by Alston Sleet
“All right, I guess I understand. What does that have to do with your sister?”
Suddenly the lock picks were gone and so was the innocence. The eyes that stared at me now were world-weary and had seen more then I could imagine. The contrast of old eyes and young face was more disconcerting than their color ever could be.
“My sister is seen as evil by many mortals. Her domains are slowly turning her into an Evil Goddess. She will soon have two choices, fight her family to maintain her life, or fade away. We will not let either of those happen. We are willing to take extreme measures to stop that. This is where you come in.”
Gulp.
Hopping up, she returned to walking again in a circle around me Denda started to tick her points off on her fingers, “If you take that class, my family will bless you, hype you up, and help you. Combined with the magic and classes you have already gained, your task will be to transport your dungeon entrance all over the world.”
Denda’s explanation started to gain a bit of a manic excitement as she continued.
“In turn, you will hand out amazing treasures, magic, and build complex challenges for people to try their skills. In addition, you will make my sister seem like she is less monstrous, less evil, and hopefully, she will end up with a domain like Challenge, or Adventure, or something else which will keep her from turning evil,” gushed Denda, as if she was trying to get it all out before I could refuse.
“My family will also be able to claim some increase in power since they will be helping you with Blessings, which of course we will let everyone know. Have to get the whole world excited for this after all!”
I could just feel myself curling up internally, I could only see this one way.
“So you want me to be your sister's public relation person? You want me to stand out as a target and provide good press and positive relations so that the humans will think kindly of the monster lady as they try to kill me?”
At first, I had started out calmly, but by the end, my mental voice was practically shouting. It wasn’t until I noticed the raised eyebrow and unnatural stillness of Denda that I realized I had just shouted at, and insulted the sister of, an actual and factual Goddess.
Ohhhh…Crackers, cheese, and little fishies…
“Yes, that’s exactly what we want,” the cute little bundle of fear inducement leaned forward as she said ‘we’ in order to let me know that while she was the only one here, she was not the only one listening in.
Ok, time to bargain. I was a Dungeon Core, I was going to build a dungeon and I was going to be found eventually, and I was going to be in danger. I didn’t see a real way to avoid it. This could at least give me a unique status in the world and possibly some protection eventually just from that.
Carefully I asked, “In exchange, I get what?”
Again the tiny bundle of fear inducement raised her eyebrow before she plopped down cross-legged in front of me again with a goofy smile.
“You get a few Blessings, more than a few in fact. Getting one is almost unheard of let alone multiples. Also, what little protection my family can provide through direct dream commands to our followers. Third, Amazing treasures and magic beyond the norm to bribe the adventurers, something most dungeons would give a flake of their own gem for, and finally, you get to be the [High Priest] of a goddess. Over your potentially very long existence you will be very thankful for that class. You help her and she will be happy with you and we will help you.”
The corollary of ‘or very unhappy with you’ was being left unsaid, but I was distinctly hearing it. I didn’t seem to have much to bargain with or for here, their plan consisted of ‘help me and protect me’ and my part consisted of ‘do what I was already going to do…maybe with some nice words in favor of a goddess to go with it’. Truthfully, not a bad deal either way.
I had never been a leader. I was never one to stand tall and blaze a trail. In my past I had always followed others. My artwork had been a way to get a job working for someone else, not a way for me to stand out. I liked to think I was capable of standing alone and going my own way, but this was a whole new world with entirely different rules, and this was a way for me to gain assistance doing what I had planned to do in the first place.
With a mental flick and press, I selected the [High Priest] Class.
Ding!
Class Selected: [High Priest]
Hopping up, the little goddess started to pat her hands together, “Excellent!”
Ding!
You have been blessed by the Twin Gods, Welden and Telden.
Welden, the God of Wealth, Fame, and Magic has blessed you with:
[Blessing of Wealth], [Blessing of Fame], [Blessing of Magic].
