A Dungeon’s Survival

Connie

I internally winced at the sight of the Plated Gator being ripped to shreds by the giant bear monster in my first room.

I'm so glad that isn't me, I found myself thinking as I took in the gruesome sight.

A Plated Gator a day with an emphasis on size mutations wasn't an insignificant cost, but if it was enough to keep that thing satisfied, it felt incredibly cheap. I owed Archie dearly for managing to negotiate such an arrangement, and I wished I could afford to do something to pay him back immediately. Sadly, I had more pressing concerns. Without Fabian to serve as my guiding assistant, I no longer had a source of information. I was stuck flying blind now and at a loss as to how to proceed.

So far, only a day had passed since everything had gone down with the Berserker, the bear, the Custodian, and Fabe. I hadn't accomplished much of anything during that time, mostly because I was stuck feeling overwhelmed. Still, I needed to get moving, the sooner the better. For that reason, I'd been repeatedly going over my new gains, trying to figure out something that would allow me to proceed more efficiently. I hadn't been making much progress on that front.

[Monster Upgrade: Mushroom Manipulation

Description: Sir Archibald II (Level 6) gains control over mushrooms.

Effect: Sir Archibald II (Level 6) gains the ability Mycokinesis.]

First was the perk I ended up deciding on. I'd initially skipped over it since none of my choices were helpful in the moment. In the aftermath of the bear's rampage, however, I'd easily come to a decision.

As far as I was concerned there was only one real option. As useful as Minor Mana Potions had the potential to be, due to my small number of magic-using monsters, I felt like they would've been an underwhelming choice. To add to that, while he yet to successfully make one, the recipe for them was something my Trenti alchemist already had thanks to Fabian, so it was only a matter of time until I got access to them anyway.

As for my other option, I'd seen what a Berserker's insatiable wrath had done to the woman who'd come after my life twice, and there was no chance I was going to inflict that fate on my beloved snakes. That left me with a clear decision, and considering Archie had ended up with another ability thanks to the magical, seemingly robotic orb that had shown up and revealed to Fabian that I wasn't actually bound by the Fairy Council's pact because of course it had to, it seemed fitting to spend the perk to get him Mycokinesis too. With both that and Symbiotic Power, I was sure there was something there I could use to power him up. I just needed more time to contemplate how to use them in tandem and access to things I didn't currently have.

[Ability: Mycokinesis

Description: You can project your will onto mushrooms, making them do as you please.

Effect: For a mana cost dependent on what you are trying to accomplish, you can project your will onto mushrooms, controlling them in full. The more mushrooms you extend this effect to at once, the higher the cost becomes. If the mushrooms are capable of advanced thought, you must overwhelm them with your (MIND) before you can control them. The range of this ability is dependent on your (WILL), and what you can accomplish through it is dependent on your (SOUL).]

[Ability: Symbiotic Power

Description: You share power with entities in a symbiotic relationship with you.

Effect: Entities in a symbiotic relationship with you benefit from +10% of your stats, and you benefit from +10% of theirs. This effect does not stack with itself.]

Other than that, I still had new achievements and abilities I had yet to examine in full along with other gains from my most recent mess. I hadn't looked at anything too closely in the moment, so when I fist started sorting through them, I'd had high hopes. Sadly, those hopes had quickly been squashed by reality. My new abilities, for one, weren't as widely applicable as I had hoped them to be.

[Ability: Familiar Casting

Description: You can cast spells through your familiar.

Effect: For an added mana cost of +10%, you can channel your spells through your bound familiars, using them as an origin point for your magic. The costs of spells that target your familiars directly are unaffected. This ability can only be used so long as they are within range.]

[Ability: Monstrous Communion

Description: You can communicate with monsters.

Effect: The intent behind the vocalizations and mannerisms of monsters are translated by the System for you. Your words and mannerisms are also translated to be understandable by monsters.]

Considering the fact that I could neither speak nor perform mannerisms with my crystalline body, half of what Monster Communion did for me was useless, and since I didn't interact with monsters outside of my control on a regular basis, the other half wasn't particularly helpful outside of dealing with the bear through diplomacy either. I'd tried using it on the uncontrolled Crystal Puffers mine could bring about, but as far as I could tell, they might as well have been regular plants for as much as they could communicate.

