“Essence? What’s that? Is that another word for experience? Oh, please let it be… I really need the level up to get Shape...” Franklin says to himself. He pulls up his Stats display, searching for the appropriate line:

Level

1

Current Exp

0 / 100

“No change here. Still zero. Dang! So then, does that mean experience only comes from defeating adventurers? Also… what the heck is essence then?” he wonders aloud, tapping a finger to his chin, “Hm, slime essence… slime essence… essence of slime. Slime. Monster? Summon maybe?” He calls up the Summon submenu, the last of the main menu items he has yet to explore. Therein, he is presented with three options.

1. Spawn

2. Evolve

3. More Options

He selects the first, Spawn, which greets him with the following interface:

Please select Summon type and quantity.

Type

-

Quantity

-

From the drop down list for Type, the only choice he has is Swamp Slime. “Maybe because it’s the only entry in my bestiary?” he wonders. He chooses it, then selects one as the Quantity. As soon as he does so, a new message appears at the bottom in response, an error code which he automatically translates in his head, such that it reads,

Invalid Summon. Missing Monster Token of designated Type.

“Monster token? That sounds familiar…” He closes his eyes, flipping through images of the various menus and displays he has previously seen. Then it hit him. “Right, it was in the Create list under Craft.” He navigates to it, then attempts to execute the command, again choosing “[1]” when asked for the quantity. A new message appears, a different error this time.

Invalid Create. Insufficient essence.

His eyebrows twitch in annoyance, not so much because of the constant errors, but more because of their ambiguity.

How much essence??? Why does it not sayyyyyy??? Why is the documentation so badddd???

Franklin lets out a sigh. “Well, off to kill more slimes, I guess.”

He’d need more vinegar.

****

As it turns out, five is the magic number to craft a single Swamp Slime token, along with about 500 AP, and he figures this out across multiple days through meticulous tracking, as in testing the Create command over and over after each slime killed. Of course, he has no idea if the values will hold for every monster type, but at this point, he has soured of vinegar and slimes, and is ready to move on.

Back in his dungeon, and having already crafted the Swamp Slime Monster Token, he proceeds with what should be the last step of Summon, namely, the actual summoning. He fills out the interface, and this time, since he has a valid token in hand, a confirmation message appears at the bottom instead, the entire thing reading,

Please select Summon type and quantity.

Type

Swamp Slime

Quantity

1

Valid Summon detected. This action will consume 500 AP. Proceed?

“[Yes],” he replies, and he holds out a hand, wondering if the creature will just magically appear within it, as every spawn-type command has done thus far. His eyes are impassive and expectant as he waits, for he has grown accustomed to the lack of fanfare, but this is also why what happens next catches him completely off guard.

A sudden explosion of light blinds him in the form of a pulsing red orb about the size of a watermelon. Accompanying it, seemingly coming from all directions at once, as a drumbeat thumps, is the following sound effect, “Dun dun dun dun dun dun DUN DUN!”

“What, what is even happening?!” Franklin exclaims, shielding his eyes with his arm. Squinting, he spots a shadowy form emerging, hidden within the brightness. “D-divine? Is this something divine??”

A moment later and the light dissipates, the sound stops, leaving his cavern silent and dark once more. Franklin opens his eyes fully, then spots the creature now on the ground before him. The fruits of his labor, his first summon.

The creature is a sickly green, semi-transparent, and about three feet in diameter, looking like the stereotypical Swamp Slime save for one critical difference, which Franklin notices almost immediately.

“Hey! Mine only has one eye!” he bemoans, referring to the creatures’ normally cartoonish optical appendages. Every Swamp Slime he has encountered up until now has always had a pair. His summon only had one, albeit slightly larger in size. “I want a refund! My summon is defective!”

Immediately, a message pops up in reply.

Sorry. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.

Franklin holds up a fist, shaking it as he says, “Curse youuuu!” This time, however, there is no response from the system. Franklin waits another minute, then lets out a sigh. Not in the mood to gather enough essence to summon another, he resigns himself to making do for now.

After all, there’s more important things to worry about, now that he’s learned he can’t gain experience from killing monsters. “So, my choices are either to wait for an adventurer to arrive… however long that might take, or… to create some kind of tool to start dungeon construction manually. Well, even if an adventurer arrives, I’ve no guarantee how many I’d need to defeat to level up, nor how many level ups it’d take to unlock the Shape command, nor even if the Shape command will do what I think it should do… Yikes, too many uncertainties there. Right… so, the safer plan should be to go with making a tool, something like a pickaxe. Well, to do that, I’ll need to make…” He begins listing off a few things, counting with his fingers, “Let’s see, probably need to make a kiln to get charcoal, a bloomery to smelt iron, a-”

To his surprise, he is suddenly interrupted by a sound emanating from below, a gurgling that kind of resembles a voice. He looks to find his summon, slugging along the ground his way. When it reaches him, it extends out a pseudopod, rubbing against his leg, much as a cat might.

“Slime. Slime,” it says.

“You… you can talk?”

“Slim~e. Slim~e.”

“I see,” he replies, wondering if the sudden sentience is a byproduct of the creature being a dungeon spawn rather than a wild one. He kneels down, giving the gelatinous ball a pat on the “head”.

The creature wiggles around in response. “Slime. Slime.”

“Indeed my minion,” Franklin says slowly, “Indeed.”

It’s primitive, he thinks to himself, but company is company, I guess. Though speaking of which, I really do wonder when it is that the first adventurers will start arriving...