The Dungeon Without a System

Chapter 147

Tamesou Akio was preparing himself. It was early in the day, and they were the second group in line. The first had entered the dungeon already. Oddly, they weren't familiar to him. Akio thought he'd memorized the faces of all the guilders on the island, especially since so many had left after knowledge of the crusade started spreading, but obviously, he'd missed some. That, or they were new arrivals.

"Ten bucks the newbies run out of the dungeon screaming," Bruce bet, patting his coin purse. "They looked weak-willed. They'll probably break easily."

"Hmm. I'll take that bet," Sophie agreed. "I think they'll teleport out, injured. They looked smart enough to buy some Telecrystals from the merchant, at least."

"Well, I think they'll be fine," Elize joined in. "They'll teleport out, uninjured." The hidden princess frowned at Sophie and Bruce as they chuckled menacingly.

"It's a sucker's bet, Elize," Akio added. "I thought they were new, too. I didn't recognize them. You got some insider info there, ol' buddy, ol' pal?" Bruce nodded smugly.

"That I do, my friend," Bruce said. "You see, I heard them muttering about evaluating the dungeon themselves. I don't think they believed the guidebook, if they read it at all. They're gonna do something stupid and get themselves killed. Some of them, at least." Sophie groaned.

"Well, there goes my ten talons..." she grumbled. "If they're dumb enough to ignore sound advice, they're dumb enough to not trust Goldscale and his wares. Hey, side-note, you guys notice that there aren't any Children in town anymore?"

"There is a crusade being prepared, with this island as the target, Sophie." Akio reminded her. "The Creator probably pulled them back. I certainly wouldn't want to risk my innocent creations if I were in his place."

"You'd be an awful dungeon, Akio," Sophie teased. "You'd probably get conquered immediately, because you'd fold as soon as your first monster got injured."

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Akio protested, "Right guys?" He looked between Bruce and Elize, desperate hope written large across his face.

"I mean, if your only monsters were, like bunnies or something, or dogs. Something pet-like.... maybe," Bruce answered, cagilly.

"You've got a big heart, Akio," Elize smiled. She said nothing else. Akio crossed his arms and frowned at them.

"Screw you guys," he said, "I'd totally-"

Akio cut himself off as one of the guilders from that party came sprinting out of the dungeon, screaming and babbling.

Sophie's face fell, and, resigned, she handed over the talons. Elize also passed him his coins. "Thank you very much for your contribution to the Bruce is Always Right Foundation," Bruce smiled, smugly, shoving the coins in his pouch.

Akio rolled his eyes. "You're not him, man. For one, you don't have a sociopathic yandere obsessed with you, and we're not in VR."

The hysterical man tripped on a hole in the sand, landing face-first in the black sand. He slumped and lay there for a moment, completely still. When he didn't move any further, a pair of guards picked him up and carried him off to the healer's tent.

"Well, that was dramatic," Sophie muttered. "Think they triggered hard-mode? I didn't think they'd get almost wiped by the crabs."

"Probably," Bruce half-agreed, tracking the now-unconscious man. "It works on hostility to the dungeon itself, rather than the monsters, right? They might have been spies for the crusaders, even. Remember what I said about them evaluating it? They must not trust the guidebook because it was written by Guildmistress Losat. They were trying to gain first-hand experience and didn't expect the first floor to be so challenging. We should tell the Voice, asap. Denying them any information at all helps us, right?"

"Yeah, good point, Bruce," Akio said as he waved down one of the guards. "We're cancelling our delve for the day! Could we reschedule for tomorrow?"

-0-0-0-0-0-

The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea

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Aaand yeah, they lost against the unbridled fury of hundreds of angry, zealous crab monsters. One abandoned his fellows and sprinted out of the dungeon, only to trip and fall on his face once he'd reached the beach. These guys were pretty weak, to be honest. Barely gold tier. I couldn't review the port authority's records through a Child anymore, since none of them were on the surface anymore. However, my rat and gull spies only remembered seeing them arrive a couple of days beforehand, running the 'tutorial' floor, then making this attempt today.

Maybe they thought the crabs would be pushovers because they fought the smaller ones there?

Seemed stupid to me, but eh, whatever. If they were dumb enough not to properly prepare for their delve, that's on them. I call that Darwinism in action.

Anyhow, while my focus was on the surface, I hopped over to Kata to tell her about my newest plan.

