Worthy Core - Chapter 4

As a still-unsteady Xenia watches, a number of pop-up screens appear before her from Guy's direction.

Xenia does her best to take it all in, eyes wide, but before she can fully process the information it's pushed out of the way by a number of smaller screens.

Waving those new screens out of her face, the dungeon master is finally able to take a moment to read in full the information on the original display. "Uh, Guy? What's all this stuff I got, and why does this thing look like my high school report card? And uh...I'm...collecting souls now? The hell is all this?"

Guy pauses for a moment before responding, as if they need to consider exactly how to present their answer. "...Right. There are codex and tutorial entries for each of these, if you were to press on the associated entries on the screen, but I suppose I can give you the quick summary in a verbal format. First off, a dungeon starts life with only a very small 'library' of materials to work with, based on their starting location. A sea cove dungeon may have water and sand, a forest dungeon may have trees and flowers, and we here in a traditional cave-based dungeon start with the classic of 'stone'. When an intrusion is defeated, via death or retreat, any materials left behind are added to the library to be created from your mana stockpile. This encourages you to draw in more dungeon delvers from a wider area, so that they can bring in a wider variety of materials to work with, not to mention higher-quality ones."

Xenia considers her list of prizes, not exactly thrilled by what she sees there. "Soooo...I can build shit out of rabbit fur and shitty wood?"

Guy 'nods', with a tilt of their screen. "Shitty indeed. The 'grades' you see there are mostly a matter of quantity leading to quality. The more of a material you absorb, the higher grades you unlock, while absorbing higher-quality materials increases your grade faster. So for example, right now you could summon a basic rabbit equivalent to the one you, ah, 'slew'. If you do that a few dozen more times, you could begin to summon tougher, more monstrous rabbits. ...If that was a path you were inclined to take."

Xenia, of course, does this immediately. "I cast - BUNNY!" With a glow of black and white mana, a rabbit quite like the unlucky fellow from before appears before her and falls to the floor. It begins to hop away, but doesn't get far before Xenia scoops it up and cuddles it closely. "BUNNY! Alright, this was totally worth almost getting looted for. But uh, right. The soul thing. What am I, some kinda reaper-gal now?"

"Nnnnot exactly. More like...you get 'first dibs'. When a normal mortal dies, which is to say, someone who's not a 'Reincarnator Extraordinaire', some of that mortal's basic personality and core experiences are imprinted onto the soul, the actual memories are washed away, and the soul returns to the Well of Souls to await rebirth in a new form. However, when a mortal dies in a dungeon, they pass into something like a smaller version of the Well, which belongs specifically to that dungeon. Those souls can then be used to create constructs and denizens with some level of sapience, who are both more intelligent and inherently more powerful. A 'boss monster' is a common example. You need to have a proper soul-qualified schema unlocked however, an F-grade rabbit would not be able to contain a mortal soul."

The woman grimaces, only slightly mollified by the cute bundle of fluff in her arms. "Isn't that kinda fucked up, though? Like, that beautiful, stupid hunk never agreed to get sucked into my Soul Bucket and become part of a dungeon for their next life, y'know?"

A sound almost like chuckling comes from Guy's screen. "Did you? Do parents ask for permission before conceiving a child and drawing a soul from the Well? I'm afraid that's just not part of the System. The upside is that, other than the rare 'glitch' like yourself, souls don't retain their memories and are easily shaped by their new forms. Whether the man's next life were to be as another man, a bird, an enchanted object, or a dungeon monster, he would likely be as equally content with any of them. Or discontent, if that were the nature of his soul."

Xenia sighs. "...Well, I guess being a talking sword mighta been more fun if I didn't remember having...y'know, more bits most of the time." She stares down at her core, mentally willing it to drag itself back onto its pedestal as if she were pulling it with a magnet. "That was way too close though. I really ain't ready for company, yeah? I need more than some shitty little traps...this might be kind of a rough neighborhood, I really ought to at least get a door."

As if waiting for this, Guy produces a new construction menu. "As it so happens, we just unlocked some new options in that arena. Including a soul-powered option!"

Xenia snorts, slightly disturbing her new pet. "Really? I can turn the dude into a friggin' door? Isn't there a better option for him than that?"

