The broken dungeon core

It took a long time for the family to calm down and get back to settling matters before they headed to bed.

The most important being how to address Rita and then how to start finding out who might be okay with life in a dungeon or how we could help convince people that I am more of a benefactor than a danger.

With Rita the temporary solution is to lock her up in one of my inaccessible rooms and just keep her alive and away from everyone else with some excuse of her being sick or something until the truth can come out safely.

The next is making people like living in my dungeon more, so they suggested that I slowly do things to further accommodate the people living here, finding misplaced items and placing them near the person looking for them being the easiest and the other being making additional adjustments to my dungeon when I hear what the people want through their random comments throughout my dungeon.

Luna also has some interesting thoughts about who might be interested in becoming my inhabitants or companions.

Luna, “I think Tammy might be interested since she was there to see me get saved from the bandits by the dungeon teleporting me to safety, and she was one of the ones who at least had called out for help when I was attacked.

But after she was attacked and raped she is clearly living in fear particularly over possibly experiencing something like that again, so letting her know that it was the dungeon that saved me and that it could do the same for her if she registered as a dungeon inhabitant then I think she would be willing to do it if only for the possibility that she could be saved if something horrible happens to her again.”

Rimmy, “I can see your point, I think her family would follow along as well if they find out that she joined and seems to recover from some of her fear.

I noticed that her family is extremely caring about her and they have been cautious about her well-being and they have gone to quite the lengths to help avoid her experiencing anything that might frighten her.

So I think you might want to consider talking to her and her mom as a friend and perhaps start with doing some activities or chores with her to re-socialize her, since that might help them get comfortable with you and then you could slowly show or mention the dungeon to her.”

Luna, “That’s what I had planned, I was thinking about showing her mom the clothing chest Misty and I had made from vines and offer to teach her daughter how to weave the vines to make her own, maybe trying to help her have something that she can do inside to stay busy might help her feel more confident and it’s a perfect way to start showing her one of the dungeon benefits.

The dungeon absorbing the leaves we remove from the vines might help her adjust to it on her own and I could tell her that although the dungeon can’t really talk, it can still listen to her and help comfort herself with the few ways it can communicate.

I think she would appreciate just knowing that she could be protected at anytime anywhere in the dungeon and that she isn’t alone, since she has apparently needed at least one of her family members around her at all times ever since she was attacked.

I can try taking to her mom in the morning and see what she thinks about the chest and us spending time with Tammy.”

The plan sounds good to me and I have started to listen out for moments where I can help out throughout my dungeon, trying to start out subtle and slowly progress things.

Someone having trouble reaching a hook for a lantern or door covering and I lower it when they look away or go get something to stand on.

The water catches ran out while someone was cooking and I refilled them without waiting for them to leave to fetch water themselves.

Another person having trouble finding something and I find it and move it into view.

These little helpful things seem to be getting positive responses without being too obvious as some people seem to think they might have just been mistaken and convinced that they might have just been wrong earlier but overtime they should start mentioning these things to others.

Hopefully this helps build up a positive reputation for myself that will make everyone more willing to stay and cooperate with us.

Luna, “In the meantime I think that it’s about time we all get registered as dungeon inhabitants and find out more of its features.

I initially wanted to wait until the core wasn’t so damaged because I was afraid of how fragile it was and that an accident might happen but I think since the last few repairs seem like they have made it a little more durable it should be fine and it might also allow for more people to give it mana too!”

Rimmy, “That might be a good idea, so let’s get started.”

They line up at my core and they register one at a time.

[Rimmy Coon has been registered as a dungeon inhabitant, qualities for dungeon guard has been detected, qualities for dungeon farmer has been detected, positions are available would you like to have positions offered through the dungeon manager?]

[Yes/No]

Yes…. You don’t sound like System… are you the dungeon database?

……not going to respond huh?

Luna apparently had gotten the prompt and relayed the information to her father who decided on the dungeon guard position.

[Congratulations on your first dungeon guard, you and your guard will receive benefits for every invader killed, captured or repelled from the dungeon, benefits will be proportional to the value of each action. Physical rewards will be given through dungeon loot system which will be scalable by dungeon level. More information can be requested through the dungeon database and the dungeon management systems]

Luna seems to have finally been able to unlock the dungeon management system now that there is someone to manage.

It doesn’t have a lot of functionality yet but it looks like new positions will unlock those features, right now she can call up a map of my dungeon and the locations of inhabitants, and she can pull up the details of the positions that are available and how they get rewarded, apparently guards can get equipment and stats such as increased health, strength, stamina, etc.

Rocky is next and he’s eager to find out what he might qualify for.

[Congratulations, Rocky Coon has registered as a dungeon inhabitant, as an inhabitant that hasn’t yet reached maturity the trainee position is available to improve overall skill development for future placement, would you like to offer this option to your inhabitant through the dungeon manager?]

[Yes/No]

Yes!

Luna excitedly explains about trainees and their benefits which apparently includes accelerated growth of stats related to their training and mentoring bonuses that allow mentors to receive a reward for successfully training their trainees properly and the trainees will be rewarded with dungeon loot related to the area they successfully trained to become.

If that wasn’t enough they can continue training in other areas as a trainee until they reach maturity without consequences as they can choose their positions at that time.

Misty was next and she quietly and gently touched my core as she was added to my roster of inhabitants.

[Congratulations, Misty Coon has also been registered as a dungeon inhabitant, the dungeon trainee position is available for this inhabitant until maturity as well, another position is available as a dungeon guide but it will remain dormant until maturity has been reached. The dungeon manager will be notified to inform the inhabitant.]

Had I not known that system was gone I think I would have believed that it had gotten smarter all of the sudden, as apparently the dungeon database seems to actually be more advanced as it is more capable of communicating information than before, it’s information seems to be organized and accessible anytime unlike systems which never stored information after informing about it but now Luna or I can pull up the information through the dungeon database and it’s accompanying dungeon management system.

It looks like the more positions are opened up the more options will emerge for Luna to use her dungeon management system and the more it will become capable of doing.

Things seem to be going well as they all do a mana transfer and I am happily surprised to complete another mana crystallization process although it seems like the sensations seem to vary between the people transferring mana to me, I am left with my curiosities as they leave to prepare their dinner.

They cook some simple stew to have with the bread another villager made earlier and Rimmy went out hunting before it got dark while Luna went to check her traps.

Both of them returned with prey and they were able to clean and prepare them to add to their stew for later and to offer some to another cook who had taken up the other cooking station who gladly accepted.

I decided to enlarge both fireplaces as I noticed that they were not the only ones that would leave a pot of stew warming through the night and both fireplaces seem to have become more crowded and would be optimal.

That night I decided to try to add firewood to the fireplaces by putting it on the back ledge and raising the outer edge until it slides into the fireplace.

Luna gives me another mana transfer even though she hadn’t even recovered half of her mana yet and she seems to be extra sweet tonight as she covered her bedroom doorways and she put up another one for my core room.

Luna, “I’m a little anxious about what’s happening and what will happen in the future so would you mind letting me know that at the vary least you still want me and that you won’t just get rid of me?”

I am shocked that she would even think that I might get rid of her!

After all she’s not only my first dungeon inhabitant but she is also my only dungeon manager!

So how should I handle calming her anxiety???