Dungeon at the End of the Universe

Ah, wonderful. Another day, another chapter. Alright then, let me tell you how this happened.

Ram, Prshky, and Dittillap had just met. They were about to continue their Dungeon delve, when something rose out of the ground in front of them.

It was a small creature of vaguely Sipalian from, but similarly to the strange statues they had fought, it also only had two hands and eyes. What really caught their eyes though were the wings on this creature’s back.

This was, of course, Faellen. Or rather, the projection of it.

“Greetings, adventurers!” the fairy greeted them loudly. It waited a moment, but once it became clear none of them would say anything, it continued, “I am your Tutorial guide. I will help and guide you upon this first Dungeon delve of yours, your Tutorial.”

Finally, at last someone gathered the courage to speak up. Somewhat stereotypically, it was Ram the knight.

“Yo,” she said.

Faellen looked at her quizzically, but reciprocated, “Yo.”

“Soooo- What exactly is happening here? Why are we here? And where is here (thought I can guess that last one)?” she continued once convinced the strange creature she had never seen before wouldn’t bit her head off.

“Those are some very good questions! Come along now, your delve awaits!” the little fairy masterfully deflected and flew into the only tunnel none of them had entered through.

Somewhat surprisingly, for some more than others, it was Dittillapp who immediately continued after it. Consequently, the other two, unwilling to be left alone without a guide, hurried after them as well.

What followed was another long trek through a dark tunnel, so I’ll let you get a break from this poor old Narrator and let’s check back on the Dungeon Core.

 

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Hm.

Hmm.

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

This is a lot more boring than I would’ve expected. They always skip over this part in all those novels, the long periods where nothing is happening and everyone is essentially just waiting.

Oh well, at least I can focus on some other stuff for now.

Let’s see... what to do? Oh, I know! I haven’t checked back on my Purge Slimes in a while.

When I first got them, I was somewhat underwhelmed. After all, Slimes are the most basic mob in practically every fantasy world, so surely there’s be nothing interesting about them. But luckily… well, oh boy was I wrong.

Thanks to questioning the System, I found out that Purge Slimes lived in deep deep space. In the areas where there truly is nothing for light-years in any direction. So they evolved in a somewhat peculiar direction.

Like most Slimes, they consume mana (or whatever energy is most available to them). Unlike most Slimes, they can do something special with it. They can transform the mana into matter, which they then expel, or purge, out of theirs bodies and thus achieve propulsion.

They’re somewhat of a reverse Slime, in that regard.

Plus, they’ve been a great help in expanding my Dungeon. Not only in creating matter so that I don’t have to do it, but they also provided me with a plethora of materials for my use.

That’s actually how I had gotten the crystals one of the Sipalians, I think she was called Rampampadam, spawned in. Well, I first had to do some experiments with Wyld-trees to get living crystals, but it’s all thanks to my awesome Purgies. That’s what I call my Purge Slimes.

But anyway, I’ve been trying to alter their environment to get them to produce some more interesting materials. I think metal would be nice. To break up how homogenous my moon is and all that.

I change my vision to my Slime ranch.

It’s a room I’ve kept completely isolated from everything else. I also made sure than there was no gravity in it, to mimic their natural environment.

There, I can see a multitude of blobs floating about. Most of them are greyscale, but every now and then a more colourful one appears. Like this one here, I call it Pinky. Because it’s pink. That was the one I got my crystals from, thought strangely enough, once combined with the Wyld-trees the result was a blueish living crystal.

And aha! What’s this? There’s something in air!^[1]

A new variant perhaps? This one is grey too, but it seems somewhat more shiny than the others. Let’s see…

^[1] specifically in the Slime room there is no air, but the author is attempting to make a joke by quoting lyrics from the hit movie The Nightmare Before Christmas

Yes, it seems to be purging something different than the other basic ones. Well then, let me just Destroy it and the System will help me.

At this point, using my Abilities (at least the Dungeon ones) had become almost instinctual. I didn’t even have to think about activating them! So with barely a thought I added the new material to my database and looked at it.

And it is… metal! Yes!

Now only to figure out which one…

 

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Ah yes, the metal conundrum. I remember that part. But anyway, back to our adventurers.

As they were walking, Faellen explained some things, gave them various tips on what to watch out for on delves, and just generally tried to be helpful and ensure their survival. That’s not to say that it told them anything they asked.

For one, any question about the Dungeon, Faellen itself, or the System were promptly ignored. There was a time and place for things, Faellen thought, and we planned for answers to be the last step.

Once the three of them knew at least the basics, such as protect the wizard, keep the knight in front, and distract the enemy with sneak attacks, they arrived at the next cavern.

Or room, as this one was much more overtly artificial. The whole room was just a big cube. And in that cube stood three more statues like the one they had fought before.

“Alright, first test,” Faellen grabbed their attention, “The most important thing for and adventurer party is teamwork. So be a team and go beat up some constructs!”

The others looked at each other and nodded. Just like they’d been advised, Ram stepped forward to protect Prshky, while Dittillapp went off to the side and almost disappeared right before everyone’s eyes.

It was time to d- d- d- d- d- duel! Please excuse my stutter.