《Dungeon's Kingdom》 Death and Rebirth ¡°Huh Wuh, Guh. Where the hells am I!¡± The estranged soul exclaimed to no one in particular ¡°calm down I need to calm down, the first rule of adventurer survival be calm and go over what you know¡±... ¡°Firstly my name I need to remember my name¡­ Marcus, Marcus Vitruvius. Now that I remember who I am let us see where in the hells I am. Seems to be some sort of strange black abyss¡± The lost soul known as Marcus spun about in an ethereal way amongst the inky blackness attempting to find something anything to guide him but succeeding only in losing any orientation he once had. ¡°Well, I appear to be in the middle of literal nothingness. An interesting position to be sure but not quite conducive to any sort of getting my bearings straight. Well, let¡¯s see if we can¡¯t find our way out.¡± Attempting rather fruitlessly to walk forwards Marcus finds no purchase seeing as he has no legs. ¡°Well, then I suppose I must be waiting here for something. At least I certainly hope so, floating around endlessly in a plane of pure inky blackness isn¡¯t exactly what I had hoped for after death. I was kinda hoping more for an endless plane of beautiful women and drink.¡± Outside of the inky black plane, a group of well-dressed people sat around a table. Numbering twelve in total the people appeared to be in a heated discussion. ¡°No, we will not use a still fully sentient soul for a Dungeon Core! The consequences would be terrifying!¡± argued one well-dressed gentleman adorned with a fedora. A female in a low-cut revealing dress retorted ¡°Well, we can¡¯t just wash this soul of memories and put him back in the pool! It was our fault he died long before he was ever intended to. He should still be on the material plane leading a kingdom to prosperity right now, not dead and locked in a plane of darkness. We need to make this right.¡± Finally, a large man wearing a tight-fitting suit and an eye-catching red tie stood, ¡°We¡¯ve heard about enough from both sides at this point; time for a vote, all in favor of reincarnating the soul as a dungeon?¡± 7 hands raised at the table including the man¡¯s own. ¡°Then it seems this is decided the soul will be reincarnated as is into a Dungeon core, but as the safety of this action is of concern we will be sending a high-level magus of the God¡¯s Consortium to monitor and teach it from the beginning. Does that allay your worries, Jericho?¡± The man in a fedora known as Jericho simply nods limply before storming off. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Well, this¡¯ll at least keep that twerp off my back for a while¡± Sighing the man in the red tie dismissed the rest of the table. Back in the Plane of Eternal Blackness, Marcus was wistfully flailing around his arms. ¡°Alright that¡¯s about enough of leaving you in here¡± came a strange calm sounding voice. ¡°Hello? Did someone just talk to me in this shitty plane of shitty darkness?¡±Marcus excitedly replied ¡°Can you please get me the hells out of here this place really is the pits? Nothing to do but think and randomly move my arms around uselessly.¡± Moments later Marcus found himself staring at what would be a blinding light if he actually had eyes. ¡°Gods almighty that¡¯s a bright light!¡± I suppose that just goes to show how dead I am now though. Marcus thought to himself. ¡°Well don¡¯t keep me waiting Marcus sit down we need to talk.¡± Marcus now realizing he had legs strode forward to the modestly sized chair and took a seat. Looking ahead he saw a massive throne made seemingly of solid steel, polished to a bright shine. In the throne sat an appropriately large man dressed in a clean and neat black suit with a bright red tie that used a steel tie bar to hold it in place. When Marcus looked at the man¡¯s face all he found the silhouette of a chiseled square jaw and nothing else. ¡°Now that you are seated we can begin. First off let''s get some basics out of the way so we don¡¯t have to go in circles. You, Marcus Vitruvius, are dead. Now, normally this wouldn¡¯t be much of a problem, but, you died long before you were supposed to and as such were pulled here so that the issue could be rectified.¡± The Man explained carefully. ¡°Great!¡± ¡°Then you can resurrect me and I¡¯ll be on my way, thank you goodbye!¡± said Marcus rapidly attempting to stand up. ¡°Not so fast boy.¡± the Man raised his hand and a pulling force sucked Marcus back into his chair. ¡°It is not quite that easy. See the dead are supposed to stay dead, even our priests are not allowed to bring back the dead. We gods don¡¯t care to contradict ourselves that easily.