Chapter 2

Congratulations! You have defeated the enemy. 5 Dungeon Points Received!

“You know this whole disembodied voice thing is cool, but I would like to have an actual name to refer to you. Lets call you Steve! Yup, I’m pretty sure that’s a great name!” I say to the voice from the void. “So I earned Dungeon Points, let's call those DP for now. I wonder what those are for?”

“Understood, Initiating tutorial. You may use Dungeon Points to upgrade parts of your dungeon. Minions will also level on their own by killing enemies and performing tasks. Your minions will also provide you with skills, which are based on their own knowledge. View your status to see your unassigned points.” says Steve. Right, I can see the status of things. I focus on my core and a window opens in front of me.

Dungeon Information

Name

Nameless Dungeon Core

A nameless dungeon that has appeared in an abandoned mining tunnel. Little is known of you by the world and you have accomplished little.

Dungeon Name

Nameless Dungeon

Titles

N/a

Age

20 minutes

Sex

N/a

Mana

45/50

Current Skills

Theme

Unknown

New!!! Goblin Language. Basic Goblin Construction.

1 Floor

Mining Tunnel

5 Dungeon Points unspent

5 Research Points unspent

“Hey Steve, what are mana and research points used for?” I ask my handy helper. Steve begins to explain.

“Mana is used to spawn objects, summon minions, and create rooms." Says steve.

"Okay that makes sense and what about research?."

"Research points can be assigned to unlock new objects, rooms, and monster evolutions for your dungeon. Research is limited to your current knowledge and objects you have absorbed in the past. "

“So I can't just research some badass high level minions right away?”

“You are correct. A dungeon that has only absorbed rats will be limited researching aspects of those materials. Please absorb more materials to expand your research tree.

"Can I at least edit rooms and objects? You can change aspects of rooms, traps and other objects by using your own knowledge to manually edit them with your mana. Most dungeons use this to make rooms larger or smaller."

Oh, so there are other dungeons? That's neat, I hope I can meet one, I have lots of questions that I would love to ask. "So Steve, can I just move some first around and cordon off the entrance?”

“Dungeons must always have a reachable core. " Steve responds with an annoyed tone. Perhaps it’s taboo to wall yourself off? Seems like a touchy subject, I'll leave Steve alone for now. I suddenly realize the goblin from before is staring at me with a blank stare, waiting patiently for a response. My mindeater is still fixed firmly to his head.

“Uhhh.. Hi… how's it going?” I say tentatively to the goblin.

“Orders?” Responds the goblin with a much clearer voice. Hmm... let’s go ahead and examine him again.

Possessed Inferior Goblin. This goblin has become brain dead due to extreme damage to the brain. A mindeater is now using the still living body as a puppet. Mindeaters are a weak parasitic monster that kills their host and takes control of the body by puncturing the brain with its tentacles.

Equipment

Weapons

Broken Rusted Knife

A now broken rusted knife. Useless for battle.

Armor

Tattered Loincloth

A tattered loincloth that is heavily stained.

Other Items

Ripped Satchel ( Items inside are currently hidden)

A ripped satchel with a single strap.

Please unlock an analysis skill to see more information. This will not be shown again.

“Oh my little mindeater survived and the goblin didn't actually rise from the dead. That is such a relief.” I nervously laugh out loud. “Why hasn't the goblin and it’s equipment been absorbed though?”

Steve, per usual, responds to me orating my thoughts,“The goblin is now part of your brood of minions. Minions stay active to defend the dungeon and gather resources or do research.” says Steve, rather smugly. Okay that explains that, well lets try giving this little guy an order.

“Please give me whatever happens to be in your satchel.” The mindeater’s flesh pulses as the goblin pulls off the bag and tosses the items inside onto the ground. I feel for my mana and have it wash over the items, now on the ground of the chamber.

1x Rat Carcass Absorbed!

5x Rocks Absorbed!

1x Human hand Absorbed!

2x Weak Wooden clubs absorbed!

1x Goblin Eyeball absorbed!

Mana is now fully restored.

“Wow, what a haul I'm certain the dungeon will be unbreachable now that I have five whole rocks.” I say to the mindeater, whose blank stare remains unchanged. Suddenly the omniscient voice of Steve echoes again.

