A Dungeon’s Survival

Cameron

Ugh, I at least wanted to take that insane woman down too.

“Stupid lifespring stone, letting prey get away and forcing my retreat!”

I rolled my nonexistent eyes at the little dragon.

What do want from me? We couldn't take them all on, and your guts are literally spilling out of your body right now. The only reason you're even still alive is because of your Unnatural Survival ability. You practically died back there, same as everyone else.

I complained with Adraugon as we hid in the tunnels below my core room. I had no clue what was going on up above me since moving my core to a confined space had cut the rest of my Dungeon off from my senses. For all intents and purposes, the tiny space I was squeezed into was now being counted as my entire Dungeon. That worked out well enough since it meant the group up above who had tried to kill me wouldn't get a notification from the System telling them that they were leaving my Dungeon when they made their way out.

“My new trophies will be stolen!” Adraugon huffed.

Oh well, it's not like we're in any state to stop them.

A growl was his response.

Calm down. You can have the spear, sword, and dagger I stole from them in the middle of the fight.

“Not earned! I will take, but I want mage trophy.”

Not earned? Two of those weapons are from their leader.

“Yes, prey you hunted. Not my kill.”

You secured that kill. It might as well have been yours. What was that new ability anyway?

I brought up his status and the information on the new bonus he had chosen for reaching level fifteen. Apparently, it wasn't an ability.

[Spell: Gale Impact

Cost: 20 MP

Cooldown: 1 minute

Description: You summon forth a gale of wind in front of you.

Effect: You summon forth a gale of wind in front of you. You can spend an additional amount of mana to strengthen the winds by a proportionate amount. The gale's maximum strength is based on your (SOUL). Your control over the gale is based on your (WILL).]

“Tch! Weak! Barely moved him.”

How much mana did you put into it?

“As much as I could.”

Not great efficiency, then. It looks like it's based on your soul stat, so even if it's costly, if you spec more into magic, it could be powerful. Hmm, actually, you know what? I bet it would stack with your Velocity Transference.

“Hmm, if so, I might.”

We'll have to test it out at some point.

With that, our conversation came to an awkward end. That left us with a somewhat uncomfortable silence between us, so to fill it, I reached out to Fabian.

Can you check if the coast is clear in a bit?

“Uh, yeah. I can do that, but I'd like to give it a while first. I don't want to teleport back in only to find out they're still there. Good work, by the way. I wasn't sure you'd make it through that to be honest.”

I heaved a mental sigh.

You and me both.

The only things that had saved my life had been my quick thinking and those two kills we had secured. I hadn't initially factored leveling up into my plan; I definitely didn't expect those two to be worth seventy-five thousand experience each, but in hindsight, had I not gotten that extra level, I would have still died.

My plan had been simple. I used up the bulk of my remaining mana in the arena to create a mass of light mana crystals, mostly out of the ones already present in there, in the shape of a Dungeon Core. I then had my Shade Lurker collect it and swap it out with myself. I planned to have it use its shadowy body to cover me and obstruct my real core from view after that, but I forgot one crucial thing. Light hurt the creature.

It somehow managed to carry the orb to my current position before it died, but with the damage it took in the process, there was no chance it could have lasted for long enough to keep me out of sight. That was why I switched tactics. I dumped every last point of mana and DP I had into enhancing its soul stat. That had barely worked.

The main problem with my new creature's ability to phase through walls was that it cost an absurd amount of mana that was based on its own stat total. As it turned out, it could bring objects with it, but that also added to the mana cost. I, a crystal just short of being pure mana, added far too much to that cost for transporting me with it to be a viable option.

Fabian once told me that a Dungeon's mana was statistically ten times more potent than normal mana. Since a point in SOUL added ten to a normal mana pool, my denser one seemed to directly add to the mana cost per second of Phase at a one-to-one ratio. Even with the amount I enhanced my monster's SOUL, it couldn't afford to make me intangible for even a full second. Luckily, the most of a second it had worked for had been enough to lower me into the tunnel below.

That brought me to my present circumstances as I waited for the group to collect the mana crystal shards along with their dead and get out of my home. From the faint sounds still coming from above, the process seemed to be dragging on. I was stuck alone in the hole with Adraugon, a necessity since he was unable to leave my Dungeon which now only consisted of the hole. The Shade Lurker was nowhere to be found.

That was because, while it did manage to safely deposit me into my current location, its fifty points of health hadn't held out against the act of wrapping itself around my glowing core and pulling me through the ground for much longer than it took to do so. Barely more than a second later, it had succumbed to the light, leaving only a wall of disconcerting System notifications that I had been trying my hardest not to freak out over until a better time presented itself. I was struggling with that, occasionally being unable to contain myself and rereading the mess of errors with barely contained anticipation.

