《[hiatus] Dungeon Run》 The Prologue v1.1 Dear readers, you will probably find more than a few grammar errors in my novel and I want to apologize for that. So far I normally proof read every chapter at least 3 times but even then there are tons of errors still in there. Right now I switched from open office to grammarly.com, thanks to Saphyron, and it display¡äs me 91 critical issues and 75 advanced issues in this chapter alone after open office already corrected it. I already slightly improved my English while using open office, but now with grammarly it should improve more thanks to the error explanations. Have fun reading the novel now with fewer errors! ps: (Grammarly sadly did not pay me to write this!) Just finished the correction and now I understand why one would think that I never proofread my chapters. ----------------------- The Retreat to the dungeon is finally completed. The old city of Luxor is alive like never before since millions of refugees taking shelter in it. Sadly the cost of this was my treasured town that I had to build up for over a 100 of game years. But there was nothing I could do to stop the Russians after the alliance had lost a battle they should have won! We were 4 : 1 stronger than them and still had lost what a shame. Causeria on of the top ten towns in the upper plane is going to burn. My guild is furious with my decision of complete evacuation. But I am not stupid there is no way to stop an army of a 100 million and with 30 flying emperor dungeons. Sure I could sacrifice my dungeon and deal a huge blow to the rebels but I rather leave the guild than to sacrifice my NPCs and the dungeon. After checking the status on the main monitor in my old command center I was sure that it is time to teleport to the lower planes. I stand up and look at my 30 underlings who are pretending to do something in front of their hologram computers. They were carefully selected and they give a different bonus to the coherent department and each is of a different race which caused me a lot of trouble. Sadly this command center is way to small and could only manage 10% of my gigantic network of dungeons. Nodding to myself I teleport directly to the heart of the dungeon. ¡°Welcome Father¡±(Rose) Ignoring the greeting of the AI, I step to the lonely console in the mountain size room that was filled with the heart of the dungeon. The heart was a beautiful crystal-like structure similar to a city in which several forms of energy are swimming. But I am only focused on searching the right command. Finally satisfied with my settings I activate it. ¡°Are you sure to transfer the dungeon to a random newer lower plane and lose 10% of the Rosentals dungeons?¡±(Rose) ¡°Yes¡±(Rarion) ¡°Closing Entrance¡±(Rose) ¡°Disconnect from the guild network¡±(Rose) ¡°Disconnecting from the world¡±(Rose) ¡°Starting isolation Protocol¡± (Rose) ¡°Powering Spell eta 8 hours¡±(Rose) ¡°Activate mana connection from me to Rose¡±(Rarion) Now I start playing the famous mana mini-game where I have to weave a pattern of colored mana threads. Each thread would react different to its neighbors based on color and change its tint, some colors could only be achieved by combining certain threads, some colors looked extreme similar and then there were even special mana threads with special abilities to block reaction or change color over time. It was a complex logic puzzle. Of course, I unlocked a few cheat abilities which were sometimes even needed to solve the spell. And so I Rarion did speed up the spell to 15 minutes. The Automatic casting was of cause extreme slow but the time it took would rank me around the top ten for this spell. At that moment, I did not know that the blinding light that was cast with the spell was the last thing I would ever see in this world. _________ A long time since than. A thundered voice range through the hall¡°Intruder please wake up father!¡±(Rose) Would there be any sand or stone on the floor it would jump up by the volume of that voice. Of cause me the sleeping dragon that was bedded on a crystal structure would wake up from it. As I slowly open my eyes I can''t stop noticing that I am in my dragon form? Did I miss something? Roaring with slight fear in her voice ¡°father sorry for waking you but we got intruders¡±(Rose) Slowly I stand up with my 7 meters long dragon body that is mainly dark blue with black strips, looking confused around. Intruders? How is that possible, first I should go back to my human form and check the console. Focusing I activate my morph skill, which normally feels like taking a dump. All inherent skills feel just like you would use random muscles. It took years getting used to having wings and then when back out of virtual reality losing them and it feels like you still had wings and could fly. It is just one more reason not to go out of VR! ¡°ahhh!!¡± (Rarion) surprised by the pain I am trying my best to continue, don¡ät want that debuff on me. ¡°Are you ok?¡±(Rose) Hee? what did rose get a vocal update? Well, whatever first let''s check the situation of the intruders. ¡°disconnect the connection from me to Rose¡±(Rarion) ... Oh, auto spells are not working? A bit confused the voice of the core calls ¡°Father are you ok?¡±(Rose) Ohhh, I have to do it manually, thank god for the overlay library function I have unlocked that makes it easy to find the pattern I need. Finally, the connection is cut with the help of my fast mana weave. