I sit upon a pile of stories I could be writing, but I post another. The pile asks why, and I...
Are you sure this is a Dungeon? (Dungeon? SI)
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1.1
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
I sit upon a pile of stories I could be writing, but I post another. The pile asks why, and I lean down to whisper:
"I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time."
1.1
+++
"I need to get out of this place before it kills me."
- Dungeon Core Drich, circa ???
+++
There was a pop. Nothing more than a simple pressure displacement.
It was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. Not because of what it was, but because of what it meant.
And what it meant was freedom from hell.
I vibrated in pure exultation.
Light -There was light! Light that didn't come from me!- caught my form, causing me to shine beautifully. The air around me was cool and crisp and perfect.
The world around me -A world I can see! A world to see!- was caught in the evening moon. The sky was blue, a few clouds here and there. The ground below was green with grass and trees, with rivers and lakes separating the ground into sections. Beautiful.
A loud, squawking laugh rang out. My companion threw his head back, wings spreading, laughing with the same exultation that I myself felt. The robes flapped and flittered as we continued to fall.
Fall?
Hmm.
Yes, we were falling. We had appeared in mid-air, after all. That had even been the intent; we could have ended up fusing with rock or trees or something if we'd aimed low to the ground.
I pulled at the energy within me, and pulsed it against my companion's grip. He straightened, looking around, before his wings opened wide and we suddenly stopped falling so dangerously quick.
"Freedom." My companion spoke aloud, words almost lost in the wind. "Finally."
I pulsed again, more gently.
My companion's head tipped slightly, turning left and right to survey the world around us. His eyes locked on a meadow, near to a river, and his wings flapped, catching the wind and beginning to glide over.
It didn't take very long to get there. We set down gently, my companion folding his wings back over his body. His talons drummed against me. "Will this do?"
I pulsed. My companion complied, leaning down to place me on the ground. He stood back up, taking a few steps backwards.
I gathered the energy within me, and gave a light push. Out, it went, into the world around us, my aura spreading as it did. It was... a little harder than it had been before, but not significantly or worryingly so. The resistance came from the ambient mana pushing back against my own.
Well, that was fine too. If there was pressure to keep it from expanding, then I wouldn't need to spend time actively reeling it in like I had to before.
Still, I continued pushing more out. My aura spread, one meter, then two, then three, and then it encompassed my companion.
We both paused as it did. He, from the sudden presence of high-quality mana, and me, from the way my aura played off of his soul, encouraging it to produce mana for me to absorb.
Neither of us let it stop us for long. The extra mana they generated from simply being in my aura was split, one tenth of it given to them and the rest taken by me.
"Something tall, if you would."
I pulsed in acknowledgement, but didn't start on his request just yet.
I just continued to spread my aura. More mana, more push. It became more difficult as I pushed it further and further out, more and more volume. Five meters, ten, fifteen, twenty...
I stopped at fifty. Large enough to encompass a goodly portion of the plains, and still leaving me with a considerably amount of mana unspent.
Then, I turned my attention to everything within that area. Grass, moss, worms, bugs, flowers, countless bacteria and other microscopic things...
It took less than a moment to wipe it all out. I tugged at my mana and took the life of all of it, pulling out the souls or what passed for it in all the life around me. Another moment was all I needed to absorb it, add it to my reserves after converting it into a more usable form. The rate at which my mana regenerated ticked slightly upwards as I did, but considering how little life there was, that wasn't surprising.
I took a moment to examine what I had learned by absorbing the surrounding nature. Not much, but the ecosystems of my surroundings played out in my head, countless chains and links of what life form fed on what, what needed this to grow and what needed that.
The next step was replacing it. Bacteria and other microscopic things came first, filling the void of life. The ground, however, was still quite dead. A little bit more mana brought into existence the seeds of grass and flowers that I had killed, though all were slightly altered. They had a little bit more soulstuff in them, a little bit more raw life force that would see them getting stronger and larger, harder to destroy and faster to grow.
All of it came straight from my reserves, and with the loss of that raw soulstuff also came the loss of some of my ability to generate mana. A small loss, ultimately, and one that would be paid back, given time.
I absorbed a little bit of dirt, checking the mineral content and composition. It was fertile soil, but it could be better, and since the soil didn't need soulstuff in order to be fertile, I spent the mana to alter its content without hesitation. More mana formed into water, and water spread through the soil.
Then, and only then, did I plant the seeds and spread the spores. More mana saw the seeds quickly germinate, roots extending through the ground and collecting water and nutrients. The blades soon extended above ground, small patches beginning to pop up across the meadow. The spores quickly formed into moss, also germinating. Having more raw soulstuff, and also being a more simple organism, quickly saw it get to the point where it could spread on its own.
I left both alone when they were at that stage. When they spread, they would spread as the version that had more raw soulstuff, growing quicker and faster. They'd provide the basics of my ecosystem. I just needed to complete the ecosystem.
Bugs, to devour the plants. Small ones, and not many of them, for now. But I would need them. A few, here and there, all with more soulstuff in them than their natural counterparts. Some would kill each other, and keep their populations in check. Others would kill the plants, and stop them from overtaxing the ground. As they spread, they too would spread as my own creatures, ones with more raw soulstuff. He'd grow bigger and stronger, and grow quickly.
And when they died, their soulstuff would be mine. It may take me two or three days to recoup the loss, but after that?
Nothing but gain.
I turned my attention away from it for the moment. The ecosystem was hardly perfect, but it was good enough for the moment.
Next was my companion. Something tall, huh?
I began to absorb the ground below me, a stream of information flowing through my head as I did. I understood all that I absorbed, right down to the things they was made off. Rock, however, is rock. It's not very interesting.
My mana ticked upwards for every little bit of dirt I absorbed. Not abnormal. 'Absorb' was shorthand for 'convert into mana' after all. It was basically recycling, and especially clean recycling at that.
Once I had the ground flat, I filled in the hole I had made. A wide, circular platform slowly took form as glowing blue mana condensed from the air. Nothing fancy, just basic concrete. About thirty meters across, centred on me.
Walls and pillars quickly began to form, extending upwards. At five meters, I made the first floor, and then added in steps leading upwards. Another five meters, and there was another floor. Yet another, and I finished it with the roof. Simple, basic, but at the moment, I didn't exactly have that much mana to spare. It would work for now, and I could come back and touch it up later when I had the time and the mana to do so.
Not that I'm done just yet, though. My companion needs a few things to actually be comfortable. Just have to poke some holes in the walls and create windows for the light to get in, add some candles here and there. Throw a bed in over there, add a desk here, a chair there, put a blanket there, throw down a few stacks of paper and a pen on the desk, throw in a closed box made out of plastic and enchant it with ice magic as an impromptu fridge...
"Wide open and bright." My companion spoke as he came up the stairs. "My thanks."
I sent a rush of air through the room. Just a small one.
My companion eyed the desk and paper, but ambled over to the bed after a moment. Not surprising. Getting out of our shared hell had demanded a lot from both of us. I had paid the price in mana and soulstuff. He had paid in physical and mental exhaustion.
It was therefore only mildly concerning when, instead of tucking himself in, he simply let himself fall forwards and slept.
For a moment, I simply looked at them. His breathing, shallow. His body, slumped. He slept the sleep of the almost-dead, and 'almost dead' wasn't far off accurate when it came to his state.
All too aware of exactly how much power I didn't have at the moment, I poked at him with my mana. Light, slow pushes, nudging him into a more comfortable position. Every touch consumed far too much of the precious power, so much spent simply to push past the aura of his soul. The fact that I could do it at all hinted at exactly how worn down he were.
There were other things I could have used that mana on. Other, more efficient, more effective things, truly useful things. But...
I did it anyway.
The final touch was a simple blanket, formed from glowing motes above him and outside the aura of his soul. It drifted onto him in a crumpled mess, but it would keep him warm through his sleep.
The least I could do.
Another few seconds passed before I finally turned my attention away from him. I locked the doors, shut the windows, and then began to dig. He was, for the moment, safe and sound. Now I had to ensure my own safety.
So many things to do...
And so many things to see, now that we had escaped our hell. A whole world of it...
I couldn't wait.
"I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time."
1.1
+++
"I need to get out of this place before it kills me."
- Dungeon Core Drich, circa ???
+++
There was a pop. Nothing more than a simple pressure displacement.
It was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. Not because of what it was, but because of what it meant.
And what it meant was freedom from hell.
I vibrated in pure exultation.
Light -There was light! Light that didn't come from me!- caught my form, causing me to shine beautifully. The air around me was cool and crisp and perfect.
The world around me -A world I can see! A world to see!- was caught in the evening moon. The sky was blue, a few clouds here and there. The ground below was green with grass and trees, with rivers and lakes separating the ground into sections. Beautiful.
A loud, squawking laugh rang out. My companion threw his head back, wings spreading, laughing with the same exultation that I myself felt. The robes flapped and flittered as we continued to fall.
Fall?
Hmm.
Yes, we were falling. We had appeared in mid-air, after all. That had even been the intent; we could have ended up fusing with rock or trees or something if we'd aimed low to the ground.
I pulled at the energy within me, and pulsed it against my companion's grip. He straightened, looking around, before his wings opened wide and we suddenly stopped falling so dangerously quick.
