Defend the Core! (Dungeon Core Quest)

Year 1027 Oris, Okrasi Province, Slaria
'A twist here, and a spin there' you think as you thread the mana around your core, watching for a second as the fire and water sputter and steam as you focus their weak points against each other. Suddenly you hear a ringing sound and you start cursing rapidly, if one thing invaders know how to do is cursing, and watch in exasperation as your mana starts flying off in random directions. With a sigh, you wait for the ringing to stop and send out more mana to collect your erstwhile power.
(-40 MpT)

Year 1027 Oris, Okrasi Province, Slaria
"Let me guess you need more people" you hear your liege say gruffly as you continue to quickly write reports for the scribes in central. He continues, "This has been the fourth time this year, we have already seen a drop in food and may even have to start raising prices to continue our expansion if we keep losing this many people." From what you can see the officer looks sad, but responds nonetheless, "We have already seen a large push inside of our territories, word from up high is that we may even have to start unpacking the high resources for rituals." You quickly look up in surprise, high resources are made from dungeon parts and when used tend to set off the surrounding dungeons, making them rapidly increase in lethality. Trying to get it out of your head you turn back to your reports and make sure they are in order, when you see the officer leave again, however, he will surely be back again.

Time to choose your dice:
[]Floors: From living breathing ecosystems to labyrinthine corridors floors encapsulate them all
[]Monster: Roaring monsters and spelling slingling gremlins, monsters are those that directly stand up against those who dare enter your halls.
[]Traps: A constant plague to a dropping boulder, traps are what keep invaders from your body without the physical component of monsters.
[]Research: From the flows of the world to items that harness the latent energy of the universe, research is the way to get them.
[]Core: A hidden room to a crushing rule on all that enter, core is for your entire dungeon top to bottom.
[]Free: From a much-needed push to a more slow approach free dice allow you to freely allocate where the dice will go, however, you can only have as many as your max amount of dice in a category. (2 Currently)

Turn 6 Results
Mana: 375 (350 Mana per Turn)
DP: 0/40 (21 DP per Turn)
[]Herb Garden: From flowers to various spices, you can create specialized areas where you can grow plant-based resources. These plant resources are something that the invaders, hunt for hours in your dungeon, but by making a dedicated area to place them you can then hide various plant-based monsters inside them as well. Forcing them to brave your perfect ambush points to gather the food they require, allowing you to save on mana as well as kill desperate invaders. (10 Mana per Dice 78/200)

Preliminary work has been started on the creation of gardens throughout your dungeon. Already you have seen a few advantageous mutations in your plants, from your budding dedication towards plants of course, these plants mutated into various directions, from the fruits which provide enough nutrients for humans to consume once a day to a form of flower when allowed to distill in water creates a mild regenerative effect. With these few gardens planted, invaders have already started venturing and exploring deeper, trying to gain access to these precious gardens.

[]Basic Quarters: While Monsters are made from mana and don't require rest, building basic quarters in your dungeon would allow you to store more monsters inside your floors and allow for longer fights between you and your invaders allowing you to more of that sweet, sweet mana. (10 Mana per Dice 112/100) (+10 MpT) (Unlocks Lizard Hoards) (Unlocks Monster Reefs) (Unlock Oasis Groves)

Finally, you have planted your dens and groves throughout the dungeon, allowing you to see the effects already, from the slight lessing in mana cost from having to store them throughout your dungeon to the slight increase in adventure deaths due to the increase in the number of monsters you can store, you have seen an increase in the mana you gather over the year. These dens, groves, and haunts have inspired me to take it one step further and create a more specialized for your monsters to live, tailoring them specifically for each species of monster and allowing and expanding the quarters even further, you have been generating some ideas such as connecting them to hidden tunnels if you were to create them, allowing you to create an entire hidden ecosystem, allowing you to create a truly massive amount of monsters. (+10 MpT) (Unlocks Lizard Hoards) (Unlocks Monster Reefs) (Unlock Oasis Groves)