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.Still ignoring Rose I step to the console and look at the overview of the dungeon. What the hell is going on 70 000 sub-dungeons and only 106 control nodes seems to work! I should have only around 10 000 subs. This is bad, the mana is at critical mass all the buffer are overflowing no production node works anymore, what happened? In the Game, you had to build nodes in your dungeon to manage the mana output by connecting them similar to a production line. You need to carefully balance the nodes and manage them, then built factories so you could build for example a mana hologram or millions of other useful stuff for your civilization. Well first let''s check the log regarding the seals. Oh, the first of the seals has been broken... by Riva?! What does my commander of the Air Force doing breaking my the seals! And not even alone there is an army in the door hall of around 80 000! what is going on?!'' With a spinning head I am opening my inventory, I equip my best equipment, sadly there never was an auto-equip for the sake of realism in the game even so you had an inventory which does not cry out realism. And so under the watchful female face of Rose which is formed by yellow particles inside the crystal city I dress. My best armor has multiple of layers: first, there are the leggings with undershirt which needed alone over 70 dungeons to produce plus special machinery, factories and workers and it could count as one of the top in the game. Sadly I could not say that for its looks, the colors of the rainbow on it change over time that is definitely not my kind of style! Not that you could see it over the rest of the metal leather looking armor in a color of blue and black with a few buttons here and there and with my cloke over it, it made me look like a rouge. I am ready for a fight even so I have no chance against an army of 80 000 alone! ¡°Father stop ignoring me and tell me what¡äs going on!¡±(Rose) Taking a closer look at Rose I realize just how strange she is behaving. No way, could she be an advanced AI? But those are never allowed in VR! After a few long seconds of silence, I try to test a voice command. ¡°Status Rose¡±(Rarion) with a slightly angry voice, I get my answer: ¡°how should I know the status I am not even connected thanks to you!¡±(Rose) Seemingly surprised by the answer I again focus on the console and after a few minutes, I finally activate the command to connect Rose to Rosental. Looking at the face of rose I can see a full facet of emotion in her face from surprise to being perplexed and angry. ¡°*sigh* well it looks like we did sleep around 100 years and the whole dungeon is in total chaos it will not be that easy to gain control back. It seems most of the warden can be activated and were not destroyed¡±(Rose) ¡°Status Rose¡±(Rarion) ¡°What?! we have to rebuild the network in order to get more information all I can say is that we have a lot more dungeons under me but without connection that¡äs all I can say¡±(Rose) Where the hell is the info window? And what is with Rose complex answers? Log out! Log out damn! What¡äs going on why can''t I log out! Nervously I answer her ¡°Give me a second ok?¡±(Rarion) First, the extreme pain while using morph and now this! Can it get any stranger? I can''t even check the net for information where is the internet?! And now that I think about it everything feels slightly different! The seals should hold at least a week so first let''s figure things out here. ¡°So Rose are you a advanced AI?¡±(Rarion) ¡°What? do you really think this is the time to make fun of me?!¡±(Rose) Nervously I answer ¡°that¡äs a no I guess?¡±(Rarion) ¡°Are you not going to greet Riva and fix my nodes? Do you have any idea how I feel without it or should I start now doing it myself? And than the mana pollution we have to open the entrance or everything is going to explode sooner or later. What about your so holy civilisation that you brought in me I am not taking care of them since I have all the wild dungeon running wild to take care of!¡±(Rose) Oh man I am getting a headache from her. I have no idea why she can talk back like she has a consciousness? What does that mean, and why can''t I log out? I am having the feeling that is only the tip of the iceberg of changes. I should investigate Riva and her army now that I know that the guardian army works I should be fine. ¡°Well wait before you activate all the warden or else it just adds to the chaos well I guess I take a closer look at River¡±(Rarion) ¡°Ah right, you can activate all guards in the door hall I will be right back Rose¡±(Rarion) And so after a quick weave I turn invisible and teleport to the door hall. ________ POV Riva Finally the expedition arrived at the famous grand Tor hall. The first army holds the defends at the entrance just in case. Thank god my fear that the guardians would protect this place was false without our equipment from the armory it would be impossible to win since the entrance to the hall was a narrow pass easy to block. I am getting goose bumps looking at the gigantic stone army standing at the walls with all sort of weapon before them from swords to rifles. But then again every royal ward stopped working after the fall why should here be any different? And it does look like here is also no monster well the numbers of traps were hard enough for us to overcome let alone a group of monsters it would take them a few millennia to get here! ¡°6th army move on!