Becoming a real dungeon, part 2

It has been observed again and again that dungeons like to have a theme. By theme I mean a style of reference they use to build themselves and expand. It is often similar to the surroundings of the dungeon’s location.

Many dungeons forming in a forest will evolve to have a forest environment for its first floors. In a desert, you would have a desert environment. But all do not follow such principle, because if they did then dungeons would not be infamous for altering the lands.

There are 3 types of cases where dungeons are known to diverge from their surroundings. The first and easiest to explain is because of diversity. Like all humans are humans, similar but not identical, dungeon cores are similar while still not identical. You could find savages living in the forest for thousands of years, and still find some of them wanting to leave to explore the world.

Another case possible is when you displace a dungeon from its birth location. Dungeons are able to sense mana in ways not even dragons are thought to feel it. And moving dungeon cores exposes them to new types of mana. Doing so is hypothesized to induce a bigger chance of making the dungeon more diversified.

The last case is infamously known for the devastation it caused. Some dungeon cores are different, but not like a deviant would be, deviant cores are known to make things without sense. The type of dungeon core I am talking about is the cantankerous core. This name was chosen over the cataclysmic core, because while both names are rather true to describe the core, if no sentient race approaches such core, then the dungeon enters a dormant state.

A cantankerous core is quite capable of causing a cataclysm kind of horror, but it is a core that evolved to despise sentient individuals. While they don’t detect any, they enter a dormant state, just waiting for something intelligent enough to be sentient. When they do destect that, they unleash the worst kind of cruelty they can.

This kind of dungeon modifies their surroundings to be as hostile to life as they can, and every time they awaken because they detect a sentient being, their territory grows a bit. It is the reason no one is authorized even near the wastes, a cantankerous core was missed in the filtration process and caused the loss of nearly a fourth of the plains.

Extract from “How dungeons work”, a book with no copy, written by Aatos Suutari, head researcher of the Empire.

POV: Will

I wait for some time, but the indigo hair guy just look surprised. He sends a look of suspicion my way, but that is all. The tall woman just seem proud for some reason. Is it because I did not make them wait 3 or hours before I dug the ground like they asked me to?

I feel weird about that, it is like they think of me as some attarded man incapable of thinking properly by himself… Wait, I AM stupid! I don’t look like someone! I look like a fucking oversized jewel, Even the fact that they try to communicate with me that way is weird. How did I not realize that earlier?

I could argue that it was because I have many things to think about recently, but I won't give myself this excuse. Which I just did. No remorse. Let’s just pass to something else then, what should I do now?

I can’t seem to leave my sensory range, and the name implies it is a range, not a zone or area. Which ticks me off, so first, I should change its name. Let’s see, I can feel with all of my senses the things inside of it, even mana. Expansion sounds kind of fitting to me, as I do expand it too. But I can move things in it with little effort, as if everything inside is mine.

Oh, I know, Territory. It is my territory, it has a cool sound to it and seems accurate to the feeling I get from it. So, from sensory range to territory, it makes more sense now. Next should be to correct my mobility issue, and considering I can’t leave my territory, I should probably expand it as much as I can.

I change the way I split the mana I absorb. Now one third goes to my mana knot concentration while two thirds goes to expand my territory. Just thinking like that makes me like the name territory already. Nice idea, really.

I am struggling to maintain control over the mana again though. Some parts mix badly, others spill a bit of mana, and all that makes me waste mana. Which I don’t like at all, so I focus as much as I can on correcting my failures.

I was focusing on that for what felt like barely 10 minutes when I got distracted by a thought. It says to dig, or something similar. I look inside my mana control range and see the tall girl alone, sitting in the chair the assassin woman was sitting in before.

It is now bright outside, my territory expanded quite well. But seeing 6 marks adorning the tree now, I know I didn’t lose focus of time for a mere 10 minutes. I lost sight of time for a whole day?!

How come I am subject to this? I know I focus hard on things sometimes, but it has never been that bad. I would always take a rest and eat, drink or… Oh, that’s why. I don’t need to sleep, eat, drink or anything now. So there is no distraction for me to get back on track. Now I just focus and lose myself to my interest.

It is pleasant, otherwise it would not happen. But it can be quite the issue, fortunately missy tall woman got me out of it before too much time passed. Well, what can I do then? Should I just go on and ignore their wants for me to dig something, or should I focus on what I want?

I know what I will do, my territory expanded while I was not paying attention to it specifically. It increases in the form of a sphere, the center being where I first fused with the mana mix to begin the territory itself. The center of expansion does not move with my sphere, so I don’t know if I can control where I expand my territory.