[]Basic Tree-Based Monsters: From the swaying palm trees to the towering redwood, trees have a lot of variability with the form of trees. By taking advantage of this variability you can create the towering and lumbering monsters or a more agile and speedy fighter. However each of these fighters have one thing in common with their branches grown throughout their body, these monsters have limbs to spare. From specialized limbs to stab-to-bleed flesh-eating saps, tree-based monsters evoke an alien feeling to invaders with their many-branched growths. (20 Mana per Dice 140/200) 4 Dice (51+65+24)

From tiny seeds to towering monsters, your tree monsters have been rapidly mutated and prepared to fight off the invaders. However, the sheer speed of mutation has created a lot of unfavorable mutations, from the palm-based monsters and their flammable sap to the more sturdy trees which have problems holding up their overmutated arms, holding everything from razor-pointed thorns to mana-controlled leaves that create swirling sandstorms when thrown, you have to pare down these mutations and separate them from the truly monster singular species you have currently.

[]Basic Affinity Monsters: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. The basic elements and the most prevalent, make up almost all of the mana generation throughout the world. By taking your understanding of the basic affinities you can mutate your monsters to wield these basic elements in conjunction with the sand mana you have already given them. This will give your monsters more options and provide two avenues of attack to the invaders who enter your dungeon. (15 Mana per Dice 216/200) (+3 DPpT) (Unlocks Counter-Affinity Research)

From smooth-lined transitions between elements to no more exploding rabbits, you have created truly created dual, sometimes even triple elemental monsters, able to combine various affinities into truly dangerous spells and attacks, from the molten hot sand that your new and improved rabbits create to the sand-lightning storm your giant lizards can create you have truly created a group of monsters which are sure to keep the mages on their toes. Already you can see the effects, from the metal-shelled adventures burning in their shells to the mages pulling various spells out of nowhere to combat the basic affinity spells leaving your monsters extended you can tell your basic affinity monsters are a step in the right direction. (+3 DPpT) (Unlocks Counter-Affinity Research)

[]Basic Magical Traps: Burst of fire or bone-breaking curse, magic, and traps are a match made in hell. With the passive mutability of magic and the preparation of traps, these traps promise to surprise your invaders as they do with a few cracks or an ornate light feature to spell doom for those wandering your body. After all, a small bit of mana to sap more mana is a worthy investment. (15 Mana per Dice 272/200) (+20 MpT) (Unlocks Basic Runic Traps) (Unlocks Basic Curse Traps)

From your fire to earth spells, you have gone through every single spell you know and chosen specific versions to use against the invaders, from the firestorm spell which sand may randomly create when an invader comes close to it, to the reeds which sing a spell of pinpoint air spikes you have seeded your dungeon with all sorts of mana traps, already you can feel the increase in mana from your efforts, even if the bite of your mana dropping is still felt. However, you have already come up with various ways to utilize certain spells you have observed even better from complex runic traps to various rituals that can be created throughout the dungeon which can instill unluckiness or even recklessness you are sure to make back the mana you lost. (+20 MpT) (Unlocks Basic Runic Traps) (Unlocks Basic Curse Traps)

[]Mana Connection Network: Mana is everywhere, that is known but what isn't known is that dungeons are intelligent mana, holding these thoughts inside a physical medium keeps the intelligent mana from reacting with the world outside of it and killing the core. This case of sapient mana bestows dungeons with the ability to send messages through mana, by sending this message mana through the flows of the world, you will be able to connect and talk to the dungeons throughout the world. (10 Mana per Dice 94/100) (Autocompletes This Turn) (Rumor Mill unlocked) (World Info Tab Unlocked)

A country-wide connection of mana takes a bit more time than you thought but eventually, you have completed it and have successfully connected to central, from it you have learned all about the country-wide news you have never heard of before, from the mounting war between Slaria and Kert, to the slowly, every so slowly improving conditions of the invaders, to the slowing down of the tides of refugees that enter your dungeon. The dungeon in central, which only answers to as Centrali, has explained all this to you kindly, but you have already found some contacts with your contention to central, from the data-based dungeons, which carve evermore hard numbers, to the mana-mad dungeons of the mountains which create insane combinations of mana to fuel their strange creations your world seems so much bigger now. (Rumor Mill unlocked) (World Info Tab Unlocked)

However the data-based dungeons have a proposition for you, they wish to gather data from you in return for teaching you more about statistics and how to utilize them, one problem, sending over that much data would put a big bit in your mana reserve, which may be ill-advised in the current drought.

