The Dungeon Without a System

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The Dungeon, Medea Island, Kalenic Sea

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The Eleventh Floor, being an expanded space, felt extremely strange. It was an absolutely enormous space that should reach from the mantle to space and is only half the size of Poland surface-area-wise. On the other hand, the room was only ten yards by twenty and thirty yards. That's the physical amount of space it occupied, despite the interior dimensions.

It was... mindboggling huge, and far more extensive than I had intended.

Despite that, I could work with this.

After I'd opened those tunnels to the ocean floor, water began flooding down into the floor. If I wanted a depth of four-ish miles on average, I'd be doing this for a while. In the meantime, I investigated the internal walls of the room.

While you would expect the rock to be incredibly stretched and the runes to be scaled up and warped, that is not what occurred. The runes remained the size they were when I carved them, with some slight changes. All the stories and poems about the ocean were below my intended waterline, mainly along the bottom. Along the walls and roof were those about the weather and travel.

Anyway, it's time to do some experiments!

Carefully, I laid mana lines onto the area around the floor's entrance door, filled with a specific intent.

I watched as that area rose and shifted, turning from a steep drop-off into rolling hills. Those hills transitioned into a short plain, followed by dunes, then a consistent slope. Finally, the slope ended with a steep drop-off.

All in all, it ended up being about a square mile of land around the entrance,

It was different than the earlier floors, where I had to use material I had previously excavated to build something up. This was more manipulating the bounds of the room itself. While that helped with most of the material I'd need, I still had to cover the land with dirt and sand. It wouldn't do for the guilders to see the runic script covering bare stone.

It took about four days to cover the hills and plains with dirt, obtained the same way I'd done on the Eleventh. I had less mana available right now than I'd used then, but a slower cycle was easy to maintain. With that done, I covered my dunes, beach, and shoreface with sand. Where did I get the sand? Well, I needed to get it from somewhere, so I'd started carving out the Twelfth floor and used that rock to make the sand.

Next, I seeded the now grass-covered hills with plenty of trees. They were mostly pine, to tie back to the Tenth. In the name of diversity, though, I'd also added some other species from the rainforest.

I'd left the plains mostly alone, though I spread some oak-like trees across the area, decent distances apart. I'd crafted the sand dunes to be quite large to hide the ocean from anyone walking across the plains.

I made the beach itself at a shallow angle. Eventually, I'd work out how to make tides, simulated or otherwise, and this beach would have a larger foreshore. With the wood for the ships sorted, I needed something they could use as sails. I'd need wool, cotton, or linen to make canvas. Unfortunately, I had no cotton plants, none having been imported to the island yet. The island did have a flax plant, which I spread across the hinterlands, where the plains met the dunes.

In all that time, the 'Ocean' had gained.... about half a foot in height? As I contemplated alternatives to speed up the progress, I began bringing down monsters to populate the entrance 'island.'

I intended this island to be largely unpopulated since the Guilders would need space and time to construct their own ships. To that end, I brought in a pair of unaltered sheep, made them omnivorous, and let them loose on the floor with little more than increased aggressiveness. I also brought some rabbits from the Tenth to start a new colony and gave them their own evolution chamber.

I had plans for islands out on the ocean that would blow the Guilder's minds. For this starting area, however, I'd keep things easy.

With that done, I 'stepped back' from the area and felt satisfied. For now. It was still very rough and needed a greater seeding of insects and animals. And, perhaps, a bit of landscaping.

All in all, it took about a week to get that all sorted. I let my conscience spread across the dungeon, taking in everything I had missed while focusing on the Eleventh. Despite a week having passed, not much had changed. All my monster populations were either growing or keeping steady at their optimal levels. Traps were resetting smoothly, and the intent-detection parts were running fine.

It did seem like there were two parties elevated to Platinum, who had broken through Mushu together and started throwing themselves at the Ratten. One of them died in the attempt on Mushu, inspiring the rest to improve themselves further.

The Isid-Haythem-Cliché raid had delved and left already, lacking the two members who lost limbs in their previous raid. As far as I can tell, they're waiting for enchanted prosthetics.

They'd beelined for the Goat Demon village and handed over a list of items they were willing to trade for a specific weight of wool. The goats selected a few items, and the Guilders would bring them down on their next trip to trade for the wool.

