"I suggest we go through each category of option you have available before making any decisions. It is important to capitalize on synergies, after all," my fairy assistant advised as I brought up my menus, ready to begin working on the Dungeon.
Right. We have a focus, primary and secondary monster types, a specialization, traits, and perks. What does all of that do?
I was more than happy not just to change the conversation, but to distract myself from how badly I nearly messed up with that pact. I might not have wanted to kill people, but I was prepared to put my all into the task forced upon me.
"Your focus should be the easiest decision since it is the only one that isn't permanent. It influences the perk options you will receive as you level up. That being said, you won't be able to choose any perks until you do level up, so we don't need to worry about choosing those right now."
And, what are perks?
"Perks are your rewards for leveling. New monster types, traps, upgrades, and more, perks cover it all. They are offered to you based on your accomplishments, so if you, for example, never use traps, you are unlikely to get any good trap choices even if you select traps as your focus. You will still get more trap options, but they won't be good ones."
With a mental nod, I opened up my focus options.
[Please select a focus.
Monster Variety / Monster Upgrades / Trap Variety / Trap Upgrades / Environments / Equipment / Items]
"Monster variety will give you new monsters to summon, upgrades will give you bonuses to certain monsters, their trap counterparts do the same, environments will unlock extra terraforming and construction options, equipment will let you summon weapons and armor, and items are a bit of a gamble. On one hand, they could give you magic potions that either your monsters could drink or you could leave out for adventurers. On the other hand, you can get something pointless, like fancy rugs. I recommend against that option."
I tried to nod before remembering I couldn't do that anymore. Being a chunk of glowing crystal would take some getting used to.
Okay, I can see myself making use of all of those. Also, don't hate on fancy rugs. I'm sure they could cover up pitfall traps beautifully.
Fabian chuckled and shook his head.
"You're a devious one, I see. That's good. It will help you survive."
A moment passed in silence before he broke it again, "Anyway, you can change that one around at any time, so just set it to whatever you need whenever you need to. Next, we should go over your specialization. It is the most important choice for you to make. Each option is powerful in its own right, but you can only choose one, and whatever you choose will define your Dungeon forever. If you choose Elite Monsters, for example, every one of your monsters will get a twenty percent boost to all of their stats. That is generally considered the best option, but choosing it will mean you will have to prioritize your monsters going forward if you want to stand a chance at defending yourself."
As he gave me an explanation, I opened up my available choices and froze. There were a lot, dozens by the looks of it. I had him give me brief descriptions of each along with their pros and cons, something that took a while. By the time he finished, I was left feeling overwhelmed, and I could make out rays of early morning sunlight streaming in through the cave's entrance.
Hey, what does our time frame look like? Do I need to start making choices and throwing down defenses in case some adventurer comes storming in?
"No!" the fairy screamed, a horrified look on his face, "We have time. I set you up in a cave in the middle of a forest. It should be weeks or even months before someone finds you. Take your time, and make the best decisions you can. These choices will define the rest of your existence. Make them something you will be happy with."
I felt relief at his words. I had time, and that was good. That meant I didn't have to rush into anything thoughtlessly. I could focus on planning and theorycrafting, at least for a time.
Okay, let's do this right, then.
My assistant let out a sigh of relief and moved on. All of the specialization options seemed good, a few better than others, but one in particular that stood out to me. I took mental note of it and a other promising ones. Then, I shifted my focus to follow Fabian's explanation.
"Traits are similar to a specialization, but they are less impactful. Also, you get multiple. You can choose three now, and you will be able to choose a new and more specialized one every time you increase in tiers. Ah, that means at levels twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, and one hundred, by the way. It is the same for adventures and monsters. They can evolve their classes and species respectively at the same levels."
My monsters will be able to evolve? How does that work?
"Once they hit the required level, you will be given choices on what to evolve them into, based on their accomplishments up until that point. Afterward, you will be able to directly summon monsters of whatever evolution you choose."
I sent him a mental confirmation and opened up my choices. I was not prepared for them. There had to be over a hundred options. It was enough to overload my already overtaxed mind, and my fairy, clearly diligent in his duties, launched straight into what sounded like textbook explanations for each, along with a staggering amount of opinions, recommendations, and use cases.
By the end, I doubted there was much time left in the day, and the fairy left to scavenge something to eat before we got into what he called, "the really hard choices."
My nonexistent head was left spinning as he flew into a circle of mushrooms at the far end of the cave and vanished.
Finally, a moment of peace and quiet.
For the first time since being stuffed in a magic rock, I was grateful to no longer be human. It wasn't because I was happy about my situation, and it wasn't because I was looking forward to the choices I needed to make. It was because I couldn't feel the migraine I was sure I would have otherwise.
Argh! What is this, school?
I felt like I just sat through an entire day of lectures taking notes in preparation for a whole slew of final exams, each worth half of my grade. I was in information overload.
There are a lot of possibilities, too many.
As much as I did internally complain, I couldn't deny a part of me was excited. This was a challenge, the same kind of challenge that drew me to games: calculations, customization, and the opportunity to find niche synergies everyone else who followed the meta overlooked.
Those adventurers won't know what hit them.
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I was appalled by it.
This isn't a game. They are actual people. Don't take joy in this.