[Shade Lurker (Level 1) slain! Error, could not add experience. No experience pool detected. You will now be integrated into the System.]

[Error, you are already integrated into the System!]

[Correcting errors.]

[Generating new experience pool data.]

[Error, experience pool data is already present!]

[Correcting errors in experience pool data.]

[Error, could not edit experience pool data! Exception: Loraine was here~]

[Error, solution not found.]

[Error, duplicate experience pool data detected!]

[Fallback: Creating redundancy.]

[Secondary experience pool generated!]

[Reattempting experience assimilation.]

[Shade Lurker (Level 1) slain! You have gained 0 experience!]

[Error, experience not available. Feedback loop detected. No solution found.]

[Error, no class detected. Please select a class.]

[Error, you are not eligible for a class!]

[Error, conflicting data found! Race “Human” is on the default list for System Integration Protocol “Mortal”. You are running System Integration Protocol “Coup_D'état”.]

[Error, conflicting data found! Prerequisite data from “Stats”, “Abilities”, and “Skills” has been found.]

[Error, conflicting data found! Heroic classes are available.]

[Error, conflicting data found! Draconic classes are available.]

[Attempting to change System Integration protocol from “Coup_D'état” to “Mortal”.]

[Error, could not switch System Integration Protocols! Exception: Loraine was here~]

[Attempting to dual boot System Integration Protocols.]

[System Integration Protocols “Coup_D'état” and “Mortal” have been successfully dual booted!]

[You may now select a class.]

There were some seriously disconcerting terms that led to equally unsettling questions in there. For example, who was Loraine? I was no programmer, but even I could tell that, whoever she was, it looked like she had done something to the the theoretical code of the System to prevent it from fixing certain errors. Pair that with what I assumed to be my Dungeon functionality being labeled as Coup_D'état, and I was left with some ominous implications.

I still hadn't decided whether or not to share those details with Fabian. He had told me errors were generally considered the System's way of stating something was never meant to happen in the first place, and for all I knew, the information would make its way back to the Fairy Council, leading to me being labeled as a heretic or something. Did the Fairy Council brand people as heretics? I didn't know, and that was the root of my problem. I was ignorant. That needed to change.

I resolved myself to start asking my assistant some probing questions later. With any luck, I could at least gauge the abnormality of my situation, the safety of telling him, and possibly get some relevant information. For the time being, however, I decided to pass my time by making a different decision.

[Please select a perk.]

I hadn't looked at my choices yet, and I actively had to bring up my status in order to remember what I had even left as my focus. It seemed I hadn't touched it since my last level up, something that was starting to become an ongoing trend with me leveling up in tense moments. I added setting my focus ahead of time to my ever growing list of things to remember to do, but for the time being Monster Variety it was.

[Monster Upgrade: Extra Vines

Description: Bloodthorn Vines and their evolutions grow extra limbs.

Effect: Bloodthorn Vines and their evolutions will have four additional limbs.]

That wasn't a Monster Variety perk. It was a powerful upgrade. I had spent a ridiculous amount of DP in order to manually get that alteration on the elite of the species, and the battle I had just narrowly survived emphasized how strong it was. I wanted to pick it on the spot. There was only one thing holding me back: I could only summon five of those monsters at once.

I was torn. I tried to weigh the costs and benefits of taking it, but in the end, unless my other options were bad, I just couldn't justify choosing it. With it only affecting five monsters, it was too narrow in scope. I decided to double back around to it later depending on my remaining options.

[Shadow Wisp

Level: 1

Cost: 4 DP

Health: 5

Stamina: 5

Mana: 40 (60)

Stats: FORT 1, VIT 1, STR 0, END 1, SOUL 10, MIND 6, WILL 10, COM 10, DEX 6, AGI 12

Skills: None

Abilities: None

Spells: Shadow Shot

Description: An incredibly weak spirit aligned with the shadow element. They are naturally vindictive and will do their best to annoy travelers through means of being a nuisance.]

It was weak, didn't fit my false theme, I was unsure of my ability to upgrade it much through Monster Customization, and what it did could already be done by other monsters I had. On the other hand, it was cheap and could attack with magic. I had to wonder why the System seemed to be pushing me toward shadow monsters so much. The best guess I had was that it stemmed from me having so many already. Since being a shadow Dungeon wasn't my goal, I would likely steer away from the option, but I would still consider it.

[Lizard Man

Level: 1

Cost: 24 DP

Health: 40

Stamina: 60

Mana: 90

Stats: FORT 8, VIT 8, STR 12, END 12, SOUL 9, MIND 11, WILL 8, COM 10, DEX 12, AGI 12

Skills: None

Abilities: None

Description: A simple humanoid reptilian. Unlike its forefather, it has been condemned to the fate of a simple monster as retribution for his crimes. How the mighty have fallen.]