Otherwise, everything seemed fine. As I refocused on the Eleventh, I realized that this... this would take a long time. A single week to get the starting coast barely up to snuff?

And with how the 'Ocean' was less than a foot deep... Yeah. My next priority was figuring out how to speed that process up.

The simplest solution I could see was Water Spirits, which was if they could just make water ex nihilo. It was time to find out.

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Port Tisagot, Eastern Phenoc Kingdom, Thenoa

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The Grand Duke Alto Plaised fumed as he paced across the mildly-appointed room. He had been so close! Damn the King. Damn him to the lowest hell!

Alto'd been sure that he could convince the king to support him. He'd been a loyal vassal. He'd obeyed the king's every decree. And what did it get him? The one time he asked for help to destroy the dungeon that had taken his son, he was turned away!

With visible effort, he stopped pacing and stood in the center of the room. There, he took long, deep breaths. As seconds turned to minutes, his rage went from a roiling boil to a quiet simmer. He opened his eyes with a clearer mind.

After multiple attempts to get the king's ear, after his first attempt in person had failed, he'd been approached by a messenger. The message? He was ordered to return to his lands and cease bothering the king. His mind wouldn't be changed. There was no point in throwing more bodies at probably the most effective Grindstone in history.

It had killed over a hundred Guilders; silver, gold, or even Platinum. And since that was widely known... Alto had found it difficult to find any guilders willing to go there to shatter the blasted thing. The fact that it tried harder to kill those with such intentions had also spread quickly, reducing the willing Guilders he could find.

After being told to return to his lands like an unruly child, Alto had been consumed with a rage unlike any he had felt before. He was the second most powerful lord in the country! After the king himself, of course. He had wealth, resources, power, and the motivation to use it. His audience with the king should have ended in Alto's favor, not the opposite!

It took another minute of controlling his breathing to calm down again.

Alright, fine. Alto wouldn't have the support of the king. He could still use his own resources. He walked back to the small desk, looking over the map of the eastern coast splayed across it.

He bought this one from a cartographer in the city, and it had Medea island clearly marked. It was no surprise it had gone unnoticed, looking at its location. The section of the coast closest to it was almost uninhabited, and no major cities or ports to be seen. All their major trade lanes passed by the area completely. It was pure luck that the storm blew that trading ship close enough for them to see.

He studied the map carefully but, a few minutes later, saw the curtains in his peripheral vision shift.

He turned to look and saw a man behind them. The door to the balcony was open, and the breeze had ruffled the curtains. Alto blinked at the man in shock for a second.

"Identify yourself! Come out from the shadows!" He demanded as his left hand drew a dagger from within his coat.

The man raised his hands, palms facing outward and fingers splayed. He took a single step forward, enough for the candlelight to illuminate his face. He was dark-skinned with dark eyes, a large triangular nose framed by a traditional Bahrain headdress, and a well-groomed goatee.

"Grand Duke Plaised... It is a pleasure to meet you. I feel we have much to discuss."

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The Dungeon, Medea Island, Kalenic Sea

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It didn't take long to get a water mage down to the Eleventh. This one was a Snowbold, the 'wise man' of his tribe, named Wave. He seemed awed at the enormous space, especially when he stood upon the dunes. He looked down at the planned shoreline, and gazed across the future 'sea.'

"Creator... This... This is to be an ocean?"

Yes, Wave. However, It will take years to fill up on its own. Currently, the water is only a foot deep, a mere 11.3 cubic miles. We need 240 000 cubic miles of water.

The Snowbold staggered, his eyes widened and jaw hanging open in disbelief. "That amount... I can't even begin to comprehend it, Creator..."

Ah. My mistake. I'll try to simplify. In the last ten days, the Eleventh Floor has gained four and a half thousandths of a percent of the amount of water I need. If I kept filling it this way, it would take... roughly... forty thousand days. Which is a hundred and nine years. And a half. Give or take a few months.

"A hundred and nine... Creator, how long has it been since you first created the Kobolds?"

A few months. Why?

"And... there are twelve months in a year?" He said slowly.

Yes.

The Snowbold seemed speechless, gazing across the floor. He sat down on the sandy dune and looked down at the thin layer of water four miles below him. It took him a few minutes to gather his thoughts before he answered.

