NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2 - Dungeon
Dungeon Day 1
Dan woke up again, but this time, he was in a naturally formed cave. His crystal, which was also him, was now shaped like a heart. The lovey-dovey and perfect kind, not the actual monstrosity that was a real human heart. The shard, which was still dark blue, floated in the middle of the cave, bobbing up and down while spinning on its axis. This cave was going to be his home for at least a little while, and he had some work. However, something still bugged him.
Dan wasn’t sure how to feel about his new shape. It just didn't seem imposing enough, though it made some sense since he was the heart of his soon-to-be dungeon. It didn’t necessarily need to be a dungeon, but he had always wanted to make his own awesome dungeon, and he felt a dungeon would be the best way to take advantage of the many exciting abilities he had access to.
The World Crystal had given him access to a butt load of knowledge about his abilities from both when he was human, Eldritch God, and now when they had transformed to fit his new form. He had received more knowledge than just about his abilities, which explained some aspects of his new existence and just how much they were going to break the rules of reality with the approval of Mother Eternity. He would put that knowledge to good use as he expanded, something he had delayed enough.
Dan looked around the small cave, deciding it was time to get to work. The cave was next to the shattered space that his minions had shattered so his Eldritch God self could break and enter the planet. The goal was to let him start outside the chaotic and dangerous space in order to build up some forces. This starting bonus was minimal, as he couldn’t claim much area of the planet's actual reality. In fact, the outside area he was about to claim was only a small portion of the total land he would eventually have when he entered the shattered space. This starting zone was more of a temporary spot to set up for his invasion of the lands, which would eventually become his proper dungeon.
That was the first thing he was informed of with his new dungeon system. The notices were more in his head as he got an image or feeling of how they looked, but it was still helpful, especially after he switched them to pop into reality.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
Notice! You can only claim 500 feet of total space outside the shattered reality.
To claim more land, you must enter the shattered space.
🔷
Seeing the screen from all perspectives was odd, but he didn’t mind and just thought about how funny it would look if some random person walked in and saw a bunch of boxes floating in space.
Those thoughts led him to consider his change in perspective. Even though he had become an Eldritch God, he had just been human from his current perspective and memories, and the ability to see space all around him was incredibly odd.
Thinking about his new sense, he dug up his old aberration spatial ability and compared it to his new dungeon sense.
Spatial Sense: You can inspect your surroundings with your telekinesis and receive feedback as if you are experiencing the area with your senses.
His old ability was relatively straightforward, and from the looks of it, his new ability was the same, though more inclined to his new existence. Additionally, the World Crystal had clearly learned of his dungeon intentions through their bond and had adapted the descriptions.
Dungeon Sense: You are aware of the entire area of your dungeon and all that happens within. Additionally, some of your abilities can and will work throughout your whole dungeon or just in certain areas.
Where before, his spatial sense was based on his power and rank. Now, it was based on his dungeon area, which sucked. Specifically, it was the loss of freedom Dan hated since he was basically blind to everything outside his dungeon lands. Dan knew there were ways to bypass the annoyance, but it didn’t detract from his dislike of it.
After calming himself, Dan moved on from the whole sense thing, inspected the area around him again, and found a small hole where air was moving through. Dan knew he had derailed himself and decided it was time to get to it.
First, he went to look at his Dungeon Menu. The menu was a good place for him to see his growth and was an excellent tool to visualize his powers. Technically, he didn’t need it, but he had it and his human brain liked menus from way back when he was playing games, so he would keep it.
The menu appeared with a thought.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷Dungeon Menu 🔷
Name: Dan.
Rank: Common.
Shards Collected: 0/100.
Points till Next Rank: 0/100.
Mana: 300/300.
Mana Regen: 8 Mana a Day.
Chaos Mana Regen: 4 Chaos Mana a Day.
Constant Mana Expenditure: N/A.
Number of People in Dungeon: 0.
Number of Boss Monsters: 0.
Number of Monsters: 0.
Monster Telepathy Range: 100 feet.
Total Area Claimed: 20 feet.
Pure Arcane Mana: N/A.
Order Mana: N/A.
Abilities: 15.
Claim or Edit Area.
Create or Edit Creature.
Create or Edit Item.
🔷
The menu summed up his current state reasonably well, and he quickly assumed that the Chaos Mana was responsible for his daily mana. Seeing that slow regen rate, he would have been worried, but he knew one of his new dungeon abilities would alleviate the problem, eventually.
Mana Collection: With a modification from the World Crystal, your Heart Crystal will allow you to collect the diluted mana from other entities’ magical spells or abilities within your dungeon. Additionally, you may also collect excess mana from a creature’s soul when it dies in your dungeon area.
Moving on from his new ability, Dan looked at the three menu options and quickly chose Claim or Edit Area. He was interested in the possibilities the other two would have but figured he would eventually get to them.
Claim or Edit Area.
— Claim Area
— Edit Area
The option was fairly straightforward, and he mentally clicked on Claim Area, which prompted him to select the area.
That's when things got interesting. Dan could only sense the area he had claimed, and everything was blank outside of that area. He knew stuff was there, but his senses went blurry, and then there was nothing. However, once he clicked the claim area, he was prompted to choose two options. They didn't show up as actual prompts but more like telling him two options were available.