It is not what I want to do for now anyway, so I don’t mind that, it is a problem for future me. For the moment I use a bit of mana to displace the dirt already in my territory to the surface. I make the hole’s entrance as a square hole about 1 meter and a half wide. I don’t want to use too much mana on moving dirt, I want to fix my mana control issue.

And it is what I do, I once again focus on increasing my control on my mana. This time though I keep in mind to sometimes move the dirt at the end of the hole to the surface. I just move it upwards, making a weird giant anthill with a single square hole to enter it.

Those pauses make me aware of how much time I will likely need to be able to use 2 thirds of my mana to expand my territory without losing efficiency. Which happens to be a week, but I reduce that to 6 days. Quick math makes me aware that I don’t use 2 thirds of my mana absorption for my territory expansion, but 22 out of 36 parts of my mana. Not far from that at least.

With those values, I have 22 going to my territory, while 12 goes to my mana knot. The 2 final parts are used to move the dirt and accumulate a bit of mana just in case. I think I should have mana to defend myself if something wrong happens. I don’t want to need to wait 5 minutes to have enough mana to do something if my life is in danger.

Well, to be honest, I do that because the assassin woman has been looking at me weirdly since I tried my mana shotgun thing on her. She reaches for one of her daggers each time I eject dirt and she is near. Which is once every second night.

On the tree I feel the count of days, but not in the form I would have assumed. I would have made lots of 4 vertical lines with a diagonal one for the fifth. Making markings of 5 units. But those are made of 10 units. They made 7 vertical ones side by side, then a diagonal one from the top of the leftmost line to the low of the fourth one. Then from the low of the fourth to the top of the seventh, and finally a horizontal line from the tops of each line. Making a downward facing triangle with 7 lines under and through it.

Right now there is 1 complete unit with 2 lines under it, making the count go to 12. And missy is pestering me with her thoughts-transmitting-badge. She doesn’t send me dig anymore, since she got up on the hill that is forming out of my hole, she has been sending me thoughts about making a floor.

She even sent me some vague images and ideas about some kind of green cave. I can feel her want for moss, mushrooms and little plants filled with what I assume is mana. I must admit that it causes me much confusion. Is it why she and her group captured me? To have me grow plants with mana inside?

I do feel her thoughts because of the badge, and I feel her wanting to help me. So I know if it is for my benefit or hers. But even if I wanted to do that, I would not be able to. Because I don’t know how to grow plants, I never cultivated, not even a bureau plant. And I don’t have any seed either, so I don’t know why she even asks something like that from me.

I take some time to think about it, all the while she periodically sends more thoughts to me. And after an hour, I decide to just focus on myself for now. My rate of forming territory increased, but as the size of my territory increases, it being a sphere makes the distance it grows towards slow down.

I need to figure out a way to choose in which direction my territory grows, and it is simpler than I thought. Instead of fusing the mana to my sphere, I fuse it with my territory. When I do that, I feel my territory gaining some density. My control in it feels stronger, and while I discovered that, I thought I failed to find what I wanted to find. But I just have to direct the density out, that way my territory expands where the density pours out.

I try to make a fine rod of territory, about 1 centimeter in diameter. In barely an hour I have a 1 meter and 20 centimeters long rod of territory. But I have difficulty handling the territory density in the rod, and it looks more like a fine cone now. Some density escaped and deformed it.

That means I don’t have enough control over it for now, and that I have less control of the density when in a narrow space. Even if it is an issue, something that limits me, I feel somewhat happy. Happy to discover new things, because back on earth, to discover something new you would need to work an enormous amount. But here, I discover new things regularly, I learn and experiment without anything holding me back.

I can’t help but think about the spider I used as a body when I first got here. For what I did to it, namely make it a giant spider and embed myself in it. Or rather a 10 centimeter wide sphere, inside the inferior abdomen of the spider, I would have likely been pursued by animal protection societies. They would have tried to sue me for illegal tests on animals as well as animal abuse.

Ahah, I can’t help but laugh at that. I could FEEL the spider as if it was me. I could feel no discomfort from the spider, it was quite the contrary in reality. The spider reveled in the meals I caught, in the mana entering it constantly.

But that would not have stopped people from calling me a liar, trying to tarnish my public image. I know about that kind of thing, my brother fell into depression because of exactly this reason. How I regret not comforting him when I could and should have. Maybe if I was there when he needed it, he would not have hung himself.

Damn, I wasted my positivity there. I will just focus on expanding my territory. My sadness will pass, like always. I just have to work hard enough for it to go away. Let’s work.