Telden, the God of Travel, [Merchants], and Trade has blessed you with:
[Blessing of Travel].
With a whistle, the little Goddess commented, “Oooh, Welden went all in with a [Blessing of Fame] as well. He is going to be so tired after that.”
“Ok then, I’m going to go now, it will be a while before Welden will be able to put out an announcement for you, so just dig down and make your dungeon, plan out whatever challenges you can, and I’ll come back later to let you know when things are going to start out. Probably with prezzies! Have fun!”
With that, Denda faded out, with her eyes and smile the last to fade away. The creepy stare, and the fact she even knew to mimic the Cheshire cat, made the whole effect worse somehow.
A few seconds later Denda reappeared.
“Ok, now that the rest of them are looking away, it’s time for more fun!”
Oh…Crackers, Cheese, little Fishies and the Communal Wine! Let this end!
“Relax, me and my boo-boo just have to put in our little bit as well. But just remember, your [Seal] won’t let you tell anyone. So…” and with that, she put her finger to her lips and shushed me then faded away again.
Ding!
You have been blessed by Beld, the God of Secrets and Shadows with:
[Blessing of Secrets]
You have been blessed by Denda, the Goddess of Fate, [Thieves], and Cunning with:
[Blessing of Cunning]
These blessings have been hidden within your [Soul Seal - Divine].
Crackers. Cheese. Little Fishies. The Communal Wine, and being passed out in a pew! What the heck did I get myself into?
Before I could start poking my new blessings to figure out what they did, Denda’s voice drifted through the air, “I wonder, why you are always thinking of crackers?”
She could hear my thoughts the whole time?
Shit…
CHAPTER SIX
Pretty! Oh So Pretty!
I waited for a few minutes, checking to see if another deity would show up and torture me. After waiting, I stopped being so tense, which was, of course, the moment I heard Denda giggle. So, tensing up again, I looked around and waited…and waited…and waited some more. I felt frustrated and angry. My metaphorical fists where clenched as I tried to think through my anger and fear. Eventually I calmed down and started to look at it logically. Denda, a goddess of both Fate and Cunning, it was obvious I was being manipulated. But, in truth, there was both little I could do about it, and little I would change. The gods were manipulating me for their own ends, but their ends happened to need me alive and doing what I wanted anyways. I vowed to get as much from this as I could and watch carefully for the trick that I was sure there. Wracking my brain, I tried to think of whatever could possibly be the end goal of helping me beyond the stated intent; eventually, I gave up and started to look through my new blessings to see what they were.
Every last blurb from miss blue-box was a worthless explanation. They all just repeated what they were. Oh, a [Blessing of Cunning] was a Blessing of divine power which enhanced the effects of Cunning, you say? Oh my! You don’t say!
Useless.
Since the blessings were not descriptive, I decided to check on the [High Priest] class.
[High Priest] - A [Hi
gh Priest] is the highest moral authority of a religious order, usually taking orders directly by their God. Allows access to spiritual spells powered through faith and the divine power of their God. Bonuses when interacting with non-conflicting theistic orders. Negative effects when interacting with conflicting theistic orders. Allows access to the [Directed Prayer] skill.
The ‘negative effects when interacting with conflicting theistic orders’ bit was concerning. A holy war being fought in my dungeon sounded like a serious problem. It also sounded like something I couldn’t really do much about. I would keep it in mind, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it for now. I also didn’t have any spells, spiritual or otherwise, but I wondered if I could gain those in the future? Maybe? A tutorial would have been helpful, and I bet if I had been born as some kid somewhere, that I probably would have picked this up as I grew up. Apparently, no one gives a rock any loving whispered advice.
Checking out the [Directed Prayer] skill was interesting. It didn't seem to be particularly helpful at the moment, but it was a guaranteed hotline to Coldona. Once a day I could use it and be sure to get some response from my Goddess. I will bet anything the response could be ‘No', but at least I can be sure that she will hear me. I'm sure that will be useful eventually. At the moment though, I had had enough of the gods. Maybe in a few days, I would revisit this, but for now? No thank you.
