Doyle just stands there for a moment after the dungeon core, Flisle, finishes his rant. He rubs the back of his neck, "So you're asking if I want to become a dungeon? That actually sounds interesting enough and I never went out much anyway. Sure, I can go along with your plan. Admittedly, I should think it over more. This is a big choice after all."
Zela looks away awkwardly while Flisle laughs, "You think you have a choice? Your choice was whether to accept me as your tutorial guide. We are way beyond choices at this point. The only thing left before I turn you into a dungeon core is a ritual. Zela will explain it while I go to prepare the ritual ingredients." and with that the golem slumps over.
Zela bows to Doyle, "I am sorry about that. Please forgive him. He has never been the most personable person, even among other awakened dungeon cores. Before he became so powerful he at least attempted social niceties."
Doyle sighs, "that was about what I expected anyway. He has this whole mad scientist vibe going on and those types don't tend to take no for an answer. I guess at this point you should lead us where we are going and maybe explain this ritual?"
Zela gestures to the stairs behind and flies through. As Doyle follows her down the stairs and through the field beyond she explains. "The tutorial is an amazing thing. You can learn and advance skills at an incredible speed. Death won't even hold you back as it will bring you back over and over until you complete it. That last one could be seen as a dreadful thing for some, but hey, that's just life sometimes."
The two of them reach a rough circle of packed dirt. Zela floats to the center before she continues, "you won't get to take advantage of it. As many a magic user who thought being a dungeon core was a shortcut to immortality have found. Normal skills and abilities don't transfer very well. Even something as simple as meditation to regain mana faster doesn't work. After all, a dungeon core has a distinct lack of a brain or nervous system for that to work on."
"Under the System, it is easier to explain. The ritual resets everything. Your skills are gone, your level is zeroed, and it sets your birthday to when the ritual finishes. Besides that, as long as you get the general detail of the ritual right, it can't fail in the classic sense. Instead, the farther from perfect it is the less memories you keep."
"Millenium old magic users have a bit of leeway here. You, however, don't have to worry about it because Flisle will be the one doing the ritual for you. Dungeon cores are one of the few species capable of drawing all the diagrams exact enough to not lose your memories. Not even the gods can claim that. My opinion is they cheat somehow."
Doyle shrugs, "fair enough, but why can't I just do the tutorial after the ritual?"
Zela gestures around, "everything you can see here is inside of Flisle's dungeon. A dungeon's domain is only theirs, and so you could not claim any territory. While your core can chill around as long as you want, you won't be able to train your skills. In fact, if it wasn't for Flisle taking over as your tutorial guide, you wouldn't be able to finish here at all. As it is, he was able to add an alternative method to complete the tutorial."
"Anyway, it looks like he almost has all the materials gathered. For normal materials Flisle would have been able to just pop it all into existence, but this stuff is rare." She points behind Doyle and he turns to look. There are a mountain's worth of a variety of materials.
Zela points out one material after another. "That there is a world jewel, forms in the center of an eon old planet and a big reason more people don't try the ritual. Planets that old tend to be well guarded, so while not the rarest material here, it is the hardest to get. Those bones come from a variety of high level creatures, each one aligned with a single element like water. He provided those himself."
"Under the bones is a literal ton of monster cores. Not locally sourced though, as the ritual needs it to be natural cores and there is no way we would use our own. Takes too much effort to develop them. Though I will have to cut this short as he just pinged me that he is about to set it up. We need to leave the area so as to not get in his way."
As they leave, Doyle takes a glance back. The entire stack of material is now floating in the air, weaving an intricate dance. The two walk for a long while before Zela stops. She looks at where he stands and gestures for him to take a couple of steps further. Then they both just stand there and watch. Now that the area is clear, the action picks up.
All the grass in a giant circle that reaches right up to Doyle's toes falls over dead. He takes another step back out of reflex. With the grass dead a wind sweeps through and carries it all off. Now bare dirt the ground shakes and sinks down as it compacts. The base now prepared a stream of metal shards flow out of the portal they entered the floor by. Each shard flies with a purpose to various parts of the cleared area where they carve out lines. Some lines are straight, others curve, and each line at a specific depth.
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As a line gets finished, the metal shard that dug it melts down and flows into the massive circle in which they have drawn everything. While the circle is wide, it is also very shallow and so the metal shards are enough to fill it. Zela points at it as the metal cools and explains that, "that metal ring around the ritual is used to keep the energy inside. It uses a special alloy made of various metals that restrict the various mystical energies plus some lead."
"You don't need a special material for smaller rituals. Some human practitioners even do without the circle. Now I don't advise that, but you can. Once a drawn ritual is bigger than a general human can make without moving, it needs something even if it is just a circle carved in the dirt."
While she explains, the other materials up in the air fill the inner lines. Each skeleton gets ground against itself into a fine dust. The world jewel floats down into the center of the ritual. All the monster cores position themselves at various points where lines intersect or dead end to modify the flow or store power. Precious jewels shatter, rare silks unravel, gasses turn into liquid, potions sprinkle themselves, and herbs plant themselves at auspicious locations.
Even with so many things happening at once, it still takes over an hour to place all the materials. After they finish being filled, the ritual still isn't ready. The herbs need to grow and various materials have to settle as the magic cycles. While they wait, Zela continues to point out the various materials used to make up the ritual. The part that interests Doyle is all her comments on what could have replaced each material.
Apparently stuff like potions and rituals don't depend on specific ingredients so much as specific elements of the ingredients. Sure, some of the highest level recipes have required elements like how this ritual needs a world jewel, but that tends to be the exception.
Half a day passes by before it is all ready. A small sphere with mechanical arms attached to the side floats over to the two. The faceless drone, a common sight throughout the deeper floors, is currently being directly controlled by Flisle. First thing he does is pinch Zela for being such a blabbermouth. While he doesn't mind Doyle learning so much he would have preferred she sells the information instead of just giving it away. With that done, he turns to Doyle and has him follow the drone into the ritual.
As they travel over the various lines, Flisle forms force fields so not a line is out of place. Now closer to the center of the ritual, Doyle notices the world jewel isn't in the direct center but offset by a pace or two. Across from it is a leather mat, pinned to the ground with spikes made of jewel shards.
Flisle explains that, "the leather is where you will sit. You don't need to be entirely on it. However you must never leave the area marked by those spikes that hold it down. To be honest, the leather isn't an actual part of the ritual. But after enough time people realized it was easier to know you are in the right spot with it. That and people tend to fidget less with something padded to sit on."
