A Dungeon’s Survival

Cameron

Well, I guess that seems about right.

Fabian had returned from the Fairy Council. With him, he brought my first summon. It was one of the first things a person thought of when it came to weak fantasy monsters, and my mind was racing in an attempt to figure out not only how I was going to make this work but also what the situation I found myself in was.

“Now, before you say anything,” he started, “it's not as bad as it looks.”

I'm not complaining, but it does look like a slime. That's not my main concern, though.

Behind my fairy was a gelatinous blob the size of a smooshed basketball. It was completely translucent and tinted gray with a tiny black sphere floating around in its center. It, oddly enough, didn't seem hostile. That detail confused me more than anything, especially considering the System notification I had received upon its arrival.

[A monster belonging to another Dungeon has entered your area of influence!]

I'm assuming whatever this is is what took you so long. Could I get an explanation here?

“Yeah. When I filled the elders in, they bombarded me with those question I forwarded to you, but it didn't end there. They interrogated me for every last detail I could provide for a good few days. Then, they kept me for a few more as they brought in some of the greatest scholars among our people to deliberate on if and how your situation could be reproduced, and if it could, whether or not it should be. After that, they moved on to theorizing about how your class could potentially interact with your Dungeon Core stuff in both positive and negative ways.

“I'll skip over most of the boring stuff you're not likely to care about, but it boils down to this: I will need to report back much more frequently from now on, and one of the scholars volunteered a monster from their Dungeon to test if you could bond with it. The council tentatively agreed to this proposal. Despite their normally strong stance against attempts to artificially accelerate the growth of Dungeons through means of bringing in outside resources, they decided it was worth it this one time for testing purposes, so here we are. It's much better than anything you could get outside of your own monsters, so it should be worth it if it works at least.”

Okay, that's a lot to take in, but I'm following.

“Good. Now, I know it doesn't look like much, but the Dungeon this monster came from is very old and is considered prestigious among us Dungeon Fairies. It and its fairy have been doing research for more than half a millennia on a secluded island without much in the way of civilization on it, and this slime is a result of that. In many ways, the Dungeon is a lot like you, except its focus is on learning more about monsters as a whole rather than just modifying them.

“The Dungeon is capable of altering its monsters through means other than your own, but its specialization is Unbound, the one that lets its monsters leave. It normally just uses that to send its monsters out to collect test subjects, but in this case, it also meant it could send a monster with me. It was a bit out of the way, however, so the trip to and from there took longer than I expected, even through the Fey Realm. Sorry about that, but I'm here with it now.

“Enough about that, though. I can see you've gotten a lot done in my absence. Give me the rundown.”

He was referring to my new room. With him having been gone for a week and half, I had ample opportunity to expand. What I did in that time was something I had been planning on doing for a while but had been unable to until I unlocked my newest species, the Lizard Men. With them, I had been able to progress with some of my plans sooner than I expected.

My new room was more of a hall than a room, and it was another of my core facilities rather than a defensive one. The total cost of the monsters within came to a hefty ninety-six Dungeon Points, but I hoped the four humanoid reptilians would grow to be more than worth the twenty percent of my total DP they had cost me.

I have. I didn't keep you updated since you had your hands full, but I set up the best makeshift crafting stations I could for the Lizard Men, just like we discussed. So far, we've got what I hope will be an acceptable woodworker, herbalist, leatherworker, and blacksmith in time. As of right now, only the woodworker and herbalist have gained their respective skills. I helped the woodworker get started by teaching him what I learned from Archie–the uh, old Archie, from before he died.

I picked up the pace of my thoughts right about then, The herbalist, though, managed to pick up the basics of processing plant fiber all on their own. I don't know if what they're making is right or will be usable, but it's a start in terms of becoming self-sufficient. Materials, no matter how poor in quality, can be used to start making more complicated things. Then, there's the blacksmith. Without proper tools, he's made the least progress, but I'm hoping, even if he can't actually smith things right now, he will be able to figure out enough to have a head start when we do manage to get him some proper tools.

“Good work. Anything else I should know?”

Yeah, four new achievements and an item, actually. I think you'll find Archie more than excited to have a chat with you when you have a moment.

