Shaking it off, he brought up his statuses, to get a better look at where he was at and what he wanted to accomplish in the future.
Dungeon Core Status
Fredwynklemossering
Core Faction: ********
Core Age: 1
Core Structure Level: 1
Fire Mana: 21/120
Water Mana: 20/120
Unconverted (Unusable) Mana: 3728
Unconverted Essence: 2
Skills
Master Mana Sight: 100%
Novice Mana Communication: 9%
Novice Mana Absorption: 70%
Novice Mana Conversion: 40%
Novice Essence Conversion: 1%
Novice Mana-formed Object Creation: 30%
Novice Core Crystallization: 16%
Novice **** Mana-formed Object Creation: 20%
Dungeon Information
(none)
Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate Interface
Name: Fredwynklemossering
Class: Researcher
Rating: G-3rd
Essence Needed to Rate-up: 373
Total Essence: 327
Available Essence to Distribute: 247
Unconverted Essence: 37280
Body: 4 (0/80)
Brawn: 3 (0/40)
Mind: 4 (0/80)
Vitality: 20/20
Stamina: 6/15
Power: 32/200
Base Physical Attack: 3
Base Physical Defense: 4
Power Regen Rate: 1/min
Class Traits (Researcher)
Your available Power is adequately increased by your Mind stat
Your Power Regen Rate is adequately increased by your Mind Stat
You have a heightened ability to adapt known spells and abilities for use in other applications
Class Abilities (Researcher)
Experiment 0 – 0/100
Adapted Abilities
Animate Dead 0 – 0/100
Repair Animation 0 – 0/100
Vitality Transfer 0 – 0/100
Vitality Explosion 0 – 0/100
Shield of Darkness 0 – 0/100
Lifedrain 0 – 0/100
Repair Object 0 – 0/100
Conjure Object 0 – 0/100
Shadow Strike 0 – 0/100
He was low on his Mana at the moment from using so much in the dungeon, but he knew that all he had to do was wait a couple of days without using too much and he’d be fine. When it wasn’t being used to keep him alive from the cold or starvation, the converted Mana was increased by 10 to 12 points a day now. Even the gold pieces that he had made had barely put a dent into his available Mana; it apparently took less than 1 Mana to make one of the coins. Either his ability to Create the objects was increasing, or “loot” was much easier to make compared to everything else.
As far as his Adventurer status went, he was now G-3rd-Rated after finishing the dungeon. It seemed like a quick advancement, but Eisa had told him that it was going to take more and more Essence to get to the next Rating – which he could see by the fact that he now needed more than he’d already earned just to get to the 4th Rating.
He was also glad to see that his Power was much more useful; whereas the maximum he could hold was previously five times what his Mind stat was, it was now fifty times the same stat. In addition to that, he now had a reasonable 1/min Power Regen Rate, which he thought was decent in comparison to what he had before: 0.1/min. Overall, he was happy with his choice; the fact that he only had one ability from his class didn’t bother him. He still had his Adapted Abilities to choose from, so he wasn’t too limited.
While he couldn’t find out any other information from the abilities that he had adapted (at least while they were still locked), he could see what the new ability did.
Experiment 0 – 0/100
Use this ability to experiment with different ways you can apply your existing spells and abilities in different ways. Chance of success is dependent upon Experiment level as well as the complexity of the spell/abilities used in the experiment.
Cost of using Experiment 0: 0
Base chance of success using Experiment 0: 0%
Reduction of cost of used spells/abilities in the Experiment: 0%
As he hadn’t unlocked it yet, it probably didn’t have an accurate representation of its costs, but the fact that it appeared to reduce costs (eventually) was encouraging. He could see some interesting possibilities for this ability in the future – but it wouldn’t help him much now.
Instead of unlocking that, however, he needed something else. He thought about everything that had happened that day: his integration of the Syndicate Interface with his system, the dungeon exploration and completion, his actions at the tavern, his choice of class, and his plans that he had developed for the future. It was all leading up to something in his mind, but he couldn’t quite grasp it.
