡± *BEEP**BEEP* Chloe was interrupted by a loud alarm. Everyone looked at the screen once again.

    [7 hours till shockwave impact]

    A big red warning message showed up right in the middle of the screen.

    ¡°Well. It was nice knowing you and a pleasure working with you all.¡± Jack spoke before taking Laura¡¯s hand and leaving towards the exit.

    ¡°See you later Old Man. Ill drop by later with that bottle like I promised you.¡± Daniel waved towards Jack as he left.

    Terry spoke to the others.

    ¡°What about you guys?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to get drunk with Jack and Laura. See you guys later.¡± Daniel patted David¡¯s shoulder and poked Chloe on the shoulder causing both of them to blush slightly.

    Terry and Daniel laughed as Daniel left the facility, heading back home on his bike.

    Once home Daniel searched through his kitchen looking for a very special bottle of alcohol. He found the bottle he was looking for in a collector¡¯s case that could fall apart at any moment. The label on the bottle told anyone willing to read it what was so special about the alcohol.

    The label read [1947 CHATEAU CHEVAL BLANC]

    It was a bottle from before the collapse of the ancient world, kept and preserved by one of the rich collectors who got himself a place in one of the nuclear fallout shelters which later became a tunnel into the depths of the Earth. Daniel found it in the remains of an old mobile city that had been stripped of anything useful and left at the edge of the forcefield covering the new city site. Daniel had explored the entire mechanical beast, crawling into every corner he could get into. Eventually reaching the old engine room of the mobile city ruin, he found a huge safe. Spending a little over 3 days, he finally got inside.

    The safe was completely empty save for a single metal pedestal in the middle. On this pedestal stood a very old, wooden case with a bottle in it. Daniel, being only 15 at the time, didn¡¯t know what was so special about the bottle. However, considering the measures used to protect it he thought it must be something special.

    After bringing the bottle home to his parents, he was told the bottle contained alcohol and judging from the date on the label it came from a time before the planed turned into an uninhabitable burned rock.

    Daniel was praised for finding a priceless artefact of the past civilisation and was given the choice of selling the bottle for more credits than he could possibly spend in his lifetime, or keep the bottle.

    Being the curious cat he was, Daniel decided to keep the bottle. He would save the bottle for what he thought would be the most important event in his life, his wedding day.

    However, the universe seemed to have other plans and now the planet had less than 6 and a half hours to live.

    Daniel took the bottle and got back on his bike. On the way to Jack¡¯s house he thought of all the cute girls that wanted to go out with him in his first years of university. Now he would die as Earth¡¯s oldest and smartest virgin. At least he could drink the wine with a friend before the end.

    Reaching Jack¡¯s house, Daniel noticed Jack and Laura sitting at a small, round table on the front porch. On the table were three large wine glasses and an empty chair stood in front of the two already sitting and waiting.

    ¡°Sorry for the wait, it took me a while to find it.¡± Daniel raised the bottle in the air.

    ¡°No problem. I wouldn¡¯t mind waiting a little more to get some of that.¡± Jack replied with a smile on his face, eyes glued to the bottle.

    ¡°Dear me. There he goes again. Daniel, please don¡¯t let him have too much.¡± Laura spoke softly as she looked at Jack¡¯s smile. The same smile he had at the new year¡¯s party, at which he managed to get so drunk he went into full old man mode and started telling long, boring stories about his research.

    Daniel laughed as he set the bottle down on the table and sat down.

    ¡°This old fossil probably won¡¯t survive the first glass.¡± Said Daniel with a smirk while looking at Jack.

    ¡°I¡¯ll show you, I may be old but this corpse still has some fuel left in the old generator.¡± Shouted Jack as he grabbed the bottle and opened it.

    As soon as the bottle was opened, a strong sweet smell filled the surroundings.

    ¡°This is going to be good.¡± Jack muttered as he filled all 3 wine glasses.

    6 hours later Jack, Laura and Daniel took the last sips of the leftovers of the wine.

    ¡°And then¡­ and then¡­and I told them you have to merge the three fields if they want to make it work.¡± Jack stuttered after putting the glass back on the table.

    ¡°But¡­but you¡­ you said that they¡­ did something else too.¡± Daniel struggled to speak.

    ¡°Sshh. He¡¯ll get to it eventually.¡± Laura spoke quietly, almost whispering with half closed eyes while leaning her head on Jack¡¯s shoulder.

    Daniel nodded his head and continued to listen to Jack.

    ¡°So I¡­ I¡­ I told them, if you want this to work you either do that or install multiple hosts into different force transfer modules and have different hosts take each different force.¡± Jack continued.

    ¡°That¡¯s brilliant. Amazing Jack I didn¡¯t know you were the one that came up with that method.¡± Daniel praised while his eyes started to close.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go and sleep for a awhile shall we? I think we¡¯re all sleepy from the alcohol.¡± Laura suggested while getting up and dragging Jack and Daniel up from their chairs.

    Pulling both of them into the house she set Jack in his favourite armchair, then turning to Daniel she found him curled up on the fluffy carpet. Laura chuckled and went to sleep on the couch.

    Just 10 minutes after the drunk trio fell asleep, the shockwave passed Earth. Everything it touched simply disintegrated into nothing. Earth had ceased to exist and all life on the planet vanished with it.

 Chapter 2 New Beginning

    Daniel found his consciousness hazy as he woke up. He couldn¡¯t see or hear anything. All he could feel was cold. Not a bone chilling cold of freezing wind or the cold burn or snow touching skin in winter. Just an uncomfortable cold like the one you feel in the morning when you forgot to close the window, and someone pulled the covers off you.

    As his mind came into focus he realised he really couldn¡¯t see or hear anything at all.

    (What the hell is going on here? Again?) Daniel thought as he tried to move, only to realise he couldn¡¯t.

    (What?) he struggled for a few seconds before giving up.

    (Help? Anyone?) realising he can¡¯t move Daniel decided to call for help.

    [Welcome¡­ Initialising Dungeon System¡­10%...40%...70%...100%...Initialization successful¡­Welcome New Dungeon]

    (This looks so weird. Why can I see this screen but nothing else?) thought Daniel as he stared at the words on the screen in front of his eyes.

    [Loading Dungeon System components into New Core]

    A strange sensation ran through Daniel¡¯s mind as unfamiliar information flowed into his head.

    (A different universe? Mana? Magic? Demi-Humans? What the hell is all this?)

    The information flowing into his head made him even more confused.

    (I¡¯m a dungeon? What does that even mean?)

    [Dungeons are precious gems that through the accumulation of mana over an extended period of time have gained a limited amount of sentience and begin to produce floor after floor of rooms with traps and monsters to protect themselves.]

    (Protect? Why would they need to protect themselves?)

    [Dungeon cores are the only known entity in this universe capable of absorbing mana and storing it in a solid state. To become solid, mana needs to be compressed to its limit. Therefore, a thumbnail sized solid mana gem is made of as much mana as 10 max level mages use in their entire life.]

    (That¡¯s¡­ So, I¡¯m now what other races would consider a gold mine?)

    [Not only are the dungeon cores themselves highly sought after, dungeons usually create their rooms, floors, and traps from the best material they can find in their surroundings. This makes ¡®dungeon diving¡¯ the most dangerous but also the most rewarding action for the inhabitants of this universe.]

    (So, what is the best material I have available in the surrounding area, how big can I make the dungeon and how much materials do I have to work with for creating the dungeon?)

    [Initialising Scan¡­ Unable to Scan.]

    (What? Why?)

    [Material surrounding Dungeon Core is impossible to penetrate with Scan spell.]

    (Scan spell? Is there anything else I can do to check my surroundings? I¡¯m starting to get bored of this darkness and science.)

    [Dungeon Vision spell available.]

    (What does it do?)

    [Dungeon Vision allow Dungeon Core¡¯s with a stronger sense of self and sentience to divide a portion of their attention outside of the core and move around their dungeon in a spectre like state.]

    (Let¡¯s do that then.)

    As Daniel used the spell, he felt a portion of his vision split away and move slightly to the side.

    (It¡¯s still dark.)

    [Dungeon Spectre is still underground.]

    (Ooh. Which way is the closest to the outside?)

    [All directions are 13,423 kilometres away from surface.]

    (What the hell? Why so far away?)

    [Dungeon Core is currently at the centre of a planet.]

    (Planet?? How is it so dark here then? Shouldn¡¯t the core be, I don¡¯t know, glowing with heat?)

    [Planet is currently 100 billion years old and has cooled and solidified. The entire planet is one solid ball of matter, core to crust.]

    (Wow. 100 billion, huh?)

    (But wait. 13,423 kilometres? That¡¯s more than twice the size of Earth, isn¡¯t it?)

    [Accessing Universal Database¡­ Planet Earth was 6,371 kilometres core to crust.]

    (Ooh yeah. Was. So, I guess it¡¯s really gone?)

    [Correct. Planet earth was destroyed by an unidentified shock wave traveling through Universe #4.]

    (What number Universe is this?)

    [This is universe #96 out of 100 universes in the Multiverse.]

    (Are there any differences between the Universes? Do the numbers mean anything?)

    [The higher the number the bigger the Universe is and the more mana there is in the Universe.]

    (So, there was mana in my previous Universe?)

    [After Universe #20 the amount of mana is so small that only around 0.00001% of the Universe contains mana.]

    (That¡¯s¡­ not much. So how do I go about creating this dungeon?)

    [Go to the planet¡¯s surface first.]

    (Right.)

    Daniel followed the system message and started traveling through the solid planet to reach the surface.

    After moving for about 13 seconds Daniel was floating above the surface of a dull grey planet.

    The night sky looked different yet similar to the one on Earth. An uncountable number of stars filled the sky.

    (System, you said I could look at my territory, right?)

    [I¡¯m not the system. I¡¯m your bonded Dungeon Fairy.]

    (A what? When did this happen?)

    [As soon as the System was installed and initialised it chose a Dungeon Fairy that was not already bonded with a Dungeon Core to assign to you. I was chosen to be bonded to you.]

    (Where are you right now? And how are you talking to me with these system messages?)

    [I am on a fairly small planet. The system says I¡¯m 2 lightyears away from your current location. As for the messages, when there¡¯s no way for the fairy to physically speak to your core, with yours being buried in the centre of a planet and all, the system provides a way to communicate over long distances.]

    (Ooh. Well, nice to meet you. I¡¯m Daniel, and I appear to be a Dungeon Core as of now.)

    [Hello Daniel. My name is Lilly. I¡¯m your bonded Dungeon Fairy.]

    (So back to my question. Why can I see the surface?)

    [Dungeon Vision allows a core to observe everything within their claimed territory.]

    (So how am I above the planet¡¯s surface?)

    [The entire planet and about 100 kilometres above the surface are included in your territory.]

    (Why?)

    [This planet has been dead for the past 43 million years. It has no inhabitants and no atmosphere. The planet also stopped rotating after the black hole nearby vanished.]

    (Black hole? It sounds to me like this planet shouldn¡¯t exist anymore.)

    [Correct. The planet was formed from the nebula clouds of 3 separate giant stars. The stars were stolen from their solar systems by a black hole passing by. Eventually all 3 stars collided and exploded. However, because of the black hole, the nebulas stayed together and were also being pulled towards the black hole. The 3 nebulas combined into one huge nebula and tried to form a new solar system, but because of the black hole there was never enough pressure at the centre of the nebula to create a new star. So, the nebula did the only other thing it could under the circumstances. All of the space gas and dust collected into one place and formed a solid ball. The core of the ball became hotter and hotter, the remains of the stars shifted and created the planet.]

    (So, this planet is the combination of the nebulas of 3 different nebula clouds?)If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    [Yes. However only the densest and heaviest parts of the nebulas remained in the ball. All the lighter things like most of the gasses were sucked away by the black hole.]

    (How big was the planet when if first formed?)

    [The planet only lost around 20 kilometres of radius due to the fact that the components making up the planet were already heavy and dense.]

