Chapter 2

- New Me -

I leapt up to confront Parallel Me.

“Hay, wanna’ look at that cool stuff I was talking about earlier?”

“You DID NOT just involve us in a WAR!”

“I DIDN’T!”

“Oh, in that case-”

“-I just want to.”

“YOU-”

“-Discreetly, of course.”

“You have 30 seconds to explain yourself.”

“Now, everyone knows that the Demonic Dungeons number two goal is to take down their nemesis, the Holy Dungeon so that they can fulfil their number one of goal of being evil in peace.”

“You said both parties are far away from our island.”

“And they are. But of the three most powerful Dungeons on this continent, the one in the region we are in belong to the weakest.”

…A stepping stone. “SO, we WILL come under attack?”

“I don’t know the specifics of anyone’s strategies, but calm down; the attacks are quite public, so I do know a thing or two. Firstly, the Demons always come in by ship. And secondly, almost none of them ever make it to shore, because the top three Dungeons always work together to crush them.”

“They get crushed? Every time? Then why bother to attack?”

Parallel Me shrugged. “I’m sure there is a sinister conspiracy behind it- but that’s not the point. The point is all those Core’s…. are just waiting to fall into our lap.”

“Core’s?! I thought you were talking about monsters! You’re saying the demons throw fleets worth of Core’s at a lost cause? I thought you said they were super valuable? Especially one’s strong enough to brave bringing their Core out into the open.”

“Actually, as best I can tell most of them are new-borns, still in the tutorial period when it is easier to move around. Though they do all have avatars and some monsters. I assume the Demon King fronted the DP for all of those purchases.”

I scoffed at the name. “Is he the leader? He sounds like a fool, what a waste of resources.”

“Yes, the Demon King is the strongest Demonic Dungeon and calls all the shots. However, I think it’s a brilliant long-term play, if not cold hearted and cruel. I think the Cores are mostly Commons and he is effectively culling them. Since their absence will mean space for a new core to spawn- which have a chance to be a rarity above common. I assume he wouldn’t send those to their death. Eventually the minimum Core rarity on that continent will be Uncommon. Though, if he’s really ambitious there is nothing stopping him from repeating it a higher rarity as the bar. As for his method of culling them, sending them to this enemies is quite foolish but I assume he just needs one to succeed… to create a foothold.

“You have some ideas about what he’s up to?”

“Pure speculation,” Parallel Me admitted. “But irrelevant right now. Are you in?”

“…How many Cores do you think we can get? Surely competition over the scraps will be fierce.”

“That’s the thing. All the invading Cores have the Demonic attribute so if one of the defending Cores dares to use it they would inevitably gain the Demonic Attribute, i.e. become a public enemy.”

“Wait, so there’s no way for them- or US- to not gain the Demonic Attribute if it’s used? Maybe that’s the Demon Kings plan- corrupt some greedy idiot. I would like it if we could not be that idiot. I doubt we could survive publicity as it is.”

“Just another feather on a camel’s back.”

“I think that’s the opposite meaning of the actual saying.”

“Just think about what we can do with a Core or… Core’s. Remember the three things we can do with it? Absorb it, trade it in for a monster or build a new separate dungeon- which is as good as an extra life.”

“If gaining the Demonic attribute is such a big deal then wouldn’t the three top Dungeons also destroy or confiscate all the Cores in the invasion force?”

“I assume they do go out of their way to confiscate them. Probably with some sea monsters.”

“You don’t know do you? But you want to jump in anyway. Now who’s the risk taker? …So how do we get this free stuff without getting caught?”

“I’m glad you asked because,” Parallel Me gestured and Gravis walked over, carrying something, “One of the items I bought is this.”

“And I’m looking at?”

“A Teleportation Scroll.”

“Oh, cool! Will it teleport the Cores to us?”

“No.”

“Will it teleport us to the Cores?”

“No.”

“Then what the hell do we use it for?”

“This teleportation scroll works by setting a return point, somewhere you physically are, and returning there when you activate it.”

“OK. I think I get where you’re going with this. You want to blindly charge in, grab a Core, then retreat using the scroll! That’s so stupid. I expected more of you.”

“That’s gist of it.”

“Shouldn’t stealth would be involved, especially for ‘someone in our position’?”

“Since I don’t know exactly what happens I can’t prepare an effective counter measure, especially when I had seconds to make the decision before we had to abandon our territory.”

I sighed, stressed.

“Don’t worry, the invasion is many months away. We can make the decision later,” Parallel Me reassured. “Why don’t we do something to take our minds off it? And, you know, decrease our chances of dying.”

“…Dungeon building?”

“Dungeon building,” Parallel Me nodded.

I rubbed my hands together and opened the menu. Despite the floors and bodies that stood between me and the entrance, I desired a more literal barrier. Parallel Me had already informed me that if we tried blocking the entrances, like we did at our original spawn point, with something that wasn’t DP purchased it would only work during the Tutorial Period. After the Tutorial Period it would just hurt. And it would start killing me. Since it wasn’t a long-term solution we decided we may as well just do it properly from the start.

On the upside, the catalogue of doors was extensive. For the most part, the distinguishing factor was their ‘key’. In other words, the only way a given door would open. A Boss Door, for instance, only opens after the designated monster in the leading room is killed. (The doors are only locked from one side, the room on the locked side of the door is the ‘leading’ room, the other the ‘trailing’ room.) A Monster Door is similar in that you must kill all monsters in the leading room. A Key Door needs a literal key to open, but the key can’t be destroyed, removed from the room (which includes placing it in an interspatial container like my Core) and most importantly, forbids monsters in the leading room. Putting it in a hay stack is OK though. Or in a room full of keys. I pity any adventurer that decides to enter our Dungeon. There were also Puzzle Doors and Quest Doors-

Parallel Me piped in with his opinion, “I think we should just buy two for now, one Boss Door and one Monster Door. The Boss Door for Gravis and the Monster Door for the Goblins and Hobgoblins.”