¡±(Riva) the sound of dozens off trumpets echo through the hall to signal the order to march and the beginning of a new era in the world. Chapter 1 v1.1 POV Riva The songs of the military band are echoing heavy through the hall but I have no time to enjoy them since I have been busy in the last 20 hours breaking the seal of the door to the heart of our Prison. I have the honor to be one of the best seal breaker in Lux and so even as field marshal, I pushed the responsibility to break the seals to myself. I slightly regret the decision now since its harder than I thought! I wonder what is inside the heart room, it has been 150 or 160 years since the last time I was inside it. Everything later than 100 years is hazy in my memory, I am just like everyone else in that regard. What happened 100 years ago? We are finally going to solve the mystery and hopefully solve the mana pollution or else we all are going to die! What should I tell the senate if the solution is not in there? I am sure forced to retire from the military for at last 50 years! But if I solve it I am sure to make history and lead Lux finally to the sun! My songs will last forever and my status will be as bright as the sun itself! With a hand signal, I order my army to prepare for the door to open and with that, the music instantly halted only to be replaced with signal horns. After waiting for my troops to be ready I crack open the seal with a bit of sweat on my forehead and immediately see another Seal! Why did I ever think there was only 1 seal? I signal my men to stand down but in the middle of the sound of the horns an earthquake trembled, ignoring my orders the soldiers stay in formation. Looking at the stone Army and making sure they are not moving I signal for a conference and let the army stay ready, it would be a good drill for them. Shortly after, the command tent is filled with all my important officers but most importantly is my daughter that I gave the general position of the 6th. She has been a troublemaker ever since she was born, it is because she has never seen her father. I try my best to be strict with her but you just can''t replace a father. That is another mystery I want to solve here, what happened to him 100 years ago? The conference is suddenly interrupted by an officer ¡°Excuse me but we detected a hight end invisibility field!¡±(officer) Could it be a monst... *grumble* My thought about it was interrupted by loud sounds and the trembling of the ground. I run outside like the rest of my officers only to find my worst fears come true, the Stone army is waking up! ________ POV Rarion Teleporting a bit outside from the army camp I finally have a visual on the army and I did not expect it to be an army from the stone ages! Everyone was dressed in a uniform with the main color theme of black and red it also had an emblem on it that had the sun and a blue dragon under it trying to bite the sun. The main weapon that I see is a long spear but there is also the musicians and standard-bearer mix in. Now that I zoom past the torrent of tents with one off my eye skills I pay attention to the strange red stone fort that is surrounded by tents, there I see that they have rifles too! So it is more like a mix off ancient Rome or Greece with a bit of world war 1 weapons blended in since I also found some cannons here and there that are with sand backs fortified. The races are all over the place it seems they are mixed together, that earned a bit of my respect. Most of them I easily recognize. In Plane Wars the VR game, it is extremely important to recognize the races and know the evolution paths since the game did not have levels or traditional stats, everything was instead handled with evolution, you could upgrade everything from your skin so that it is, for example, able to absorb more mana up to the blood cells! But to unlock them you needed extreme expensive treatment plans and so for the top upgrades, you needed hundreds of industry nodes plus rare materials. But they could even go so far that one top ranker could even transform in a swarm of insects! It is always hard to rank someone only on looks, but with equipment it is way easier and so I can tell that most of this are absolute trash! Just how did they even get here? What!? My gas mask displays me that they have somehow detected me! That is what I get for underestimating them. So ok no time to lose, set formation for the army with the help of a 3d illusion in front of me, one of the many benefits a dungeon master has inside of his dungeon, and send the orders to Rose! *grumble* Haha, look at them how scared they are! I think this ugly one peed himself! You did not think that they are just an ornament! Hahaha! Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Ok, ok, I need to get serious! Searching my inventory for my Flag I turn visible and ram it into the ground. Oh, nobody can see the flag that should be flying 4 meters above me since here is no wind! With a smile, I jump 10 meters back and turn into my dragon form while still in the air. Cursing myself for forgetting the pain from the last transformation I push myself with the help of my wings slightly forward so that my head is next to the flag and while I open my wings I use one of the standard dragon skills roar! *Roooooaaaarrr* Still thinking this is a game i have a huge smile and it should be visible even under my transformed gas mask. I am proud that the Flag is flying and with the help of a quick spell I should make it stay that way! But my attempt to cast the wind spell was stopped as soon as I activate my mana eyes. In front of me are thousands, no millions of lose, ugly natural formed mana threads in all colors. These deformed strings in a size of 1 mm to 1 cm can easily mess up spells and in the best case dissolve enchantments in the worst case they just make the enchantments explode! Normally I would laugh evilly at the scared shitless army before me and I would have the best time of my life! But no at this moment all my focus is the equipment that I have on me. Searching for the right solution I try to release my mana to create a current of mana and push the strings away, but the outside mana is so saturated that it would only take 1 hour till I am out of mana! Hmm... if I had a mana exhaust from Rose under me the pressure would wash the trash away! It took me only a blink to transmit the command to rose and another few seconds for the exhaust slowly replace the stone floor. Thinking about it, the important storage rooms they should all have seals on them and make them save, but most of the magic based traps should be turned to junk. Well, I just need them to be re-enchanted. Ah right, the army! I turn my eyes back to normal and I am surprised by the not so scared army that has taken formation. My army of wardens should have soon surrounded them. Even if the weapons of the stone guardians have lost the enchantment they should be able to massacre them since their ancient weapons are just too weak to hurt them! Finally casting the wind spell I will wait for the enemy to respond and after a few minutes, a small convoy slowly approaches me. The leading figure is Riva she gained a bit of weight and has lost her youth but she is still attractive, typical Valkyrie she has white wings and blond hair but the giant war pig with metal horns that she is riding just does not fit her angelic figure! Slightly behind her is another winged creature riding a pig but she has dyed her wings black and Red? Well, it fits her red hair, quite the beauty. ¡°Greetings Overseer Rarion it has been a long time.¡±(Riva) ¡°Well you see for me it was just yesterday that I saw you in the old command center¡±(Rarion) ¡°That was 100 years ago, what happened?¡±(Riva) The whole convoy was waiting in tension, but I was surprised by the complex answer. So she has also a consciousness? Ignoring her question I demand answers instead ¡°Who gave you the order to come here?¡± (Rarion) The only one in power to do so should be me! ¡°The co-consults of Lux together with the Senate have finally approved of the expedition after they noticed the mana pollution will not solve itself. I as supreme commander took the honor myself 10 years ago to lead it!¡± (Riva) So they ordered it themselves? This is a big problem, what in the world is going on.. can''t log out everyone is suddenly alive? No way... ¡°We have changed the constitution 1 year after the fall in order to modernize the army to better fight the Monster horde that is invading Lux all the time. At this time, there should be no mention of your name in the constitution Lord Overseer!¡±(Riva) This is bad damn forget about my equipment, my civilization ah! Why did that happen to me, I did all I could do to build them up! Should they not pray to me like a god? If they were truly alive for all the things I did for them they should pray to me! ¡°Clare I want you to step forward.¡±(Riva) ¡°Yes ma''am.¡±(Clare) ¡°I want you to greet your father!¡±(Riva) My face would turn ashen if it could. Oh no no no, when I think about it if they pray to me than only as the devil! No no no this can''t be true, they can''t turn alive!! Chapter 2 POV Rarion ¡°What happened 100 years ago Lord Overseer?¡±(Clare) ¡°I am not to sure myself but I think I slept the 100 years¡±(Rarion) Oh, they looked shocked, they did not expect such an anticlimactic reason. ¡°You must understand that we thought that you had an accident or just abandoned us.¡±(Riva) Every NPC seems gotten consciousness one hundred years ago maybe I was transferred to a game world with only advanced AI¡äs? That was my first guess but that would cost billions no way I am worth that much. That leaves only that I am in a new universe or something? What will happen if I die? And then suddenly I become father what responsibility do I have now? ¡°Clare, what do you now expect from me?¡±(Rarion) ¡°I am not stupid since half off Lux is related to you what can I expect?¡± (Clare) Oh shit! Why do I feel so bad suddenly? Everyone did it with the NPCs! You gained skills and other bonuses from it! It is counted as the same as to masturbate! Make children with every race in your civilization... it was one of the standard quests... every top ranker did it, right? I will make it up to them! I need to make it up to them! How am I else ever be able to look at myself in the mirror again if I don''t! Carefully I start to ask¡°Why do we not continue talking about it in the heart room over dinner but just the three of us?¡±( Rarion) They seem slightly confused by my question. ¡°I can easily open the dungeon entrance and get rid of the mana strings whenever I want. But first I need to know more about my Civilization, the whole industry seems down so it is better to not rush things.