"Now you will sit on that for a good long while. For the first couple of hours you can do whatever you want within the spikes. At some point I will use a flash of light from outside the ritual to alert you to sit down. Within a few minutes of my warning your body will lose all ability to move and it will completely relax you, barring vital things like your heart. You must make sure when that happens you will not fall outside of the spikes."
"That won't be my problem, of course. I wouldn't bother with all this nonsense if the System didn't require I actually have your best interest in mind while I am your tutorial guide. But yeah, fall out of that area and you can expect to lose anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of your memories depending on how far out of the area you fall. Anyway, no time to waste. Go sit there and we can begin the ritual!"
The drone flees the area as Doyle sits down. A final yell from Flisle informs him that once it starts, it will block most communication. Then a shimmering globe of energy encompasses the ritual. More colors than natural flit across the surface, but soon Doyle's attention attracted elsewhere. Ever so slowly a silvery white gleam leaks out of the world jewel.
Over the next few hours, this gleam travels through each line of the ritual. At one point it goes out of sight and Doyle stands up to check on the progress. It would have been mind numbing if not for the occasional excitement. At almost regular intervals the gleam would reach a dead end and the monster core located there would flare up. Doyle would guess at what materials had gone into making the color. Sometimes it was easy. One core glowed a bright ruby red after the gleam traveled through a length of bone dust. The illusion of flames that accompanied it pointed towards a beast of the fire element. Another however shifted between a hot pink and clear sparkles. Even after half a day of Zela's explanations, he couldn't guess what had caused that.
The ritual finishes warming up and Flisle signals him with a nice big flashing light display. The fact it yells in all caps at him to sit down and shut up makes it ever so clear this isn't just another light display from the ritual. Doyle sits down cross-legged and hunches over with his arms crossed. He relaxes himself to test it and has to shift his legs so he doesn't fall on his face. A few minutes pass before pain lances through his body. If he hadn't gone slack moments before, he would have likely flailed about from it.
As Doyle is about to lose consciousness one last thought passes through his mind, "why does this hurt when being atomized didn't?"
An indeterminate amount of time later Doyle comes to. All he can see is darkness and when he goes to stretch, he can't feel his legs or arms. This of course freaks him out and he would have flailed about if not for the aforementioned lack of limbs.
His state of panic lasts until he can remember what had been happening. Others might have fallen into the trap of believing this was all a dream, but that doesn't matter to him. He never understood other's problem with it either. After all, even if this was all a dream, the safest thing to do is take it at face value until he wakes up.
With that in mind he must be a dungeon core now. Why can't he see anything? Well, he was told that he could not claim any territory in Flisle's dungeon. If the stories he read were anything to go on, he can only see with that territory. No territory means no sight. Where are his limbs? What limbs? He is a small magical gem now. One last thing to confirm it. Now is a good a time as ever to try a mental command, '[status].'
{Name: Doyle Huxley
Race: Dungeon Core
Paths: 0
Level: 0
S[6] A[7] C[9] I[10] W[9] P[5] D[12] K[20] L[16]
Skills: }
'Yep, my race is now dungeon core. Besides that, though, my karma is now through the roof? Now how can I check it. Before I just used my finger to press on the K. Can I just mentally press it?'
{Karma: The finesse of one's soul. The System restricts info on this stat for those with a soul stat total less than 1000. This represents the depth of your connections to those inside your territory. A vital stat for dungeon cores as it affects one's ability to interact with their dungeon's structure.}
'Quite the change in description there. I wonder how the rest of my stats have changed? Flisle should notice I am up soon enough so I probably don't have the time to go through them all. Strength is an excellent place to start, I guess.'
{Strength: The power of one's territory and core. This does represent how much weight you can lift in your territory, but it goes much further than that. On a very basic level, your core will become stronger. You become harder to bludgeon or damage in general. Materials that are a part of your dungeon will also shift around to optimize themselves for the things you most often use them for. A stone wall meant to contain others will differ greatly from a sheet of stone meant to break so as to drop people into a pit. Beyond these aspects strength affects a number of small miscellaneous things in your territory and core.}
'Strength didn't actually change all that much? The biggest change is to replace mentions of a body to the territory and core. This would make it quite important if you were going for a maze dungeon, I would guess. I do wonder how much and to what degree it can tou'
Flisle interrupts his thoughts at this point, 'hey, you don't seem to be mentally breaking down? I guess you could just be one of those types who break down quietly. If not, think a response to me.'
One mental sigh later and Doyle responds, 'doing fine here. What's up?'
The shock is obvious in Flisle's response, 'wait, you're actually sane at this point? It hasn't even been a full week yet! Most people take months to regain their minds stability in such a complete state of sensory deprivation. Some never recover. It is not a clean process to take a fleshy brain and squeeze it down into a fist-sized crystal.'
More sarcasm leaks into Doyle's voice than he meant to as he replies, 'that doesn't seem like a safe process there. What was that you said about being in my best interests?'
Flisle coughs, 'from a certain viewpoint it was. Better than my original intentions anyway.'
A silence ensues broken only once Zela butts in, 'the System would have stopped him if the ritual would have broken you. We still are in the tutorial after all!'
You can almost hear the record scratch for Flisle, 'wait, it would have? You mean I didn't find a loophole?'
Doyle can hear a bit of scorn in Zela's mental voice as she responds, 'please sit down in the corner dear. We both know if you were stronger than the guy who set up the System, you wouldn't be here right now. I let you go through with your little play so let me fix things up.'
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Flisle sulks, 'but it wasn't a play! I am doing an experiment here. Just some of the start conditions were out of my expectations.'
Before he goes silent and Zela takes over the conversation. Doyle feels the sensation of movement and it turns his non-existent stomach before it stops. 'Sorry about that. I just moved you from the ritual to a nice pedestal. I know dungeon cores have a severe case of motion sickness, but the residual mana from that ritual could mess you up after you've regained your sanity. Helps with restructuring your mind but at this point I advise you not take a blender to your mind any time in the future.'
'Anyway, as I just said, you were never in danger. While the System isn't omnipotent, it might as well be in the tutorials it sets up. Now to explain how things will go from here. You're a dungeon core stuck in another dungeon's territory. Doesn't get much worse than that. Since Flisle is your tutorial guide, though, it only limits you from doing the general tutorial new humanoids get. It would not be of much use for you with how non-humanoid you are at the moment.'
'The upside is you get to be a part of the tutorial! How this thing usually ends is a group gets ported to the first floor and have to bumble through until they survive to the second floor. Not that hard as the first floor is mostly critters on small floating islands. Though the number of deaths to people being spooked off the edge is non trivial. The critters aren't even scary! It is just rabbits and such. Anyway, your tutorial trial will be to stop at least half of a group from completing your first floor. What first floor you ask? Simple enough, we kick you out of here and the tutorial pairs you up with some fae to be your companion.'
