A Dungeon’s Survival

Cameron

I felt a sense of revulsion as I watched Prism spit out a chihuahua-sized rat. It was feral, ragged, and looked to be partially digested.

Thanks, I forced myself to say to the pair.

“Blurb!”

“I know it doesn't look like much,” my fairy defended, even as I had my Bloodthorn Vines smash it, “but there aren't all that many types of low-level monsters Prism can capture and bring back around here.”

I get that, but does this thing even have an ability?

“Yes,” was all he said.

[Your Bloodthorn Vines (Level 1) have killed a Carrier Rat (Level 2)! 10 experience gained.]

[Your Bloodthorn Vines (Level 1) have gained 10 experience!]

With a twinge of disgust, I began absorbing it as I asked, Carrier Rat? What ability does this thing have, exactly?

[You have absorbed 1 Carrier Rat! Absorb 19 more to unlock this monster.]

“It picks up and carries diseases. You'd need a source of them to actually use the ability, but it should still be able to increase the experience value of your monsters just by having.”

Ew, that's disgusting!

The repulsion I felt for the creature grew tenfold. It made me feel dirty just having absorbed it.

Am I really going to have to do that another nineteen times?

“If you want the ability, then, yes.”

I actually had to question whether or not I did. In the end, though, my need to grow stronger won out over how gross I found the monster. I'd take every advantage I could get, or at least, I would so long as they didn't get much more repulsive than the rat.

Ugh, I shuddered internally.

A week had passed since Fabian and Prism had started going hunting. This was actually the second species of monster they had brought me, and we'd gotten everything down to a process. First, the slime absorbed enough wind mana to transform into an airy state that could keep the monsters that ended up inside their goop alive while transporting them. Then, they headed out to somewhere nearby that Fabian prepared a fairy circle in beforehand. There, they captured a weak monster to bring back while killing whatever else they found.

Through their efforts, they had managed to bring back around three monsters per day. Unfortunately, the experience for that had ended up being negligible. The last monster species had been worth even less than the rat, but thanks to them, I had managed to get a new aspect already.

[Aspect: Stunning String

Cost: 3 DP

Description: You can infuse the string that you produce with mana to give it a slight paralytic effect.

Effect: When producing string, you can spend 2 mana per inch to infuse it with a magical poison that applies its effect upon contact. You are immune to this poison. This poison becomes +1% stronger for every second something is in contact with it. The more contact that is simultaneously made with it, the faster this effect stacks. This effect may continue to stack until it has reached your (WILL) x 10% + 100% efficacy. Once contact with the string is broken, the poison will rapidly leave its target's system.]

It had come from something called a Gummy Caterpillar. Despite its name making me think of candy, the glistening, yellow bug had looked slimy and far from appetizing. Overall, the ability seemed weak in general, something that was reflected by its low cost, and for my current monsters, it was pointless. Nothing I had could even produce string, but that didn't mean it was entirely useless to me.

I was going to be doing the same thing with my new boss that I been doing with the Horned Dracos. Whenever the scouting party came to fight it, I planned to use DP that they had freed up through their delve to bestow the extra aspect upon it. They had yet to fight it with the Stunning String yet, so I wasn't sure how much it would affect the experience yield, but for such a low cost, I couldn't see it being a waste of resources. If nothing else, it was bound to cost less than reworking the terrain under the tree to stop them from killing it by just setting the plant above it ablaze. That had been an annoying problem to fix and even more infuriating to watch.

I tore my thoughts away from such things and asked, Prism dropping off maimed rats at my doorstep like a cat aside, how was your guys' trip?

“The new location is a trade-off,” Fabian answered, “Its farther away, so it takes longer to get there, but weak monsters are more abundant in the area, so we don't have to spend as long looking for them. It's give and take. Only …”

Only what?

“The monsters there shouldn't be as abundant as they are. In general, there aren't many around here to begin with, but the area isn't entirely devoid of them either. Normally, the few stronger monsters keep the weaker ones' populations in check, so a large number of weak ones and nothing else is out of the ordinary.

“I don't have confirmation on it, but it's like the predators are gone. I'll need to check if the Adventurers Guild has been making any strange moves lately when I go back to the council. My running theory is that they may have recklessly destabilized the ecosystem.”

That doesn't sound good. Is it anything we should be worried about?

“No, at most, it might lead to more or less adventurers coming here depending on how the guild decides to handle it, but it shouldn't lead to anything major.”

That's good at least. Oh, yeah, you're leaving tonight right? I asked, his mention of the Fairy Council reminding me.

“Yeah. You should be fine here, right?”

Yep, but while you're there, could you leave a message for that other Dungeon from me?

“Sure, is it something simple that I can memorize, or should I write it down when I get there?”

Just tell them that Prism is doing well and what we've figured out about how the whole summoner thing affects them. Also, give them a copy of Prism's status. You can view it for this purpose. Oh, and thank them for me. Let them know how much I appreciate that little blob.

“Got it.”

Thanks!

After that, Fabian rested for a couple of hours before leaving. I'd been waiting for that. In the end, I hadn't managed to get anything of value out of him in regards to the so-called System Administrators. When I'd asked probing questions, I'd gotten much of the same information he'd already told me in the past. The System was viewed as an integral part of the world, and the idea that it wasn't natural was a foreign concept to those native here. They didn't worship any deities, the closest they got to doing so was with the System itself, and it wasn't known to have any agents that worked on its behalf or anything similar.

