Chapter 16: Creation Magic
Akio advanced eagerly, ready to tackle the task at hand, but his momentum was abruptly halted by Akane. She positioned herself in front of him, her hands outstretched.
"Wait just a moment," she interjected.
Akio paused, "Yes?"
"Before you commence, don't you think that you will need some form of magic to help you?"
Realization dawned on Akio. "Yeah… you're right. I currently lack the ability to move walls or summon creatures."
"If you are to help me, I have to give you the necessary tools to do that. Not to mention teach you!" Akane declared, maintaining her position before him.
Akio had suspected as much. The task ahead demanded a specific brand of magic, one capable of summoning and constructing intricate puzzles or traps. He mulled over whether such abilities could be classified as magic or perhaps more akin to developer tools.
With a focused expression, Akane lowered her arms and began to concentrate deeply. Extending her hands outward, she closed her eyes.
"Is she casting a spell?" Akio questioned within himself.
Despite his efforts, he observed no magical symbols or indications of traditional spellcasting. Akane's concentrated demeanor, however, left him pondering whether her actions were having any effect at all.
"And there we have it! You are now endowed with the ability to teleport and wield creation magic. Let me now show you how to use them, as they differ slightly from the in-game magic you're accustomed to."
Though Akio perceived no immediate change, he inspected his imaginary hands, pondering the nature of the transformation.
"...Alright, now follow my lead. Raise both your arms like so," she instructed, demonstrating the motion.
Adhering to her guidance, Akio attempted to mimic her movement, managing only to shift a portion of his cloud form into a different shape. While the result bore little resemblance to raised hands, he complied nonetheless.
After raising both his cloud-arms, Akane instructed him to close his eyes, mirroring her actions. What unfolded next left Akio astounded. Akane began speaking in code, a language that Akio recognized all too well.
"Does she realize that I'm familiar with this?" he pondered silently.
Interrupting her demonstration, he inquired, "Are you using computer code?"
"Oh... You're acquainted with the system's languages?" she replied, visibly surprised.
"Well, you could say I'm familiar with them. But is this how your magic works?"
"Yes! This saves us a lot of time!"
The notion that she might have been preparing to teach him an entire programming language left him incredulous. "She was probably going to have me print 'Hello World!' or something," he thought, struggling to believe the situation unfolding before him.
Akio dismissed the thought. If this had to be a learning experience, so be it. However, he felt fortunate to already be well-versed in coding.
"Well, how do I summon a monster?" he asked eagerly, ready to learn.
"Okay, so..." Akane began, responding with instructions in a manner that only someone familiar with the language would understand. To Akio, it seemed simple and straightforward. He appreciated that her magic aligned with his skills. The only difference was that Akio had to mentally type out the lines of code. This proved challenging, as his mind felt clouded. He attempted to clear it by focusing and taking imaginary deep breaths.
"Inhale... exhale..." he muttered.
Despite his efforts, he couldn't successfully imagine the lines of code. He grew frustrated, as he was skilled in real life and felt this should come naturally to him. He gave up, telling himself that this would require practice. Before fully giving up, however, Akio thought of an alternative.
He imagined the line of code for his idea. It wasn't complicated, but as soon as he did, even SystemZero, or Akane, was impressed. Akio summoned a three-dimensional keyboard in front of his cloud body. It wasn't a technologically advanced keyboard; rather, it was a physical, mechanical one.
"Wow! I haven't showed you how to do that yet, and you already figured it out!" Akane replied with awe in her tone.
This came naturally to Akio, and he knew it, but he tried not to be too cocky about his coding skills.
"Next, a compiler..." he muttered.
He imagined the necessary lines of code, and like magic, a transparent 3D screen appeared in front of him.
"Cool, huh?" he remarked.
"Yes! You're a natural!" Akane responded.
Akio wasted no time. With his mind, he typed on the keyboard, eventually imagining ten imaginary fingers to improve his typing speed. His brain now functioned as usual, and he spat out lines of code faster than even Akane could think of them.
"That... that was quick," Akane nervously replied, unsure whether to be impressed or worried.
Before Akane and the cloud that was Akio, a monster was summoned. It was a goblin, hideous and carrying a wooden club. Shirtless with a decently large belly, short, green, and evil-looking, just as Akio designed him. The goblin wasn't super intelligent, but it knew who stood before him. It bowed its head in respect, not to Akane, but to Akio.