Familiar casting at least had potential, but much like Archie's new powers, I needed things I didn't currently have to bring that potential out. As it stood, I only had one spell, so the ability didn't immediately open any doors for me. Luckily, that spell, unlike my new abilities, was useful.

[Spell: Empower Bond

Description: You empower your bonded familiar.

Effect: You empower a familiar's stat of your choice. For as long as you keep this spell active, it is increased by +10%. It costs one mana per second for every five empowered stat points.]

Though not game changing, it was a new, powerful tool in my arsenal. From some preliminary testing, I had found that it also worked with my Dungeon monsters, something that reinforced the idea that my choices in terms of my build had been the right ones so far. The jury was still out on all of the other choices I'd made since having my soul ripped out of my body and stuffed in a magical rock in another world, but I didn't have the time to spend dwelling on that. Instead, I focused on the spell I was sure I'd be grateful to have in time.

Unfortunately, it was a defensive tool that would mainly see use in only the worst of situations. While that was a nice thing to have and I certainly saw more than my fair share of worst case scenarios, what I currently needed was something that could help me grow and offset the fact that I was already pushing up against the limits of the resources available to me. Empower Bond was not that, so I turned to the achievements I'd gained from Vie's last stand against the Berserker. Almost predictably, I didn't find what I'd been hoping for there either.

[Achievement: A Rare Death

Description: An individual with a rare species or class has died within your Dungeon.

Reward: The experience awarded for the kill has been doubled!]

Thanks to that achievement, I'd gotten far closer to a second Dungeon level than I otherwise would have, but that was all it did for me. Outside of that, all of the other achievements I'd gained served only to strengthen my most loyal defenders. That was good, but I would've preferred some new capability for myself that I could take advantage of. Still, I'd take what I could get, and what I got was undeniably good.

Advanced Utility was earned by Vie for pushing her and her sister's Spell Casting skill to level ten, and it netted them another level in the skill as a reward. Rarity Disparity was similar to A Rare Death, but it was awarded for a monster killing something of a higher rarity than themselves instead of just requiring the death of someone with a rare class or species. It got them another improvement to their evolution choices when the time came, a repeat reward they had already collected quite a few of from various achievements so far.

As for the other two, those were the special achievements. I hadn't even known something like what Vie had done to earn them was possible, and I sincerely wished Fabian was still around for me to ask about it. Sadly, he wasn't, so their descriptions and effects were all I had to go off of.

[Achievement: Spell Modification

Description: One of your monsters has manually altered a spell.

Reward: The monster has gained +10 to SOUL, MIND, WILL, and COM!]

[Achievement: Ability Creation

Description: One of your monsters has created a new ability through their own efforts.

Reward: The ability has been upgraded!]

Modifying spells and manually creating abilities, I hadn't so much as considered the possibility that such things could be done. It was enough to make it clear to me that my understanding of my new home was far less complete than I'd previously thought it to be. Looking at the world around me and its gamelike mechanics, it was easy to fall into the trap of applying video game logic to everything, but wherever and whatever this new place I existed in was, it was a living, breathing world. Things were possible here that went beyond what I'd expect. I needed to better my understanding of what could and couldn't be done, but once again, without my guide to this new existence, I had little in the way of methods to obtain such knowledge.

Whether or not I understood it, though, the fruits of my precious guardian's efforts were before me. I knew I'd have to figure out the secrets behind the process used to get it, but for the time being, I was just happy for them. Once I'd been able to resummon the pair, Vie and Pee, my adorable two-headed snake, had been practicing with their new ability nonstop, and it was powerful.

[Ability: Flaming Shadows

Description: You can ignite your shadows.

Effect: By doubling the mana cost, you can substitute the shadows utilized by any spell or ability for shadow fire.]

For a pair of magical snakes who utilized shadows more than anything else in their fighting style except for maybe poison, it was a perfect fit for them. The drain on their mana wasn't ideal, but the expansion to their utility was immense. From being able to cloak themselves in shadow fire with their Shadow Cloak ability to augmenting their three spells to be more powerful, I felt confident in their newfound ability to take on nearly any opponent short of the self-proclaimed ruler of the forest himself, but the seemingly insurmountable bear monster was a special case, or at least, I hoped it was.