"No, that's NOT a good idea," Kata insisted, glaring into a nearby mirror to convey her disappointment. "Teleporting the entire population of the island to a faux-Atlantis on the Eleventh, with no warning to them or even informing them that it'd happened at all, is a terrible idea. Just... Tell them! The only ones left are the ones who don't object to your existence. By telling them what's happening, they'll appreciate your dedication to keeping them safe with minimal disruption to their lives. Not telling them, and taking away their volition by kidnapping them into the dungeon, will only ever end badly."

I suppose... I grumbled. I kind of wanted to see how long it'd take people to notice, honestly.

"I can assure you, any guilders would notice instantly," Kata said, turning from the mirror to look out the window, toward the Guild and the beach beyond it. Despite the lower numbers, it was as busy as ever. "Other people would start noticing the heightened mana content of the food, air, water and everything else when they and their children started spontaneously developing manacores, or worse."

Right. The whole all-or-nothing deal. It seems like poor design on the part of that life goddess to have her protection only work up to a point, then rely entirely on the individual's willpower to stop themselves from becoming a mutated pile of slop.

"Who knows what she was thinking," Kata replied with a huff as she sank into a plush armchair. "But my point stands. Don't just teleport people. I'll put out an 'evacuation plan,' which will contain the details, how to opt out, and where to gather for easy teleportation to the Eleventh. You've warded the island against any monsters getting too close?"

Of course. What do you take me for, some kind of hack?

"Just checking. Is it ready for when the time comes?"

Mostly. There are a few details to iron out, but otherwise it's all done.

"Good. Now go help with the Children moving to the Twelfth and Eleventh. I'm sure the towns down there are getting a little... overloaded, by now."

Yeah, good point. Let me know when you've finished this evacuation plan, so I can set up a teleport pad over there. I pulled away with a mental wave goodbye and let my consciousness drift back into the dungeon. Kata was right, Minos village, Wyvern's rest, and the dozen other small settlements in the Eleventh were already full to bursting. There was even some spillover into the Scorpan village. It was something I felt like kicking myself over, honestly. Of course, all these Children I'm sending downward would need places to stay. Duh.

Before I'd send anyone over there, though, I needed to check in on the Twelveth. It'd been a while since I last looked down there, and I wanted to make sure it was ready enough for settlers.

In short... It was mostly ready.

The World-Tree Forest and Prehistoric Jungle had reached what I considered their 'boundaries,' as I'd conveyed to Te Fiti. Said Life Spirit seemed quite content in her tree, guiding the growth of far-flung groves and even an oasis or two in the desert. The mountainous spine of the floor was suitably dramatic, with wooded valleys at lower altitudes. The southern plains were expansive, with waist-height grass covering the majority of the area. The desert still wasn't finished, of course, but it looked like the Earth Golems who would be automating my lava-to-sand process would arrive within the week.

Excellent.

The last thing I did before letting the new settlers in was to make a road. Two roads spread from the floor's entrance. One led north, briefly dipping into the Jungle, before trailing off at the mountain's foothills. The second road ran through the Forest and ended at the edge of the plains. I decided to leave the rest to the Children.

With that done, I asked the Crabfolk fleet to begin transporting people from Wyvern's rest to the Twelveth. Over the next two weeks, almost all of the Children I'd already evacuated made their way into the floor. I made sure to check on them while I started sorting out the sand automation to track their progress.

The first to arrive were the Kobolds, who fell in love with the Jungle immediately. Given that it was made of mostly the same flora as the Third, that wasn't a real surprise to me. With so much more space to grow, I knew they'd be happy there. Almost as soon as they arrived, bonded animals in tow, they were climbing the trees to find the ideal spots for their newest village.

However, some Kobolds felt less affinity with the trees. They'd travelled through the whole dungeon to reach my newest floor, had seen all the people who lived in it, and been inspired. These Kobolds decided to keep moving and started a settlement in the mountain foothills.

Following the Kobolds were the Drake-kin. A decent number of these lizardfolk followed the kobolds and joined their settlement in the foothills. Within a week, they'd already set up a basic ring-fort on a hill, featuring a wooden palisade made with lumber taken from the Jungle. They were still debating a name, though the top contenders were Drakefort, Scaleridge and Dragon's Hollow. Interesting names, to be sure. The rest of the drake-kin moved East, along the road to the plains. They didn't have to go much further to find a decently sized river that fed into the central inland ocean. They'd only just started settling at the end of the first two weeks.