¡±(Rarion) After a commanding look from Riva at Clare, I got finally the answer ¡°Than we will dine with you¡±(Riva) I order the stone army back to the wall and stretch my mana out to them for teleportation , I got a bit of resistance from Clare but only for a few seconds. ¡°Welcome back father¡± (Rose) ¡°Ah Rose I brought beck guests¡±(Rarion) ¡°Ah yes my half Sister and Riva, hello.¡±(Rose) Just what have I gotten into? First, let''s turn back to human. This time, I am prepared for the pain from it. Ignoring everyone I teleport to one of the first houses inside the dungeon, it is still here how nostalgic. I remember the first Clan meeting that was here and I was still a newbie dungeon master. After the ascend every one of us changed. I am the last that stayed, not everyone can play a game for 100 years. The furniture seems still in order even after 100 years I expected nothing less from living mana wood. Since the only light sources are dim light stones embedded in the walls and ceiling of the dungeon, the clan center itself is cast in darkness, like the rest of the Clan member houses that surround it. With my skills, I do not need light to see but it is still sad to see it in such a lifeless state. After grabbing a small table and chairs, putting them into my inventory and then I flee from my past. The Food inside my inventory should still be fresh and is made from one off the top player cooks. The Food will increase different organ without directly mutating them, you could not buy something like that for gold, but I should have more than enough of it stored away since I paid in precious Research which is even more worth than that food. In front of me is now my NPC companion and my daughter eating food, I should stop thinking of them as NPCs . Even advanced AIs have earned human rights in the real world. The nearly perfect VR capsules are proof alone for me that we humans are nothing more than advanced AIs. A perfect VR capsule can read the mind and if you built a machine that can give the same mind output as a human would that not make it human? In the Year 2270 most of the people started fleeing into the VR world, not because of war or any other disaster no it was boredom. Androids replaced humans in every field of work and had no problem working 24/7 they are even better at art or writing than humans. We lost our purpose. First humans thought it was perfect to have everything for free and not have to work for anything in life. But without purpose, we got depressed and VR was the cure. In the real world, my body¡äs age should be around 22 years. The VR world can speed time up to 10 times and more since we exist as pure information and are supported by the processors of the capsule. Humanity faces serious problems because of it, but that are not mine to solve. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. The problem that I have to solve sits in front of me, I can deal with NPCs turning alive but I can''t deal with becoming a father! But first, I need to solve the problem with my civilization. ¡°So how has Luxor been doing the last 100 years?¡± (Rarion) Riva answers me dry¡°After you left 100 years ago the command center went dark, we lost contact with most of the outposts and the gates, pipes and everything in control of the dungeon stopped working, the warden also went still and so it took only one week for the first monster wave to hit us. As you know that the ceiling in Luxor is not hight enough for any real Air Force or artillery to work and we did not have any tanks or jeeps, we were jut not mobile.¡± The tone of her voice is becoming sharper and sharper ¡°As a result the civilians suffered heavy casualties, the army at that time did not function as effective without command. We stabilized eventually and created Lux with the senate and prospered economically, conquered new layers and made alliances with some friendly dungeons."(Riva) "30 years after the fall The monster waves were becoming stronger and stronger one reason was that the mana made them envolve and another was that they made alliances themselves, and most dungeon dwellers hated us because you treated them as farm animals and we are since than at constant war¡±(Riva) Now, both of them looking harsh at me, looking left over to Rose she is also looking harsh at me! I would have never done it if I knew that they could think and feel! But I have the feeling that they would not believe me if I told them. Do they think I am kind of a monster? In the game, there was no real taboos when it comes to NPCs but even so I never did the darkest things but in the wars, the use of toxic gas was normal for example. Would I ever use toxic gas in the real world? No! ¡°But we also evolved and did built our own tanks and cars and so we still made ground with our slowly improving technology. 70 years after the fall our population did rise from the 8million to 50 million because dungeons dwellers joint Lux and we had rapid growth of some races like rat men or cracklings. But then our enchantments started to fail because of the pollution. The civilians economy crashed and Lux went into a full war economy! At this moment we do not have any civilians in Lux, everyone is some part of the military and the last population count was around 34 million.