Trash Mountain Dungeon

A week had passed since the attack, and much had changed, not everything of course, the dungeon was still largely the same, but it was furnished now. After I chose the neutral architecture option, I was given a bunch of different decorations, some were admittedly useless, but they were cheap and the sleek grey stone walls were getting boring to look at every day. However, some of the decorations did have a functional use, for example, the many different types of pottery I could make can be used to store ‘exotic’ materials along with loot to lure in people or even food to attract animals.

But that wasn’t the only thing that changed, before the attack it seemed as though many animals had already died from their sprint here which attracted many scavengers. At first, it was the usual suspects, birds, and bugs, but after a while, the larger creatures came in for an easy snack. Unfortunately, though, the madness that afflicted those animals had somehow tainted their bodies, and the many wolves that were feasting on easy meals also went mad and made the mad dash for my dungeon. They were killed, obviously, but after what was probably the eighth pack, I had unlocked two new monsters, the first one was just a regular wolf, and the other was also a wolf, but instead, it was mechanical.

The mechano-canine was a dog-like mechanical construct designed to scavenge materials from junkyards, and for my purposes, the only monster I had so far that could leave my dungeon. For most of the week, I was having a team of mechanical puppers on something of a devious routine, scavengers would find a convenient meal, only to be surprised by a team of metal hounds. It might not have been the most humane method of growing, and every day I saw fewer animals take the bait, but the boost it gave me to my growth was well worth it. At 45% growth, I was almost halfway to the next level, and reaping the rewards, whatever they were, and absorbing enough bodies of something apparently gave me the ability to make it myself.

As for the rest of the dungeon, the only notable addition is that of the entrance room, a room that is meant to receive challengers and allow both them and me time to prepare. The room itself isn’t that special honestly, just a sizeable stone box room with a mechanical door and lift on the outside which was pretty sick to get but mostly it just goes up and down.

Moving to the present, I had something of a problem on my hands, just earlier my dogs encountered someone, a young man riding atop an incredibly diseased-looking bear, it was probably magic but anything with that many painful sacks growing from it could only be in incredible pain. And once he got closer to the lift, I actually got my answer.

Warning!

Infernal energies detected!

Infernal, like demons and stuff?

Demonic entities are classified as infernal, however, infernal is a blanket term that applies to all beings, objects, and energies from the Infernal Plane.

Three primary classes of infernals exist, helbeasts, demons, and devils.

Statistically, infernals are the cause of the majority of planar incursions.

Neat.

I guess my next question is if I could make my own infernals, I can evidently earn more monsters if I absorb enough of them, having such powerful creatures would be useful.

Negative

Infernal entities have proven to be unreliable guardians and have regularly attempted to manipulate their dungeon core when such an option existed before.

That option was replaced [...] years ago during the [...] even, in exchange the Umbral Realm was granted its spot instead.

You good system, you kinda blanked on some of that.

Negative

the core lacks proper clearance to know that information.

Increase core level to gain more clearance.

Ok, I suppose I’ll just have to wait until that day comes then, despite that though I was still curious about the person and his mount. Just how did they find me, and what would they do now that they had?

As said previously I had no desire to become a murder cave, but that wouldn’t stop me from defending myself from taking down anyone that tried to pull a fast one on me. So, my best course of action right now, at least in the short to mid-term, would be to begin shoring up my defenses and developing my production capabilities.

Looking over my current assets, I had a full tank of mana, 29 dp to spend, and four different rooms to build into with 9 mana production to work with. If I wanted to go nuts and fill out every room, I had with something and make something to operate it I would need to focus on increasing my overall production. On the other hand, while eight mechanical monsters gave me some breathing room regarding my defensive development, with my discovery it was likely that more organized groups of intelligent people would start to seek me out.

With that in mind, I would need to carefully balance my resource production with my resource spending. Pulling up my list of monsters, I had access to four so far, magic, mechanical, and biological constructs, as well as the wolves I picked up during all of this.