“Lesser Rat added to the dungeon monster list. Weak wooden clubs can now be created.”

“Well what can I do with these other items now?”

“Items absorbed will grant mana depending on the type of item. Research can be used to experiment with objects to create solutions to problems presented or find upgrades to existing rooms, traps, and other tools.” Okay, awesome, so we should start spending mana to improve the dungeon and make some more minions to defend it.

“Orders?” says the little mindeater once again.

“Oh right, can you just go gather some materials that we can use to build with while I try to figure things out? Anything you can find near the dungeon would be great. Just don't get yourself killed.”

“Order confirmed” The little slug pulses and the goblin waddles down the hall and out the entrance with his bag in hand.

“I guess walking is new to him, what with being a slug and all. What a cute little guy. Sluggo will be his name.” I say to myself. Time to take a look at some of these menus.

No room designs currently available. Please research a design or construct a room manually.

Okay so no rooms available until I make one myself or research some. Next on the shortlist is room upgrades and research.

Currently available Research

Research Point Cost

Description

1 Research Point

NEW!!! Research lesser rat evolutions.

N/A

Research Mindeater evolutions. Currently Locked. Free minions granted by the tutorial cannot be evolved until the creation of a second floor.

Unnamed Floor

Room

Core Room

NEW!!! Upgrades available for Core Room: Convert wood pillars to stone. Increases room durability and reduces the chance of a cave in. Requires 1 DP (unlocked from small rock)

Basic Goblin construction Level 1: (provided from Sluggo)

Mana Cost

Description

1 mana

Locked! Wooden spike: Requires materials you have not discovered. A spike carved from a wooden log that can be used to create barricades or walls.

5 mana

Locked! Goblin shack: Up to two goblins can respawn here when the dungeon floor is empty. Goblins may also rest here. Requires Materials you have not discovered.

2 mana

New!!! Goblin rock pile: A pile of rocks that can be used as simple projectiles.

Leave it to the eccentric mind of a goblin to figure out a pile of rocks and pebbles. Let's assign a research point to lesser rat evolutions and upgrade the room to stone pillars. Hopefully the rats evolution can gather resources and fight intruders. Steve’s metallic voice chirps in.

"Research points assigned. ERROR! Unable to load lesser rat evolution. the system will notify you once an evolution is found. Room upgrade purchased.” I feel my mana stretch out across the room and soak into the old wooden supports. Slowly they petrify, changing their form into stone. They now look freshly carved, with no wear shown. Wow upgrading rooms is pretty quick but I guess researching evolutions take more time?

“Old wood absorbed! Goblin shack and goblin spike can now be constructed!” Steve rings in helpfully. Well I guess this should have been done first. It would be quite nice if the entrance to the dungeon had something a bit more... menacing. So let’s go ahead and construct this shack. I’m sure sluggo can rest in it. Does he even need rest? No matter. I feel the now familiar pull as I see my mana clump together into flat pieces of wood, that start haphazardly attaching themselves to other assorted wood pieces. I patiently wait for the shack to be complete before realizing that's really all there was to it. In front of me rests what seems to be a few loose pieces of flat wood stacked against each other like a house of cards coming to be about four feet high with an opening between two planks in the front. Looks like it could snugly fit two goblins inside but they would have to lay on the dirt floor inside. The sturdiness of the shack is questionable, I find myself certain a strong breeze could topple it. I suddenly feel quite lucky that we’ve made our home in a cave.

“Fantastic goblin construction at work, This will certainly meet safety standards!!” I say while I chuckle to myself. We are going to need all the defenses we can get. The other goblins ran away, but they may be back and this time with more friends. I take hold of my mana, moving it over to where the room and entrance tunnel meet. There I construct a wooden spike, pointed to a frightening tip, facing away from the core room at an angle. The construction finishes quickly. The hallway is about 6 feet wide and the spike itself is reaches approximately 1 foot wide. I generate another four spikes and space them in a way in the hallway that provides just enough room for a single goblin to pass into the room. My mana is now down to 40.