Doyle speaks up at this point, 'so in the end I still get a tutorial?'
Zela snickers, 'yeah, but don't tell Flisle. He has been a bit obsessed with getting one over on the System ever since he was put in community service here. He isn't the only dungeon tasked with this job, but he has been here a while and is honestly getting a little fidgety. Sure before he gained awareness he would just sit in a universe till it died around him. After he got a bit of control, though, he has been flitting around the multiverse. He could barely stay in a universe for a thousand years, let alone the billion year sentence he is currently only a quarter of the way through.'
Zela pauses long enough for Doyle to ask, 'is that a lengthy sentence or a short one? You know what, I don't care. When you outlive universes that is functionally immortal from where I stand.'
Zela laughs, 'that is one of the requirements.' Doyle cuts her off, 'once again, don't care. When do I get to start and who gets to hand hold me?'
Zela huffs, 'you don't need to get snotty about it. If you get off the ground, this sort of timescale will matter to you as well. Dungeon cores are not technically immortal, but their crystals don't degrade much either. As long as you keep advancing in floors and levels, the slight amount of decay will be fixed. If it wasn't for the fact you need adventurers to enter you and some of those might just try and kill you, I don't think any dungeon would ever die.'
'Oh, and you're about to ask why you need adventurers, right? Your culture hadn't completely developed the dungeon core genre, but some got close enough. Every living creature takes in some form of energy and then puts out something else. Most humanoids do this by eating other animals and some plants, and well, we both know the next step to that. Dungeon cores don't eat physical materials but rather mental detritus and release mystical energy.'
'All the magic, all the qi, and every other mystical energy out there once used has a trace of the person who used it. That is why, even with a constant supply of potions, a magic user can't just keep casting spells. They need to recover their mental state to control more mana. These mental traces add up over time and make the energy harder to use. This doesn't matter all that much. Sure weaker magic users could no longer use magic but after a certain step in power the detritus doesn't stop them.'
'However nature is loathe of such imbalances. If you have a field of rabbits then some foxes will tend to show up for dinner. Dungeon cores are the foxes to the mental dust bunnies that clogs up mana and such. They are actually one of the few species to generate spontaneously. Up there with things like True Dragons, World Golems, Primordial Prokaryotes, Fae Royalty, Creator Gods, and Sun Crows. All other creatures are born from something. Though that is getting off track.'
'As I said, dungeons eat the traces people leave on any energy they control with their minds. This happens passively with the energy flowing into the dungeon. But that could be seen as breathing and not eating. To get something to chew on you need people to go into your dungeon influence and be in danger.'
'See, while the traces do float around, the people who can leave those traces or the target of mystical effects are like electro-magnets for the stuff. Once they are in danger, it loosens the traces up as if you cut down on the power to the compared magnet. Death of course is cutting the power completely free and then some, but you need to be careful with that. Your companion will take the time to explain the pros and cons of that later.'
'Though there is one pro I will go over. A reason to let some people leave besides to attract more to you, that is. After you eat all those traces on the energy what it leaves will be some grade A pure energy. Problem is pure energy lacks all those mystical calories you need, so how to get rid of it? Sure, some will leave naturally, but that is not fast enough, especially for deeper floors. Instead, you get those same adventurers to haul it out for you.'
'Your planet was advanced enough in physics to brush up against the whole energy is matter thing. Dungeons at their very core are a crystallization of this principle, literally. Natural dungeon cores form over millennium as mystical energies with excessive amounts of mental traces collect deep in the ground. The traces will reach a critical mass and coalesce into a perfect jewel while the previous encumbered energy breaks out.'
'This is how the first room forms, an explosion of magic which separates the dungeon from strictly physical dimensions. But that coalescing is the act of turning energy into matter. Those mysteries of the universe are now baked into your being.'
Zela flies behind Doyle. There is a stone statue replica of her on a marble pedestal. She lands on the pedestal and continues, 'This wasn't here a moment ago. In fact, it did not exist at all. While I am not a dungeon core myself by being a companion to Flisle, I can tap into some of the abilities, including this most iconic of traits. Dungeons are an eternal spring of loot and that all comes from their ability to turn energy into material.'
'What better way to get rid of the pure mystical energies than to have all those adventurers walk it out for you? Better yet, unlike with normal energy to matter, mystical energy doesn't directly turn into mass. The more significance what you convert the energy into has the more energy it takes. A mass of iron in the shape of a sword will cost more than the same mass shaped as a block of iron. Slap some fancy scrollwork and design it after a historical weapon and the cost just balloons. You can tell when a dungeon is overfed by how fancy their loot is.'
'Anyway, I think we might have gotten a little sidetracked there. Where were we? Right, you wanted to know when you start and who guides you. How about now and a random fae?'
Doyle was not paying much attention and just letting the info sweep over him, so it took him a moment to realize what she just said. In a panic he perked up, 'wait, what do you mean by that?' Then he blacked out.
Doyle slowly regains consciousness, 'Yep, tired of this whole blacking out thing.' This time he can actually see where he is. Of course, that where is an entirely boring and completely square stone room with a fist-sized purple crystal floating at the very center. The only thing that broke up this scene is a system window.
{Start Awakened Dungeon Core Tutorial?}
'Yes? Yes, please? Okay, not reading my mind so probably like with status, [yes]'
{Tutorial Starting...
Detecting Entrance Type: Portal
Detecting Dungeon Type: [Choice]
Detecting Companion: ...
Pausing Tutorial}
{Summon Companion?}
'I guess it requires a companion for this. Probably it assumes that if a dungeon became awakened in this universe, it was because of a companion and was written for that. It might even assume I am a bit dense. Welp, not going anywhere else without this so [yes]'
All the system screens vanish and a series of circles made of runes appear on one of the walls. They rotate and form a bigger circle as lines of power form between them. It spins faster and a small dot of light appears at the center. As the outer circles stabilize in their speed, this dot grows. Once the light is about shoulders' width across, all motion stops and it dims. A ripple spreads from the light and across the walls as space itself bends. He can hear a pop as a small winged form shoots out of the light.
The rune circles on the wall fade away as the figure comes to a stop in front of Doyle's crystal core. Curled up in the fetal position, they float there as the last of the glow dissipates away from them. As they become visible they very much fit the classic fairy look. Crystal like butterfly wings with a dress made of leaves. And a girl, of course, because why not?
She stretches out and yawns. Then with a surprised yelp she commented, "oh, an actual dungeon core summoned me?" She floated around the room and crowed that, "they didn't believe it would work! They claimed this universe didn't have magic for long enough for dungeon cores to summon a companion." All the while Doyle is just surprised that he can understand her when she isn't speaking English.