[]Accept the Deal: You have enough mana currently and you could use the help understanding how to quantify what happens when the invaders enter your dungeon, they also promise to help you understand the data reports that Centrali sends out to you. (Costs 75 Mana) (Finish Basic Statistical Counting) (Invader Stats are Unlocked)

[]Refuse the Deal: You're currently in a mana drought and you can finish your research on statistical counting on your own, it is more important for your mana to spend on the creation of monsters and more research than sending over silly numbers which won't help them from all the way across the country. (No cost)

[]Basic Mana Ring: With the creation of basic mana flows and the resulting growth in mana production from invaders entering your dungeon, you can begin large-scale conversions through a mana ring. By leading mana in a circular route around your core, it allows a longer process of conversion allowing you to save large parts of mana which is lost when you de-affinaited the mana in your dungeon. This will overall increase the amount of mana in your dungeon and make the ring around your core visible to the mass presence of mana.(5 Mana per Dice 105/200)

From your massive mana stream to the smaller ones generated from the sheer amount of invaders entering your dungeon, which has abated slightly, you have a lot of mana to convert and purify, therefore it makes sense to create a way for it to purify quicker and more efficiently. With the partitioning of your time and your effort into tinkering with reactions, you have devised a way to orbit the mana around your core allowing them to slowly enter your core, increasing the efficiency and leaving you with a constant stream of mana into your core. However, now you have to actually put it into practice, streaming mana in a circle around your core repeatedly until you do it instinctually instead of immediately gobbling it up.

[]Respawn Crystals: So inconspicuous, from an orb to an exposed crystal, respawn can be anything crystalline, all that matters is their intended mana, which protects the thoughts of your monsters allowing them to remember their fight to the death and helps them advance in fighting these invaders after all to know your enemy your monsters have to remember them. While the crystals are easy to make, the sheer amount of mana that is needed to complete them means that they are an expensive item to gift to all your monsters, allowing them to return from the dead and fight another day. (35 Mana per Dice 8/100) (Locked until Frequency Clean-Up is completed) (Unlocks Frequency Clean-Up)

While you were focusing a lot of your attention on creating these respawn crystals you have already hit a large roadblock. When you were focusing your mana into a crystalline orb you hit a snag when you somehow created a frequency that seemed to throw your mana haywire, but that is just the beginning somehow your crystalline structure seemed to resonant out and now occasionally your mana would start to act haywire, getting in the way of your projects and slowing down work slightly, in order to deal with these runaway frequencies you will have to divert attention towards them over the year. (Locked until Frequency Clean-Up is completed) (Unlocks Frequency Clean-Up)

[]Basic Wall Reinforcement: Invaders are a violent and destructive force, which raid your body for various mana-rich resources. If there is a wall they can break, they will, by reinforcing your walls beforehand you can gain an advantage over those who would enter your dungeon and stop them from creating a straight line throughout your dungeon. (10 Mana per Dice 157/100) (+25 Progress to Hidden Room and One Way Rooms) (Unlock Hidden Rooms) (Unlock One Way Rooms)

Throughout your dungeon you have finally created enough reinforcements in surfaces that invaders can no longer get through them, this may change in the future as stronger adventures start entering the dungeon but until then you have reinforced enough that it will a rapid rise in power for the current adventures to be able to destroy your walls. With the completion of these reinforced walls, you have generated various ideas on how to take advantage of your experience in reinforcement from doors that lock behind adventures to hidden rooms that can be broken for adventures to enter, making them find either an ambush or treasure leading to conflicts between groups due to them thinking they are lying. While you have some more ideas they remain infeasible, such as reinforcing the very air to block adventures which sadly you don't have enough experience to harden. (+25 Progress to Hidden Room and One Way Rooms) (Unlock Hidden Rooms) (Unlock One Way Rooms)

[]Basic Statistical Counting: By counting how many people enter each day and how they act, you can get a sense of whether more or fewer people will enter your dungeon as well as what they want. This allows you to tailor your body so that the invaders will get captured by their greed and fall into traps as well as lull them into a false sense of security by tailoring monster numbers to overpower them with the least amount of monsters. (10 Mana per Dice 133/200)

From trends to hard data, you have taken a deep dive in trying to understand the adventures through process and their language and you have made great strides in it, from understanding the gist of what they are saying to being able to tailor specific rewards to demographics inside your dungeon you have begun to lead more and more deeper into your dungeon where your stronger monsters wait to attack them. However, with the offer from the data dungeons you may soon get some help in understanding what adventures want.