“Now intruders will have to come single file or try to climb over some very sharp and pointy logs. That should slow them down a fair bit.” I construct a goblin rock pile near the spikes we can toss rocks at any intruders while they try to move down the tunnel into the Core Room.

Congratulations, due to your remarkable engineering ingenuity a new room upgrade has been unlocked! Goblin security barricade room upgrade is now available.

Alright, let's take a look at this upgrade we unlocked.

Room: Entrance Tunnel

Cost

Available Room Upgrades

3 DP

New!!! Convert the entrance tunnel into a goblin security barricade

15 Mana

New!!! Add a goblin watchtower. 0/2

4 Mana

New!!! Add a goblin Totem. 0/1

Looks like the system recognized what I was doing and provided some new upgrades to compliment it. These are a bit expensive, let's try to make some minions and rooms first. I start pulling my mana out of the core and begin by sculpting a small tunnel on the opposite side of the entrance tunnel. I feel my mana easily absorb the packed dirt and rocks that are in the way. The new tunnel itself is now about 20 feet long, 6 feet across, and 4 feet high. I began sculpting a room on the other end until the room extends approximately 20x20 with 6 foot high ceiling.

“This room will be massive to those goblins” I say out loud while chuckling to myself.

“Packed Soil absorbed. Packed soil can now be used construction” Steve informs. Doesn't look like I'm going to be getting much mana from the soil and I am now sadly at a pitiful 10 mana. My, building rooms sure does take a lot of mana! I can see why researching new rooms could be more efficient. "Hey Steve can I move my core to the new room?" I ask.

"It would be recommended to move your core to the safest part of your dungeon. You should be able to do this with your mana. Simply push the core in the direction you would like to move.” I release some mana and push it back against the core and sure enough it moves with ease through the new tunnel and into the freshly created room. This costs a total of 4 mana to do but I would imagine it increases with distance.

"I should be a little safer here I suppose.” I begin to feel lightheaded and then come to the sudden realization that I never asked Steve about mana recovery. “Steve, how can I replenish my mana stores?”

“Mana is absorbed from objects and corpses. Stronger beings grant more mana. You will also absorb ambient mana naturally at a rate of 5 mana per floor, daily.” Woah, I just spent a lot of mana and it doesn't look like I'm going to be getting it back anytime soon. At the very least it won’t be until we get some materials or intruders to absorb. I am definitely going to need to make some minions before I run out. Sluggo is gone and I don't have much to defend myself with. Luckily, Steve chimes in at the perfect time.

“Research lesser rat evolution now complete. New monster type available for summoning.” Let's take a look at my monsters that are available for summoning.

Monsters

Mana Cost

Monster Type

5 Mana

Mindeater, limit 1 per dungeon until a second floor is created.

1 Mana

1x Mana. Lesser Rat pack. Creates 3 lesser rats

No longer available due to researched evolutions.

6 Mana

New!!! Error! Please contact your administrator. Palmtail Skitter pack. Creates 3 Palmtail Skitters.

I don't know what a palmtail skitter is yet, but it looks like I only have one option available. I wasn't aware evolution research would consume the original monster type. This feels like it would have been pertinent information to know... Steve. Nevermind, It worked out anyways. With six times the mana cost they must be much stronger! Time to create a palmtail skitter pack.

I feel as if absolutely nothing could go wrong. I feel my mana leave my core and form into a mist again. This time it pools into three separate piles before turning into flesh. Three mostly normal looking black rats form in front of the core. Well, I say mostly normal because spread over the skin of the rats are blisters of varying sizes, oozing puss and other fluids. But that is far from the strangest part of these creatures. Near the rear of the rat where their tails would normally be located is an entire human wrist, connecting to a human hand extending out from behind each rat. The rats squeak as the hands move and flex their fingers before each rat runs off in different directions.

“Well I'm sure that is totally normal.” I say to myself. I suddenly feel an intense pain coursing through my mind.

Error! System calculating...

Congratulations new title House of Horrors has been unlocked!

"Warning! All mana reserves have been expended. Shutting down core temporarily to avoid mana exhaustion and preserve core integrity." The shrillness of Steve’s chirping pierces through me as my consciousness fades away.