Chapter 88: Core Principles

  THAREK

  The pain in his back and side was gone. Not just the recent pain… all of it, that he’d lived with for a few years now. Even magical healing couldn’t get rid of some of the grueling injuries that Tharek had suffered in his lifetime. Too many accidents, not enough healers to go around.

  The complete ck of sensation was a worry, though.

  Tharek reached for the System, though he didn’t have the skills to have a good health breakdown. It should be able to tell him the biggest, most obvious problems.

  SYSTEM MESSAGEYou have died. Please wait while your situation is being assessed.The message was blunt and simple. It made sense, and Tharek could only ponder his feelings while he waited. He wasn’t upset, he concluded. He hadn’t been old, yet he was no longer young either. He’d been in pain the st few years, and he knew that even if he’d survived the bricks that had fallen atop him, he’d have been unlikely to work ever again without healing he couldn’t afford.

  SYSTEM UPDATEYou have been selected for a new duty. This is an optional duty which will allow you to keep your memories and personality intact for the term of service. You may refuse this offer and continue to your normal destination post-life. The System cannot reveal what this will be. Please consider carefully, as once this duty is accepted, it will continue until your directive is complete, or you suffer a second death.This was not how Tharek had envisioned his death would go. He was a simple man. He’d been born into the muscur bigast Totem, but studied under a builder to escape the simple borer job of his parents, and by the time of his death he had directed many small teams to y foundation and brick for the growing cities. It was good work – hard, but satisfying. Despite his early death, Tharek was proud of his life. What else could he be good at?

  INTERIM OFFER: DUNGEON COREIf you choose to accept this duty, your soul, personality, and memories will control a Dungeon Core. This will allow you to guide the expansion and design of what is termed a dungeon, a location assembled around a possible distortion in the System. Your task will be to create a series of difficult yet fair obstacles for living beings to overcome.

  Upon the defeat of your Anchor Monster (detailed ter), performance will be evaluated. If the difficulty was high enough to successfully remove the System disturbance, you will be given the option to pass on. You may also choose to stay as a Dungeon Core longer, in order to further boost performance.

  Upon passing on, you will be given the option of several boons. We may not at this time list all possible boons. Examples include favorable positioning after death, or benefits such as extra Primary Css slots which may be passed on to descendants, if avaible.

  If Tharek had possessed eyes, he would have blinked. He knew what a dungeon was… he’d died during a war over one, though not as a soldier. The idea that they were run by people who had died was new to him. The idea that there was more than one in the world was equally new, though he knew the world was huge. It didn’t surprise him that there was more than one.

  PLEASE CHOOSEYou may take up to one year to decide. If you choose to accept this position, we may offer you further options to customize your experience to your liking. You will only be asked this once. Accept Dungeon Core? (Y/N)Many in the city looked down on Tharek as little more than a borer. They failed to note that he had gone a slightly different path than his parents, though it only earned marginally better living conditions. He never got the opportunity to express it much, but Tharek was a very curious vaskan. A whole aspect of life that he’d never glimpsed before? That was too tempting to pass up. He selected Yes.

  SELECT SPECIES/CULTURE OPTIONSThank you for joining in the defense of the world! Your service is appreciated. In order to make this a smooth transition for you, please select which species/cultures you are willing to be pced near. If possible, you will be pced near the selected species and/or culture. If multiple choices are made, you will be pced in a location where as many as possible may encounter you. Otherwise, one of your selections will be chosen at random.* Elf (Aravel) * Elf (Calen) * Elf (Sylen) * Dwarf * Myconid [RESTRICTED] * Vaskan (Polied) [DEFAULT] * Vaskan (Tribal) * Vaskan (Aquatic) * Polyform Colonies [RESTRICTED] * Haptix * Rooken * Upside Dragon [UNAVAILABLE] * Downside Dragon [UNAVAILABLE]This baffled Tharek for a moment. He’d had no idea so many different options would be avaible! The choices marked restricted or unavaible were greyed out and could not be selected, but the rest ignited his curiosity. Intrigued, he selected every option but the Polied or Tribal vaskan. He knew those, and wanted to see something different before he passed on. He didn’t know what Polied meant, but if that was what he was, then it made sense to keep it unselected if he wanted something new.

  SELECT COMMUNICATIONSYou have been pced between a Rooken Nest and a Sylen Elf Migratory Path. You may also encounter Aravel Elves or Calen Elves at a lower frequency. Please choose if you would like to be attached to the Dungeon Core Communications Channel. This allows Dungeon Cores to speak to one another under certain conditions. You may change this selection ter, but it requires a small energy cost to connect. A transtion will be provided during communication, but be aware that this transtion will not provide proper context for cultural differences.* Do not connect * Connect only to simir Cores [UNAVAILABLE: Core/Region mismatch] * Connect to ChannelBeing able to talk to other Dungeon Cores seemed like it would keep him from getting bored. Tharek selected the Connect option that wasn’t greyed out. He felt a strange sense of unease at choosing all of this. The System let him choose his csses and abilities, but most of the adjustments were automatic. This was far more under his control.