Rumour Mill:
Kert's private armies have struck deep!
From the border dungeons, they have reported seeing a large group of armies fielding vapor mages, the counterpoint to sand mages, and various other mages in complex rituals to strike deeply into the Slarian desert, already these border dungeons have come under siege from these nobleman's armies.

At long last, the last bureaucratic expansion finished.
By decree, since 1023, the government would go under massive renovations and hiring of a variety of experts and scribes to lead the country of Slaria into the future. Already known for their help in managing dungeons and their respective cities, ensuring they got enough food, and identifying specialized resources. This finished construction leads up to the next decree of the King set for 1028.

Dungeon Mania slows down!
With the ongoing war, we have seen a steep drop in new immigrants entering Slarian ground, it already this has had knock-on effects, apparently, the dungeons of Lordt, a primarily mana-based dungeon, have been nearing their 20% line as well as at least a dozen other dungeons breaching the 10% line.

Disclamer: All pictures were generated with Dall-E 3 an AI by Microsoft.
Slaria:
Land of deserts and one of the few nations that rely solely on dungeons to survive, this country was formed through unlikely circumstances, known for being a place where outcasts come to gather and live after facing persecution or exile, it was known as a rough and tumble place but one of independence, at least until a two hundred years ago it was conquered by the rising Kert empire, not much change under the empire but as we come towards recent times the crown prince of the empire started to invest in the large, barren expanse, seeing a place where he could break the ties of wealthy landed elite who had a stranglehold on the food for the central provinces. However, while he was investing this money his younger brother collected the support of these landed elite and forced him to flee the central provinces, starting the shattering of the empire of Kert, from their skirmishes have been a constant of life between the older brother's new nation of Slaria, to the younger brothers now diminished country of Kert.


While barren Slaria is a large country, covered in dunes and deserted bushland, the only source of water and food are dungeons. This has had a large effect on the demographics of the country, almost 99% of the population lives within cities that are founded by dungeons, and this has a centralization effect throughout the country. From the capital city of Centre, commonly referred to as Central, His Majesty King Set controls all of the countries with his legions of scribes and bureaucratic minions, from there he raises up nobility, each given control of a dungeon and the surrounding area to nurture and grow their cities and release the pressure of overpopulation from the collapse of the Kert Empire and the rapidly deteriorating conditions of the entire continent.


Kert:
A country with its star falling, an empire broken in a dozen pieces, families torn apart over their allegiances. A country that has lived a fortuitous life with a multitude of ways of getting water and therefore food, from the underground river that runs through Slaria that surfaces in Kert to the fortuitous wind currents that bring moisture from the green land below the deserts of Kert and Slaria, Kert was set up to become a superpower in their own continent, and it did, expanding rapidly, gobbling up a large amount of the surrounding desert and even the green belt underneath, however the fact that the central provinces of Kert were the only place that grow food in the surrounding area, and with the consolidation of the landed elite and the rising discontent from the landed elite lead to a civil war. From the older brother with the support of the people who fled the central provinces for the deserts of Slaria, after the army turned against him, to the younger brother, a supporter of those landed elite and the private armies that they fund and support.


While Kert may have once been a large empire, after the civil war they split up and began to split up and collapse, separately consolidating into different countries, from the green belt countries of Darte, and Klort, to the destitute desert county of Sorla which has been looted for all their dungeons, these provinces of the empire have become separate countries and have diminished the profits of the central provinces, causing discontent in the citizens of Kert, which the younger brother responded to by placing harsh restrictions on peasants and leading to them run away to the neighboring kingdoms of Sorla and Slaria.