Threshold must be crossed in order to receive experience.
If Spooky had been in the dungeon with her angel, she would have received experience and the loot dropped by the mushroom. When the angel returned, Spooky felt a vibration deep below her. Analysis of the vibration revealed that it was not just physical. The vibrations were in the ultraviolet and non-visible light spectrum, the radio waves, and many other measurable parameters. This vibration was enough to confuse Spooky, so she decided to check out the next level of the basement for herself. After all, her avatar’s sensors were much more sensitive and would obtain better data. She crossed the threshold and a message popped up in her HUD.
The ancient Dungeon of Os welcomes you, adventurer. Proceed at your own peril, but remember, with great risk comes great reward.
Spooky Joy tilted her head in thought. Apparently, there was a dungeon beneath her castle. When she flew down to the bottom of the stairs and saw the room full of mushrooms, she froze. If Joe had came down he would not have noticed the differences, but Spooky had a memory that did not miss minor details. All of the mushrooms that had been picked and brought to her for analysis had re-grown. Not only was the speed of the growth remarkable, but even from where she was, her sensors could tell that they had grown exactly the same way. When she looked over at the far wall, right before the stairs that led down to the next level, she saw the mushroom that was actually a monster. Her statue had destroyed it, but now it was back. Not moving any closer, she focused her attention on the monster and mind-clicked it.
Dungeon, Floor 1 Boss
Level- 6
Monster Type- Mushrooms Eventuality
Name- ‘Rooms the Unmushable
Mana- none
Hitpoints- 102
Known attacks- Venomous bite
Though there was a great distance between the two of them, ‘Rooms the Unmushable seemed to notice her attention. It opened its hidden mouth, showing moldy sharp teeth, covered in red bloody ichor. Its body seemed to shiver and it began to shuffle forward. It wasn't moving very fast, but it was moving toward Spooky. This was enough data for Spooky. She promptly flew up the stairs, but just before she crossed the threshold, she received another message in her HUD.
The ancient Dungeon of Os thanks you for your patronage, and asks that you please come again. Next time, you're welcome bring up to four friends and also a little more spine.
At this, Spooky ground her teeth and tried to use her building points to destroy the stairway. She couldn't. Her power to build things using Energy Mass Conversion magic was severely limited outside of her castle. Apparently, the threshold leading to the stairwell was the boundary. So, since she couldn't destroy the stairs, she made a barrier that went right up to the threshold. She then designated some of her tiny angels to watch the barrier. In the case of a breach, she would be notified immediately. Needless to say, if she had anything to do about it, Joe would never find out about this Dungeon of Os.
***
The heart of the dungeon stirred. Spooky crossing the threshold and entering the dungeon, had been the most excitement the dungeon heart had experienced since the cataclysm, millions of years ago, had covered its entrance and broken its upper levels. Without this access, other sentient beings had not come to her. She had been alone for a geological age. For a biological sentient, isolation for millions of years would drive them beyond insane. However, the heart of a dungeon was not biological and could not be either sane or insane. Dungeon hearts were sentient, but were composed of a combination of condensed magical essence, interwoven in metallic crystals. Something about the way magic flowed through their crystal lattice structure caused them to experience time different than other sentient beings. This particular dungeon heart was made of crystal osmium. Though she prefer to be called Os. When it comes to metals, osmium does not have a stellar reputation. It isn't as malleable or able to fight off corrosion as well as gold. Though it is very dense and hard, it is much more brittle than iron. Worst of all, it has a very distinctive and unenviable smell.
What you're made of often influences your personality. This dungeon heart was not sugar and spice and everything nice. However, neither was she pigs and snails and puppy dog tails. She was a proud metal and she didn't easily melt when heat was applied. When she first gained awareness, she was a shiny bluish-white osmium crystal, as small as a grain of sand. Her area of influence stretched only millimeters from her core. Even in the space of millimeters, she found life. Marvelous little amoebas, she ate them. With their death, she absorbed their infinitesimal amount of power. She learned what they were and how they were made. Each time an amoeba came into her sphere of influence, she would devour it, and grow just a little bit more powerful and intelligent.