My precarious situation with the beast that could easily bring about my complete and utter destruction if it so chose aside, that was most of my gains and what I'd spent the majority of my time thinking about since I'd gotten a chance to calm down and collect myself, but it wasn't everything. I still wasn't entirely sure as to why there were weak monsters streaming into my Dungeon during that mess, but I hadn't let their corpses go to waste, and once I was able to respawn them, I'd even gone so far as to send Prism outside of my walls so that the slime could collect what they could of the field of corpses outside. In total, by absorbing them, I had managed to unlock three new monsters. I'd immediately converted the Carrier Rats into an aspect, but as for the other two, I wasn't sure what to do with them yet.

[Aspect: Disease Carrier

Cost: 8 DP

Description: You are immune to the effects of simple diseases but still carry and pass them on.

Effect: You easily pick up diseases, but simple ailments are incapable of affecting you. The diseases you carry do not go away naturally, and you can pass them on through physical contact.]

[Dark Crow

Level: 1

Cost: 8 DP

Health: 15 (45)

Stamina: 20 (50)

Mana: 120 (180)

Stats: FORT 3 (9), VIT 4 (11), STR 6 (13), END 4 (10), SOUL 12 (18), MIND 14 (20), WILL 12 (18), COM 12 (18), DEX 12 (18), AGI 14 (20)

Skills: None

Abilities: None

Description: A simple bird monster with a cunning and cruel mind. Individually, they aren't much of a threat, but they grow bolder and more dangerous in large numbers.

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)]

[Stonepecker

Level: 1

Cost: 12 DP

Health: 50 (80)

Stamina: 40 (70)

Mana: 40 (100)

Stats: FORT 10 (16), VIT 8 (15), STR 12 (19), END 8 (14), SOUL 4 (10), MIND 4 (10), WILL 4 (10), COM 4 (10), DEX 8 (14), AGI 8 (14)

Skills: None

Abilities: None

Description: A simple bird monster reminiscent of a large woodpecker. Instead of in trees, it carves its home into rocks. It is dimwitted and extremely territorial.

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)]

Neither had abilities, so converting them into aspects was out, and they didn't fit the theme I was pretending my Dungeon had, so I was against using them. Then again, if any Dungeon could just unlock new monsters by absorbing them, maybe using them would be okay. I just didn't know and no longer had my fairy to ask.

Maybe I should have been upfront with him after all. No, I can't go down that train of thought. What's done is done. I need to move forward.

I had evaded the magically binding contract with his organization for a reason. It was far too restrictive, and even if I had come to see him as a friend and even if he had put his all into assisting me, I had no way to know if the rest of his people were as altruistic as he was. I just knew that all of stories I'd ever heard about the fay in my old world cautioned against trusting or making deals with them. They were also responsible for kidnapping me and forcing me to kill people in order to protect myself and those I cared about, but I could overlook that to some degree.

It was only the existence of Dungeon Cores that was holding some great cataclysm at bay after all. That was a fact the System that governed the world itself had plainly stated, though I did have to question what was going on with that since its supposed administrators all seemed to have been missing for the past six thousand years. I still didn't know what to make of the so-called Custodian that I had briefly met when trying to contact an admin. My meeting with the cold and consistently annoyed being of unknown power had left me with more questions than answers. That seemed to be an ongoing trend and something I felt like I needed to get to the bottom of eventually, but for now, it was well beyond me.

Instead, I turned my attention toward the things currently within my control. There wasn't much there, but a few important things remained. First of all, Vie, Pee, and Prism had advancement bonuses from leveling up that were waiting on me to choose. I dismissed my snakes' since I was intentionally delaying choosing theirs in order for them to earn an achievement. As for my Mutant Young Metamorphic Slime, however, I brought up the menu.

[Please select a type of bonus.

Extra Stats / New Spell or Ability / Upgrade]

For most of my monsters, the choice was an easy one, but Prism was little different in that regard. Ordinarily Extra Stats felt like a waste of a choice, but since I couldn't easily improve the blob's through any other methods save for leveling them up and, even then, since I had no way to improve their mind stat, I'd been considering it. In the end, I'd decided against it, though. Prism's potential lied in their abilities, so either upgrading one of them or unlocking a new one felt like the better option.

I mused about which to go with as I blankly stared at the behemoth of a bear by my entrance as it finished up its meal. I had asked Prism as to their preference, but the mute blob had been less than insightful. All I had received in response had been a wordless gurgle of indifference.