    (So, is there any way to check what this planet is made of?)

    [Your current Spectre Form can cast spells, you should be able to scan all the materials down to the core of the planet.]

    (But the system said it couldn¡¯t scan the centre of the core around my Dungeon Core.)

    [What the system said is that the Scan Spell couldn¡¯t pass through the material, making it impossible to Scan what is on the other side of it.]

    (Is that what it meant? That¡¯s one confusing system.)

    [You seem to have adapted pretty well considering most other Reincarnates scream and cry about going home.]

    (I don¡¯t think the shock of the situation has registered with me yet. I may start freaking out later so hold your praise for later.)

    [That may be true. Well, go ahead, I¡¯m kind of excited to find out exactly what that floating ball of galactic treasure is actually made of.]

    (Me too. Here goes nothing. Scan material composition of the planet.)

    [Scanning¡­ *BEEP* Scan complete. Major quantities of following metals found.]

    [Aluminium, Titanium, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Silver, Tungsten, Osmium, Platinum, Gold, Orichalcum, Adimantite, Mithril, Thorium, Divinium, Radium, Starium, Timonium, Tritanite, Vibranite, Promethium, Tartarite, Sunstone, Star Iron, Scarletite, Galvaron Iron, Blightsteel, Bloodmetal, Solarite, Neutralite, Titanite, Obsinite, Neutronium.]

    (Holy Crap! Are you seeing what I¡¯m seeing Lilly?)

    [Unfortunately, no. I can only send and receive messages to and from you. Anything the system tells you or anything you see I cannot.]

    (Well, the Scan just showed me a list of all the metals it found in ¡®major¡¯ quantities. It¡¯s a list of 35 metals and I only know 12 of them.)

    [35? That¡¯s a lot of different metals. What are the ones you know?]

    (Aluminium, Titanium, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Silver, Tungsten, Osmium, Platinum and Gold.)

    [Those are the everyday average metals of most average races. Although, only dwarves know how to turn Titanium, Cobalt, Tungsten, Osmium and Platinum into something usable.]

    (Dwarves are the short guys, right?)

    [Along with Gnomes, Halflings, and Fairies, yes, the ¡®short guys¡¯.]

    (Sorry.)

    [No problem, just remember it for next time.]

    (I will.)

    [So, what are the metals you don¡¯t know?]

    (Right, here¡¯s the list the Scan spell gave me.)

    (Orichalcum, Adimantite, Mithril, Thorium, Divinium, Radium, Starium, Timonium, Tritanite, Vibranite, Promethium, Tartarite, Sunstone, Star Iron, Scarletite, Galvaron Iron, Blightsteel, Bloodmetal, Solarite, Neutralite, Titanite, Obsinite and Neutronium.)

    (So, what do you think?)

    1-minute passes.

    Another minute passes.

    (Hello?)

    5 minutes later.

    [These are definitely on the Scan result list?]

    (Yes. All of them are making up the planet in what the system called major quantities.)

    [You are going to be the Multiverses first indestructible Dungeon.]

    (What? What do you mean?)

    [Neutralite, Neutronium, Solarite, Starium, Sunstone, Star Iron and Divinium are basically completely unknown to the inhabitants of the multiverse save for a few very old and powerful beings who happened to find tiny amounts of Divinium and Star Iron in meteor craters. And even those tiny amounts could only be imbedded into existing equipment. Those metals can only be melted by temperatures that are only possible in the centre of a giant star. Now do you understand? If I¡¯m right, then the core of your planet should be made of Neutralite and Neutronium. What this means is that if those metals were covering the surface of the planet, you could ram the planet into anything in the Multiverse and it would have no chance of surviving. No matter if it was a planet or a star. If the planet had a strong enough gravity, you could probably even survive getting sucked into a black hole and come out without a scratch.]

    (That¡­ sounds terrifying and yet somehow awesome at the same time.)

    [Right? I wish I could see it.]

    (The planet?)

    [Yeah. You have no idea how excited I was when I got a system message saying I was getting bound to a dungeon. Imagine my disappointment when I found out the dungeon I was bound to turned out to be so far away I don¡¯t even know what the distance unit means.]

    (Light years?)

    [Yeah. What does that even mean? Is it a time or a distance?]

    (It¡¯s the distance light would cover if it travelled for a year.)

    [How fast is light?]

    (1.079 trillion kilometres per hour. So, the distance between us is nearly 19 quadrillion kilometres.)

    [I know Dungeons don¡¯t have one, but the lifespan of Fairies is around 400 years. So, unless you can travel 2 lightyears in less than 340 years, I will die before you get here.]

    (Couldn¡¯t one of us¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­ like teleport to the other?)

    [Do you know of a spell that can transport planets 19 quadrillion kilometres? Because I don¡¯t.]

    (How about you teleporting to me instead?)

    [Teleportation doesn¡¯t work like that. You can¡¯t just pick a direction and teleport ¡®a million kilometres that way.¡¯ You either have to have specific coordinates, which only work on the surface of planets, or have been to that place before.]

    (Then all I have to do is turn the planet into a space ship and create a warp drive big and strong enough to allow the planet to travel faster than light!)

    Daniel got really fired up. He spent over a hundred years studying everything earth had to offer when it came to technology after all! Turning a planet into a ship and building FTL drives was nothing for him! Or so he thought. But reality was different.

    [Do you even know how to do that?]

    (Of course I do. I learned how to build FTL drives and even helped build an entire star ship.)

    [No. I mean do you know how to manipulate your territory and the things in it?]

    (That¡¯s a Dungeon thing, isn¡¯t it?)

    [Yes. Every Dungeon creates rooms, floors, and traps by manipulating its territory and the materials that happen to be in it.]

    (Wait¡­doesn¡¯t) [that mean¡­] ([I/You]) (should be able¡­) [to manipulate¡­] ([The Entire PLANET!])

    [Yes. Yes, it does. It means exactly that.]

    (The entire planet is my territory. I can manipulate everything in the entire planet.)

    [Could you? Could you really do it?]

    (I know how to make the individual parts and how to put them together. The only problem is figuring out how to manipulate each metal individually and then getting each part to come out perfectly. I would have to spend some time getting used to the manipulation, then try making something smaller with it first. And then practice until I can make all the parts I need.)

    Daniel and Lilly got very excited, both for different reasons. Lilly, because she had finally been bonded to a Dungeon Core and it seemed to be a very smart and unbelievably lucky one at that. Daniel, because he got to learn new things.

    (Lilly, I promise you, I will get to you. I will get to you on time if it¡¯s the last thing I do. Let me just figure things out and practice for a while. I will get there as soon as I can.)

    [I will wait as long as it takes. I just hope you really do make it in time.]

    (I¡¯ll try my best. I just need some time to be able to use the manipulation to make the parts I need.)

    [What are you waiting for then? Get going. Do what you have to do to get here.]

    Daniel started checking the System for anything useful.

    [Dungeon Statistics]

    [Dungeon Options]

    [Dungeon Spells]

    (Let¡¯s check the Statistics first.) thought Daniel while selecting the Statistics tab.

    [Dungeon Core Durability: 100%, Mana: (Error: Increasing too fast to give accurate answer), Dungeon Rooms: 0, Safe Rooms: 0, Dungeon Floors: 0, Traps: 0, Monsters: 0, Animals: 0, Evolved monsters: 0, Evolved animals: 0, Mutated monsters: 0, Mutated animals: 0, Named Monsters: 0, Floor Bosses: 0, Dungeon Bosses: 0, Plant life: 0, Bound Dungeon Fairy: 1/1]

    (No floors or rooms. I guess that means there are no natural caves?)

    [Dungeons cannot claim: Natural caves, Other Dungeon¡¯s territory (unless the previous owner of the territory is destroyed), Another creature¡¯s territory.]

    (Makes sense. How about Options?)

    [Create: Floor, Room/Safe Room, Corridor, Trap, Monster, Weapon, Armour, Accessory, Magic Item, Gate, Miscellaneous Items. Move: Floor, Room/Safe Room, Corridor, Trap, Sub-Dungeon Core. Mutate: Monster, Animal, Plant. Evolve: Monster, Animal, Plant, Dominate Animal]

    (Dungeons can create monsters but not animals?)

    [Monsters are different from animals. Animals are born natural as offspring, while monsters are made from mana. In areas with a high concentration of mana, the mana sometimes condenses into a Mana Core. The Mana Core then Absorbs more of the surrounding mana to create a suitable body for itself.]

    (So, a Mana Core is a monster¡¯s¡­ what? Heart? Brain? Both?)

    [A Mana Core is the puppeteer while the body is the puppet. As long as the Mana Core is in contact with the body, the body will continue to fight. That is also the reason why all sentient races hate monsters. They are hard to deal with and very persistent. Some monsters have a Mana Core in their head, making them easy to deal with and profit from. Just decapitate it and dig the Core out. There, easy money. However, in most monsters, the core is around the chest or stomach area. Those are not so easy to deal with. Cut off its head and it will use its limbs. Cut of the limbs and it will try to use its body to hit you. Very annoying to deal with and in most cases the quickest way to deal with them is to destroy the Core. That means you get nothing but tired. Destroy the Core and the monster dies instantly, but you get no money.]

    (What about the monster¡¯s body? Wouldn¡¯t it have harvestable materials that you could sell?)

    [As soon as the Core is removed or destroyed the body turns back into mana, literally vanishing into thin air.]

    (That¡¯s¡­ inconvenient.)

    [Indeed. That¡¯s why Dungeons can create items for the Adventurers to find. If the Adventurers find items they want or need they are less likely to destroy the Dungeon Core even if they reach it. Some kingdoms go as far as to send teams to clear Dungeons all the way to the Core and either threaten it or make a contract with it to get the materials they need.]

    (What kind of items can Dungeons make?)

    [Anything it has seen before. When an Adventurer dies in a Dungeon, the Dungeon absorbs the mana in the body, the body itself and all items the body had on it when it died unless someone else picked something up. The Dungeon then looks at the items it absorbed and recreates them to put into treasure chests along the way.]

    (Doesn¡¯t that mean I could create entire generators and buildings?)

    [Unfortunately, no. The Dungeon System is incapable of creating complicated structures and items.]

    (Could I make each individual part and put them together?)

    [The only way to find out is to try.]

    (I¡¯ll try making parts for a Plasma Pulse Engine first.)

    [Whatever one of those is, will it help you get here?]

    (If I have enough, or one big enough I could move the whole planet through space. That would be the first step of getting to you.)

    [Great! Try it then.]

    Daniel chose the miscellaneous items tab, only to be greeted by an empty table.

    (There¡¯s nothing here.)

    [What did you do?]

    (I selected the miscellaneous items tab to see if I could make parts for the engine. But the tab is empty.)

    [The miscellaneous tab is for items that the Dungeon has absorbed that don¡¯t fit into one of the other categories. All of the creation tabs will be empty for you, you haven¡¯t absorbed anything yet.]

    (But I know how to make all the parts.)

    [Close the tab and concentrate your mind on each part. Imagine touching them and turning them in your hands. See what they are made from and how they are shaped. If your imagination is clear enough the system should pick up on it and allow you to see them in the tabs they fit into.]

    (Ok. I¡¯ll try. Give me a minute.)

    Daniel began concentrating on his memories. Especially the ones of him building the engine in his garage. Remembering the shape, weight, feel and materials for each piece. Like an old projector flickering to life, the scenes from his memories started playing in his head. Like a part by part guide, each part, one after the other were put into place. Connected and fitted perfectly to each other.

    Just like that the system beeped into action, recording each part, and sorting them into the tab they fit into the most.

    After an hour of going over the memories to make sure each part was as perfect as it could be, Daniel looked back at the creation tab.

    [132 new items added to creation tabs. 4 new items in weapons tab. 6 new items in armour tab. 122 new items in miscellaneous tab.]

    (Weapons and armour? What?) Daniel thought slightly confused and worried, wondering if he made a mistake.

    [Creation: Weapons: Cobalt wand, Cobalt staff, Tungsten wand, Tungsten staff.]

