Chapter Four

Despair, Astral Plane in the general vicinity of Earth, Day 8

“Goodbye, Metis.” Despair finished greeting his second dungeon and had a look at the others, who should have been doing the same.

Sun and Storm were busily conversing with their dungeons, yet it seemed Nature was already lounging around impatiently, she can’t be done already? He wondered, concerned, how long could she have taken dealing with each of her dungeons? However, reminded of his own remaining dungeon, he began to create the link with Callisto, his third dungeon.

Once the link was established, he opened up a telepathic link, which she quickly latched onto. “Hello, Callisto, my name is Despair. How have you been doing?”

“Oh, Despair, I awakened as anticipated, but after an initial period the abundance of lesser beasts and miasma has been fantastic!”

“Oh, really? That’s amazing!” Despair praised, “So, how far have you managed to grow?”

Callisto gave him an awkward chuckle through the link, “So, far I’m about half way through a triple-sized first floor, because there has been such an abundant amount of resources I felt it would be best to scale up in order to adapt, given the circumstances, I felt it was a good idea?” she questioned.

Despair held in a sigh, and gave his second response instead, a chuckle, “Don’t worry about it, both your sisters Europa and Metis did the same. To be honest, I would have done something similar in the same position, so I guess all of you take after me.”

“How wonderful!” she gushed, then paused for a moment before asking, “Do you think I can talk with my sisters at some point? I would love to meet them.”

Now it was Despair’s turn to make a nervous chuckle, “Sorry, you and each of your sisters are on different continents, so unless you grow much bigger, or dig much deeper, it won’t be feasible as a dungeon.” Callisto gave a sad sigh, “However, after a few hundred years, I can help you, and your sisters if they want, become spirits. You’ll be able to meet them then.” Despair suggested.

At that she paused, “Hundreds of years? I’m not sure about that, by then I will probably not want to leave my dungeon behind…” she gave a sigh, “For the time being I’ll just think on it, do you think you could help me become a spirit if my core would be destroyed before then?” she asked.

Despair responded instantly, already ready for that question, “Okay, I’ll do what I can at the time, but I must warn you that, at the moment, I can’t help you become a spirit.”

“Why is that?” Callisto asked.

“At the moment, me and my fellows are trying to establish an astral domain in the area at the moment, and you, your siblings, and your cousins are our first wave of dungeons in a world that didn’t have mana to begin with.” Callisto gave a gasp of surprise, “That is why there is such an abundance of miasma for you, but it is also why there is a shortage of miasma over here, and I would need some to help you become a spirit, at the moment my reserves were spent making you sisters and I have none to spare.”

“So, you want us to give you miasma then?” she deduced.

“Yes, but we don’t have any great expectations of you at the moment, we know you’re getting started and need it to set up.”

She spent a moment, clearly strategizing, and then made an offer, “How about this, I give you some of my miasma now, but you save the amount necessary to turn me into a spirit if necessary.”

Despair had to admire her independence, always a good thing, “That sounds like a solid investment, the minimum amount required to make you a spirit, a lesser spirit mind you, but you can advance after that, is the amount of miasma it takes to make an imp. If you can offer any more than that, to help with our work, I would appreciate it.

“Oh, an imp? I have a few of those, they're surprisingly good at extending my reach. Give me a minute to pull together that miasma, I should be able to get together a little more without setting myself back.”

A few minutes later, about 110% of the cost of an imp came up the link, and he made sure to set aside enough to make her a spirit if need be, alongside her sisters reserves, they really might have taken after him too much. “Thank you, it’s perfectly okay that you can’t provide much right now, honestly, I’m just happy that you seem to be doing so well. If you can send up some more miasma when you can spare it, it would really help out up here. Once you really get going, it shouldn’t be hard at all.”

“Anything else I can do to help out?” She asked, sounding slightly contrite.

Despair could definitely give her something else to do to help out, “Yes, you remember how I said the world had no mana to start right?” she gave a surprised sound when what he wanted finally clicked, “So, if you can help pump mana into the world, that will help out too.”

“Absolutely, I can definitely work at spreading mana,” she answered confidently.

“Thank you, Callisto.” Despair replied, noticing Sun was finished with his conversations, “I still have some work to do, so goodbye for now, feel free to get in touch if you need anything.”

