Day 1 Phase 1 Second hour

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‘That’s just too cute’

I can’t help it. I know that I should concentrate on the contract, but a 40cm small pixie with a pouting face is just too cute. But after a few minutes watching her sitting on the floor I shake myself.

‘I don’t know what she thinks she has lost, but I still need some advice and help, so I have to get her to the contract negotiation again. What kind of hints can I already get from that?’

I glance back at the still open blue window.

Dungeon Pixie Contract Negotiation (Historical Standard modified for local Dungeon)

Dungeon Contractor

Dungeon

Dungeon Pixie

Dungeon Keeper (Soul)

Persiphone Leafbottom

Claudia

Dungeon Heart (Core)

???

Contract Rules

The Dungeon Pixie helps the Core/Heart/Keeper by collecting resources outside the Dungeon itself The Dungeon Pixie teaches the Core/Keeper the rules for the functions of the Dungeon and advises on best use of the available assets. Pixie Requirement needed The Dungeon Pixie gains +1 Bonus Level for every five floors of Dungeon Size The Dungeon Pixie gains +1 Bonus Level for every five race levels of the Dungeon Keeper The Dungeon Pixie gains access to Dungeon Construction with (lesser/equal/higher) priority. The Dungeon Pixie helps in the defense of the core/heart room until she is at 50% primary attributes or 25% secondary attribute.

ADD Contract Rule

EDIT Contract Rule

REMOVE Contract Rule

Persiphone Leafbottom:

Claudia ???

ACCEPT Contract

ACCEPT Contract

REJECT Contract

REJECT Contract

“Hi Persiphone. I don’t know what problem you currently have, but I still need some help and advice. And I’m willing to enter a contract if you explain a few things to me – for example what the bonus level mean for you.”

With a sigh the pixie looks up to me from where she is sitting on the floor. Then she stands up and flies up to head-height before speaking.

“Sorry about this, I don’t do surprises well and had everything planned out differently. Let’s start again.

Hi, my name is Persiphone Leafbottom from the Village of the Spring Thaw. Most people call me Parsi.

Reincarnated intelligent souls are known to pixies, but they are very rare – most dungeons get reincarnated animal souls. As such a lot of our training involves learning how to handle different animal types and how to bribe them into giving us control of Dungeon Construction. That is because it is very rare to get a dolphin or some other animal intelligent enough to handle the dungeon without being stalled long before reaching floor 25. And that number is very important to us pixies.

We pixies are a tier-1 race, what bad people usually call a sub-race or monster race. Tier 1 stops at level 5 maximum, which is bad because the first system threshold is the number 10.

So we need to get at least 5 additional levels by contract to be able to learn a class, and with one bonus per five floors that means we have to get the dungeon to floor 25 or we are blocked forever.

Depending on how much experience you have with Dungeon Construction on your previous world, you can probably handle that on your own and that means I won’t get much from the contract.”

“Thank you, Parsi, for that info. In return I’ll let you in on a little secret: there were neither a System nor Dungeons on the world I was originally born on, and as such most of what the contract says is still unknown to me. For example what about the additional bonus levels you get from my race levels?”

“WHAT!!!” the little pixie swirls around to look at the Contract Window again. “I didn’t read on after confirming that you were indeed the Dungeon’s Soul. That line is new, and is really something, since you humans are tier 2 and can go to level 10, which means only fifteen more floors would be needed for me to reach class level. But on the other hand it is probably why the System added another requirement line for my side since I will get more out of the contract.

But you had no System? How can you even live without a System?”

‘Interesting’ I think about what I learned from that. ‘I’m not human anymore, and that line High Sareni (10/25) in my status probably means that a High Sareni can go to race level 25 instead of 5 or 10. If that is correct she would get a lot more out of that contract, unless I lose too much to that.’

“Do I lose anything for the levels you get from the contract?”

“No” the pixie turns back to me, “that is why they are called Bonus Levels. But the System will place penalties on anyone that tries to evade Contract Requirements, which can be in the form of reduced experience gains or increased costs of skill use. But most of that would be on me because I would have to earn those levels.