    (Those count as wands and staffs? Well, whatever, as long as they are there.) Daniel was relieved to see that it was just the System using strange criteria to sort the items.

    [Creation: Armour: Cobalt helmet, Cobalt tower shield, Cobalt buckler, Tungsten helmet, Tungsten tower shield, Tungsten buckler.]

    (Helmets, tower shields and bucklers? I¡¯m guessing those would be the housings and cover plates. Looks like all the rest is in the miscellaneous tab. Good, this should be easy now.) Daniel thought to himself with a mental nod of the head.

    Daniel then used the Creation menu to create each part one after the other on the planet surface.

 Chapter 3 First Success (Edit)

    (I have to admit. Watching the parts seemingly grow out of the surface is really cool.)

    [Have you finished? Already?]

    (Yeah, I have all the parts ready. Why? How long did I take?)

    [No more than an hour I think. That¡¯s right, I forgot to ask. How much mana do you have?]

    (The System says my mana is increasing too fast to give an answer.)

    [Go figures. With a territory the size of a planet, it¡¯s not that surprising.]

    (I have all the parts I need but¡­ how do I put them together?)

    [Every Dungeon can freely manipulate everything it creates. Just imagine picking it up and putting it where you want it. It should move by itself.]

    Daniel looked at the engine parts scattered around him, thinking of the memory of building the engine. To his surprise, all the pieces raised slightly off the ground and started fitting together. One piece floated into another. All the pieces assembled themselves as if they had a mind of their own and after no more than a minute the engine was complete, sitting on the ground in front of Daniel.

    (That was cool. Like watching an animated instruction video. I do wonder if it will work though?)

    [I have no idea what you just made but if you don¡¯t try it you will never find out, will you?]

    (Your right, but. I didn¡¯t think about it before, but this thing needs fuel to work. More specifically, it needs plasma, I have no idea how to get that without the machines we had at the lab.)

    [What is this plasma thing made of?]

    (Anything really. The denser the material, the less you need for larger amounts of plasma.)

    [So, how did the machines make it?]

    (One machine would pump a gas into the space where a forcefield will be created. Then the forcefield generator is turned on to trap the gas inside. Lastly, the forcefield would be moved into the reaction chamber of a fusion reactor built specifically to produce a steady stream of energy. The gas would be forced into the energy stream and kept there until it absorbed enough energy to turn into plasma.)

    [And in a language I can understand?]

    (Plasma is a gas so hot it stops being a gas and turns into plasma.)

    [That¡¯s better. So, this plasma is just really hot gas, right? Then all you have to do is make some gas and heat it until it turns into plasma, yes?]

    (But, how do I heat things up? First, I would have to melt a bit of metal until it melts. Then, I would have to make it even hotter while increasing the pressure, to turn the metal into a gas. Then I would have to increase the heat to even more ridiculous levels to turn the gas into plasma.)

    [What levels of temperature are we talking about here?]

    (Ooh, I don¡¯t know. Something around, maybe, the surface of a medium sized star?)

    [That¡­ is a very high temperature. How are you even supposed to hold that stuff to use it?]

    (The plasma itself isn¡¯t that hot. It just needs that kind of temperature to create.)

    [That sounds more reasonable.]

    (Usually, ¡®cold¡¯ plasma doesn¡¯t even reach 10,000 C.)

    [That¡¯s still a lot, but nowhere near the surface of a star.]

    (That still doesn¡¯t answer the question of how I¡¯m going to heat the metal.)

    [Easy. Use mana.]

    (How is that even an answer? I only have more questions now.)

    [What questions?]

    (How do I use mana? How do I use mana to heat up the metal? How do I use mana to create pressure?]

    [Think of mana as water that responds to your thoughts. Just like water in an ocean, the deeper you go the more pressure there is. So, the more mana you pack into one place, the greater the pressure at the centre. As for the heat? Just think of the mana heating up. The more you concentrate on a specific temperature, the more the mana will try to get to that temperature. But, of course, just like using a spell, the higher the temperature, the more mana will be needed. The mana will burn itself to produce heat, meaning that if you don¡¯t continuously supply the area with mana all the mana in the area will burn and disappear.]

    (That easy?)

    [That easy.]

    (Magic is¡­ a little disappointing.)

    [Ooh no. That doesn¡¯t count as magic. Only Dungeon Cores can do that. It¡¯s called Direct Mana Manipulation.]

    (Another thing unique to Dungeon Cores?)

    [Indeed. Along with control over time and the ability to freely move rooms and items in their territory, Dungeons have 4 unique abilities.]

    (Control over time?)

    [Dungeons can control the time inside their territory to a certain extent. They can make it so that time doesn¡¯t pass, you go in complete the dungeon and come out, seemingly a second later. Or, you do what a few Dungeons like to do to respond to threats. They get rid of their entire dungeon, replacing it with a single long hallway. The Dungeon Core is made clearly visible at the end of the tunnel to attract people, make them more likely to run in without thinking. The time in the tunnel is accelerated to the point of a few seconds being turned into a hundred years. Anything that steps into the tunnel will most likely die on the spot, even the races with lifespans of a few hundred years will have no chance of surviving the trip. The tunnels are usually made with even those races in mind, being long enough to kill even those with lifespans surpassing the 10,000 mark.]

    (Is there anything Dungeon Cores can¡¯t do? All these unique abilities and all sound a bit too good to not have any drawbacks.)

    [Of course there are drawbacks to being a Dungeon Core. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that the entire planet counts as your territory, you wouldn¡¯t be able to be on the surface. Plus, there are a load of restrictions placed on regular Cores. Like the fact that they can¡¯t block off their core completely. There has to be a way of reaching the Core. Also, Cores are restricted in what they can do while intruders are in the Dungeon. They can¡¯t move rooms or traps when intruders are too close to them. They also can¡¯t create monsters or evolve or mutate animals and monsters while intruders are in the Dungeon. Floor bosses and Dungeon Bosses can¡¯t be assigned or created, and monsters can¡¯t undergo the naming ceremony while intruders are in the Dungeon.]

    (Intruders sure are a pain to Dungeons, aren¡¯t they?)

    [Dungeons are supposed to prepare everything before creating an entrance.]

    (What¡¯s this about creating an entrance?)

    [Dungeons don¡¯t start with an entrance. The entrance is created by the Core when it feels ready or if there¡¯s something it really needs on the surface.]

    (What could a Dungeon need from the outside?)

    [Plants and animals. For a Dungeon, the only way to get plants and animals is from the outside.]

    (Right, Dungeons can¡¯t make them.)

    [You should probably try making some plasma now.]

    (Sorry, I got distracted again. So, what, do I just tell the mana what to do?)

    [Yes, you are a Dungeon.]

    (Right.)

    Daniel thought about a piece of iron, around the size of a fist, separating from the planet. Just like promised a small chunk of the planet¡¯s surface chipped off and floated towards him. Next, thinking of the image of glowing, melted metal, Daniel surrounded the iron with mana. Feeling the mana disappear, Daniel remembered that he had to continuously supply the area with mana to keep the heat going. Pointing an imaginary finger, Daniel began sending a small stream of mana towards the iron while imagining the molten iron from his past life.

    Just like that, the iron began to heat up going from a dirty grey to a glowing red. From red, the iron began turning lighter and lighter until it became white. The white lump of iron began to distort, turning gooey before Daniel¡¯s eyes.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Sending a huge amount of mana to surround the iron, Daniel began increasing the temperature. Imagining the surface of the sun, Daniel raised both of his imaginary arms, opening both hands towards the iron, he sent as much mana as he could into the ball of mana surrounding the iron.

    Next second, with a huge flash, a red ball of plasma floated peacefully, basking in the heat given off by the mana.

    (It seems to have gone well.)

    [Did you manage to melt the metal?]

    (Actually, I already have some plasma here.)

    [So fast? I thought you said there were a lot of things that needed to happen in a specific order to get plasma.]

    (Well, I thought of getting a piece of iron and one just floated off of the surface towards me. Then, I sent mana to surround it. After that I imagined the mana heating the iron until it melted. After it melted I just surrounded it with a huge ball of mana and sent as much mana as I could while imagining the surface of a star.)

    [As much as you could, you say? So, what happened after that?]

    (A bright flash and a ball of plasma where the molten iron used to be.)

    [A little disappointing.]

    (What did you think was going to happen?)

    [At least an explosion. When a lot of mana is packed close together it tends to be a little on the explosive side.]

    (Really? It didn¡¯t feel unstable or feel like it was about to explode.)

    [Must have been because you were using it too quickly. I imagine producing temperatures close to star¡¯s surface takes quite the amount.]

    (Probably?)

    [Probably? You didn¡¯t feel like it was using a lot?]

    (No? I don¡¯t think so. I didn¡¯t really feel anything.)

    [You have a terrifying amount of mana.]

    (Probably.)

    [Does the engine work?]

    (Haven¡¯t tried it yet. Give me a minute, I¡¯ll see if it works.)

    Daniel removed the mana around the plasma and manipulated the plasma to move towards the engine. Once he got to the engine however, Daniel discovered another problem.

    (How do I open the fuel hatch?)

    [The what now?]

    (It¡¯s a small cover you turn to open. Behind that is the fuel rod, into which the plasma is supposed to be.)

    [Well, it¡¯s in your territory so you should just be able to tell it to open.]

    Daniel looked at the hatch and told it to open. Like magic, the handle slowly turned, and the hatch popped open. The fuel rod slowly slid out of the engine and floated next to the plasma ball in front of Daniel.

    (That was easy.)

    [Most things are for Dungeons.]

    Ordering the cap of the fuel rod to open, Daniel carefully filled it with plasma. Next, making a small hill rise out of the surface, Daniel pushed the engine against the hill and ordered it to start.

    With a groan and a big red flash, the engine sprouted a glowing red tail. The metal floor around the flaming tail started melting at an alarming rate so Daniel quickly ordered the engine to turn off.

    (Looks like it works.)

    [Did you manage to move the planet?]

    (I only built a tiny one to check if it would even work. Now, since I know it does work and that I can easily make plasma to fuel it, I will make one big enough to move the planet. Once that¡¯s done, I¡¯ll start making the warp drive. Although, I have no idea how long it will take to make that.)

    [Good luck. I hope it works.]

    (Me too, Lilly. Me too.)

    Looking at the creation tab again, Daniel concentrated on making a giant version of every part. Soon, Daniel was surrounded by a floating mess of huge engine parts. Willing all the parts to assemble into an engine, he watched the behemoth of an engine form and realised he would need a lot of plasma for this one.

    Taking a solid chunk of iron, the size of a small van, Daniel started melting it in a ball of mana. After around 10 minutes, all the iron melted, and Daniel sent a huge ball of mana he had formed earlier to engulf the iron. Once again, sending as much mana as he could, he imagined the surface of the sun and waited for the expected flash. Seconds after the flash, all the molten iron was replaced with plasma.

    The newly finished engine opened up and spat out its fuel rod, waiting for it to be filled with plasma. Daniel waited a while, letting the plasma to cool down before filling the fuel rod. The engine swallowed the fuel rod before Daniel ordered it to flip so that it was facing the sky. He wanted to test if the new engine could move the planet.

    The engine started with a rumble and a shake. A huge column of red burst out of the engine, shaking the ground. As the engine heated up and produced power closer and closer to its limit, the ground around the engine started deforming. After a few seconds the engine¡¯s output was so high that the softer metals on the surface couldn¡¯t support it anymore. The metals started to be pushed and squeezed out of the way from under the engine. Another 10 seconds later the engine had sunk itself in a crater of metal. Daniel had to force the metal to move away to save the engine from being flooded with molten metal. The entire planet shook slightly when the engine reached a layer of metal that could support it. The layer of cobalt, tungsten and titanium was sturdy enough to stop the engine from moving.

    Looking up, Daniel noticed the stars in the sky moving. The engine managed to shift the planet. Although very slowly, the planet was now moving.

    (I Did It!)

