I left the two fox demihuman slimes and the animals to their own objectives and only used the goblins for now.
Halfway through the night the ceilings were all chipped and were more refined now so I had them come to the first room with the lift and continue lowering the floor until it reaches a room’s level. All the while I turned the disposed stone from mining into mana.
If I tried doing the same thing to unmined walls it would cost me mana instead of making me gain it.
By now I asked the fox to help digging, allowing the slime goblins some time to rest. Though the foxes digging is unrefined, it's fast so I have it lower a meter and then I set the goblins to remove the rest.
In this morning I had pretty much all the corridors down and stretched properly so next I began with the rooms.
First was the mushroom farm. Being the base food for the dungeon and currently in the middle, I had the goblins finish it up with the help of the foxes and rabbits.
It went quick with them digging out the center while the goblins did the wall. I left it mostly unfined, rocky ,and uneven, because in this room I only needed foot holds for the mushrooms.
Anyway I select the parameter of the room which promptly opens up many options. Layout, furniture, flora.
I choose flora and ignore the rest and look at the two options. Moss and Mushrooms. Each would cost 20 MP so I quickly choose both. A message saying that humidity of the room is too low makes me wonder why.
I looked at the description of the two cave flora.
Hmm, requires moist caves to flourish. No wonder it doesn’t work, the cave is as dry as sun bathed bones in the deserts.
I look at layout and my view of the room zooms in. It showed underwater cavern, lava cavern, forest biome.
I ignore all that and go to small changes. Pond, spring, lake and so on appear. I choose pond and spring. I put the spring in the far south west corner of the room and the pond under it. Then I have the goblins dig small branching routes through the room.
When I tried to place the moss and mushrooms this time it worked and finally turned the room into a fungus farm.
I can't wait to tell the mistress how well it went. Hmm now to gather outside monsters. Slimes aren't strong so if I weaken the monster first then it will work.
Hmm here’s 200 mp for a pitfall. Activates for monsters only, I put four in the room with the lift. Now to finish up. Send the goblins to dig out the slime chamber and their own breeding ground.
Soon I will need lots of workers to expand so let's do this right!
Kuroko’s PoV
The morning after we planted the dungeon cores, I woke up with a strange cheerfulness.
Normally waking up 7 in the morning leaves me a bit grouchy but strangely, I was feeling cheerful.
“That is the effect of your dungeon.” The halfling maid said after I told her about it. “Dungeons and their masters have a link with their minds somewhat, where it’s made for you to communicate. Your emotions and your dungeon’s is transferred partially between each of you. This way you can both know how the other is doing. In your case, I would guess that your dungeon is working hard and waiting for praises just like a little child.' She said and giggled.
Kumi also laughed at this and looked at her own dungeon core. Hers will take another few weeks before its ready.
With my normal three companions at the dungeon, It was a lot less squffy, but I can fix that during lunch or afternoon.
During breakfast the others were talking about their dungeons when we arrived.
“...a big pain to keep spawning skeletons. Though they are easy to manage, the cost is expensive. Human shaped ones cost 300 mp each while other undead are less.” Asher complained.
As soon as I sat I replied to what I hear by saying, “Then why not summon monster skeletons, goblins shouldn't cost that much ,and fox, rabbit and wolfs wouldn't either.”
“Hey Kuroko, hmm they are less efficient, weaker and break easier.” He said with a frown.
“Are you guys still mining?” I asked which made everyone nod.
“Yep, my imps are easy to command and their mining speed is ok. Because of the wings I can make really large rooms and manage it better. I got about two thirds of the layout done yesterday” Owen said and then looked down at his ring.
“My saplings are unexpectedly good at digging. They dig their vines and rooms into the wall to loosen it before breaking it. My dungeon was made into six large rooms with the heart in the last. I plan on changing the layout to forest soon so I am gathering lots of mana inside my ring.” Stephanie said.
"In your ring?” I asked tilting my head.
“Yes, the ring acts like a portable mana storage so you can store mana inside for both spell use and to give to your dungeon later.” Asher said.
“Hey hey, listen mine became a cool maze, my lizards were water breeds so they could soak the walls with the small bit of water magic they knew and mine faster. I got lots done!” Nova said trying to get in on the conversation.
They all finally looked at me. Asher is the first one to ask. “So, how about yours?”
“Well, I got the most basic layout done with a mushroom farm, slime spawn room, a fox den, rabbit den ,and a room that will act as the goblin slime village. I even tested out breeding for the slimes and it was really interesting.” I said. I explained how they were made and what happens to the new slime.
It was an awesome discovery to say the least. It was then that I felt Shai's mind. Moments later I heard her voice in my head.
“Mistress, I have completed digging out all the rooms and corridors. If you put some mana in the ring and think "Show dungeon map" it shall appear as a transparent image above the ring. If you expand you will even be able to see the creatures within.' She said cheerfully.
“Thanks Shai.” I said in a whisper and then inserted 20 points of MP and thought of the command.