Closing both statuses, he sighed and lay on the bed, deciding to put off the decision for the next morning, or even the next day. As he closed his eyes and settled down, he realized he was wrong about the mattress being too squishy to rest in – the bed was more than comfortable enough to put him to sleep almost immediately.
When he woke up the next morning, he knew exactly what to do.
Part V – Core Power
Chapter 32
Eisa could barely comprehend the changes in her fortunes from only three months ago. Back then – before she met the mysterious and powerful Fred – she was at her wits’ end, committed to being alone and soloing dungeons without a group for barely enough to live on.
Now, as co-leader of the guild, Core Power (based out of Gatecross), she had almost everything she could want: money, power, and personal growth. The only thing she didn’t have yet was a cleared name by the rest of the Syndicate, though she was making small strides in that direction. Then, of course, she still had very little idea who or what the mysterious man who turned her life upside-down actually was. With the constant time they spent together, she found herself wanting to get to know him a little more every day – but he was sometimes infuriatingly secretive.
She had met with Fred the day after they had met and, instead of telling her what class he had chosen, he instead announced that he was going to form a guild. Not only that, but he was going to make her the co-leader of it.
To make matters even stranger, he said that he was going to invite every Adventurer in Gatecross to be a part of the guild – which he ended up naming Core Power, for some reason she didn’t understand. But it was catchy and clear (which was all that really mattered, she supposed). Regardless of what he named it, the purpose behind it was clear.
He was going to use his “wealth” to fund dungeon delves.
And not only that – he was going to make it a stipulation that Eisa and him had to be brought along.
So, that part made a sort of sense, because of the special stipulation that Jaymes and the Syndicate placed upon their “keep-your-mouth-shut-and-don’t-talk-about-what-happened” deal. They needed to be in the party for the loot fee to be waived, but Fred was going to go above and beyond that. Instead of just the loot fee being waived, he was going to double whatever loot they received, or at least the monetary equivalent.
It seemed outrageous and insane…but it worked. The warnings she had given him about other Syndicate members trying to steal his gold turned out to be accurate; however, the end result was nothing what she – or those trying to do the stealing – could’ve predicted. Instead of running, fighting, or trying to go to the authorities (which were nearly non-existent in Gatecross), Fred ended up inviting them to join their guild!
With promises of a signing bonus of a single gold piece, he convinced all 146 DAS members operating out of the small town of Gatecross to join. Not only that, but with fully paid meals and lodging, guarantees to pay back the fees collected by the Syndicate even if Eisa and him weren’t in their group, and the doubling of loot when they were – no one could afford not to bec
ome part of the guild.
The influx of money might’ve had a detrimental effect on the local economy, if it weren’t for the fact that the town wasn’t anything more than an outpost designed to cater to the local DAS branch set up there (and were, in fact, regulated by them as well). There wasn’t much in the way of luxuries there, and even the local merchants didn’t have anything fancy and expensive, though they did start to run out of products when most of it was bought up by the “local rich” members of the guild.
She had a feeling if the influx of coinage kept up, then even basic commodities would start to become a bit expensive, though that might be in the distant future. As far as the rest of the Kingdom was concerned, what they were doing was probably barely even noticeable.
True to his word, Fred kept every member of their guild supplied with coin; if he wasn’t there when they had to turn in their loot fee to Jaymes at the DAS, he only asked for a record of what they had to give up and he reimbursed them later. Because of this deal, Eisa thought the Syndicate representative would be mad; on the contrary, he was happy because no one grumbled about the fees and – with so many Adventurers delving through the local dungeons – the Syndicate was still making money hand-over-fist. She never did find out how much it cost him to set the guild up in the first place, but she was sure it was quite the hefty amount.