Eventually the area she controlled was not just millimeters but centimeters. This was when she got her first taste of complex life. An insect just happened to die within her centimeter-wide dungeon. An insect is many orders of magnitude more complicated than an amoeba. With this one animal, her sphere of influence grew tenfold. Overtime, her crystal structure grew in size and magical energy and her sphere of influence was then measured in meters cubed. She learned ways to set traps and to catch animals and, eventually, a goblin fell into a vat of acid under her control. With this, she finally understood what true sentience was. There was no comparing an animal or a monster to a truly self-aware being. With this new awareness, she discovered the purpose that all dungeon hearts eventually discovered- unless, of course, they're destroyed first. She wanted, needed, to eat new self-aware beings, and not just the beings themselves. She wanted to devour and understand the items they carried with them. The one small goblin she had eaten had had elixirs and an enchanted bow. Along with all the knowledge gained by eating the goblin, she believed she now understood how to make some small items. Instinctively, she understood that she could make items to use as bait to draw in more adventurers to eat.
In this way, over time, she grew into a complex system of tunnels and caverns with greater and greater rewards for making it deeper in the dungeon. She even learned ways of communicating with other dungeon hearts. It wasn't two-way communication, as one might imagine, but rather messages were encoded onto items which were intercepted when an adventurer was eaten. This was how she learned that she was not alone, and, unfortunately, it was also how she learned that dungeon hearts made of osmium were ridiculed and scorned. The first item she ate with an encoded message on it had not been meant for her. It was a communication from a gold dungeon heart to a platinum dungeon heart. It was a congratulatory note, praising the platinum dungeon heart’s successful manipulation of the sentient kingdom on which it was located. The platinum dungeon heart had figured out a way to convince adventurers to utterly destroy a stinky osmium dungeon heart located in the same kingdom. If the metallic crystal heart was shattered, the whole dungeon died. This is what had happened to a dungeon heart just like herself.
She now knew that she was different, even from others of her own kind. Despite the differences, she wanted to survive. She had protected her core with traps, homegrown monsters, and the most dangerous items she could make, but with this new information, she no longer felt safe. She dug deeper and deeper down, wanting to make sure no adventurer could reach her crystal dungeon heart, even going so far as to make a fake final room with what appeared to be the final boss. Os wanted to live; she grew good smelling plants to mask her natural scent. She didn't want adventurers, who had survived, to escape her dungeon and inform her enemies of her existence. Her purpose was no longer just to eat and gain new knowledge, but to find a way to survive indefinitely. Os thought about defense every moment, and made it harder and harder even to enter her dungeon. Eventually, her main floors were so deep that only the greatest of heroes took the time to make the long trek down into the deepest floors. This fear ended up keeping her safe, but it did not allow her to grow very fast. When she was able to eat an adventurer, they were high quality, but she never got many.
Her
strategy worked. She kept a low profile and was never brought to the attention of any who would do her lasting harm. In the way a dungeon can, she made friends. She cared, she was betrayed, and then she, in turn, betrayed. She lived small, but it was still life. Then the cataclysm hit. It was a global event. She was never sure exactly what happened, since she had no ability to sense past the threshold of her entrance. But, the one thing she was sure of was that the air had been scorching, and then half a mountain had fallen on her entrance. The huge weight caved in half of her top floors. If she hadn't dug down so deep, her brittle crystal structure would have been broken by that mountain. Her paranoia had saved her life, even if not from the enemies it was meant to. She had tried to dig a new entrance, but ran out of energy before she could reach the surface. Eventually, she had given up and just maintained a basic fungal environment on the lower floors she had left. Time passed, but she did not forget who or what she was. But that became less important as routine set in.
Grow some fungus, eat it.
Grow some fungus, eat it.
Repeat for an age.
