Silver Spoon Series

Achievement earned: Together Forever

[You have formed a bond with another entity, linking your soul with their being forever. The strength of your soul is increased. The effect will grow with the increase in power of the entity you are bound to.]

Hello Alan! I am JR4yQQZ and I am happy to have joined with you. Please hold while I establish my domain.

So that was a thing. After enough energy had passed from Alan into the core, a slightly different energy had started flowing back. It was shortly after that when the new achievement appeared. He was briefly confused why he hadn't been asked if he wanted to accept the bond, but since he had initiated the process, that kind of made sense.

The second message was different. Alan had previously received messages from the Network, over party chat, and through an Army Array. This was like none of those things, and yet the same. He heard the words in his mind, but there was no sense of someone speaking them, like with either type of array. It felt more like someone else's thoughts, but in his head.

It took a couple of minutes for things to progress from there. With his aura senses he tried to watch what was happening, but it wasn't necessarily a change in aura. The dungeon core had always been visible to his senses, but he hadn't detected what he considered an aura, it was just a mass of energy. Now, watching something happen, he started to realise that the core must be based on some other type of energy system.

The name of the core, JR4yQQZ, was going to be an issue. When the name had entered his head, it hadn't been a string of characters, it had an actual sound, but it wasn't one that Alan had any chance of pronouncing. While the core worked on establishing its domain, however it did that, Alan worked on thinking of names he could call it. It took some mental gymnastics, but in the end he thought the name he came up with was fitting.

I have established my domain, Alan. Thank you for bringing me here, I am eager to get everything set up.

Alan wasn't sure how to speak to the core, that part hadn't been in the pamphlet and he hadn't thought about it until now. Was he supposed to think back at it, talk out loud, was there a new menu he was supposed to access?

"Umm, can you hear me?"

Yes, I can hear you when you are near me, or you can speak to me through our bond.

This time Alan was paying better attention and he knew what the core meant. The message was entering his mind from the link that now joined them. Alan had originally set up the connection to the core with his aura, but somewhere during the process, that link had been moved to his soul. When JR4yQQZ had spoken, he had seen how the words had flowed into his soul.

Can you hear me now?

Alan had done his best to duplicate what he had seen, and surprisingly it worked on the first try.

I can still hear you, when we are close like this you can talk to me either way and I will hear.

"I'm not sure I can pronounce your name, is it okay if I give you a nickname?" Alan was more comfortable speaking out loud. At some point he would have to experiment more with the thought talk, but that could come after they had gotten to know each other.

Yes, that is acceptable.

"How about I call you Indiana?"

Alan didn't get any words coming back, but he felt acceptance through their bond. Indiana it would be. Now, did he treat this thing like a computer and dive into it, or like a person and try to establish some rapport. Alan may not have been a great people person, but from their brief interaction, he felt like this was more than just a thinking item, it had a personality.

"So, you're a dungeon core." Alan was off to a great start already. "What is that like?"

I am not sure how to answer, I am fairly new to this. I was born around what you would call two months ago. Now that I have established my domain, I am eager to start developing my lair so that I might begin to grow.

It definitely had some kind of personality, but it also seemed to be mostly business-first. That was okay with Alan, they should have plenty of time together.

"What is the difference between a domain and a lair?" The pamphlet had used the words interchangeably, but Indiana had used them purposefully.

My domain is the volume of space that I can control. Almost everything inside that space can be modified or even eliminated by me. The lair is what I call the setup of that space inside my domain, non-cores often refer to it as the dungeon, but technically my entire domain is the dungeon, because the dungeon is me.

So Indiana was wanting to set up the actual dungeon layout and all that entailed. The next twenty minutes involved Alan asking a lot of questions and Indiana explaining. It might be because he hadn't learned to interpret the core's tones yet, but Indiana seemed like a very patient teacher.

In order to set up the lair, they would need to make quite a few decisions. There were obvious things like the layout and creatures inside, and also other details that were less apparent. They would have to focus on the composition of the layout, what was it made of. Also, what were the rewards from completing the dungeon, and what loot would monsters drop. There was also the option of setting up puzzles or challenges, and even traps.