Well, I though, your abilities are already pretty good, so let's improve them.

I selected upgrade and was met with three options.

[Upgrade: Faster Digestion

Effect: The monster's digests its food +10% faster.]

Well, that's okay, I guess, but I'd rather something a bit more significant. Next!

[Ability Upgrade: Mana Sense

Description: The monster becomes more sensitive to changes in the ambient mana.

Effect: Mana Sense gains the following effect: Changes in the ambient mana are easier to perceive.]

Honestly, I couldn't tell whether or not the upgrade was good. I didn't perceive the world in the same way as the slime did, so I had no way of knowing how much of an impact such a change would make.

Maybe? Let's see what the last one is before making any decisions.

[Ability Upgrade: Cleanse Mana

Description: When using Cleanse Mana, the lost mana can be expelled in a burst of magic.

Effect: Cleanse Mana gains the following effect: Additionally, by increasing the mana lost to this ability by +5% of your total mana that cannot be reduced, you can choose to expel all of the lost mana in an explosive burst of aspected magic around you. The power and range of this burst is dependent on your (SOUL) and the amount of mana expended.]

Well, they don't currently have any damaging abilities, so why not?

With that, I made my choice. Then, I made another.

[Please select a type of bonus.

Extra Stats / New Spell or Ability / Upgrade]

From their split of the experience gained from killing the Berserker, they had leveled enough to get two bonuses. For the second, I went with New Spell or Ability. The upgrades from the first were just too unimpressive for my liking. The new options, on the other hand, were much more unusual, and it wasn't in a good way.

[Ability: Fire Mana Regeneration

Description: A portion of all the mana you regenerate is converted to fire mana.

Effect: 20% of all the mana you regenerate is converted into fire mana.]

That's weird.

The entirety of what Prism had going for them was their ability to adapt to different mana types. As far as I could tell, dedicating a portion of their mana regeneration to a single element would be detrimental. That made me question if I was missing something or if that was just the nature of the blob's species. The Dungeon Core that had gifted them to me wanted to see how I could influence their evolutions after all. It was an interesting dilemma, but like so many other things, without Fabian, I had no quick way to get the answers I needed, so I resolved myself not to get the ability and moved on.

[Ability: Pure Mana Regeneration

Description: A portion of all the mana you regenerate is purified.

Effect: 20% of all the mana you regenerate has all aspects purged from it.]

This might have been a mistake.

A sinking feeling was beginning to set in. As far as I was concerned, it was another detrimental ability. I could at least see use cases for this one, though. For example, it would slow the problem of mana dilution Prism had been running into as they consumed prey, absorbing their mana, but that wasn't all too significant of an issue, and it would do just as much to slow the process of reattuning to an aspect as it would delaying the need to. At best, I considered it a neutral option that I could go with if whatever else the System had in store for me was bad, but I still didn't want it.

Okay, not going with new abilities on Prism in the future if I can help it.

Still, I had one option left, and I needed to make this decision, so I turned my attention to the last ability.

[Ability: Segmented Mana Pool

Description: You can temporarily cut off portions of your mana pool and reattach them at your own convenience.

Effect: You can divide your mana pool into as many segments as you want so long as each contains at least 10 points of mana. You can control what mana ends up in which pool, but you can only make use of one pool at a time, and you cannot switch between them. You can also reattach any pool to your primary one whenever you want.]

It took me some time to wrap my head around the implications of the ability thanks to the somewhat confusing wording, long enough for the bear monster to finish up its meal and take its leave, but slowly, I did come to understand it. As I did, the gears in my mind began turning faster and faster.

If Prism could divide their mana pool and choose what mana gets isolated from the rest, couldn't they create separate mana pools for different elements and switch between them by cutting off most of their main one before replacing it with the element they actually want?

I wasn't sure if that was how it would work in practice, but as I slowly thought my way through it, I found myself getting more and more enthralled by the possibilities. By the time I was done, my eyes would have been gleaming in excitement had they still existed.

I wasted no time in choosing the option. Then, as much as I wanted to go play with it alongside Prism, I held myself back. There was still one thing left that I had to do, and I doubted my impatient, miniature menace of a dragon would be willing to wait much longer for me to get it done.

Okay, time to work on Adraugon's new upgrades.