Bab 2: Chapter Two: Into the Core of it. (part 2)

With a flash of light. I, in all my violet and black swirling death orb of glory arrived inside my dungeon.

It was not much to look at to be honest. The walls are a bit more smoothly shaped than I'd expected, and the place is pretty small, like 5ft high and wide by 12ft long, small and not too deep.

I seem to be able to "see" everything within my dungeons boundary even though I can't move, so that's cool, it's like I have some sort of spectre view.

There is nothing by the way, no moss or mushrooms? not even any bugs the place is just... empty.

'Okay system so how's this gonna work?' I asked after gathering my bearings.

[Ding! system recommends use of gifted random monster spawner and investigation of dungeon shop for resources. the simple thought of status is enough to bring up the information you require.]

Why does the system want the spawner up before anything else? Hmmm well thats interesting, guess I'll find out soon enough. 'Status.'

Name: Graham Kingsley

Core: Lvl 1. Chaotic/Dark (Healthy.)

Floors: 1

Mana: 500

Skills: None

Magic: None

Passive: Mana Generation.(50P/D)

Looking through my status, I don't really know what I expected to see here but that sure wasn't it. Oh! wait, I can see tab's for my dungeon map inventory and shop! Right, let's find that spawner.

I follow the systems suggestions and select the spawner, then i "will" it into existence at the back of the cave next to my core. Don't ask me how I knew how to place it, it was just instinctive.

[Ding! selecting monster at random for the spawner in..3...2....1... Selection complete. Scorpion spawner received. for details please focus on places of interest.]

Ahh! Scorpions aye, nasty little fellows haha! well best check it out and find out what all the fuss is about.

[Juvenile Scorpion Spawner.(Upgradeable.)

Cost per unit: 10 mana.

Description: An omnivorous heavy armoured insect with two sharp pincers and a Poison barbed tail. their average size is between 20 to 40 cm when summoned through the spawner.]

Holy shit, their massive! but that's good right? ohh yeah and it can be upgraded, Nice!

Hmm well let's see here, might as well check out the traps and environment gifts while i am at it.

[Ding! You have received Trap design.

'Stalactites fall'.

Description: Nature's vald the impaler, uses the cores mana to generate Stalactites on the cavernous ceilings of the dungeon and drops them on unsuspecting invaders.]

[Ding! You have received Floor Environment 'Arid highlands'

Description: A hot desert meets the rocky rolling hills of the highlands, the lack of water sources and vegetation makes it difficult to survive for long in. Temperatures Average 48°c inside the floor.]

Okay! well now I know what my second floor is going to be so now I just need to work on the caverns and see if I can afford any more spawners so I can cover my bases. Because if I come across anything magic related right now, I'm pretty sure my scorpions won't be able to handle it.

After half an hour of searching for how to do things with the system I found the beginners guide book in the shop for 300 mana. which is bloody excessive if you ask me, but I think it's a sort of punishment.

You either learn but doing or you pay up. but in the long run I think it is worth it to not be going in to this blindly, anyway the guide book quite extensive and goes into many details that I'm glad I won't have to spend extra mana fixing if I'd just gone into it willy-nilly.

There are two ways to extend the dungeon.

The first way. Which is the cheapest and longest, is to have my monsters dig it out. And I just so happen to have some pretty big scorpions to help me out.

The second way is to use mana to construct the tunnels... needless to say I tryed it immediately and the dirt and rock just vanished leaving a perfectly smooth 5ft by 5ft tunnel going straight into the mountain for 10ft more and it only cost me 20 mana so it only costs 10 mana every 5ft square. I can also increase the width and height of the tunnel with no problems.

Unfortunately I don't have the mana reserves to waste, I found out why my system was so adamant about getting a spawner out first too... Turns out there is no safety period for us, so that means anyone can just walk right in as soon as we spawned here.

I hope no one started off in a city, but then again if they did I would have to question their mental stability.

Realising that it's not really my problem and there's no point even thinking about it. I get back to working on my dungeon. I summon 10 scorpions and put 6 of them on tunnel digging and protecting me while the other 4 I send out to scout and hunt for MP.