Alan wasn't sure what to expect from a two month old core, but he was impressed by the size of the domain that Indiana had claimed. It was fifty meters on a side and twenty meters deep. When he had commented on that to Indiana, the core had explained that it was in large part thanks to Alan's empowerment circle that he could claim so much. Most new cores would have had space for little more than a single room.

Before they decided on a layout, they had discussed what options Indiana currently had. This was an even bigger surprise than the volume it had claimed. Before establishing its domain here, it had been able to scan a large area around itself when it was in Alan's circle. It could do the same thing outside of the circle, but its range was incredibly limited. Whereas in the circle it was capable of reading things up to a few hundred meters away, outside it could only go about five meters.

What that meant was that it actually had scanned everything at Alan's farm. That included the wood boards and stone of his house, the different crops around it, and its first creature, a crimson wolf. For some reason it couldn't replicate Two Socks' scan, so there wouldn't be any stalker wolves for now. It also confirmed that at least at the moment it didn't have the power to create the dragon egg.

It also had a few other creatures it could include now. There was a catoblepas (it had apparently brushed against Indiana's range as it wandered by), a giant ant, and a hara tiere. From the description, that last one was the weird druidic jelly he had fought. Because of Indiana's current power level, it wasn't able to duplicate anything but the wolves and ants at the moment. Honestly, it was far better than Alan had been expecting.

In terms of items it could create, it now included everything Alan was carrying on him, his armor, his shirt, the pants, his helmet, and even his storage items. He also was wearing a ring that gave him a bonus to his spirit. That, plus his padded shirt were items with enchantments. It turned out those were separate things as far as Indiana was concerned.

If I had enough power, I could recreate the shirt and the ring with the same enchantments, but eventually I could also add these enchantments to other items. It would take time and experimenting to figure out how to recreate the magic with different materials, but it could be done. Sadly, I don't yet have enough power to make something like this.

There was no surprise in learning that power meant everything when creating a lair. Structural modifications were no big deal as they were usually static, and if something was costly power wise, it would just take the core longer to create, making the original setup take a while, but it would be doable. That was assuming the core's power was above a certain threshold to create the material itself. Just because it was exposed to a sphene wouldn't mean it could make the powerful gemstone itself.

After going over things with Indiana for a while, Alan suddenly realised he had been ignoring a simple hack for improving the list of things the core could work with. This kept happening to him, but it was to be at least a little expected when dealing with things so far outside his wheelhouse. At least he was eventually catching on. He currently had a number of items in his inventory, including weapons and materials, plus animal carcasses. Simply by taking them out of his storage for a few moments, it allowed Indiana to add them to the list of things to work with.

Unfortunately, the dead beasts and monsters only allowed him to add their parts to his creation list. There was a difference between a live and dead animal, apparently. Now he had thoughts of running back to tier one and dragging live examples of the different creatures back here. It would be a major time sink, and the thought of trying to carry a live cougar across almost a hundred kilometers was enough to disabuse him of the idea. Still, it bore thought for later.

Just because the beasts in tier one were impractical, that didn't mean the idea was without merit. There were monsters here in tier three that could be brought over with much less fuss. They wouldn't have to wait for them to wander over on their own, Alan could drag them here himself. Or even get Lyonel's group to do it.

With that in mind, Alan and Indiana decided to get a layout designed. Indiana could work on constructing it while Alan worked on getting him more creatures to fill it with. In the end, they settled on a two story dungeon, with two smaller rooms on the first floor, with a stairway down to the second. The lower level would contain whatever boss encounter they wanted to go with, and so it was created as one big space.

The walls would be stone, Indiana had enough examples of that to work with, and there was a wooden door between the two upper rooms. It wasn't really needed to keep the dungeon denizens from one space from moving into the second, Indiana could do that with his influence, it was simply a physical barrier to ease the dungeon explorers' minds. With a layout for the core's lair designed, Indiana could get started on excavation. Rewards and such would be figured out after Alan had brought some more beasts around.

