The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

“So, are you going to open it, or not?” Myra asked, staring at his large chest.

“Yes. We want to see the goods!” Asami said, also staring at his chest.

“I’m not sure it’ll be all that interesting,” he said, shaking his head at their enthusiasm. His chest wasn’t that special, after all.

“No, a chest that broad is surely worth exploring!” Asami said, now practically salivating at getting her hands on his chest.

“Fine, fine,” he said, then leaned over and unlatched the loot chest he’d gotten from the goblin dungeon, then flipped the lid open in a very un-dramatic way.

Both Myra and Asami gave him a flat look before turning to see what was in his loot chest, then gasped.

“Are you sure that’s from one dungeon?” Myra asked, staring at the veritable hoard of treasure before her eyes.

Joram would have argued the point, but he was in no way familiar with how these things worked. He’d just gone about looting bodies- once the knew that that was a thing!- up to that point. This was his first reward from a dungeon.

He idly wondered if the could “loot” the loot chest and avoid having to sort and count everything in there.

“Is that a Skill Book?” Myra asked excitedly as she pointed at a well-made leather bound book with weird writing on it.

“Looks like it,” he said, shrugging.

“Why aren’t you excited about that? Skill Books are incredibly rare!” Myra asked, seeming to have already forgotten that he’d given her a [Pyrokinesis] Skill Book already.

“He’s just boring,” Asami said, waving her comment away as she reached down and picked up a well-made leather pouch that bordered on being a satchel, it was so large. “Gems!” she exclaimed excitedly after getting a peek inside.

“Let me see!” Myra said as she scooted closer to the vixen to get a better look.

Joram shook his head as he leaned over to get a better look at what the chest held. Looking at the pile of coins, he decided that using [Telekinesis] would be faster than manually sorting through things with his hands.

Then, the coins started to flow. Well, “quickly floated” into four different stacks of coins of wildly varying size on the table. Once that was done, several ingots of metal were then withdrawn from the chest to start their own stacks. Followed by jewelry and a few weapons that startled him more than a little bit.

For one, a staff that long shouldn’t have fit into the loot chest unless some System shenanigans were at play. For another, there were… things from his world in there.

“What’s that?” Myra asked, looking at what appeared to be a Desert Eagle….

“It’s… something from my… home,” he said, then frowned as a holster was pulled out with a couple of clip pouches in it. Then came a very large box of ammunition.

“What’s it do?” Myra asked, looking curious.

“It… uses a chemical reaction to propel slugs of metal at extreme veloci- speeds at its target,” he said, briefly flubbing his explanation because he hadn’t come across the word for “velocity” yet.

“Is it effective?” Asami asked, looking skeptical.

“Too effective, some would say,” he said with a frown. Not for any distaste for firearms, but because he was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Both women quieted as they sensed his mood while also taking in the strange things he’d pulled out of the now almost empty loot chest.

And because he’d always wanted to- well, since he’d gotten crazy psionic powers- he picked up the gun and [Delve]d it, taking in everything about its construction as well as its molecular composition all the way to the oils used to keep the gun functional.

What he got was… enlightening. Not in an epiphany-like way, but in terms of metallurgy and chemistry and all that, for he’d also gotten the information on its ammunition.

With that done, he looked into the loot chest and found that there was just one thing remaining. A bit of [Telekinesis] later, and he was holding another large box, one that had just fit inside of the loot chest. Which caught his friends’ attention again.

Looking as though they were a pair of cats that had gotten into the catnip, they watched with round and very focussed eyes as he placed the box on the table in front of him. On a whim, he used [Analyze].

Box of Holding: Lesser

This box is enchanted to contain an extra-dimensional space that increases its internal volume.

Items placed within will have their weight reduced by 50%.

Volume is 2m3.

“Huh,” he huh’d as he reread the description. “Box of Holding,” he said with a small smile as he opened it to see if there was anything inside.

“Whoa,” Myra said, looking shocked. “You just keep getting all the cool stuff,” she said, glancing at her own small pile of loot off to the side.

“Are they rare?” he asked, slightly disappointed that it wasn’t filled with yet more loot.

“They’re definitely not common, that’s for sure,” she said, shaking her head. “The Exterminator’s Hall would pay handsomely for that, as they’re usually pretty eager to get anything that’ll make their jobs easier.”

“Mmm, they’re also fun,” Asami said with a grin. “You can hide so much food in those things for later,” she said, a far away look in her eyes. “You just have to make sure no wandering thieves find it, though,” she finished with a frown.

“Sorry to hear that,” he said, not sure what else to say. “Do you want this one, then?” he asked, not quite sure how useful it would be to him since he had an inventory and all… and the ability to make things like that now.

Well, not right then, but soon. He was getting very close to understanding his [Craft Wondrous Items] “feat”, so he was sure that he’d be making some pretty cool things in the near future.

Asami’s eyes widened before she glomped onto him, hugging him tightly as she nuzzled her face into his chest happily, her tails happily swishing to and fro.