The ring shined and above it appeared a map of the dungeon.
“Here, this is what my dungeon looks like.” I said and stuck my hand out for the others to see.
It was the starting room and entrance which had the lift that led to the first room.
“Simple is the best at the moment.” Asher said. “Still, it's rare to see a dungeon with a lift entrance, it's the kind you would find centered in a labyrinth city.” He continued.
“Yes, it’s a rather unusual type for sure but then again, Kuroko herself isn't normal, hehe.” Stephanie said with a grin.
“Not by any chance are any of you normal.” I said rebuking her comment which left the four royalties quiet, but the others on the table were laughing.
"If any of you were ever considered normal then that would mean we would be the strange ones.” Zachary said laughing.
Soon we all started laughing along.
“So are there traps installed yet?” Owen asked after everyone calmed down.
“Hmm, let me check.” I said and thought "show all traps" as soon as I did it, the map showed the lift in glowing red.
“Hmm, did you do something to the lift” I said out loud.
“Of course not mistress, the traps are all around it. The entrance room was booby trapped with pitfalls so that animals that enter going after the bait I placed will fall. It only activates when it senses monsters from outside so humans, the other sentient beings and your own monsters won't trigger them.” She said with a proud voice.
I tell the others what was said and they all laugh.
“That’s so cruel to anything without wings or flying abilities!” Asher said.
“Hey hey, isn't Shai just like Kuroko?” Nova asked innocently which made the others laugh harder.
“Would you all be quiet. There are those who don't want to hear your loud yell!” Said an annoying blond princess who could not help but sit on her high horse.
“Ah! You should loosen up, you're not a princess here, you're just another student like any of us.” I said while still chuckling.
"I especially do
n't want to hear anything from you lower class trash. The Goddess of Mana's blessing you have should be in my family, not with some trash from who God knows from where.”
I instantly lost my cheerfulness at her badgering.
“Not my fault if you aren't even from the original royal family.” I said to rebuke her but it makes her face turn red with rage. Suddenly the ground parts and heat began to rise.
Yep, this was her magic, rare natural born prodigy with magma magic, a mixed magic of earth and fire.
I just sit calmly because the next moment a certain demonic amazon was standing behind her. The next moment she grabs Eleonora by the collar and lifts her up like a bag of trash.
"I would suggest refraining from fighting in here. Everyone is busy eating.” Master Belladonna said while looking the brat in the eye.
“B-But! They s-started it first by being noisy!” She futility replied.
“Then move seats, you aren't required to sit near them. Then again, I bet it's lonely since everyone ignores you.” She said while turning her eye toward us.
“Sorry but she isn't the easiest person to approach, also she rejected our attempts to talk at the start of the year so we just left her.” Asher said.
We all nodded in response to him which makes the amazon sigh.
“Just don't fight here ok. It would be bad for your nation if that happened outside of the arena.” She said before dropping the princess and went to sit with a few other teachers that sleep in this building.
Watching her walk away I looked at the others with a frown and they returned it equally. I guess they all had their share of problems with her.
Still, I was rather against leaving a child crying and the only thing I could think of that a parent would do was either pick her up and cuddle her which I can’t do, or petting her.
I look towards the elf who look back for a moment. I start patting my head and then gesture towards Eleonora. Both elfs make a slight frown and looked at the girl.
They both sighed and Stephanie stood up.
Sneaking up from behind she suddenly hugged the crying princess with a grin. The surprised princess took a moment to realize what was going on before she tried to get loose but it was too late.
Stephane's right hand was already caressing her cheeks and chin while the left one was on her head. Slowly but surely the girl lost her strength and sat down on the elf who continued the petting. She didn’t even have the strength to utter a sound.
We finish up our morning herb soup and tea while we let Stephanie console her.
When I got up she looked at me with her eyes shouting “Help! PLEASE!”.
I giggled and then shrugged and just went over and removed her hands off the girl which makes Eleonora look up with sad eyes.
“Better eat fast so you aren’t late.” I said simply which makes Eleonora tilt her head in confusion. She turns her head and looks at the clock seeing breakfast time was almost up, which is 5 minutes remaining.
She quickly got up and sat down in front of her food tray and ate quickly as did Stephanie.
We all laughed and soon left leaving them both to finish up. The day was normal like the usual but it did have a main difference.
Mage course today was practical classes. With our homeroom teacher of death leading the class to the field.
“Now then, we shall be entering practical classes for higher class basic spells that you will learn this year. As it can get dangerous to use inside for this class you should all come here afternoon for this class. Questions?” He said in his regular monotone voice.
When no asked he simply nodded.
“Now then, besides the basic four elements we shall start on a sub category. Half lightning demon, tell me what you know about the lightning element you are naturally born capable of using.” He said keeping Zach from rebutting having been called half demon.
“Lightning magic is a subcategory of the air magic system. You can produce electricity by channelling it through your nerves and expelling it or cladding yourself for increased speed.” He said with a frown on his face.
