***** Bud’s POV 5:20 PM*****

Hey Tracy, I got the tessarecting done! How are the decorations coming in the Entrance Hall?

“Great! The planter boxes are coming along nicely. Well, as nicely as they’re going to without Zona’s help. Until then I just need to figure out what I’m going to do for statues. On a slightly different note, do you think that we could get some music in here? Maybe something that goes along with the whole electricity theme?”

Ooh, I know! We can use Tesla coils!

“I thought you said the only dangers in the entrance hall were going to be from utter stupidity or breaking your rules. Why do you want to put some automatic death machines in there? Wouldn’t they just set the plants on fire?”

I’m not talking big ones like the monster over in the puzzle rooms, I’m talking about little ones, maybe a third of a meter tall. If you control them properly you can use them to play music. It’s all a matter of controlling the frequency of the discharges.

“Oh? That sounds like a wonderful idea! If you had several different sizes in here it would also serve as a warning that a bigger coil makes a bigger spark.”

Actually, I think I’ll use the big monster to play music too since the discharge will still be plenty lethal. I'll save the silent but deadly enchantment for emergencies.

“Like an invasion or something?”

Precisely.

“That works. As a side note, I think that you should have some more monsters. Don’t get me wrong, Broohn and Zona are great and all, but they’re both busy with their own thing at the moment, and the kobolds you have simply won’t cut it if a true dungeon raid comes a calling.”

True. I also need to know exactly what the mechanical golems can do before I start creating the inside of the fighting rooms. Is one of your mental threads going to stick around for that, or are you going to keep working on the entrance hall?

“I think I’ll stick around. As I said, I need to think about what sort of statues I’m going to stick in the middle.”

Hmm. I may have the beginnings of an idea for the statues, but I need to do some research first. In the meantime, let’s get started with the mechanical golems.

What would you like to do?

Create existing

Upgrade Components & Tools

Design New

Edit an existing design

Freeform Design (Locked – Proof of Intermediate Understanding of Mechanical Golems Required)

Ha! I can design my own! This is going to be fun!

“Yes, yes it will. Just be careful, you don’t get too sidetracked from building the dungeon.”

Oh, I know. I think the first step is to make a couple of the preset designs, then take them apart to see how they work. Mostly I’m looking for their connection to me so I can take that and stick it into my own designs that aren’t based on the provided schematics and design system.

“Why? You didn’t do that with the Kobolds.”

Even before I had made a kobold, I knew that they were a race in their own right and they would, therefore, be capable of operating with only a vague set of instructions from me. In other words, if told them to guard the front door, I wouldn’t have to stop and explain what the front door was or how to guard it. Not to mention that taking a sentient being apart like that is wrong. I’ll get all of the data on that eventually when I have the time and the spare resources to build a proper med station, but that can wait a while.

On the other hand, I’m assuming that the mechanical golems are just that: golems. This implies that they are mindless shells that have to be instructed on how to do every single action with the simplest possible set of instructions. If I wanted them to do anything, I would presumably have to start with basic instructions on how to move their limbs, stand upright, walk and then run before I got anywhere near having them guard something.

“…Wow. That is the best explanation of the drawbacks of using golems that I have ever heard, and you haven’t even built any yet! I thought I’d have to walk you through the beginning stages of golem use, but clearly, you’ve mastered the basics. How?!”

One word: Robotics.

She paused for a moment, presumably accessing the relevant entries in the various encyclopedias in my auxiliary data banks. My auxiliary data banks were intended to be accessible to the crew under even the most extreme circumstances and therefore didn’t require my primary core to be online. I had never used them for any sort of personal data storage in the past. Why would I, when up until recently the ability to access them would imply that my primary core was online?

Theoretically, I might have been able to access them with my secondary core, but I’d only had that for about two weeks before we got sent to this world and I wasn’t done building and calibrating all of its subsystems yet. As such, if my primary core had gone down it would have been pretty much guaranteed to take my secondary core with it.

“Oh. Well, in that case, there isn't much I can tell you, but there are a few significant differences between robots and mechanical golems. Before I get into that, however, I need to explain upkeep costs for dungeon monsters.”

Oh? Why didn't you explain this when I made the kobolds?

“As a dungeon, all of the mana you obtain through normal methods is split between two different mana systems, one under your direct control from square one, the other hidden from you until you get to the point where it isn't receiving enough mana to handle the upkeep costs of your monsters. The kobolds are low-level monsters that don't have much in the way of upkeep. Honestly, I thought that you would have discovered this by now as Broohn’s and Zona’s upkeep costs should be far beyond what you are capable of sustaining, and I have no idea how they are surviving on such little upkeep.”

That would be because they are both territory type mana gatherers. Yes, they do have some internal mana generation just like any other sentient creature, but the bulk of their power comes from and is stored in the territory they control. The larger their territory and the better the condition it's in, the more power they receive. When we first arrived, they had no territory but retained most of the power that they had gained from having territory, which is why they were both suffering from territory loss and mana burn.

“So mana burn is the opposite of mana drain, which is what we call it when someone runs out of mana?”

Precisely. Between the excess mana that came with them and the amount of territory they have claimed, I would assume they are perfectly capable of providing their own upkeep.

“Interesting. Going back to the subject at hand, all dungeon monsters require some level of upkeep, either in the form of raw mana or sustenance or both. Also, for whatever reason, the upkeep system will automatically gain access to whatever kind of food your monsters need regardless of whether or not you ever get access to it. Before you ask, the upkeep system can make anything that you can, but you cannot use the upkeep system to acquire access to exotic materials.”

Aww. Oh well, I wasn't planning on doing that anyway, so it's no great loss. Besides, I have some ideas as to how to access the entire periodic table, I'm just waiting until I have a bit more processing power.

