Day 3 Construction Phase

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I watch as Parsi flies loopings shouting “We got the two-square-room! We got the two-square-room!” while I place the room to fill the first of the tiny holes in the ground floor of the tower.

‘We still have the big 4x4 room left in our reserve from the first day, but the other two reserve slots were empty. The other two new rooms fill that up – one a snaking S-type corridor of 5 squares with two turns that we didn’t know before and that has nowhere to fit, the other a second one of the cross-edge rooms. Theoretically I could use the small and the big room to start filling floor 0, but I don’t have to place more today.’

I close the construction window hoping that tomorrows three new room give better options than the one that requires three more of the two-squares. Then I wait until Parsi calms down a bit.

“Parsi, this time we got lucky, but I don’t want to commit to a structure early ever again if I can avoid it. So I suggest we wait for tomorrow with the next rooms and the token placements. I’ll go continue collecting in the area we already checked while you should try that ritual for learning my language – or do you need me for it?”

“No, the existing link is enough – and I’ll need almost a full day for it, so no problem with that idea.

But please don’t go too far and come checking in case another wolf pack gets in while I’m occupied with the ritual or recovering from it.”

“Will do – and I will also carry the table to the side rooms, so that we can add another tiger here.”

With that I grab the table and the books on it to carry them out.

Over the next several hours I carry a lot of samples into the dungeon and absorb them, with some really interesting results while Parsi goes through the language ritual. I can even handle a few forest wolves that come out in the night – they must be strays from the large pack yesterday, but without numbers I have no problems with them.

And as she told me Parsi is knocked out by the ritual and sleeping after I return for the fifth time, so I continue gathering.

Day 4 Construction Phase

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“Ungh – what a headache.”

‘It’s worse than we were told when those mind rituals were described back at home. Let’s just hope it was worth it to learn the language of those books.’

I sip a bit from my almost empty nectar bottle. We now have enough Mana to sustain ourselves, but real food is still better, so I’ll have to preserve the rest of my nectar for important occasions.

Five minutes later I’m recovered enough to look around. Claudia has the construction window open and is probably considering options there.

“Right – we are into the next construction phase. Did we get anything interesting?”

“Yes, Parsi” She answers me “All three rooms were new to us, and two of them fit perfectly into our problems. A long corridor with a right-turn that covers the gap on floor 1, and a small room with an extension that allows us to handle the ground floor with lesser numbers of two-grid-rooms.

The third room is a T-section that I let stay in the reserve when placing the other rooms, have a look:”

“Oh, that looks much better than yesterday. You paid Mana for additional doors?”

“Yes” Claudia explains “We will need a way to get from one side to the other in the back. Just to be able to handle everything without being seen or disrupting adventurers entering the dungeon floor below.”

I look around “You moved the table with the books out to place another white tiger here. Do you have the tokens or are they with the books? If you absorb the tokens while the construction window is open, we will both be able to see their description and they only need to be placed before we close the window.”

Claudia holds up her hand and shows the six tokens. “I’ll keep the slime token for later and absorb the others first, that way the System will know which monster we want as third and fourth option.”

Token absorbed: Rank F Monster

Name: Karak-Tel

Classification: Landkraken

Dungeon Skill learned: Landkraken 2 (30%)

Small singular hunter-type landkraken, equivalent to a dire wolf without any pack instincts

Token absorbed: Rank F Trap

Name: Summoned Tentacle of Holding

Classification: Holding Trap

Dungeon Skill learned: Magic Traps 2 (0%)

This trap summons a tentacle to hold whoever or whatever triggered it for up to four hours with a strength of BODY-5

Token absorbed: Rank G Obstacle

Name: Eldritch 3-wall

Special: Does not block placement

Three thin walls around a grid position where something can be placed. 50% visual obstruction for looking through the obstacle, choice of structure displayed, can be destroyed (BODY-10)

Token absorbed: Rank G Rune

Name: Simple Confusion

Target: Invader

Effect: state: drunk, resisted by MIND

Dungeon Skill improved: Magic Traps 2 (90%)

This is the same state as people gain from consuming alcohol (including the individual reaction to that state), with only the difference that it is mind-resisted instead of body-resisted.

Token absorbed: Rank G Treasure

Name: Random Strange Knowledge Scroll

Classification: Writings

Dungeon Skill learned: Writings 1 (50%)

Scroll will contain random bits of non-magical knowledge drafted from what is available to the Dungeon or its contracted people. This knowledge will be rephrased into riddles or broken sentences out of context to make reading it more difficult.

“Oooohhhh” I stare at the option we now have. Even the ones where I knew the classifications for are completely new and were previously unknown to me. ‘This will make our dungeon very … interesting … for everyone’

However my study of this is a bit interrupted by Claudia starting to curse, although not as extreme as some times from the last days.

“What is it, Claudia? I don’t see any problem with any of these options.”

Claudia sighs “Objectively there probably isn’t one, but to someone from my old worlds there are some implications here, especially on the first two.

The Karak-Tel looks like a dog-version of a mixture between Giger’s Alien and Cthulhu with some kraken thrown in, although apparently without either the acid blood of the aliens or the craziness of Cthulhu. It will probably be a nice addition, but it can creep some people out. And that doesn’t even take into account what this says for higher-ranked ‘landkraken’ we might get later.

And the less is said about the implications of that tentacle, the better for now.

The last three options are less special, but all look to be able to help in creating a dungeon atmosphere that goes into the same creepy directions.”

