A Lonely Dungeon

The practice of soul magic in any form is forbidden. Any practitioner is to have their mana permanently sealed, in addition to two years of imprisonment. This rises to ten years in the case of the magic being used on a human, willing or otherwise. Any other crimes committed in the course of using soul magic are to be sentenced as normal, with any sentence of imprisonment to be served sequentially following the time for using soul magic.

- An excerpt from the common law of the Kingdom of Jetosu

"System, what should I do next? How do I fix this world?"

There was of course no response. Erryn felt awful. It was a creature that killed and fed on humans. It had its own set of morals, as alien as they would be to others: A death should be preventable, the result of ones carelessness or overestimating themselves. It shouldn't just be murder. It had assumed that humans would disagree, that they wouldn't approve of the existence of something that fed off them. But it turned out that it was wrong. That humans were worse.

From the knowledge it had obtained in the vault, it knew why Soutso had attacked. Not because Jetosu possessed resources that they needed, or because they needed more land, or even for some sort of revenge. Their leaders simply believed that they had the divine right to rule the world. That all should bow to them or be destroyed. They actually felt that extinguishing the citizens of Jetosu was morally correct; that leaving them to follow an unsuitable leader was wrong. That all other humans were tools, and it was their god given right to wield them as they pleased. Apparently human morals were as alien to Erryn as Erryn thought its were to humans.

Jetosu seemed better at least. Then again, this knowledge was based on Jetosu documents. They may very well be written to portray Jetosu in a better light, or Soutso in a worse one. Forcing a bit of logic back into its emotions, Erryn decided that it must at least try and find collaborating documents in Soutso, and to check its suspicions that the devastation was truly global. The maps showed that the border of Soutso was over a thousand kilometres east of the dungeon, far away from any territory it was able to control. It would be a very long time before Erryn found a way to expand that far, if ever.

Somehow, the thought of eating people for dungeon points had lost its palatability. Erryn flattened off a large patch of the surface near to the dungeon entrance, before digging out hollows underneath. It started to relocate all of the human skeletons that littered the surface but that it had yet to absorb into these makeshift graves, and built stone grave markers above. They bore no inscriptions; there was no way to know the names of the dead. Who they were, how old they were when their lives were reaped. Erryn ordered its monsters not to attack invaders, despite knowing there were no invaders to attack. It would have dismantled its traps, if it had any.

Designating dungeon as [Merciful].

Erryn found that darkly humorous. Was it still mercy if there was no-one left to show mercy to? There may be side effects of that designation as there were for errant, but right now Erryn didn't care. It just continued to build its graveyard. Once all of the skeletons had been relocated, it built a simple fence of wood around the plot. It added paths, though no one would ever walk them. It added simple decorations, before erecting a larger memorial in the centre. Reinforced dungeon stone and gold and silver detailing, built to last. On it, it engraved a simple message:

Here lie a people that I never knew, yet I weep for their loss.

With its task finished, Erryn stilled, lost in its own thoughts. Was it truly alone on this world? Had humanity really destroyed itself? If it had been born here, then were there at least other dungeons around, born in the same way and left just as lost and confused as Erryn felt? Would it be able to find them? A tickle roused Erryn back to reality. The dire wolf, itself alone in the dungeon of slimes, had entered the core room and was nuzzling the dungeon core.

Erryn laughed. "Sorry. I've gotten so caught up with the outside world that I've been forgetting my own monsters." The lone dire wolf, summoned because Erryn wanted to be able to turn pages of a book. What sort of purpose of existence was that? Doubly so since Erryn had since got [Analysis] and the ability to read whatever it wanted. Erryn could just reabsorb it, like it would do with any superfluous monster, but... Not today. "I should give you a name. How about Zephyr?"

Zephyr barked happily.

"Hah. It's like you understand what I'm saying." Erryn paused. Wait... Nuzzling the dungeon core was not normal behaviour. Dungeon monsters stayed in the room in which they were put, unless ordered otherwise, and the newly christened Zephyr had been a number of rooms away. And even if they did move, they didn't nuzzle. "Zephyr, were you... trying to comfort me?"

Zephyr barked, and licked the core.

None of Erryn's monsters were intelligent. They should not understand language. When Erryn ordered them around, it was more akin to sending mental pictures and desires than speaking to them. Yet now here was Zephyr, understanding that Erryn was sad, and reacting on its own. "I don't know how, but thank you."

Zephyr nuzzled against the core again, before curling up at the base of its pedestal.

Erryn had no idea what had happened, but was thankful for it nonetheless. The slimes didn't seem to have changed. Even Blobby, the one named slime in the dungeon, was still just blobbing around aimlessly. Perhaps it was because slimes didn't have brains. But Erryn had had enough of moping. It was time to try and do something constructive again. "System, show me Zephyr's status."