"Eventually I'm sure, but that seems to be it for the moment - all our schemas are far too low-grade. And if I might say, judging by my impression of the man's intelligence, being a door might just be the perfect job for him. Oh! And I should mention, souls you collect are bound to you, as are the things you bind those souls to. Meaning if a soul-monster is slain or a door destroyed, you can respawn it for a much lower cost in mana. And of course, anything you create can be upgraded as you unlock new materials."

The avatar rolls her eyes. "Rude, but...maybe. A puzzle lock's really only good once, right? Then someone posts the answer on the internet and the whole world knows how to walk into yer living room! A dude making up riddles can switch it up every time, so...eh, fuck it. I kinda feel weird sitting on a soul anyways, so let's do it." Freeing one hand from her cuddle-pet, Xenia jabs the option for the basic door and the riddle option, then casts the spell at the cave's entrance. While she can feel that she could have directed the form of the new construct in a more hands-on way, without guidance it basically works on its own - the cave entrance smooths itself out into a more regular form, a wooden frame is built, and then finally a solid-looking wooden door fills the space. The 'low quality' part is fairly obvious, as the wood already looks worn and aged, a good battering ram could probably knock it off its hinges with a few decent blows. The 'soul' part however seems not so obvious.

"Hey, door? Can you uh...hear me?"

The door swings open, a carved face appearing on the front side, facing the exterior of the cave. While the face doesn't really resemble the deceased man in any particular respect, Xenia has to admit...it's still a pretty handsome door, given the poor materials. "Great Dungeon Master! How might this humble door serve you?"

The flattered dungeon master grins to herself for a moment before remembering to answer. "...Ah! Right, well...you're a door! Welcome to the dungeon! Worthy Dungeon, that is! And I believe I shall dub thee...Doorman!"

The door swings a bit, in a manner Xenia assumes is happiness. "I am honored to guard the Worthy Dungeon! None shall pass without mastering the test of my riddles!"

"Awesome! Hey, how about you hit me with one, just to test?"

The door nods, as best as it can. "Of course. Riddle me this: what is...a bird?"

Xenia scratches her head, before breaking out into a grin. "Oh man, this is some like, high-level philosophical shit, right? Like what's the meaning of birdness or whatever? Sweet, no one's gonna get in here without my say-so! Alright Doorman, you've got the job! Now lock up, I've got...2 mana to spend and fix this place up before anyone else comes by!" The door nods again and closes, and for a moment...just a brief moment...Xenia considers whether or not she could, or should, carve an ass onto the back side of it. "...Maybe later. Gotta conserve my energy!"

Before she can start making further plans however, Guy makes a chiming sound. "Oh! Hold on, we seem to have a delayed...notification...lot of bizarre energy clogging this one up, one moment..." Like a cat hacking up a hairball, Guy shakes its screen a few times before disgorging yet another notification screen. Unlike the emerald green of those others however, this one comes in a frame of black and white that seems almost...goopy. It reads:

Xenia reads it, taking a moment to take it in and consider its meaning. Then, she shrugs. "Yeah, that sounds about right!"