Ok, what about that skill I had from my [Spatial Traveler] Class? [Far Seeing]?
[Far Seeing] allows the caster to see locations distant from their own. Locations can be selected through memory or by casting a distance from the current location.
I was starting to see a pattern with skill descriptions. First was the easy stuff a skill could do and then, later on, was the stuff that seemed to be harder. I wonder if secret and extra difficult uses for skills exist? Considering how little of the rest of this had been explained and how much you just had to ‘figure out', I was guessing yes. It was kind of neat in that it meant I could discover or create unique uses, possibly ones never before discovered, but also horrible since it meant I might miss out on some obvious usage that other humans might know of that I would never hear about.
Poking around my status it appeared that had been everything, so now I needed to build my dungeon. More realistically, I needed to create my Dungeon Domain and then create an entrance and then dig down. Sooooo…yeah. How do I do that again?
Remembering how I had warped space before I tried tentatively reaching out and gently trying to grab the space around my gem. I reached out, an odd field of magic drifting out of me, a sort of invisible pseudo-pod of mana reaching out and grabbing onto space in front of a small rock. The sensation was utterly bizarre since it didn’t feel like I was touching anything, and I really didn’t feel anything, but I definitely knew when I held the space around that rock. It was actually far easier to ‘lock' space and hold it than it was to twist or pull or bend it. Holding it seemed almost instinctive and effortless. It didn't even really require effort. Moving my sense of mana sense around took far more effort.
None of that actually helped me create my Dungeon Domain though.
Next, I tried bending the space around the rock. This actually took focus and effort, though oddly enough, very close to the surface to my gem space seemed to be perfectly flat and unbending. Apparently, the rocks in the ‘sling’ with the wizards stopped because of the flattened space, not because of anything the pedestal had been doing. I was both a bit concerned and a bit comforted by that. It meant no one could teleport just my gem anywhere, but it also meant I couldn’t use massive sheets of twisted space to protect me from grubby hands. Though it could be done further around me so it might not matter much, it would need to be seen. I wonder how common spatial magic actually was?
So, bent space. Difficult to get bending, but once it was bent, holding it in place was easy. It was almost relaxing in fact. Just…hold it. None of that was helping me claim my Domain, but it was giving me interesting ideas for traps, tricks, and mazes!
Ding!
[Blessing of Cunning]
Ok. Um. Just ‘Blessing of Cunning'? Not going to say anything else? I mean, ok, I guess that's awesome that I get to know when the Blessing is doing something (though I bet it wouldn't always do so given the current trend of hidden things). Still, just the listing that it's there? Gerr!
Relaxing my hold on the space surrounding the pebble, I tried to figure out what I should do. I needed a Dungeon Domain, without it I can’t create a Dungeon. Wait. I could almost feel my train of thought de-rail. What was a Dungeon Domain? Why did I need it for a Dungeon? How did I know about them? The answer?
I just did.
It was instinctive, but clearer than my human instincts. A Dungeon Domain was the area where I had full sense and control of my dungeon. It was like my body, and my Core was my mind or heart. It just seemed obvious to me. If it was this instinctive though, then maybe creating my Domain would be just as instinctive? I had been trying to reason through it, thinking it was similar to when I grabbed space, but maybe I had been going at this all wrong, maybe it was simpler than that.
I remembered how I had absent-mindedly absorbed the wizard slime. At how I had absorbed them without even thinking about it. Maybe I needed to just let go?
Sure enough, the moment I relaxed and stopped trying is the moment I started to build my Domain. The process was both delightful and horrifying. Imagine for a moment that you decide to drag your tongue and hands across a subway station’s platform. Go further, imagine you decide to look at every inch and sniff every part of it as you run your tongue along it. Touching, sniffing, licking, looking through, on and in, every tiny bit, all at the same time.