Having at least gotten a bit used to such occurrences over the past couple of months, he just patted her head with one hand and her back with the other before turning back to the pile of loot.

“Hmm, a staff, eh?” he asked, then [Analyze]d it.

Irymis’ Staff

While using Irymis’ Staff, you have access to the [Spatial Manipulation] and [Dimensional Manipulation] Sills.

Proficiency starts at 1. Any progress in either Skill is saved in Irymis’ Staff.

To use Irymis’ Staff, you must first attune yourself to it.

Note: Any saved Skill progress already in the staff is reset when a new being attunes themselves to Irymis’ Staff.

Joram took a little while to appreciate the staff’s construction. It seemed to be made of a very hard wood that was nearly black and streaked with very dark greys and straight as a rod. On its top was a large pyramid-decahedron- well, he couldn’t actually remember what a crystal with ten sides caped by pyramids was called, so that would do- crystal of some sort, but also jet black and held in place by a net of the wood.

It was relatively slender, only about 5-6cm in diameter, but a good 185cm tall. He supposed that maybe it was made by a shorter person with smaller hands. Who knew? He certainly didn’t!

But it was quite the staff, in his opinion. Something with both Skills and a “memory” must not be terribly common, if his video game lore was anything to go by. But, “attuning”?

“Hey, how do you attune to an item?” he asked, turning back to his two friends.

Myra’s jaw dropped as her hand went a bit slack on the Desert Eagle she was hefting experimentally.

“You’re ridiculous,” Asami said, shaking her head. “Just [Meditate] with it in your hands and trickle some mana through it for a few minutes,” she finished, shaking her head again. “Ridiculous Luck,” she muttered under her breath.

“What was that?” Joram asked, looking back to her as he prepared to [Delve] the staff.

“Nothing,” she said, waving him off as she leaned over to inspect a pair of daggers on the table that looked closer to being kukri than dagger.

Shrugging, Joram [Delve]d the staff, noting the peculiar nature of the staff. If he was reading things right, he suspected that the staff had also been enchanted as a weapon. He was still studying up on all of the “Feats” that Altaea had left in his head that his Other Self had mastered under her tutelage; one of which was [Craft: Arms and Armour]. Specifically, the method of enchanting them with various effects.

The wood and crystal were also fascinating. He very much suspected that he’d need to use a Power like [Detect Psionics], or if that wouldn’t be enough, [Hypercognition] to figure out more about its enchantments, and possibly how to anchor a Skill into an item. Because damn! That would be useful as all hell!

Getting back to the wood that the staff was made of, another thought occurred to him. Could he use what he’d learned from [Delve] to modify a seed with [Grow] to make it into the kind of tree that the staff had been made from? Or, could he use both Powers together while manifesting something like [True Creation] to just plain create the seed, or seeds?

Or could he just use something like [Hypercognition] while manifesting [True Creation] to do the same thing? He already had the staff’s molecular structure memorized, so….

“Hey,” Asami said, poking him in the side. “Ow. Anyways. You said that you wanted to experiment today with your ridiculous Skills,” she said, reminding him of his itinerary.

“Ah, yes, sorry and thank you,” he said, referring to both her “ow” comment and the reminder.

- - -

“Are you sure that this is a good idea?” Myra asked, not looking very comfortable being in the lowest level of the old Goblin Home Dungeon.

Joram really couldn’t blame her. He was still hesitant to try creating a new dungeon, not knowing what might come out of it.

“I need to try, though,” he said. “It’s better to know what your Skills can do than not to.”

“True, but…. I don’t really want to be at the bottom of a dungeon when it comes to life, you know?” Myra said, looking around at the bioluminescent flora and spectacular crystals that surrounded them as though they were hiding monsters that were just itching to devour them.

“You’ll be safe,” he said, giving her a light pat on the shoulder. “Asami is also here, along with a few of my constructs,” he said, motioning to each in turn.

He’d gone with two dragon models and four tentacle models, which hadn’t been a popular decision based on the looks he’d gotten from the two women, but it didn’t matter so long as they’d be protected.

Myra nodded, though she didn’t look particularly reassured. Still, he couldn’t blame her considering that ogre mages had previously been on this level.

Putting those thoughts away before they could pull him along for a wild ride, Joram concentrated on [Create Dungeon] for a moment before just going with it.

[Create Dungeon] Protocol Initiated.

Processing…

New User found…

Gathering resources…

Setting permissions…

Setting parameters…

New menu added to User’s Status.

Please use your Status Menu to navigate to the new [Create Dungeon] tab.

Joram blinked at that, wondering just what he’d unlocked, and what he could do with it…. Well, that last part was easy enough, so he opened his Status and found the new tab. He clicked on it and smiled.

There was a list of dungeon options, each with a dropdown menu attached to them. Anything from [Area] to [Denizens] to [Difficulty] to [Floors] was listed. The [Permissions] option intrigued him, so he clicked on that first.

He was happy to see that there were options to toggle friendly fire on or off, as well as designating entities as “friendly” to the dungeon. Though, after a bit more poking around, he found that once everything was decided upon, the dungeon would be “set”. Well, mostly everything.