I tried to quash down both my feelings of excitement and apprehension. Diverting my attention, I brought up my options for monster types, and if I had a jaw, it would have dropped.
[Please select a primary monster type.
Aberrations, Abominations, Abyssals, Acidic, Aerial, Agricultural, Alchemical, Alluring, Amalgamations, Ambush Predators, Amphibious, Animals, Animated Objects, Ants, Antithetical, Aquatic, Arachnids, Arcane, Archaeological, Arctic, Arid, Arthropods, Astral, Atmospheric, Automatons, Autumnal, Avian]
I didn't even have a brain anymore, and I could actively feel it melting.
Is this a list of monsters or a dictionary?
There were nearly thirty options, and those were just the ones starting with the letter, "a." The full list's options had to number in the hundreds. It made the previous choices look easy.
Nope, I thought as I closed the menu, I don't even want to look at this alone.
It was almost enough to make me appreciate Fabian. He was the reason, or at least part of the reason, I was in my current situation, but he had proven himself to be a capable helper so far. In the mean time, I decided to look over my options for a specialization and traits again. I had some ideas, but there was one important thing I needed to confirm with Fabian before I would know if they were viable.
[Elite Monsters, Complex Traps, Craftsmanship, Enchanting, Monster Customization]
Those were the five options for a specialization that interested me. Aside from Elite Monsters, they all had one thing in common: they were extremely versatile.
Choosing Complex Traps would let me make far more complicated traps than I would otherwise be able to. Craftsmanship would let me create custom, higher-quality equipment, and Enchanting would let me imbue magical effects into equipment, traps, and other things. According to Fabian, if I could modify it, there was a good chance Enchanting would let me empower it. The last option I was interested in, Monster Customization, was apparently expensive in terms of resources, but it would let me make alterations to the monsters I summoned.
Which traits would be useful was a much more complicated matter. Depending on which specialization I chose, the useful traits would be completely different. A trait that let me shape things more precisely wouldn't help much if I went with Elite Monsters.
Regardless of the intricacies in the decision, I went over my options. I spent a while on that, but I was eventually jolted from my musings when I heard a distant voice.
Fabian? I thought before kicking myself. He couldn't hear me unless he was touching my core.
I heard a faint laughing. Then, the voice, still too far away to make out the words, spoke again. It and the laugh were from different sources. It wasn't Fabian. There were people, and there were multiple.
"Yeah, then, she went and chased me through town with a ladle. I thought she was going to skin me for leather for sure!"
"You're horrible. Ha ha!"
The first voice was that of a young boy, and the second was an equally young girl's. It wasn't because I was good at telling a person's age from their voice that I knew that. It was because a pair of kids, not quite teenagers by the looks of it, casually strolled into my cave as their voices became audible.
That's not good.
I wanted to tear that fairy a new one. He had told me that I would be fine for weeks or even months before anyone found me. Now, a pair of kids just wandered in. It hadn't even been a full day! What was my luck?
"Hey, Anna, was there always a glowing hunk of rock in here, or am I just seeing things?"
"Don't go near it!"
The boy, who was now close enough for me to see had green skin and small tusks, was inching closer to me.
Great.
I hadn't even finished making my choices yet. I had nothing to protect myself with. There was nothing stopping the kid from scooping me up and kidnapping me.
Wait, can you still be kidnapped if you're already kidnapped? Would that make me double kidnapped, or would the kidnappings cancel out like two negatives?
I shook myself from those pointless thoughts. It wasn't the time. Momentarily, I considered just making my choices, so I could do something about my situation, but I knew I'd always regret it if I did that now.
Instead, I tried to grasp for anything I could do intuitively that could help. I managed to glow slightly brighter. That did not help.
"Jay, get back!" the girl with some kind of animal ears and a tail cried out.
"It's fine. It's just glowing a bit. Do you think it's magic or something? I bet old man Gyle would give us something for it."
"Be careful!"
"Yeah, yeah."
He was nearly to me and reaching out his hand.
In a moment of inspiration, I did something. I had no monsters and no traps. I hadn't finished selecting my choices, but I was still a Dungeon Core, for whatever that was worth.
I reached for the ceiling and yanked. Chunks of rock and debris pulled free, and they started crashing down around us. The kid's bravado fled him, and he bolted back out the cave entrance. The girl fell to her knees screaming.
Good going, kid. Just leave your screaming friend behind, why don't you. See if that friendship lasts.
Then, everything blurred. For as much as I had been joking to myself about my inability to feel anything as a Dungeon Core, I could certainly feel the lightheadedness and the headache that set in all at once.
The rocks stopped falling, and the screaming girl, after a few more long moments of sitting there and screaming, leaped to her feet and rushed out of the cave after her friend. I, on the other hand, just existed there, trying to get a hold of myself.
What happened? I did something, but why do I feel like death, now?
Once I had collected myself enough to think clearly, I managed to pull up a menu that explained it.
[Mana: 0/20]
Note to self: don't use up all my mana.
I let myself rest for a while. I wasn't sure how much time passed, but I did start feeling a bit better.
"What happened here?" a familiar, nasally voice exclaimed.
As the fairy placed a hand on my core, I angrily thought to him, You have some explaining to do.