¡± The Man stated ¡°You will be going back to your world, but not as a human. You will become the first ever dungeon to use a resurrected soul as its base.¡± ¡°So, I, Marcus, am going to become the first intelligent dungeon?¡± ¡°No Marcus that would belittle the dungeons who have lived for thousands of years and developed intelligence far beyond any human. No, you are going to be the first Dungeon with a human soul.¡± The Man clarified. Afterward, the Man began to slowly describe what was going to happen to Marcus. What Marcus should expect upon his revival as a dungeon, and what Marcus should do to ensure his short-term survival. ¡°Now, Marcus you may ask me three questions you wish answered before your revival.¡± ¡°Okay, First of all, what the hells is your name?¡± ¡°My name has changed over time, My first name was Kresimir, but in these days I am known as Lucius, God of Light¡± Well, that certainly explains the blinding light in this room, thought Marcus. ¡°Second question, why reincarnate me as a dungeon? Rather than a human again or some other creature?¡± ¡°As a dungeon, you will be able to serve your purpose far better than any other form. You will eventually lead to the creation of a country whose power unites the material plane, a very necessary event that will allow the plane to resist an oncoming catastrophe.¡± Lucius revealed, ¡°You originally would have done this as a king, but we will have to settle with our second best option for a king. You will instead have to be the bedrock that keeps the kingdom afloat.¡± ¡°Then why not resurrect me as some nobles child? Or just put me back in my old body?¡± ¡°That would violate our rules of mortal resurrection. We gods decided as a group that any soul that is born into a mortal body must have no residue of a previous life. It must be a clean slate such that the decisions of the person that soul becomes determines its lot in the afterlife rather than any residual feelings left from previous lives. Putting you back in your body or in a new body would violate this.¡± ¡°But being put in a Dungeon Core wouldn¡¯t?¡± ¡°We do not consider Dungeon Cores mortal as they live forever as long as they are not destroyed by an outside force. That is also the exact argument that allowed for your resurrection at all mind you.¡± ¡°Now then that is three questions, time for you to get to your new body. May we never meet again Marcus Vitruvius.¡± Lucius waved his hand and Marcus disappeared from the plane of light with an annoyed face. ¡°May we never meet again, for if we do we will have far more problems than just resurrecting a soul that shouldn¡¯t have died.¡± First Day ¡°Son of a bitch! Don¡¯t gods know how to do proper parting comments?! I didn¡¯t even get to say goodbye to the big guy.¡± Sighing Marcus begins to observe his new surroundings. ¡°Well, there¡¯s a lot of dark lights are definitely first on the list.¡± Scanning the modest cubic room eventually Marcus¡¯ *eyes* land on a lone figure sitting in the corner of the room. Further observation revealed a feminine figure draped in a modest blue robe, the figure looked up at Marcus her soft facial features cut by bright hazel eyes and her face framed with black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. ¡°Ah! Finally, the dungeon¡¯s soul has arrived in its vessel. About time too, I was about to just leave back to the Consortium saying that it was a dud.¡± The figure nodded while noting aloud. ¡°So to whom do I have the pleasure of speaking to, First Human Dungeon?¡± ¡°Whuh? How did you even know that? How did you even know I¡¯d be here? I¡¯m so very confused. Well, I suppose answers can wait for after pleasantries; I am Marcus Vitruvius or at least I was in life. Architect, Adventurer, and former nobleman, how might I address you fair la-gack¡­¡± His attempt at introduction cut just short by his new *body* being lifted suddenly from the ground. ¡°Fascinating! It truly is a dungeon with the soul of a human! This goes against everything the consortium has on the lives and deaths of Dungeon Cores.¡± She continues to manipulate the *body* of Marcus looking for something. It truly seems to be¡­ ¡°For the love of the gods can you please, please put me down, I feel like I¡¯m going to hurl if that''s even possible as whatever the hells I am now.¡± ¡°Oop! Sorry, I just get so excited when the thought of being able to document new knowledge arises.