    [Really? It Worked?]

    (Yeah, the huge engine managed to push the planet. Although very slowly, the planet is moving.)

    [That¡¯s great. We may even be able to see each other someday soon.]

    (I hope so. I¡¯ve never seen a real Fairy before. I want to see my own personal Fairy at least once.)

    [Ooh, I¡¯m your personal Fairy now, am I? We haven¡¯t even met yet and I¡¯m already a personal Fairy.]

    (Of course. You were bound to me by the System, so I have to take care of you.)

    [I¡¯m supposed to be the one taking care of you.]

    (Doesn¡¯t matter.)

    [Fair enough.]

    After the conversation with Lilly, Daniel looked at the engine.

    Buried 511 kilometres into the planet, reaching the start of the second layer of the planet, the engine steadily pumped out a huge column of bright red exhaust plasma. From the surface, it looked as if the planet had sprouted an enormous red tree without branches or leaves.

    Somehow, with a bit of help from magically created plasma, the engine had managed to kick itself into permanent overdrive and muscled its way through pushing a planet.

    (Lilly, is there a way for you to show me which direction I should be going to get to you? Right now, the planet is moving in a random direction and I have no idea which direction I need to go to get to you.)

    After a few seconds, a faint feeling rose in the back of Daniel¡¯s mind. Looking to his lower right, almost as if he could see through the planet, Daniel saw a blinking green light.

    [That should show you where I am with an indicator that is the easiest for you to recognise.]

    (A blinking green light just showed up along with a feeling for the general direction.)

    [That is what your mind decided is the best form of indicator for you. It¡¯s different for everyone.]

    (Sounds good. I¡¯ll start heading in your direction while making more engines to speed it up and work on an FTL drive after I get to a satisfactory speed.)

    [I¡¯ll just be down here. Waiting. Hoping.]

    (Don¡¯t worry Lilly. I¡¯ll get there sooner than you think. And when I do, you¡¯ll see how amazing this thing is.)

    [I hope so.]

    (I know so.)

    [I like your confidence. It¡¯s contagious.]

    (Good. It should be.)

    Daniel spent the next indeterminate amount of time creating more engines and dotting them around the planet to form a rudimentary steering system.

    Finally, having installed all remaining 5 engines, Daniel contacted Lilly.

    (How long has it been?)

    [System clock says 738 hours.]

    (So, around a months¡¯ worth of day-night cycles from earth. That took longer than expected.)

    [What were you doing?]

    (I was creating more engines and putting them in specific places to allow me to steer the planet towards your direction. Right now, the planet is slowly moving towards you.)

    [Good to hear.]

    (I¡¯ll focus on speeding it up now.)

    [Do what you need to. I already told you, I will wait as long as it takes you.]

    (I know. I just¡­ wanted to keep you updated on the situation.)

    [Thank you, Daniel.]

    (You¡¯re welcome Lilly.)

    The next period of 6 months¡¯ worth of day-night cycles from earth saw Daniel crazily increasing the speed of the planet¡¯s movement. Adding 40 extra engines around the original one provided the planet with enough thrust to see the sky noticeably moving.

    (With as much mass as the planet has this is as fast as it will get. No matter how many more engines I add, the speed will not change.)

    [Is that a bad thing?]

    (Not really. It¡¯s already moving at a very fast speed considering its size and mass. Luckily, the mass also works in my favour. The larger the object you want to move using the FTL drive is, the more mass it needs. There is a minimum mass requirement but no mass limit. Meaning that when I want to move the planet through one of the sub-space tunnels created by the FTL drive, I will have a much easier time entering one as well as a massively increased max speed through the tunnel thanks to the momentum of the planet.)

    [There are a lot of things I did not understand in that explanation, but it sounds good and you sound like you know what you are doing so it¡¯s all good.]

    (Basically, as long as I make a FTL drive strong enough to move the planet, I will be there faster than I originally thought.)

    [Better. Sound good. Now just more waiting for me.]

    (Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make it as fast as I can.)

    [Don¡¯t do that. Don¡¯t rush it. If what I understand from your words is correct, then your technology is similar to the dimensional corridor spell. The spell is a very high-level Space-Time spell and any mistakes have catastrophically fatal consequences. So please. Just be careful. Not fast. Careful.]

    (I understand. I will be careful. I¡¯ll see you soon.)

    [Good.]

    The next few days, Daniel spent visualising the FTL drive he wanted to make. The latest, most advanced FTL drive Earth could come up with. Having built one in his time as a student on Earth, Daniel had no problem recreating the technological masterpiece on his planet.

    After a few tests, some changes to materials and a resize, the FTL drive was ready to go.

    (I¡¯m ready to use the FTL Drive. I¡¯m not sure if this system message thing will work in the sub-space tunnel so I¡¯m saying see you soon now just in case.)

    [Just be careful, I don¡¯t want to see a system message saying I am no longer bound to a dungeon because it died.]

    (Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be careful.)

    [Every time you say ¡®Don¡¯t worry¡¯ you do something crazy. Now I¡¯m really worried.]

    (That¡¯s just mean. It¡¯s not every time.)

    [Just most.]

    (No, it isn¡¯t.)

    [Yes, it is, and you should be on your way here not getting sidetracked again.]

    (Sorry.)

    [Don¡¯t be. I¡¯m waiting for you to come get me.]

    (I¡¯ll be there sooner than you think.)

    Willing the FTL drive to work, the planet slightly shook and entered a sub-space corridor. For an onlooker, it would look like the planet popped like a bubble after touching a barely visible crack in space.

 Chapter 4 Trouble (and Solution)

    [Lilly belongs to the race of Dungeon Fairies. The race consists of both males and females in a near equal ration and are born around the same time as a Dungeon. The Dungeon Fairy race differs from other Fairy types by the size and magic they are able to use. Other Fairies vary in size, between 10 and 20 centimetres. Dungeon Fairies can grow as large as 30 centimetres. While other Fairy types are mostly restricted to nature magic similar to what a Druid would use, including but not limited to growing plants, aiding in plant growth and communicating with plants and animals, Dungeon Fairies can use magic usually associated with the more violent sentient races like demons since they are capable of using destructive magic like Fireball, Lightning Bolt and other potentially lethal Spells depending on their bonded Dungeon. The types, variety and power of the Fairy¡¯s Spells depends on the Dungeon as the Fairy lacks the necessary Mana to cast any of the Spells. The Mana for the spells being supplied by the Dungeon Core as the Core itself is unable to use conventional magic.

    Dungeon Fairies typically live between 100 to 1000 years depending on the parents and environment of their bonded Dungeon. Dungeon Fairies are usually born in the vicinity of the new Dungeon and are alerted by the System when the Dungeon is self-aware and mature enough to undergo the binding. At this time the System binds both parties and allows the two to talk through the System messages in case the Dungeon is not ready to open yet. Once a Dungeon creates an entrance, no matter how small, it must open it large enough for a human to get in and out. As the Dungeon is usually not yet ready to open right after the binding, the System messages are used very extensively by nearly all Dungeon and Fairy duos.]

    Daniel had read through the last of the system messages as he told himself it would not take him anywhere near that long to get to where he needs to get.

    (Don¡¯t worry Lilly, I¡¯ll be there soon.) Daniel whispered to himself as the planet zipped along the subspace corridor.

    Meanwhile, on the surface of a planet, similar in size to Earth, Lilly lay on a bed of flowers, looking at a System screen showing the approximate location of the rapidly moving Dungeon Core.

    [Dungeon Core ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival): 195 Hours]

    ¡°I wonder if the thing looks as impressive in reality as it sounds from the System description.¡± Sighed Lilly.

    [An ancient planet made of the remains of 3 suns. Made up of exclusively heavy metals, the entire planet is a solid ball of matter. The planet was created as a result of a black hole traveling through the universe. The black hole snatched 3 super massive stars from their place, destroying 3 entire solar systems in the process. The 3 suns collided near the centre of the black hole, causing all 3 to go supernova at the same time. The resulting explosion destabilised the black hole. While destabilised, the black hole did not immediately disappear. Instead it slowly collected the nebulas created by the suns explosions into a single point near the centre. The 3 nebula clouds, made of nearly all known elements in the universe, collected in a single point and were compressed by the still powerful, yet weakening gravitational field of the destabilised black hole. This created the solid ball of matter that the ¡®planet¡¯ currently is.]

    [Over time, the black hole vanished, leaving the lone planet out in the vast reaches of space, with nothing but the distant stars as company. As the planet floated aimlessly across the vastness of space for nearly 100 billion years, it cooled and solidified from the core out, leaving it a solid, seamless, perfect sphere. Eventually, the lighter elements that would usually form liquids and gasses left the planet as it did not spin on any axis, causing it to generate significantly less gravitational force that a spinning planet a third of its mass would. This eventually lead to the planet being left with nothing but the heavy, metallic elements. These had already cooled and solidified, forming progressively softer layers. In the beginning, the planet was a floating mass of liquid metals arranged in layers from the heaviest at the centre to the lightest at the outermost layer, surrounded by a cloud of various other elements created by the supernovas.]

    [As the metals began to cool and solidify, due to the density of the materials making up the massive ball, the centremost point of the planet, made of the densest and heaviest metals, experienced some of the greatest pleasures and temperatures ever. This lead to the forming of a crystal-like substance. This crystal-like substance, made of the same atoms as the densest metal available, became the Dungeon Core. The Crystal, although theoretically possible, should never have been formed. The material and circumstances needed to create the Crystal are so precise and exact, that under any other circumstances all that would have formed would be a supper dense, superheated plasma which would have eventually melted the metal around it again creating more of itself, eventually leading to the creation of a new supper enormous star.]

    [With the Crystal being made of a combination of Neutralite and Neutronium atoms, a combination never seen before in the Multiverse, it is a completely new and unique existence in the entire multiverse. Never before has there been any circumstances that would allow these two metals to fuse, let alone undergo such pressure that the atomic makeup would shift to that of a crystal lattice creating the unique Crystal. Combining the strengths of both metals and making up for some of the weaknesses by changing the atomic structure to a lattice creates an almost indestructible Crystal. The only possibility of breaking the Crystal would be a collision with an exact duplicate of the Crystal traveling at light speed.]

    Looking at the System screen, Lilly sighed. The description and history of the planet and Core sounded amazing. However the small 2D image of a shiny, slick, perfect circle left a lot to be desired.

    Meanwhile, elsewhere in the galaxy.

    In a small, concrete room.

    A pair of men sat. One young, one old. The younger in front of a pair of monitors, and the older behind the younger one in a large chair smoking a cigar.

    ¡°Sir! Detecting a massive, and I mean absolutely enormous, object in FTL travel near a pair of probes in sector A!¡± shouted the young-looking man, in a neat military style outfit, over his shoulder while looking closely at a screen in front of him.

    ¡°Which probes?¡± asked the greying, bearded old man wearing a military style suit decorated with numerous medals.

    ¡°Probe 2and 7, Sir!¡± shouted the young man.

    ¡°Hmm. I see. Can you get me a reading on the estimated size?¡± asked the older man while stroking his beard.

    ¡°I can try, Sir. But I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything I can compare it to accept a planet, Sir. The thing is around 3 times the size of our planet, Sir.¡± Answered the young man absentmindedly while staring at the screen.

    ¡°What!?¡± the older man ran up to the screen, looking over the young man¡¯s shoulder at the displayed information.

    On the screen, an indistinct, round, grey outline surrounded by blue specs was shown, next to a projection of a small planet, only about a third of the size of the object.

    ¡°How in the hell is something that big moving that fast?¡± the older man asked while scratching his chin through his beard.

    The younger man tapped away at the keyboard next to him for a few seconds, prompting the second screen to show a table of information gathered through the probe.

    ¡°The object is moving at nearly 9.5 times the speed of light, which means that whatever it was, it was in one hell of a hurry and is long gone. It passed through the detection range of 2 probes in sector A1, probes 2 and 7, right on the edge of the detection network. Probe readings show an unknown energy signature covering the entire object as well as what I can only assume are engines on the rear of the object, propelling the entire thing forward.¡± Explained the younger man in amazement.