"Freedom." My companion spoke aloud, words almost lost in the wind. "Finally."
I pulsed again, more gently.
My companion's head tipped slightly, turning left and right to survey the world around us. His eyes locked on a meadow, near to a river, and his wings flapped, catching the wind and beginning to glide over.
It didn't take very long to get there. We set down gently, my companion folding his wings back over his body. His talons drummed against me. "Will this do?"
I pulsed. My companion complied, leaning down to place me on the ground. He stood back up, taking a few steps backwards.
I gathered the energy within me, and gave a light push. Out, it went, into the world around us, my aura spreading as it did. It was... a little harder than it had been before, but not significantly or worryingly so. The resistance came from the ambient mana pushing back against my own.
Well, that was fine too. If there was pressure to keep it from expanding, then I wouldn't need to spend time actively reeling it in like I had to before.
Still, I continued pushing more out. My aura spread, one meter, then two, then three, and then it encompassed my companion.
We both paused as it did. He, from the sudden presence of high-quality mana, and me, from the way my aura played off of his soul, encouraging it to produce mana for me to absorb.
Neither of us let it stop us for long. The extra mana they generated from simply being in my aura was split, one tenth of it given to them and the rest taken by me.
"Something tall, if you would."
I pulsed in acknowledgement, but didn't start on his request just yet.
I just continued to spread my aura. More mana, more push. It became more difficult as I pushed it further and further out, more and more volume. Five meters, ten, fifteen, twenty...
I stopped at fifty. Large enough to encompass a goodly portion of the plains, and still leaving me with a considerably amount of mana unspent.
Then, I turned my attention to everything within that area. Grass, moss, worms, bugs, flowers, countless bacteria and other microscopic things...
It took less than a moment to wipe it all out. I tugged at my mana and took the life of all of it, pulling out the souls or what passed for it in all the life around me. Another moment was all I needed to absorb it, add it to my reserves after converting it into a more usable form. The rate at which my mana regenerated ticked slightly upwards as I did, but considering how little life there was, that wasn't surprising.
I took a moment to examine what I had learned by absorbing the surrounding nature. Not much, but the ecosystems of my surroundings played out in my head, countless chains and links of what life form fed on what, what needed this to grow and what needed that.
The next step was replacing it. Bacteria and other microscopic things came first, filling the void of life. The ground, however, was still quite dead. A little bit more mana brought into existence the seeds of grass and flowers that I had killed, though all were slightly altered. They had a little bit more soulstuff in them, a little bit more raw life force that would see them getting stronger and larger, harder to destroy and faster to grow.
All of it came straight from my reserves, and with the loss of that raw soulstuff also came the loss of some of my ability to generate mana. A small loss, ultimately, and one that would be paid back, given time.
I absorbed a little bit of dirt, checking the mineral content and composition. It was fertile soil, but it could be better, and since the soil didn't need soulstuff in order to be fertile, I spent the mana to alter its content without hesitation. More mana formed into water, and water spread through the soil.
Then, and only then, did I plant the seeds and spread the spores. More mana saw the seeds quickly germinate, roots extending through the ground and collecting water and nutrients. The blades soon extended above ground, small patches beginning to pop up across the meadow. The spores quickly formed into moss, also germinating. Having more raw soulstuff, and also being a more simple organism, quickly saw it get to the point where it could spread on its own.
I left both alone when they were at that stage. When they spread, they would spread as the version that had more raw soulstuff, growing quicker and faster. They'd provide the basics of my ecosystem. I just needed to complete the ecosystem.
Bugs, to devour the plants. Small ones, and not many of them, for now. But I would need them. A few, here and there, all with more soulstuff in them than their natural counterparts. Some would kill each other, and keep their populations in check. Others would kill the plants, and stop them from overtaxing the ground. As they spread, they too would spread as my own creatures, ones with more raw soulstuff. He'd grow bigger and stronger, and grow quickly.
And when they died, their soulstuff would be mine. It may take me two or three days to recoup the loss, but after that?
Nothing but gain.
I turned my attention away from it for the moment. The ecosystem was hardly perfect, but it was good enough for the moment.
Next was my companion. Something tall, huh?
I began to absorb the ground below me, a stream of information flowing through my head as I did. I understood all that I absorbed, right down to the things they was made off. Rock, however, is rock. It's not very interesting.
My mana ticked upwards for every little bit of dirt I absorbed. Not abnormal. 'Absorb' was shorthand for 'convert into mana' after all. It was basically recycling, and especially clean recycling at that.
Once I had the ground flat, I filled in the hole I had made. A wide, circular platform slowly took form as glowing blue mana condensed from the air. Nothing fancy, just basic concrete. About thirty meters across, centred on me.
Walls and pillars quickly began to form, extending upwards. At five meters, I made the first floor, and then added in steps leading upwards. Another five meters, and there was another floor. Yet another, and I finished it with the roof. Simple, basic, but at the moment, I didn't exactly have that much mana to spare. It would work for now, and I could come back and touch it up later when I had the time and the mana to do so.
Not that I'm done just yet, though. My companion needs a few things to actually be comfortable. Just have to poke some holes in the walls and create windows for the light to get in, add some candles here and there. Throw a bed in over there, add a desk here, a chair there, put a blanket there, throw down a few stacks of paper and a pen on the desk, throw in a closed box made out of plastic and enchant it with ice magic as an impromptu fridge...
"Wide open and bright." My companion spoke as he came up the stairs. "My thanks."
I sent a rush of air through the room. Just a small one.
My companion eyed the desk and paper, but ambled over to the bed after a moment. Not surprising. Getting out of our shared hell had demanded a lot from both of us. I had paid the price in mana and soulstuff. He had paid in physical and mental exhaustion.
It was therefore only mildly concerning when, instead of tucking himself in, he simply let himself fall forwards and slept.
For a moment, I simply looked at them. His breathing, shallow. His body, slumped. He slept the sleep of the almost-dead, and 'almost dead' wasn't far off accurate when it came to his state.
All too aware of exactly how much power I didn't have at the moment, I poked at him with my mana. Light, slow pushes, nudging him into a more comfortable position. Every touch consumed far too much of the precious power, so much spent simply to push past the aura of his soul. The fact that I could do it at all hinted at exactly how worn down he were.
There were other things I could have used that mana on. Other, more efficient, more effective things, truly useful things. But...
I did it anyway.
The final touch was a simple blanket, formed from glowing motes above him and outside the aura of his soul. It drifted onto him in a crumpled mess, but it would keep him warm through his sleep.
The least I could do.
Another few seconds passed before I finally turned my attention away from him. I locked the doors, shut the windows, and then began to dig. He was, for the moment, safe and sound. Now I had to ensure my own safety.
So many things to do...
And so many things to see, now that we had escaped our hell. A whole world of it...
I couldn't wait.
Last edited:
- Location
- XLNRVR
So... a different kind of 'benign' dungeon core... As in not [transmigrated soul who debated morality against dungeon pixie], but instead [human-dungeon core partnership based on mutual understanding]. Well, let's see how this story would go.
- Location
- The underworld
what is dungeon mean i have seen a few titles but don't know what it referring to
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
Neat!
hmm..Dungeons can create life, right?
imagine symbiotic life forms....
ones that act as weapons and armour in exchange for excess mana/snacks....perhaps having special abilities?
ones that assist in locomotion....
and ones that help with everyday tasks
hmm..Dungeons can create life, right?
imagine symbiotic life forms....
ones that act as weapons and armour in exchange for excess mana/snacks....perhaps having special abilities?
ones that assist in locomotion....
and ones that help with everyday tasks
- Location
- The underworld
can some one talk me what this is based on
Orion Zete
[verify weaboo]
- Location
- Malaysia
HELL YEAH Drich is written a dungeon fic
Ooooohhhhhh this gonna be good
Ooooohhhhhh this gonna be good
- Location
- America
I think you mean himself.
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
It's more a genre than a single story. If you want me to point at a good one, though... uhm, I've yet to find any I really like, but the 'Divine Dungeon' series is at least okay.
The basic concept is "What if all the dungeons that dot the landscape in D&D do so for a reason, and that reason is that they're in a sense alive, and motivated to have a challenging but not universally fatal difficulty level?"
- Location
- with internet
1. You only need to mention it once; if someone is willing to answer, they would do so eventually anyway, and if they didn't, you'd go somewhere else to find out.
2. People are generally a lot more willing to answer questions when they are marked as questions (with one of these: ?) and have coherent grammar and other punctuation.
3. I might not have been paying attention to these stories much, but they probably started with Dungeon Keeper video games, followed by the various fanfictions crossing those games with other series (I remember one crossed with Worm and another with FoZ.), as well as light novels I know even less about; in the stories, there's usually a character filling the Evil Overlord position (willingly or not) who organizes a Dungeon that acts less like a dungeon and more like a living thing that drains life and goodness from countrysides and eats adventurers using symbiotic Monsters. This Dungeon creature generally has a weak-point at its center or deepest depths, where if an adventurer reaches it the Dungeon dies (which is game-over in the games), and it generally looks like a big crystal and is called a "Dungeon Core" (heart-shaped and a "Dungeon Heart" in the games). The gameplay for the games is about resource management (space, building time, materials) and trap-making (mazes, monster rooms, hazards), and usually has rules against or consequences for completely blocking off the Heart/Core.