One was him claiming open ground like an already existing cave. This was him just exerting his power over the space. The second was claiming new ground by digging it out. This would create a tunnel, cave, or opening while also claiming it. He innately knew this second option would be slightly more expensive. However, that was his only current option due to there not being any more open space in the small cave he was in. Also, that option was the most interesting one because it allowed him to see an extra five feet past his current sense limit, even without him purchasing the space. He could also choose a certain distance in a direction, and it would claim and remove matter in that direction. Doing this would let him see ahead but would lock in the purchase regardless of what was there or not. Now, as nice as that was, he needed to be careful because removing stone and dirt was cheap, but the price could skyrocket if he ran into something more precious or durable.
Knowing this, Dan chose to claim five feet toward the small hole he felt, as the extra sensing distance the option gave him told him that he would run into a tunnel there.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
Claim and dig five feet for two mana?
Yes or No
🔷
He obviously hit yes and watched as the rock seemingly evaporated away, revealing the five-foot hole in the stone and letting his sight move forward just a bit. However, his senses told him there was a more natural cavern, so he kept claiming the area slowly but surely.
All in all, he claimed an additional 425 feet of cavern that led up to the surface and into what looked like a forest. He did claim just a bit of the forest, but not much. He had left 50 feet to tunnel to the shattered space behind the room holding his crystal.
In total, he had spent 85 mana from his total of 300, well 87 if he counted the earlier five feet. It was also important for Dan to note that the area it showed he claimed was technically the surface area. It just didn't show all the empty air-filled space that was still his. Additionally, Dan wondered how things would work inside of the shattered space. Using the claiming ability for 500 feet of space wasn’t that big of a deal. However, if things escalated in size, things would get ugly fast. That, however, was a problem for future Dan, and current Dan moved on.
With the area claimed, Dan mentally smiled as it was time for what was definitely going to be one of his favorite things: Creature Creation. Opening the menu, he was met with two options and went ahead to create a new creature.
Create or Edit Creature.
— Edit Creature
— Create Creature
- - Type.
- - - Monster.
- - - Humanoid.
- - - Hybrid.
When prompted to choose what kind of creature he wanted, he quickly chose a monster, as that was the only thing available to him. Dan currently only had access to some of the beasts from Earth, and he needed to absorb new creatures to be able to create them. This meant the humanoid and hybrid options were currently unavailable since he had no humanoids with which to make hybrids. Technically, he could make beast hybrids but apparently, they still counted as beasts.
After choosing the monster option, a new menu popped up, and a list of beasts appeared.
Aardvark, Agouti, Albacore, Albatross, Alligator, Alligator Gar...
Nope. He was not going to go through all of the animals. Fuck that. However, he wasn’t sure what was normal on his current planet, so he decided to go with a somewhat normal creature like a bear. Well, normal for him.
From there, he could choose to make the bear large or smaller and give it a few different abilities. He gave it four abilities and left it as a large beast, which was its natural size.
Dan could also give the bear some other extra special abilities as he was making the bear a boss-type monster for his dungeon, but he decided it wasn’t worth the cost in mana just yet.
It was a nice creation.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Ingot the Bear.
Type: Beast.
Size: Large.
Hierarchy: Boss.
Mind: Bestial.
Arcane Mana: 100/100.
Arcane Mana Regen: +3 Per Minute (0 Outside of Dungeon).
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 4.
Metal Affinity. Metal Enhancement. Rootbind. Body Enhancement - Resilient.
Innate Abilities: 5.
Night Vision. Keen Smell. Strength. Mental Resistance. Regeneration.
Respawn Timer: 5 Hours (10 Hours if Death is Outside of Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 24 Mana (48 if Death is Outside of Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 48 Mana.
🔷
The name wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t that bad. Looking at the stats, he was only a bit unsure of the Bestial mind. He had given the bear the highest level of bestial intelligence, putting it up there with things like dolphins and dogs, so it should be fairly intelligent. He wanted to have given it proper intelligence but wanted to save the extra mana for now.
Feeling okay with the mind thing, Dan inspected the abilities. They were simple and meant to give it the highest chance of catching something and bringing it back alive, as things dying outside his dungeon area didn’t give him mana. Continuing to inspect the bear, the bear's innate abilities caught him off guard. He had been expecting Night Vision and Keen Smell but not the other three. Though, Strength was self-explanatory.
However, a quick little check of his dungeon abilities cleared the confusion for the other two.
Eldritch Regeneration: All boss creatures of your dungeon have health-regenerating abilities that can only be impeded by magic one rank above them. Note that this ability increases in strength significantly based on the creature's rank.
Dungeon Mind: With assistance from the World Crystal, you are able to process all information happening within your dungeon. You can also manage many aspects of your dungeon simultaneously through the Crystal Dungeon System.
Additionally, your dungeon creations may manifest Telepathic and Telekinetic abilities that will also favor the Domination side of magic. Furthermore, you and your creations are resistant to negative mind-altering effects.
Well, that was nice.
Seeing that more of his aberration abilities were pulling their weight was excellent. They were definitely better than his old ones, that was for sure.
Eldritch Regeneration: As long as your Crystal Heart is intact, you may regenerate your physical body using Arcane Mana.
Eldritch Mind: You can perform a variety of Telepathic effects with your Telepathy ability. These effects include creating illusions and mentally dominating creatures. Additionally, you have resistance to negative Telepathic effects, and you are able to process more information from different sources at a faster speed without being overwhelmed by excessive mental stress.
Dan was starting to feel rather overpowered, but something told him that his power wouldn't seem as strong once he started fighting the other shards. So, he had to build up faster and decided to make a mini-boss.