Chapter Twenty

Dragons and Dungeons

“Believe it or not, dragons created the dungeon making process,” Toot said in a hushed tone. It was almost as if he was afraid that he would be overheard divulging arcane secrets.

“Say what?” Dev found it hard to believe that a species dedicated to individualism would develop a process that stole souls and either utterly destroyed them or brainwashed and enslaved the unlucky few that survived the process, and he said as much.

“No, no, no,” Toot shook his head in denial and waved his hands. What the dragons came up with had nothing to do with souls. They created dungeons with the intention of letting them be places of learning for worlds with undeveloped, but intelligent, species. The idea was fairly simple, the indigenous populations had to brave the dungeons in order to gain knowledge. The knowledge had to come with a risk or it would not have been earned. Unearned knowledge is a deadly thing.”

“Essentially, it was a way to educate various races and help them advance faster, but with guidance.” Dev could see it all. The dungeons would take in information on the races that interacted with them, and then the dungeons could act as seeds for other worlds. That allowed for multiple races to exist on one world when generally only one sentient race ever came to dominance. It was a great and expansive vision that unified races from countless worlds into an eventual cohesive society or led to horrible wars. The dragons would have been fine with either result.

“It was the guidance part that the Overseers took to more than anything.” Toot looked serious. “They wanted to control the process. The dragon’s cores had no consciousnesses. They were simple components filled with the knowledge that reacted to series of events, doling out bits and pieces of knowledge, weapons, or spells when appropriate. But,” he hastily added, “The Overseers wanted to exert some sort of control over what was done. While they appreciated the way that the dungeons inspired growth and creation, they also felt that a thinking mind would work better.”

“While I don’t agree with their sentiment, I do see their point, given free reign I could give out rewards contingent upon how I felt that an individual or group fared within my walls. It might not be what would have been programmed, but it would have been justified. I also, might not give out something as good as it would have been if I felt the performance was less than stellar.” Dev was shocked that he even agreed with the Overseers in any way. Not everything, he mused, was black and white.

“Yes, and the dragons, believe it or not, saw their point. They tried to compromise with the Overseers by installing the brains of humanoids who had died. They did not want to use living brains, as that would have gone against their principles. The revivified brains were a limited success, and some still operate today. Most of them went mad and had to be destroyed, and that solidified the draconic position. No former intelligences were ever supposed to be infused with the cores again.” He stopped and threw up his hands in surrender. “The Overseers agreed, and so on their own, they started building cores around living brains. Of course, it killed the creature that the brain came from, but it worked. Just like you said, they brain-cores were able to make judgment calls, and do things the undead cores and standard cores simply could not.”

“Let me guess,” Dev said in faux surprise, “These brains went mad too?”

“Exactly,” Toot agreed, “And they lost their minds even faster than the dead cerebral cortexes. The results in the short-term exceeded expectations, the long-term effects were extremely disappointing. So, they did their thing and observed the creatives, people like poets, storytellers, and wizards in the hopes of being able to apply one of their ideas to their project. Naturally, all of this was being done without the dragons’ knowledge.”

“Naturally,” Dev agreed.

“By chance, they saw a ritual in which a god placed a soul into a sword. The sword was supposed to be an object of adoration, protection, and inspiration and carried one of the holiest souls that had ever lived. The Overseers watched the exploits of the sword for a thousand years before it was finally broken, and the soul allowed to move on to even greater rewards for its sacrifice.” Toot drew out his sword and flicked its steel with a fingernail that seemed stronger than the metal of the blade. The tink the impact his finger made on the weapon echoed in the darkness of their cavern. “We are in this position today because of a blade.”

Toot sheathed his sword and let his hand rest on its pommel. He patted it gently and continued his story.

“Certain that they had found a process that would yield a different result than those they’d achieved with brains the Overseers approached the god to get the details on how he’d achieved such a feat, but the god, a being of purity and light, refused to tell them. He could see their plans and wanted nothing to do with them.” Toot pulled the blade out of its casing enough for him to run his thumb along the edge until he bled. He replaced his sword to its proper place and showed his bloody thumb to the core. They ripped the god apart in order to get the information from him. In their haste, they neglected to learn the most important thing.”

“They never found out how the soul was able to remain stable in the sword for so long.” Dev, knew this to be an immutable truth. There were few of such veracities in the universe, and that was one of them.

“Correct, and thus they began to see a replication of the breakdowns that had happened earlier. The stones went mad just as their fleshy predecessors had. But,” Toot raised his voice and said, “They recognized the problem. The brains were made of flesh and flesh needs flesh. It is a communal thing. Taking away a body is a large hurdle for the brain to overcome. Souls also need flesh, or so it was believed that was the reason for their failures. It turns out that souls do not need flesh. So long as they have a vessel to contain themselves, they are fine. The problem comes when the souls realize that the core is not their body. It initiates a meltdown of the personality and the core is destroyed.”

