A Dungeon’s Survival

Cameron

At the bottom the staircase was a narrow, decrepit hallway. It was overgrown with vines and other vegetation that normally wouldn't grow underground, but thanks to them being environments of my Dungeon, the lack of light and proper growing conditions made no difference to them. That, along with my Enhanced Environments trait, let me get creative with the way I set them up.

I had trees growing into walls, so I could snake their roots across the tiled floor. Brush and brambles grew from nooks and crannies, covering up recesses and small pits where I could hide things. Then, there were the vines.

They dangled down from above, threatening to stab into anyone that carelessly brushed past them with thorns they didn't naturally have. It was my first time modifying plants that weren't monsters, and despite my much harsher limitations when dealing with them, I was satisfied with the results. I had managed to get them to resemble Bloodthorn Vines.

That didn't make them any more dangerous than normal thorny vines, but considering what any adventurer would have to go through to get to them, I hoped the similarities could put people on edge and distract them from the actual things I didn't want them paying attention to. The rest of my vegetation and the carefully positioned lighting helped with that as well.

I had exclusively used mana crystals to illuminate the room. Their faint glow didn't light it up much, but that was my intention. They were placed in such a way that kept what I didn't want seen hidden, and the light from them also hit the plants in the room just right to cast ominous shadows that I hoped they would keep anyone passing through jumping. As for the actual danger in the hall, there currently wasn't any. That was where my new project came in. I was still designing what would make the area actually lethal.

Together with Vie and Pee, we crossed through the long passage and into a room on the other side. It was large and mostly empty. That was because I needed the space. My new monsters, while not terribly dangerous, were volatile, and they were a pain to deal with when set off.

I, of course, could keep them in check, extending my influence to them as though they were extensions of myself. That was more than enough to keep them from causing trouble, but that approach only worked on my own monsters. The monsters in the room, despite being of the same variety as my new species, were not under actually my control.

[Crystal Puffer

Level: 1

Cost: 12 DP

Health: 30 (60)

Stamina: 30 (60)

Mana: 140 (200)

Stats: FORT 6 (12), VIT 10 (17), STR 12 (19), END 6 (12), SOUL 14 (20), MIND 6 (12), WILL 14 (21), COM 4 (10), DEX 6 (12)

Skills: None

Abilities: Crystal Roots, Mana Puff, Mana Sense

Description: A monstrous weed that roots in mana crystals. It absorbs mana from the crystal it is rooted in and expels it along with reproductive spores when it senses a predator nearby. Though weak and easily killed, its explosion of spores prior to its death ensures the survival and prosperity of its species.

Upgrades: Professional Amateur (+1 to every stat), A Walk in the Park (+5% to DEX and WILL), Too Close for Comfort (+1 to every stat), Deathtrap (+1% to every stat), Forceful Eviction (+1 to STR), Toxic (+1 to VIT), Kill Zone (+1 to every stat), Mass Grave (+1 to every stat), Raid (+1 to every stat), Great Raid (+1 to every stat), Generalist (+1% to every stat), Grand Raid (+1% to every stat), A New Generation (Progenitor)]

Those were the details of my new species of monster, and it was the same thing that made them most useful to me as it was that forced me to take such thorough precautions with them. Unlike any other monster I was able to summon, they could reproduce.

It wasn't as powerful of a detail as it sounded. After all, none of their offspring were connected to me. That meant they didn't benefit from any of my achievements, I couldn't modify them, I couldn't modify my Dungeon around them without spending an exorbitant amount of mana to hardly do anything, and worst of all, their experience gain wasn't linked to me. That meant they didn't contribute to the species' experience pool when they died, and more annoyingly, I didn't get anywhere near as much experience from them killing things as I would have if they were mine. Those were the downsides.

On the other hand, there were some benefits to them being the way they were. First of all, since they were technically foreign entities, I could get a minuscule amount of experience from their deaths, but since they were weak level one monsters without any of the boosts in power that came from being linked to me, that experience might as well have not been a thing. It wasn't even ten points per kill, so considering the effort that went into growing them and the over fifteen thousand of them I would have to raise and slaughter just to get a single level's worth of experience, far more for each subsequent level, I put the idea of farming my own experience on the back burner for the time being.

Other than that, they did provide me with the utility of a monster that didn't cost any DP to maintain. Sure, I had to spend mana to provide them with crystals, but it was a way to increase the number of monsters in my Dungeon beyond what I otherwise could. That was invaluable to me, and there was one other benefit to them being how they were. While they didn't gain anything from my achievements, there was actually one thing boosting their power, and if I took advantage of it properly, they could become a real asset to me.