[Achievement: Natural Talent]

[Achievement: Natural Versatility]

[Achievement: Natural Instincts]

[Achievement: Natural Leader]

All four achievements were earned by my monsters for getting respective skills of their type to level five without training or much else in the way of outside assistance, and they all awarded abilities to the monsters that earned them. Archie had earned Natural Talent, the crafting one, but it was Vie and Pee who accomplished the same with the utility, combat, and leadership skill counterparts. They had been training relentlessly ever since the last raid, and while that did concern me to a degree, I couldn't argue with the results.

[Ability: Quick Learner

Description: You benefit from an enhanced skill growth rate.

Effect: Your skill growth rate is increased by +10%.]

[Ability: Battle Instincts

Description: You are more perceptive of the flow of battle.

Effect: You find it easier to keep track of and notice smaller details on a battlefield. Your capability to do so is dependent on your (MIND).]

[Ability: Efficient Leader

Description: Your leadership pushes those around you past their limits.

Effect: While fighting alongside others, up to 10 individuals fighting under your leadership benefit from -5% to their stamina and mana usage.]

All three of their new abilities were great, yet despite that, it was Sir Archibald's that I was most excited for. It had been worth it to let him develop his craft on his own.

[Ability: Quality Craftsmanship

Description: The quality of your craftsmanship leads you to produce better than average products.

Effect: Anything crafted by you is +10% higher quality.]

With that ability, his potions would be more effective than they normally would, and they'd be stronger than even I could replicate. It was a small benefit for the time being, but as he learned to make more types of concoctions, it would prove indispensable on all fronts, and his repertoire of recipes was growing already.

[Item: Liquid Shadow

Cost: 15 MP

Description: A magical concoction that smothers light.

Effect: When this substance comes into contact with light, it rapidly begins expending mana to smother it.]

“Wow, you have been busy here,” came Fabian's response to the screens I had sent his way.

Enough about that, can I get started?

I was dying of anticipation. It may have only been a slime, but it wouldn't have mattered what Fabian had brought me. It was going to be my first familiar. I could already summon and command monsters far stronger than it, but somehow, this felt different. The strange blob that had followed my assistant in was different.

“Alright, alright, you haven't taken the ability yet, have you?”

No, I waited.

That earned me a smile from my fairy.

“Good, you can choose it now, but be warned, I don't know if this is going to–.”

Before he even finished his sentence, I already selected the ability and willed it to be used on the slime.

[Do you want to form a familiar bond with Mutant Young Metamorphic Slime (Level 1)?

Yes / No]

Mutant Young Metamorphic Slime? That's a mouthful.

My impatience earned me an eye roll and an answer.

“I take it that it worked, then? Well, Metamorphic Slimes are a rare variety that don't normally exist at level one. As I said, it was created by a research oriented Dungeon. The Dungeon in particular doesn't have your exact capabilities, but it has a few other traits that let it do some interesting things.

“For one, it can create young versions of its higher tier monsters, something that let's it attempt to unlock stronger variants of the same ones through the process of evolution, and more importantly, it has a third tier trait that causes it to be offered perk choices that mutate entire species it has sufficiently altered into something new. The result is the creation of new species that can't be found elsewhere with some of the modified traits of their predecessors and the potential for further mutations to occur in the process. This slime has undergone both processes.

“The Dungeon in question chose this monster once they heard about your experiments with mana crystals and the Crystal Puffers. They thought it would be a good fit for you. By the way, they will want feedback on it if this works, especially if you manage to evolve it into something different than they've managed to get, and even if you don't, they stressed how much they valued your feedback as a whole. It isn't normally possible for Dungeons to trade monsters, so they jumped at the chance to, in their words, 'get a fresh perspective and some new ideas from a fellow researcher.'”

His speech left me feeling thoroughly overwhelmed, but it also fed into my already mounting excitement. Yeah, it was just a slime, but it sounded like it had quite the pedigree. I couldn't wait to see just what it could do.

Absolutely. As long as you could forward messages to and from them for me, I'd love to establish a line of communication with them!

I paused for a moment to daydream about the chance to become pen pals with another Dungeon, one that had already been walking a similar path as myself for centuries. Fabian was great, and I appreciated his insights no matter how rarely I followed his suggestions, but he didn't understand the vision I had for my Dungeon. This other core he was talking about, though, it sounded like they would understand it perfectly. If I could speak with them, there was so much I could learn. There was even the possibility I could get a mentor out of it.