    ¡°9.5 times, light, speed. Amazing. To think that something so huge could move so fast. Any ideas on the energy shell? Some kind of shield?¡± asked the older man, intrigued by the display.

    ¡°Not using any form of FTL travel I ever heard of, Sir. Could be some kind of protection or maybe it acts like a sort of isolation shield to cut the craft away from the surrounding space to allow it to move faster, Sir? I honestly couldn¡¯t tell you, Sir. Never seen anything like it, Sir.¡± The younger man replied.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Send the data to the techies and the system defence sector, see if they can¡¯t figure something out. Also, inform system defence that it is in fact long gone. Don¡¯t want to have to explain any false alarms and search parties for something that¡¯s no longer in system.¡± The older man grunted before heading back to sit in his large chair. Pulling another cigar out of the inside pocket, the older man rolled it between his fingers in deep thought.

    Lilly side ¨C 7-day time skip ¨C

    Looking at the system screen for the 4 time today, Lilly sighed.

    [Dungeon Core ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival): 26 Hours]

    ¡°I wish he was here already.¡± Sighed Lilly.

    ¡°You have to be patient. The system tells you how long you have to wait. You waited a week, what¡¯s one more day?¡± came a voice from the doorway to Lilly¡¯s bedroom.

    ¡°I know, Mum. But still. I just wish that I didn¡¯t have to wait the extra day.¡± Answered Lilly, rolling off her bed and walking towards the voice.

    Lilly herself was only 11 centimetres tall due to not having absorbed sufficient (any at all) amounts of Mana from her Bonded Dungeon Core. Her mother, being already Bonded to a Dungeon, albeit a very small one, had grown slightly larger, standing at 12.5 centimetres.

    Unbound Dungeon Fairies, and those waiting for their bonded Dungeon to open, live in small burrows they create with their, still limited, Earth Magic.

    The burrow Lilly made for herself was incredibly small, even for a temporary shelter. A single bedroom, a small storage room and a ¡®meeting room¡¯ of sorts where she could let visitors sit at the small table made of intertwined roots.

    There, in the meeting room, at the table on a chair made of roots, sat a Fairy who looked like a slightly older version of Lilly.

    Having spent a few days together the pair knew they would most likely not see each other again. Bonded Dungeon Fairies rarely left their Dungeons, and when they did, it would be for occasions like this. Farewells and birthdays being the most common reason to leave. In Lilly¡¯s mother¡¯s case, both. Lillie¡¯s 61<sup>st</sup> Birthday had just passed 2 days ago and now she was about to leave to her Bonded Dungeon. As the waiting time on the System clock had turned to less than a day, Lilly¡¯s mother decided it time to leave, to let Lilly pack her belongings and get ready to leave.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine, Mum. Just be careful on your way back. I heard there have been hunters in this section of the planes recently.¡± Lilly hugged her mother who was on her way out.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I know what I¡¯m doing. The likes of them will never find or catch me.¡± Lilly¡¯s mother hugged her back and patted her on the head.

    Right as the pair left the small burrow through the tunnel at the end of the meeting room, a loud shouting could be heard from the left.

    ¡°I Fucking Told You. I Told You? I Told You!¡± Male 1

    ¡°For Fuck Sake! Shut The Fuck Up! I Get It! You Were Right!¡± Female

    ¡°Shut Your Trap And Get Going! They Aren¡¯t Going To Catch Themselves, Are They?!¡± Male 2

    ¡°Sure Thing Boss!¡± Male 1

    A trio of humans, dressed in leather armour and carrying nets, small cages and lengths of rope ran towards the Fairy pair.

    ¡°Shit! Hunters! Run!¡± Lilly¡¯s mother shouted pushing Lilly back into the tunnel just before the net thrown by one of the humans fell over her.

    ¡°Mum! No!¡± Lilly tumbled down the sloped tunnel, unable to stop herself until she reached the end.

    ¡°Got One! The Other One Went Under! We¡¯ll Never Find Her!¡± Muffled Male 1

    ¡°Shit! Fine! One Is Enough Anyway!¡± Muffled Male 2

    ¡°Mother!¡± Lilly Shouted, running back up the tunnel in a panic.

    Running to the entrance of the tunnel, time seemed to slow to a crawl as a large pair of hands filled up Lilly¡¯s vision.

    The only thing she could think of, on the spot, in the sudden, dangerous situation was a System message to Daniel.

    [HELP]

    As time resumed normal pace, the large pair of hands clamped around Lilly.

    ¡°You thought you were safe cos you hid for a minute? Thought we would just leave? Stupid. But that¡¯s good for us.¡± Male 1

    ¡°Good job spotting the hole in the ground.¡± Female

    ¡°And good idea with those gloves covered in tranquilising venom.¡± Male 2

    ¡°I told you it wasn¡¯t my first time doing this Hunter business.¡± Male 1

    ¡°Alright you two. We got what we came here for. Let¡¯s get back to camp, then we can head to the city in the morning to sell them.¡± Male 2

    ¡°Sure thing, Boss.¡± Male1

    ¡°Got it.¡± Female

    Moments later, the sky started becoming dimmer and dimmer. A purple, shimmering sheet covered the sky as far as the eye could see. Every city, town, village and their inhabitants on the light side of the planet witnessed the sky being blanketed by a shimmering purple haze.

    Like a furious God, a deep, mechanized voice shook the planet.

    ¡°YOU HAVE TAKEN AND HARMED WHAT IS MINE!¡±

    [Acquiring Targets]

    From above the purple haze, 3 powerful targeting lasers shined onto the tops of the trio¡¯s heads.

    [Targets Locked]

    [Charging Weapons]

    [Weapons charged]

    [Weapons ready to fire]

    ¡°AND FOR THAT, YOU WILL PAY!¡±

    [Firing 3, secondary, Anti-Fighter Craft laser cannons at 1% output]

    Moments after the voice, 3 crackling beams of scorching, bright white energy fell from the sky. The beams, a little less than 12 centimetres thick, fell exactly, dead centre of the Hunters bodies. Burning a hole, clean through the entire body, without so much as a scratch to the outside equipment.

    In the dimed light caused by the newly arrived obstruction to the sun, the 3 laser cannon blasts looked like thunderbolts striking down from above the clouds. The flashes could be seen from almost half way around the planet due to the lack of sunlight.

    [Aligning Space Elevator equipment to planet]

    [4]

    [3]

    [2]

    [1]

    [Space Elevator equipment ready]

    [Firing Space Elevator Anchors]

    Boom, Boom, Boom. 3 impact sounds rang out.

    3 huge arrow head shamed objects attached to metal cables fell from the sky in a triangular pattern, digging into the ground. Soon after, a long column of separate metal rings slid down, attached to the metal cables for guidance.

    [Space Elevator deployed successfully]

    ¡°Finally. Sending down 3 Type 3¡¯s to pick up Lilly. Should have them dispose of the bodies while they¡¯re there.¡± Daniel spoke in frustration.

    One of the metal rings near the ground opened to reveal 3 strange beings. Legless, metal torso. Short, metal arms. A jet of flames from the bottom of the torso suspended them in the air as the dome shaped heads turned from side to side, letting the single, glowing red eye scan the surroundings. After a few seconds, the eyes turned green and the floating robots moved towards the corpses.

    Unwrapping the net with a pair of 3 clawed grippers, the first robot discovered Lilly¡¯s mother. The second, spreading the 3 claws apart and using the small laser in the centre, carefully cut off the hands of the male gripping Lilly at the wrists. Once done cutting, it used the claws to pry the fingers apart to free Lilly. The third robot dragged the corpses onto a pile before hovering above them, letting the jet engine incinerate the corpses to duct.

    Once done, the 3 robots, carrying the 2 Fairies, entered the open ring. The ring closed, and a light travelled up the metal rings indicating that the Space Elevator had left.

    Back in the Dungeon, Daniel waited for the elevator to arrive. Traveling 120 kilometres with only robots which did not feel inertia took vastly shorter than traveling 120 kilometres with a pair of live beings which would be crushed flat by the inertia of moving 12 kilometres every second. And while the robots were locked in place by electromagnets inside the Space Elevator, the Fairies were only held by the robots.

    A full hour later, the Space Elevator finally arrived with both Fairies safe and sound. Within the Mana rich environment of a Dungeon, the Fairies both woke up from the tranquilizer venom affecting them.

    In a small, flawless, white room, Lilly woke up screaming.

    ¡°Mother!¡±

    Breathing heavy while looking around, Lilly failed to recognise the place.

    ¡°Hello? Is anyone here, wherever This is?¡± Lilly called out, vigilantly looking around.

    ¡°Ah, you¡¯re finally awake. Don¡¯t worry, both you and your mother are safe now.¡± A robotic, male voice came from a Type 4 robot that silently floated into the room through a door to the right of the medical bed Lilly was laying on.

    The Type 4, identical in structure to the Type 3, only differed by the female shaped torso it had, instead of a male shaped one of the Type 3.

    ¡°What do you want with us? To sell us like the other Hunters?¡± Lilly aske wearily, slowly moving away from the floating, metal torso.

    ¡°Why would I want to sell something that belongs to me?¡± the robotic voice asked.

    ¡°So you¡¯re the one who bought us from the Hunters then?¡± Lilly asked from the other side of the bed.

    ¡°What? No, Lilly, its me. Daniel. I got your message and rushed here to save you.¡± Daniel replied through the robot.

    ¡°But, what? So what is that?¡± asked Lilly in confusion while pointing at the Type 4.

    ¡°What, this?¡± Daniel asked as the Type 4 lifted an arm and patted itself on the shoulder producing a dinging sound.

    ¡°Yes, that.¡± Lilly asked more forcefully.

    ¡°This is one of the robots I made to serve as the Dungeon Mobs for now since I don¡¯t have any animals. It¡¯s a Type 4 robot. One of the last to be made after I realised I could make conventional weapons for them to use that they would drop after being defeated to sere as loot drops.¡± Daniel described in detail.

    ¡°It¡¯s really you.¡± Lilly remarked dryly after the needlessly long explanation.

    ¡°What you¡¯re only convinced now?¡± Daniel asked as the robot folded its arms over its needlessly large chest.

    ¡°Yeah, after listening to you in person I¡¯m convinced.¡± Lilly laughed and flew up off the bed towards the robot.

    ¡°So where is mum?¡± asked Lilly looking around the room, spotting nothing but the single bed.

    ¡°She¡¯s in another room. She should be waking up soon. The net she was wrapped in had the same tranquilising venom soaked into the fibres, and with the amount to net she came in contact with while wrapped up, she had a lot more of the venom in her than you did. Even after I removed it all the effects still persisted for nearly an hour on you. But with the Mana around here, and with her passive pull in it being higher than yours, she should be waking any time now.¡± Daniel explained as the Type 4 under his control backed out of the room, floated sideways for a few seconds and stopped in front of another door, all the while Lilly sprawled herself lazily on the domed head like a cat would.

    Opening the door by pressing a button on the wall, Daniel and Lilly floated into an identical room to the one Lilly was in. in the centre of the small room sat a single medical bed with Lilly¡¯s mother, still sleeping, on top of it.

 Side Story - Another Planet

    For hundreds of thousands of years, magic and science have made the lives of the sentient races easier and easier. However, in the beginning, not everyone could enjoy the benefits that magic could bring. Similarly, science only came about in an effort to make lives better. Only later did science and magic become perverted by the greedy and the lazy in order to make lives easier to the point of not needing to lift a finger. In the beginning only the elves and the demons could use magic thanks to the special organs they were born with that allowed them to store and control the mana they absorbed from the air around them.

    In the beginning the natural disposition for magic of the elven and demonic races made the humans, dwarves and beastmen jealous. The humans believed themselves the masters of the world and wanted the beset for themselves, eventually creating what they called science in a bid to overcome their own inability to bend the elements to their will. Following suit, the dwarves created what they called constructs to do their bidding to make up for the lack of magic among their race. The beastmen, following their primal instincts, created the ways of combat, exercises and move sets that let them develop their already physically superior bodies past their original limits.