Permissions would be set, but he could always add more space, levels, or denizens if he used his Skill again. That said, he wondered what [Control Dungeon] was all about, considering [Create Dungeon] was both flexible and versatile in its use. Then he just looked it up.

Dungeon Master

- You have somehow assimilated a dungeon core. This has caused a number of changes within you that will allow you to interact with and manipulate dungeons and their cores.

- Benefit:

- You’ve gained the following Skills: [Control Dungeon] and [Create Dungeon].

- Reduced threat range from dungeon monsters in dungeons that you do not control.

- You now have the ability to use [Control Dungeon] on a dungeon that you didn’t create with [Create Dungeon] to gain ownership of it.

- A new section has been added to you Status, titled: Dungeons. You may adjust any settings or features of any dungeon that you control from there.

Ah, well, that’s kinda broken. But how hard will it be to take ownership of another dungeon…? He mused as he checked out the [Area] menu.

Hmm, so 1MP per 1m2. Not terrible, but also somewhat costly. Just a 10x10 metre room would cost a hundred mana, though, so that’s all sorts of ridiculous…. Wait.

He checked [Create Dungeon], then just about laughed out loud when he saw that it was designated as a [Creation]-type Skill.

Well, now. That’s both broken and going to make things so much easier for me, he thought as he remembered what his Class and Achievement did for him, specifically his [Creationist] Achievement:

Creationist (Unique)

- You’ve gained the Titles: Dungeon Master and Master of Ectoplasm, something hitherto fore unheard of, and have gained the ability to create more than just simple ectoplasmic creations.

- Benefit:

- You are now able to imbue any creation of ectoplasm with greater detail. You can make any ectoplasmic creation appear as you want them to, fully hiding its nature if you so wish. I.e.: An [Astral Construct] made in the form of a dragon will appear in every way to be a dragon if you’re [Sculpting] Skill is high enough level.

- Any [Metacreativity] or [Creation] ability, power, or spell, that you use gain the following benefits:

- All associated costs are reduced by 75%.

- Casting/Manifesting time reduced by 50%.

- Duration is increased by 10x.

- Volumes are increased by 10x.

- Ranges are increased by 10x.

- Anything created can have its hardness increased by up to 5.

Then there was his [Ease of Creation], which was just crazy when it was paired with the [Creationist] Achievement.

Ease of Creation

- Any “Creation” or “Manipulation” type ability, power, or spell that has a “cost” (beyond the mana or power required to activate it), has that cost reduced by 30%. This reduction occurs before any other considerations when using an ability, power, or spell.

o The reduction increases by 10% every 2 levels thereafter, to a maximum of 100% at Creationist level 15.

Which meant that dungeon creation would be… easy enough to play around with. Too easy, if he was being honest with himself. It was almost as though he had [Administrative Access] or something ridiculous given just how geared he seemed to be to [Create] just about… anything, really. That 10x10 metre room would only cost him 25MP now. Which, really, was just crazy to think about.

Especially since his Attributes were on the ridiculous side of things, which also meant that the regeneration values for his resource pools were equally ridiculous.

Shaking his head, he checked the [Levels] dropdown menu and found that adding a new level would cost 500MP before even creating a room, which translated to 125MP after his reduction.

Then he noticed a note that stated that if he wanted to designate an existing open space as a Level, he would need to pay the value for the full space if it was an enclosed space. So, considering the cavern they were in, he tapped on the [Calculate] button to see how much mana it would cost to add the room that they were in and just about choked.

Given that the height was listed at 17m, the width as 32m, and the length as 67m, it would cost him 2,144MP + 500MP for the Level cost. So, with his reduction, it would be 661MP just for this floor. Which, considering what his mana pool had been before this, it would have been impossible for him to do. Now? Easy-peasy.

He smiled, then paid the cost, reducing his pool to 1,449/2,110. His regen was now 78/minute, so that would be regained pretty quickly, especially given how he was still going over things.

Once he’d done that, the menu automatically shifted to the [Denizens] dropdown menu. He then clicked on it and goggled at the vast array of options. [Flora] and [Fauna] were the two main categories, with their own subcategories. He was particularly amused to see that [Fungus] was listed under [Fauna].

There were already entries for the moss and mushrooms, so he skipped over those and perused the various animals that he could install there. He soon found that the variety would very much stall him out in his efforts to do anything in any sort of timely manner, so he just skipped that part and went on to [Finish], then to [Confirm]. He could always mess around with the dungeon afterwards when he was at home and relaxed. He also didn’t want to keep Myra on edge longer than necessary, especially given how poofy her tails had already become.

Please confirm the name of your Dungeon…

Joram paused, mostly because he was quite terrible at naming things. After a moment, he just shrugged and went with his second thought.

[Ancient Garden] has been registered as the name for this Dungeon.

Dungeon [Ancient Garden] will now be created along with the Dungeon Core.

Please enjoy the Dungeon responsibly.