Arc 1: Preparing Chapter 2 Part 3: Preparing for the Dungeon (V2)

Use a Scout Charge

Questline Dungeon Training

Details You have one scout charge - the green spark of lightning near you. You can use this charge to send one scouting eye to a place of your choice, giving you an observation there for 24 hours.

If you send the scouting eye into the sky above your land, then you can select your exact placement on the land within view and gain advantages for your opening.

If you send the scouting eye into a position on the land itself, you can use dungeon points to purchase templates of whatever is within a short range of the scouting eye.

Hints Both options are equally valid – with a good placement in the choosen environment you can send out spawns to collect samples of the area around the entry for free as well as estimate how easy or difficult the travel of adventurers to your position is.

With a scan you can purchase samples from areas far beyond your dungeon placement (but have no real selection on the environment for your entry) Rewards 50 XP

Multiple Floor Crystals

Questline Bareen's Quests

Details The Floor Crystal is one of the most important possessions of a dungeon core, because it gives them two important abilities:

First it allows to plan the next floor without needing to extract the stone (once extracted, stone cannot be replaced and a wrong floor would have to be blocked by other means).

Second it allows the storage of mana for creating that floor, which is important for floors with low mana storage (especially if the spawns or rooms placed cost more than the core can have available naturally)

As part of the rewards for your first choice you have three instead of one floor crystal, which allows you to plan over three floors at once and gives you triple the storage capacity.

Use this to plan three floors before placing your dungeon.

Hints The crystals will give warnings if the single floor within them does not follow the system rules, but the system itself will only check them on placement. That might allow you to circumvent some warnings by placing several floors at the same time if the crystals have enough mana.

The XP for placing the floor will be gained on placement, but can be checked during planning. Rewards 400 XP

According to the texts on opening the dungeons, the floor crystals store the Lifeforce created by using Mana until I first open the dungeon. Then it will rush out in one go, basically announcing the positions of the openings.

However that is only for dungeons with a single exit – if I open the regular exit only after the world-mana has been released through the remote exits, there is a good chance that this will be overlooked for a time.

But I will have only limited choice of defense options unless I can gain more by sending spawns out of the exits to collect more animals as templates. So I need a map to find the best places.

“Blue Core, what are… Scratch that, I need something else to call you especially as “Core” has too many meanings around here. Do you have a name?”

“As a glowing blue search engine, I name you [Booble]. You will take that designation and answer to it.”

“Booble, I can use the scout charge either as an overview to get a map, or as a collector for more templates. How does that work exactly?”

“But I have been granted three scout charges, so I’ll have two left after getting the map. Perfect.”

"OK Booble, please check my quests and my status and confirm the following numbers - this is too important for me to make a mistake."

"A floor planned in the floor crystals can be changed as long as it is not placed, so I can create three simple floors to complete the quest and get the XP, but then change the floorplans to something better before placing them?"

"And a regular core only has the dungeon training quest line, no XP from other quests, and is usually around Level 2 when they begin to build their first floor?"

"The size limit for the first floor depends on both rank and level, and a [very high] ranked dungeon can start with a limit between 26m and 28m at level 2, a [heroic] core can have between 37 and 39 meter while a regular [mythical] core might have 51-53 meter limit at level 2. But due to the added quests and the xenotic extra points, I might be able to wait to level 5 and start building with a limit of perhaps 70 meters depending on how many points I set to size?"

"The floor limits will increase when the cores level up. Do they go back to earlier levels and increase their size? If yes, in which direction do they usually grow the floors?"

"Thanks"

[Use one scout charge for map overview on the target area of the three countries mentioned in the quest]

One of the green sparks floating nearby suddenly pulsates and then grows into a large sphere.This sphere has a landscape on one half of it, but floating around it the General's soul can also see the sky above that land if he looks at the sphere from the other side. A quick check - no luck, no bird inside.

Additionally the General now sees two countdowns.

Soul Anchor [55:34:12 hours counting]

Map Display [23:59:59 hours counting]

Quest Complete

+50 XP

New Quest Available Design your first floor with the floor crystal

Questline Dungeon Training

Details Trigger your floor crystal and design your first floor with entry room and core room at opposite places.

Hints If you are black-ranked and have only a small floor, consider making the first floor a safe effect area - the entry room always is safe for the adventurers, and the system requires one safe floor per rank. If you don't have the size to get anything on first floor, use it to fulfill those requirements.