    The humans pushed their science to the edge in an attempt to create effects similar to the elven magic which allowed them to grow entire forests overnight. The elves, seeing the humans attempting to further themselves by creating devices capable of producing effects similar to their magic, were more than happy to lend the humans a hand, thinking they would use the devices to develop their race in a way similar to their own. The help of the elves was much appreciated by the humans and helped them create a device which could, with the help of some auxiliary machines, turn a stretch of desert into a lush rainforest in the span of a week.

    The creation of the device sent the humans into a crazy inventing frenzy. New machines and devices being produced weekly by the brightest minds of the entire race. Devices that pumped water from a river to a city over long distances. Devices that heated a portion of the pumped water to be used for washing. Devices that allowed one to instantly move from one place to another. Many, many different devices came about with the help of the elves explaining how their magic worked.

    But humans could never be satisfied, and on the day of their first encounter with the demon race this was proven to be an undeniable fact. The demon race used a magic completely opposite to the elves. Where the elven magic could be used for any form of creation and repair, the demons magic was used for all kinds of destruction. From simply disassembling an object for easier storage and transport at the lowest levels, to the complete erasing of the molecular makeup of anything and everything in its path at the highest levels.

    Humans experienced the demons magic first hand when they tried to invade the demon¡¯s territory to expand their own. Entire armies erased from existence by as single squad of demon¡¯s changeling some kind of disintegration ray from a small platform defended by a shield that protected them from projectiles. The losses of so many caused the kings and lords to spur the scientists on to create weapons which could rival the demons magic. Eventually, with the help of the elves, who feared they would be included in the revenge the demons would inevitability take, the first weapon was created. After years of work and reverse engineering the elven magic, the weapon was ready for testing. The weapon was the size of a medium room and weighed so much wooden carts and wheels would shatter and crumble under it. This in turn allowed the dwarves to come out and offer an alliance of non-aggression and mutual protection in exchange for their creations. The huge, 10-metre-tall, solid iron, humanoid constructs could easily lift the human¡¯s weapon onto its shoulder and fire it with little more than a lean back from the recoil.

    The weapon itself, from outward appearances, was nothing more than a huge cannon covered in pipes, cables and runes. However, upon firing, the observer would see no smoke cloud of a conventional cannon and hear no roar of the gunpowder explosion. Instead, the cannon would light up like a Christmas tree and produce the roar of a motorbike engine followed by a blinding flash as the small oval shaped magic projectile was ejected out of the barrel at the speed of sound.

    When the construct carrying the first prototype weapon into battle against the demons proved to be devastatingly effective, the war for territory ended in less than a year. The demons were pushed back and almost half of their original territory fell to the human, elf and dwarf alliance.

    And so, the demons found themselves having to fit their entire population in half of the space they had. The demons, with no other choice, built vast underground cities, rivalling the dwarves in size and functionality, eventually diapering from the surface altogether. Forgotten by history over thousands of years, the demons lick their wounds and brew their hatred for the allied forces. Readying for their eventual re-emergence into the outside world to wreak havoc.

    Meanwhile the outside world, having forgotten about the demons they once trampled over, progressed at an astonishing pace. Adding together the humans¡¯ science, the elves¡¯ magic and the dwarves¡¯ constructs, the allied forces created technology far surpassing the singular components and created a world in which one could have anything they wished for.

    Eventually, small, fingertip sized implants allowed the humans to wield magic as well as any elf, fulfilling the human¡¯s dearest wishes. For thousands of years more, the world was at relative peace.

    But the humans could never be satisfied and eventually someone found records of a strange race that occupied the lands before them. A strange race which their ancestors trampled over and was eventually forgotten about in the river of time. The search for the strange race ensued and took hundreds of years. Hundreds of years to find clues of the race and more to find clues of their current whereabouts.

    After nearly a thousand years of searching, the allied forces found what they were looking for. A hole in the ground. A proverbial black hole on their maps and radar scans. Nothing was known about the hole. The makeup of the rocks the hole was dug into seemed alien and unfamiliar yet ancient and ever-present. The depth and contents of the hole even more so.

    At some point during the two hundred years it took to explore the cave system that was found after going down the hole, the human and elven scientists developed an implant that scanned the user and their surroundings to provide useful information and allowed the user to connect to a mainframe computer to get an analysis and feedback. Scanning the user allowed the scientist to come up with multiple methods of feeding back the findings in a status sheet the user could view and use to improve. The scientists debated between displaying the status as raw numbers or establishing a norm as a base line and displaying the status compared to the norm. The status, in both formats, using a farmer as a norm, would look something like this for a regular foot soldier:

    Strength ¨C 17

    Dexterity ¨C 15

    Constitution ¨C 18

    Wisdom ¨C 13

    Intelligence ¨C 13

    Charisma ¨C 12

    Strength ¨C 1.5

    Dexterity ¨C 1.4

    Constitution ¨C 1.6

    Wisdom ¨C 1.1

    Intelligence ¨C 1.1

    Charisma ¨C 1

    Eventually the scientists decided to create a base line using the minimum stats required to be a foot soldier as the basis. The system analysed the body of the user from muscle mass, bone density, tendon strength, joint flexibility, cell reproduction rate and the immune system for the physical stats to synapse speed, compatibility with different elements, synchronisation rate with the magic implant and overall physical appearance fort the other three stats. This allowed the population to see their strengths and weaknesses and follow a path that capitalises on their strengths and work on their weaknesses. At least that is how the scientists saw it. The rest? They decided this would allow them to capitalise on their strengths and make more devices and machines that did what they were bad at to make their lives easier and not have to work on their weaknesses.

    The world outside the hole in the ground became lazy and more and more automated as the allied forces lost the common enemy they once faced. The alliance stayed together at some levels, but human greed and disregard for anyone but themselves became more and more prevalent in some areas, especially slavery.

    Elves started to become more and more popular as bed warmers and pets to parade around. Dwarves became less master smiths and mechanics and more ¡®private¡¯ smiths and mechanics.

    Finally, the search of the depths was over and the allied forces, who spent the past two hundred years searching the caves and tunnels found what they were looking for. Signs of civilisation. Primitive houses carved directly into the walls of the tunnels. The further the exploration team went the better the houses became. From primitive caves carved out of the walls, to villa sized luxury homes dug into the walls of the tunnels. Eventually the team of over a thousand people hit a dead end. An enormous gate blocking their way.

    Meanwhile on the other side of the gate.

    In the demon¡¯s underground city.

    In a research base near the centre of the city.

    ¡°The humans sure come up with some fancy things, don¡¯t they?¡± Asked the three-metre-tall, red skinned demon wearing a lab coat and a pair of glasses.

    ¡°Sure do.¡± Answered the slightly smaller, blue skinned demon wearing a mask that looked like a mirror and long grey robes.

    ¡°So, what do these do that¡¯s so different from the last pair?¡± Asked the researcher demon while poking and prodding a pair of magnifying eye glasses.

    ¡°Those have a much-increased zoom than regular glasses, in case you need to inspect some jewellery or doing precise surgery work. Plus, the lenses can be changed for magic crystals to allow those without the natural ability to see the flow of mana and apprise magic items and enchanted gear.¡± Relied the smaller demon.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Is that so? This is indeed quite interesting.¡± Said the researcher demon throwing the glasses on his desk while standing up.

    ¡°That can¡¯t be the only reason you¡¯re here. And if my guess is correct you found what I asked you for the last time you were here.¡± Said the researcher demon walking out of his office, gesturing for the smaller demon to follow.

    Leaving the office, the pair turned left to walk down a pristine and seamless white corridor illuminated with pure white light coming from seemingly everywhere but with no visible source. Walking for quite some time and passing a few other demons dressed similar to the researcher but no more than half his height, the pair arrived at a dead end, facing a wall like all the other. The researcher demon lifted his hand and tapped on the wall with a claw producing a metallic ding. Seconds later a magic formation looking like a key pad appeared on the wall to his left. Keying in the access code **02 opened a seam in the pristine wall which slowly expanded to allow the pair to walk through.

    On the other side of the door lay a large, dimly lit room with nothing but a large transparent containment tube in the centre and display screen around the edges of the room. The top of the containment tube held a plaque with the designation X-X-02

    In the containment tube, in a mixture of yellow, green and red liquids, floated a constantly shifting mass. The mass would change shape and colour every few seconds. Sometimes becoming a hand, sometimes an arm, sometimes red and sometimes green. The ever-shifting mass squirmed and moved closer to the wall of the containment tube, trying to get closer to the pair that just entered.

    ¡°No matter how many times I see it, it always looks creepy.¡± Said the smaller demon.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid. Its happy to see us.¡± Said the researcher, patting the smaller demon on the shoulder and moving towards the screens on the left of the room.

    ¡°It still looks creepy.¡± Whispered the smaller demon before following the researcher.

    ¡°So, where is it?¡± Asked the researcher demon while typing in codes and commands on the keyboard attached to the screen in the centre.

    ¡°I couldn¡¯t get exactly what you asked for. It would look very suspicious if I did. Too suspicious. So, I got the next best thing.¡± Said the robed demon.

    ¡°And what would that be?¡± Asked the researcher, looking over his shoulder at the robed demon.

    The robed demon nodded, turning his back on the researcher before tapping a claw on his mirror like mask in a specific pattern. Seconds later the surface of the mask rippled, and the corpse of a human male fell out of the mask.

    ¡°Now that, that is creepy.¡± Said the researcher before straightening up to walk around the robed demon.

    ¡°So, what do we have he¡­ Why is there a corpse on my floor?¡± Asked the researcher while staring at the corpses.

    ¡°I told you. I got the next best thing.¡± Answered the robed demon with a shrug.

    ¡°Damn it.¡± Sighed the researcher while dropping his shoulder and dragging a hand down his face.

    ¡°What. Just get what you need form the corpse.¡± Shrugged the robed demon.

    ¡°I can¡¯t. That¡¯s why I sent the other one with you.¡± Replied the researcher in frustration.

    ¡°What do you mean you can¡¯t? You made the other one and it could do it so why can¡¯t you do it here?¡± Asked the robed demon, slightly backing away from the researcher.

    ¡°It could do it because it was extensively modified to be able to do it using parts of the original. What happened to the other anyway?¡± Asked the researcher scratching his head.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really know. It, just, kind of, died? I don¡¯t know. After teleporting with it, it started twitching and just fell over dead.¡± Answered the robed demon with crossed arms trying to remember exactly what happened.

    ¡°I see. X-X-01 couldn¡¯t handle the strain of teleportation. Interesting. I wonder if X-X-00 and X-X-02 have the same problem or if it was exclusive to X-X-01 due to the extensive modifications.¡± Pondered the researcher.

    ¡°So, how are you going to get it now that 01 is dead? Surely you have some other way?¡± Asked the robed demon.

    ¡°I do have another way. But I hate using it and it has proven to be less than safe.¡± Answered the researcher with a sigh.

    ¡°And what would that way be?¡± Asked the robed demon, getting slightly nervous at the thought of something that the researcher would call ¡®less that safe¡¯.

    ¡°That way, my friend is to politely ask X-X-00 to extract and process it for us.¡± Said the researcher with a dark and heavy tone.

    ¡°Ooh Shit.¡± Shuddered the robed demon.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go and bring the stiff.¡± Said the researcher with another sigh while turning back to the door and walking away.

    ¡°You can¡¯t be serious. Do we even have permission to go in there? I mean, that thing has killed, what, like twenty-five of our people now? That thing is too dangerous. Actually, why is it still alive at this point? Shouldn¡¯t you have got rid of it by now?¡± Quietly asked the robed demon, carrying the corpse on his shoulder.

    ¡°If it was possible, we would have got rid of it.¡± Answered the researcher with yet another sigh.