As a still-unsteady Xenia watches, a number of pop-up screens appear before her from Guy's direction. ------------------------------------------------------------------------INTRUSION SCORE:ANIMALS SLAIN: 1MORTALS SLAIN: 1 NEW RESOURCE PATTERNS GATHERED:RABBIT FURFABRIC LOW QUALITYLEATHER STANDARD QUALITYWOOD LOW QUALITYIRON LOW QUALITYCOPPER STANDARD QUALITYBONE SMALL ANIMALBONE HUMANSTRING NEW CONSTRUCT PATTERN QUALITIES ACQUIRED/UPGRADED:LAGOMORPHS: FCLOTHING: D-FUR CONSTRUCTS: FWOOD CONSTRUCTS: FIRON CONSTRUCTS: FROPE CONSTRUCTS: FUNDEAD ANIMALS: FUNDEAD MORTAL: FTORCHES: D-CURRENCY RAINLANDS: D-SOUL-BASED SCHEMAS UNLOCKED LIMITED ITEMS OBTAINED:MORTAL SOULS: 1MANA CAP INCREASED BY 4 TO 10MANA ACQUIRED: 5, CURRENT AMOUNT: 5/10 KNOWLEDGE OBTAINED:LANGUAGES: RAINLANDERGEOGRAPHY: TRIPLE PEAK FOOTHILLSSKILLS: FISHING AMATEUR------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xenia does her best to take it all in, eyes wide, but before she can fully process the information it's pushed out of the way by a number of smaller screens. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: BEASTSLAYER 1 YOU HAVE SLAIN YOUR FIRST ANIMAL. DAMAGE TO ANIMALS INCREASED BY 10%. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: DEATHBRINGER 1 YOU HAVE SLAIN YOUR FIRST MORTAL. DAMAGE TO MORTALS INCREASED BY 10%. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: MANSLAUGHTER 1 YOU HAVE SLAIN YOUR FIRST HUMAN. MANA SPELL EFFECTIVENESS ON HUMANS INCREASED BY 25%. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: TRAPMASTER 1 YOU HAVE SCORED YOUR FIRST KILL WITH A TRAP. TRAPS UPGRADED TO LEVEL 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Waving those new screens out of her face, the dungeon master is finally able to take a moment to read in full the information on the original display. "Uh, Guy? What's all this stuff I got, and why does this thing look like my high school report card? And uh...I'm...collecting souls now? The hell is all this?" Guy pauses for a moment before responding, as if they need to consider exactly how to present their answer. "...Right. There are codex and tutorial entries for each of these, if you were to press on the associated entries on the screen, but I suppose I can give you the quick summary in a verbal format. First off, a dungeon starts life with only a very small 'library' of materials to work with, based on their starting location. A sea cove dungeon may have water and sand, a forest dungeon may have trees and flowers, and we here in a traditional cave-based dungeon start with the classic of 'stone'. When an intrusion is defeated, via death or retreat, any materials left behind are added to the library to be created from your mana stockpile. This encourages you to draw in more dungeon delvers from a wider area, so that they can bring in a wider variety of materials to work with, not to mention higher-quality ones." Xenia considers her list of prizes, not exactly thrilled by what she sees there. "Soooo...I can build shit out of rabbit fur and shitty wood?" Guy 'nods', with a tilt of their screen. "Shitty indeed. The 'grades' you see there are mostly a matter of quantity leading to quality. The more of a material you absorb, the higher grades you unlock, while absorbing higher-quality materials increases your grade faster. So for example, right now you could summon a basic rabbit equivalent to the one you, ah, 'slew'. If you do that a few dozen more times, you could begin to summon tougher, more monstrous rabbits. ...If that was a path you were inclined to take." Xenia, of course, does this immediately. "I cast - BUNNY!" With a glow of black and white mana, a rabbit quite like the unlucky fellow from before appears before her and falls to the floor. It begins to hop away, but doesn't get far before Xenia scoops it up and cuddles it closely. "BUNNY! Alright, this was totally worth almost getting looted for. But uh, right. The soul thing. What am I, some kinda reaper-gal now?" "Nnnnot exactly. More like...you get 'first dibs'. When a normal mortal dies, which is to say, someone who's not a 'Reincarnator Extraordinaire', some of that mortal's basic personality and core experiences are imprinted onto the soul, the actual memories are washed away, and the soul returns to the Well of Souls to await rebirth in a new form. However, when a mortal dies in a dungeon, they pass into something like a smaller version of the Well, which belongs specifically to that dungeon. Those souls can then be used to create constructs and denizens with some level of sapience, who are both more intelligent and inherently more powerful. A 'boss monster' is a common example. You need to have a proper soul-qualified schema unlocked however, an F-grade rabbit would not be able to contain a mortal soul." The woman grimaces, only slightly mollified by the cute bundle of fluff in her arms. "Isn't that kinda fucked up, though? Like, that beautiful, stupid hunk never agreed to get sucked into my Soul Bucket and become part of a dungeon for their next life, y'know?" A sound almost like chuckling comes from Guy's screen. "Did you? Do parents ask for permission before conceiving a child and drawing a soul from the Well? I'm afraid that's just not part of the System. The upside is that, other than the rare 'glitch' like