¡±(Riva) ¡°You had a hard time, but you must understand that I never intended for you guys to stay down there for so long.¡±(Rarion) ¡°Than when are you planning to release us?¡±(Riva) Evadingly I answer: ¡°Luxor should be 500 layers from here, first I will reinstall the node network there.¡±(Rarion) ¡°I already did start to install the node network .¡±(Rose) ¡°But you have only pure mana nodes, we need soon all kinds of nodes, good thing I always overproduced them.¡±(Rarion) ¡°Yes father I still need your help with that¡±(Rose) Hmm, I do not like the idea that rose starts doing stuff on her own too much to my dungeon, I will have to pay attention to it in the future! ¡°Right, also I know it was hard for you guys but for me last night I had still an army under my command and now I am nearly a bagger! I need you guys to continue working for me or how else I am to restart the production of weapons that you will probably also need?¡±(Rarion) ¡°We can build our own weapons, we learned it from one of the best and you were the commander of 1 million not 34! So how about we give you 1 million and you let us out?!¡±(Riva) ¡°So you can give me 1 million cracklings?! Also, Lux should recognize that I have the absolute authority in the dungeon and at its only entrance!¡± ¡°About that¡±(Rose) ¡°You see as soon as we open the gate to the plane the wild dungeons can open their own path since I have no control over them. They will still be connected to us but also make entrances randomly into the other plane not too far from us. That is their instinct because of the mana pollution¡±(Rose) ¡°So my dungeon will have around 70 000 entrances.... ?!¡±(Rarion) Chapter 3 POV Rarion Luxor, the only thing that remained of the once ancient Egyptian town are the sphinx statues and the Tempel that was re-functioned as the Senat. The modern looking town itself is filled with block apartment buildings with the height of 5 stories that were painted by smoke in black shades. The roads are filled with cars driven by a variety of horse-like creatures, the people itself are all clothed in a different type of uniform. The sunstones in the ceiling are also dyed black by the smoke and do not add much light to the town. All in all, I got an ugly and dirty impression of the town. Dropping my exploration plan, since I do not have a uniform I teleport back to heart room. A slightly surprised voice greets me:"Oh, you are back again?"(Rose) Somewhat bitter I reply: "Yeah I dropped my investigation since I don''t have a uniform to fit in."(Rarion) "Why don''t you just steal one, can''t be that hard?"(Rose) I am moderately annoyed by her now: "You know what, I got depressed by just how they live I really need to improve their life."(Rarion) With a sudden serious voice she is replying : "Yes, sounds excellent let us do it now!"(Rose) That was a way to fast 180¡ã turn from her! "What do you want me to do instead?" now clearly ironic "No, let''s focus on your civilization that seems to love you!" wow, the earth started slightly to tremble from her voice. In order to de-escalate the situation, I try changing the topic: "This is the first argument that I can remember, can you maybe remember one?" After a little pause:"hmm, everything before we woke up yesterday, is hazy. Is it for you the same?"(Rose) After a short pause, I lie: "Yes quite strange do you know what happened?" "No, but for the others in the dungeon, it is the same. And now that I have some of my nodes running again, I can tell you that most of Lux think that you have drugged them and the hazy is because of you!"(Rose) with an angry stamp on the ground wich also lets the ground tremble I answer: "Damn, someone set me up!"(Rarion) Which makes zero sense! In the end, it does not matter who caused it... At the end of the day, I am trapped here and need to clean this up. Maybe it is even a fair cost for the power and chance to actually matter! With a now defeated voice, I ask: "Because it is hazy I can''t remember you having so, excuse me for saying, complex feelings."(Rarion) "hmm, that quite strange indeed, even in my mother''s memory I can''t remember her having feelings..."(Rose) without thinking, I shout: "You remember your mother!?"(Rarion) now hesitant she answers: "We dungeon cores all have genetic memories, we gain only a small portion but more than enough to know what to do when we are born."(Rose) This could be a big problem, in the beginning, to become dungeon master your clan or guild needed to complete a rare quest. Our quest was to infiltrate a flying dungeon and destroy its heart! Everyone in the clan who wanted to become dungeon master rolled a dice and I won. The new dungeon heart at that time looked like a baby sized crystal rose and so she got the name Rose, this earned me laughs from my friends for my creativity. It took me more than 7 houres of an annoying mini-game to bound my mana with her making me a dungeon master. "I know the dwellers of my mother destroyed a few towns and the merchant hired you for revenge for his daughter but still..."(Rose) You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. So that was the quest, good that she remembers since I don''t! After a long pause: "I, I don''t hate you for it, I am not to sure what I think about it... Thinking about it it feels like a void in my core you know?"