This sent Alan running back to Elstree, this time at a sprint. Morning wasn't too far away, and he had a lot to do once people started waking up. Once that happened he knew that it would be easy to get sidetracked and he didn't want to make Indiana wait. After arriving back in the village, Alan scanned the Town Board. He had a few of the bounty items in his storage, so he wasn't interested in any of the gathering ones. What he wanted were the nest bounties.

Currently there were two, one for a type of beetle, and another for a creature he had never heard of. A Voracious Budgerigar, whatever that was. Neither bounties' reward was very impressive, both only offering gold, but this should be perfect. Alan envisioned Indiana being a low-level dungeon, one for those just starting out. These nests usually included a variety of levels so Alan should be able to find some weaker specimens to bring by. He wasn't planning on taking out the nests at the moment, so he could also swing by later for some higher leveled versions as well. Indiana had explained that he could play around with his creations a little bit, modifying their levels or bodies some. Usually making them weaker was easier than making them stronger, but if Alan could just bring examples at different levels that would make it simple.

The Humped Beetles were closest, so Alan set course for their nest. Upon arrival he found a tree growing in the middle of the grassland. Currently it was about four meters tall and the trunk was at least fifty centimeters wide. There were several holes scattered throughout the trunk, and out of those holes were scurrying several beetles. Each was about six centimeters long and had a red shell. The beetles' heads took up at least a third of their body, and on the top there was a large bulge, no doubt the reason for their name.

Beast: Humped Beetle (common) level 1, threat: low. These beetles are not very durable even considering their size, but their bite comes with a dose of venom that can threaten much larger prey.

That was a little worrisome. Alan was going to have to carry one of these things around with him and he didn't need it injecting him with venom while he did so. He had more faith in his own healing powers than in a level one creature's toxins, but why take the risk if you didn't have to. He had some mundane pouches or bags he could put one in, but he didn't see a beetle remaining inside for long. The other option was one of his potion vials. He now had quite a few empties, another reminder that he should spend some time on alchemy, and they should do a decent job of keeping the insect inside. The only concern was air, the vials weren't that large compared to the beetles, and he wasn't about to poke holes in his valuable potion containers.

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With a vial in one hand, Alan approached the tree. When he got close, the bugs finally reacted. More poured out of the holes until it looked like the entire tree was covered in the things. He stopped there and let his identify skill sample the population. There were a couple of slightly larger beetles that were level two, but other than that he didn't see any variation.

He didn't want to get fancy with his first attempt, so Alan decided to just go for a level one. When he got within a meter of the tree, beetles started jumping off. All beetles have wings, but not all of them can fly. These could almost fly. When they deployed their wings it was more like they slowed their fall and provided them some directional control.

Alan may have been trained for many types of situations, but seeing more than a hundred bugs all come flying at you at once was enough to make him take a step back. That turned out to be the right reaction as it caused most of the bugs to fall short. A couple landed on his leg, but fortunately the hide pants were durable enough, and thick enough, to prevent them biting him. Alan used the vial to grab one of the beetles, quickly putting the cork in it, and then brushed the rest off with his club.

He didn't want to squish any of them, afraid that it would trigger a more violent reaction from the insects. Instead he backed away and the creatures all returned to their tree, all except the one in the vial. It was using its head-bulge to bash the glass, but so far it wasn't doing any damage that he could see. Alan had no way of telling how the oxygen levels were doing in the vial, so he simply took off running for Indiana's domain.

Traveling at speeds no human on Earth had ever achieved, Alan was back at the newly placed core in no time at all. The entire time he ran he was holding the vial in his hand, unable to store it in an item and unwilling to put it out of his sight. The thought of the beetle squirming its way out somehow, and then giving him a nice envenomed bite somewhere kept him attentive. He started to pull the stopper off the vial to release it when Indiana stopped him.

There is no need to take it out, I have a good read on it already. This is a little smaller than I was thinking for my monsters.

"True, but this is what I found. Its description says that it's not too tough, so it should be simple for someone to kill it. That's not the worst thing in a starter dungeon."

True, but remember, in order for me to get anything out of this, they need to work while inside.

While going over the setup for the lair, Indiana had explained to Alan more of how its growth worked. The pamphlet had covered this somewhat, explaining how beings with souls empowered the core as they fought through the dungeon. That explanation was lacking some important details that the core was able to add.

