A Dungeon’s Survival

Connie

As it turned out, freeing up over one hundred DP was more than just a difficult task. As far as I was concerned, it was impossible to do through normal means without outright crippling my Dungeon in the process. The more I struggled to expand it, the more my expenses seemed to exceed my income, and I'd hit a limit. Doing anything else required drastic measures.

[Your Shade Lurker (Level 1) has died!]

And, unfortunately, I couldn't convert modified monsters into familiars.

Okay, time to do this. Prism, are you sure you're okay with this? If not, I can still figure something else out.

“Blurb!” the slime answered in the affirmative.

Thank you. I'll get this fixed as soon as I can, I promise.

The scouting group had just finished with their daily run, and I was now on a time limit as my DP was at the highest it could get without me losing an awakened monster or crafter. That was important since permanently removing anything in my Dungeon would cause problems. I couldn't afford that, so what I'd instead decided to do was to add an extra familiar to my ranks. Doing so would temporarily lower Prism's level by four until I could increase my SOUL enough to offset the downside that came with doing so, but as unfortunate as it was, it was also necessary.

I watched as my freed up Dungeon Points shot to nearly four hundred. In order to make the greatest use of this opportunity, I'd decided to spend as much as I could in one go. It would be my only chance, after all.

Shade Lurker, I thought as I summoned a replacement for the one who'd been responsible for replacing the magical plants behind the backs of those who looted them.

Everything to levels.

Thanks to an achievement I'd long since picked up, Outclassed, I could level up my monsters for a slightly reduced DP cost. Due to the expensive nature of my Dungeon, I'd hardly gotten a chance to make use of it in the past, but it was perfect for situations like this. Thanks to it, with all my available DP combined, I was able to get the newly summoned Shade Lurker to level seven, the soon-to-be new limit for my familiars, in one go. Unlike Noctis, I wasn't able to give this one any aspects due to the scaling cost it would have taken to level it up with one, but it didn't need any to do the job it was for.

From this moment on, you shall be one of my familiars. I hereby name you, Loot, I told it, accepting the System prompts in the process.

“Yes, master,” she hissed back as a form of sentience was achieved.

I had considered making my new ghoul a familiar instead, but in the end, I'd decided against it. Had I done so, I could have saved even more DP, but it would have come with different benefits and restrictions that didn't suit it. Familiars had more freedom than awakened monsters, but I also lost the ability to further enhance them through my Dungeon powers. I preferred those changes happening to my second-most-expensive monster instead. That way, I could modify the ghoul in the future to better suit my needs.

Let me walk you through you're new duties, I told the Shade Lurker.

As it stood, the cost of summoning her at such a high level was restrictive. I was still going to summon my ghoul, but that had to wait until night, otherwise I would have run short on the mana I needed to maintain my normal operations. In the mean time, I showed the shadowy spirit around and instructed her on how to go about sneaking the plants into their corresponding places once the adventurers left.

* * *

“Is there a reason you wanted me here for this, mistress?” Archie asked as he made his way to the arena in the dead of night.

Besides having a mad scientist around for my crazy experiment, I laughed but, seeing that my joke was lost on him, quickly explained, You're the most knowledgeable friend I have. I want this monster to share in your thirst for knowledge and be your equivalent but with combat techniques instead of alchemy. I figured having you present for their creation couldn't hurt.

“Very well. I do not know what I can offer in regards to this process, but I am at your service.”

Vie and Pee were also present, which was perfect, but unlike Sir Archibald, I hadn't called them here. The arena was where they spent most of their time, so there hadn't been a need to.

“Our queen,” Vie acknowledged.

“Mother!” Pee greeted happily.

It's time to get you that sparring partner you wanted, I told them.

Excitement and anticipation rolled off of the pair. They'd, in large part, had to train on their own all this time. At last, it was time to remedy that, and doing so started with summoning the new monster.

As I willed it, the newest monster I had access to, the only one that was so limited I could only have a single one at any given moment, took form. Compared to the depictions of ghouls that I was used to, it looked about how I'd expected. The shambling corpse took the form of a tall, lanky man with deathly gray skin, eyes that somehow looked both lifeless and intelligent at the same time, and a general wrongness in the way it jerkily moved about. On it was minimal, torn clothing.

Yeah, no. That's not going to do.

With another thought, I summoned two additional sets of apparel. The first was a set of standard–if low-quality–medieval clothing, and the second was a set of armor. At long last, the equipment I'd absorbed from those who'd tried and failed to kill me was proving its use.

Put those on, I instructed it as I averted my gaze and focus on its status instead.

It was time to give it the aspects it would be relying on to carry out its duties: Record Memory, Memory Eater, and Inflict Memory. It was costly but just barely affordable so long as I continued to selectively summon my monsters as needed. I just wished I had an extra twenty DP on hand to give it a dedicated two Trentis to train at any given moment, but that was out of my reach for the time being.