Of course, why I started writing this post, is this:
A being which was actually collecting all the information about the rock would not have this reaction at all; remember that there are a dozen major categories of rocks depending on exactly how they were formed, and combining that with radioactive decay also tells you pretty accurately how old those rocks are. This is the moment of the story DunDrich would have learned about how old this countryside was, as well as details like if it used to be underwater or volcanically active. Depending on exactly how close to river the absorbed material was, she might also have learned about the flood/drought cycle of the area for several years back, which would warn her if her ecosystem might be scheduled for a deadly drought in a few years. If the rock is just limestone, that would also tell her if there are likely to be cave systems in the area or subterranean rivers.
I understand why you might have thought the quoted way, since you'd been in the mind of Dungeon stories where they have Magically Super-Generic Rock just about everywhere, but a natural countryside would be radically different.
Edit: Ah, I am late.
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
A perfectly valid point, though I do have to note that Drich isn't a geologist and doesn't have the academic knowledge to be able to put most of the information gained to actual use.
1.2
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
1.2
+++
Ensuring my own safety was not, in fact, all that difficult. The tower I had created around us was good enough already to protect from wild animals, which was all that was around. I was actually already safe.
But I could be safer, and more to the point, the process of making me safer would assist with the other two goals I had.
So, I started digging. In the tower I had made, I made a set of stairs leading downwards, and then kept going. Dirt and rock vanished as I absorbed it, adding, however minutely, to my supply. A goodly chunk of that income went straight back out in the form of thick, strong walls so that I didn't have to worry about the ground collapsing, however.
Once it had gone down ten meters, I started with the basics. A maze.
A lot of long tunnels were dug out, somewhat cramped, but wide enough for my companion to fit through. I couldn't make them too small, lest I restrict the mana flow too much, but I could definitely make it confusing and winding very easily.
So I did.
I started with a central, roughly square room. I went through the effort to make it look somewhat natural, but both the ceiling and floor were flat. Four holes in the walls lead out to tunnels, each of which split off into multiple directions more or less immediately. Some lead to larger caverns, while others lead to yet more tunnels. All, however, were winding, confusing, and not at all easy to navigate. Most of them lead to dead ends, though I did scatter a few fake walls here and there which lead to other rooms.
I was actually somehow proud of the fake walls. They were made of a thin, porous material with an equally thin layer of rock over them. They looked and felt like another other part of the wall, but their thinness meant that they didn't impede mana flow very much.
The entrance into the room in which I was hiding was behind a fake wall, leading to a particularly large and smooth cavern. On the wall off that cavern was a magically reinforced door. Through that door was me.
What was the point of all these random caverns all over the place?
Well, the point was farming.
There was, of course, only a single way I could get more soulstuff. I had to absorb souls from other sources, then process those souls into raw soulstuff.
A problem then immediately arose in the form of 'what if I ran out of sources for souls'.
The solution was simple: 'create more sources'. I couldn't run out of sources so long as I could make more sources. The problem in that, however, was equally simple.
I needed soulstuff in order to make souls.
Mana was easy. With a single exception, it could be transformed into anything and be transformed from anything.
That exception, of course, was souls. The only thing that could be made into souls was raw soulstuff. No ifs, ands, ors, or buts.
Spending soulstuff in order to make souls to absorb soulstuff would therefore seem counterintuitive.
The trick, of course, was simple. Souls could grow stronger, more powerful, and bigger. In turn, I would get more soulstuff from harvesting those stronger souls than I would from weaker souls.
The cycle was equally simple. Use soulstuff to create souls, let them get stronger, and then harvest them once they are. Rinse and repeat, now with more raw soulstuff to make more/stronger souls.
How, then, did a soul grow stronger?
Primarily, two ways. The first was by living. A soul grew stronger as it got older. Not by much, admittedly, but the growth was there.
Also under the aegis of living was experiencing things. Souls developed in response to experiences. Seeing, hearing, experiencing new things, acquiring new knowledge, it was all something that made souls get stronger, and faster than simple aging, to boot.
Under that same experience was communication. Interacting with other souls also lead to development. They played off of each other. Interaction was another form of experience, usually somewhat different every time.
Another thing under the aegis of living was training. Physical, mental, magical all increased the strength of the soul. It was, in the case of the first two, the effort put into it and what was learned respectively that did most of the work, but for magical training, it was slightly different.
Almost all kinds of magic requires mana to utilize. In the vast majority of those cases, that mana was going to be coming from the person using the magic.
Souls were the source of mana. Simply by existing, souls produced mana, endlessly, naturally, and almost unstoppably. Raw soulstuff was no different.
Souls were also typically the place where mana was stored. Some of it leaked into the body and was stored there, but souls held the majority of it.
Using magic, then, depleted that storage of mana. Taking mana from the soul was an act that caused a small amount of strain. The more mana you used, the greater the strain. As the soul was the source of life and seat of consciousness, this would cause physical and mental exhaustion. Given time, one would recover from the exhaustion just fine.
But the strain placed on the soul?
Well, in this aspect, the soul might be likened to a muscle. When the soul recovered from the strain, it grew stronger. As it did, it would in turn generate more mana, offering faster recovery while also becoming capable of storing even more.
Those were the methods by which a soul would grow stronger in life.
The second way that a soul got stronger was faster, but also more dangerous. The second way was, quite simply, to absorb the souls of other beings and incorporate them into one's own.
It was not as easy as it sounded, obviously. Souls are not easy to absorb. They are slippery, they tend to wander, and they are very difficult to actually manipulate. The fact that I can do that and process them so easily is, in fact, abnormal. Most things can't do that. Gods have trouble doing the kind of soul manipulation I can do.
The most that normal beings can accomplish is to shave off a tiny piece of the soul and absorb it. This is, in some ways, not actually a bad thing. Sure, it limits how fast a soul can grow, but it also limits the other problems of absorbing souls. Souls, as I said, are the source of life and the seat of consciousness. To take a soul into oneself is to take all that the soul was into oneself, too. Thought, memory, language, power, emotion... all of these are held within the soul.
To take all that into oneself... well. To take a small bit is fine, but the phrase 'too much of a good thing' definitely applies.
Well, regardless, those were the ways that a soul got stronger.
Given all of the above?
My favoured source of souls were social creatures in large numbers, preferably several species that are hostile to each other so that they keep within manageable margins.
On the small scale, that amounted to eusocial insects such as ants, bees, and termites. On the larger, I preferred pack and pride animals.
Considering that I had a winding network of tunnels and caverns to work with?
Definitely the former.
The real trouble is making sure they can survive down here. It was, certainly, possible to have them survive of nothing but ambient mana, but that honestly wasn't very efficient when it came down to it. Every single one would be a direct drain on mana, with a bigger and bigger drain the more of them there were. Considering the fact that they were eusocial insects, their numbers could add up very quickly. Then you get into the other problems of that, because while they can survive off of mana, they do still need to respirate, with all the consequences that entails.
I will note that this is why I go through the effort of making ecosystems. Plants are easy to take care of. Water, good soil, light, air. That's all they need to grow. How convenient that taking care of them also means that they will take care of most problems that will arise with life underground.
The fact that I have none of the four down here is easily solved.
I carve a spot underneath the floor of the entrance. It's actually fairly large, nearly four meters wide and spherical. It doesn't last very long, because as soon as it's done, I create a chunk of crystal to fill the space It's a sphere, as approximately perfect as I can make it. More grooves shortly start appearing on that, forming circular patterns connected to each other across the surface.
A look over it reveals no flaws, which is good. I gather more mana, and then condense it, transforming it into a solid material. The grooves are filled carefully and patiently.
The moment it's done, I pump a slight amount of mana into it.
I feel the drain immediately. Mana sucked out of the air, sapping straight from my aura.
I let it happen, and if I had had a face, now would be where I would smile.
Though it was hidden under the rock, the fact that it was within my aura gave me awareness that the runic arrays were lighting up as it continued to absorb mana. It doesn't take it very long to reach its maximum capacity. A mere thirty seconds. When it does, its glow changes, and a wave of mana promptly sweeps through the caves in every direction.
Runes, I will note, are easily my favourite school of magic. That runes are also one of the very few ways to automate the casting of magic and usage of mana is not a coincidence.
I had been, a very long time ago now, a programmer. Code was hobby and a study.
In magic, runes were the closest thing I had to code. The moment I knew it existed, I delved into the art with fervour, learning all I could.
It was, perhaps, not the best use of my time I could have. There was nothing that runes could do that I myself couldn't. I was, furthermore, extremely capable when it came to things such as multitasking. I did not need runes to do things.
By the time I had discovered it, I had been personally managing three thousand, eight hundred, and eleven distinct soul farms. By the time I had completed my study to my satisfaction, all of them had been running on runic arrays.
I was not eager to do it again. I could multitask all that, but I could also grind myself into dust. It would be only slightly less pleasant.
The runic orb's glow changed to white. Air began to fill the caves, a perfect match to the atmosphere up on the surface. The moment the pressure had stabilized, the glow changed to a clear blue, and water began to appear in the caverns, pooling in and on the ground throughout the place.
