The Tower in the Shadows

"What to do? What to do? Come on, Bhaldor, think!" I asked myself.

I had a significant problem.

My aura reached the end of my current room to expand. I was just short of one of the walls not connected internally to the rest of the building I was in. If I crossed it and my aura left the building, it would alert everyone sensitive to my presence.

I was not ready for that. Honestly, I was afraid.

Was I a coward?

When alive as a man, the answer was yes. In many ways, I was. So now here is my new life. Would I still be? That was the question.

"I really need to stop this!" I had been trying to stop thinking like I was telling a story or conversing and getting on with it, but I was failing.

"Why the hell am I explaining everything I do? Hello, is anyone there?" Silence was my answer. Frustrated with my rebellious mind, I had to continue.

It was late afternoon and I spent the first two days of my new life thinking about the walls around me. It had occurred to me that I needed to decide whether these walls would be my prison or my home.

With nothing else to do, I just read and thought. However, the expected mental crisis of my new existence had not arrived. I was somehow very accepting of the fact that I was no longer human and now something else.

In the night, I wondered if Oda had done something more to me than round my soul into this new gem body. It was quite possible, but I had no way of knowing. I could not keep thinking along these lines right now. That route led to some dark paths and already weird thoughts.

"Focus, Bhaldor!"

Back to my problem at hand, I had come up with a risky idea. I had been thinking about the stories I had read and it was the only way I could think of to continue to grow.

I gently pushed my aura out and touched the wall. My CP was still low, so I had to be careful. I slowly moved my aura further into the wall as gently as I dared. When I reached the face of the outside wall, I stopped. Now, my experiments could begin.

In the night, I asked myself the question.

"Could I manipulate my aura's shape?"

If I could, I reasoned, then I could shape myself to become this building. If not, my presence would become known and the odds of me surviving would drop dramatically.

Within my mind, I focused my will on picturing my aura expanding into the wall and, eventually, becoming the wall. Over the next few hours, I tried and tested different concepts and ideas in my mind. The night quickly fell, but still, I worked. Not needing sleep anymore was now an advantage for me. My CP regeneration rate was my only limiter.

"Come on, Bhaldor!"

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

"Work, damn it!" I called and screamed out in my mind during the night.

And as the sun rose, I got my reward.

A glowing exclamation mark appeared in the corner of my vision. A small bell rang softly.

Ring

I remembered from the wiki that it was an alert. I had to access it.

"Alert open."

New Skill – Aura Manipulation – Level 1

This skill allows the user to shape their aura according to the environment around them. Using this skill increased CP use by 100%.

"FINALLY!" I screamed out.

Blue Box for the win! This was going to work.

I hoped. That was one hell of an additional cost to use the skill.

I had merged my aura with the wall and now made it the edge of it. This meant my aura would not move further here unless I willed it.

I stopped, mentally exhausted. I never thought I could feel so tired as a dungeon core. My CP was low, but I felt a lot better now. I had been stressing out about several near misses I had during the night.

A little time later, I got to work.

## ## ## ## ##

Twenty Days and Nights!

Twenty Fucking Days and Nights!

That was how long it took me to "occupy" the room with my aura. That extra cost was a total bitch!

To be honest, I did not just mould my aura to the room's walls. I merged with the roof, window shutters and front door. The room had a fireplace with a few wood logs and some old ash, which I checked out but left alone as there was nothing interesting. The hole in the roof let in rain, which gave me access to water, but in the end, I repaired it.

The roof was also missing tiles, so I replaced them as I went. I expected them to be slate, but as I discovered, the debris that fell with me was clay when absorbed. The walls were pale grey stone with Roman military-style architecture and the roof tiles were orange like those found in the Mediterranean. The clay and wood were cheap and easy to replace using CP, but this repair work slowed me down.

During this time, learning that I could open and close the doors and shutters in the room controlled by me at will was fun. I could also move the furniture I had created around. It's not helpful at the moment, but maybe later. I also discovered I could have a CP counter in my vision. Like a HUD display to help keep track of the amount of CP available to use. This proved to be both a help and a curse as I constantly watched the count while waiting for my CP to regenerate.

