Trash Mountain Dungeon

I settled on choosing [Constructs]

All the options were certainly appealing, but constructs seemed to almost call to me, like a choice that felt right somehow.

Acknowledged, would you like to learn more about [Constructs]?

I would very much like to know everything you can tell me.

Constructs

Artificial entities originate from a variety of sources.

Available types:

Magic Constructs, focuses on the formation of magically formed entities and items.

Biological Constructs, focuses on growing and evolving biologically operated constructs.

Mechanical Constructs, focuses on building and adjusting machine constructs.

So, golems, weird flesh things, and robots then, am I supposed to choose one or do I just get assigned one?

The dungeon core will decide on a beginning low-level monster type to obtain, this monster type may be constructed from any of the three previously stated types, however, costs will vary.

Additionally, each tier of growth will grant the opportunity to begin specializing in each type, however, base-level access to each will be retained regardless of specialization.

Interesting, given the chance I don’t know what I would choose without checking each of them out, but I’m sure I have plenty of time, maybe. Regardless, it’s a choice for later and my current security comes first and foremost right now.

I am ready to choose my monster type then.

Monster types available to Constructs.

Beginner Constructs 1

... Anything else?

Negative, the first level of the constructs theme does not offer multiple types of monsters as constructs exist in too wide of a range to be categorized individually.

Beginner Constructs 1 gives access to simpler constructs of all three types.

Starting with the next tier of core growth, the dungeon will be granted more specific options to choose from, for now only general options fitting within the chosen theme will be given.

I’m assuming it’s just to give me a taste of each type, fair enough I suppose. I’ll have to give each a decent try at the very least, and even if I don’t like how one works, I always have two others to work with. Now, the next thing on its list was critters I believe.

Critters

Despite being non-combatants, critters serve two primary purposes, ecosystem development, and ambiance.

Critters cost no mana to make and maintain, and lack a population limit but are normally incapable of combat and serve a singular purpose in the dungeon typically.

Interesting, the ambiance part is easy enough to understand, but the ecosystem sent me for a loop, I could understand why you would need one for the more living monsters, and the dead I guess, but for two of the three options I don’t need to feed them.

Show it to me anyway, seeing it will clear some things up.

Rust Rats

Small, quick, and very smart, rust rats are a common sight in areas with high amounts of metal.

Used often by prospectors to find metal veins with great precision.

Edible to challengers.

Small

Stonelings

Insignificant constructs made from ambient mana from greater constructs.

Can be consumed to repair other magical constructs.

Small

Lichenthrope

A unique species of lichen that is capable of producing mobile offspring that will eventually settle down and begin producing more lichentropes.

Both the stationary and mobile states can be consumed by dungeon dwellers and challengers.

Small

Copper Roach

Small insectoid mechanical construct that will scurry around and consume stray materials.

Produces a minuscule amount of metal at no cost.

Scales with dungeon size and the number of critter nodes.

"Edible" to mechanical constructs.

Miniscule

Stone Hounds

A vaguely canine-shaped magical construct produced by geomancers to scavenge the last morsels of metal and gems from mines and caves. Not designed for combat and due to a built-in quirk, they will act similar to non-magical hounds when not being ordered.

Will periodically seek out metals and gemstones to collect, however, they lack the precise ability to find said materials, only having a general sense of where they are.

Medium.

Milk Bug

A medium to large-sized stationary insect that will feed on ambient mana, they produce a large amount of "milk" a highly nutritious fluid that can be consumed by most living beings.

Produces insectoid "milk" for consumption.

The milk bug itself is also edible.

Medium to large.

More options to choose from, I have a feeling that this will become a theme from now on.

But looking at each I could more or less understand what it meant beforehand, rats scurrying around or massive bugs hanging from the ceiling would make a sort of ambiance.

The rats were good for the precise location of metals, stonelings would be good for fixing my monsters, and the lichen could be eaten by my living creations and weird little balls of moss walking around. The copper roach could, given time, produce a large amount of metal if that ever becomes a problem, stone hounds could dig out stuff, and the milk bug, much like the lichen, could produce a source of food for any living things I make, gross as insect “milk” sounded.

Based on the purpose of each critter, the ecosystem it mentioned was actually just that, an ecosystem of resources meant to benefit the dungeon itself. Hypothetically, this meant that if I chose the right ones I could produce resources in-house essentially, covering the daily strain of any future creations. It doesn’t hurt that it will also give the place a nice touch of activity if things get too quiet.

But choosing any of them would be valid of course, being able to find resources while also feeding a living construct seemed good, or I could try and focus on the non-living ones, focusing purely on resources to cover the daily materials costs that they had in those examples. Though before anything it would be better to get a better idea of what I would be using this stuff for.

The purpose of a dungeon is to convert aether energy into mana, and the purpose of monsters and traps is to protect the dungeon, to enable that, a small portion of a core's true mana production is diverted to the creation and maintenance of defenses, the purpose of using different materials to support created monsters is to alleviate the strain of constant repairing of monsters.

Additionally, in some cases, the required material is used to generate loot.

So, it's just a cost-saving measure then, the more I build up an ecosystem that produces stuff, the more traps and monsters I can make, the more secure I am, neat. Also, wouldn’t loot be counter-productive, since if I want to be safe and sound dumping magic into the water wouldn’t it be better to not be found and never attacked?

Loot/Treasure

The purpose of loot is to attract entities to the dungeon so that if they are defeated, the dungeon will gain growth and DP.

Most non-soul-bearing creatures will need to be slain to obtain growth while soul-bearing challengers need only enter and interact with the dungeon to generate growth.

Killing a soul-bearing creature will generate the most amount of growth possible.

Allowing a soul-bearing creature to leave will grant additional growth.

Loot is also another way in which aether energy may be converted into mana.

Finally, over millennia different groups and individuals have used dungeons as a way to train individuals to a certain level, making use of the power they gain from slaying monsters or beating traps to create highly skilled soldiers and specialists.

Loot is generated from any dungeon monster or through different tests, at times a challenge can itself be the treasure.

Critters do not produce loot but because they do not dissipate upon death like regular monsters the corpse itself is treated as the treasure.

The point of it is growth then, at the very least I don’t have to become some murder rock. But I could work with this, I generally don’t enjoy killing animals and things but if it leads to my safety and empowerment then I could live with that.

So system, anything else I need to do to get the ball rolling?

Required choices to unlock buildings:

Dungeon Theme (1/1)

Primary Monster type (1/1) * Requires theme

Critter Type (0/3) * Requires Theme

Construct Core Room (0/1) *Requires theme

Seeing the critters actually brought me back to the original point of all these questions, which actually gives more questions like why it was telling me all of this despite saying it wouldn’t.

The dungeon core is privy to a great deal of information but can only access the majority of it by growing.

That felt almost sarcastic if I’m honest, but anyway, the critter choices were, if nothing else, a good choice to make since they each brought their own benefits.

Looking over them I would still say that none of them were the wrong choice, the only problem being that using either of the living options would at the very least give me a greater reason to make the organic constructs. That made four of the six more broadly beneficial than the more focused lichen or bugs, with their only other benefit being that people might want them or the equally disturbing thought that I could make bug “cheese” which while interesting from a cooking perspective was very much unpleasant to think about.

But looking back around, I suppose the same problem as before applies, where exactly would the critters go, while none of them seemed particularly like they were going to make or break my new life it would be good to get into a habit of considering even the smaller decisions.

Though that does bring me back to the ultimate point of this not-quite dilemma, what do I choose?