Then finally, long after people had returned to the once sterile surface, the routine was broken. In the most recent conflux, she had been singled out. The top of the mesa, under which she was buried, had been liquefied with pure power, but the bolt of power that created the lava did not just strike the surface. It burrowed deep down, opening up the long-forgotten passageways. Her entrance was clear, and now the residue left over from the bolt of power was enough for her to rebuild and reform her top floors.
She was a true dungeon again, and after such a long routine, she no longer wanted simply to survive. She yearned to thrive. The tiny dark fairy that came across her threshold smelled wonderful. She was something new, and new things needed to be eaten. Os would tempt her and her statues back in. She knew many things that could tempt a golem maker.
GONG.
The loud gong rumbled through the castle, and then the surrounding countryside. Spooky clicked on the system message that accompanied the gong.
The Abiogenesis Bunny Generator has made the Evening Bunny.
Spooky looked over at where the new bunny had just been generated. Its furry coat looked the color of a vanilla sky.
New Fact
89- Patron suggested that bunnies have different designations depending on when they were born. Then, the bunnies got designations depending on when they were born.
Slowly, the dome began to brighten. Moes didn't seem to respond as the light from the outside increased.
“Moes? What is happening outside? I can see that the sun has set, but it's getting noticeably brighter,” Spooky said. Flying over to the window, she looked out over the valley. From a distance, it seemed like little fireflies were coming out of the ground and the mountain side. Up high into the air they rose, filling the upper atmosphere with bright moving stars.
“It's 6 o'clock, night time. Obviously, night is when it gets bright. Our tiny sun barely provides any light at all. We get all our light at night from the Night Lights,” Moes said, gesturing to the lights still rising from the ground. Spooky was moved deep inside. She was experiencing another new emotion. Awe.
“They're so beautiful. How long do they stay out?” Spooky asked.
“All night. They won't go back in the ground until right before sunrise tomorrow morning,” Moes said.
“We must have just missed them this morning. They were in the ground?” Spooky asked.
“Yes. They make the walls of the underground glow. Are there really no Night Lights where you're from?” Moes asked.
“No. During the night, it's mostly dark. There's a little light from the stars and the moon, though during the day our sun is much brighter than the sun is here. Do the Night Lights provide warmth?” Spooky asked.
“A little, but most of our heat comes from the heated lakes,” Moes said. The Nights Light continued to stream up from the ground, making gentle cyclones of white lights.
“She loved Christmas,” Spooky said quietly.
“She?” Moes asked. Spooky did not respond immediately. She kept looking at the Night Lights, filling the high sky. Looking over her shoulder at Joe, being fed rocks by little angels, she slowly spoke.
“Joe’s she. She loved the white lights in the snow. Even during the summer, she would search the internet for pictures of Christmas light. She did it her whole life,” Spooky said, looking at Joe from a distance.
“Where is she now?” Moes asked.
Before she could answer, Joe sat up and hopped off the mithril box. Both Spooky and Moes froze. Standing there, it was clear that Joe's body had changed. In height alone, he had grown nearly two feet. He was almost eight feet tall. His shoulders had widened, and the muscle mass in his arms and chest had expanded. He looked like one of those giant American football players who had taken one too many doses of anabolic steroids. The most striking change was his skin. It was no longer smooth and tan. His skin looked like it had been transformed into beautifully tattooed granite. Through it, you could see glimmering dark veins that looked like they were made of marble.
“Joe, now that you're standing, I can get a better look at you. You look amazing. Powerful. But, your eyes? There's something wrong with your eyes,” Spooky said.
“Spooky, there's nothing wrong with his eyes. It's just that Joe's not in there. I can tell the metamorphosis was not completely done. Maybe Joe's in trouble, wherever he is. Even with a Champion, I'm not sure what would happen if the mind and spirit died outside of the body,” Moes said. The half dressed body of Joe began jogging toward the stairs, surprising both Spooky and Moes.
“Where is he going?” Spooky asked, following the jogging body.
“I don't know. Maybe to Joe? That would be good,” Moes said.