“Half correct, what he just said is an example of withheld knowledge which is only taught in this academy. The main reason is to not allow the players from the non-virtual world to know proper knowledge about the elements they use which makes their magic spells weaker and easier for us natives to handle.” he said causing us to look shocked.
I raise my hand because of something that has been on my mind for a while.
“Yes, silver haired child.” He said focusing on me.
“Well, I have two questions, why do you call the people from the non-virtual world players and why are we so cautious around them?” I asked. Though I can guess a few things since I had seem many of the incidents that happened in virtual reality it was kind of strange to call them players and not something like travelers or something.
“The reason is because the gods told us about them. They appeared from all the cathedrals of the world. They said they were people in a world where virtual reality has been achieved and told us that our world was one such world. They also told us that they would treat this world as a game. That is why they are called as players. As for why we are cautious. Obviously it’s because 80% of them are worth trust as much as you would trust a prisoner of war from a nation that you have fought for centuries. During the year before they arrived, all the knowledge of the world was gathered in academies which only this world's residents can access, this academy in specific is even being guarded by a swarm of dragons and wyverns that live on the mountains below.” He said as a bit of anger showed. “Now let's get on with the mage class then.”
After that we began practice of the six basic elements. Today I finally learned the basics for light and dark magic. Both are what you can guess. Light magic involves Healing and barrier magic with a few attacks like Light Arrow and Light ball. Light magic is effective on undead and creatures of the night.
As for dark magic, it involves curses and dark arts. Both are pretty self explanatory. Curses are debuffs which need a lot of experimenting to learn the proper effects and how to cast them properly. As for dark arts, well, it's rather vague but necromancing is one, dark mage is also a class for that which is a mage that specializes in dark magic but also mixes its dark magic with other systems.
Half way through I started playing around while professor Albert was instructing others.
I was practicing with earth magic and got bored so I had used magic to cause slabs of earth about half meter big to rise on all sides making a cube.
I then thought of what I wanted to do. Since we simply needed to practice, playing around can be practice. I focus my mana in my hand slowly moving it around, I slowly pulled out some earth that started to rise.
As it rises, I made a single small room near the upper left corner and once it was done I made a long tunnel that rose quick.
It was then that I did the opposite. I started pushing the earth down with magic and began making rooms and corridors. When I got halfway through I felt the looming demon behind me as a shiver ran down my spine.
“What are you doing girl?” he asked with a somewhat scary hint in his tone of voice.
“P-p-p” I started but was cut off when he said.
“Playing huh” he said. “Hmm, as long as it can be considered practice. This is good earth magic training. But I would suggest asking permission first before trying something so I am warned if anything happens.” he said and walked off leaving me in a cold sweat.
The rest of the day was practice for all the leftover elements.
Kumi could fly around freely with her magic but when I tried I couldn’t get off the ground. She said that I needed at least intermediate rank to fly which made everyone speechless about that. To be intermediate rank at age eight. I would probably would have been that high if I wasn’t training physically instead of mentally during my three years in this world.
After that was optional classes. Cooking was the same as always
. Made myself a nice lunchbox for dinner and herb tea that I mixed with a few drops of herbal slime extract, yum~
For dungeoneering we started learning about the dungeons more in depth.
“Okay, since we have five who have dungeons already we should move onto traps quicker than normal. I guess the first thing we should talk about is a dungeon’s domain.” She started.
"Isn’t that the dungeon itself?” I heard someone ask.
“No, the dungeon is the body and not the domain. The domain is an area in which the dungeon governs. Let's take princess Stephanie’s for instance, her dungeon is in the forest and the closest dungeon is 500 meters away towards the north. The domain of a dungeon will go as far as the midway of the distance between one dungeon and another. Now what is important about this domain. Easy, it's the space in which the dungeon can expand before it needs to fight for territory. In other words, a dungeon can only dig within the space it owns as its domain.” She explained.
I lift my hand and makes her look over.
“Does this include above ground.” I asked.
“Perfect, I was hoping someone would ask. Yes, within the domain above ground is also considered part of its domain. Because of this it’s possible to send monsters outside of the dungeon without them dying instantly. They must remain in the domain though because they have a time limit to live when outside the domain.” She said
“Shai did you hear that. Above ground also works.” I whispers to the ring.
“Yes mistress, keep listening.” She replied.
“Though I say they can control above ground it’s very much limited because making something above ground cost a large amount of mana which makes growing upwards uninteresting for dungeons. Though that doesn’t stop them from setting up traps or letting loose their own monsters to guard their area or hunt.” She said.
“Oh, so I guess building outside is bad.” I said sullenly.
"It isn’t mistress, just exhausting. That said I find that the mimics could be really useful in this aspect because they can mimic animals and possibly trees that we could make into creatures similar to treants if we have them mimic vegetation.” she said suggesting something rather amazing.
Slime Tamer's Chronicles Page 20