"It looks scary... but it looks cool!" Akane replied, showing no sign of fear.
"So, she's not scared? If it were my younger sister, she would've run behind me for protection," Akio reminisced.
Akio continued typing, configuring the code so that whenever he thought of summoning a goblin, the command would run automatically without him needing to recall the lines of code. It was almost like magic.
Once he finished, he summoned five, then ten more goblins. This method was faster and more efficient than manually typing out the entire code, and Akio loved it. If this was how "creation magic" worked, he didn't need any more help.
"I think you've pretty much got this in the bag!" Akane confidently replied.
"Do you think so?" Akio replied, trying not to let his ego get the best of him.
"Well, since you're already getting to work, it's only natural that I begin too!" She said, clenching both hands into fists and showing her readiness.
In the blink of an eye, Akane, formerly SystemZero, vanished. Akio assumed she had teleported back to the white void she called home. He still had several questions, one of which was where he would teleport to once he was done. He decided to take it easy for now and deal with that hurdle when the time came. He remembered the white void, so if he ever had any questions, he could teleport there. Even though he wasn't too familiar with teleportation, he was confident he could figure it out.
Hovering over every nook and cranny of the dungeon he was tasked to correct, Akio pondered what could be done to fix it. He thought it wouldn't be as hard as it looked, but he had no idea where to start in terms of design. Usually not the most creative person, he tended to work off of what was easiest. However, even he could tell that this dungeon needed a complete remodel. If he were an architect, he would have been fired by now for the amount of time wasted.
"Well, if I have no clue how to revive this place, maybe it's not meant to be revived. I should completely delete this and start from the beginning." Akio decided to act on his thoughts, even though he feared that starting from scratch might hinder his progress. He opened his tools and began working. First, he deleted everything, leaving only the entrance design. It looked as if a miner had detonated explosives, causing the dungeon to collapse in on itself, leaving nothing but dirt and stones further inside. Undeterred, he puffed his chest out and got to work. He created a massive hole straight in, decorating the walls to his liking while maintaining the old dungeon vibe that Akane had.
He named this new floor "Floor 1." Though it took several hours to complete, he was pleased with the result, surprised at the creativity he found within himself. The first floor was a 'living-maze,' an endless stone corridor with changing corners and choices between left and right that varied after each attempt to raid the dungeon. This maze was challenging precisely because of its ever-changing nature. Akio envisioned that if players raided the dungeon multiple times, they would easily remember the layout and traps to avoid. To prevent players from mapping out the first floor, he placed traps of all sorts in every corridor. One trap, in particular, was his favorite - the 'you're not going anywhere' trap. After players entered the dungeon, if they tried to leave the way they came in, they would be summoned into a room full of weak undead in large numbers, with a ratio of 20 undead to 1 player.
Akio paused his progress when he had a brilliant idea that could save him hours of creating traps and summoning monsters. Since many monster templates were already designed, he only needed to specify the type of monster he wanted, and it would summon. If no creation was necessary in that area, his plan would work as expected. He spent several minutes typing on his mechanical keyboard.
"Aha," he thought.
Before him, an elder lich was summoned. Its face was half-skinned, revealing bones and several teeth. Its skin was pale white, and it had no eyes - a truly horrifying design by Akio. This creation was entirely original, meaning he didn't use any of the currently available monsters. As for the AI that would control the lich, Akio had no idea where to begin when it came to coding that. He had glimpsed at the code in the chat room, but that wasn't enough to fully replicate the AI intelligence. While there was already basic AI for common monsters, they lacked true intelligence and merely followed commands. They couldn't think for themselves or have feelings. This elder lich was special, designed by Akio to be the boss of the dungeon, far more powerful than any elder lich within the game. Based on the game's level system, which ranged from level 1 to 250, an elder lich was given a base level of 25, while undead ranged from levels 3 to 15. These levels were set based on the templates Akio had seen while exploring the game's files, thanks to the abilities given to him by Akane. He set this elder lich to level 100 to start, but that wasn't the most important part of a boss. He wanted them to rule the dungeons and maintain them as if they were fortresses hiding gold treasures.
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