“Goodbye, Despair.” Calisto replied happily, and Despair broke the telepathic conversation.

Despair turned to his companions, seeing Nature in a huff now, but Sun looked like he was done, and Storm was finishing up, so he pulled up a viewing portal to Earth to distract himself studying the humans for a while. It took Storm about fifteen minutes to finish up, it had never been her way to go at anyone else’s pace, but once she had, it was time for everyone to report their results. Sun started, “Meredith, Susan, and Jocelyn are doing well. They’ve almost completed their first floors and have some of their first insects and flora already, they’ve been able to benefit from the abundance of miasma, but could only offer this much,” he finished by releasing a small ball of miasma into the space between them.

Despair waited a moment for Nature to step forward, but when she didn’t Storm did instead, “Spring, Summer, and Fall are still getting started, so I didn’t bother bringing up miasma yet, though they are enjoying their oceanic dungeons, the ocean is apparently riddled with creatures.”

“Oceanic dungeons?” Nature exclaimed, “Why would you put them in the ocean? How the heck are they supposed to take out any humans?”

Despair intervened before the two could get into a fight, stubborn and energetic, their last fight lasted seven years. “Nature, we are working to spread mana throughout, and harvest miasma from, the whole Earth. The oceans make up the majority of the surface of the planet, and water tends to conduct mana better than air, and if you see here,” he said, enlarging the viewing portal to display a seafood market, “the humans eat sea products in abundance, which will help to spread the mana amongst them that way. Good job, Storm,” she giggled happily, “so, Nature, are you ready to report yet?”

“No,” she said petulantly.

“Okay, then, I’ll report.” Despair said, “Callisto, Europa, and Metis are doing okay, they all decided to scale up their dungeons given the abundance of resources available, but that in turn has increased their resource needs and so all they were able to spare in terms of miasma was this,” he finished, by releasing the free miasma they had offered in a ball next to the first, his was about two-thirds the size.

Nature sat silent, her arms crossed, clearly frustrated, for almost a dozen minutes, and then suddenly, she gave a sigh of relief that quickly grew into a huge smirk as she gave her own report, “One and Two are still setting up, but they just loved me so much they gave me all their Miasma anyway,” she cooed, obviously enjoying the shocked looks Sun and Storm were giving her, “Three somehow ended up with a larger initial chamber and has finished its first floor already, he had so much Miasma to spare, he couldn’t wait to just offer it all like such a good little dungeon core, I didn’t even have to ask,” she obviously enjoyed the ego trip of releasing a miasma orb easily ten times the size of both of the ones already there, more than enough to start creating an astral domain.

Despair had to hold back a snort of derision, but Storm didn’t even bother to hold back, adding “Yeah, they couldn’t wait alright, that’s why we had to wait instead I’m sure, because they fell over themselves to give you all their miasma,” meanwhile Sun just looked confused, he never was very good at reading between the lines unless it was pointed out to him.

Despair turned the window to look at each of Nature’s dungeons, “Let’s see here,” he said, “This dungeon looks like it’s doing okay, working on its first floor, got some creatures and vegetation, dungeon moss, that’s a classic, its floor is only half populated though, yet its working more on expanding?” he half-questioned, then moved on, “This dungeon is about the same size, has some creatures, more dungeon moss, not a lot of variety here but it’s still going for size?” he asked, pointing out the dungeon expanding a room, “and this dungeon…” Despair paused in bafflement, “working on its second floor, not as fast as I would expect though, and look here, no creatures whatsoever? Are you sure you want to stick with the ‘they wanted to’ excuse?”

Nature snorted and slapped her tree awake, ordering it to take her away for a bit, avoiding the issue. “Are you sure you needed to go that far?” Sun asked, “We have to work together here, and rivalry will only hurt us.” He said diplomatically.

“Those are her dungeons, Sun!” Despair snapped, “They may as well be her children! If we want to be gods, we have to act the part, do you think she could do that?”

Sun started to talk, but before he actually started he held back, a serious look coming to his face.

“Exactly,” Despair answered, “Now let’s get prepared to make this domain, when Nature finishes her tantrum we can get started,” Despair answered and got to work.