“Hello? Cameron, you there?”

Sorry, I got a bit distracted. Could you repeat that?

“I said I would try. I'll see if I can set up a system with their fairy where, every time one of us goes back to the headquarters, we can leave messages for the other. No promises, but I'll see what I can do.”

Thanks Fabe!

And, without a further ado, I selected yes.

[Error, the monster is already bound to “Den of Creations”!]

Seriously? And, after all that hype? Ugh, I was so excited, too!

[Attempting to transfer control from “Den of Creations” to “Cave of Absolution”.]

Oh, wait. That's new.

The second message jarred me more than I would have expected it to. Specifically, it was where it referred to my Dungeon that had that effect on me. I had almost forgotten the name of it since it never seemed to come up in any notifications. I had named it that on a whim back when I wasn't in a good place mentally. Now, I didn't know how I felt about it. I supposed it still felt fitting, but it also felt alien to me in a way akin to someone bringing up an event that I only faintly remembered. I felt disconnected from it.

[Waiting for “Den of Creations” to accept or deny the transfer of Mutant Young Metamorphic Slime.]

[“Den of Creations” has approved the transfer.]

So, it's as simple as that?

As if in response to my question, a pair of System messages came in.

[Achievement gained: Subordinate Trading!]

[Achievement gained: First Familiar!]

[Achievement: Subordinate Trading

Description: #Bookmark_1347 Add a proper description here later. Achievement gained for using unnamed WIP Dungeon transfer mechanic. Come back to this once it is actually functional. Also see #Bookmark_1348 for one-sided trades.

Reward: Add a proper description here later once I'm sure I'm not going to tweak this further. +5% to all monster stats for now.]

[Achievement: First Familiar

Description: You have bonded with a familiar.

Reward: The familiar gains +1 to their highest stat.]

It was a clearly broken achievement that was reminiscent of so many of the errors I had recently gotten, but something about it felt different. While the errors seemed to give me a peek into some of the inner workings of the System, this achievement was as though the curtains were pulled back in full. It contained traces whoever made it, and it directly reference parts of the whole. What's more, it was clearly unfinished. I didn't know what to make of that, but I also didn't have time to dwell on it as a cascade of errors came my way.

[Error, entity “Mutant Young Metamorphic Slime” is not compatible with “Familiar_Handling”! Exception: Entity is being processed by “Revolutionary_Handling”.]

[Error, entity “Mutant Young Metamorphic Slime” is not compatible with “Revolutionary_Handling”! Exception: Entity is being processed by “Familiar_Handling”.]

[Comparing handling errors with fallback protocols.]

[Entity “Mutant Young Metamorphic Slime”'s handling has been transferred to archived handling protocol “Familiar_Handling_Dungeon_Port_Beta” for better compatibility.]

Is it done?

“Is what done? What's going on?” came Fabian's concern-filled voice.

I just sent him the screens instead of trying to explain it. Normally, I would have hesitated, but in that moment, it didn't matter if I was reluctant to trust the Fairy Council with all of the information the errors contained. That was because of a single line in the achievement I had gotten. Bookmark one thousand three hundred forty-eight was able to be expanded upon like so many other parts of my status could be. It was the System's version of a hyperlink.

[Achievement: Subordinate Gifting

Description: #Bookmark_1348 Add a proper description here later. Achievement gained for using unnamed WIP Dungeon transfer mechanic to give away a monster for nothing in return. Come back to this once the mechanic is actually functional. Also see #Bookmark_1347 for the base achievement.

Reward: Add a proper description here later once I'm sure I'm not going to tweak this further. +1% to all Dungeon monster stats for now.]

According to what I read, the other Dungeon would have almost certainly gotten that one, and since I didn't know what other errors and pieces of information it would have obtained would have been, I figured holding back my own messages was more likely to come across as suspicious than do me any actual good. I saw no other option but to forward it to Fabian who would inevitably do the same to the Fairy Council. It was unfortunate, but any concerns I had were quickly chased away by the following notification.

[Please choose a name for your new familiar.]

My previous excitement rushed back to me as I looked to the blob and back to the System message.