I "looked" around the room. This was the entry to my Dungeon. Let's be honest. It is my Dungeon at the moment. So how am I going to do this?

Thinking about this was easy as I had a lot of time between waiting for my CP to regenerate and planning this.

In time, I had a plan or at least a start of one.

I had to work with what I had, which was almost nothing. I decided to create a trap in this room. I had recreated the room to what it was. There was a cupboard in this room with a small chest. Creating a new poison wine bottle and placing it in the chest with a few copper coins was easier than I expected. The bottle just fitted in and was filled with the wax seal replaced.

This was the trap. I hoped to use this lure to get those foolish enough to drink the wine and take them out. The experienced adventure would not be fooled, but the younger ones might fall for it.

Hope springs eternal on this idea.

People can walk in, pick me up and walk away with me. That was concerning, to say the least. I needed to think about where I was going to hide.

I was looking at correcting this when I felt…... something.

It was strange. I could not explain it as I had never experienced it before. I looked around my room to see what was causing it.

Was it a feeling? Impression? Of shadow. I think.

I could not explain it.

I did not see anything. It was about midday from the light coming through the one open shutter. I felt it was in the corner in heavy shadow. But I could not see anything different.

I am a bloody idiot! I could change the way I could see.

"Mana Sight. Activate."

My vision of the world altered like a filter was placed over it. I noticed a light mist floating through the air. In the corner, I now could see a mote of grey light.

Was this Mana?

Experimentation time!

I "reached" out and touched it.

Alert!

Shadow Mana discovered!

The blue box appeared as soon as I made contact. But was quickly followed up by more.

Mana Absorption is possible!

Do you wish to absorb Shadow Mana and have it become your….

++ ERROR! ++

++ ERROR! ++

Absorption is impossible!

Shadow Mana is now decaying!

Wait! What?

I could sense that the Mana was disappearing. I knew why it had been blocked; it was that bloody restriction listed on my character sheet.

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!"

I found that I could move the Mana but could not store it anywhere. I panicked as I tried to hold it in different places. They all failed. It quickly decayed and vanished.

"Mana Sight deactivate."

This left me feeling down for a while. Since my CP was still regenerating, I used this time to expand the other sections of my character sheet.

"Skills open."

Skills:

Mana Manipulation: 1 - 20%

Core Refining: 1 – 0%

Mana Sight: 1 – 15%

Aura Manipulation: 1 - 85%

Hold on!

I had neglected to look at my skills since I had gained Aura Manipulation. I cursed myself rotten for missing this obvious thing! I was gaining experience towards the next level on three of them.

Noob mistake 101, forgetting to check how your skills are developing!

I could not neglect things like this if I were going to survive.

I had been alternating between being hyper-focused on expanding and wondering what to do with my time. The long, lonely hours were the worst. This time has worn on my mind. The quiet time, as I came to know it, was the most challenging part of my new existence. Time drags here relentlessly.

I was never bothered by the time when alone before, but now I feel it and fully understand the danger of the Companionless restriction. I need to get into a mindset of staying active. The companion has the role of mental health support to the Dungeon in the stories I have read and as a guide in the core's new existence. Neither is available to me.

"Is this why I am talking to myself?"

Focus! It's time to get defenders. Or at least try to.

The first step was to create and place a tin plate on the table. Then, a second bottle of wine, which I put with the end of its neck over the plate. When happy with the placement, I reabsorbed the cork and watched the contents spill over the plate. About two-thirds of the wine was now covering the plate and table. I was not concerned as I could remove the wine at will.

This was a lure to draw in whatever could be attracted by the smell of the wine. I made sure to open two of the six shutters in the room, the closest to the wine-soaked area. I had toyed with the idea of opening the door but was only testing the concept.

Doing this had used up my CP again, forcing me to wait.

"Mana Sight. Activate."