That too finishes quickly, stopping as the orbs detects that the environment now possessed the amount of water defined.
Clear blue gave way to earthly brown, and the ground shimmered in the caverns, a wave of change spreading out from the entrance through to the ends. Fertile soil, just waiting to be used, came into being.
So little effort on my part, and each of the caverns now had an environment almost perfect for growing things. This, of course, was why runes were my favourite.
One array to suck in mana from the environment. One array to scan the environment of the caves. One to break that information into usable pieces. One array to manipulate the air, to keep it within certain parameters, and the accompanying array to describe those parameters. One array to manipulate water, with its own array detailing how. Two more arrays for the manipulation of earth and detailing exactly how that earth would be manipulated.
The defining arrays were the largest arrays on the sphere. The air array defined an atmosphere of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.05% carbon dioxide with the remainder being undefined. A variance of five percent for each ratio was allowed before intervention would take place, and the air manipulation array would absorb any extra and replace any deficient. The water array defined water with a certain amount of minerals and nutrients in it. The manipulation array would see to it that that was what was going to be created. Variance, again, was at five percent. The amount of water could drop or increase five percent before intervention took place. The content of the water was also allowed a variance before intervention.
Much the same as water and air, the soil also had the same thing going for it. X dirt with Y minerals and nutrients, Z variance before intervention.
All of this was bound up in one final array. The simplest of the all of them.
A timer.
A timer lasting exactly one hour. Every hour, on the dot, it would trigger the scan array. The scan array would trigger the information checking array. The information checking array would check the collected information against the three defining arrays, and if it found that the air, the water, or the soil were outside of the allowed parameters, it would trigger the appropriate array and reset the appropriate offender.
The array that sucks in mana from the environment was always active. It would keep going until it was full, and the moment there was a drop, it would start right up again.
Efficient? No. Doing it myself would have been better, but I was quite well and tired of that.
Unless something went dramatically wrong, I would never need to look at this entire place, ever again.
It was missing only one thing.
Light.
But, that's easily fixed. I create more crystals, these ones shaped like stalactite, and hang them from the ceilings of the caverns. The runes that I carve into them are far simpler than the previous. A mana absorbing array, a timer, two definition arrays, and a light manipulation array.
The timer is twelve hours. The first definition array defines sunlight as experienced at midday. The second defines moonlight as experienced during the full moon. The light manipulation array creates light as defined by the definition array. Every twelve hours, the timer array swaps the definition it is using.
One is a control sample. Exactly the same as all the rest, but the timer is five seconds. I flick it on, and daylight bursts through cavern, emanating from the crystal. Five seconds later, the mana shifts, and daylight is instantly replaced with moonlight, no dusk, dawn, morning, or evening to distinguish it. When it changes back five seconds later, I absorb all the mana from it, and then change the timer back to twelve hours.
The next step is actually filing all these caverns up.
Keeping in mind how much mana I was expending for upkeep of the environment, I did not actually have that much soulstuff to spare. I needed to keep enough soulstuff to keep up with the expected mana expenditure, plus a little bit more in case of an emergency. The remainder was... just barely enough to put plants in all these rooms.
Well, that was fine. It would take the plants a few days to grow enough that putting down a few species of insects wouldn't see either wiped out.
I was going to be running pretty close to the line... but I'll deal with it. It'll start paying off in a few days, anyway.
Time to get to work.
+++
Ensuring my own safety was not, in fact, all that difficult. The tower I had created around us was good enough already to protect from wild animals, which was all that was around. I was actually already safe.
But I could be safer, and more to the point, the process of making me safer would assist with the other two goals I had.
So, I started digging. In the tower I had made, I made a set of stairs leading downwards, and then kept going. Dirt and rock vanished as I absorbed it, adding, however minutely, to my supply. A goodly chunk of that income went straight back out in the form of thick, strong walls so that I didn't have to worry about the ground collapsing, however.
Once it had gone down ten meters, I started with the basics. A maze.
A lot of long tunnels were dug out, somewhat cramped, but wide enough for my companion to fit through. I couldn't make them too small, lest I restrict the mana flow too much, but I could definitely make it confusing and winding very easily.
So I did.
I started with a central, roughly square room. I went through the effort to make it look somewhat natural, but both the ceiling and floor were flat. Four holes in the walls lead out to tunnels, each of which split off into multiple directions more or less immediately. Some lead to larger caverns, while others lead to yet more tunnels. All, however, were winding, confusing, and not at all easy to navigate. Most of them lead to dead ends, though I did scatter a few fake walls here and there which lead to other rooms.
I was actually somehow proud of the fake walls. They were made of a thin, porous material with an equally thin layer of rock over them. They looked and felt like another other part of the wall, but their thinness meant that they didn't impede mana flow very much.
The entrance into the room in which I was hiding was behind a fake wall, leading to a particularly large and smooth cavern. On the wall off that cavern was a magically reinforced door. Through that door was me.
What was the point of all these random caverns all over the place?
Well, the point was farming.
There was, of course, only a single way I could get more soulstuff. I had to absorb souls from other sources, then process those souls into raw soulstuff.
A problem then immediately arose in the form of 'what if I ran out of sources for souls'.
The solution was simple: 'create more sources'. I couldn't run out of sources so long as I could make more sources. The problem in that, however, was equally simple.
I needed soulstuff in order to make souls.
Mana was easy. With a single exception, it could be transformed into anything and be transformed from anything.
That exception, of course, was souls. The only thing that could be made into souls was raw soulstuff. No ifs, ands, ors, or buts.
Spending soulstuff in order to make souls to absorb soulstuff would therefore seem counterintuitive.
The trick, of course, was simple. Souls could grow stronger, more powerful, and bigger. In turn, I would get more soulstuff from harvesting those stronger souls than I would from weaker souls.
The cycle was equally simple. Use soulstuff to create souls, let them get stronger, and then harvest them once they are. Rinse and repeat, now with more raw soulstuff to make more/stronger souls.
How, then, did a soul grow stronger?
Primarily, two ways. The first was by living. A soul grew stronger as it got older. Not by much, admittedly, but the growth was there.
Also under the aegis of living was experiencing things. Souls developed in response to experiences. Seeing, hearing, experiencing new things, acquiring new knowledge, it was all something that made souls get stronger, and faster than simple aging, to boot.
Under that same experience was communication. Interacting with other souls also lead to development. They played off of each other. Interaction was another form of experience, usually somewhat different every time.
Another thing under the aegis of living was training. Physical, mental, magical all increased the strength of the soul. It was, in the case of the first two, the effort put into it and what was learned respectively that did most of the work, but for magical training, it was slightly different.
Almost all kinds of magic requires mana to utilize. In the vast majority of those cases, that mana was going to be coming from the person using the magic.
Souls were the source of mana. Simply by existing, souls produced mana, endlessly, naturally, and almost unstoppably. Raw soulstuff was no different.
Souls were also typically the place where mana was stored. Some of it leaked into the body and was stored there, but souls held the majority of it.
Using magic, then, depleted that storage of mana. Taking mana from the soul was an act that caused a small amount of strain. The more mana you used, the greater the strain. As the soul was the source of life and seat of consciousness, this would cause physical and mental exhaustion. Given time, one would recover from the exhaustion just fine.
But the strain placed on the soul?
Well, in this aspect, the soul might be likened to a muscle. When the soul recovered from the strain, it grew stronger. As it did, it would in turn generate more mana, offering faster recovery while also becoming capable of storing even more.
Those were the methods by which a soul would grow stronger in life.
The second way that a soul got stronger was faster, but also more dangerous. The second way was, quite simply, to absorb the souls of other beings and incorporate them into one's own.
It was not as easy as it sounded, obviously. Souls are not easy to absorb. They are slippery, they tend to wander, and they are very difficult to actually manipulate. The fact that I can do that and process them so easily is, in fact, abnormal. Most things can't do that. Gods have trouble doing the kind of soul manipulation I can do.
The most that normal beings can accomplish is to shave off a tiny piece of the soul and absorb it. This is, in some ways, not actually a bad thing. Sure, it limits how fast a soul can grow, but it also limits the other problems of absorbing souls. Souls, as I said, are the source of life and the seat of consciousness. To take a soul into oneself is to take all that the soul was into oneself, too. Thought, memory, language, power, emotion... all of these are held within the soul.
To take all that into oneself... well. To take a small bit is fine, but the phrase 'too much of a good thing' definitely applies.
Well, regardless, those were the ways that a soul got stronger.
Given all of the above?
My favoured source of souls were social creatures in large numbers, preferably several species that are hostile to each other so that they keep within manageable margins.
On the small scale, that amounted to eusocial insects such as ants, bees, and termites. On the larger, I preferred pack and pride animals.
Considering that I had a winding network of tunnels and caverns to work with?
Definitely the former.
The real trouble is making sure they can survive down here. It was, certainly, possible to have them survive of nothing but ambient mana, but that honestly wasn't very efficient when it came down to it. Every single one would be a direct drain on mana, with a bigger and bigger drain the more of them there were. Considering the fact that they were eusocial insects, their numbers could add up very quickly. Then you get into the other problems of that, because while they can survive off of mana, they do still need to respirate, with all the consequences that entails.