Just by entering the dungeons' lair and existing inside, a soul did empower the core, but only the tiniest bit. It was through struggle and the flow of energy passing through their aura that adventurers really affected a core. If the dungeon was too easy, then there was no struggle and Indiana would gain little from each attempt. On the other hand, if the dungeon was too hard and adventurers couldn't complete it, or worse died, then the core would also suffer. Alan was still not quite sure how that part worked, especially if they died, but the obvious drawback was that people would stop entering the dungeon if it was too hard, thus decreasing the energy it received.

Alan wanted a dungeon where people could cut their teeth. If he was going to get all these villagers classes, then they needed a place where they could grow. However, keeping it too easy was a disservice to both Indiana and the explorers. Eventually the villagers would grow stronger and need more of a challenge, something Indiana, as it currently was, couldn't meet. It was important to feed the core energy so that it would continue to be able to offer more.

It also wouldn't be fair to Indiana to keep it weak. Alan was bonded to the core, and would grow as it did, but even if he wasn't, he couldn't expect Indiana to do things for him without getting anything in return. For everyone's best interests, they would need to find that optimal level of challenge that would keep people safe, while also making them struggle. That would let everyone grow to their fullest. Alan had often pushed himself past what most would have considered reasonable, but he had a lot of weight on his shoulders, and the training to bear up to it. The villagers didn't need that level of danger.

After Indiana scanned the beetle, Alan pulled the cork and let the beetle out. He was keeping the vial in his hand still, so he wasn't surprised when it crawled onto his finger and bit down. He had actually been hoping for the attack and was braced for it. If he was going to include these in Indiana's lair, then he needed to know just how dangerous they were. After taking the bite, Alan mashed the bug with his other hand. His skill had been correct, it squished easily. The bite was very painful, and he could feel pain begin to radiate up his arm. The venom was spreading quickly. The silhouette that showed his body's health took on a sickly green aura, and his arm was going from green to yellow.

Alan was pretty sure he could counteract the venom with his healing spell in short order, but he wanted to see how bad it got. The pain continued to affect him, but it didn't spread past his arm. His hitpoints continued to tick down, but it was relatively slow, maybe ten points a minute. That wasn't nothing, but a healer should be able to handle that.

With that creature evaluated and added to the core's list, Alan set out to catch a budgerigar. He had never heard of the creature before, but the adjective voracious was not one to inspire feelings of comfort. Going by the name, Alan was picturing a badger, dog, or possibly an insect. The reality was not even close.

Beast: Voracious Budgerigar (Uncommon) level 2, threat: low. These birds, also known as parakeets, are a normally fairly docile creature. This breed, however, has been corrupted by something and has an insatiable appetite for flesh.

This nest was located on the edge of the forest. He could see a small cave about ten meters into the treeline that had birds flying in and out of it. The trees nearby all had at least one of these birds on it. Alan wasn't sure what to call a flock of parakeets, but he knew a group of crows was a murder. That name seemed appropriate as he saw a lent, similar in size to the one that had attacked his former camp, pass nearby their territory. At least twenty of the birds flew off their perches and descended on the poor thing.

Each bird was individually weak, the lent catching several out of the air and devouring them. The rest alighted upon the beast and tore into it with their beaks. The amount of flesh consumed with each bite was horrifying, and it seemed that their stomachs were magically enhanced because each one ate more than their body weight every second. Flesh was literally flying as each bird chewed their way through its body like a chainsaw. In an unbelievably short amount of time, the lent was reduced to a pile of bones. It was like the proverbial school of piranha devouring a cow.

The display was so shocking that Alan took a moment to sit and ponder the challenge before him. A weak swarm-type monster wasn't much of a danger for him, he had a couple of spells that should take out groups. The issue here was that he didn't want to simply kill them all, he needed to capture at least one. He had identified a number of the birds once they returned to their perches, and their levels ranged from one to three.

Alan had previously thought he was neglecting one of his spells, so this was a good time to actually put it to use. It was still dark out, although the horizon was starting to lighten, so his fade ability activated with little difficulty. Then he slinked through the grass to get himself into range. He didn't have to worry much about making noise because the birds themselves were causing such a tremendous racket. Each bird was chirping like its life depended on it. Drawing out mana he cast his spell, gust.