The fairy turns to him and asks, "So how aware are you? My frienemies weren't exactly wrong on it being too early for an awakened dungeon core. From what the queen of the court said, we should still be a couple million years from that point at least."
Doyle mentally tells her, 'good news for you is that I am as good as a human. Mostly because until recently I was one. Then the system came and stuff happened.'
She does a double take, "wait, you're actually awakened? I expected you to be a baby that stumbled into summoning me. Though with you having been human, that could carry some baggage. How do you feel about killing people?"
'Eh', Doyle shrugs, 'I guess it is a thing. If people don't want to die, they can stay out.'
The fairy relaxes, "good, I don't want to die this young. Anyway, my name is Ally and if you have a last name, I get it. One perk of being a dungeon companion for us fae. After all, names are power. Oh, and how did you end up summoning me? Since you're new to this whole thing, that is probably a superb place to start for the both of us."
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'My name is Doyle Huxley so I guess that makes you Ally Huxley. An interesting thing is at least with my culture the wife would take the husband's last name when they marry. Then again, I guess we are together from now on so it isn't too far off. Anyway, I started the tutorial for dungeon cores and while it was checking stuff noticed I didn't have a companion. When it asked if I wanted to summon one I answered yes and now here we are. Besides that, the previous two things it got to check was my entrance and dungeon type. The entrance I already knew what it would be, portal, and my dungeon type was marked as choice. Though actually I should probably say [choice].'
Ally rubs her hands together and chuckles, "you're perfect! Do you know how rare a portal type entrance is? Plus being early enough to choose your options is always welcome. Since you got paused in your tutorial to summon me, there should be an option for me to start it again. Probably something like continue? Resume? Activate? [Proceed]? Ah, there we go. That was the intent I needed." She continues to talk, but Doyle is a bit distracted by the System window coming back.
{Dungeon Companion Resumed Tutorial...
Detecting Companion Fae Type: Autumn Court
Restricting Dungeon Choices...
Detecting Entrance Location: Task
Override Starting: Tutorial Entrance Instantiated
Setup Paused Till Tutorial Completion
Tutorial Finish Condition Change: Prevent over 50% of a Humanoid Tutorial Team from Completing Tutorial Dungeon Setup on First Life
Passing Tutorial Over to Companion}
A soft ping comes from next to Ally. She waves her hand and nods, "nice! Since you became a dungeon core in the tutorial, we get to ease you in with some newb parties. Plus you can prove what you said about not minding if you had to kill others. Anyway, first up the tutorial wants us to do a trust exercise. We need to both agree to share our status panels with each other. Since you did at least some of the regular tutorial, your guide should have explained how important it is that you don't do that. To show the whole trust thing it won't show you a quest for it, but honestly, who else could you trust? I will start this off, [share status with Doyle]."
The dwarven guide had warned Doyle against sharing his status, but he had to agree with Ally. If he couldn't trust his system provided companion, then who could he trust? '[Share status with Ally].' In front of them both their respective panels pop up.
{Name: Doyle Huxley
Race: Dungeon Core
Companion: Ally Huxley
Paths: 0
Level: 0
S[6] A[7] C[9] I[10] W[9] P[5] D[12] K[20] L[16]
Skills:}
{Name: Ally Huxley
Race: Autumn Court Fae
Companion: Doyle Huxley
Paths: Dungeon Companion I 10/10, Fae Magic I 10/10, Autumn's Jester 3/100
Level: 0
S[12] A[9] C[12] I[15] W[7] P[9] D[7] K[18] L[10]
Skills: Tutor lv10, Fae Glamor lv10, Courtly Manners lv3}
Ally does a loop de loop in the air and cheers, "YES! I got a reset, a bloody system reset! All those wasted skill slots they forced on me, gone. All the paths I never wanted to travel, erased. Everything I wanted out of this came true. I escaped the court and get to start with an almost blank slate. Sure, I got loaded with a few skills and paths, but I would have needed them anyway. Now what have you got going for you? The complete lack of skills is to be expected. Chances of someone new to the system being able to pick up a skill that would work as a dungeon is near non-existent. Your strength and presence are quite low and we need to work on them. Especially presence as you need that to command your monsters. Karma on the other hand is out of this world. How did that happen?"
Doyle goes to shrug, not used to his lack of body, and his core bobbles in the air. 'That wasn't my original karma. In fact, that is how I ended up here. Apparently zero karma sets a dungeon's entrance to portal, and that is why Flisle stepped in. Once I woke up as a dungeon core it had changed to what it is now.'
Ally scrunches up her face, "the floating islands dungeon? I guess that would explain you becoming a dungeon. Though that little fact about a dungeon's entrance is dangerous. Just going to forget I heard that and you should do the same. Not that it would help much as a zero in any stat is rare enough to begin with. Most die before they are able to call up their status to check. With that karma, you are perfect to be a dungeon core. Your soul must be very focused and contained."
A natural breakpoint comes in their conversation at this point, and the system takes the chance to insert another window.
{Quest Complete: Trust Exercise
Reward: Tutorial Continues}
Ally takes a moment to read the next quest and frowns. She has a look of concentration and then she speaks to him telepathically, 'Can you hear me?'
Doyle confirms he can and she continues, 'the system wants me to practice my telepathy skill to unlock the second dungeon companion path. I was never a fan of it since at least when a fae speaks aloud they have to speak the truth. Direct mind to mind communication gets around that restriction. The upside is fae are not as tricky as the myths but I preferred to avoid court politics in a situation they can lie. First skill level should pop, easy enough.'
'Anyway, next up is to guide you through the choices you have for your dungeon. Just a side note. You can really tell the system has this setup so a companion can deal with a slow core. It says it has changed your settings so all your screens will be visible to me and it can't be changed until after the tutorial. I also have permission to let the system choose a random option if over an hour has passed since it displays a choice.'
'I am definitely lucky to get you. Just the thought of having to wait hours as someone bumbles around with some simple set up options. Even after the hour I wouldn't be able to choose a suitable option, but rather be allowed to leave it up to luck and not the stat kind. Anyway, first up is to choose your dungeon type. Though now that I think about it, how would a companion be able to force the dungeon to open the choice in the first place? Wait, here it is. I can force the option to open up from the quest screen I have. But yeah, just say something about choosing your dungeon type so we can continue.'
