Chapter 8

After returning to his room, sleeping for another 30 years, and then returning to the Dungeon, not much of significance happened. In fact, only two things of any real significance had occurred within the Dungeon by the time he was finished altering it. First, Arcius constructed an additional 12 E rooms.

These E rooms, including his original three, were further altered, bringing the amount of Mana he had available for use down to 206610. These alterations meant that he now had three types of E rooms split into five different versions. He labelled them E1.1-1.5, E2.1-2.5 and E3.1-3.5, with the .1 rooms being the original three, and the rest being the new rooms.

All the E1 rooms featured the theme of almost entirely land, next to no water. E1.1 was re-structured slightly, so that it became a true barren wasteland with next to no humidity in the air, and hard, rocky terrain to deal with. E1.2 was made into a Desert-style room, with sand dunes rippling across its surface.

1.3 became a slight exception to the water rule, in that it was Arctic-themed. All snow and ice over the entire floor, with no liquid water in sight. 1.4 was set up to be Jungle/Rainforest-themed in the future, with plenty of fertile soil for future plant-life and a nice, warm, and humid environment to support plant-life.

Finally, 1.5 was made…. ordinary. The temperature was average, the humidity was average, the soil, although fertile and capable of supporting plant-life, was not to the same level as that of 1.4. Basically, the entire room was destined for normalcy. It was also completely flat.

The E2 rooms were themed to be half-water, half-land. E2.1 naturally remained the same, filling in the normalcy role. 2.2 became a Desert-Oasis-themed room, with a little fertile soil around the central oasis for future plant growth.

2.3 was turned into the Arctic room, with an area of water filled with minerals that prevented it from freezing. The room was designed so that there was a cut-off line between the ‘land’ and the water running straight through the centre in a straight line, just for the heck of it.

2.4 became the future Jungle/Rainforest, and was styled similarly to 2.1, save for the island being made entirely of very fertile soil. Finally, 2.5 became the Barren room, with a central pond/lake.

The E3 rooms were all filled to the brim with water, and all featured various stone pillars and mounds. E3.1 remained practically identical, acting also as the normalcy room. 3.2 became a Boiling room of sorts, with the temperature raised just to the point of water boiling.

A slightly complex tunnel system had to be connected to the room because of this, funnelling the water vapour produced at the top through a series of cooling tunnels before reconnecting to the room at its base. 3.3 became the Arctic room, cooled to the point of water freezing, with the water naturally being filled with the same natural anti-freeze used in E2.3.

What’s more, the pillars were made of ice instead of stone, and connected to the ceiling. E3.4 was set to a lukewarm temperature and filled with a variety of minerals, in both the water and the earth within the room that, according to Arcius’ research, should inevitably promote the growth of a large variety of water-based plant-life types.

Finally, lacking the same kind of Barren room option for a water-filled room, he instead made 3.5 into a pseudo-cave system that technically counted as a room, replacing the pillars and mounds.

He also installed Light Stones in all the rooms, setting them all to mimic the day-night cycle outside, although the E3 rooms were given a reduced light level, to simulate being relatively deep underwater, although only to about the point of a third the level of light as normal.

The remaining Mana he had was used to create another 6887 rooms, increasing his Mana Capacity to 424860, and his Regen to 85515/year. The second significant Dungeon-related event came about from those Stones, which is the development of two new species, Cyanobacteria and Cyanocoral, making the list as such:

Species Rank

Species Name

1.

Infirmanacoral

2.

Cyanocoral

3.

Infirmanabacteria

4.

Cyanobacteria

5.

Thermocoral

6.

Thermobacteria

7.

Prokaryotic Cells

As expected, they evolved to make use of the newly provided ‘sunlight’. Besides all of that, nothing much changed in the Dungeon at this point. On a non-Dungeon note, however, Arcius had encountered Aisha again after making the new E rooms.

They talked some more, this time over a game of Lilti, and Raeshian version of chess (imagine normal chess, but on a 100x100 board, and 15 unique piece types). For the record, they played 17 games, with Aisha winning nine, including the last, and Arcius winning eight.

By the end, it wouldn’t be false to say they were friends, although not really to the point of being close, at least not yet. They were both fairly similar, equally seeking out knowledge. However, the how and why were different.

Whereas Arcius desires to know as much as he can, and actively researches and experiments in order to find out, Aisha prefers to record that which is already known, and preserve it so that others may learn. It would be accurate to describe Aisha as a Keeper of knowledge, and Arcius as a Seeker of knowledge.

After that final 30 year sleep, during which the Cyanobacteria and Cyanocoral had developed, Arcius found himself back in the Dungeon, activating the Magmatic Seal. To call the process anti-climactic would be accurate, as there wasn’t anything flashy or mystical that occurred, just the runes glowing faintly as Mana flowed through them.

Probably the flashiest thing about the system was the sheer amount of Mana that was used, totalling 1.5 million Mana, gathered entirely within the Mana Gathering Enchantment. While this might seem like the Enchantment was incredibly useful, especially with its low Mana cost for production, the Mana it gathered could only be used in enchantments that contained runes, so it was fairly useless for most things Arcius needed at the moment.

Far more significant, if less flashy, was the influx of information streamed right into his mind. It was enough to leave him stunned for a few hours as he sorted the info out in his mind. Basically, he now had complete control of the magma within the Mantle beneath his Dungeon.

So the first, and currently only, thing he did was to prevent the build-up that was threatening his Dungeon. He didn’t particularly care if it happened elsewhere, but not at his Dungeon. Although he could have used it to make himself an island, something he was going to do eventually, he chose not to do so quite yet.

It was one thing if he managed to make a new island in the mid- to late-game, it was entirely another if he did so at the early-game. It would inspire jealousy, as well as greed, and would doubtlessly lead to conflicts he didn’t want or need. So he refrained for now, and turned back to his Dungeon while observing his status, wandering what he would do now.

Dungeon God:

Arcius

Dungeon Name:

Mana Capacity:

425460/425460

Mana Regen:

85605/year

Faith Capacity:

0/0

Faith Regen:

0/year

Number of Entrances:

1

Number of Rooms:

11199

Number of Floors:

1

Number of Species:

7

Dominant Species:

Infirmanacoral

Number of Bosses:

0