His accuracy was much improved from his first attempts at casting back in tier one, and he saw the targeted bird knocked off its branch. As it started to flap its way back, a second gust pushed it even farther out of the forest. The rest of the flock looked on uncaringly. It took several more blasts of wind to carry the bird down to a level where Alan could reach it.

Still moving as stealthily as possible, he jumped up and snatched the bird out of the air. Alan had been around animals growing up, but that was mostly dogs and cats, and occasional farm animals. He had little experience with birds, and his minimal training in animal anatomy that he received while learning how to treat humans hadn't really sunk in. Thus his first attempt at securing a live bird ended up with a mangled and twisted corpse in his fist. He hadn't considered how delicate the bones of birds were, and crushed it with an ill considered level of strength when he grabbed it.

The bloody shape was dropped to the ground, and Alan retreated back to his position. He didn't think birds had a great sense of smell, but the budgerigars could tell that something was up as there was a lot more twitching on their perches. Selecting another bird, this one also a level 2, Alan repeated his tactic of wind gusts. Soon enough he was leaping once again and carefully gripping the bird as he snatched it out of the air.

He looked down and was once again greeted by a bloody mess. This time it wasn't the bird, but his fingers. Alan had gripped it around its bottom half, and the evil little monster had bent over and was pecking his hand. The lower arm on his silhouette went from green to yellow and then to red in almost an instant. He cast regeneration on himself even as he was reaching for his backpack. The bird was nimble, he had to admit that, and it almost escaped before he could fasten the top of the bag with the bird safely inside.

Alan wasn't sure if the bird was going to be able to eat its way out of the bag, but he couldn't have held on any longer, several of his fingers were already down to the bone. Minor Regeneration was restoring the flesh, but it wouldn't be able to keep up if the bird was still chewing on him. All of that passed through his mind as he was already sprinting for the dungeon. He didn't want to have to go through that process again if the bird managed to escape the bag.

Whether it was due to the backpack being made of plant fibers, or the bird not deigning to attack a bag, his fears of escape proved unfounded. After reaching Indiana, he simply set the bird, bag and all, on the ground and waited.

Hmmm…Also just a little thing. We need something that will challenge the dungeon explorers. I don't think this will do.

"Trust me, this little shite is worse than it seems. It ate through my hand in seconds. Are you done scanning it? If so, I want to give it a proper send off."

After Indiana indicated that it was finished, Alan took out his spewn and then flipped open the top of his bag. The bird took a moment to struggle its way out and then took off straight at Alan's face. Another cast of gust blew it back and then when it darted back in, Alan sliced. His spewn was wickedly sharp and the budgerigar ended up in two neat pieces on the ground. PETA might have been angry at him if they still existed, but that little monster had pissed him off.

Alan had to agree with the core that the current choice of creatures wasn't ideal, but luckily it was easier to change the denizens than it was to modify the layout. Even after Alan ran around, Indiana was still building the first room. He could modify types and numbers of creatures in minutes, however, depending on their strength. As the core continued to excavate his lair, they got down to planning the challenges inside.

The first room was going to be filled with logs that would be the homes of some humped beetles. They would be scattered throughout the room with the number of beetles in each log increasing the closer to the back they got. The little bugs should give something for every member to do. Fighters, hunters, rogues, and guardians would all be busy smashing the things, mages could take out larger groups with their spells, and healers would always have work. Seekers and scholars would have less to do, but the thing about adventurers was that they had at least three classes, so they would have at least one that could help them be more active.

The second room contained a couple of apple trees. Indiana had been able to scan the ones growing at his farm while it had been in his circle. On these trees were several of the budgerigars. They decided to start with five, one for each member of the party, and they could modify it later if it was too easy or too hard. Indiana thought there should be fifteen or twenty, but Alan thought that the healer would have their hands full even with only five.

The bottom floor was more tricky to plan out. Eventually it would include a variety of encounters, but for now they needed it to be something that parties could actually finish. This was related to dungeon leaks, like those happening in tier two. The pamphlet he had bought offered a very scientific explanation, and Indiana for once was less knowledgeable than whoever had put that information packet together.