Doyle mentally shrugs and thinks [show dungeon type options]. This is enough for the system and a gigantic screen with a scrollbar appears. They both look it over, but 99 percent of the options are grayed out. Options like Dragon Bone Mountain and Sun Orbital. All of them have various requirements which lock them off. Such things as already having the bones of a dragon large enough to be a mountain or your starting location being in close orbit to a sun. With this amount of nonsense Ally suggests they put some filters on it. Doyle agrees and sets it to [remove locked options]
After a moment, all the locked options are gone but the list is still many pages long. Much too much to sort through, and Doyle had to admit to himself he was never good at choosing from so many choices. For the next couple minutes he brainstorms some more filters with Ally. In the end they add on the restrictions of [remove options that humans can't survive in], [remove options with a religious theme], [remove options any intergalactic organization is bent on destroying], and [remove limited options]. Sure, they lost some things like anything lava based, devil themed, and all undead options, but Doyle wasn't particularly sad about that. The few interesting ones like solid clouds were not worth sorting through the others. Of course the number of options left still shocked him, but Ally had an excellent suggestion.
Instead of trying to filter something else, they both just read over the list and handpicked options they didn't like the sound of. Stuff like Sludge Swamp and Searing Desert hit the cutting room floor with this step. After a couple rounds of this, it left them with a much more concise list to go over.
{Basic Dungeon
Description: Basic caves and caverns setup with stairs leading ever deeper. Even terrain meant to look worked will be rough. At deeper levels, the option for underground lakes and ravines will open up.
Changes: Everything is cheaper depending on how generic it is to appear in a dungeon
Verdant Plains
Description: Instead of claustrophobic corridors, the dungeon is made of enormous fields of tall grass. There is a false sky that at deeper levels will be higher up and more realistic.
Changes: Remove underground structures, Earlier unlocks for all surface based monsters and traps, Surface buildings available right away, Skew random rewards toward surface and sky themed options
Dwarven Mountain Home
Description: While similar to the Basic Dungeon every surface is smoothed and rooms are precise rectangles and squares. It will generate ornate carvings in special rooms and along oft traveled hallways. These carvings will be based upon what has happened. At deeper levels, underground lakes and ravines still appear as well as magma chambers and massive caverns which come with a special mushroom based environment.
Changes: Creating spaces costs more, Dwarven equipment becomes available without having examined them before, Dwarven traps will replace the generic equivalents, Earlier unlocks for all engineering based structures
Animal Den
Description: As Basic Dungeon but all monsters are animal based.
Changes: Complete removal of sapient monsters, Only worked terrain available are those dug out by animals, Object creation restricted to things directly related to animals, Much earlier unlocks for all animals, Ecosystem will naturally fill in, Animals evolve into a wider selection of creatures
War Camp
Description: Based around a central location in which semi-sapient monsters have built a base. The surrounding terrain has little effect and can vary greatly. While the monsters will form patrols, most will gather at the base. Deeper floors will have sub camps develop around the main one.
Changes: Limit monster selection to semi-sapient monsters and those tamed by them as work and war beasts, Semi-sapient monsters develop a culture right from the start, non-sapient monsters may only be summoned if a handler type monsters exists, Semi-sapient monsters rank up easier to fill in the base command structure though after those spots are filled it becomes much harder, Crafting structures manned by monsters will cause newly summoned monsters to be better equipped
Abandoned Space Station
Description: Everything is made of metal and artificial materials. The environment will cater to whatever party has entered the earliest and is still in the dungeon. High levels of technology, either science and/or magic based, will be everywhere.
Changes: Limit monster selection to robots, All traps are mechanical, Costs of everything is much higher than average, Advanced technology unlocked from the start, Holes in outer dungeon walls open up to a void and airlocks will slam shut as the room evacuates, Basic dungeon structures unable to be removed from dungeon
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Infested Space Station
Description: As Abandoned Space Station but a single selected species of invasive monsters will have invaded it. Depending on the selected monster, organic structures may be available.
Changes: Limit monster selection to robots and a single species of monster, All traps are mechanical or bio based, Advanced technology unlocked from the start, Holes in outer dungeon walls open up to a void and airlocks will slam shut as the room evacuates, Non-bio based dungeon structures unable to be removed from dungeon
Cityscape
Description: A city that has been abandoned, either recently or ages ago. From floor to floor it can vary whether it is a burned out husk or a pristine city, though not within the same floor. This type of terrain has a high degree of verticality.
Changes: Buildings can be marked as flimsy which makes them easier to collapse, Sewers are available as separate floors that directly follow a city floor, Mutated monsters are cheaper and unlock sooner, Normal monsters are more likely to evolve into a Mutant}
And it goes on and on like that. They might have cut a lot out but there are still just under 60 distinct dungeon types to choose from. Besides that there are some basic types like the space station which just had modifiers added. If counted, they would inflate the number well beyond a hundred to choose from.
Ally and Doyle debate what to go with for a while. At first Ally had wanted one of the more exotic options but Doyle talked her down from it. Space stations are cool, but the costs are too great, especially for a world new to the system. Who knows how many people will explore a dungeon when things are still in flux. Plus he had a very good point that his entrance is a portal. Whatever type they choose, it will be set dressing. If he was a space station dungeon, he wouldn't be literally floating out in space.
What was at the core of their choice was variety. While a dungeon can use other types, it is very hard to do. So instead of something like a cityscape which was always just one city after another, they chose a mod of the basic dungeon type.
{Strange Caverns
Description: While similar to a basic dungeon the deeper a floor is the stranger the options become. Giant caverns, ancient ruins, mushroom forests, regular forests adapted to be underground, and more can be used once deep enough.
Changes: Rare and strange monsters are weighted in random draws, Monsters that evolve and rank up are more likely to end up with less common options, Areas of the dungeon can become stranger over time}
Ally claps, "that is a good one and it should provide fun some options later on while still having a vanilla start. For a world new to the system, it should be the best at attracting people. A simple corridor and room based floor is easier to deal with. Now don't tell him I said this but Flisle took so long to grow not just because of the cost of his floors. Rather, unless a race has some innate flight ability, his dungeon is terrifying. Only high level adventurers would trek through him and a sub ten floor dungeon didn't attract them."
"Anyway, next up is to choose our starting monsters. Should just be the common spread as it sounds like things only get strange after the first few floors. Also, when it comes to monsters, there are a few things to be aware of. First is that you only choose monsters that are an actual threat. While horned rabbits could stab a child they won't be on the list. Instead, when you pick a monster, you also receive the patterns for some of their supporting ecology. For instance, if you get a wolf then you might receive the pattern for a horned rabbit and clover. It is not enough to make a real ecology but provides the start of it."
"After your starting monsters, you get a new choice of monsters when you reach a certain number of floors. This however is not the primary way to gain new patterns. Instead, you can gather them from the animals and plants that may enter your dungeon alive and don't make it out. That method will dry up as well, especially if your entrance is somewhere more populated."