We would have to come up with an additional idea of what I can do for you before the System will allow the contract – right now the accept button is disabled for both sides. And I think the regular work collecting outside the dungeon is reduced if you have a body to leave the Dungeon.”

After a bit of thought I answer “Not as much as you think – I can leave the dungeon, but only to a range limit that I don’t know yet. So that work outside still exists, you would just have to go farther away to handle it.

But what is your situation in the larger world? By that I mean the interaction of dungeon pixies with adventurers or civilians. There has to be some or you would not have mentioned how humans call your race.”

At this Parsi blushes and flusters a bit. “Not exactly…

Pixies are known to the world, and sometimes even serve as familiars or helpers to other races. But we keep the fact that we can enter Dungeon Contracts a secret, and all of us who do are told and trained to keep ourselves hidden as long as possible to adventurers in the dungeons.

We know that some adventurers have already seen and reported us, but they seem to think that we are a regular dungeon monster option and not contracted people. Which is another reason why some call us a monster race.”

“That would actually fit together with my plans, even as vague as they currently are. One of the problems in this world seems to be that too many adventurers take control of dungeons, and as one of the two tasks I have been given I’m supposed to prevent that for my own dungeon.

And the current idea to that is to pretend that I either am such an adventurer that had taken control, or to pretend I’m working for one such person, so that no one else tries to take that control away.

I have also the idea to manage some form of dungeon shop or adventurer’s inn above this dungeon as part of that pretense, and if you can play a helper hired by that shop or inn that would help as well.

Are you interested in the contract with that work added?”

I watch as Parsi thinks about this. After a while she answers me “Possibly, but who would we tell this secret, and who would it be kept from? I would have to tell my elders to prevent a bad reaction from my people if someone reports me, and we would need some more people to handle a larger inn, especially if the Dungeon continues to grow. And continuing to grow will cause some questions about the controller as well.”

“We will have to discuss this, but basically I agree – it has to be kept secret from most people, but a few key people need to know or there could be too many other problems coming up.

However I also have questions about the last point of the contract and the limits mentioned there, what is that about?”

“Right, you said that you didn’t have a System before. Body, Mind and Agility are the three primary attributes. If either of these attributes ever falls to zero, you can die. The secondary attributes Senses, Presence and Karma can’t kill you by being zero.

The last contract rule basically means that the pixie has to help in the defense of the core room if that is assaulted, up until wounds or exhaustion drives the attributes below those stated limits.”

‘That probably explains why the status has no hitpoints or magic points, the attributes double as points here. OK, everything seems reasonable then…’

“OK, that contract seems to be reasonable then. Can you edit it based on this, you have more experience with the system and I will check for clarification while you do this.” I tell the pixie.

‘Let’s see how she phrases the rules on her own. That should help me learning how far I can trust her.’

While I watch her editing the contract window I continue my questions.

“What is the problem with dungeon construction and the floor numbers? The contract and your descriptions make it sound as if there is a big problem. And the Power who sent me here said that he would be satisfied if I get sixty or seventy floors.”

“Ha! Then that Power really screwed with you, because sixty floors is a sugar dream. No pixie with even two brain cells to rub together will ever consider floor sixty reachable. Opening the next floor becomes more difficult the deeper you get, and beyond floor fifty every floor needs to be perfect to open the next one after that.

OK, there is a lot more to it but basically in each construction phase the System assigns you three random room templates that you have to place into your dungeon. If you don’t place them, they will be randomly put down, until there is no space to place anything.

If you can’t place anything anymore, construction becomes impossible, you are stalled as a dungeon. The construction phase then becomes a third adventuring phase with all the disadvantages to that.

And additional floors are only opened to placement once you fulfilled several requirements each floor.”

“You mean I can’t dig my dungeon any way I want, but have to play Dungeon Tetris instead???”

The pixie looks at me confused and asks “I don’t know what this tetris is, so I can’t really answer that question.”

“It’s a game in my old world, and your description sounds similar to it. Can you show me how this Dungeon Construction works?”