Rewards 100 XP

"Nice, guessed right"

The soul floats to the side of the sphere that shows the landscapes and accesses the knowledge screen for some details. There is a large mountain range going through most of the area, from top center to bottom left edge. It appears to be a natural border for the Dverolion Empire to the top left.

Two rivers coming out of a large mountain in the center feed a swampy area on the bottom of these mountains, until the water is drained away by a single large river going to the bottom right edge. This river is the border between the People’s Realm of Kaarg to the top right and the Combined Cities of Lefor’ga at the bottom of the map.

At one place about thirty kilometers away from the swamp the river forms a larger lake before flowing on. On the border of that lake and the river there is a small independent country called “City of Rivansea”.

OK, looks like everything is in range of the remote entry halls. With the three main countries I can place the access points in a way that I have about one or two days for collecting before they can block the entrances. The Dverolion Empire is something like a roman empire populated by Dwarves and Humans and focusing on constructs and golems. I can probably get ores and geared equipment if I send someone out there.

The People of Kaarg look like a French Revolution gone even more wrong in a land of magic and necromancers, populated by Lizardmen, Humans and some orcish variant called Orican. The Cities of Lefor’ga look like classic elven with nature and elementals, and a population mix of Elf, Human and …

OK, that is not classic, some sort of panther body with the head replaced by a full human upper torso similar to a centaur.

And the City is an independent mix of every possible or impossible race on a medieval European environment. If I place an access point inside their country it would be at most two or three hours away from the city. That might be an advantage or it could create problems, especially if they manage to block the other gatherers from the inside of the first floor.

The General checks the clocks again

Soul Anchor [54:53:06 hours counting]

Map Display [23:18:53 hours counting]

Damnit, clocks runnning. I'm almost level 3 and I have to set the core class before entering the core waiting for me - and that has to be done before the anchor runs too low.

“Booble, do you have any info on what will happen if I enter that dungeon core that has been prepared with a soul anchor? Or how long that process will take?”

So it will probably take away time from the map countdown, but hopefully it will also give time for mana regeneration. I just have to set the core class options before entering - the class level gives me one skill or ability each level plus one core type of either node or spawn class to construct.

I don't have time to check two sets of forty options each, but for now I only need the first few levels - I can take the time for later levels after I'm anchored and no longer on countdowns - I'll need months to build with this slow mana regeneration anyway.

[Set Core Class Ability Level 1 to 5 as "Floor Awareness", "Illusion Magic", "Dungeon Alerts", "Identify Explorer" and "Shield Magic"]

[Set Core Class Coretypes Level 1 to 5 as "Create Rations", "Class Ranger", "Create Water", "Class Elementalist" and "Create Wooden Tools"]

That should fit or complement with the things I got from the starting package and the scouting.

[Use Mythical core with Soul Anchor]

…

“Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh”

The only similar thing the general ever experienced was when he once participated in centrifugal training for pilots – only this time it is without being strapped to a chair, but simply thrown around while hundreds of nails pierce him at every impact.

After a while the process stops and the general slowly becomes aware of his surroundings again. He still floats in the air, there still is the blue core and three crystals nearby and the sphere of the map as well as the other two scout charges are also available.

“That was NOT ‘slightly’ painful…”

Soul Countdown stopped

[41:29:01 hours remaining] for later soul transfers You have gained a new title, "Souled Dungeon"

This title has no public effect, but gives you the ability "Sapience [Very High]"

Sapience [Very High]

Upon reaching the levels 81+ a dungeon core has a chance of gaining the "Sapience" ability as a leveling reward. Sapient Cores can talk and interact with adventurers if they have ways of communicating. Depending on the core and the adventurers, this interaction can become Diplomacy, Enslavement, Dominance, Contract or Trading.

So, high-level dungeons can become people? But I bet when faced with a low level sapient core most people will use that for taming or destroying the core. I'll ignore that for now, back to the map.

Map Display [09:54:48 hours counting]

"Booble, can I select a place after the map is gone or do I need the place within the next ten hours?"

"Pedant. OK, Zoom into the center of the map, scale to about 50km instead of 300km.”

“That vale looks promising with one small creek and only half swamped internally but ending completely on the main swamp. Are there any natural caverns in that area?”

“Nice map features to display topographics and specials. Two caves even, but the one there is not deep enough and a bit too exposed, I want to hide my real entrance from casual scouting. The other is a bit near to the entrance of the vale, but that might even be an advantage if I get some tunnels from there.”