"Though I should mention, yes system I see the note on the quest screen, is you cannot spawn sapient creatures sorta? Anyway, all the mystical energies make it a lot easier to judge if a creature is actually a person or just an animal or thing. It boils down to if it has a soul or not. The only beings out there that manage to call it into question are some of the AIs. Especially since when an AI advances enough it can gain a soul, so what do you call the AI just moments before it gains a soul? How about a day before it gets it a soul? Quite the blurry line for them."
"Back to dungeon spawns. In general they do not have a soul no matter how clever they seem. Goblins are a good example of this. They can create vast empires if an infestation isn't taken care of. If you look closely, it is all the same thing over and over. Their so-called society is very strict, not because of a totalitarian leaning. Instead, they are on a very basic level subservient to higher rank goblinoids. Sure, sometimes a high level goblin can evolve into having a soul, but that is rare."
"With all that I said you only sorta couldn't have sapient creatures. You have three ways to gain monsters with a soul. Either a contract to bring a sapient into the fold. A monster lives long enough to be recognized and gain a name from the system. Most common is to make a boss monster. That first one on the other hand is the least common way to gain a monster with a soul. It is important though, because that is the only way to have any of the classic sapient races join you. Humans and other similar races require a soul to live and so a dungeon is unable to ever spawn them."
"The one way that you can't get a monster with a soul is evolution. Out in the wild, like I mentioned with the goblins, monsters can evolve into having a soul. To gain a soul during evolution, there needs to be a soul nearby to get mixed in. In dungeons, the souls of dead adventurers are drawn out and unable to stick around. Since you can't create souls, this puts a damper on gaining monsters that are able to take initiative instead of just following orders."
"The only reason your bosses and named monsters can get a soul is that when one is created, your dungeon sends out a lure. That lure pulls in a soul which will match the monster. After all, it would suck to create a giant-sized boss monster only to have the soul of a pacifist mouse take up residence. That and the other upside is because your dungeon hooked the soul you gain the ability to re-summon them. In fact, if you do it quickly enough the memories impressed on the soul won't have faded much. This can end up a problem if a boss becomes too powerful for the floor it is on but this doesn't happen often. Even with their combat experience a low level body is still low level. Named monsters can of course just move to a new floor."
Doyle interrupts Ally at this point, 'yep, I got it. Souls are cool and what not. Let's look at what options I have for starting monsters. [Show starting monster options.]'
{Choose 1 main and 2 secondary starting monsters
Dungeon Wolf
S[5] A[7] C[3] I[3] W[5] P[8]
Skills: Teamwork lv5, Harrying Bite lv3
Description: A wolf adapted to live in the early levels of a dungeon. While similar in most ways to normal wolves, they are smaller and have traded strength for agility. The smaller size also reduces their constitution and presence. One interesting quirk to them is they are randomly colored like any other species of wolf.
Ecology: horned rabbits, clover
Kobold
S[4] A[7] C[4] I[6] W[6] P[6]
Skills: Heavy Bash lv3, Improvise Trap lv3
Description: One of the classic humanoid monsters. Some claim they are dog like and others that they are related to dragons. An easy mistake to make as the truth is weirder. They are actually a branch of the monotremes, most famous for the platypus. What appears to be scales is actually a type of specialized quill. Though as always when it comes to dragons, there may be some truth to them being related. The kobolds ability to improvise traps will be limited because of the nature of dungeon monsters. Each trap has an energy upkeep cost paid by the kobold.
Ecology: horned rabbits, clover
Giant Rat
S[2] A[4] C[2] I[1] W[1] P[3]
Skills: Swarm Sense lv2
Description: Giant as in the size of an average cat. A weak swarming monster most useful in tight corridors. One of the easiest starting monsters to create a breeding population as they require the least amount of energy to start reproducing.
Ecology: giant cave cricket, dungeon fungus
Goat
S[5] A[6] C[6] I[3] W[5] P[5]
Skills: Escape Artist lv3, Climbing lv3
Description: It's a goat. Unlike what some may believe, both the males and females have horns.
Ecology: shrubbery, vines
Assassin Vine
S[10] A[2] C[8]
Skills: Grapple lv5
Description: A large and semi-mobile plant known for making its own fertilizer by force. While capable of moving, they will tend to stay in the same place for days at a time. The berries produced by the plant grow in bunches and make a fine wine with uses in potion brewing.
Ecology: shrubbery, vines
Giant Centipede
S[3] A[10] C[7] I[1] W[1] P[5]
Skills: Venomous Bite lv3
Description: A centipede of impressive size. The venom in their bite is unlikely to kill anything bigger than a horned rabbit, but can paralyze a human. While not a social insect, they can end up in swarms if no easy prey are in the area.
Ecology: horned rabbit, clover
Raven
S[2] A[10] C[3] I[4] W[5] P[6]
Skills: Mimic Sound lv5
Description: The common raven, while not the biggest threat to adventurers their ability to mimic sounds has found many a party confused. Best used with ambush monsters and traps or as a swarm if you have an open enough area.
Ecology: mice, millipede, shrubbery
Giant Weasel
S[5] A[7] C[4] I[2] W[2] P[3]
Skills: Keen Hearing lv3
Description: A big weasel which has kept the exceptional hearing ability of their smaller cousins. Rarely one will spawn with a pure white winter coat which is quite prized. The current season has no effect on this chance.
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Ecology: horned rabbits, clover
Copper-hide Boar
S[8] A[3] C[10] I[3] W[2] P[4]
Skills: Charge lv4
Description: Boars already have a tough hide and this dungeon monster doubles down on it. The hide has a toughness similar to copper armor, though at the cost of maneuverability.
Ecology: shrubbery, clover
Violet Fungus
S[2] A[2] C[5]
Skills: Disguise lv4
Description: A fungus able to grow to man size. While capable of moving, it prefers to stay in the same place if there is enough prey. It uses tentacles covered in a poison that causes necrosis to hunt. When still it appears like a normal fungus.
Ecology: fungus, horned rabbits, clover
Venomous Snake
S[3] A[10] C[3] I[1] W[3] P[8]
Skills: Venomous Bite lv4
Description: This snake once was recognizable as a surface species, but over the years many dungeons have added bits of other venomous snakes to it. Now it is a unique species all of its own. A very handy species at that as this mixed origin allows this small snake to evolve into almost any higher ranked venom based snake.
Ecology: mice, shrubbery}
Ally glances over the list, "ooh, nice selection you have there. There are even a plant and a fungus based monster right off the bat! Those things are rare this early on." Doyle was reading the entries one by one but jumped to the Assassin Vine when she mentioned it. He noticed something and had to ask, 'what is up with their stats? Most of them have six, while this plant only has three. Also, what is up with the kobolds traps?'