My Dungeon entrance is right next to a river so there should be lots of game around the place so I'm not too concerned about getting enough kills plus I'm far enough from the nearest village that I'm not too worried about the local populace finding me just yet.

[4 Mana acquired.]

[Ding! Your scorpions have killed 'Horned Frog' and have gained 5exp.]

Ah ha! not even 5 minutes passed and I'm already making bank boy's!

Damn I'm half tempted to get 8 more scorpions and just get them out there and farming points for me. you know what? yeah stuff it, that's exactly what I'm going to do.

So saying I summoned 8 more scorpions and sent them out, this time however I sent half of them to the east and the other west to scout out along the border of my mountain.

Looking at my map now, it seems to have reset.

looks like my only chance to get a good look at everything was before I spawned in. petty, I guess I should have expected it to happen.

Can't just have us knowing what's going on around us for free right? the information age has ended for us. hell we don't even have a way to communicate with each other, I checked! there's no dungeon chat group or anything. seems the only way there will be any chance to do that is if I subjugate another core and make it a follower.. but why would I do that if I could just consume it, take all its stuff and level up my core and get stronger?

Well I wouldn't. it's the law of the jungle now and I don't plan on dying just so I can be a nice core.

[4 Mana Acquired.]

[Ding! Your scorpions have killed 'Horned Frog' and have gained 5exp.]

[4 Mana Acquired.]

[Ding! Your scorpions have killed 'Horned Frog' and have gained 5exp.]

I am happily watching the notifications of my scorpions come in when I get a new one from my scorpions that I sent west.

[10 Mana Acquired.]

[Ding! Your Scorpions have killed 'Goblin' and have gained 15exp.]

[Ding! system detected you have killed the mobs of another dungeon, caution advised.]

'HOLY SHIT!'

My thoughts start racing. It's too soon, I'm not ready for this.

I quickly send the command out to my other two scouting parties. 'Head west as fast as possible and gather up with scouting party3, they are under attack by enemy forces.'

I check the map and sure enough my 4 scorpions are being besieged by 5 goblins, 3 of the goblins are injured and I can see they are bleeding from wounds around the legs they might have been poisoned but at this point I can't tell.

Getting a better look my non physical heart slows down. They only have sticks that they are using as clubs soon they must not have spawned with weapons! I'm so happy I let out a sigh of relief.

I as watch the 3 injured goblins single out one of my scorpion and mob it, swinging their stick club wildly till they beat my poor scorpi-dudes chitin, which seems to hold up pretty well for a few blows before he finally starts giving out under the relentless attacks of the 3 angry dying goblins.

The other two goblins turn tail and run away taking advantage of the opportunity that their brother's have given them, but my 3 scorpions ain't about to let that happen and begin to pursue.

I stop them however and have them kill the last three goblins that are wailing on my poor guys back.

I do this for 2 reasons. 1, fuck you bitches! don't gang up on my boy! and 2, I only got the notification after one of them died, so if they don't kill my guy, they won't know that I'm coming.

[30 Mana Acquired.]

[Ding! Your Scorpions have killed 'Goblin' and have gained 45exp.]

[10 Mana Acquired.]

[Ding! Your Scorpion has killed 'Scorpion' and has gained 20exp.]

My other 2 scouting parties roll up on the battlefield just as the 3 goblins collapse with Stingers through there back and I have them finish off their buddy will they are at it. To my surprise I also get the notification from it as I get back the mana spent spawning it and the scorpion who got the last hit got 20exp and seemed to grow a little for it, looks like he leveled up.

I check out my current Mana and see that I can spawn 6 more of my Scorpions, so I do just that and send them out to join up with the other 3 scouting parties.

Soon motherfucker, I'll make you pay for making me have to kill one of my Scorpi-dudes.

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Hey guys hope you liked the chapter. I know the wait is abit long, but. I was so stuck on what the first spawner was going to be! I was on google images for like 3 days looking at monsters and finally settled on Dire Scorpions. then I was looking at cave designs. and thinking about first encounters... anyway I had lots of fun writing this and the next one as well. this story is heavily inspired by DnD so hope you guys enjoy~

thanks for reading and drop a comment please 🙏 hope to see you in the next chapter.