"Even with the remote entries? I even planned to keep the real exit closed for a few days after opening the remote exits, and from the description of the transfer magic they should allow the LifeForce to exit as well."

"Booble?"

"That might even work out as a positive as I need to get attention, as long as they don't decide to crush me to be sure..."

"OK, final question before I activate the floor crystals. I plan to try to hide my true core rank by pretending to be smaller until I have a real defense. I think the biggest problem on that are the [heroic] ranked remote entry halls. How long would it take for some adventurers to identify them as [heroic]-ranked?"

“OK, so they’ll learn that I’m [heroic] ranked or better at some time, but not directly. I should use a double misdirection to hide that at first - which is why I asked for the sizes earlier. So I have a 30 meter area to hide from [mythical] and level 5, then there are eleven meter difference between [heroic] level 2 and [very high] level 2 - something that they should be able to find out after a month or so."

[Activate Floor Crystal for first floor]

No need for anything fancy, I just want to trigger the quest rewards and complete the dungeon as planned later. So the Entry room goes from coordinates (30:41) meters to (36:47), Entry ramp on the west side and a room to the south with a ramp down

[Activate Floor Crystal for second floor]

Another room and another ramp down

[Activate Floor Crystal for third floor]

and again

“Can’t work – my position will be in a frontier zone where a lot of high level soldiers are stationed. The level limits on the first floors will make them laughable to any such soldiers. I need to focus on delays to get the time to create more floors. Besides this is the only entry that no one should know about - the paths from the other entries will be different.”

“I think I’ll know how to confuse them – I’ll make a lot of transfer connections between floor two and three. That will cause them to lose time to mapping, especially if I place both floors under a misdirection effect and use clever illusions.”

"However the true floor design will happen later, for now I just want to see if I can trigger the quest completion to level up before putting my entrance down."

[Close Floor Planning]

Two Quests Completed

500 XP gained

Three new Quests availabe Select Entrance Point

Questline Dungeon Training

Details If you have used your scout charge to get a map, then you should now select a place for your Entrance. This place should be away from civilization to give you more time to send out scouts unhindered, and it should be a place whose environment you can use for your floors. If you have no map ready, select [Random Placement].

Hints You can do this without placing your first floor - wait with that until you have the mana to place it completely. Selecting the Entrance Point will only set your position and orientation for the time after the first floor is created. You cannot place your entrance within 5km of any other dungeon entrance. Rewards 100 XP, Bonus Environment

Sapient Helpers

Questline Bareen's Quests

Details You'll need some form of intelligent and tool-using spawn to have any real chance in your main quest, and the random starting package is not guaranteed to give you that.

This quest will give you that ability - a spawn template that is sapient and can use tools and has one other ability of your choice.

Because they're sapient the spawns will not be limited to your choice, but the other abilities choices should be learned each by less than 15% of your spawns, more than 50% will focus on the chosen main ability.

Choose between [Fight], [Magic], [Healing and Crafting] and [Taming and Breeding].

Hints The exact spawn template will be choosen at random from all the hundreds available, but focused on your choice and attuned to be fitting to your other options.

Rewards 400 XP, one [Sapient] Spawn Template

The Third Core

Questline Bareen's Quest

Details You were promised triple the regular resources, and the last part missing is a third core after your own and the core that was modified to provide you with knowledge. You can now choose whether this should be a dungeon core or a spawn core.

However there is another point influencing your choice. There was a second soul either trying to attach or to attack your soul before I snatched it from your afterlife, and as a result I also got the other soul.

I do not know if it was friend or foe, and you can now choose to either dissipate it and take its energy as 100 dungeon point, or to collect it and reincarnate it into one of your spawns.

Reincarnation without memory loss is an ability that requires at minimum [Very Low] rank - the reincarnation will always be limited to one rank below the ability rank.

Your choices are [Dungeon Core] or [Class Core] and [100 DP] or [Stored Soul]

Hints If the other soul was a friend you should choose a spawn core as that will give you a better helper. If you disperse the other soul, your best choice would be a dungeon core that you can use either as a fake diversion or later make it a secondary dungeon slaved to you.

Rewards 400 XP, Core of Choice, either 100 DP or soul "Gunny Parkinson"

“WHAT?!? Master Gunnery Sergeant Parkinson tagged along?”

“Again I might say” – you could hear a grin from the souled dungeon core.