"That... is a very, very long time. What is your plan to speed it up then, Creator?"

That is where you come in, Wave. Please, summon as many water sprites as you can. I wish to test something.

"At once, Creator!" Wave declared, standing up and gathering his mana.

He quickly performed the spell half-a-dozen times, prompting half-a-dozen sprites to pop into existence. The Snowbold looked exhausted, and I knew maintaining the upkeep on those sprites would drain him even further. I quickly spun out six tendrils of mana for the sprites in a practiced manner, and they latched on like starving pups to their mother's teat.

Welcome to the Dungeon, Water Sprites. I have a long-term contract I would like to offer you. I could feel the sprites focus their attention on my words.

You see this big, empty space? I started, I want to turn it into an ocean. Can you make water, to fill it up faster? I gave them mental images, along with the words, of what I envisioned the floor would look like in the future.

The sprites huddled up in a group for a minute. I let them have their privacy. When they seemed to come to a decision, one of them replied.

"Yes! We help fill!"

Wonderful! Now, the Contract. You help me fill the ocean and defend me and my dungeon afterwards. In return, I'll give you all bodies that will make you grow much faster. I sent them images of the wind, earth, and fire sprites, as well as a sense of how much time passed since they were summoned.

Visibly vibrating in excitement, the group sped off down to the foot-deep ocean. I watched carefully as the group arranged themselves in a circle. They extended links of mana to each other and, together, they assembled an incredibly complicated spell.

There was a twist, and the interior of the ring they'd formed began fountaining water from both sides. It was so pressurized, the water spat out a sideways for a few hundred yards before it hit the ground. They couldn't have been making that water from mana, they weren't pulling enough mana to do something like that. They'd made a portal, then?

Whatever they were doing, portal or not, it wasn't very large. The ring was barely two foot in diameter.

They made a portal? Sprites could make Portals?! Where does it even lead? Where is the water coming from? Is there a water dimension they're tapping into?! So many questions.

It's a good thing I could just ask them.

Is that a portal? "Yes!" Where does the portal connect to? "Surface Ocean." Where on the surface ocean? "Deepest Trench! Water comes through faster!

I looked more closely at the water pouring from the portal and winced at the fish I saw flung though. They flailed in mid-air, disoriented and likely dying due to the change in pressure... until the smacked into the foot-high water. Which killed the majority of them.

I quickly moved to heal the survivors and adapt their bodies for less pressurized water.

So, this was actual water from a deep trench?

This is both good, and bad.

Good, because I'm getting nutrient-rich water, kept that way by hydrothermal vents. It's likely to be rich in microorganisms that thrive in that environment, which larger creatures and fish would eat. Inspired, I picked a random spot in the 'northern' section of the floor and manipulated the ground there to produce a trench that dipped down to six and a half miles at it's deepest.

Later, I'd add enchantments to simulate hydrothermal vents along the bottom of the trench. For now though, I just molded them to a decent shape.

I tried my hardest to make it look natural, but I haven't seen any real ocean trenches, so I'm not a hundred percent on what they looked like. Either way, I made it look as good as I could have, and contacted the sprites. They were happily maintaining the portal. The water level didn't look visibly higher, since it wasn't much water in the grand scheme of things.

Could you move down into this trench, I think the water you're collecting would be best suited for there.

"OK!" Was the unanimous reply. The sprites cut off the spell, collapsing the portal, and they all zoomed across the shallow ocean to the trench.

If I summoned more of you, could they join the spell, or would you need to stop the spell every time?

"Stop Spell. Start again Bigger!"

Alright, then. I'll have more sprites summoned and send them over every so often.

I watched them make the portal a second time, but as with the first the exact mechanism of the spell escaped me. It wasn't like the teleport crystals I modified for the lava falls. They continuously teleported matter that touched them to the paired crystal. The sprites were making actual, factual portals.

Well, I'd get Wave to summon more, and supply him with the mana to do it. After I have enough of them in the trench portal... I'll ask some sprites to make portals in more specific places.

I could kidnap hundreds of fish, especially the ones not native to the seas around my island, drastically expanding the diversity of my ocean.

I couldn't wait.

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© Max Porteous, 2022