    ¡°¡¯If it was possible¡¯? What the hell? You mean to tell me you can¡¯t get rid of it?¡± Asked the robed demon with a shudder.

    ¡°I mean exactly that Drar. I mean exactly that. We tried for so long and the longer we try the harder it gets.¡± Answered the researcher while shaking his head.

    ¡°Dragnar, don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s what I think it is. Please don¡¯t tell me you put in what I think you put in that thing.¡± The robed demon, Drar, asked while shivering.

    ¡°It is, and it seems very fond of that part especially. Sometimes the little fucker tries to make itself look like one too. Luckily it doesn¡¯t have enough to go off of, but the bastard still tries.¡± The researcher, Dragnar, replied with his head down.

    ¡°Damn, I knew I smelled something fishy when I got word that the tamer guild master mysteriously lost a hydra near the research facility. You sneaky bastard.¡± Drar chuckled nervously, looking at the back of his older brother.

    ¡°What can I say, I try my best in everything I do. Even if, sometimes, trying my best, ends up screwing me more than helping. I can¡¯t help it and you know it. It¡¯s in the family.¡± Dragnar shrugged.

    ¡°So how much of the hydra did you give it? Like, a, a leg?¡± Asked Drar.

    ¡°Nah, that¡¯s way too much. That would give him enough to do everything the hydra could. That would be way too much. I had 01 refine a drop of blood to separate all the parts of the DNA till the only thing left wat the regenerative ability and then fed him that, which was significantly less than the original drop. That¡¯s how crazy that thing is. It can tell what the regen came from just from a piece of a strand of DNA. Its honestly terrifying to think what it could do with the whole body.¡± Dragnar said in in a pondering tone.

    ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it. We have enough trouble as it is. The alliance has been searching the caves for nearly two hundred years now and they are bound to find the gate eventually.¡± Drar Slapped Dragnar¡¯s shoulder while shaking his head.

    ¡°Ok, now quiet. I hate this thing and don¡¯t want to be in there longer than we have to. Just throw the corpse in the feeding tray and I¡¯ll do the rest.¡± Dragnar said while shaking his head to clear the thoughts out.

    Coming up to another dead end Dragnar tapped the wall with a claw. Just like earlier, the key pad looking magic formation appeared on the left. Keying in **00 the door opened.

    Inside the significantly larger room, the containment tube had considerably thicker walls and multiple metal bands embracing the top, bottom and middle sections.

    From the ceiling hung many mechanical arms. Some holding drill like devices, some held circular saw blades, and some held what appeared to be long metal tubes.

    All of the metal tubes were fitted with lasers which were all pointed at the small creature flooding in the containment tube.

    Noticing the new visitors, the creature in the tube shook slightly, taking the shape of a snake with multiple, tentacle like protrusions where the head should be. Each tentacle slowly turning a different colour.

    ¡°It¡¯s fucking mocking me! Look at the little fucker! It¡¯s trying the hydra shit again! You little piece of shit, I should have never given you that strand of DNA!¡± Dragnar shouted while pointing at the creature in the tube.

    ¡°Calm down. It clearly can¡¯t finish since it¡¯s missing heads at the end of its necks and has no legs. Plus the body is all wrong. No scales or anythMMMMMM.¡± Drar was cut off by Dragnar clamping his hands over Drar¡¯s mouth.

    ¡°SHHHHH! You idiot, it can hear us!¡± Dragnar stared at Drar as the other¡¯s eyes widened and stared at the tube.

    ¡°Exactly, don¡¯t talk about things you don¡¯t want it to¡­.¡± Dragnar stopped as Drar forced his head in the direction of the tube.

    In the tube, the creature wiggled with glee as it got the final piece of the puzzle. Its tentacles were supposed to be necks and the body supposed to have legs and scales. Before the eyes of the pair, the creature in the tube twisted and turned around itself as scale like patterns began growing around it. Next the tentacles wiggled furiously as heads that looked like a cross between a reptile and a canine slowly emerged from the ends. Finally, six short, stumpy legs grew from the snake like body which enlarged slightly to make room for the new limbs.

    ¡°You got to be kidding. It figured it all out from just a few hints?¡± Drar whispered to himself.

    ¡°Damn, that¡¯s impressive, and terrifying, but still impressive, and horrifying.¡± Dragnar said looking between his arm and the small, arm sized, mini hydra. Considering the fact Dragnar¡¯s arms were as thick as two human waists and as long as a dwarf is tall, it was still pretty big.

    The mini hydra opened all eighteen of its different coloured eyes to stare at the pair.

    ¡°That, that right there, that shit right there is creepy as fuck.¡± Remarked both brothers simultaneously as Drar pointed at the tube.

    Opening its mouths, the mini hydra let out the air in its newly created lungs causing bubbles to rise to the top of the tube. As the air left the lungs the fluid in the tube flooded in causing the mini hydra to choke and thrash about looking as if it was in pain.

    Dragnar and Drar looked on in horror. Drar, imagining the pain of drowning while slowly rubbing his chest and swallowing hard. Dragnar, at the thought that they spent so much time and effort trying to kill it when all they had to do is let it shift into something with working lungs and let it drown.

    After a few seconds the thrashing stopped, and the creature stopped moving completely, motionlessly and silently floating in the tube. Dragnar moved closer to the tube to look at the mini hydra corpse.

    ¡°Well, looks like that did it. Good riddance.¡± Dragnar sighed in relief, looking at the small unmoving creature.

    ¡°Dragnar, you idiot, how the hell do we get the DNA from this guy now that 00 is gone? Did you think about that?¡± Drar stared at Dragnar with eyes wide open.

    ¡°Ah, well, yeah, shit.¡± Dragnar stammered lowering his head further with each word.

    As Dragnar was about to turn his back on the tube and head for the exit, a small movement in the tube caught his eye.

    ¡°Did the tail just move?¡± Dragnar asked Drar.

    ¡°Maybe a corpse twitch?¡± Drar asked back.

    ¡°Not with this guy. That isn¡¯t even real muscle, so it shouldn¡¯t twitch.¡± Dragnar explained.

    ¡°Maybe.¡± Dragnar began as he and Drar leaned closer to the tube to inspect the floating corpse.

    As the pair¡¯s noses were about to touch the tube the mini hydra¡¯s eyes burst open as the rest of its body wiggled. Mouths open and nodding as if they were laughing.

    ¡°AAAHHH.¡± Screamed both brothers as they fell on their asses and crawled away from the tube.

    ¡°DAMN IT!¡± shouted Dragnar slamming his fist into the reinforced metal floor leaving a sizable dent that slowly fixed itself.

    ¡°Shit, that scared the crap out of me.¡± Drar breathed deep to calm himself.

    The mini hydra in the tube wiggled and twisted while laughing at the pair.

    ¡°Look at you, you smug little bastard. Laughing like you know, what, it, ooh shit, you are laughing like you know what it means, and you do know what it means don¡¯t you?¡± Dragnar paled as he stared at the mini hydra.

    In the tube, the creature stopped laughing. Each head looking at another before turning back to focus on Dragnar with each head nodding separately and out of sync, showing each one was capable of independent action.

    ¡°Hmm, you¡¯re a lot smarter than we thought you are, we didn¡¯t do any intelligence tests since you didn¡¯t have a brain we could locate and monitor. How about now? Do you have a brain now? You have heads so how about brains?¡± Dragnar asked while looking between each head.

    All of the heads looked up as if in thought. Looking back at Dragnar, most of the heads shook from side to side, one lowered itself to the front and another one bit the top of the head off, keeping the part in its jaws. Dragnar, surprised by the show, looked at the ¡®injured¡¯ head. Inside the opened head, apart from a small thread like spine leading down to the body, the head, just like everything else was made of a blackish grey, gel like substance. Looking up at the bottom of the bitten off part, the same blackish grey gel like substance revealed itself surrounded by the scales like the rest of the head.

    ¡°Interesting. Still no identifiable brain.¡± Dragnar muttered.

    The head that bit of the top of the other head lowered the bitten off part in its jaws back onto the lowered head and let go as the top of the head sank down to meet the top of the lowered head, seamlessly fusing back together as soon as they touched. As if nothing happened, the head rose and joined the rest in a victory dance of wiggling from side to side.

    ¡°Oddly cute, but still weird.¡± Said Drar.

 Chapter 5 Leaving Home

    After waiting nearly an hour, her mother finally woke up. Daniel assured her she would be fine and wake up soon and even offered to take her for a tour of the finished parts, but Lilly stubbornly refused and asked to stay. Daniel, having nothing better to do decided to stay and chat with her. They chatted about her home planet and the things around the plains she lived in. and thoroughly about the reason for the help message she sent him.

    Finding about the Hunter profession, who¡¯s sole purpose was hunting fairies and similar creatures to sell really pissed him off. Lilly spent a good ten minutes calming him down, so he didn¡¯t commence an orbital bombardment of every major shady trading post.

    After seeing Rose waking up, Daniel stopped their conversation and pointed towards her. Lilly, picking up on the signs, looked towards the bed. Seeing her mother waking up she paid full attention to her.

    Waking up, Rose could faintly feel the burning sensation of where the rope net pressed against her skin. Opening her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling and unfamiliar walls, she turned her head to find her daughter sitting on the head of a strange creature made entirely out of metal.

    ¡°How are you feeling?¡± asked Lilly with concern written on her face.

    ¡°I could be better, the burning from the net is still there. I could also be at home, or at least in a place I recognise.¡± said Rose while rubbing a red strip of skin on her arm after sitting up.

    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s fine. If she can complain like that, nothing is wrong.¡± Laughed Lilly while patting the robot she sat on.

    ¡°Good to know. Should I bring some water or something?¡± asked Daniel.

    ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary. However, I would like to know where we are. I can¡¯t feel my connection to the plants, and neither can I feel the connection to my Dungeon. That means we are very far from the surface and very far from my bonded Dungeon.¡± Rose looked around and asked.

    ¡°Right. I forgot to ask. Where are we Daniel? I don¡¯t feel like we¡¯re on Ascara anymore, but I also feel strangely comfortable.¡± Lilly looked at the robot beneath her, knocking on the head while asking.

    ¡°Not on the planet? How?¡± Rose looked at Lilly strangely.

    ¡°We are indeed not on the planet. We are however, fairly close. We are actually in my Dungeon. My guess for the reason you can¡¯t feel your connections would be the forcefield. It also messes with the scanners a little due to its power. After all, it is keeping the gravity of my Dungeon from decimating your planet. Without it I could never get close enough to launch the anchors and the space elevator would have to be a lot longer which would make it much less efficient and practical.¡± Daniel started ranting about the forcefield.

    ¡°What, or Who is that and what is he talking about?¡± Looking at Lilly, Rose asked in a confused tone.

    ¡°Don¡¯t have a clue, but when he talks like that it¡¯s about something really important that most likely means without that thing the planet we live on would be in danger.¡± Lilly answered with a finger on her chin.

    ¡°Right, good to know. So, where is this Dungeon?¡± Rose asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ Complicated. It will probably be easier to show you.¡± Lilly answered.

    ¡°Daniel! I would like that tour now!¡± Knocking on the robot¡¯s head, Lilly shouted to get Daniels attention.

    Hearing Lilly, Daniel broke out of his thoughts and offered Rose his arm to sit on. Rose declined and directly flew up to his head where Lilly sat to sit next to her.

    ¡°Looks more comfortable up here.¡± Rose laughed as Daniel imitated a shrug as best as the robot with no shoulders could. ¡¥\_( o )_/¡¥

    ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡± Daniel moved towards the door.

    -A few minutes later-

    ¡°This is the entrance. Also the first room anyone will see after they leave the Space Elevator.¡± Daniel announced with his arms spread out while slowly turning.

    The room was wide, tall and lead to a single tunnel on the opposite end from the exit of the elevator.

    The tall white walls, decorated with carvings of all kinds of different weapons, glowed softly. The pristine white of the walls, floor and ceiling gave the room and tunnel beyond it a clean and tidy look. The perfectly clean look almost made one want to take their shoes off and leave them at the entrance.