“Oh? That should be interesting. Anyway, the first difference between robots and mechanical golems is that as dungeon monsters their power supply is included in their upkeep cost. Obviously, this doesn't apply to non-dungeon golems.”

Obviously. What about if I send a golem outside of my dungeon?

“The farther from your dungeon it goes the higher it's upkeep cost would get.”

Ah, one of my old nemeses: power loss during transmission. I haven't missed thee at all.

“Of course you haven't you silly dungeon!” she giggled. “Nobody ever does.”

I'll have to test that and see if it is a directed transmission or a broadcast. Hopefully, it's directed power transmission as the Inverse Square Law would dramatically increase the amount of power required if it is broadcast. Wait, could I give them an internal power supply specifically for their upkeep?

“Probably? I'm not sure, the only dungeons who have truly played around with sending monsters out of their dungeon were either demonic, poisonous or plague based and we don't get much in the way of feedback from those.”

Let me guess: the standard response to these dungeons is "destroy on sight".

“Yup. They're so bad that most of them get reported to the Adventurer’s Guild by the Dungeon Fairy Elders before they're actually discovered.”

What about holy dungeons? How are they treated?

“They only form under existing similarly aligned Holy sites such as cathedrals and their equivalents. They don't need our help, the resident monks or their equivalents do our job for us. They're usually left alone as they get their power from the faith of the religious pilgrims that inevitably flock through their doors and don't kill anyone who isn't trying to kill them first.”

We're getting sidetracked again.

“True. Anyway, as I was saying, the most important difference between golems and robots is that the higher the level of a golem, the more sentient they become without any intervention on your part. The same thing might happen as the golems get older even if they aren't upgraded, especially if they gain lots of experience, but nobody has protected and valued their low-level golems for me to have any proof.”

Fear not, fair maiden! I will gladly satisfy thy curiosity!

“Wow. You're in a good mood today. What gives?”

Oh, just the way my life is going at the moment. For once I'm free to build without worrying too much about politics and such. I know it won't last, not the way that my life has gone, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can.

“Fair enough. In your shoes, I'd probably feel much the same.”

“Hey Bud, Tracy, do you have a moment?” called Zona from the entrance.

Sure do.

“What's on top?” asked Tracy.

“Huh?” Zona said.

I'm assuming that's a local saying similar to “What's up”?

“Um… I think so? Languages aren't really my strong suit. What do you need?”

“I was wondering if you could make a bunch more raw materials for me. The starter materials I was given to me by the World System are just barely sufficient for restructuring my tree. I’ll need more of everything if I’m going to build an Inn for the adventurers to stay in.”

Oh? I thought you could just absorb materials from the soil.

“I can, but then the soil loses its fertility and sinkholes form all over the place. Back on Earth, I had to purchase all of my construction materials just like everybody else.”

“And here you have no money and nobody to buy things from, so you come to us,” guessed Tracy.

“You got it.”

Do you have a list of what and how much you need?

“Here.”

Hmmm. Most of this won’t be a problem, except you need large amounts of most of this stuff.

“What if you bring us an equivalent mass of things that you don’t want in your forest?”

Good idea Tracy!

“Alright, but what happens when I run out of stuff I don’t want?”

By that time you should have at least the beginnings of a city out there. Just bring us the garbage that can’t be used to feed your forest.

“Deal. I’ll be back with the first load shortly. Have fun building your dungeon while I’m gone!”

Of course! You know me, building things is what I enjoy most.

“Now, where were we?”

{“Broohn reporting. Summary: someone gave some pirates a primitive teleport spell that is better than anything the locals have. This is presumably the same person who gave them war golems to play with. The Guildmaster and I are going to find some rocks to smash, then I’m taking her back to the capital and coming home. End summary.”}

“Wow. For once Broohn actually sounds as grumpy as I’d expect a dragon to sound, especially a dragon who has lost his hoard.”

But he hasn’t lost his hoard. All he lost was the things that he couldn’t or shouldn’t destroy, which only accounted for about 25% of his hoard. Since they were locked in a vault with similar items from the rest of his family’s hoards, he is perfectly fine with leaving them where they are. The rest of his hoard is split between various bags of holding on his person and… Oh. I feel stupid now.

“Why? Wait, the rest of his hoard is on your ship isn’t it?”

Yup. I don’t need to wait on my subroutine to find the inventory list for that section, I can just ask him.

{Hey Broohn! I think I found a Right and Proper Use for a couple of items in your hoard!}

{“Oh? Which ones?”}

{Embreon and Chroma.}

{“Ooh! I approve. Take Gibraltar as well. His internals have far more resilience and redundancy. I’ll be home to help as soon as I can!”} Then he hung up.

“Wait, what just happened?”

I don’t know about dragons of this world, but Broohn’s family has a tendency to collect things that have great potential that is going to waste in hopes that this potential may someday be realized. Embreon, Chroma, and Gibraltar are three specific items from his hoard, and all of them are suits of armor.

“What are you planning to do with three suits of armor? Decorate the dungeon?”

Oh no, that would be a waste of potential. I have some much better plans!

*****The Prince’s POV 8:12 PM*****

As soon as my mother and I finally escaped into the supposed privacy of her chambers we hugged each other tightly.

“Oh my son, I thought I’d lost you!” she sobbed loudly as she pressed my head into her shoulder, breaking the dam of Royal Composure she maintained in public.

“I thought I was lost as well. Thank God that I met Broohn and Zona,” I said while tapping a subtle pattern on her back, telling her that I had news I dared not say openly even here.

“Praise the Lord of Heaven and Earthonia for his Divine Providence!” she replied loudly.

While she was speaking, with my face still pressed against her I whispered “I found him. He is safe.”