yourself, souls don't retain their memories and are easily shaped by their new forms. Whether the man's next life were to be as another man, a bird, an enchanted object, or a dungeon monster, he would likely be as equally content with any of them. Or discontent, if that were the nature of his soul." Xenia sighs. "...Well, I guess being a talking sword mighta been more fun if I didn't remember having...y'know, more bits most of the time." She stares down at her core, mentally willing it to drag itself back onto its pedestal as if she were pulling it with a magnet. "That was way too close though. I really ain't ready for company, yeah? I need more than some shitty little traps...this might be kind of a rough neighborhood, I really ought to at least get a door." As if waiting for this, Guy produces a new construction menu. "As it so happens, we just unlocked some new options in that arena. Including a soul-powered option!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONSTRUCTION SUB-MENU: DOORS & GATES BASIC DOOR LOW QUALITY WOOD - 2 MANA FUR CURTAINS LOW QUALITY ANIMAL FURS - 1 MANA METAL GATE LOW QUALITY IRON - 2 MANA INTERNAL/EXTERNAL SECURITY UPGRADE OPTIONS: PUZZLE LOCK - 1 MANA RIDDLE DOOR - 1 MANA, 1 SOUL INTERNAL SECURITY UPGRADE OPTIONS: HIDDEN KEY - 1 MANA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xenia snorts, slightly disturbing her new pet. "Really? I can turn the dude into a friggin' door? Isn't there a better option for him than that?" "Eventually I'm sure, but that seems to be it for the moment - all our schemas are far too low-grade. And if I might say, judging by my impression of the man's intelligence, being a door might just be the perfect job for him. Oh! And I should mention, souls you collect are bound to you, as are the things you bind those souls to. Meaning if a soul-monster is slain or a door destroyed, you can respawn it for a much lower cost in mana. And of course, anything you create can be upgraded as you unlock new materials." The avatar rolls her eyes. "Rude, but...maybe. A puzzle lock's really only good once, right? Then someone posts the answer on the internet and the whole world knows how to walk into yer living room! A dude making up riddles can switch it up every time, so...eh, fuck it. I kinda feel weird sitting on a soul anyways, so let's do it." Freeing one hand from her cuddle-pet, Xenia jabs the option for the basic door and the riddle option, then casts the spell at the cave's entrance. While she can feel that she could have directed the form of the new construct in a more hands-on way, without guidance it basically works on its own - the cave entrance smooths itself out into a more regular form, a wooden frame is built, and then finally a solid-looking wooden door fills the space. The 'low quality' part is fairly obvious, as the wood already looks worn and aged, a good battering ram could probably knock it off its hinges with a few decent blows. The 'soul' part however seems not so obvious. "Hey, door? Can you uh...hear me?" The door swings open, a carved face appearing on the front side, facing the exterior of the cave. While the face doesn't really resemble the deceased man in any particular respect, Xenia has to admit...it's still a pretty handsome door, given the poor materials. "Great Dungeon Master! How might this humble door serve you?" The flattered dungeon master grins to herself for a moment before remembering to answer. "...Ah! Right, well...you're a door! Welcome to the dungeon! Worthy Dungeon, that is! And I believe I shall dub thee...Doorman!" The door swings a bit, in a manner Xenia assumes is happiness. "I am honored to guard the Worthy Dungeon! None shall pass without mastering the test of my riddles!" "Awesome! Hey, how about you hit me with one, just to test?" The door nods, as best as it can. "Of course. Riddle me this: what is...a bird?" Xenia scratches her head, before breaking out into a grin. "Oh man, this is some like, high-level philosophical shit, right? Like what's the meaning of birdness or whatever? Sweet, no one's gonna get in here without my say-so! Alright Doorman, you've got the job! Now lock up, I've got...2 mana to spend and fix this place up before anyone else comes by!" The door nods again and closes, and for a moment...just a brief moment...Xenia considers whether or not she could, or should, carve an ass onto the back side of it. "...Maybe later. Gotta conserve my energy!" Before she can start making further plans however, Guy makes a chiming sound. "Oh! Hold on, we seem to have a delayed...notification...lot of bizarre energy clogging this one up, one moment..." Like a cat hacking up a hairball, Guy shakes its screen a few times before disgorging yet another notification screen. Unlike the emerald green of those others however, this one comes in a frame of black and white that seems almost...goopy. It reads: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HIDDEN DUNGEON ATTRIBUTE DISCOVERED: TRIPLE CURSED DUNGEON BOTH HIGH AND LOW LUCK INDIVIDUALS SHALL HAVE THEIR LUCK REVERSED WHILE WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF THIS DUNGEON ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xenia reads it, taking a moment to take it in and consider its meaning. Then, she shrugs. "Yeah, that sounds about right!"