“Wait, I can already see what you are going to say, the Overseers began cleansing the souls of their memories so as to avoid such problems,” Dev said with a certainty that he hadn’t felt since he’d awakened.

“Yes, and so it has led us to where we are now.”

“You never said what happened between the Overseers and the dragons.” Dev did not want to gloss over that information.

Toot harrumphed but then continued. “The soul conversion process was anathema to the dragon’s way of thinking, but it also affected their own magic as well. Dragons intended on destroying the soul-bound cores, acting on the belief that oblivion was better than slavery. Even the most evil dragons who employed humanoids as slaves agreed that to enslave a creature beyond their life cycle was monstrous. What they did not realize was that their most powerful weapon, their breath, was powered by their own souls. Against normal foes, this would not mean a thing, but the process of becoming a core makes a soul more volatile and the application of a dragon’s breath onto a core does result in the core’s immediate destruction.”

“Aannnd it does the same thing to the dragon,” Dev added. “Mutually assured destruction.”

“Yes, it is not known if the Overseers did that on purpose, but it proved to be a great deterrent for their assaults on the new dungeons. Worlds that have dragons often see the great Wyrms hiring or even encouraging adventurers to destroy the dungeon cores outright. It has caused a war that has origins so far back in time that most of the participants don’t even know why they are fighting. Dragons can kill Overseers if they are corporeal, and so both sides have had their share of causalities.” Toot made a there you go motion with his hands, “There is a lot more to the story, but nothing I dare to go into for fear of triggering something that should not be awakened within you.”

A great silence grew between them. Each giving the other time to adjust to what had just been revealed. It took some time before either of them found the strength to speak, the information that had just come to light had drained both of them.

“Are you ready to grow your territory?” Toot sounded hoarse and Dev materialized a mug of the high-quality mead for him. Toot gave him a nod of thanks and downed the large mug in one long gulp.

“I am,” Dev said stoically. He’d gotten a lot of history and more information than he’d expected that he had to mull over. He would reflect on what he’d just learned when Toot was out doing business.

“Very well, I’ve been thinking about how you sped up your expansion process. I think I can make it go even faster.” Toot gave him a wink. “The way in which you narrowed your focus and then filled in the non-Dev areas with yourself was pretty smart.”

“Thanks,” Dev said, “I was just trying to figure things out and stumbled onto it.” Then he had a realization that caused him to panic. “If I created a new system won’t that draw the attention of the Overseers?”

“Relax,” Toot soothed him, “Concepts and ideas created by an individual do not register until they share the process with others. So long as you keep things to yourself you won’t be detected. That means if you create a new race or spell they will not catch on until you use them in your dungeon.”

“So, I can get creative, I just can’t create or I’ll be noticed?” Dev saw the dilemma, what was the point of making new things, if he couldn’t use them?

“Not right away, and I’ll explain it all later. Right now, let’s just focus on growing,” Toot was steering him back on course.

“You got me thinking. We aren’t going to build underground, since all dungeons do that. They can’t help it. They want to get as far away from the surface as possible. We,” he tapped the side of his nose, “know better. We want to go unnoticed, so we are going to become a part of this town, and keep everything above ground.”

“I’m with you so far,” Dev said attentively.

“Rather than burrowing through the earth, we need to build into the air,” Toot said slyly, “With small thread-sized filaments. You grow them from the four cardinal points and go into the sky as far as you can. And do the same beneath you, of course, you would be burrowing there, but the idea is the same. Once they meet you just “inflate yourself to fill in the empty spaces.”

“Being above ground will mean I’ll have no problem gathering mana,” Dev realized.

“Yeah, that’s a plus, but you’ll also have to watch out for mana waves, which are caused when humanoids expend large volumes of mana in battle. It doesn’t affect them, but it can swamp a dungeon, overloading it. Which means we’re going to have to take preventative measures and build some defenses to that end.”

Dev heard Toot, but he was already working. He created a thin sliver of steel that was slowly encircling the town. He’d begun building the wire at his outermost limits and was now sending the metal slithering along the ground like a snake in two directions meticulously crawling away from their origin point and heading towards a meeting point in the far distance.

This was different than taking things away such as the stone floor. The core was simply growing something in one spot and moving it out into the world. The entire process took less than half an hour for them to meet. He connected them into a solid circle of steel and then at points that were precisely aligned with North, South, East, and West he began sending individual wires into the air. They would meet at a height of almost one thousand feet at the apex and then connect as well. The same thing was happening underground, albeit at a much slower pace. There he had to eat a small amount of matter before producing the wire, which took him twice the time it did for him to just push the wire around above ground.