I will note that this is why I go through the effort of making ecosystems. Plants are easy to take care of. Water, good soil, light, air. That's all they need to grow. How convenient that taking care of them also means that they will take care of most problems that will arise with life underground.
The fact that I have none of the four down here is easily solved.
I carve a spot underneath the floor of the entrance. It's actually fairly large, nearly four meters wide and spherical. It doesn't last very long, because as soon as it's done, I create a chunk of crystal to fill the space It's a sphere, as approximately perfect as I can make it. More grooves shortly start appearing on that, forming circular patterns connected to each other across the surface.
A look over it reveals no flaws, which is good. I gather more mana, and then condense it, transforming it into a solid material. The grooves are filled carefully and patiently.
The moment it's done, I pump a slight amount of mana into it.
I feel the drain immediately. Mana sucked out of the air, sapping straight from my aura.
I let it happen, and if I had had a face, now would be where I would smile.
Though it was hidden under the rock, the fact that it was within my aura gave me awareness that the runic arrays were lighting up as it continued to absorb mana. It doesn't take it very long to reach its maximum capacity. A mere thirty seconds. When it does, its glow changes, and a wave of mana promptly sweeps through the caves in every direction.
Runes, I will note, are easily my favourite school of magic. That runes are also one of the very few ways to automate the casting of magic and usage of mana is not a coincidence.
I had been, a very long time ago now, a programmer. Code was hobby and a study.
In magic, runes were the closest thing I had to code. The moment I knew it existed, I delved into the art with fervour, learning all I could.
It was, perhaps, not the best use of my time I could have. There was nothing that runes could do that I myself couldn't. I was, furthermore, extremely capable when it came to things such as multitasking. I did not need runes to do things.
By the time I had discovered it, I had been personally managing three thousand, eight hundred, and eleven distinct soul farms. By the time I had completed my study to my satisfaction, all of them had been running on runic arrays.
I was not eager to do it again. I could multitask all that, but I could also grind myself into dust. It would be only slightly less pleasant.
The runic orb's glow changed to white. Air began to fill the caves, a perfect match to the atmosphere up on the surface. The moment the pressure had stabilized, the glow changed to a clear blue, and water began to appear in the caverns, pooling in and on the ground throughout the place.
That too finishes quickly, stopping as the orbs detects that the environment now possessed the amount of water defined.
Clear blue gave way to earthly brown, and the ground shimmered in the caverns, a wave of change spreading out from the entrance through to the ends. Fertile soil, just waiting to be used, came into being.
So little effort on my part, and each of the caverns now had an environment almost perfect for growing things. This, of course, was why runes were my favourite.
One array to suck in mana from the environment. One array to scan the environment of the caves. One to break that information into usable pieces. One array to manipulate the air, to keep it within certain parameters, and the accompanying array to describe those parameters. One array to manipulate water, with its own array detailing how. Two more arrays for the manipulation of earth and detailing exactly how that earth would be manipulated.
The defining arrays were the largest arrays on the sphere. The air array defined an atmosphere of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.05% carbon dioxide with the remainder being undefined. A variance of five percent for each ratio was allowed before intervention would take place, and the air manipulation array would absorb any extra and replace any deficient. The water array defined water with a certain amount of minerals and nutrients in it. The manipulation array would see to it that that was what was going to be created. Variance, again, was at five percent. The amount of water could drop or increase five percent before intervention took place. The content of the water was also allowed a variance before intervention.
Much the same as water and air, the soil also had the same thing going for it. X dirt with Y minerals and nutrients, Z variance before intervention.
All of this was bound up in one final array. The simplest of the all of them.
A timer.
A timer lasting exactly one hour. Every hour, on the dot, it would trigger the scan array. The scan array would trigger the information checking array. The information checking array would check the collected information against the three defining arrays, and if it found that the air, the water, or the soil were outside of the allowed parameters, it would trigger the appropriate array and reset the appropriate offender.
The array that sucks in mana from the environment was always active. It would keep going until it was full, and the moment there was a drop, it would start right up again.
Efficient? No. Doing it myself would have been better, but I was quite well and tired of that.
Unless something went dramatically wrong, I would never need to look at this entire place, ever again.
It was missing only one thing.
Light.
But, that's easily fixed. I create more crystals, these ones shaped like stalactite, and hang them from the ceilings of the caverns. The runes that I carve into them are far simpler than the previous. A mana absorbing array, a timer, two definition arrays, and a light manipulation array.
The timer is twelve hours. The first definition array defines sunlight as experienced at midday. The second defines moonlight as experienced during the full moon. The light manipulation array creates light as defined by the definition array. Every twelve hours, the timer array swaps the definition it is using.
One is a control sample. Exactly the same as all the rest, but the timer is five seconds. I flick it on, and daylight bursts through cavern, emanating from the crystal. Five seconds later, the mana shifts, and daylight is instantly replaced with moonlight, no dusk, dawn, morning, or evening to distinguish it. When it changes back five seconds later, I absorb all the mana from it, and then change the timer back to twelve hours.
The next step is actually filing all these caverns up.
Keeping in mind how much mana I was expending for upkeep of the environment, I did not actually have that much soulstuff to spare. I needed to keep enough soulstuff to keep up with the expected mana expenditure, plus a little bit more in case of an emergency. The remainder was... just barely enough to put plants in all these rooms.
Well, that was fine. It would take the plants a few days to grow enough that putting down a few species of insects wouldn't see either wiped out.
I was going to be running pretty close to the line... but I'll deal with it. It'll start paying off in a few days, anyway.
Time to get to work.
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Self sufficient economies are great. I wonder who Drich's companion is or is Drich the companion?
- Location
- Attempting to cast animate object on a black hole.
Terrarium Tycoon. I can't wait for it to get to Steam.
Edit: Also, 12 hours of midday sun? That would fry things worse than a desert filled with white sand and mirrors. That's way worse than Death Valley. There would be more than enough heat trapped in the caves to boil water by the end of the day. Those sealed rooms are basically pressure cookers. Might want to add a temperature regulator. Using midday of one of the more extreme latitudes could also work.
Edit: Also, 12 hours of midday sun? That would fry things worse than a desert filled with white sand and mirrors. That's way worse than Death Valley. There would be more than enough heat trapped in the caves to boil water by the end of the day. Those sealed rooms are basically pressure cookers. Might want to add a temperature regulator. Using midday of one of the more extreme latitudes could also work.
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A new Drich story? Watched. Drich is now a dungeon? Ooh, interesting. I look forward to seeing how Drich's victims have their lives made better in unsettling ways.
1.3
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
1.3
+++
You know... I had forgotten what the night sky looks like.
Especially the night sky when devoid of light pollution.
Ever seen it? It's quite the sight. Countless stars make the black expanse of space seem quite full. Nebula and galaxies are so easily visible, stretching from one side of the sky to the other. The moon, hanging and shining bright...
This place was not Earth, however. The night sky here was different. Not worse, no, never, but definitely different. Three moons hung in the sky, each one a different stage. The stars were different, so of course, there were different constellations. The milky way that could so easily dominate the night was nowhere to be seen; replaced, instead, by some other galaxy that shone equally brightly.
Different, but still beautiful.
Never have I been so grateful that I didn't require rest. In the past, in our hell, it seemed almost a curse; that I would live through every moment and be unable to pass even the most minor portion of it in sleep... A feeling that had grown better when my companion first appeared, but a feeling that had tasted bitter when I learned that he did need to rest. It was hours and hours that I couldn't listen to him, the first company I had had in so very long...
It was, I suppose, quite fortunate that my companion was as agelessly immortal as I was. I'm not sure I ever would have made it out of our hell alone.
If he had died... I don't know what I would have done.
+++
It took five days to make up for the loss in soulstuff. Each day was an exercise in improvements.
The second day, I had added ants, bees, and termites to the underground. All were competing for limited resources. Normally, they never would have reached that stage anywhere near as quickly, but I had long experience in making them grow quick with the slightest helping of mana. Weeks and weeks of growth, laying eggs, and development from egg to adult compressed into mere hours...
There were tens of thousands of them by the third day. That was the point where I had let out to wreak havoc on each other.
All those different colonies fighting each other... There weren't many, but every death was a tiny soul sent straight to me, and numbers do add up in the end.
At the fourth day, the ecosystem underground was in full swing. The plants were plentiful, with insects feeding off of them to keep their numbers in check. The insects, in turn, were kept in check by each other.
The fifth day had seen me add a few improvements to the tower. Not much. A coat of paint on the walls, a nicer, fluffier chair, a larger desk. The fridge was replaced with a version that had runic arrays instead of enchantments, which would allow me to actually get some control over the temperature of it.
I added a shower, too. A closet as well, which I filled with robes and cloaks, all designed for the use of my companion. Normal clothes would never fit him, and anything that did fit him wouldn't fit anything else.
The sixth day saw nothing but minor adjustments. A shift of a light crystal there, that hallway needs a slightly smoother floor, this cavern needs slightly more water, which means a slight modification to the runic orb...
And then there was the more subtle parts. This colony of ants had a queen that was laying eggs with slightly stronger souls than any other queen in the nest. This was good, because they'd eventually grow even stronger. That ant and its eggs received a helping of mana, letting them grow quick and spread through the nest faster. Given a sufficient amount of time, that trait would likely spread throughout the entire nest.