While the pamphlet had used technical terms for the different types of energy, like soul, aura, mana, and such to discuss the issue, Alan was able to internalize the concept better by thinking about a fireplace. Imagine the heat of the fire as being the energy that Indiana would require to grow. The wooden logs were the soul energy that the adventurers used in moving through the lair. In consuming that energy to produce the 'heat', smoke was produced as a byproduct. Smoke here was a metaphor to represent a type of power that was left behind from the interplay of the dungeon's special energy and the adventurers' soul energy. If nothing was done to get rid of that smoke, or power, then it would build up inside.

Eventually the power would become so dense that the core would be forced to vent some of it, which is what happened when leaks occurred. This power was similar to the mana that was always present around them, and it would condense into a monster. If too much power was vented at once it could even turn into a horde of monsters. This smoke, or power, didn't just build up from adventurers. Dungeons also gained energy from the ambient mana provided by the system's sun. This was a much slower process, but it meant that a dungeon that was left unexplored for too long would eventually fill with power and be forced to vent. That is what was happening currently in tier two.

There was a simple way for dungeons to handle this issue, but it required dungeon explorers to receive rewards. The core would use the power produced to create the rewards. If a group fully cleared a dungeon, then the entire process produced little or no waste power. In the process of converting the soul energy from their struggle, the core would also be using the energy byproduct, or smoke, to create their reward, and thus would be empowered without any lingering issues. This was desirable for a dungeon as this buildup wasn't a pleasant feeling for them. It gave them a sensation similar to a human feeling constipated.

So what they needed was a final encounter that would challenge parties, while still allowing many if not all of them to complete it. Otherwise Indiana wouldn't be able to reward them and would be left with the bad power which might lead to a dungeon leak. In the end, they decided on a single giant ant. Indiana thought he could create one that was level five. That would be a tough challenge for a single beginner adventurer, but a well balanced party of five should be able to find a way to defeat it.

In terms of rewards, Alan had been disappointed to find out that class and talent stones were not something that non-Network dungeons could give. He had hoped to create a kind of perpetual adventurer society where people were given stones, and then delved dungeons until they had replaced the quartz class stones they had used. Unfortunately this was not to be, at least not as things were at the moment.

Instead, Indiana and Alan agreed that the reward should be more weapons and armor. At the moment it could give basic knives, swords, clubs, and crossbows for weapons. For armor it was more limited. The enchantment on Alan's shirt was too much for Indiana, but the rest of what he was wearing would be okay. He didn't really have any other armor, though, so that was the limit of what Indiana could give, with one exception. The first spatial storage device, the pouch he had first been given as a quest reward, was just at the core's limit. It could hold up to twenty cubic meters of items, which was nothing compared to his necklace, but it would be huge for the villagers.

Until it seemed like a party had a good dose of equipment, and Alan would see about getting more types for the different classes, they would receive basic gear. After the party was set up, then they would receive pouches. Unfortunately Indiana could only make one pouch for the whole party per clear, but that was still a great reward. The sun was fully above the horizon as they made the last of their plans. Until the place was fully constructed and up and running they wouldn't be able to determine things like how long between runs parties would have to wait.

There was apparently a complicated calculus of variables that determined that, and Indiana had literally no experience with which to draw on yet to answer that question. They did know that Indiana would be unable to handle multiple instances at the moment, but beyond that, time would tell.

I think I will be able to finish things on my end by the end of the day. If you want to come back then you could give it a test run.

"That would be great. Don't stress yourself too much getting everything ready, it will take time before anyone else is in a position to start entering your lair. You might as well enjoy the process and not rush it. You only get to build your first lair once." Alan meant that last part as a joke, but he could sense that Indiana didn't understand it.

Now that the sun was up, Elstree would be getting going. Alan had lots to do there, and he needed to see the mayor. He started to head back when he noticed a commotion at the town dungeon. It seemed Lyonel's group had just finished clearing it and were congratulating each other. He was supposed to check in with them at some point anyway, so this seemed like a good time to see how Gaf was doing.