  He wondered if what he’d heard was true… if death normally returned him to the world, to watch over his descendants as an animal or spirit. Would he remember this? Would it grant him greater wisdom? The System seemed to be unable to reveal that.

  SYSTEM MESSAGEFormation in progress. Further instructions will be provided shortly.Tharek finally found the empty void that he’d been reading the messages against repced by a lush forest, viewed from just on the ground. He didn’t recognize any of the trees, but they were definitely trees. They were also very blurry, except for the tree right next to him.

  He could see himself, as well: a thumb-sized ball of gss just ying on the ground between two roots. Not very impressive.

  DUNGEON MANAGEMENTYou have been granted 150 Dungeon Points(DP) to start. These will restore themselves dependent upon ongoing performance. You may call up your Dungeon Status at any time in the same manner as you called up your System Status when living. Options for spending DP are avaible in your Dungeon Status.

  Your goal is to designate an Anchor Monster, created from your Dungeon Status Menu, to be the final goal of the dungeon. You must also create a series of obstacles of your choosing to protect the Anchor Monster.

  You are also expected to expand your Domain to a rger and rger area.

  The Anchor Monster and the obstacles to reach it must be possible to defeat. Your performance will be evaluated on how difficult you have made the process. Therefore, the most efficient means of getting a high performance rating is to make the dungeon as difficult as possible while still being capable of being beaten.

  You may abandon the core at any time after the Anchor Monster is defeated.

  Once the Anchor Monster is defeated, you may no longer grow your Domain in size.

  Explorers who die in the dungeon will initially provide a rge bonus of DP, but this bonus will decrease with each subsequent death within a short time frame. You are encouraged to make your dungeon dangerous, but not dangerous enough to be immediately lethal to a prepared explorer.

  You may not communicate with any explorers directly. They must not know the origin of a Dungeon Core’s intelligence. Attempts to breach this restriction will result in immediate expulsion.

  You have been granted three Quest Tokens. You may assign up to three Quests to Explorers so long as they are reted to a dungeon, even one other than your own. Removing a Quest from someone carries a heavy DP cost. Each Quest will grant you DP upon completion, and return the Quest Token. Death of the subject given the Quest will return the Quest Token after ten days.

  The type and magnitude of boons avaible will be assessed based upon the total DP accumuted once you abandon the core. Please note that expansion beyond a certain point will not gain further credit. You will be informed when you are approaching this limit.

  Further details are avaible in your Dungeon Status. Good luck!

  This was worrying to Tharek for all of a few heartbeats. Opening the Dungeon Status immediately rewarded him with some further knowledge… including the ability to shape his cimed Domain. It was small at first, but if he could shape it, that was all that he needed. He’d been given no restrictions on how it needed to be shaped, or what the appearance should be.

  He burned several dozen DP to expand his Domain, covering the size of a rge house. It became more expensive to expand the further he went, but this much gave him some room to work. He could shape how his Domain expanded easily enough, with little cost, and that meant he didn’t have to keep going wider and wider.

  | SWIRLING DUNGEON: Hello, new dungeon! What were you before? ? | UNNAMED DUNGEON: I was a bighast Totem vaskan from Chall. ? | UNNAMED DUNGEON: Why don’t I have a name? ? | SWIRLING DUNGEON: You need to pick one. Your old one won’t work, because your dungeon name gets used for Quests. You have time to make one. ? | SWIRLING DUNGEON: I’ve met one other vaskan-based dungeon. I was an Aravel elf, myself. ? | UNNAMED DUNGEON: I don’t know what that is. I was hoping to learn. ? | SWIRLING DUNGEON: Plenty of time to do that ter. For now, get your core sealed away and figure out what kind of main chamber you’ll have. Protect your core. It doesn’t have to be reachable, you can just cover it with yers of rock or something. ? | UNNAMED DUNGEON: Thank you, I will.

  Tharek was gd that his first interaction had been friendly. Whatever an Aravel was, they didn’t seem to be vicious monsters. They could speak and reason just as he could. Were they vaskans that bred true for long enough to become their own people? He’d seen an aquatic variant in the list. The word was unfamiliar, but the meaning was conveyed as water-reted.

  He began shaping again, forming a rge wall just inside his domain, and squaring it off. Layering earth like this wasn’t very hard, but it took DP to harden it and make it tougher. Stronger.

  Strong enough for what he was pnning. Something he’d always wanted to help build. Something which already gave him an idea for his name. He opened up the chat once more to fix the whole naming problem.

  | UNNAMED DUNGEON: I already know how I’ll design my dungeon. It will give me a good name, too. ? | LURKING WEB: A new dungeon already in the channel? Hello. ? | SWIRLING DUNGEON: Very new. Don’t rush into it, new person. Don’t worry about Web… she has a scary name and scary ideas but she’s helpful. Gives good advice. ? | LURKING WEB: Make sure your name looks good on the Quest menu. ? | UNNAMED DUNGEON: I think it will. Just let me try this. ? | [UNNAMED DUNGEON HAS RENAMED TO: GRASPING SKY TOWER] ? | LURKING WEB: I think we have a real talent here.