While I did feel inclined to focus more on mechanical constructs it would be good to give the other two a try, I did take stonelings, and worse comes to worse the bio-ones could eat some rats. Of course, I don’t have the mana production to support creating both nodes, but I hope that like the clockworkers, making each of them will unlock a room that’ll give me enough mana to construct the other while still having some extra.

Starting at the first room, not the entrance, I placed the node for the skeletal mover monsters, and from the node came three spider creatures. They were large, very large, and had soft pale flesh, initially, they were confused as to the lack of puppets but after a short trip from the workers to drop off some of the parts the rats hadn’t claimed, the movers were scuttling around the piles of parts, assembling and webbing together different limbs and pieces to form something that looked somewhat humanoid. And as each of them finished they scuttled up the walls, attaching their front set of legs to their creations with a set of nearly invisible webs.

Shakily standing on clumsy legs a trio of metal puppets made from the random parts produced by the assembly line, the movers were ready, and just in time too, I’ve unlocked a room because of them.

Puppet Hatchery

A room feature that enables skeletal movers and similar arachnid monsters to convert raw aether into arachnid-derived items with a small chance of arachnid-based skill and class crystals forming.

Produced items may be used in alchemical processes and will also be counted as loot if taken by challengers.

Using pre-existing biomatter will not produce mana but will allow for more items.

Mana Production: +5 per hour

Mana Storage: + 5

Objects Produced:

Silk: 40% chance

Venom Casket: 30%

Assorted Bodily Parts: 10%

Fertile Spider Eggs: 10%

Mechanical Skill Crystal: 9.4%

Mechanical Class Crystal: 0.6%

Creation cost: 50 mana

Just enough, guess I’m lucky.

Unlike the metal and stone assembly line, the hatchery began to form itself from large thick swathes of webbing and some kind of organic paste, I couldn’t tell if it had a smell or not but the vapor coming from it was probably not all that great. As it finished construction I could feel the increase already, although I wondered why it gave more mana than the assembly line, was there that much of a difference?

The difference in mana production correlates to the fact that organic matter more easily produces mana but has a limited ability to store it, this difference may seem minor for the moment but as the core develops and its needs change the difference will become more apparent.

So, if living things make more mana but can’t really keep it all that well does that mean I should balance them out? Would it be better to just go all in on organics in that case?

Negative

The core is free to undertake any path of development it has unlocked, the focus on high-production organic structures and creatures is one such path but do not mistake it for the only one, all paths are valid for the core.

That’s good and looking over my production and stored mana I could also create the golems and get their room. Setting them down just after the assembly line, the group of golems began to form tendrils of energy collecting and forming into coppery human shapes without any features or fingers. Their bodies were metal, but it seemed as though the rough part was quite inaccurate, I could see ugly and awkward lumps where impurities and weak spots were located, add to that they were short, about half the size of the clockworkers which I’d put around two or so feet. I’m not sure how they would have fared against the attack but there were a lot of them so who knows what could have happened.

Once their room was unlocked, I looked it over, I didn’t have the mana to make it yet but in a couple of days, I probably could.

Formation Room

A room that converts and forms raw aether into magically charged crystals, has a small chance to produce ability and class crystals.

Produced crystals will contain magic appropriate to the floor the room is in, the deeper it is the more charged they are.

Produced crystals will be of a rarity relative to the floor the room is in, the deeper it is the rarer the crystals are.

More crystals can be produced but at the expenditure of mana content within each.

Mana Production: +4 per hour

Mana Storage: + 15

Objects Produced:

Assorted Common Magic Minerals: 50%

Assorted Uncommon Magic Crystals: 40%

Select Rare Magic Crystals: 5%

Chaos Crystals: 4%

Ability Crystal: 0.5%

Class Crystal: 0.5%

Creation cost: 60 mana

It would take a while, about 17 or so hours with my 3 per hour, but I could easily get the 60 required for its construction. All that remained for now was to wait until more things came to me there wasn’t much I could do for now, at least until I had more mana anyway.

I wonder how the rats are doing.