This did not cost me anything to use, but the skill affected my sight of the space my aura controlled. I was not seeing everything like I usually did. Everything became dull and fuzzy—not as bad as outside my aura, but it made looking around harder. I was interested in the light mist I had seen earlier.

I watched it float around my aura-controlled space.

What was it?

I needed a way to get around or make the Affintyless restriction work for me. I knew I needed to learn more about Mana. My wiki explained that Mana was the essence of the world taken form. The environment influenced this. For example, due to the shadow lurking in the corner of the room, it had become shadow mana. So, if the essence took form in a lake, it would become water mana.

This makes sense to me.

But what do I do with it?

The wiki could have been more specific on this.

An alert icon with a bell ring appeared in the corner of my vision.

"Alert open."

Nothing happened.

"Mana Sight. Deactivate."

My vision returned to normal.

"Alert open."

Alert!

A Grey Striped Wasp has entered your Dungeon.

A Grey Striped Wasp has died in your Dungeon.

Essence Gained!

Creature Design Gained - Grey Striped Wasp.

I felt a slight rush of energy, which I almost missed.

Looking at the plate, I found the creature in question. The wasp was three inches big and had a nasty-looking stinger. It was light grey in colour with dark green stripes on its body. The need to absorb the body was present but was too bad. I absorbed the body.

I opened my character sheet and found that my essence had gone up a whole 1%—great! But I had to work with what I had. I needed to kill another ninety-nine for it even to be possible to level up.

Navigating through my screens to the creation section, I found a new option for minions had appeared.

"Minions open."

The menu presented me with a list of one.

Grey Striped Wasp. (1 CP)

Well, I can now officially create my first dungeon creature or Minion, as my display calls them.

Was Bhaldor over the moon with joy?

No.

Was Bhaldor happy to get started?

Yes.

Opening up the Minion option was next.

Name

Wasp

Level/Class

1 - Dungeon Minion

Race

Grey Striped Wasp

Essence

0%

Health

10/10

Mana

10/10

Stamina

10/10

Corruption

0%

STR

1

1 Damage base

DEX

3

AGL

15

+ 10% Dodge

END

1

VIT

1

PER

6

INT

1

WIL

1

LUCK

1

Skills:

Stinger Strike: 1 – 0% (+2 damage) Cost: 2 Stamina

Dodge: 1 - 0% Cost: 2 Stamina

Equipment:

Stringer: Dam 1 + STR

Perks/Restrictions:

Small and Fast: The Minion's size and speed make it harder to hit—X2 to all Dodge skills bonuses.

Aggressive: Will attack any threat that enters its sight.

Ok.

No significant threat, but used in numbers could be dangerous. Not too bright, clearly. It had a (1 CP) next to its name, which was its base cost to create.

My first creature could have been better, but it was what I had. It was good to see the sections with more details, unlike mine, which was odd. This confused me. Why was mine more restricted?

A new option at the bottom of the screen is listed as "customise".

"Customise open."

The screen changed, showing a wireframe of the wasp's form. This again made sense to me based on what I had read in the media and what Oda had said. There were two more options for adding CP or adding Mana.

I could use this wasp template to create all new and dangerous versions of creatures that died in my Dungeon. There was a warning, however, on the screen. It read.

Warning. All alterations are randomly dependent on selected options and may not be compatible with the base design!

This was not surprising. The stories I had read indicated that dumping too much Mana and/or CP, in my case, could lead to explosive results. Affording such mistakes was imperative; I had to avoid them for my future survival, so it was hard for me not to experiment just yet.

But I so wanted to!

No, be strong. Focus on securing the building first!

The other reason I did not create one was that my minions taxed my CP total. This was a natural limiter on the number and power of the creatures in my Dungeon. The more powerful, the greater the CP upkeep cost or tax, as it was called in my wiki. I needed every point for expansion, leaving myself vulnerable and not creating any.

I left the "trap" for now and returned to my expansion.

There was a basement of some sort below me and the tower base. I decided on the tower base and got to work.

Thinking about the future as I worked.