She claps, "Good catch there though you missed something else. They all lack destiny, karma, and luck. This is because they don't have a soul, and those are the stats that represents the soul. The thing you missed was that there are no paths. This also connects back to their lack of a soul. Only sapient creatures can travel their own path after all. Of course any monsters you get with a soul will gain those stats and their own paths."
"As for the kobolds traps? That has to do with how monsters in a dungeon work. Same with the giant rats mention of a breeding population. You create all of your summoned monsters from pure energy. The problem is that living creatures are crazy complex and there is a massive amount of meaning put into them. If a new dungeon tried to summon anything bigger than a single cell organism, it would take more energy than they could control. Instead, what dungeons create could be compared to a balloon except in four dimensions."
"This is why when a monster is defeated, their body will disappear and leave behind their loot. It will condense all its energy down into that drop. Rare loot comes about when a monster survives for a time in your dungeon. See, your monsters will passively absorb energy to reinforce their pattern. Along with that, if they battle an adventurer, it will funnel some of the resulting purified energy to them. This is where the traps and breeding comes into play."
"A balloon can't breed, obviously. To get a breeding population, you need the monsters to absorb enough energy so they become close to real. Giant rats are easy because a core part of their identity is how fast they reproduce. This means their pattern is primed for it already and a lot of their absorbed energy goes to getting that working."
"The kobold's traps are an extension of this concept. To make a trap, you need materials and you don't exactly have that stuff just lying around in a dungeon. For kobolds to use their improvise trap skill, they pull upon their excess energy to materialize what they need. This means a newly summoned kobold cannot set a trap yet. Even with energy though, they generally can only manage a single trap each. A side effect of this is that when a kobold that was maintaining a trap dies, the trap goes away. Of course, these are just for the traps your kobolds make. Any traps you personally place will be there till you remove them."
As Ally explained that all Doyle had taken the time to finish reading the list. Another quick once over but he still can't find something vitally important to his decision, 'hey Ally, what does it cost to summon them? In fact, what do I use to summon them in the first place? You said energy but you also mentioned stuff like mana and qi.'
Ally shrugs, "for you they might as well be the same thing. There are innumerable types of energy out there with their own unique twists and turns. For instance, there is mana and then there is fire mana which is different from sun mana and neither are the same as yang mana. Luckily your world delved deep enough into science that this is easy to explain to you. Mana and qi along with all their variants are made up of a base energy. This is like how all matter is made of atoms with different amounts of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The biggest difference is the base types such as mana act more like light. So through the prism that is the universe you get the rainbow of mana types or qi types."
"What you on some unconscious level play around with is that base energy. Dungeon cores are actually one of the few to do so. This is because part of what the mental cruft that gets left on energy does is form the energy into stuff like qi. Not even gods can get around this and in some ways they have a harder time if they try. Their mere presence converts any free energy around them into some divine variant."
"As for what summoning various monsters will cost you? It depends on so many factors that the system is unable to figure it out till you finish your setup. Oh, and just to note, Systems are one of the other entities able to use pure energy. This is how they are able to provide rewards to anyone and power everyone up. Anyway, you already know of an option that can change the cost of summoning monsters. A few of the dungeon types while not specifically mentioning it do so. For instance, the animal den type would reduce the cost of natural animals."
"The reason this happens though is not a system effect. Rather, the more you align with something on a conceptual level the easier time you will have forming energy into it. Think of it like making a crystal. If you start with a seed crystal to grow it from, things will be a lot easier. On the other hand, the less like something you are, the more energy it will take. This can get to where some older dungeons are just not able to summon monsters that don't fit their theme."
"We can see an example of this in the universe my court came from. There was a fire dungeon there that used to spawn some rock based monsters early on to ease adventurers into the environment. After they developed past a few hundred floors, the cost to summon those early rock monsters ballooned. Right at the end before they just could not summon them anymore it would cost them more to summon a small rock hound than a patriarch salamander."
"We can actually see this as a warning for you. After they couldn't keep low threat monsters stocked weaker adventurers stopped showing up. Sure, strong adventurers provide a lot of cruft for you to take, but there are less of them and their visits sporadic. If it wasn't for a local sect of fire cultivators who used them as a training ground, they would have starved to death by now. Morale of the story? Don't make your early levels inhospitable. In fact, you should probably do stuff to encourage low level adventurers to keep coming back. But all that aside, have you decided what monsters you want?"
Doyle bobbles in the air, 'yeah, I think I have. Out of all those options I want kobolds, goats, and the assassin vines. Though I don't know what the difference between a main monster and a secondary one is so if you could explain that it would be nice.'
Ally claps her hands, "good choices all around there. As for the question about main and secondary monsters? That is purely a system related matter. Without a system, dungeons start with whatever walks into their territory and dies. This causes young dungeons to grow especially slowly unless they get lucky. After all the most likely creatures to die first are insects and of those the prey. To jumpstart dungeons that develop on newly integrated worlds, every dungeon gets three monsters to start. The difference between your main and secondary starter monsters is how much info on them the system shoves into your head. After you choose your main starter monster, it will become a creature you know inside and out. This not only makes it much cheaper to summon but also modify in the future. Secondary monsters are purely given to you as a pattern. There is a slight discount to summon but it is on the same level if you had many of them die in your dungeon."
Doyle thinks over this for a moment, "Okay that make sense. Now my first instinct is to take the assassin vine as my main monster to make them cheaper. On the other hand I don't exactly know how this works. I assume with how you talked about it the system isn't unique to this dimension and you have some knowledge of how dungeons deal with it elsewhere."
Ally nods, "yeah, while instances like this where the rules of a dimension are accidently changed by a visitor is rare, systems are not. A niche of creators like to add them to their worlds as it makes management easier. As for having the vine as you main monster that can work. However I don't advise it as your world has just been integrated. In a world with a more robust community of adventurers it might even be the best choice."
"For a new world like yours though I would advise the goat. Early on most adventurers will avoid your stronger monsters so the higher price doesn't matter as much. On the other hand there will be quite a few who linger around on the early floors just grinding out xp. Goats will be the bread and butter of your early floors so you need them to be as cheap as possible. It is assured that you will be bulk summoning goats at a crazy rate. Though I will leave it up to you how you want to pick your choices."
Doyle takes some time to think it over. In the end though what Ally said makes sense, so he chooses, '[goats as my main monster and assassin vines along with kobolds as my secondary monsters].' With that chosen, sparkling lights appear all throughout his territory and Ally upon noticing them speaks up, "you've chosen. Now just be ready for some pain." Doyle manages a quick, 'what pain?' before a sledgehammer of info is shoved into his mind.
