When Gem’s mana was full, he claimed his Core Room.

Quest Complete: A Roof Over Your Head. Reward: Unlock containment and full system access.

“Ignore that for just a moment. Go ahead and open your stats menu again.”

Name: Gem

Theme: [PENDING SELECTION]

Contained Entity: [ERROR - NO ENTITIES AVAILABLE]

Tier: Tin

Rank: One

Mana: 0 / 50

Regeneration: 10 / Hour

Command: 0 / 0 (cap 50)

Area of Influence: [View]

Dungeon Map: [View]

Rooms | Mobs [UNAVAILABLE] | Upgrades [UNAVAILABLE] | Traps [UNAVAILABLE] | Alterations [UNAVAILABLE] | Decorations [UNAVAILABLE] | Quests

Chesu rolled his eyes. “Great.” He said the word in a way that suggested it was anything but. “Let’s select your theme now, yeah? Focus on where it says ‘pending selection.’”

Theme Selection

There are currently [ERROR - NO ENTITIES AVAILABLE] Entities with insufficient containment. Please select the Entity you wish to assist containing, or select an adequately contained Entity.

Entity

Associated Theme

Containment Ranks

Special Notes

Forest

None.

Aquatic

Mobs require water.

Jungle

None.

Snow

Mobs require cold temperatures.

Desert

Mobs require hot temperatures.

Hallow

Locked. Requires Hallow alignment.

Corruption

Locked. Requires Corruption alignment.

“You got your list?”

Gem said without lifting his vision from the list.

“Why are there no entities found? Lots of error messages, feels a little doom and gloom?”

Gem tried to voice his agreement wordlessly, but he couldn’t quite figure out the best way to do it. Instead, he sent the wisp an image of a core with a large, comical frown. He made very clear it wasn’t a question.

“Well, it’s the same thing as containment, so I figured it would be on your list.” Chesu let out a frustrated snort. “But it’s also really hard to ignore those error messages, huh?” He shook his head and ruffled his wings. “Entities are… beings. Sometimes. Concepts others. But they are always powerful. A Dungeon Core exists to contain them. To… hold them. Sometimes multiple Dungeon Cores are required to hold multiple entities. If no Core exists to contain an entity, they will be released.”

A cold feeling rushed through Gem’s core.

“But there are also no entities.” Something dark crossed the wisp’s face and he ran a hand across his features as if to chase it away. It left him looking weary. “The Ostrum absorbed them. Ate them. Both the Dungeon Cores and then the Entities. Their corruption was just too much. It’s… powerful.”

Gem sent him a picture of a grimacing core.

“Understatement of the year, kid.” The wisp laughed. “But we’re getting too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s focus on your quests and worry about the end of the world in just a little while, yeah?”

Gem wanted to argue, but the wisp had a good point. Getting too lost in things that had already happened and couldn’t be reversed didn’t sound productive. If he was going to do something as big as save the world, he had to think about what he could do. What control he had.

“Hallow and Corruption, right? Yeah. Those require special dispensation and you don’t got it. But look at your list carefully. You only get one choice here kid, so think about it wisely. Each theme comes with its own set of mob types. You’ll get some crossover, of course. And some of the mobs won’t make a ton of sense. For example, as a Jungle Dungeon, you’ll have access to piranhas, but you won’t have them as an Aquatic Dungeon.”

“Nope. Gotta choose and level to see what you get.”

Gem sent the wisp an image of a gem sporting a massive frown.

“Glad you asked. Aquatic is way less interesting than you think. It’s also incredibly inconvenient to do as a floating island. Water doesn’t work right up here. Requires blocks to contain it, and the Ostrum can just ignore all your mobs. Just not worth it.

“Likewise, Snow and Desert aren’t great picks. Temperatures are difficult to maintain, and your mobs will die without the right ones. Plus it’ll make your eventual storming of the surface way harder than you think. You’ll need to basically build a series of rooms with the right temperatures all the way to the Ostrum and that might make things a bit more… complicated. Not to mention the time investment.”

“You’d think that, but well… choose, and you’ll see.”

Gem wasn’t convinced. He looked over his list again and immediately wished he had access to Hallow and Corruption; while he wasn’t entirely sure what those would contain, they sounded more interesting than his other two options.

At the same time, he was glad for the restriction. Too many choices could lead to paralysis, even if the ultimate outcome was the same.

he said carefully, testing the word.

“Excellent choice. Go ahead and select it so you can get access to your mobs and blocks.”

Forest selected. This selection cannot be changed. Confirm: Yes | No

Gem focused on the ‘yes’ portion and was suddenly bombarded with notifications:

Forest biome selected!

Mob Unlocked: Goosalope Mob Unlocked: Cicadossum Mob Unlocked: Plantling Crafting Unlocked: Stone Crafting Unlocked: Cut Stone Crafting Unlocked: Mossy Cut Stone Alteration Unlocked: Forest Decoration Alteration Unlocked: Doors and Windows Alteration Unlocked: Daytime Decoration Alteration Unlocked: Nighttime Decoration Upgrade Unlocked: Forest Plants (automatically selected) Upgrade Unlocked: Basic Traps (automatically selected)

Chesu was floating above Gem when he finally dismissed all of the floating text. The wisp had a giant grin on his old face, and it was a nasty one. “Get your unlocks then?”

The wisp nodded. “Not surprising. Even if you were a denizen of Sleyn before the Ostrum attacked, you wouldn’t recognize these. Things… things have changed around here. The, uh, core experience—if you’ll mind my pun—of being a Dungeon Core has been corrupted by the planet being taken over.”

“Precisely.”

“Now it’s time to get some basic resource farms going. You’re going to need generators so you can get more blocks. And then after that…” Chesu clapped his hands together. “It’ll be time to build your first Pylon.”