Chapter 1

- New Beginnings -

“Are we there yet?” I asked. A skeleton levelled a sword at my face. “I’m joking.” The skeleton lowered the sword. “But seriously, are we there yet?”

“Remember, I can do it- if you would do it.” Parallel Me stated. “So, ask yourself; would you stab you in the face right now? The answer’s y- land!”

“…I don’t get it?” I replied, turning to look at him.

“I saw land!”

“Really, where?”

“You idiot, turn back around so I can see the horizon again.”

I turned around to the front of the boat to look and sure enough, on the very edge of the horizon, a hazy promise of land.

***

As soon as the boat hit land I leapt onto the beach and cheered wordlessly in excitement. Only after I vented my enthusiasm did actual words leave my mouth, “I think I’ve sailed enough to last a life time.”

If Parallel Me had eye’s they would have rolled as he said, “You didn’t do squat. The Fallen did all the rowing.”

I looked over the tireless Undead. It was thanks to them that we had been able to make such fast progress. They didn’t need to eat. They didn’t need to rest. They didn’t complain. When the surviving Goblins got tired, they just piggybacked on the Skeletons. It looked ridiculous, but cut down on travel time as we never had to stop... except… rage tore through me as I recalled those fucking Minotaurs. It wasn’t until we got to the surface that we finally managed to shake them. But otherwise, thanks to Barthine’s surprisingly detailed maps, it was… mostly… easy to find a safe route to the surface. As for a pack of Skeletons walking around in broad daylight, the mountain range’s surface was, thankfully, uninhabited. The only subtlety required was when we… obtained… a fishing boat from a small village on the coast. Don’t think at me like that! We left silver! Yeah, seeing Parallel Me pull out one answer after another for every problem we had worried me too. I still haven’t mustered up the courage to ask how much DP we have left…

“Hay… HAY!” Parallel Me shouted.

I focused on the Goblin that looked absolutely terrified as it snapped its fingers in front of my face. While telling the Goblin to ignore Parallel Me’s orders, I looked over at him. “Sorry, sorry. I was just thinking… I mean we made it,” I turned around and spread my arms wide, “to the… island…?” I looked from right to left. “This… is a really big island. I can’t see the ends of it.”

Parallel Me replied, “…We were able to see it on a fully zoomed out world map.”

“Gravis!”

Gravis walked over and handed me the World Map. It had automatically zoomed in to our current location. I stared at it for a bit, moving it this way and that, zooming in and out, trying to get a sense of scale. “I think that the length of this island, using km, can be measured in the double digits, maybe even low triples.” Assuming this world is the same size as earth… I tried to imagine similar looking proportions… Then by my guess, I think this island is about the size of Taiwan, Ireland, Iceland or Sri Lanka. Something like that… definitely no bigger, probably smaller. “This can only be a good thing, right?”

“All things considered, absolutely.”

“So… I take it that the centre of the island is the best place to settle down.”

“Yep.”

***

Gravis reported even more had started following us. Goblins. Not mine, bought with DP, but natives of the island. “Are you sure it’s okay to leave them alone? I know you said their weak, but if all of them on the island get together…” I cautioned, trying to see them for myself in the dense underbrush.

“When we set up our dungeon, Gravis’ magic, a few armoured Fallen and narrow hallways will render their numbers useless. Besides, they have their uses as they are.”

“Which are?”

“On top of this islands distinct Dungeon-freeness, it is probably also uninhabited because of the Goblin infestation- if the mainlanders even know that this island exists.”

“Infestation?”

“They breed like rabbits. For an organism of that size, trust me, it’s impressive.”

“…So what about Operation: Goblin World?” A working title. In the tunnels we had a lot of time to talk about strategies, ‘Operation: Goblin World’ was just one.

“A world floor is out of our reach for now.”

I sighed. As soon as he had told me about it, I didn’t stop pestering him until he gave me all the details. A World Floor. Just knowing it was possible still excited me. It was an upgrade to a floor, one that could provide an astronomical multiplier to its size… for a price. It required a sizable amount of DP and imposed… restrictions. You couldn’t subdivide such a floor into smaller ‘rooms’, which means once an intruder sets so much as a toe over the entrance the entire floor becomes ‘contested territory’. Contested territory restricts most of my abilities as a Dungeon Core in such territory, most notably my ability to place purchases made with DP in it. Given that it isn’t uncommon for almost semi-permanent camps, towns or even cities to be set up on such floors… I should assume I’ll never be able to fully control it again, once adventurers make it that far. But still, The System offered plenty of incentives, super space warping aside, to make it tempting. I allowed my thoughts to drift off, hoping time would fly by on this dull trek.

***

I craned my head up, taking advantage of the natural clearing to soak in the view of the islands centre most mountain. Though it would be overshadowed by any mountain from the Dwarven Mountain range, it was still an impressive sight.

“That spot looks great,” Parallel Me said, pointing.

I almost questioned him upon realising he wanted to start the Dungeon halfway up the mountain, not at the base, thinking that someone will tunnel into the side of it to bypass a few floors. But I stopped when I remembered that he had mentioned that the outer walls of a Dungeon were indestructible. Even the earth above a Dungeon would harden and could repair, much to any would be miners despair… Uh? I wonder if that means that those Dwarves are the only natural miners in the world?

As we got closer to Parallel Me’s destination, I noticed his behaviour. “Are you OK?”

“I have a surprise for you.”

“A good one?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Well, first pick out a spot for our Dungeon.”

We were more than half way up the mountain by now, and going any further up would probably result in some cone shaped rooms. “Ok, you don’t happen to have a spade in your box, do you?”

I could hear the grin in Parallel Me’s answer, “No shovel needed, just set the core down and purchase the territory.”

