Tiny Dungeon

Leaving Wenigo to get himself situated in the throne room he had prepared for him, Valterra moved to the Furnace Room. He knew his first guardian would be able to accomplish the task he had laid before the mouse. He chuckled remembering the look of shock on the mouse’s face.

He moved back to the Seventh Floor, noting its position in the house. Of the three rooms in the wing, the furnace room was the furthest from his Aether funnel, with the bedroom off to the left of the hallway and the ritual room off to the right. This was a good thing because the basement wasn’t directly under it, allowing him to utilize that extra space. Well, it would allow his monsters to. Before that though, he had an evolution to delve into.

Your “Pinewillow Emberseed” is ready to evolve!

Please synthesize a new Evolutionary Path for this Schema!

The system notification was a welcome one. It seemed as though his gamble had worked, though the results were less than he had expected, most likely due to the forced nature of the evolution. Valterra made a promise to himself that he would not force such a thing again especially since it had caused a strain he didn’t think would be going away anytime soon. Still, it didn’t quite halt his enthusiasm when he dove into fashioning the next evolution for his newest dungeon-unique entity.

The available evolutionary pool was massive for its rarity but the inherent Divine Potential was not. The latter amount was less than expected and Valterra suspected much of it had either been used to accelerate the growth or had simply not been given enough time to grow on its own. Either way, Valterra wasn’t going to waste what little he had. It did mean that he couldn’t go as far as he had wished but it could go far enough.

He took hold of the Schema and again controlled its growth aspect. From a seed it would become a sapling, retaining the potential to become greater later. The nature of Valterra’s title would have it be small, barely a foot and a half tall at the max. To be honest, the Schema most likely wouldn’t have been considered a sapling, since without the shrinkage caused by his title the evolution would have been almost thirty-six feet tall.

Valterra didn’t much care. In his dungeon, his words were law and he considered the small tree a sapling. The System could only acquiesce. He then turned his attention to the tree itself. The fire affinity it had been granted, he increased as much as he could. He used what potential he could to transform its sap into red hot metal, metal he had gotten from his Coppertip Moles. He couldn’t quite turn it into straight copper and he didn’t want to.

Instead, the sap became a thick alloy made from copper and Aether both, as well as various minerals needed for the tree to survive. The ability of copper to channel Aether to a certain extent helped the process immensely. The alloy Valterra dubbed Aesukose, in the old language, and made sure to emphasize that to the System. With most of his changes made, he made more general upgrades to its bark’s toughness and strength, its roots' ability to draw in nutrients, and its leaves' ability to draw in Aether.

Satisfied, Valterra drew back and let the changes finalize receiving the System notification soon after.

New Evolutionary Path synthesized from an existing Schema during Evolution! The Schema “Pinewillow Emberseed” may now evolve into the following Schema:

Flamewillow Sapling (Unique - Rare)

From an ember, this once-upon-a-time Pinewillow has kindled into flame. Its sap has transformed into the alloy Aesukose, unique even among every other magical alloy dungeons have created. With living metal flowing through its veins, this sapling has vast potential if left to grow unmolested and is found only within the dungeon of Valterra Unok’Davaas.

Valterra gave his interpretation of a wince at the last line. He had known he had pushed it and the System was letting him know in no uncertain terms that if he did it again, the quality and potential of his new creation would not work out well for him. Still, he had succeeded and that was all he let himself feel in the moment even as he acknowledged the warning.

Turning to the wider Floor he began to spread dozens of seeds around the central seed now undergoing evolution. Then he began building stone trees into the walls of the Floor, using the original Pinewillow Schema as a basis for his design. They were more like half trees, carved in such a way as to seem as though they were full but in reality, only extended in a half-circle outwards from the wall. He carved in the bark of each tree painstakingly before carving hollows in each one and placing a Rune of the Holding set into a pilon that rose from the ground.

He left the hollows and filled in the walls with art, something he had never attempted before but something about how Wenigo had looked in wonder at the artwork on the walls of his Aether Funnel room had spoken to him. Valterra carved the impression of trees further off and gradually a visual illusion came into being. As he took a metaphorical step back he felt like he had been transported into a forest of stone bathed in the fierce red light of the furnace set in the back of the room.