Along with that information comes wave after wave of pain. His mind fills up and the pain crests only for the current batch of info to settle itself and the next arrive. He struggles to hold on to his consciousness if only because he does not want to black out again.
Assassin vines are one of the few plants to develop a non-growth method of movement without the use of any mystical energy.
They hunt by vision and are worse than humans in the dark.
Their vines are a specialized type of root.
And more gets burned into his memory but it soon slows down. Now he knows more about assassin vines than he did about humans. It does take him a moment to realize the pain is gone. Just enough time for it to start again and he gets a crash course on kobolds.
Their tails are prehensile despite being thick enough to not be useful for much.
Both males and females develop bright colored scales as they grow in power.
Females are more likely to develop qi while males tend towards mana.
The pain recedes again and this time he braces. The kobold info almost knocked him out as he wasn't ready but this time will be different. Or so he thinks as once the goat info dump deluges his mind it dwarfs the previous two. It comprises every species of goat native to earth and even some that aren't.
Doyle is mentally drowning in the sheer volume of information the system provides. The details go down to the sub-cellular scale and even atomic in some special cases. It forces him to watch literal lifetimes of goat experiences from birth to death. The only thing that holds him together is a deep-seated uncaringness. It had plagued him all his life. No matter what, things didn't matter, but now that quirk preserved him in whole. 'So what if I'm a goat? I am Doyle. It doesn't matter.' Through endless lives he lives, some of the goats from other planets even advance into sentience while he rides along. There are even a couple goat gods.
All the while this happens Ally floats to the side. Time passes for her and she worries. Systems in other dimensions don't have a problem but it shouldn't take this long. After a couple days pass she knows there must be a problem. She pulls out a small circular stone with a fae message rune carved on it. This is the only one like it that she has but there isn't a choice. The tutorial blocks most communication that tries to enter or leave it and to crack it is difficult. This naturally formed rock which had bathed in a magic spring for a thousand years barely had enough oomph.
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When she chose her path, the fae queen of the autumn court had gifted it to her. A very high honor despite the disgrace her choice caused. This dimension was too new to magic for these wonders to form often and their stock was limited. Now though she had to make use of it and so with a wisp of her remaining mana activates the natural rune stone.
A swirl forms in the air above it as the fabric of space around her warps. The light despite not changing directions is woven into a colorful image quite familiar to Ally. It is the queen's court, eternally in dusk as fae magic holds the very planet it is on in place so the sun is always just about set. Around the court giant pillars crafted in the image of mushrooms to invoke the classic image of a fairy circle yet made from unspeakable materials brought from the cracks between space and time. A bevy of eternally young court officials are just now reacting to the rune's magic. All the while there are a handful of high nobles sneering in Ally's direction as they had sensed the magic and it's source long before it formed.
Then an imperious command echoes forth from behind a curtain weaved with the final rays of a dying sun as it sets on the last world not swallowed when it expanded to go supernova. In words that are barely mortal the figure sat behind those curtains has commanded HER court be cleared. Two of the nobles looked ready to stick around but their bodies marched themselves out of the room.
[So you have finally called my child? It has been millennium since We gifted that trinket to you. The court was quite displeased when they received word of you being called. Some hadn't even expected you to last a thousand years if the bets are to go by. Now you wouldn't use that rune unless you had to, so speak up. With the inherent promise in Our gifting it to you We will assist as reasonable.]
"Your majesty I", [Now child, We might have only adopted you but We still consider you our child. Say it like you did when you were young.] "But, you're", [Your mother]. "The nobles will", [Now now my child. They are for Us to deal with, not you.] Ally sighs, "fine. Mommy, I got chosen as the companion to a young dungeon. We are in his tutorial but the main monster is taking too long to download."
[Hmm, that is troubling. Can you explain his circumstances? You specified a gender, so this isn't your usual dungeon core as they don't develop a gender identity easily.] Ally explains who Doyle is, how his pre-dungeon tutorial went, and what choices they had made so far in the tutorial.
[You have stumbled into a problem. The dungeon tutorial isn't meant for a sentient turned into a dungeon core. In this system you can only take one tutorial. In the normal flow of things a sentient would have already taken their original species tutorial and so the dungeon tutorial would not be an option. For the first time in eons I will get to file a bug report on an immortal created system.]
[If Doyle had left the human tutorial at any point, he wouldn't have gotten the option. However because his condition to complete it was switched to succeed as a dungeon core he never actually left. In fact, I bet if his entrance wasn't a portal type this wouldn't have happened either as it would have had to place him somewhere. Of course all this speculation won't help you so stop fretting.]
[His problem is they set the dungeon tutorial up to provide a basic framework for a core. It sounds like neither of you thought on it but simple knowledge of a creature doesn't make it easier to summon. Rather how deep a dungeon core's connection to the creature is what matters. A naturally formed dungeon under this system is more likely to stick with the original main monster or some related creature because their very minds are warped by the tutorial.]
[Now this alone wouldn't cause Doyle to spend so long on the goats. A normal sentient would have finished it on schedule but you would have soon noticed they had taken on many goatlike qualities. Even to the point of identifying as a goat instead of a human. Not necessarily a bad thing as for most sentients the tasks of a dungeon core is hard if not impossible to accept. This can cause a mental breakdown later in life when they can no longer handle it. Many good-hearted mages have found their minds split in twain as what they call their 'evil' side takes over the dungeon. They are fools of course as they are still one and are just pushing off what they see as bad onto a self-made scapegoat.]
[From what We can divine from here your companion differs from those mortal mages. Some of my younger colleagues would say he has an immortal's soul.] [Hey, don't you roll your eyes at Us. They are younger than Us. Just because they have all lived longer than the current ORDER doesn't mean We don't remember when they came about.]
[Anyway, where were We? Right, the 'immortal's soul' which is a stupid term for it. All souls are immortal and in fact beyond that, eternal. Rather it refers to how well a soul can handle the passage of time. Some core part of your partner would have raised him up within a few thousand lives under the system to the point of being a self-made god. Quite quick, though most gods from non-system based dimensions would debate if it really counts. After all, unless the system is specifically designed to prevent it they do make the path easier.]
[Now I can't divine what this core to him is but it has let him stay himself through what he is currently experiencing. More qi based societies would refer to it as samsara. His world's Buddhists have a very close concept to this. Their wheel of existence which is the suffering-laden cycle of life, death, and rebirth, without beginning or end. Only in Doyle's case more goat centric. I don't like to mince words like that so suffice to say he is experiencing the lives of many a goat.]