“Only after we both accept the Contract, I don’t have the rights to access it before that. It is almost finished, you just have to decide on the Priority for the Dungeon Construction:”

Parsi points to the screen where she made several changes to the Contract:

Dungeon Pixie Contract Negotiation (Historical Standard modified for local Dungeon)

Dungeon Contractor

Dungeon

Dungeon Pixie

Dungeon Keeper (Soul)

Persiphone Leafbottom

Claudia

Dungeon Heart (Core)

???

Contract Rules

The Dungeon Pixie advises the Dungeon Keeper in the area outside the Dungeon that the Keeper can walk in and handles collecting resources as well as non-dangerous tasks outside that area The Dungeon Pixie teaches the Core/Keeper the rules for the functions of the Dungeon and advises on best use of the available assets as well as how this world’s civilizations and adventurers work. The Dungeon Pixie pretends to be a helper working in the shop/inn/tavern outside the Dungeon The Dungeon Pixie gains +1 Bonus Level for every five floors of Dungeon Size The Dungeon Pixie gains +1 Bonus Level for every five race levels of the Dungeon Keeper The Dungeon Pixie gains access to Dungeon Construction with (lesser/equal/higher) priority. The Dungeon Pixie helps in the defense of the core/heart room until she is at 50% primary attributes or 25% secondary attribute.

ADD Contract Rule

EDIT Contract Rule

REMOVE Contract Rule

Persiphone Leafbottom:

Claudia ???

ACCEPT Contract

ACCEPT Contract

REJECT Contract

REJECT Contract

“If you have higher and I have lower access, then I can see the options and advise you, but only you can place the rooms. With an animal soul I would have wanted it the other way around.

With equal access, we both can place rooms and would have to coordinate, at least if I’m inside the dungeon during the construction phase.”

“You mentioned those phases before – what could prevent you from being inside during that time?”

“There are three phases during each day, one construction phase and two adventuring phases. During construction the dungeon is closed and cannot be entered – if I was outside and didn’t get back in time you would have to construct without my help.”

“And what happens if I was outside during that?” I ask.

“oops – right, you are not bound inside a core. If no one is inside the System most likely defaults to random placement.” Parsi almost panicked at that idea.

Deciding to get some details on the other phases I ask “And what about the other two phases, the adventuring phases? Why are they split into two instead of just considering it one continuous open time?”

“At the beginning of each phase you get to collect Mana once – that is the energy needed to create any placement inside the rooms. So the adventurers learned to split the entering into two phases to allow the dungeon to restock between those times. Additionally there is a type of limit to the adventurers entering each phase, but it is not a hard limit. Instead the System assigns you a bonus if more adventurer enter than are allowed during a phase.” Parsi explains to me.

“And how do the adventurers know how many can enter without the dungeon getting advantages?”

“They don’t – they usually have to guess until the first party reaches the core room, and until the dungeon stops growing the limit will rise over time. One party per floor is the known limit, which is why the Guild is careful to send in only a lower number of parties until it is known how many floors a dungeon has.

All pixies hope to confuse the issue, and the greed of adventurers to go in for the treasure can be used to get a few of these bonuses. Which is also why the guild punishes adventurers that go in without clearance.”

“That gives me a nice idea. How about we pretend that the controller of this dungeon is something like an archmage that reserves the lowest floors for his own experiments. And when we have for example four floors, then we place an announcement that floors four to six are reserved for him, but the guild can send in five parties to floors one to three…”

“Ooohh – nice trick, but we probably have to wait longer or use lower numbers to avoid being found out, dungeons take some time to grow.” Parsi grins at the thought.

“So most of what I considered seem to be workable with only some stones thrown into the process.”

I reach for the Contract controls while continuing: “I will make two changes to the contract you have written.

First, we will have equal access so that you can handle construction if I don’t get back into the dungeon in time for a construction phase. However I expect you to follow any previously discussed plans when doing so.

Second, there will be no pretending to be a helper – you’ll have to do the work for real, but you will also get a regular wage to buy your own things in the dungeon shop or in the next town or village or whoever we trade with.

If you agree, you can show me the Dungeon Construction next.”

Parsi grins at that. With a “No Problemo” she accepts the contract and then flies to the heart. She touches it and concentrates a short while, until another Window opens.