What is so exciting about… “On the surface?!”

“That’s the surprise.” He spread his arms wide and slowly spun around. “It’s one of the reasons I wanted the island; for the isolation- the breathing room to abandon our territory and purchase it again, just with different z coordinates.”

“Does this mean what I think it means?”

“Better. Our territory on the surface will expand to the same size as our largest floor… So, any people congregating outside our entrance or, in time, the whole island…”

“Towns, cities can have thousands, tens of thousands of people… The DP we could get!”

“Slow down, that’s a little ways off yet. Yes, a new Dungeon would create a buzz, BUT there would have to be quite the draw for something like a gold rush- a dungeon rush- which we, in our position, don’t want.”

“Of course, we’ll take it slow.”

Two Hobgoblins brought over the chest, and gingerly took out the core, placing it on the ground. The moment it did so;

Alert! Valid territory available. Would you like to purchase it for 10% of your current DP?

Yes?

No?

As I took in The System’s alert, I pondered the cost. Why 10%... Aww, I suppose it’s to help out hobo Dungeons on the run… How nice of the system to give those chumps a fighting chance.

Parallel Me said, “This is a special moment… Would you like to say something?”

I cleared my throat. “Hippity hoppity, this is now my property,” I said, clicking yes.

Parallel Me didn’t have time to say anything before my shout interrupted him.

Purchase Confirmed. Cost: 2,880DP.

FUCK ME! “I’m a hobo Dungeon!” I did the math. “We have less than 30,000DP! We started with 100,000! What did you spend it on!?”

“Ok, yes, I spent a lot. I couldn’t risk not having what we need… But we are by no means poor. Most Dungeons start with much less you know…”

“We also don’t have much in the way of an income!”

Parallel Me sighed. “We do get a base income, determined by the size of our Dungeon…”

“How much?”

“I’m not sure, but it won’t be much.” Leaping ahead, he said, “Don’t worry, there are still achievements, some of them will award DP, and the native Goblins will do in a pinch…”

I slumped as I considered our frugal days ahead. The isolation was good for our health, but not our growth. The main source of DP was intruders. You earned some when they intruded in your Dungeon, at 12-hour intervals, or when you killed them. Both were proportional to their strength- it should go without saying that the intervals only awarded a fraction of what you got for killing them. However, Goblins, as we have previously established, weren’t that strong. And we wanted to incorporate them into our dungeon, not eradicate them.

“Don’t be so glum,” Parallel Me hastily encouraged. “I didn’t throw the DP away, I spent it. I got some pretty cool stuff…”

Intrigue coloured my voice in spite of myself, “Like what?”

Instead of answering, his attention focused on Gravis, who, in turn, was focused on a spot in the distance. Goblins? I thought. How persistent.

“Maybe we should…” Parallel Me started.

I concurred with his unfinished question. We could disregard the Goblins, yes, but that was when we had a Dungeon. I hurriedly summoned the menu and with Parallel Me’s guidance purchased my first floor. Minus 1,000DP by the way. The earth rumbled as rock and dirt shifted, flowing into itself. It was an awe-inspiring sight. We stormed in, trailing the core. As soon as the core was placed in the centre of the room it floated up and hovered in mid-air, tethering itself. A feeling I didn’t know I lost rushed through me, grounding me; as if I had previously been floating. Mana was also gushing into the small room, filling every nook and cranny. “Ahhh,”I sighed in relief. “That feels more normal.”

Parallel Me scoffed, “Normal? The mana levels previously where actually considered quite high, not as good as what it was in the mountains, but still.”

“High?” I recalled the feeling of thirst and drowsiness I had come to associate with using up all my mana. It had happened often. “Every time I used mana, it took ages to refill.”

Parallel Me’s amused ridicule only increased, “That’s what it’s like for everyone that doesn’t have their own personal mana battery.”

“Battery?”

“Your Dungeon! You got spoiled when we first arrived in this New World, you were subconsciously drawing on the Core’s reserves of mana, which was basically, at the time, several football fields worth.”

“Don’t tell me being in a Dungeon is going to supercharge all enemy mages!”

“Everyone else will feel the ambient mana levels are elevated from natural levels, yes, but not nearly to the extent you do. It’s a handy home advantage.”

“Cool,” I replied.

“Don’t go using it up all the time though- it’s a resource.”

It had been fun to find out that, aside from the obvious DP, mana also needed to be taken into account. DP limited how much and what I could buy, but mana… well mana was like everything’s fuel. The more mana there was, the faster a trap could repair itself, the faster a spawner could spawn a monster, the faster a monster could grow.

Since we had the extra DP we decided to by two more floors, right off the bat and put some distance between the Core and the entrance. They cost 1,000 and 2,000 DP respectively. Though I did get free doors between each floor. At Parallel Me’s insistence, for the sake of demonstration, we placed said floors ‘above’ the first. We can add floors between already existing ones, but not if there are intruders on lower floors. If they are above the floors in question, its ok. Moving the Core was as simple as giving it a push. Something, Parallel Me said, we should relish while we can as it gets a lot more bothersome after the Tutorial period.

I turned to the monsters, telling the living and the dead to guard the first and second floor respectively. As I watched them leave I laid myself down on the floor and let out a sigh of relief. I should look on the bright side. To Parallel Me’s inquisitive looks I only replied, “It’s finally over. We made it. Now we can rest, take a break. What do we have to worry about now?”

Then came Parallel Me’s dry, strained, cough.

Absolute fury coursed through me. “… What?”

“Well,” he tentatively started, “Remember how I mentioned the war… you know, with the Demons…”

“You’ve got to be FUCKING KIDDING ME!”