Thankfully, the night hid everything from accidental notice by random passersby, and before he knew it Dev had formed a sphere that was cut into eight sections; four above and four below ground. He took a moment and puffed out his imaginary cheeks once more, pushing his quintessence into the empty spaces within the confines of the wires. The process was staggering, but he endured until every ounce of space was contained by him.

Dev noticed several things. First, he could sense life forms, but could not see them if they were inside of a structure. He knew how many stray cats and dogs the town contained. The number of rats surprised him, and he could even count the fleas shared by each animal. But once they entered a dwelling they vanished from his view. He suspected that this was because each building was owned by another entity and he could not infuse himself into them since they were not his.

The core also noted that the buildings now inside of his influence were impervious to him. He tried to drive a wire into the Dog’s hair, but it could not even scratch the rotting timber that it was made from. Additionally, even though he completely encapsulated them, he could not discern how they were built or what the interiors contained. That meant that if he wanted to create a building, he was going to need plans of some kind. What had Toot called them? Blueprints. He was stymied until he got his immaterial hands-on at least one of those. The more the better, but he could extrapolate what he needed from one and then try out new things.

As he did this, Toot sipped on a continuously refilling mug of ale and nibbled on some berries that he’d replicated from his companion’s trip to town. There had been a lot of supplies and he’d been doing a thorough job of examining each one; making sure to get them right. The moment that Dev had filled in every nook and cranny Toot put down his mug, indicating he knew that Dev had finished his first task.

“Great job, and you went even faster than I’d hoped. Let’s see about leveling next. Are you ready to do more?”

Dev gave his companion a mental nod and Toot brought a page up before the core. Dev had suspected that Toot could see his screens, but he had no idea that the man could share his own with the core.

“Give this a quick once over.” Dev did as he was asked, and read the page.

Name:

Dev

Energy Type:

Mana, Blood, Fear

Physical Component:

Hematite

Level

1

Experience Points:

2,220

XP to Next Level

780

Dev then noticed that below was a list of things that he had done to earn experience points.

He’d earned one point of experience for every new thing he’d absorbed, more in most cases. The twig that Toot had given him on the first night was worth one experience. The snake had been worth twenty-five. Every expansion over fifty feet gave him five points of experience. The whole bodies of Rufus and Trond were worth seventy-five points and one-hundred points, so the freshness of the corpse counted since the only difference between the men had been how long each had been deceased. Unless it factored in cognitive capability. Trond had a full mind when his body was converted, and Rufus had only hints of memories left. That had to count for something too.

The one thing he took note of was the list of things he needed to do in order to level up. He was not happy.

Build a Core Room Expand Territory a Distance of One-Hundred Yards. ü Create Self-Aware Simulacrum Replicate One Random Object. ü Fill Your Energy Bar/s Earn 3,000 Experience Points

Dev had done more than necessary in some instances and could not do others until he, well, . . . leveled. He couldn’t fill his Fear Bar, since he had no way to cultivate it just yet. He would take days making a new Constable Guro, too. He could at least build a core room; surely Toot could explain that one to him.

Then he had an inspiration. He might not be able to gather fear, but he was willing to bet that his companion could. From what he had been led to believe from Toot’s retelling of his exploits was that the old man certainly had intimidated a few people. Could he capitalize on that and have his companion gather fear like a farmer reaped his crop? Dev couldn’t see why not. So, filling his bars would not be so insurmountable as he’d supposed.

That just left creating a simulacrum. The requirements didn’t specify that it had to be intelligent, only self-aware. He couldn’t do that with the snake that came in or the deceased officer just yet, but he could remake the simple spider that Toot had killed for him on their first day on Anoubliette.

Before he realized what he was doing he’d brought up the spider’s information sheet and saw that button that said REPRODUCE. He gave it a mental poke and watched as the spider reformed on the ground between him and Toot. His companion raised an eyebrow and chuckled. The spider scuttled off to begin making a web somewhere in the cave and Dev lost all interest in it as he noted that there was now a checkmark beside his requirement:

Create Self-Aware Simulacrum. ü

Huzzah! He’d done it! Getting the experience points would not be all that difficult, meaning that his building of the core room was a minor inconvenience more than anything, and if Toot could cultivate for him then he was on the verge of leveling up! He noted that after Level Five there was an option that allowed him to specialize in certain fields such as Magic, Architectural Design, Weapons, Armor, Runes, Humanoid variations, and so on. It said that he could choose one at fifth level, but he suspected that the system would make an exception for him and let him take all of them. That was what he planned to do. See how the Overseers liked that.

Dev returned his focus fully back to the world, “I need to build a core room,” he said with the closest thing he had that compared to a rush of adrenaline. “Tell me how, please.”