A name, huh? Let's see. Apparently it was my study of mana crystals that led to me getting you, so maybe something related to that? Jewel? Gem? Prism? Ooh, I kind of like that one. Prism it is.

I was met with another screen in response to my thoughts.

[Prism

Level: 1

Health: 40 (70)

Stamina: 40 (70)

Mana: 80 (140)

Stats: FORT 8 (14), VIT 8 (15), STR 8 (15), END 8 (14), SOUL 8 (14), MIND 1 (7), WILL 8 (15), COM 10 (17), DEX 8 (15), AGI 8 (14)

Skills: None

Abilities: Mana Sense, Slime Body, Mana Digestion, Elemental Shift, Cleanse Mana

Description: A monster only found in the Den of Creations. This is a mutant form of the Metamorphic Slime. This is a juvenile form of the Metamorphic Slime. A Metamorphic Slime is a variety of slime that, unlike other related species, is easily influenced by its environment. Once it has absorbed enough energy, it changes to a form based on the type of mana consumed.

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), Subordinate Trading (+5% to every stat), First Familiar (+1 to COM)]

The amount of information that greeted me was more than I had expected. The presence of the upgrade section confirmed that my Dungeon achievements affected my familiars too. That was perfect. It was just what I'd been hoping for.

Then, there were the abilities. It had the most I had seen on any monster save for Vie and Pee. Sure it only tied with and didn't beat out Archie and Adraugon, but it was only level one and not benefiting from any achievement or bonus granted ones. In spite of that and it only being a slime, it was already so powerful. Its species, whatever the other Dungeon had done to it, was just that complex.

I turned my focus to it expectantly. It gurgled.

“Cameron, what are these notifications you casually sent me? What in the name of the System am I looking at?”

* * *

Flur

I heaved a deep sigh as I walked through the gate to town. There was a gate now and walls. That was new. Somehow the changes the place had undergone while we had been gone only made it hurt worse to return to Firmsoil. It felt like confirmation that the place had moved on from what had happened, from my friends who had given their lives to protect it. It was a perfect example of why I didn't like lingering around places where bad things happened.

“Oh, it's good to be home,” the words the girl to my side said as she stretched were the complete opposite of how I felt.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” her brother agreed with her, “All my life I've wanted to go out and see what was out there, but now I just want to curl up in my bed and forget about everything for a few days.”

“Is it just me, or has a lot changed since we left?” came another voice.

“Yeah, a lot's changed, but it's still Firmsoil. You can tell just from the scent of it,” the girl replied.

“Can you really?”

“Ha, of course you can. It's musty and smells like wood shavings. I wouldn't mistake this smell for anything.”

“That's amazing!”

“We could also smell it when you pissed yourself during that fight with the Rage Boar. We were just too considerate to say anything back then,” her brother chimed in.

“Dan,” came the girl's voice again as she lightly smacked him in the chest, “he didn't need to know that.”

“Oh, um, uh” the boy in question stammered.

How that kid is like that in spite of being raised by that shrewd old man, I'll never know.

“It feels weird to be back, doesn't it,” came a final voice from directly behind me as an arm found rest on my shoulder.

I shrugged in spite of my feelings, “What, does this place make you nervous now? It's not too late to just hit the road again if it bothers you that much.”

“Heh, no,” came Lance's voice, “I feel like this is something I need to do. After the others died protecting this place, it kind of feels like my responsibility now.”

“If you say so. Now, what do you think; should we go report in with the branch head first or go catch Oct at the tavern?”

“Considering the baron's coming this way, I think our choice's already been made.”

I jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow as I said, “The baron? What, are you trying to act all professional now? It doesn't suit you.”

“Unlike someone, I just don't feel like calling a powerful, ancient alchemist an old man while he's in hearing distance.”

“But, calling him ancient is fine? Come on, have some tact!”

Right then, the sound of said man clearing his throat broke us from our joking around.

“I do have information on a certain mercenary group I believe you'd be interested in, but by all means, go have a drink with your friend first. Don't let this ancient, old man keep you.”

I wasn't sure what snapped me to attention first: the annoyance in the powerful mage's voice, the news he carried, or the sharp glare he affixed us with, but no matter what it was, the result was the same. I instantly stood up straighter and gave the man a salute.

“Sorry! By all means, let's go grab the branch head and have that meeting now.”