(Rose) Honestly, I don''t feel bad for killing the dungeon, I can''t feel guilt for any mob I killed in the game. But I still feel bad for her, she gained such a cruel destiny, mana bound and controlled by the killer of her mother. I can''t change the past, maybe there is something I can do now? "Is there anything you want?"(Rarion) "Yes! I want to be a dragon!"(Rose) "A Dragon?"(Rarion) Now lightly excited"Yes a Dragon, and in the colors of you leggings I like it how they change color over time it looks like the energy in my core!"(Rose) How the hell should I turn her into a dragon? "First, I wanted to become a flying dungeon, but with so many sub-dungeon that would be no longer possible. So a dragon wich likewise can fly would also be good!"(Rose) "?hm, I don''t know if that''s possible..."(Rarion) "I know it will take some time... but you did so much research with evolution so I definitely think there should be a way!"(Rose) Yes, maybe there is a solution, I am not to sure if I will continue the evolution research but the game had so many spells and items, maybe there is a way but I actually don''t want to turn her into a dragon! "You know what, I will look into it when the chaos is over. But I can''t promise you anything."(Rarion) "So, I know you are not the biggest fan of Lux but I would like your input with an idea that I have with the Luxor Layer."(Rarion) ______ POV Bankston I can not believe that we really can soon leave this dungeon and see the surface again! Soon I am meeting with the Infamous Overseer, I am not sure what to expect from him there are so many horror stories: He farms Dragons like pigs just so he can feed its heart to some dungeon dwellers. He kills thousands just to improve his skill slightly, he steals infant babies for experiments! If only one thing of them is true we should not meet with him, we should put him down like a mad pig that he is! But we do not have a choice, we need his help. Because of his drugs we did his biddings and for that the whole dungeon hates us! Even if we are on the surface the other dungeons soon will follow and hunt us down we maybe even need to stay down here since it is easier to defend here! But there are also other stories about him: He has Weapons that slice warden like butter. He has the knowledge that would make the ascends jealous. He has machines that can travel to the stars and are powered of a sun itself! We need him, and he apparently needs us as his henchmen. Would it be worth it to sacrifice some children for the sake of Lux? At the end, I will do what is best for Lux I am even willing to become the devil himself. Suddenly a small distortion opens up in front of the entrance of the Senate. Replacing the space rift stood now an around 1.80 meter big human with black hair and blue eyes. The only thing that looks spezial about him are the clothes that he wears. With black military boots, dark blue jeans and the black blue sweatshirt, he can not help but stand out in the crowd that tolerantly began to surround him. "Hello, people of Lux."(Rarion) This time, I am happy that Seager the other co-consul is beside me since I know he will also do everything for Lux so that we finally gain our rightful place under the sun! Chapter 4 POV Clare I got used to being in the army long ago and I really do not want to repeat the whole experience of being kidnapped again, but a part of me hopes that after we see the sun again and I can escape my Valkyrie fate. I want to be a real artist and draw pictures like in the hall of fame! I even would draw my mother as the sun bringer if that is what it is going to take! The soldiers are calling her sun bringer what a joke, she is now working 20 hours on the seal and it is still not broken! I would have broken it twice by now, thanks to all the seal making and breaking that I went through in order to sneak out of her prison to draw blue dragons all over the city! I wonder what kind of face mother will make if she ever finds out I am the blue dragon paint-slinger! Oh, finally it looks like she is ready to break it. Hehe, I see that there is another Seal! I must not laugh! Think of my old squad ahh, the good old times. My years of emotion control show again since I did not laugh. But I have to draw this face of my stunned mother it is just too funny! *rumble* Oh did the stone army activate? No... Well, time for war counsel and time to hear mothers questions and questions like always in the counsel. I really hope the stone Royals wakes up, I have already made plans with the first Army, we can''t destroy them, we can''t even end warden no chance we can defeat guardians but that does not mean we can''t trap them! Oh mother, I have my own name flying around. Since I can''t practice my creativity on the canvas I had to do it on the battlefield and that earned me quite the reputation. Oh mother, wait for me Blood Wing, I will be the one that steals your dream like you did with my dream and I will the hero¡äs name that will echo forever up to the sun! POV Rarion - One week later. I am looking now outside from my half dusty villa into the barren desert that was once a beautiful garden. *Sigh* Today is the day I can finally start the rebuilding process, the negotiations are hard and slow but we could at least find a temporary solution. The main problem is that Lux wants me to open the dungeon first and see how the outside world is, should we be in an asteroid field than they would want a different cooperation than should we start on a rock floating in the void. The more I try to explain