Pleased, Valterra went to the ground this time and began terraforming it to suit his plans. Stone was turned into rich soil interspersed with boulders. However, in the midst of all of it, the core began to carve little stone rivers into the ground and in between various boulders. Then, came the most important part as he filled the veins with copper before carving Runes of Holding and Fire Generation all along their lengths. He watched as the copper began heating up, turning a molten gold in color.

He felt his core shine yellow with happiness as it took effect. Excellent. The effect was just as he had hoped as the red-golden glow lit up the Floor even more than the furnace did. The heat was tremendous but the creatures he was placing within wouldn’t mind at all he was sure. Well, except the first ones but he thought they would be fine once they began to dig and he had hopes they would evolve into a more appropriate Schema due to their surroundings. With that thought, he summoned a couple dozen Coppertip Moles.

He watched in fascination as they came into being, their soft brown fur gleaming in the light of the Floor. What caught his gaze were the bright coppery digging claws that each sported. Their velvety noses turned up to sniff the air but the heat immediately became too much for the majority of them with only a few braving the heat for a few more moments. In a sudden flinging of earth, the majority disappeared rapidly into the soft soil, using their claws to move a tremendous amount of dirt in a short time.

Valterra followed with excitement. This was what he enjoyed the most, watching how his creatures moved and lived. To his surprise, most of the moles had no problem when they eventually met others of their kind underground. They just sniffed each other with their noses before turning and digging another tunnel elsewhere. Querying the System Valterra learned that that was normal when the moles were just starting.

Since they were all at the same power level, having all been created at the same time, they were able to perceive that conflict would be undesirable. This concept was fascinating in a Schema not influenced by divinity such as his Guard Mice or a layered Schema like his Danians. Cooperation was rarely seen within his Dungeon although Valterra knew that was changing rapidly from what he could sense from his First and Second Floors.

Leaving the rapidly growing tunnels he went up to the burrows where he had placed pylons. Within each one, he summoned a single Kindling Brushtail, the squirrel Schema he had received along with the Coppertip Moles when he had been evolving. These he felt would adapt well with their ability to regulate temperature but he was hoping they would turn into an impressive monster with time.

These he also watched come into being, russet fur gleaming and bushy tail waving to and fro. As Valterra looked closer he was excited to see thin veins of glittering red run the length of the animal, culminating in its tail that released tiny sparks now and then. This was exciting for two reasons. One, it gave him an idea about how the animal functioned. He figured that was how it controlled its temperature. Two, it looked amazing and he could only hope that the animal kept that trait as it evolved.

Finished for now, Valterra felt something else steal over him at that moment. It wasn’t like there was anything wrong with the Floor and he would probably finalize it soon. It was more like a longing, a desire for something and it took a long moment of looking at the Floor before realizing what was missing. A Guardian.

He wondered why he was feeling that longing now. His Fifth and Sixth Floor did not have Guardians, at least how Valterra saw it. Now that his Floors were larger than a foot in diameter the less a Guardian seemed necessary and the System didn’t even have that particular designation for his creatures. But he did desire them. He wondered why that was. Diving into this new emotion, he found that he trusted in his Guardians more than his normal creatures. For whatever reason the bond that tied him to them was stronger for the simple reason that they had been with him the longest and he trusted them to protect him more.

The root of that desire was fear and Valterra had to deal with the reality of what he had just gone through. He had been attacked, threatened to an extent that he had never before experienced and he hadn’t actually dealt with the lingering effects of it. Thinking it over he realized he had just retreated into playing with his Dungeon right after fixing it. He hadn’t dealt with the fear and terror of the experience.

So he did now. He withdrew and sat with his memories and turned them over. He witnessed, with perfect clarity, everything that had happened since he woke up from evolution. After that, he went back to the hazy memories from when he was going through evolution. That was where the majority of the fear came from, he found. In that partial awareness, he had known only the pain of his creatures and that something had been terribly wrong.

It took him longer than he thought it would but soon the fear and terror began to be replaced by determination. He wouldn’t be so weak again. He had already eclipsed his previous strength. The more they tried to claim him, the stronger he would become and he had already put plans in motion to grow his strength with his first Guardian, Wenigo. Still, perhaps there was more he could still do and Valterra had an idea.

End of Chapter Notifications:

7th Floor Created!

The Core has created its 7th Floor with active Rune Structures, a hazardous extreme environment, and an entirely new metal alloy.

Progress to Core Evolution:

25%