“Less special? I get a headache from trying to understand that obstacle wall, that is much worse than the landkraken or the tentacle.”

“Relax, that is just an optical illusion.”

“Huh? But obstacles can’t contain magic, so where did this illusion come from?” I ask again.

“No, that is not a magical illusion” Claudia answers “it is an optical illusion. We had artists that specialized in painting such things. Someone named Escher was the most well-known for doing similar artwork. But if your world never had artists like those, then it will probably be more confusing to adventurers until they understand it.”

“That is probably a good assumption. OK, let’s see the slime token and then you should show me where you stored the table with the books.”

Token absorbed: Rank G Monster

Name: Oiling Slime

Classification: Slime

Dungeon Skill learned: Slime 1 (90%)

This slime secretes a very fine oil that tries to cover everything it touches. Anyone needs to succeed AGILITY checks or lose equipment or balance.

Claudia harrumphed on reading the new screen, but I’m very glad. “This all points to options of making a difficult but non-lethal dungeon, ideal for pretending to be already controlled. Now we just have to place everything and close the window. What do you think, Claudia?”

“You handled the early placements, but when I placed the additional tiger this morning I saw that we can set a reaction range of some sort on placement. Can we change that later? And are there more options than that limited number of settings?”

“No, once a monster is set nothing can change that until it is destroyed. And in case of a spawner that replaces killed monsters for free it costs a lot of Mana to change any setting before the next respawn.”

“Ok, then what about these placements? If you agree we can close the construction and go to check on the books…”

Day 4 Construction Phase – 10 minutes later

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I watch as Parsi’s eyes get bigger and bigger the more of the books she checks. It looks like they do have some value after all. After she finishes with the last one I ask “What are those books to your experience?”

“Four of those six books are recognized by the System, and that gives them additional value – a lot of value in one case. But let’s start with the least value.

Two of the books are regular books where the content might or might not be valuable. Those two books are ‘The Brat of Gradeen Forest’ and ‘The Fall of Korventin the Seventh – Last Mage-Emperor of the Holy Beregra’. In both cases we will have to read them to learn if they contain anything of value. Since you are already working through the second one, I can take the first one over the next several weeks.

Then there is ‘The Biology of the Sareni – a Study of an Artificial Race’. The System classifies them as Knowledge (Medical) books, which means someone with medical skills can trigger an absorption of the content that counts as skill uses. But I think you’ll want to keep that book a secret, because it lists all the transformation forms of the Sareni, even the ones you haven’t tried yet for lack of time. And oh boy, are they something, although you probably will have more problems with the flying one than with the walking ones…

But back to topic. Even more valuable are the two skill books that come next.

I can’t learn the skill from ‘Sar’mra’shen – the Six Claws of Fighting’ because it requires to have six clawed limbs as a prerequisite, and you already have that skill. At the moment I don’t know any other race who could learn it, but there is always interest in such books if you don’t want to keep it for your children.

The second skill book is for a combo-skill, and combo-skills can only be learned with a class-level of 10 or higher. Combo-skills are valuable because they require only one of your skill-slots for multiple skills, but I don’t know the two skills that are combined within ‘Make-up for the Kama-Sutra’. Both skills don’t translate to my language, one of them seems to be about disguises that are not disguises, and the other about that Kama-Sutra, whatever that is.”

Parsi points to one of the books while looking expectantly to me, and I go to the table to check it.

‘Yep, cosplay and kama-sutra, including lectures on building costumes and makeup. But that is strange…’

“Parsi, about the book itself let’s just say that we can probably sell it to courtesans. But what is really strange is that your language, Nerwaran Common, does not have any words about , or and so on in it. Can you tell me anything about that?”

“Hmm” Parsi seems to be in deep thought for a few minutes before answering “From what I can get through the language those seem to be advanced forms of storytelling and bardcraft, but they conflict with part of the System that enforces truthfulness. There are some skills like that, but in most countries they are declared illegal and only handled by illegal classes.

Although nothing I get from your language indicates there is anything illegal with those skills.

I simply don’t know, so I suggest we keep that book hidden as well until we can talk to someone with more legal or system knowledge.

Which brings us to the last book, which is basically a class book for your class Slitar and not only a very big treasure but also a problem.

There are three ways how anyone can gain access to a class. You can do something that gains you a title for the class, you can fulfill the class prerequisites or you can read a class book for it. And the higher the tier of the class, the more difficult are the titles and the prerequisites.

This makes tier five class books extremely valuable. Unfortunately one of the prerequisites for the Slitar is a restricted class, which puts the book legally under the same restrictions and we should check with someone before advertising it as well.”

“I have to admit that I have a few suspicions based on what I know about the perks I have in my status, but let’s make it official – what are the prerequisites for the Slitar class according to the book?”

“Three attribute minimums – Body, Mind and Presence both at 10 or more – and three rare classes of tier 3 completed: Courtesan, Dominatrix and Black Witch.

The Black Witch is the restricted class, the others can be learned normally if you find someone to teach you.”

With some effort of will I keep from cursing the Power again “We will not talk about what my class means to anyone, at least not until I found an alternative.”

Parsi nods to this “OK, but I have to tell you that a lot of people would take the class anyway, just for the attribute gain – epic classes give seven points each level, that is more than my entire race gets in total for all five levels. But I admit that is easier for people that already have other classes than for someone who got this as their first class."