I'd even mentioned the pair of names I'd seen in the notifications I'd gotten to him, Loraine and Illiana. I made up something about hearing adventurers swear using their names, but he was clueless. That concerned me in a way that I couldn't explain. It just felt wrong.

In the end, I had decided that finding out what was going on was more important to me than the risks of doing so, so I waited until he left for the council. Now, with him gone and against my better judgment, I planned to use my new ability. I waited for a bit, until Fabian was well on his way back to the other fairies and until the adventurers were done with my Dungeon for the day. Then, after gathering my courage, I focused on Contact Administrator. A box appeared before me when I did so.

[Please select a System Administrator to contact.]

I had decided on the one that had expressly told me to contact them. Honestly, I wasn't entirely sure Loraine was the name of an administrator to begin with. I'd seen their name pop up in an error message as an exception saying that they were the reason the why an error wasn't able to be resolved, so they could have been something else entirely. I still wasn't sure of the implications that details brought with it, but I did consider contacting her to be the riskier option.

They were a complete unknown, and from the names of some of the protocols and handlers I'd seen in error messages, I got the feeling that there were powers at play that weren't on the best of terms with each other. Dungeon monsters being under the control of something called, “Revolutionary_Handling,” Dungeons as a whole falling under a System Integration Protocol labeled as, “Coup_D'état,” and people causing errors behind the scenes didn't paint the nicest of pictures after all.

As far as I could tell, contacting either of them would be a gamble, and I had no clue which sides they were on in the implied conflict or even if they were on the same side. I also didn't have a clue as to what that conflict even was. All I had to go off of was the fact that Illiana seemed to be the more official one and had asked me to contact her, albeit indirectly. Meanwhile, Loraine was a wildcard that could lash out at me for contacting her if the not-so-subtle threat in the description of the ability was anything to go off of.

It was a conundrum I had spent the last week agonizing over, but in the end, Illiana seemed like the marginally safer bet. Then again, if my games of poker with the others were anything to go off of, I wasn't good at making bets. Still, I'd made my choice.

Illiana the Bastion of Light.

The screen before me flickered away before being replaced by a new, mostly blank, one that reminded me of an email. At the top, it said, “To Illiana,” and below that were the words, “Enter your message here.”

I took a moment to compose myself; then, I thought, I got an achievement for encountering five unresolved errors that told me to contact you. Also, I'd like to know what this world really is. The System is clearly an artificial construct, but no one seems to realize it. I was brought to this world against my will, and I don't fully understand it. If you could shed any light on my situation for me, I would be deeply grateful. With regards, Connie Aldman.

I had decided to keep it simple and to make a reference to her title with the shedding light bit. Her title, Bastion of Light, was likely more literal than that, but I was already taking a gamble, so I figured I might as well hope that the double meaning actually meant something. Then, I ended the message by mirroring her own sendoff to hopefully get the tone right.

It felt weird to use my own name. I hadn't called myself that or been called that by anyone other than the System since I'd come here, but it wasn't like I was entering into a magical contract with them, and they did seem to control the System, so it was likely they already knew my real name. What I was doing was risky to begin with. I didn't want to add to that risk by using an alias, so Connie Aldman it was.

I read the message over again, and with some hesitation, willed it to be sent. The screen disappeared, and I waited. Had I still needed to breathe, I undoubtedly would have been holding my breath.

Is that it? I wondered, Is there no confirmation? Do I just have to wait?

That seemed to be the case as the seconds ticked by. That didn't help my nerves. Slowly, a sinking feeling began to set in as I worried that I had just made a huge mistake.

[Error, your message could not be sent! Exception: System Administrator not found.]

[Attempting to locate System Administrator “Illiana”.]

[The individual “Illiana” has been confirmed to be a registered System Administrator.]

[No death logs for the individual have been found.]

[The individual was last pinged 6,064 years, 215 days, 6 hours, 26 minutes, and 19 seconds ago.]

[It has been determined that the individual is not currently connected to the System.]

[Your message will be delivered once the individual “Illiana” reconnects to the System.]

And, that was that. I didn't know whether to feel relief or despair at the the string of errors, but one thing was for certain. I was left with more questions than I had started with yet again.

Six thousand years …

I stared at that number in shock. If nothing else, that explained why Fabian didn't seem to know who she was. That was long enough for entire civilizations to have risen and fallen time and time again. That was a period of time measured in literal millennia.

How long do fairies live for anyway?

I had no clue, but it was something to ask Fabian about when he came back. Depending on the answer, it was possible that his people might know something, but I felt like it would be suspicious of me to just randomly ask him something like that while he was away. That meant information gathering on that front would have to wait.

Other than that, I had no way to make use of the information presented to me. All I had was the faintest notion that that revolution might have succeeded after all. Then again, the System didn't seem to think she was dead, so maybe it hadn't. For all I knew, I was misinterpreting the internal names of things in the System, and there had been no rebellion.

Regardless of what had occurred six thousand years ago, I was down one lead. If she had already been gone for that long, I doubted the System Administrator would come back anytime soon. That left me with only one path to uncover new information.

Loraine, I felt out the name as I questioned the implications of everything I'd seen so far, just who are you?

I still potentially had a way to figure that out, but as the mystery deepened, I wasn't sure I was ready to try messaging her just yet. The anxiety of attempting to contact one System Administrator was already more than I could handle for the day. I wasn't about to go trying with the other immediately after. I would wait and gather my nerves back up. Then, I'd see about messaging her.

I heaved a deep mental sigh and thought to myself, What is up with this world?