¡± Placing him down gently she takes a few steps back before bowing ¡°Livia, Magus of the God¡¯s Consortium at your service Marcus. My apologies for not introducing myself when I had already been given the courtesy.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just fine madam but for the love of the gods above please never pick me up again without my permission. It¡¯s not pleasant in the slightest even if its an attractive woman such as yourself picking me up.¡± Chuckling at his poor excuse for a joke he moves on. ¡°Well, Livia what is it you are here to do per say? I don¡¯t remember getting offered any beautiful women after I died so your being here is a tad¡­ off-putting.¡± ¡°Well, as a magus of the Consortium we are often given tasks by the gods¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to interrupt you there, a Magus following the wills of the gods? That makes very little sense based on what I knew of them.¡± ¡°Mr.Marcus there are a great many types of Magus, not all of them hate the gods. In addition, the terms that the Consortium offers are quite, extravagant. Access to Godly knowledge of the world chief among them and more than a few Magus are more than willing to trade a few decades of servitude for immense knowledge.¡± Pausing for breath she ponders for a moment before continuing. ¡° Dealing with the safety and teaching of Dungeons is among the tasks delegated to Consortium Magus¡¯.¡± ¡°And how pray-tell am I supposed to trust a Magus who for all I know could simply choose to dominate my soul and do whatever they want with it?¡± he replies whilst eying her suspiciously ¡°All I can say to allay that worry is that the last few people who did that in the long history of the Consortium were all smote by the gods and their souls put on display in the Consortium¡¯s headquarters eternally tortured for all to see. I personally do not want to be added to that number.¡± ¡°I suppose that will have to suffice. Now then, on to how to actually do this thing, how do I actually do what a Dungeon should do? I suppose as my adviser you should be able to at least tell me that eh?¡± ¡°Well normally you would connect to the dungeon system by nature, but seeing your special nature the gods foresaw that you might have a problem connecting so let me just use this scroll on you and you should be good to go.¡± Livia opens the scroll and inputs some of her own mana. As she does the scrolls ink burns brightly eventually consuming the scroll. The remaining magic circle floats over to Marcus¡¯ *body* before rapidly beginning to rotate. Beginning Awakening Process¡­ Process Complete. Welcome Marcus, to the Dungeon System. ¡°Well that''s certainly interesting¡­¡± pondering a moment Marcus then calls out ¡°Livia I¡¯ll probably be a bit I need to figure this system out please forgive me if I ignore you for a bit¡± Main Menu >Achievement Points: Check Achievements Mana 100/2000 Mana Regen 100/Day Achievements Achievement Shop Construction Dungeon Fauna Dungeon Flora Congratulations on the Following Achievements! First Human Dungeon - Gain 100 AP Accessing the System (you managed something a dungeon does automatically, way to lag behind) Main Menu Achievement Points:100 Mana 100/2000 Mana Regen 100/Day Achievements Achievement Shop Construction Dungeon Fauna Dungeon Flora ¡°Livia, what do you think I should do first? I''ve got a lot of options here and honestly while I have ideas I don¡¯t know what¡¯s best to do with my time.¡± ¡°A few new rooms would probably be a good start I suppose?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can make¡± Accessing Construction¡­Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Godly Override detected. Allowing access to the following functions for dungeon Marcus. Room Resizing, Basic Carving, Instancing. Construction: Basic ¡°Room¡± 50 mana: a 3x3x3m room supplies 5 Mana/Day Basic Hallway 10 Mana: A hallway 1.5m wide and 3m tall. Extends as far as needed to connect two rooms. Does not supply Mana. Room of Elements: a room designed to house Elementals, can be upgraded to be more attractive to certain Elementals. New Floor 1000 Mana: Gives access to a new floor. Other room types currently locked. Functions: Room Resizing: Can add ¡°rooms¡± together to make larger singular rooms (Combined rooms add to mana regen as if separate). Also allows for making a normal room into smaller non-standard sizes. Basic Carving: Allows for the carving of the room and objects in the room to the Dungeons preference. Purely Aesthetic. Instancing: Allows the dungeon to make multiple separate ¡°Copies¡± that exist within the same space, allowing the dungeon to split up separate parties or people challenging the dungeon. Livia was sitting down in the corner watching the Dungeon now known as Marcus flash dimly when a rumbling caught her attention. ¡°Gods above Marcus what did you do?!