“No, he's grown too much. His clothes have stretched and torn, making him only half dressed. He can't go out in the cold. No, that would not be good. He doesn't have his cold weather gear. His body will freeze solid. I can make him gear, but I don't know how I'm going to put it on him. Not with him jogging like that,” Spooky said.
“Look at his skin. I doubt that skin is affected by the cold like it used to be. At least the most important parts are covered…” Moes said. The body kept jogging down the stairs until it reached the doors to the outside. Spooky kept them closed. The body pushed against the doors, and they did not budge. Without a thought, the body raised its fist, and drove it hard against the doors.
New Fact
95- Destruction to the castle creates a negative sensation in avatar.
Spooky visibly shuddered at the impact, and then at the next impact, and the next.
“Spooky, let him out, he's hurting you!” Moes yelled. She continued shuddering with each impact.
“His bones are so dense now, but I think I can hold him. Even as he creates small cracks in the door, I can heal them in between each punch. I can hold this for a while, but my building points won't last forever. It does hurt though. It is a new experience for me. I don't think I like it. Why do people let it happen?” Spooky asked.
“You need to let him go. The mind, body, and spirit need to be one. Joe must be in trouble. Let him out,” Moes insisted. The body backed up and ran into the door with its shoulder. A large crack split where the contact had occurred. Spooky quickly repaired it.
“If that is your expert opinion, as a master of mind and spirit magic, I'll open the door.” Spooky relented through clenched teeth. The body backed up to ram the door again.
“It is,” Moes said. As the body ran toward the doors, they swung open. Falling through the open doors, the body landed on the ground. Without thought, it picked itself up, and started jogging toward the hill exiting the mesa.
“We must follow him,” Spooky said.
“Agreed, but I need warmer clothes. I don't have skin like that. I will die out there. Also, I’m not sure how I'm going to keep up. Look at how fast he moves,” Moes said.
“I'm sure you couldn't
keep up on your own legs. You'll have to use mine. Your clothes are in the closet there,” Spooky said, then flew after Joe’s body.
“The clothes are already ready? That was fast. Wait! What? What do you mean use your legs. Spooky, wait! What do you mean use your legs?” Moes called after the already gone fairy. Then Moes turned around and saw a basket just large enough that he could fit in it if he curled in a ball. There were ropes attached to it. Each of the three ropes was held by one of the six-foot tall ivory automaton angels. The stone faces held no emotion, but Moes couldn't help but feel fear. Now the fear that Joe had for these creatures was no longer unique on this Moon.
“Dark stars! You have to be joking!” Moes shouted. One of the angels took a single step toward him. Moes jumped.
“Fine! I will get dressed. You statues turn around,” Moes attempted to command. With mechanized precision, and as one, the angels all lifted their stone hands and covered their eyes. Moes shuttered. “That's not better,” Moes said.
Chapter 6 - Rook
“No guts, no glory, as they say on the cereal box,” Joe said as he mind-clicked yes. At this point, Joe got worried because he heard a woman screaming. Only, it was not a woman. Joe was the one screaming. He rolled on the floor and closed his eyes as hard as he could. The blinding rainbow light was unbearable. His nerves were sending so many pain signals that most of them never even made it to his brain, having become stuck in the traffic jam of warnings. The signals that reached him were the ones closest to his brain. It felt like his eyes were being shredded inside his head. His skull felt like it was being turned inside out. It was good he had no control over his body, or there would be no telling the damage he would have done to himself. Pain went on for a time, and he could not count or even register how long. Joe was completely unaware of the angels as they moved him to the altar. Once gaining access to the altar, his body instinctively cast a spell it had gained access to only seconds ago. The hybrid spell, Walk About, forced his mind and spirit away from his body with incredible speed and force. He was lucky that his mind and spirit had no mass, because the acceleration would have burst every cell in his body. Flying like a frozen rope away from the center of the castle, Joe's mind and spirit flew through wall, rock, hill, and mountain. He landed in a cave, inside one of the mountains surrounding his valley.
You're Not Allowed to Die (The Twenty-Sided Eye Series Book 1) Page 15