And, here I was looking through these options to get away from the out of place and ominous stuff, I paused in my internal thoughts before extending them to my fairy, Hey, what's up with this description? What forefather is the System referring to, and why is it so condescending toward them?

“That's actually a massive subject of debate in certain circles. There are no records in recorded history of a Lizard Man being anything other than a monster, but if the System says so, it's undeniable that one once existed. There are actually a few theories about it, but the most prominent one is–actually wait. You probably don't care about old myths and legends that have no relevancy to you.

“Sorry, I was about to start rambling on about it. It's a long explanation, and it's all speculation anyway. Suffice it to say, someone who existed a very long time ago and did something bad.”

No, no, go on. I'm interested.

Of all of the times for Fabian to decide not to jump into a long-winded lecture, this was not the one, especially since it could possibly shine some light on the other stuff I was concerned about without me having to explicitly ask leading questions.

“Okay then, if you're sure. You know about insectinoids, right?”

Yeah, they're bug people, like Flur.

“Yes, well, there are certain accounts of them, unreliable as they are, of having once been monsters. They're mostly legends, but there are accounts passed down by the tribes of an ancient war that had to have taken place in prehistory. Ordinarily, such things would be dismissed outright as myths, but the odd thing is, despite the tribes being incredibly solitary in nature and spread out, many of them have similar legends. There are differences, but the amount of commonalities they share give them a certain degree of credence.

“In those accounts, they, monsters that were despised by all civilized people and driven to the brink of destruction, united under a single ruler to survive. That ruler formed an alliance with another faction, and they went to a bloody war. There's no concrete details as to who that other faction was or who they specifically went to war with, and details on both are often conflicting. Some accounts say their allies were bug creatures not too unlike themselves. Others call them the rulers of the sky, interlopers from afar, the supreme golem crafters, or, simply, the magical ones. Who their enemies were is a little more nebulous, and I'm not a scholar in those fields.

“Anyway, they went to war, and against all odds, they won due to the incredible leadership of their ruler and the power of their allies. In recognition of their accomplishments, the System was said to have seen fit to raise them to the same esteem as those who once looked down on them. That is how their stories claim they were officially recognized as a race by the world itself.

“Lizard Men don't have any such ancient stories since they're an unorganized species of monster, but the main theory is, if the insectinoid tribes were able to rise from being mere monsters, it's possible the Lizard Men did the opposite. They could have even been the enemy in the story for all we know. So, the theory goes: they were once counted as a mortal race, but due to something that happened, they were forsaken by the System and turned into monsters. It is just a theory, but logically it holds up, even if there aren't any cases of a race being reclassified either way in recorded history. It's even been enough to prevent some wars from escalating too far out of fear of the world itself condemning the participants.”

That is a lot to take in.

“Well, it isn't like it makes much of a difference either way. It's all just myths and speculation, nothing concrete and nothing that affects either of us.”

You said there's no recorded cases of a race being reclassified, though, didn't you?

“Yes.”

Then, what about me? I was a human, but now I'm a Dungeon Core. Doesn't that count?

“Not exactly. I said there were no recorded cases of a race being reclassified. What happened to you was that your race changed. Soul Cores like you aside–I didn't even know they were a possibility until I was chosen to be your Dungeon Fairy–there are plenty of cases of individuals being reclassified independently. The undead are the most prevalent example of this. The mortal races can die and turn into them, and certain species can possess members of the mortal races to gain access to their System features in turn.”

Are there any cases of an individual being classified as both at once?

“If you really want to stretch the terms, kind of? In the possession example, the undead is still recognized as a monster by the System, but it has access to whatever the mortal it possesses has. It would still technically only be considered a monster, but depending on how you look at it, it could be seen as both.”

Hypothetically, would it be possible for a Soul Core to regain access to the mortal side of the System?

“Oh, Cameron. I'm sorry. No, not as far as I'm aware. Maybe by some magical means it could be possible, but ugh, please don't go through that fairy circle. The entire reason you were turned into a Dungeon Core was because the world is stake here.”

Um, Fabe?

“Yeah?”

[Shade Lurker (Level 1) slain! You have gained 0 experience!]

[Error, no class detected. Please select a class.]

[Error, you are not eligible for a class!]

[Error, conflicting data found! Prerequisite data from “Stats”, “Abilities”, and “Skills” has been found.]

[Error, conflicting data found! Heroic classes are available.]

[Error, conflicting data found! Draconic classes are available.]

[Attempting to dual boot System Integration Protocols.]

[You may now select a class.]