¡± She could almost swear that in the dimly shining orb that sat on its pedestal there was a grin. ¡°Making a room like you asked my dear lady. What else would I be doing?¡± grinning to himself he continued. ¡°However, I¡¯ve noticed I don''t really have an abundance of mana floating around to make the changes I want. How unfortunate.¡± ¡°Wait, you just use mana? That¡¯s it? That¡¯s underwhelming.¡± ¡°I thought similarly, but the system itself is rather interesting. A thought based interface that spends mana to create things, how novel. Well Livia, unless you have a better way for me to get mana I believe we are stuck here until tomorrow. As that¡¯s when I will have the mana to connect my new rooms and build others.¡± ¡°Here, have some mana stones they should give you enough to get all of that done.¡± Livia offered out a bluish stone that glowed. Marcus stared at the stones before speaking ¡°How, exactly am I supposed to pick them up or use them for that matter?¡± ¡°You should be able to exert your will on most things in your dungeon to move them, and placing them on your body should absorb them.¡± She added on after, ¡°I think.¡± Marcus stared again at the stones and attempted to visualize them floating into his *body*. Sure enough, after a moment, the stones floated into him and he got a notification. Mana Stone detected. Absorbing. New Mana value 1500/2000. ¡°Yes, that seems to have worked quite well thank you, Livia. Now then let me make a few adjustments and then we can discuss a few things.¡± Quickly Marcus began to open menus and buying rooms before lining them up straight and adding doors between the 10 rooms. Marcus appreciated his new mana regen total of 150/day before observing that he had an extra room beside the one he resided in. ¡°Livia, what is this other room that I had before I made the others?¡± ¡°Ah, so you finally noticed the Elements room! That''s a room that allows for the calling of various elementals, it¡¯s extremely important in establishing a dungeon ecosystem!¡± Livia answered ¡°That will suffice as an answer for now as it only raises more questions. As such, let''s ask you some questions. Specifically, do you know how I should be building my dungeon?¡± ¡°Well, Marcus that will depend on what you want to do, I am not allowed to influence your decisions. I can only help guide you to your intended goal, and even then I cannot claim to know everything about dungeons.¡± ¡°I have an idea, I simply don''t know if it''s feasible. What does the territory outside of my dungeon look?¡± ¡°You are in the largest mountain at the middle of a roughly U shaped mountain chain there is a fertile valley in the U. Outside of that there was very little of note that I saw on my way here.¡± Livia professionally replied. ¡°Wait if I''m IN the mountain how did you get here?¡± Marcus asked bewilderedly ¡°Teleportation magic. I knew where you were but I had to get close enough to actually teleport myself into the mountain. Then I waited here until you woke up.¡± Livia shrugged as if what she had done was at all simple. ¡°I¡¯m just going to go along with that then. Livia, what if I told you my idea was to make two kingdoms? One outside of the ¡°dungeon¡± and one inside of the dungeon.¡± ¡°I would ask exactly what you mean Marcus by outside of the dungeon¡± Livia responded ¡°Well in order to make sure that it¡¯ll work I need to know something. If things die in the dungeon do I get something from that?¡± Marcus asked ¡°Yes, I wasn''t exactly sure what you would get but seeing as you use mana it would be likely that you get some amount of mana when things die inside of you,¡± Livia answered clearly ¡°Then what if I build two cities, one inside of my dungeon lived in by creatures of the dungeon. Sentient creatures that I know exist having explored more than my fair share of dungeons in the past.¡± Marcus paused, ¡°and a city outside of the ¡°dungeon¡± in the valley. Still under my control but perfectly safe from any intrusion of monsters from the dungeon.¡± Livia¡¯s face lit up in understanding. ¡°Basically, a City for humans, and a city of Dungeon Monsters! The natural deaths would still feed you no matter what! How devious, and scarily intelligent for someone who just became a dungeon.