Selection pressure in action.
It took seven for my companion to finally stir from his sleep.
It was honestly surprising that it had only taken a week.
Actually, 'surprising' wasn't the correct word. It was a dramatic understatement.
The scale of what we had accomplished was no small thing, and the price of it had been equally large. I had spent an incredibly long time simply gathering the soulstuff to perform it. Literally tens of thousands of farms, each one on a scale vastly larger than these caves, had been absorbed whole for the escape. The act itself had left me with almost nothing, compared to what I had before.
That he had stirred after a mere week was almost ludicrous in the face of that.
I was definitely not going to complain.
"Urgh..." My companion shifted.
The mana in the air pulsed. Nothing more than something to get his attention.
A single eye opened, a wine red iris wandering aimlessly. "Hmm?"
The eye settled on a curtained window. The light of the sun only barely got through the thickness of it, but it still left its impression in the room. The eye closed.
A second later, all six snapped open, and my companion leapt out of bed, scattering the blanket and pillows. He glided across the room, reaching the curtain in only a moment, and brushing it open immediately.
Light flooded the room. The evening sun painted the world in red and gold, the first stars only just beginning to appear in the sky.
"Ah..." His beak opened, tongue briefly darting out. "For a moment, I had worried that it had been a cruel dream."
I pulsed my mana again, more gently this time.
A few seconds passed before his head dipped to the side. A pulse of mana emanated from him, running through the area. "You've been quite drained, companion mine."
I pulsed again. Simple acknowledgement.
"I've not seen you this empty since the very beginning." He spoke. "Mayhaps we should have waited a little-"
I pulsed, sudden and sharp.
He hums. "Freedom is more important than your strength, then?" He turned, not waiting for the response. "Well, I can't deny that sentiment. I was no less eager to escape. And, really, what does it matter in the end, when time will see you regain what has been lost..."
Mana swirled over him, gathering, before his body flashed white and every trace of dirt and filth was wiped from him. His feathers shone a slightly purer white, his beak now seeming almost metallically reflective, his hair almost shimmering...
He moved to the stairs, quickly ascending them. Out onto the roof he went, before approaching the edge of the tower.
He tapped his talons together, the tips beginning to glow with golden light. "By the bindings of blood and obligation, I call."
Mana burst from his body like a wall of fire. Magical circles quickly constructed themselves, each one marked with words in the language of the Seraphim, each one flowing around my companion slowly.
"Taurourous, the Gentle Word. Heed the call." The glow rose in intensity, eclipsing the evening light.
The mana gathered, condensed-
And then fell apart, cycling through the air, unspent.
My companion's head tipped.
"Velacai, the Promise Kept. Heed the call."
The process repeated. Glow intensifying, mana condensing, only for it to fall apart.
"Adun, the Humble Beloved. Heed the call."
Nothing.
My companion made a clicking noise.
"Thrice I have called, thrice I have received no answer. The call escalates. Eliathias, Embodiment of the Virtue of Diligence. Heed the call."
Again... nothing.
My companion let his arms drop. The magic circles collapsed like glass.
"Hmm." My companion let out a breath. "For even he not to answer..."
I pulsed, questioning.
He leaned down, moving to sit at the edge of the tower. A moment later, he looked up at the sky, eyes searching the stars.
He paused, and his eyes narrowed. A groan escaped him, his hands coming up and covering his eyes. "I am a fool."
I pulsed again.
He sighed. "All that effort could have been avoided if I had simply looked up. This world has three moons. That alone could have told me that this world had no connection to Superum Caelum. Instead, I wasted my mana and exhausted myself for a call that would never get anywhere... My my, that's just embarrassing."
I pulsed.
"You're not meant to agree with me." He grouched. "Oh, now I'm almost grateful it didn't work. If the others had seen that, I would have been laughingstock for millennia."
I pulsed again, this time a low and deep hum.
"Hmm." He leaned back, laying down on the top of the tower. He pulled his hands away from his eyes, looking up at the stars. "Ah, stars. That's something I haven't seen in a while..."
Yet again.
He chuckled. "You missed them as well, of course." One arm rose above him, a single finger extending. The tip glowed brilliantly as he moved his finger around, leaving a glowing trail of light in the air.
"Considering your weakened state, I gather that you haven't been able to get a lay of the land?" He asked.
Two quick pulses, one right after the other.
"I didn't think so." He sighed. "Unfortunate, but I can fix that easily enough." His finger continued drawing. He'd finished a circle and a number of symbols, and was currently working on the centre of it.
It didn't take him very long to finish. He pulled his finger back, and looked over it before nodding.
He poured his mana into it, and the circle glowed brightly before collapsing, forming into a mote of light before expanding. A ghostly ring took shape, solidifying over a few seconds.
Then, it burst into flames, a number of eyes opening over its surface, each one the exact same colour as my companion's own. The eyes focused on him, and he pointed upwards.
"Off you go."
The eyed burning ring immediately flew upwards.
"I think I'll be needing ink and paper, by the way."
I obliged.
He nodded as they formed around him. "Alright. Let's start with a map, shall we?"
+++
You know... I had forgotten what the night sky looks like.
Especially the night sky when devoid of light pollution.
Ever seen it? It's quite the sight. Countless stars make the black expanse of space seem quite full. Nebula and galaxies are so easily visible, stretching from one side of the sky to the other. The moon, hanging and shining bright...
This place was not Earth, however. The night sky here was different. Not worse, no, never, but definitely different. Three moons hung in the sky, each one a different stage. The stars were different, so of course, there were different constellations. The milky way that could so easily dominate the night was nowhere to be seen; replaced, instead, by some other galaxy that shone equally brightly.
Different, but still beautiful.
Never have I been so grateful that I didn't require rest. In the past, in our hell, it seemed almost a curse; that I would live through every moment and be unable to pass even the most minor portion of it in sleep... A feeling that had grown better when my companion first appeared, but a feeling that had tasted bitter when I learned that he did need to rest. It was hours and hours that I couldn't listen to him, the first company I had had in so very long...
It was, I suppose, quite fortunate that my companion was as agelessly immortal as I was. I'm not sure I ever would have made it out of our hell alone.
If he had died... I don't know what I would have done.
+++
It took five days to make up for the loss in soulstuff. Each day was an exercise in improvements.
The second day, I had added ants, bees, and termites to the underground. All were competing for limited resources. Normally, they never would have reached that stage anywhere near as quickly, but I had long experience in making them grow quick with the slightest helping of mana. Weeks and weeks of growth, laying eggs, and development from egg to adult compressed into mere hours...
There were tens of thousands of them by the third day. That was the point where I had let out to wreak havoc on each other.
All those different colonies fighting each other... There weren't many, but every death was a tiny soul sent straight to me, and numbers do add up in the end.
At the fourth day, the ecosystem underground was in full swing. The plants were plentiful, with insects feeding off of them to keep their numbers in check. The insects, in turn, were kept in check by each other.
The fifth day had seen me add a few improvements to the tower. Not much. A coat of paint on the walls, a nicer, fluffier chair, a larger desk. The fridge was replaced with a version that had runic arrays instead of enchantments, which would allow me to actually get some control over the temperature of it.
I added a shower, too. A closet as well, which I filled with robes and cloaks, all designed for the use of my companion. Normal clothes would never fit him, and anything that did fit him wouldn't fit anything else.
The sixth day saw nothing but minor adjustments. A shift of a light crystal there, that hallway needs a slightly smoother floor, this cavern needs slightly more water, which means a slight modification to the runic orb...
And then there was the more subtle parts. This colony of ants had a queen that was laying eggs with slightly stronger souls than any other queen in the nest. This was good, because they'd eventually grow even stronger. That ant and its eggs received a helping of mana, letting them grow quick and spread through the nest faster. Given a sufficient amount of time, that trait would likely spread throughout the entire nest.
Selection pressure in action.
It took seven for my companion to finally stir from his sleep.
It was honestly surprising that it had only taken a week.
Actually, 'surprising' wasn't the correct word. It was a dramatic understatement.
The scale of what we had accomplished was no small thing, and the price of it had been equally large. I had spent an incredibly long time simply gathering the soulstuff to perform it. Literally tens of thousands of farms, each one on a scale vastly larger than these caves, had been absorbed whole for the escape. The act itself had left me with almost nothing, compared to what I had before.
That he had stirred after a mere week was almost ludicrous in the face of that.
I was definitely not going to complain.
"Urgh..." My companion shifted.
The mana in the air pulsed. Nothing more than something to get his attention.
A single eye opened, a wine red iris wandering aimlessly. "Hmm?"
The eye settled on a curtained window. The light of the sun only barely got through the thickness of it, but it still left its impression in the room. The eye closed.
A second later, all six snapped open, and my companion leapt out of bed, scattering the blanket and pillows. He glided across the room, reaching the curtain in only a moment, and brushing it open immediately.
Light flooded the room. The evening sun painted the world in red and gold, the first stars only just beginning to appear in the sky.
"Ah..." His beak opened, tongue briefly darting out. "For a moment, I had worried that it had been a cruel dream."
I pulsed my mana again, more gently this time.