to them that we are probably on a mana rich planet where it will be impossible to not find live the more they don''t believe me! Rose did not only explain that to me, she also investigated the two consuls. She can''t observe everything, but she can focus on 2 places the same time. And turns out my first hunch was correct, one Consuls is my child. *Sigh* Making love to an egg was certainly not one of my proudest moments but for each race, I gain a small evolution bonus of their race and my partner also gains one of me. Also, a child gains the grates bonus out of both of us. Naturally if I do experiments I do it with my children since they have a greater chance of success since they have the bonus. Jule Seager one of the current consuls is one of my more successful experiments, an Insectomind. After seeing the top ranker Early Pearl beating 5 other top ranker on stream as an insect swarm everyone tried to recreate the Race. Recreating a hive mind and adding genetic memories to a small fly race was the easy part. Creating out of them the highly specialized different races of the swarm itself was the hard part but Early Pearl''s real genius was his miniature equipment like a 3 cm small cloning machine wich so far nobody was able to recreate. Jule Seager¡äs swarm steadily grows till it''s time to split and so Seager is both male and female. But it does not look like a swarm. Most of the time it is in his human form where its skin looks like it has scales and it even created a fake nose, mound and eyes that it doesn''t really need. The Face looks quite strange since it is drawn with the backs of his colorful insects. Stolen story; please report. So it did not surprise me that he demanded that I stop using poison gas since this is one of most effective weapons against him. But what really shocked me was when Rose told me that 22 years ago he slaughtered most of the upper class that opposed his military reforms that turned everyone into the military. But the bigger problem in the negotiations is Mason Bankston, a small gnome looking men. I smelled immediately that he was actually a Dragon, most bigger dragons morph into smaller humanoid forms so my guess is that he is a bigger dragon. His ex-company took control over the media 40 years ago and somehow did not get culled from Seager, now he is the head of the foreign affairs, and Head of Commerce. Lux turned somehow in a form of communism with a command economy. *Sigh* Well, it should be time to teleport to the meeting with my new second in command and my daughter Clare. The now named Layer Quator had once one of my main malectricity plants now it is one of the most secure Outpost of Lux. But my biggest trouble is that the water is gone! This place is 298 Layer from the heart and is a 100 km by 100km square, it was filled up to 100 meters with sweet-water and it is now gone! My plants were in a huge cave at the sides of the dungeon and now I can look down around 70 meters and see a sea of mushrooms. "I wonder where all the water went."(Rarion) "We were told that the mushrooms ate it."(Clare) "They ate it huh? Could they be even intelligent?"(Rarion) "So far there is no proof for that. But some here believe in the mushroom god and that they have to sacrifice water to him."(Clare) "I kind want to burn it down and fill it with water again."(Rarion) "If that is what you wish to do."(Clare) Ah, I am optimistic about Clare''s future, River truly raised her well. Only her nickname Bloodwing is a bit much. "So they build a town here, how many do live here?"(Rarion) "When we came here 4 years ago here were 40 000 mostly goblins kobolds and gnomes but now here live more than 100 000 and they started settlements in the mushrooms.(Clare) "Would that not make my burning the mushrooms problematic?"(Rarion) "Yes."(Clare) It took us some boring 3 hours to get everything organized. I miss my menu, they use paper for everything! I can''t wait for the first PC¡äs to run! The first improvised plant is for just for a small command center will take only 1-2 days to built and will start getting built after the mana strings are gone, later I plan to build some real Plants! "Did you find a crew with the needed experience?"(Rarion) "Yes the crew is ready, so the opening will be tomorrow?"(Clare) "It should, are the preparation finished?"(Rarion) "It will be in time"(Clare) "Ok then see you tomorrow."(Rarion) I am beeing shocked as I teleport through all the Layers of Rose, I have seen some changes but there are just things I did not expect like a whole Layer full of weird slimes type creatures. The main dungeon has over 1200 floors, with Rose at zero Quator at 298 was the last industry node, the floors from 1 to 300 were installed after I joined the guild, I was afraid that they would betray me so they are for pure defense. The next 600 Layers were the real industry, here are all the sub-dungeons are connected. The last 300 Layers are for pure defense against outside forces. I have also some special floors beneath Rose Core like a Storage layer and the Archive. All the entrances to the subs are now secured by the warden, they still have incomplete weapons but it should be enough for now. Rose said that most of the dungeon dwellers from other dungeons retreated and are out of Rose. Seems like word got around that the dungeon is opening. I wonder if outside a princess is waiting for me to save her and her kingdom.