Zephyr (Dire wolf)

HP: 150/150

MP: 20/20

Nothing of interest there. Erryn fired an analysis at Zephyr, but the information displayed was the same. Almost... Erryn found that it could further analyse parts of the status.

Dire wolf: A larger and more dangerous variety of wolf. A dire wolf will often lead a pack of regular wolves.

HP: A measure of health. A monster will die if it reaches zero.

MP: A measure of mana. As this is a dungeon monster born of mana, mana may continue to be consumed after MP reaches zero at the cost of HP.

In that case... Erryn analysed itself, and to its joy discovered that it could indeed get further information.

Slime dungeon: A dungeon that primarily utilises slime type monsters. Slimes in this dungeon get a slight boost to their abilities. Dungeon point cost of new slime monsters reduced. Dungeon point cost of all other monsters increased.

Errant: A designation given to a dungeon that has acted independently of the System, and committed acts that should be forbidden. Denies access to any further dungeon point purchases. Designation will be lost if circumstances that granted designation are resolved, and no further forbidden acts committed for one year.

Merciful: A designation given to a dungeon that has decided not to feed on the souls of others. Monster intelligence increased. Grants [Empathy] skill. Denies rewarding of dungeon points for death of invaders. Designation will be removed if invaders die in the dungeon except for self defence.

Empathy: Emotions are visible to the dungeon and its monsters as an aura surrounding a soul.

That was useful information. Merciful apparently granted increased intelligence and an empathy skill, so was likely to be responsible for Zephyr's behaviour. It also forbade granting of dungeon points specifically for the death of invaders, and not for other reasons, which suggested there were other ways to gather dungeon points. Furthermore, Erryn could theoretically get rid of the errant tag to regain access to the dungeon point store. The problem with that was that Erryn wasn't entirely sure what it needed to do to resolve the circumstances, and something like clearing out all slimes above the level of emperor was no longer possible; the core would be starved of mana. Also it was very likely to be necessary to continue fighting against the system, restricted as it was in this lifeless world. Plus it would need to change its name. But it was something to keep in mind for the future, in case it found a ready supply of dungeon points and a new way to solve the mana density problem.

Erryn couldn't see any aura around its monsters, or any other changes. Given that empathy explicitly stated that it displayed an aura surrounding a soul, and that the dungeon monsters did not have souls, that was to be expected. It also couldn't see anything around its own core or dungeon, so maybe ones own soul was invisible too. A scan of the surface showed no changes in the villages or town. Given the lack of life, that was expected too. Something else that appealed to Erryn's dark sense of humour: Being granted a skill that had absolutely no effect at all in this world. Well, it was still worth it for Zephyr, even if Erryn itself couldn't use it.

With some surprise, Erryn noticed that something had actually changed. At the fortress, the impact site was shrouded in a black haze. Erryn looked in closer, before the entire dungeon shuddered. A weak earthquake shook all of the claimed surface, and the slimes of the dungeon bounced around in alarm as the whole underground shivered. Zephyr's eyes shot open as he dived towards the core, took up a defensive posture and looked around wildly, on full guard. Erryn saw none of this. The moment it had looked into that haze, it had shut off all of its perception and hidden its consciousness away in the deepest depths of its core, and had not even realised that its whole body was shaking.

Pure hatred. That was the only way to describe it. A group of souls, mashed together so violently that the feelings of an individual could not be picked out. All crying out in agony. A palpable hatred, the desire to erase the world that caused them so much pain. Trapped. Bound to the earth they despised, unable to escape the torture. Given the position of the haze, it was obvious where it had come from. The hex bombs, that were powered by human life force. Erryn hadn't given thought to what it meant to drain life force. It just assumed it was a fancy way of saying that it killed people. But it wasn't that simple; the spell was soul magic of the worst kind, powered by ripping souls from the sacrifices that powered it.

Erryn wondered if whoever giving the orders to use this weapon knew what happened to the sacrifices afterwards. Wondered if they would even care if they did know. Wondered what sort of mind ever conceived of such an evil weapon in the first place... For the second time that day, Erryn cried. Silently, without tears, Erryn wept for the lost and the trapped. For the souls consumed for no reason but to take more lives. For the world that had been stripped bare by the evil that dwelt upon it, that dared to call itself human.

Again, Erryn was awoken by Zephyr, nuzzling at the core and whining. Again, Erryn apologized to its own monster. Again, Erryn stirred itself into action. "Zephyr, I'm going to do something about this. I don't know what I can do, but I will find something. I will not abandon those who are bound in torment."

Zephyr barked encouragingly.