A few seconds passed before his head dipped to the side. A pulse of mana emanated from him, running through the area. "You've been quite drained, companion mine."
I pulsed again. Simple acknowledgement.
"I've not seen you this empty since the very beginning." He spoke. "Mayhaps we should have waited a little-"
I pulsed, sudden and sharp.
He hums. "Freedom is more important than your strength, then?" He turned, not waiting for the response. "Well, I can't deny that sentiment. I was no less eager to escape. And, really, what does it matter in the end, when time will see you regain what has been lost..."
Mana swirled over him, gathering, before his body flashed white and every trace of dirt and filth was wiped from him. His feathers shone a slightly purer white, his beak now seeming almost metallically reflective, his hair almost shimmering...
He moved to the stairs, quickly ascending them. Out onto the roof he went, before approaching the edge of the tower.
He tapped his talons together, the tips beginning to glow with golden light. "By the bindings of blood and obligation, I call."
Mana burst from his body like a wall of fire. Magical circles quickly constructed themselves, each one marked with words in the language of the Seraphim, each one flowing around my companion slowly.
"Taurourous, the Gentle Word. Heed the call." The glow rose in intensity, eclipsing the evening light.
The mana gathered, condensed-
And then fell apart, cycling through the air, unspent.
My companion's head tipped.
"Velacai, the Promise Kept. Heed the call."
The process repeated. Glow intensifying, mana condensing, only for it to fall apart.
"Adun, the Humble Beloved. Heed the call."
Nothing.
My companion made a clicking noise.
"Thrice I have called, thrice I have received no answer. The call escalates. Eliathias, Embodiment of the Virtue of Diligence. Heed the call."
Again... nothing.
My companion let his arms drop. The magic circles collapsed like glass.
"Hmm." My companion let out a breath. "For even he not to answer..."
I pulsed, questioning.
He leaned down, moving to sit at the edge of the tower. A moment later, he looked up at the sky, eyes searching the stars.
He paused, and his eyes narrowed. A groan escaped him, his hands coming up and covering his eyes. "I am a fool."
I pulsed again.
He sighed. "All that effort could have been avoided if I had simply looked up. This world has three moons. That alone could have told me that this world had no connection to Superum Caelum. Instead, I wasted my mana and exhausted myself for a call that would never get anywhere... My my, that's just embarrassing."
I pulsed.
"You're not meant to agree with me." He grouched. "Oh, now I'm almost grateful it didn't work. If the others had seen that, I would have been laughingstock for millennia."
I pulsed again, this time a low and deep hum.
"Hmm." He leaned back, laying down on the top of the tower. He pulled his hands away from his eyes, looking up at the stars. "Ah, stars. That's something I haven't seen in a while..."
Yet again.
He chuckled. "You missed them as well, of course." One arm rose above him, a single finger extending. The tip glowed brilliantly as he moved his finger around, leaving a glowing trail of light in the air.
"Considering your weakened state, I gather that you haven't been able to get a lay of the land?" He asked.
Two quick pulses, one right after the other.
"I didn't think so." He sighed. "Unfortunate, but I can fix that easily enough." His finger continued drawing. He'd finished a circle and a number of symbols, and was currently working on the centre of it.
It didn't take him very long to finish. He pulled his finger back, and looked over it before nodding.
He poured his mana into it, and the circle glowed brightly before collapsing, forming into a mote of light before expanding. A ghostly ring took shape, solidifying over a few seconds.
Then, it burst into flames, a number of eyes opening over its surface, each one the exact same colour as my companion's own. The eyes focused on him, and he pointed upwards.
"Off you go."
The eyed burning ring immediately flew upwards.
"I think I'll be needing ink and paper, by the way."
I obliged.
He nodded as they formed around him. "Alright. Let's start with a map, shall we?"
TheLurker
Random Omnipotent Lazy-As-Fuck Being
- Location
- The space beyond the stars
Okay, current working theory: Drichgeon has been trapped in some sort of extra dimensional space, apparently a very large one, but likely featureless, alongside this mysterious secondary party. Over the seemingly many, MANY years that the two spent trapped together, they formed a very strong and deep bond of friendship, born out of shared suffering. Through an incredibly costly ritual that took what is likely the soulstuff of enough creatures to populate a planet, the two of them managed to break out of their prison, winding up in a new world. This world is not something either of them have seen before, as expressed by their recognition of the different night sky.
Things we can assume:
1: Drich's companion is very powerful, capable of actively helping drich with the massive ritual, and seemingly played a key part in making sure the two of them actually escaped
2: Drich's companion has avian features, but is both bipedal, with arms/hands, and has six eyes.
3: Drich's companion is capable of calling forth divine servitors, powerful ones at that to be called Seraphim. He doesn't seem to have direct control over them, but calls to them and they choose wether or not to answer, almost like demons from the Bartimeus trilogy
4: Drich's companion does not age, period.
5: He directly summoned a Throne-class angel at the end there, that's what the burning wheel covered in eyes was. He did this despite not being in his home dimension, after the seraphim were unable to respond, so either Throne's are a sort of dimensional constant, or he created that one on the spot. Thrones are NOT low ranking celestials by any means, and are called as such because they are said to "carry the throne of god"
I think it's likely that Drich is friends with an extremely old and powerful arch mage of some sort, likely a divinely flavored one at least partway down a path of ascension, who was somehow imprisoned in the same space drich wound up in, likely due to enemy action.
So we now have an epic-level wizard/cleric, who has a powerful friendship with a sapient dungeon, based on a relationship of mutual respect, trust, and care.
This is the sort of shit you throw evil adventuring parties as a capstone quest. This is some Chaotic Good tomb of horrors shit right here.
Depending on where they wound up, odds are they're gonna be the single strongest thing on the continent once they recover.
Things we can assume:
1: Drich's companion is very powerful, capable of actively helping drich with the massive ritual, and seemingly played a key part in making sure the two of them actually escaped
2: Drich's companion has avian features, but is both bipedal, with arms/hands, and has six eyes.
3: Drich's companion is capable of calling forth divine servitors, powerful ones at that to be called Seraphim. He doesn't seem to have direct control over them, but calls to them and they choose wether or not to answer, almost like demons from the Bartimeus trilogy
4: Drich's companion does not age, period.
5: He directly summoned a Throne-class angel at the end there, that's what the burning wheel covered in eyes was. He did this despite not being in his home dimension, after the seraphim were unable to respond, so either Throne's are a sort of dimensional constant, or he created that one on the spot. Thrones are NOT low ranking celestials by any means, and are called as such because they are said to "carry the throne of god"
I think it's likely that Drich is friends with an extremely old and powerful arch mage of some sort, likely a divinely flavored one at least partway down a path of ascension, who was somehow imprisoned in the same space drich wound up in, likely due to enemy action.
So we now have an epic-level wizard/cleric, who has a powerful friendship with a sapient dungeon, based on a relationship of mutual respect, trust, and care.
This is the sort of shit you throw evil adventuring parties as a capstone quest. This is some Chaotic Good tomb of horrors shit right here.
Depending on where they wound up, odds are they're gonna be the single strongest thing on the continent once they recover.
Last edited:
1.4
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
1.4
+++
"I don't believe this land is natural." My companion spoke aloud. "Not completely, at least."
I pulsed, questioningly.
"These rivers, marshes, and plains are a little too regular for it." He explained. "The terrain has a pattern that's unnatural. The life in the terrain isn't as regular, which leads me to believe that the land was shaped, and then left alone." His hands brushed again the paper of the map, carefully avoiding damaging it. "Curious, that."
It was. And looking at the map, I could see what he meant. Plains transitioned into marshes, then into rivers, and then back again. It was hardly a perfect pattern, but considering just how much terrain had been mapped...
It was definitely visible.
And now that I think about it, the land above was pretty flat, too. Barring the places where nature had made its mark, there really wasn't that much of a variance in height across the place. Sure, there were small hills and valleys, but that was the thing.
They were small.
"I don't suppose you have detected any magic remnants?" He asked.
I pulsed twice.
"I didn't think so." His fingers threaded together. "Which means that this was done either quite a long time ago, or it was done without the aid of magic. Quite likely to be the former, if nature has reclaimed this place normally..."
He sighed. "And without a connection to Superum Caelum, there's no way for me to quickly check. How inconvenient..."
I pulsed, languid and slow.
"You're right." He straightened. "We do have time."
He looked towards the window. The moonlight shining through made its mark on the floor, casting the room in a silver glow.
He turned back to the map. "And there is no reason to hurry. More time to recover would hardly be remiss for either of us."
I pulsed.
He waved his hand, the curtain closing with the slightest touch of magic. The room plunged into darkness, the only source of light being my companion's own eyes, which left softly glowing trails as he moved.
Neither of us were bothered by something so minor as a lack of light.
He started towards the bed, but he paused as I pulsed thrice.
"Hmm?" He asked.
My mana swirled. For a brief moment, a ring of fire formed across from him, before fading.
"What of it?"
I pressed my mana against the barrier of his soul. To him, it would be nothing more than a light pressure, but it got the point across.
"You worry too much, you know. It is just an Ophanim."
'Just', he says. There was nothing 'just' about an Ophanim. It was Angel of the First Sphere, among the highest ranks of Angels in existence. If he had summoned it, I would not have cared.
