Dungeon’s Path

Doyle interrupts Ally at this point, ‘yep, I got it. Souls are cool and what not. Let’s look at what options I have for starting monsters. [Show starting monster options.]’

{Choose 1 main and 2 secondary starting monsters

Dungeon Wolf

S[5] A[7] C[3] I[3] W[5] P[8]

Skills: Teamwork lv5, Harrying Bite lv3

Description: A wolf adapted to live in the early levels of a dungeon. While similar in most ways to normal wolves, they are smaller and have traded strength for agility. The smaller size also reduces their constitution and presence. One interesting quirk to them is they are randomly colored like any other species of wolf.

Ecology: horned rabbits, clover

Kobold

S[4] A[7] C[4] I[6] W[6] P[6]

Skills: Heavy Bash lv3, Improvise Trap lv3

Description: One of the classic humanoid monsters. Some claim they are dog like and others that they are related to dragons. An easy mistake to make as the truth is weirder. They are actually a branch of the monotremes, most famous for the platypus. What appears to be scales is actually a type of specialized quill. Though as always when it comes to dragons, there may be some truth to them being related. The kobolds ability to improvise traps will be limited because of the nature of dungeon monsters. Each trap has an energy upkeep cost paid by the kobold.

Ecology: horned rabbits, clover

Giant Rat

S[2] A[4] C[2] I[1] W[1] P[3]

Skills: Swarm Sense lv2

Description: Giant as in the size of an average cat. A weak swarming monster most useful in tight corridors. One of the easiest starting monsters to create a breeding population as they require the least amount of energy to start reproducing.

Ecology: giant cave cricket, dungeon fungus

Goat

S[5] A[6] C[6] I[3] W[5] P[5]

Skills: Escape Artist lv3, Climbing lv3

Description: It’s a goat. Unlike what some may believe, both the males and females have horns.

Ecology: shrubbery, vines

Assassin Vine

S[10] A[2] C[8]

Skills: Grapple lv5

Description: A large and semi-mobile plant known for making its own fertilizer by force. While capable of moving, they will tend to stay in the same place for days at a time. The berries produced by the plant grow in bunches and make a fine wine with uses in potion brewing.

Ecology: shrubbery, vines

Giant Centipede

S[3] A[10] C[7] I[1] W[1] P[5]

Skills: Venomous Bite lv3

Description: A centipede of impressive size. The venom in their bite is unlikely to kill anything bigger than a horned rabbit, but can paralyze a human. While not a social insect, they can end up in swarms if no easy prey are in the area.

Ecology: horned rabbit, clover

Raven

S[2] A[10] C[3] I[4] W[5] P[6]

Skills: Mimic Sound lv5

Description: The common raven, while not the biggest threat to adventurers their ability to mimic sounds has found many a party confused. Best used with ambush monsters and traps or as a swarm if you have an open enough area.

Ecology: mice, millipede, shrubbery

Giant Weasel

S[5] A[7] C[4] I[2] W[2] P[3]

Skills: Keen Hearing lv3

Description: A big weasel which has kept the exceptional hearing ability of their smaller cousins. Rarely one will spawn with a pure white winter coat which is quite prized. The current season has no effect on this chance.

Ecology: horned rabbits, clover

Copper-hide Boar

S[8] A[3] C[10] I[3] W[2] P[4]

Skills: Charge lv4

Description: Boars already have a tough hide and this dungeon monster doubles down on it. The hide has a toughness similar to copper armor, though at the cost of maneuverability.

Ecology: shrubbery, clover

Violet Fungus

S[2] A[2] C[5]

Skills: Disguise lv4

Description: A fungus able to grow to man size. While capable of moving, it prefers to stay in the same place if there is enough prey. It uses tentacles covered in a poison that causes necrosis to hunt. When still it appears like a normal fungus.

Ecology: fungus, horned rabbits, clover

Venomous Snake

S[3] A[10] C[3] I[1] W[3] P[8]

Skills: Venomous Bite lv4

Description: This snake once was recognizable as a surface species, but over the years many dungeons have added bits of other venomous snakes to it. Now it is a unique species all of its own. A very handy species at that as this mixed origin allows this small snake to evolve into almost any higher ranked venom based snake.

Ecology: mice, shrubbery}

Ally glances over the list, “ooh, nice selection you have there. There are even a plant and a fungus based monster right off the bat! Those things are rare this early on.” Doyle was reading the entries one by one but jumped to the Assassin Vine when she mentioned it. He noticed something and had to ask, ‘what is up with their stats? Most of them have six, while this plant only has three. Also, what is up with the kobolds traps?’