The Capriccio mostly moved north, with only a small contingent following the drake-kin. The northern Capriccio greeted its new neighbours, but moved further into the mountains. I had a feeling I'd be seeing cliff-side villages before long.

By the second week of their travel and building, my sand automation was complete. With unnecessarily dramatic force, magma poured through the newly opened portal, creating a pillar of lava that rained down over the barren stone around the faux-volcano. I forced the teleport orb through the portal, and it was closed, cutting off the flow. Moments later, lava started seeping through the teleport stone. It was much, much larger than the ones I'd used on the Sixth, and so filled up the 'magma chamber'at a far more respectable pace. The magma then made its way up the main conduit and spilled over the edges of the crater. From there, three major flows spread out and flowed down the mountain. When the flows reached the volcano's base, the Golems got to work cooling the lava into stone, then grinding it into sand. Twister golems took the sand from there and spread it out. It was a slower process.

The major thing I hadn't expected when I opened the portal was the absolute flood of fire, metal and earth mana mixed in with the lava. Even now, there was a significant amount of mana rising from the volcano to join the manastreams winding through the skies of the Twelveth. If nothing else, I considered it proof that there was also mana inside the planet. It was just like how air, light and water mana condensed into manastreams in the atmosphere, or how darkness, water and ice mana followed the ocean currents. There were other kinds of mana mixed in, of course, but those were the dominant ones in each stream.

I theorized that there were manstreams in space, and I imagined that around real black holes, time, space, gravity, void, and Chaos manas were plentiful.

Mana reflects what exists in creation, even as creation reflects the mana in it.

Shaking myself out of my philosophical thoughts, I joined in on the sand-creation process. The sooner it was done, the better. I'd only work on it for a week or so, then start evacuating the Eighth Floor and lower.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Wyvern's Rest, The Eleventh Floor, The Dungeon,

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Sunset-Carapace, her mate Digs-with-Passion, and their scorpings had joined the flow of migrants. Sunset told herself that it only made sense; she was planning to retire to the Eleventh anyway, and leaving early, before the Creator decided to start their evacuation, would surely get them first choice of settling places.

Her scorplings were ever curious about all the Children around them, constantly chittering to her and each other about what they saw. Snowbolds, Ice Drake-kin, Capriccio and more filled the cobbled streets of the dungeon's first real multi-species town. The port was bustling, and the harbour was full of ships waiting to dock. Looking out at the horizon, there was practically a trail of vessels leading into the distance. The sun was high overhead, making the water glitter and shimmer.

While Sunset carried their young, Digs-With-Passion was carrying their possessions: two large trunks full of everything that belonged to them. Her poor mate wasn't the largest specimen, and Sunset could see how his legs quivered under the weight, though he stood firm when he knew she was looking. She gave him a fond look and tilted her head.

Did you think I wouldn't notice, stupid male?

He could only shrug sheepishly.

No. I could never hide anything from you.

Their meaningful looks came to an end as their scorplings started protesting. "Gross!" Sunset laughed lightly and bopped Skitters-Through-The-Shallows on the head. She was the most rambunctious of the lot. Sunset scanned the crowd again, and- There!

"Looms! Get your orange cephalothorax over here!" Sunset called, making her brother jump in surprise. He turned and quickly spotted her, waving back. He politely pushed through the crowd towards her and lowered himself to give her a hug.

"Sunset! What are you doing down here?" Looms asked, sounding genuinely surprised. Sunset hugged her brother briefly, then punched him in the chest. It didn't do much to him, but it still made him blink. "Huh? Why?"

"You jerk!" Sunset cursed, to gasps of surprise from her scorplings. "You don't write, you don't visit! Mom left, like, almost immediately! I had Digs-With-Passion, sure, but it's not the same! I missed you guys..."

"Sunset...."

"Just... Take me to Climbs and Sprints. I need to chew them out, too. Also, I have scorplings now! This is your uncle Looms-Over-Others. Say Hi!"

""Hi Uncle Looms!""

"Uhh-"

"You know what, why don't you hold them for a moment. You don't mind? Of course you don't. C'mon, scorplings, Looms is going to carry you!"

"Yay!" "Awesome!" "Hi Uncle Looms!" "You're tall."

"Give me one of those trunks, dear."

"Oh, thank the creat- I, uh, mean, No honey. I've got it.

"Don't be silly, Digs. I can see your legs collapsing."

"...Thank you, honey."

"Of course, dear."