¡± ¡°I mean, I was an architect building things is in my nature, but to do this I need to know more about how dungeons work. If you could Livia please explain as much as you can.¡± For the following few hours, Livia explained to Marcus about dungeon ecosystems. How he would need to build a functioning food chain, the use of elementals in keeping water flowing, earth fertile, air breathable, and even keeping the area warm. She omitted anything related to building, figuring the architect would be more than capable at that. In addition, she explained how mana flows in such a way that as predators eat more of their prey they build up mana, eventually leading to the potential for evolution. ¡°So, from what I am gathering from your explanations. I COULD do what I want, but I would need to build up a working ecosystem first. Well, that certainly makes sense a city without water will not remain a city for long after all. So I need to work on my first few floors making a functioning ecosystem then work on getting bigger and stronger creatures so that my later internal dungeon city will have food, then I can establish the city and its residents, yes?¡± ¡°That sounds about right, but you will need sentient creatures earlier than you could likely establish that city, as they can help you with various tasks that you yourself cannot do Marcus.¡± ¡°I see, that probably has something to do with those locked rooms huh?¡± Marcus asked no one in particular. ¡°Well, first of all, I need to get the ecosystem going so let''s do this!¡± ¡°1100 mana huh.¡± Marcus checked his mana in the menu. ¡°Well, let''s see what options I have in these other menus gah!¡± Marcus mentally recoiled after opening the Dungeon Flora tab ¡°By the gods that''s a lot of things!¡± Marcus tried to read through them but found they never ended. ¡°Any suggestions Livia?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard many dungeons start with a few moss types, some insects to eat the moss, and a few animals that eat those insects. With your mana levels, you might even be able to find predators for those.¡± ¡°Well, let''s see if we can sort this menu or something.¡± Marcus tries a few mental tricks before ¡°Haha! Success! I can sort it now, now then let''s get down to business.¡± Soon after several patches of moss appeared in all of the rooms. ¡°Hmmm, it seems a decent sized patch of moss costs 1 mana, that''s fairly low. Let''s see if there aren''t some better types of moss or even grass we could put down.¡± Searching for a moment he finds a moss that uses its mana to glow dimly, and a grass called whistlegrass after the sound it makes when a breeze passes it. Purchasing both and placing them down he notes they cost 10 mana a patch. ¡°Hm that''s 100 mana spent, let''s buy some bugs now.¡± soon the cacophonous sound of insects populated the dungeon, all sorts of varieties of grasshopper, ant, cicada, and others popped into the dungeon. ¡°Wow, that was very cheap mana wise, 10 mana for all of those. I suppose it makes sense though as each insect has very little mana and it takes many to feed even a single creature.¡± Next Marcus bought some bats, a few flightless birds, and 2 Anteaters. ¡°Wow, the prices go up steeply for the animals, the bats were 5 mana each, the birds 10, and the Anteaters a whopping 100 a piece! At least the anteaters might be a bit dangerous in the right situation.¡± ¡°Time to finish up Livia looks tired and I don¡¯t want to do something too experimental without consulting her first.¡± looking over to Livia ¡°Livia, is the core room completely safe from monsters?¡± ¡°It should be, I''ve heard that any dungeon creature can¡¯t enter the Core room without the Core¡¯s explicit approval. The only reason I''m here is that I was here before you got here or even I would have to ask for access.¡± Livia replied succinctly "Although if I was hostile I''d have to fight my way through the dungeon if I did the gods would likely smite me though," she added. ¡°Mmm, then it should be safe to add a low-level monster to prey on the birds, and bats.¡± So he added the most common monster he could think of, the Lynxus. A Large feral cat creature that preyed on almost anything smaller than it. As an afterthought, he also added in some common mice types to round things out. Quickly the Lynxus went to work catching a few of the birds before pawing off into one of the rooms it quickly claimed as its own. ¡°Yes, I do believe that should do for the day, good night Livia.¡± ¡°Good night Marcus¡± and she quickly to sleep in the sitting position he had found her in.