She claps, “Good catch there though you missed something else. They all lack destiny, karma, and luck. This is because they don’t have a soul, and those are the stats that represents the soul. The thing you missed was that there are no paths. This also connects back to their lack of a soul. Only sapient creatures can travel their own path after all. Of course any monsters you get with a soul will gain those stats and their own paths.”

“As for the kobolds traps? That has to do with how monsters in a dungeon work. Same with the giant rats mention of a breeding population. You create all of your summoned monsters from pure energy. The problem is that living creatures are crazy complex and there is a massive amount of meaning put into them. If a new dungeon tried to summon anything bigger than a single cell organism, it would take more energy than they could control. Instead, what dungeons create could be compared to a balloon except in four dimensions.”

“This is why when a monster is defeated, their body will disappear and leave behind their loot. It will condense all its energy down into that drop. Rare loot comes about when a monster survives for a time in your dungeon. See, your monsters will passively absorb energy to reinforce their pattern. Along with that, if they battle an adventurer, it will funnel some of the resulting purified energy to them. This is where the traps and breeding comes into play.”

“A balloon can’t breed, obviously. To get a breeding population, you need the monsters to absorb enough energy so they become close to real. Giant rats are easy because a core part of their identity is how fast they reproduce. This means their pattern is primed for it already and a lot of their absorbed energy goes to getting that working.”

“The kobold’s traps are an extension of this concept. To make a trap, you need materials and you don’t exactly have that stuff just lying around in a dungeon. For kobolds to use their improvise trap skill, they pull upon their excess energy to materialize what they need. This means a newly summoned kobold cannot set a trap yet. Even with energy though, they generally can only manage a single trap each. A side effect of this is that when a kobold that was maintaining a trap dies, the trap goes away. Of course, these are just for the traps your kobolds make. Any traps you personally place will be there till you remove them.”

As Ally explained that all Doyle had taken the time to finish reading the list. Another quick once over but he still can’t find something vitally important to his decision, ‘hey Ally, what does it cost to summon them? In fact, what do I use to summon them in the first place? You said energy but you also mentioned stuff like mana and qi.’

Ally shrugs, “for you they might as well be the same thing. There are innumerable types of energy out there with their own unique twists and turns. For instance, there is mana and then there is fire mana which is different from sun mana and neither are the same as yang mana. Luckily your world delved deep enough into science that this is easy to explain to you. Mana and qi along with all their variants are made up of a base energy. This is like how all matter is made of atoms with different amounts of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The biggest difference is the base types such as mana act more like light. So through the prism that is the universe you get the rainbow of mana types or qi types.”

“What you on some unconscious level play around with is that base energy. Dungeon cores are actually one of the few to do so. This is because part of what the mental cruft that gets left on energy does is form the energy into stuff like qi. Not even gods can get around this and in some ways they have a harder time if they try. Their mere presence converts any free energy around them into some divine variant.”

“As for what summoning various monsters will cost you? It depends on so many factors that the system is unable to figure it out till you finish your setup. Oh, and just to note, Systems are one of the other entities able to use pure energy. This is how they are able to provide rewards to anyone and power everyone up. Anyway, you already know of an option that can change the cost of summoning monsters. A few of the dungeon types while not specifically mentioning it do so. For instance, the animal den type would reduce the cost of natural animals.”

“The reason this happens though is not a system effect. Rather, the more you align with something on a conceptual level the easier time you will have forming energy into it. Think of it like making a crystal. If you start with a seed crystal to grow it from, things will be a lot easier. On the other hand, the less like something you are, the more energy it will take. This can get to where some older dungeons are just not able to summon monsters that don’t fit their theme.”

“We can see an example of this in the universe my court came from. There was a fire dungeon there that used to spawn some rock based monsters early on to ease adventurers into the environment. After they developed past a few hundred floors, the cost to summon those early rock monsters ballooned. Right at the end before they just could not summon them anymore it would cost them more to summon a small rock hound than a patriarch salamander.”

“We can actually see this as a warning for you. After they couldn’t keep low threat monsters stocked weaker adventurers stopped showing up. Sure, strong adventurers provide a lot of cruft for you to take, but there are less of them and their visits sporadic. If it wasn’t for a local sect of fire cultivators who used them as a training ground, they would have starved to death by now. Morale of the story? Don’t make your early levels inhospitable. In fact, you should probably do stuff to encourage low level adventurers to keep coming back. But all that aside, have you decided what monsters you want?”

Doyle bobbles in the air, ‘yeah, I think I have. Out of all those options I want kobolds, goats, and the assassin vines. Though I don’t know what the difference between a main monster and a secondary one is so if you could explain that it would be nice.’