…and you like it.
That is what building my Domain was like. I knew what the flavor of granite was. The gritty texture, with the tight bonds of the stone and the gaps of small holes. I could feel the precise structure of the quartz and how it was not as precisely structured as it could be, how every dislocation of the structure was like a giant bump and disconnect. It was all there. Every speck of dust, every bit of pollen, human skin flakes, microcrystal, microfossil and seashell, everything was right there and I was tasting absolutely every part of it.
And the magic. Oh, the magic!
Everything had some mana in it. Everything. Large, small, it didn’t matter, there was mana running through it. Some of it had a lot like the edges of the runes, while other bits, like the plain rock around my pile, contained almost nothing but what I, tentatively, labeled as earth mana. Each had mixtures of different flavors of mana, and all of it was truly magical.
It wasn’t until my instincts started blaring at me, that I realized that I had eaten away all of the rocks covering me and I was now exposed to the sky. Those same instincts corrected the action by spewing granite all over in a tightly packed structure. Then, my instincts freaked out again. Apparently I had to have some kind of opening, some way for the mana that I leaked out to be able to escape, and it needed to be a large opening.
Spazzing out again, I plucked from my Domain a small opening of rock from the dome of stone I had created. It wasn't until I had created the dome, spazzed, then removed part of the dome, that I became aware of the fact that I could do either of those things. The spazzing was something I had been aware of for long before I had been born (a sentence I had never thought to consider before).
The dome of rock was an amazing trick. With a little fiddling, I figured out how it worked. If I've absorbed something, then I can make something similar to it. Not always the same, the more complex it is the harder it is to make. I only had consumed so much granite, but after I pulled up some of the other types of stone, I was still able to make more granite. Though I noticed, I could not make as much as the stone I had originally pulled in. So, if I pull in something, I can push out mostly the same thing. If I've ever ‘tasted' it, I can recreate it, even if I've never had much of it to begin with. Some things were more ‘filling' to consume and othe
r stuff was a lot harder to make. The gold inlay in one of the old wizards rings was difficult to make, while the steel belt buckle was almost as easy to make as the rock.
By the end of my experimentation, I had a tiny little cathedral over my gem made out of gold, but that was about as far as I could push it. I found myself giggling like a maniac since the entire thing was so fun. I could literally poof gold into existence!
I could literally poof gold into existence.
Oh. Shit.
A sapient Dungeon Core was a magical ‘make anything’ factory. If someone ever figures out what I can do, and that I could understand them, and so be bribed or threatened? My life would become a living hell. Anything I do that seems smart needs to be blamed…err…I mean credited, to the gods.
Ok, enough playing around out here on the surface. It was time I made my dungeon, and my little cathedral of gold, inches high as it had been, gave me a wonderful idea. Combined with my spatial manipulation and how easy it was to hold it, I knew exactly what I needed to do.
First, I created a large stone arch and a granite door from stone five feet thick. Next, I put a large block of stone over the back of the arch making it appear to be solid stone from the rear. I reached into a small gap I had left at the bottom of the stone. Grabbed onto the small area I stretched the tiny space which led into the rest of my dungeon, and then pulled.
When I was done, the entrance from the front looked like a stairway that just continued down into the ground. The stairway obviously took up far more than five feet in depth, but from the back, it was flat stone. Inside, the space had to be stretched and expanded to allow the tiny little opening to be large enough for a full-sized human to pass through.
This would be the gateway into my dungeon. When my dungeon ‘traveled’, only the front arch of the dungeon would travel. I would just stretch and twist the connection, even tunnel it through space, to make it all connect. I could feel that I could pull that off, even though how was a tad fuzzy at the moment. When I thought about it, both my [Spatial Traveler] and [Spacial Hedge-Mage] Classes seemed to pulse in some way? The not-words didn’t actually pulse, but they seemed to draw more of my mental attention. It felt like this wasn’t something I could do yet, but soon.