“What about the other types?”

“Errr… they can be risky. Remember that the doors, like internal walls, aren’t indestructible. And since both Key and Puzzle doors mandate no monsters in the leading rooms, intruders can take their time to do whatever they want. Leave, rest, play by the rules or just brute force it.”

I looked at the price of the Boss and Monster Doors. “They’re expensive.” I noted, while Parallel Me said the opposite. I gave him an inquisitive look.

Parallel Me laughed as he said, “After spending tens-of-thousands of DP a few hundred doesn’t seem like much.”

I groaned in irritation. “What did you spend it all on anyway?”

“Most of it went towards spells- I’ll have you learn them later. The rest is split between some precious metals and a few items. Like the teleportation scroll.”

“Precious metals? What could we have used those for? Projectiles?”

“Again, I was preparing for the worst! It seemed like a good idea to have ‘money’,” Parallel Me lifted his hands to put air quotes around the word, “just in case. Maybe to buy something. Maybe to bribe someone or, yes, maybe to throw it- except to serve as a distraction. Regardless, we did end up using some to alleviate your conscience when we stole that boat, so it did come in handy, didn’t it?”

“…Now that you mention it, what does everyone use as money in a world where Dungeon Cores can just create almost anything out of thin air, infinitely?”

“Coins made from precious metals. Though, monster cores come in at a close second and bartering isn’t uncommon.” Seeing my scepticism Parallel Me continued, “You’re forgetting that while a Dungeon Core can, potentially, make an infinite amount of something they can’t do so in a finite amount of time. Plus, there are things that can remove matter from circulation. Like when an interspatial container is destroyed, its contents are gone. But Dungeons can also play a part. We can ‘scrap’ something for a fraction of it’s raw material’s DP value.”

“I suppose that makes sense. Do we need to care about money?”

“Yes. Although the monster cores are probably more important to us.”

“Great. We get to participate in two rat races.”

“But speaking of purchases…” Gravis brought over a sphere of metal. “Ta-da!”

“What is it?”

“This is a Dummy Core. I brought it to be either be a decoy if we were cornered or as a cover if we made it to the island for our eventual debut to the public.”

I didn’t ask how much it cost. “Does it have a rating?”

“Yes, it’s rating is Rare and I picked Gold as its type. It should be able to walk the line.”

“What line?”

“Not be perceived as enough of a threat to kill but valuable enough to want to subdue. For now, it should have its own floor with our first ‘public’ boss.”

Since we wanted to keep certain attributes under wraps it was going to be necessary to have ‘public’ bosses. In other words, a boss whose main purpose is for appearances. We would put up a token resistance against intruders that tried to reach it but deadly force for those that tried to pass it. We would also try to make it seem like the end of our Dungeon. Beyond the public boss would be, for any intruders, the point of no return. “I know what I want our first boss to be.”

“Really? Already?”

“As they chased us down, I realised three things. One, I want a minotaur to be our first boss.”

Parallel Me digested the information, hand on his chin. He nodded, “On average their intelligence is adequate, though they tend to be muscle-headed. They are strong individually but can also work well in packs. They’re quite humanoid, making armament less troublesome. They’re not too expensive… all in all, a DP efficient purchase. Good choice, no opposition from me.”

“Two, some stuffed minotaur heads would look good on a wall.”

“Took the pursuit personally huh?”

“They hunted us down for DAYS!”

“Well, if it means that much to you… AND you do a good enough job in building up our strength, we can return to the Dwarven mountains instead of scavenging the invasion force to build up some strength.”

Does me mean collect corpses? We put every single one we found, or made, in our Core. Given the lack of mana I had access to, it was time consuming. But with the undead carrying a target corpse we could do it, literally, on the move, so there was really no reason not to. “You think it will be profitable?”

“We found a few decent monsters, and we always went up. Further down would have much better stuff.”

“But what about the month-long trip it would take to get there?”

“We’ll just use the Teleport Scroll if we’re not going to do the demon thing.”

“Huh? You’ve already set a return point?”

“Yes, under the abandoned Dwarven house, in the tunnel.”

“While I was gone? Why?”

“I can reset it at any time, so there was no harm in doing so. It was a relatively safe place, all things considered.”

“Can we use another one for the return trip?”

“This is a high quality one with a massive range… It costs 10,000DP.”

I reached out to a nearby wall for support. “Don’t tell me anymore. I don’t want to know,” I whispered. “We could have bought so many monsters…”

“Well, I’ll let you mourn the loss of your DP. I’m gonna’ go and start setting up some rooms and traps on the first floor. It’s important that you get a live demonstration instead of all theory, so hurry up.” On his way to the exit Parallel Me, turned around and added, “Oh yeah, about earlier, when you were lying on the floor and being all content and happy. I dropped the Demon War news on you not just to ruin your mood… But because you seemed to want to take a break. Well, no other Dungeon is, or will, so we can’t afford to.”

As he disappeared around the exit to the upper floor, I muttered, “Does that mean I have to spend all my immortal life working? Fuck me.”

A few seconds later Parallel Me popped his head around the door and shouted, “Wait, what was the third thing?”

I looked at him. “My name. I’ve decided on my name. Daedalus.”