[Achievement: A New Generation

Description: One of your monsters has spawned another monster that isn't bound to you and is outside of both your control and theirs.

Reward: The monster species and its evolutions have gained the ability Progenitor.]

[Ability: Progenitor

Description: You produce stronger offspring.

Effect: When producing offspring, for every 10 points you have in (VIT), they benefit from +1% to all stats.]

They could become real assets, one day, but for the time being, I obviously couldn't afford to create a Crystal Puffer with seventy points in vitality for the sole purpose of raising its produced monsters' highest stats by one point each. That meant, the ability wasn't immediately useful, but much like the creatures' potential to provide me with experience, it could be in the future. Of more immediate value to me, though, was the title I had gained alongside that specific achievement.

[Title: Achievement Collector

Description: You earned 100 achievements.

Effects: While this title is equipped, the holder benefits from an additional experience reward equal to its holder's level x 100 every time an achievement is gained. Upon receiving this title, its holder is also awarded 50,000 experience.]

It wasn't useful in itself. The Lord of Chaos title already had the same effect, but its was better. What was useful, however, was the fifty thousand experience I had gotten from it. That had been enough to push me well past level twelve and get an extra perk that I immediately wasted by rolling the dice for a new monster.

It had been my first time choosing that focus, and I hadn't known what to expect since the System could have offered me monsters from any type. I chose the most powerful of the three options it provided me, but I was clueless about what to do with what I had gotten. I was sure I would either find a use for them or convert the new Shade Lurkers into an aspect eventually, but their cost, the highest out of anything I now had, kept me from experimenting with them immediately. Instead, I had been focusing on the mana crystals and Crystal Puffers.

Aside from their reproductive capabilities, the plant monsters functioned in a unique way. They couldn't move, not even having agility stats, and they got only one unallocated stat point per level, less than even the Horned Dracos. Their lives were on a time limit from the moment I summoned them, and their offspring were just as hostile to my own monsters as they were to invaders. That was a lot of disadvantages, but I had managed to work through all of them to find a vast amount of utility.

“Our queen, that is a lot.”

“They look different!”

In front of us were twenty-one plants growing from crystals. I had spaced them out across the room. They all vaguely resembled giant dandelions with arm-thick stems, massive leaves, and some bulbous plant matter tucked beneath particularly thick coatings of wispy strands. That was where the similarities between them ended. Some were gray in color and unassuming, some glowed from their strands, and some had red and yellow threads that seemed to dance like flames as they swayed of their own volition. I had started of with only six varieties initially, but through my efforts, each weed monster in the room was now unique.

I'd hope they're different, I chuckled, It took a lot of work, but I managed to get each one to take on two elements. Even though the mana crystals explode when spliced together, I found a way to combine them just enough for these things to root in two at once. The effects of that range from useless to a lot stronger than their basic counterparts. Now, how should we go about this?

I paused for a moment to think as I looked my menacing garden over. The monsters weren't powerful, but their Mana Puffs were extremely hard to dodge, and I had been neglecting Vie and Pee's defenses. I didn't want them dying, so having them poking around at the plants was out. I figured I could summon some monsters to set them off, but that seemed a bit boring. Then, I had an idea.

How's about we turn this into a game?

“A game?”

“What kind of game?”

I'll summon a Trenti, a Shadow Viper, and a Horned Draco for you. You can take command of them, and your goal will be to set off each of these monster's while trying to keep yours alive. This way, you'll get a chance to play around a bit and work on learning strategy at the same time. What do you think?

“Would it be a challenge?”

“What are the rules?”

Two very different questions were their responses, and I was left uncertain which to answer first and how.

Um, yes? I think it should be a bit challenging anyway. There are a few duds among them, but for the most part, the effects of combining elements is weird. The magics don't seem to combine in the most predictable of ways, so you'll have to guess what they'll do based on how they look and use your three monsters with different strengths and weaknesses to set them off. As for other rules, I think just you not being able to interact with them yourselves should be enough. How does that sound?

“We'll lead your subjects to victory, my queen.”

“Yeah, sounds fun!”

With that, I summoned the three monsters down the hall, not able to summon them in the room itself due to the foreign monsters present. Then, I called them over. The Shadow Viper and Horned Draco raced down the hall to us. The Trenti tried to do the same, but it quickly tripped over one of the sprawling roots on the way. Then, the Shadow viper fell through some vegetation on the floor into a pit. A moment later, the lizard arrived and looked up at us.

Maybe I should have given them something better to work with.