But he hadn't summoned it. He couldn't have; this place, as he had said, had no connection to Supernum Caelum. He couldn't summon angels from that place.
Where, then, had it came from?
Simple.
He had created it.
It was a simple process, in theory and in practice.
Angels were creatures of divinity and magic. They had been created, first, from a God. But, not all Angels had been created by a God.
Angels were living creatures. And, like all living creatures, they possessed the capacity to grow. Much the same, they also possessed the ability to procreate.
It was done in a way different to most other forms of life, however. Angels did not have genders or biological functions. They procreated by shaving off pieces of their own souls, and then giving those pieces a body of their own through magic. The process left the angel weakened, depending on how much of their soul they shaved off for their offspring, but Angels, as immortal creatures, would eventually recover from that in time.
My companion, despite the fact that he had very much not recovered from the exertion our escape had placed on him, had done exactly that.
My mana drums against the barrier of his soul.
"I will recover." He offers. "Something such as an Ophanim is not enough to meaningfully weaken me."
The next pulse is like a lance. Sharp and piercing.
He sighs. "It's not the fact that it was an Ophanim, is it? It's the fact that I created an Angel at all."
A gentler pulse. Still possessing of something unyielding at its core, however.
"I am aware that I haven't recovered yet,-" I really have to wonder about that, when he does stuff like this. "- but I assure you, there will be no harm."
For a moment, I do nothing.
Then I drop a pebble on his head. It bounces off with clink, clattering to the ground.
He sighed again. "Fine. I will reclaim it. Happy?"
I was. I pulsed again to indicate as such.
'Reclaim', in this case, meant reacquiring the shaved off portions of their soul that the angel had given away. It was only possible for a short time after the progeny had been spawned, no more than a day and a half. After that, the given soul would fully establish, becoming its own, separate existence. From then onwards, it wouldn't be possible to reintegrate it into the parent's soul.
The Ophanim had been out for hours already. Considering the fact that it was an Ophanim, it would establish its own soul faster than other Angels. When it did, it would become fully sentient and sapient, becoming my companion's progeny in full- and also leaving my companion that much weaker right now, when he should have been recovering.
"Must you always worry about me so much?" He asked. His voice was wistful.
I pulsed immediately.
Somebody had to. That kind of carelessness about his own state had been exactly why he had been trapped with me in the first place.
"Hah." He exhaled. "Mayhaps you should focus some of that worry on yourself, companion mine. You too were weakened, you know?"
I dropped another pebble on his head. It too bounced off, joining the other one on the ground.
The silence, I let speak for itself.
He chuckled. "You're right. You are already recovering. Foolish of me." He laughter fell away, and he straightened. His next words were low and quiet. "My apologies, my dear friend. My actions worry you, don't they?"
A soft pulse, this time.
His head dipped. "Very well. Concern yourself not with me, my friend. I will endeavour not to do anything strenuous until after I have recovered."
I pulsed again. It was all I needed from him.
He started moving again, this time heading towards the stairs. Mana streamed from him into the air, and a few seconds later, I felt the Ophanim enter my aura.
My attention turned away from him, back to the environments I had constructed. It could always use more tweaks. This cave could be a little wider, that false-wall could be a little better hidden...
I should probably start working on the surface, too. Expand the size of my aura a small amount, encourage further growth, and then maybe start adding animals that were larger than mere insects...
So many things I could do. It was nice, working with an environment that already existed, instead of something that I had designed.
I gathered my mana, and got started.
+++
"I don't believe this land is natural." My companion spoke aloud. "Not completely, at least."
I pulsed, questioningly.
"These rivers, marshes, and plains are a little too regular for it." He explained. "The terrain has a pattern that's unnatural. The life in the terrain isn't as regular, which leads me to believe that the land was shaped, and then left alone." His hands brushed again the paper of the map, carefully avoiding damaging it. "Curious, that."
It was. And looking at the map, I could see what he meant. Plains transitioned into marshes, then into rivers, and then back again. It was hardly a perfect pattern, but considering just how much terrain had been mapped...
It was definitely visible.
And now that I think about it, the land above was pretty flat, too. Barring the places where nature had made its mark, there really wasn't that much of a variance in height across the place. Sure, there were small hills and valleys, but that was the thing.
They were small.
"I don't suppose you have detected any magic remnants?" He asked.
I pulsed twice.
"I didn't think so." His fingers threaded together. "Which means that this was done either quite a long time ago, or it was done without the aid of magic. Quite likely to be the former, if nature has reclaimed this place normally..."
He sighed. "And without a connection to Superum Caelum, there's no way for me to quickly check. How inconvenient..."
I pulsed, languid and slow.
"You're right." He straightened. "We do have time."
He looked towards the window. The moonlight shining through made its mark on the floor, casting the room in a silver glow.
He turned back to the map. "And there is no reason to hurry. More time to recover would hardly be remiss for either of us."
I pulsed.
He waved his hand, the curtain closing with the slightest touch of magic. The room plunged into darkness, the only source of light being my companion's own eyes, which left softly glowing trails as he moved.
Neither of us were bothered by something so minor as a lack of light.
He started towards the bed, but he paused as I pulsed thrice.
"Hmm?" He asked.
My mana swirled. For a brief moment, a ring of fire formed across from him, before fading.
"What of it?"
I pressed my mana against the barrier of his soul. To him, it would be nothing more than a light pressure, but it got the point across.
"You worry too much, you know. It is just an Ophanim."
'Just', he says. There was nothing 'just' about an Ophanim. It was Angel of the First Sphere, among the highest ranks of Angels in existence. If he had summoned it, I would not have cared.
But he hadn't summoned it. He couldn't have; this place, as he had said, had no connection to Supernum Caelum. He couldn't summon angels from that place.
Where, then, had it came from?
Simple.
He had created it.
It was a simple process, in theory and in practice.
Angels were creatures of divinity and magic. They had been created, first, from a God. But, not all Angels had been created by a God.
Angels were living creatures. And, like all living creatures, they possessed the capacity to grow. Much the same, they also possessed the ability to procreate.
It was done in a way different to most other forms of life, however. Angels did not have genders or biological functions. They procreated by shaving off pieces of their own souls, and then giving those pieces a body of their own through magic. The process left the angel weakened, depending on how much of their soul they shaved off for their offspring, but Angels, as immortal creatures, would eventually recover from that in time.
My companion, despite the fact that he had very much not recovered from the exertion our escape had placed on him, had done exactly that.
My mana drums against the barrier of his soul.
"I will recover." He offers. "Something such as an Ophanim is not enough to meaningfully weaken me."
The next pulse is like a lance. Sharp and piercing.
He sighs. "It's not the fact that it was an Ophanim, is it? It's the fact that I created an Angel at all."
A gentler pulse. Still possessing of something unyielding at its core, however.
"I am aware that I haven't recovered yet,-" I really have to wonder about that, when he does stuff like this. "- but I assure you, there will be no harm."
For a moment, I do nothing.
Then I drop a pebble on his head. It bounces off with clink, clattering to the ground.
He sighed again. "Fine. I will reclaim it. Happy?"
I was. I pulsed again to indicate as such.
'Reclaim', in this case, meant reacquiring the shaved off portions of their soul that the angel had given away. It was only possible for a short time after the progeny had been spawned, no more than a day and a half. After that, the given soul would fully establish, becoming its own, separate existence. From then onwards, it wouldn't be possible to reintegrate it into the parent's soul.
The Ophanim had been out for hours already. Considering the fact that it was an Ophanim, it would establish its own soul faster than other Angels. When it did, it would become fully sentient and sapient, becoming my companion's progeny in full- and also leaving my companion that much weaker right now, when he should have been recovering.
"Must you always worry about me so much?" He asked. His voice was wistful.
I pulsed immediately.
Somebody had to. That kind of carelessness about his own state had been exactly why he had been trapped with me in the first place.
"Hah." He exhaled. "Mayhaps you should focus some of that worry on yourself, companion mine. You too were weakened, you know?"
I dropped another pebble on his head. It too bounced off, joining the other one on the ground.
The silence, I let speak for itself.
He chuckled. "You're right. You are already recovering. Foolish of me." He laughter fell away, and he straightened. His next words were low and quiet. "My apologies, my dear friend. My actions worry you, don't they?"
A soft pulse, this time.
His head dipped. "Very well. Concern yourself not with me, my friend. I will endeavour not to do anything strenuous until after I have recovered."
I pulsed again. It was all I needed from him.
He started moving again, this time heading towards the stairs. Mana streamed from him into the air, and a few seconds later, I felt the Ophanim enter my aura.
My attention turned away from him, back to the environments I had constructed. It could always use more tweaks. This cave could be a little wider, that false-wall could be a little better hidden...
I should probably start working on the surface, too. Expand the size of my aura a small amount, encourage further growth, and then maybe start adding animals that were larger than mere insects...
So many things I could do. It was nice, working with an environment that already existed, instead of something that I had designed.
I gathered my mana, and got started.
Orion Zete
[verify weaboo]
- Location
- Malaysia
You actually make me smile a bit drich
Thanks for the awesome chapter
Thanks for the awesome chapter
- Location
- The underworld