Well, no use putting it off any longer. Time to give you the spark of life! Or a mind or whatever.

[Please choose a name for your newly awakened monster.]

Stein.

There was no use arguing with the classics. If I was creating some kind of horrible, undead monster in a process that I half-expected to blow up in my face somehow, I figured I might as well name it after one such monster from classic literature. Sure, Frankenstein was technically the scientist and not the monster itself, but given the role of researcher and teacher I wanted this monster to have, it still seemed fitting to me.

Well, I asked the newest member of my Dungeon family, How do you feel?

“Er, hungry,” the Mimicry Ghoul grunted.

In retrospect, I probably should have expected that. Bring them in!

At my command, the Lizard Man leatherworker dragged in the bodies of two Trentis.

Here, you can eat these, but–wait! No, wait!

Before I could even finish, the ghoul was already descending upon the bodies in a ravenous fervor.

You can eat them, but–stop! No! Let me finish! I need you to take certain measures with the brains.

“Brains?” he echoed back.

Oh my goodness, I've just created an actual zombie, haven't I? Aren't awakened monsters supposed to be intelligent? Ugh, never mind that. Okay, Stein, read your ability effects before anything else.

I then waited. A minute ticked by, then another. Stein's eyes were glossed over and he showed no signs of finishing.

Well, have you finished?

“Finished?” he asked in a clueless grumble.

Yes, have you finished reading over your abilities?

“Oh, I will do.”

Another pause followed along with a horrible sense of dread that began to settle in.

I've made a terrible mistake, haven't I?

Hastily, I pulled for the description of the monster, the one I specifically remembered calling Mimicry Ghouls sharp.

[Description: An undead husk with an unusually sharp, though forgetful, mind and an overwhelming craving for flesh. It can copy the movements and actions of those it comes into contact with with unerring accuracy, but it quickly forgets them.]

'Though forgetful,' I read those two words, and realization settled in.

Okay. Okay. This can still work, but we're going to need to go about this differently. Um, Stein …

I waited for him to respond.

Stein? I said again to no response.

Then, it hit me.

Mimicry Ghoul?

“Huh?”

Yep, he forgot his own name. Great, just great. Okay, activate your ability, Record Memory.

Silence followed.

Well, have you done it?

“Yes.”

So time's ticking. Great. Okay, your name is Stein, and these are your ability effects.

I proceeded to rapidly read off his abilities to him. Somehow, I just barely got through them in the minute I had.

Do you remember all of that?

“Yes.”

Repeat it back to me.

I saw his eyes wandering to the Trenti corpses and sighed.

Repeat all of that and you can start eating parts of them but not their brains.

“'Well, have you done it? So time's ticking. Great. Okay, your name is Stein–”

To his credit, he was able to recite back to me what I'd read out to him verbatim. I also asked him about random details relating to his abilities, and he was able to answer them with ease. He also seemed to know his name now, which was a massive improvement, and it proved that he was capable of learning. That was both a good thing and a horribly ominous one as far as my near future was concerned.

Sorry, Vie, Pee, but I'm going to need more work with him before you can spar, I sighed out before turning to my only hope, Um, Archie, this is going to take a while, could you help me come up with little packets of information to feed him? I need him to know how to perform his job so well he can do it on autopilot because I think that's about all he's capable of.

“Hmm, that does seem like quite the challenge. Very well, but may I continue my research as we discuss this?”

Sure thing.

For the rest of the night, the following day, and beyond, we were forced to occasionally inform the undead monster who seemingly suffered from extreme short-term memory loss on how to act, what his duties were, and when and how he should actively use his Record Memory in order to properly function in day-to-day life. The process was made substantially harder and more tedious due to the fact that he could only absorb a minute's worth of information every hour, but I was determined to make this work. I'd spent way too many resources I couldn't get back for it not to.

These are your duties. You are expected to train the monsters in my Dungeon … I told him.

“You are to serve the mistress of the stone, our creator. The monsters in her domain are her subjects, and as such, they are not to be considered food unless they are already dead. You are not to eat any living monster of hers,” Archie explained.

Unless I tell you otherwise, you may only use Record Memory in certain situations to make the most of its limited uses. Additionally, you must always check to see if it's available before using it, and when it's active, you are to absorb as much information as possible. Here are the situations where you may activate it.

You may use it when you are eating a brain in order to record relevant memories, preferably those related to combat skills. When training, you may use it when you feel like you are nearing a breakthrough. Also, …

“Outside of using your Record Memory ability, you should keep track of things through the use of writing. This will hopefully prevent you from forgetting what you were doing in the middle of carrying out a task. Here are some examples of how this may help you.”

It took forever.