“It’s fairly simple, you square off an area that you would like to hole up in, it has to be difficult to get to, so that delvers can’t stumble onto to it accidentally, or intentionally for that matter, you form a pedestal to rest your core on, and seal it off as much as possible from the rest of your territory. There is no,” Toot explained, “Hard and fast rules otherwise. It can be as big as you like or as small, but it will be where you house your physical component. Your mind can wander anywhere it likes inside of your territory.”

Dev followed his companion’s instructions and carved a small niche into the wall of the cavern. Then he slid the column that he’d made for the coin into the newly carved area. Then, he built a replica of the cave wall up in front of him; leaving a small crack for him and Toot to converse through. A pop-up alert appeared in his vision, and Dev saw a checkmark now followed the command:

Build a Core Room ü

He reopened his own sheet and noted that it now read:

Build a Core Room ü Expand Territory a Distance of One-Hundred Yards. ü Create Self-Aware Simulacrum ü Replicate One Random Object. ü Fill Your Energy Bar/s Earn 3,000 Experience Points

This meant that all he needed to get done was to fill his energy bars. Toot could buy animals that they could slaughter for blood, and if he was right then Toot could also bring home that tasty fear he’d been curious about.

“Looks like you only have one real hurdle to overcome. I don’t know how you’re going to get your fear until we do some building. Even then, how do we disguise what you are doing? Don’t worry, it's only a minor hang-up. Well figure something out,” Toot reassured Dev.

“I think I found a way around that little problem,” Dev said and explained his idea to Toot.

“I could possibly do that,” Toot agreed, “But I don’t have a cultivation core in my body. I didn’t anticipate needing one when I chose my form. I could gather some, I’m fairly certain I could, but it wouldn’t be much without a cultivation core.”

“What is a cultivation core?”

“Most cultivators, adventurers, for example, take in mana the same way that you do, some take in fear or blood, or even magic and they make themselves stronger by circulating those arcane energies through chakras or energy channels. The process of circulation allows them to purify their bodies, rebuild them, and improve their minds.” Toot sipped his mead and then continued, “Their bodies do this naturally, but not everyone is born with the innate ability to do so. That’s why most people are just people and not wizards or warriors.”

Toot walked over and scratched his back on the wall. He bent his knees and went up and down a dozen times before finally conquering the itch. Satisfied with his effort he explained further.

“Sometimes, a person does a boon for a noble house; something so great that just paying them wouldn’t satisfy their debt. In those cases, a crystalline core is given to them. The core is implanted in their body and they slowly form chakra channels and become more than they were before. The change in their body is significant, it alters their very make-up so that their children will be the same way.”

“What is a cultivation core composed of?”

“The vast majority of them are diamond,” Toot said knowing that he hadn’t given a trace of a diamond to Dev.

“How big are they?”

“Generally, they are about the size of the individual’s fist,” Toot answered.

“Where do they place them in the body?”

“I do believe that it rests somewhere in-between the heart and the diaphragm. Why do you ask,” Toot queried?

“No reason. Are they magical?”

“No,” Toot shook his head, they are filled with pure distilled dungeon energy, most are mana based, but there are prayer cores just the same as fear cores. So far as I know, the core is placed inside of the individual, the energy inside escapes into the body, and after it circulates the core is empty and can be set to filter a specific type of dungeon energy. This is because not all dungeons gather mana, as you well know.”

“So, basically it is a high-grade diamond the size of the fist of the individual receiving it that has been filled with pure dungeon energy and rest between the heart and the diaphragm?” Dev sounded like he was taking notes. That was how he wanted it to sound to Toot.

“Yes,” Toot said cautiously. He could sense there was more to the line of questioning than he’d first thought.

“Ok,” Dev said, “Hold on tight, I think this is going to sting a little.”

Dev watched as Toot’s expression went from shock as he felt the core form in his thoracic cavity. To his credit, the old man did not cry out in pain, but he did turn slightly green.

“What, wh-hut, did you do to me?” Toot gasped as the pain in his chest subsided.

“I gave you a cultivation core. Now you can cultivate for me. I even made it so that you can draw power from blood too because you will probably have more killing to do in the future.”

“Where, wh-hair, did you get a diamond from? I know I never gave you a diamond.” Toot did not seem angry at all, in fact, Dev seemed to think that the old man seemed proud of him.

“Oh, the walls and floor here are full of them. I got a complete rundown on them while you were out. They really aren’t anything special.”

“That just leaves us the good constable to take care of, and I think I have that problem solved, although it is a temporary solution for the nonce.” Toot rubbed his chest appreciatively. “We’ll do that next and come morning light I’ll head out and get us some blueprints from the Town Hall. I’m willing to bet that I get a goodly amount of fear just from that little rat-faced clerk named Chozen.”

“Well, here is to the morning light,” Dev said and materialized six perfect diamonds out the air. “Now, what are we going to do about the constable?”

We are going to do a less than perfect job on him,” Toot replied with a toothy grin.