    ¡°It looks very¡­ clean.¡± Lilly said hesitantly. Hearing her words echo in the huge empty room made her nervous.

    ¡°It does indeed. I imagine this will unnerve quite the number of people.¡± Rose stated while looking around the room.

    ¡°What? You think it¡¯s too big, or what?¡± Daniel asked unsure of the reason for their strange tones.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s a little too¡­empty? For its size anyway.¡± Rose replied.

    ¡°Hmm. You¡¯re right it is a little empty. Maybe I should put a display in here instead of leaving it empty.¡± Daniel though aloud as the room began to shift.

    The originally round room changed to a square room. On both sides of the room, a thick sheet of see-through material rose from the floor, separating a metre-wide section. Behind the sheet, sections of floor opened and out rose examples of most of the regular robots he had made so far.

    The Type 1. The spider bots, no more than 20 centimetres across, clung to the wall. The octagonal body with a leg on each side and the giant single red eye in the centre looked unnerving as it seemed to be looking everywhere and nowhere at once.

    The Type 2. Mobile sentry guns, nearly 3 metres tall, stood imposingly. Large armoured torsos. 4 arms, each holding a different rapid-fire weapon. 4 powerful, armoured, spider like legs and a small head partially sunken into the torso for added protection.

    The Type 3. The butler looking, legless torso with strange arms floated silently.

    The Type 4. The maid looking, legless torso with strange arms floated noiselessly beside the Type 3.

    The type 5. Large, bulky and almost 5 metres tall. Looking almost like an iron golem, the Type 5 differed only by the glowing, red eye in its small head.

    The Type 6. A 3-metre-tall version of the Type 5. Slightly less bulky but also as intimidating.

    The Type 7. A slightly larger, 4-armed version of the Type 3. Looking slightly more armoured and with an extra pair of arms.

    And finally the Type 8. Different from all the others, the Type 8 had a pair of caterpillar tracks. The tracks supported a platform with a 3-metre-tall pillar. The pillar held 3 revolving, curved plates with strange patterns that seemed to generate a barrier around the robot. Atop the pillar floated a blue sphere emitting buzzing and crackling noises. Occasionally sparks and long streaks of lightning would jump to the tracks.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°That¡¯s better. A little exhibition of their future adversaries will do.¡± Daniel looked around the room seemingly proud.

    ¡°What about this is good? You trying to kill people before they enter? Will heart attacks be your main weapon?¡± Rose stared at the exhibited creatures behind the clear sheet, wondering what they were.

    ¡°No such thing. These are the base versions of all the robots I made on my way here. To you it may seem like I got here very quickly, but for me it was still 2 lightyears worth of distance.¡± Daniel denied.

    ¡°The subspace corridor works very strangely. On the outside, anything in there looks to be moving incredibly fast. But on the inside of the corridor, you feel like you¡¯re moving really slow. Its like trading your speed on the inside for more speed on the outside. Imagine it like a Giant taking one step compared to a Fairy flying as fast as she can to cover the same distance in the same time. The Giant will move very slowly due to his size but will also cover a large distance with that one step. On the other hand, the Fairy has to fly really fast to cover the same distance because she¡¯s so small.¡± Daniel explained.

    ¡°Interesting, so you built all of this on your way here?¡± Lilly asked from atop his head.

    ¡°Yeah, and I had a lot of time to think about it all too. It¡¯s really interesting to think that soon there will be people in here fighting for the things I make.¡± Daniel said.

    ¡°Yeah, really weird, but at least then it won¡¯t be so quiet in here. A few screams and shouts will liven the place right up.¡± Rose shook her head.

    ¡°I suppose it is a bit quiet.¡± Lilly nodded.

    ¡°So what do your rooms look like? I¡¯m very curious.¡± Rose spoke again.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go take a look.¡± Daniel replied.

    Moving across the room and down the corridor at the end, the first room was a plain room just lie the entrance, just smaller.

    ¡°That¡¯s it? No traps or anything?¡± Rose looked disappointed.

    ¡°This is literally the first room anyone will ever see after walking in. I don¡¯t want people to die in the first room. There¡¯s a few Type 1¡¯s on the ceiling, but they¡¯re there just to monitor the groups coming in and will only jump down to attack if they look really strong.¡± Daniel said while pointing to the 4 Type 1 spider bots on the ceiling, hidden in the corners of the room.

    ¡°I see.¡± Rose nodded.

    ¡°Next room?¡± Lilly asked.

    ¡°Sure, just down here.¡± Daniel moved to the end of the room and down the short corridor to the next room.

    ¡°This room has a few simple traps, nothing too fancy. An arrow wall connected to a few pressure plates on the floor. The a few of the pressure plates also activate a hatch in the ceiling that let in a few Type 1¡¯s into the mix.¡± Daniel pointed out some holes in the wall and a few slightly raised floor tiles.

    ¡°Nice difficulty curve. From nothing to a simple trap. Do the rest of the rooms follow this pattern of slightly increasing difficulty?¡± Rose asked.

    ¡°Yeah. The next room has the same trap just on the opposite wall and the one after that has them on both walls. After that its bath walls and different traps added on.¡± Daniel confirmed.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go see some more. I¡¯m interested now.¡± Rose urged.

    ¡°Sure.¡± Daniel said and moved through the corridor.

    -Plante surface-

    In a small, dimly lit room many figures sat around a table. Most of the figures wore luxurious clothes and a few even wore crowns.

    ¡°Do we have any information on the phenomenon in the sky?¡± asked one of the crowned males with a large white beard.

    ¡°Nothing apart from the fact it has a voice that can shake the ground and is capable of causing lightning to fall from above the clouds.¡± Answered a male on the other side of the table.

    ¡°Any news from the towns and villages closest to where the lightning struck?¡± asked a female from across the table while looking around.

    ¡°What I just told you is all the news from the closest town.¡± Answered the same male as before.

    ¡°Anything else?¡± asked the female.

    ¡°Well, some of the villagers seem to believe it to be a god. But we have no way of confirming or denying it as of now. We have no way of contacting it.¡± Answered another male.

    ¡°Has it moved?¡± asked a female with a crown.

    ¡°We¡¯re not sure of the exact position of the lightning strikes so we can¡¯t determine that.¡± answered another female with a crown.

    Many villagers and town folk kneeled on the ground and prayed to the god in the sky. They believed the corrupt nobles and city lords had finally done something to anger the god and so he would punish them for their mistakes.

    -Back to the Dungeon-

    ¡°That stretch of factory is where I make all of the robots and most of the weapons. There¡¯s another similar factory for the primitive equipment like swords, shields, armour and all that other stuff.¡± Said Daniel as he moved through the non-Dungeon part of the planet.

    ¡°And your Core?¡± asked Lilly excitedly.

    ¡°Just through here.¡± Daniel moved to a small platform that slowly rose up.

    The platform moved up towards the ceiling which opened to reveal a short tunnel leading straight up. Moving up further the platform neared the end of the tunnel which again opened to reveal a large room lit up by a huge Crystal floating in the centre of the room. Around the Crystal shimmered a faint purple barrier.

    ¡°This is the Core Room and my Core. The barrier is only for looks right now. You can move through it. It¡¯s only a projection of what it would look like if the shield generator was on. While working on the shield generator, I unexpectedly found out that I could use the Crystal as a Host. But I¡¯m not about to take that kind of risk, no matter how tough the Crystal is.¡± Daniel explained as the robot lifted the 2 Fairies from its head and put them on a small table that rose from the floor.

    After that the robot seemed to freeze for a second before leaving, going down the platform they came up.

    ¡°Daniel?¡± asked Lilly, looking at the robot moving down on the platform.

    ¡°It¡¯s ok, I¡¯m here now. I just released my control of the robot.¡± Daniel¡¯s voice emanated from all around the room.

    ¡°Now you sound more like a Dungeon.¡± Rose nodded.

    ¡°Thanks. I haven¡¯t had anyone to talk to till now and I preferred to get some things done by hand, so I just got used to controlling the robots as a way of moving around and doing things.¡± Daniel replied.

    ¡°Thank you, Daniel, for saving us and taking care of us. I do, however, believe it is time for me to leave and get back to my bonded Dungeon.¡± Rose bowed to the Core and said after hugging Lilly.

    ¡°No problem. We can go back to the entrance with a new trick I learned from the System.¡± Daniel said with a laugh.

    The mana concentration in the room spiked and in the next second the 2 Fairies were at the starting room, being stared at by the exhibition robots.

    ¡°That was¡­ unexpected.¡± Rose shook her head to clear the slight dizziness.

    ¡°All non-hostile entities are treated like Dungeon mobs by the system, which allows me to move them freely within the confines of the Dungeon.¡± Daniel¡¯s voice came from all around again.

    ¡°Interesting. I will have to ask my Dungeon about this later when I get back.¡± Said Rose with a finger on her chin.

    ¡°I¡¯ll miss you mum.¡± Lilly hugged Rose.

    ¡°I¡¯ll miss you too. Make sure to always keep your communication crystal charged, ok?¡± Rose hugged Lilly back while saying.

    ¡°I will.¡± Lilly answered.

    [Firing Space Elevator Anchors]

    Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

    [Space Elevator deployed successfully]

    ¡°The Space Elevator is ready. It will take you to the same place I picked you up from. Don¡¯t worry, there¡¯s no one around. And be careful, as soon as you leave the shield the planet¡¯s gravity will start effecting you, so you may want to stay on the floor instead of flying. ¡± Daniel said.

    ¡°Thank you, for everything you have and will do for Lilly.¡± Rose looked around, unsure of which direction to best speak to.

    ¡°No problem. She¡¯s mine after all, the System said so.¡± Daniel chuckled.

    ¡°I see. I will be leaving then. Thank you again and good bye.¡± Rose said as she boarded the Space Elevator and sat on the floor.

    Lilly waved, and Rose waved back till the doors closed and the elevator left for the surface.

    ¡°Alright, now how about we see about the general strength level of the people on this planet?¡± Daniel asked Lilly.

    ¡°You can do that?¡± Lilly looked around before being teleported back to the Core Room.

    ¡°Sure I can. The System classes me as a Space Dungeon. This gives me a few things a normal Dungeon will not have. Like the ability to scan the nearest planet for the general strength of the population. This is to allow me to determine whether I want to stay and let them in or not.¡± Daniel said as a System screen showed up in front of the Core. Lilly, as the Bonded Dungeon Fairy could see the System screens Daniel wanted to share with her.

    The scan screen showed a section for the mana density, physical profession levels, magic profession levels and special profession levels.

    Mana Density: Very Low/low

    Physical Profession Levels: Low

    Magic Profession Levels: Very Low

    Special Profession Levels: N/A

    Lilly looked at the results in dismay.

    ¡°The population of this planet really sucks doesn¡¯t it? Why are the levels so low?¡± Lilly asked.

    ¡°That would be because of the mana density. The higher the mana density on the planet, the better chance the inhabitants have of breaking through to higher levels of their professions.¡± Daniel explained.

    ¡°Right, then let¡¯s find a planet with high mana density and slay some Adventurers!¡± Lilly shouted while jumping around.

    ¡°If you think so. Well then let¡¯s go find us a high mana density planet.¡± Daniel said, removing the scan result screen.

    ¡°Ooh and one more thing. Not all planets call them Adventurers. Some call them treasure hunters, some treasure seekers and some call them Pioneers. Just make sure you get it right for the planet we are on cos otherwise they won¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± Daniel explained.

    ¡°Right, ok, thanks.¡± Lilly nodded.

    [Retracting Space Elevator]

    [Retracting Space Elevator Anchors]

    ¡°We¡¯re ready to go. Chose a direction and we can start moving.¡± Daniel told Lilly.

    ¡°That way!¡± Lilly shouted and pointed at the wall behind her.

    ¡°That way it is.¡± Said Daniel.

    The plasma engines rumbled to life and the planet started to move in the designated direction.