As for herself, she was now E-9th-Rated and about a third of the way towards the 10th Rating. It was taking exponentially more Essence to Rate-up, though she knew that once she reached the D-Ratings she could start to breathe a little easier. Once you achieved a new Rating tier, the amount needed to increase your rating was initially much lower and only increased in the later stages of the tier.[1]
Due to the increase in her Rating, she also received access to a new spell and a new ability. For her Necromancer class, for the first time she had something that used her innate Power to create something that didn’t require a corpse to work: Skeletal Swords.
Skeletal Swords 1 – 0/1000
Using your Power, create a rotating circle of skeletal swords that surround yourself or another target, which attacks anything they come in contact with. Does not differentiate between friend and foe. Requires an upkeep cost and can be canceled at any time.
Power cost of Skeletal Swords 1: 200
Power upkeep cost: 3/min
# of swords: 3
Base physical attack: 10
The big downside to it was the fact that it would hurt anyone standing around her if she used it on herself; to get around that, she had started to cast it on whoever was acting as a tank for their groups. It wasn’t quite powerful enough to harm many of the higher-Rated monsters, but since what damage it did do was “coming from” her target, it helped to keep their attention where they all wanted it.
The other thing she had received access to, was a new ability for her Dark Healer class that was proving to be invaluable. Since she had to essentially hurt herself to heal someone, she was constantly running low on her own Vitality. Absorb Shadows helped with that.
Absorb Shadows 2 – 0/3000
Once activated, the Absorb Shadows skill will siphon the energy inherent in the nearby shadows, converting it to Vitality for yourself. Costs nothing to initiate but requires a Power upkeep cost to keep activated.
Power cost of Absorb Shadows: 0
Power upkeep cost: 2/min
Vitality restored: 2/min
It wasn’t a massive restoration of her Vitality, but it made a difference when she was required to heal in longer fights. It wouldn’t do much to help her if she was being attacked directly, but that rarely ever happened anymore.
As wonderful as her own advancement was, it was nothing compared to Fred. For the Essence required for her to advance a couple of Ratings, he had shot through the G-Rating, the F-Rating, and was halfway through the E-Ratings. Of course, he was far behind her in total Essence and wouldn’t catch up to her unless she stopped improving herself.
His meteoric rise through the Ratings was impressive but not unheard of; the stronger guilds based out of the larger cities would frequently run their lower-Rated guildmates through stronger dungeons to increase their Ratings faster than they normally would. Then again, she had never heard of someone blowing through two entire tiers in less than a year – let alone three months!
While she healed during their dungeon delves, Fred was content to stay back and let everyone else do the work of clearing out the monsters or deactivating/bypassing the traps. Only a few times had he actually attacked, casting spells that looked familiar – but were unlike anything she had ever seen before. When she asked about them, all he said was, “Just a little something I’m working on.”
Because he was casting spells, and wearing loose-fitting lightweight clothing, she assumed he had chosen a Mage as his class. However, something about that didn’t seem right; none of the spells he was casting looked anything remotely like what she remembered the starting Mage class received access to. Some of the more enterprising members of their guild had actually started a betting pool that made guesses on what his actual classes were. For herself, she thought he was some sort of Scout/Ranger/Beastmaster hybrid she hadn’t known about – based upon his Dire Wolf pet, Deecy.
Regardless of whether he was a Mage/Beastmaster or not, he was improving just as fast (or faster) than she was, growing stronger not only in his casting ability – but his strength as well. Although she had increased her own Brawn and Body stats a few times to improve her survivability, his had surpassed her own. He wasn’t nearly as beefy as most of the melee and defense-oriented guild members they grouped with, but he wasn’t going to be killed in one shot anymore either.
Altogether, they had made major strides in their power – both personally and socially. However, she still remembered that Fred had started his path as an Adventurer with a purpose in mind; she wasn’t sure when he was planning on pushing forward with his plans and objectives, but she knew she would be there for him when he was ready.
She just hoped he wasn’t going after someone high-Rated – otherwise they might all wind up dead.
Chapter 33
Embracing his “inner dungeon core” was turning out to be easier than Fred thought. They used their Mana to create their dungeon, place traps, and “employ” defenders to guard against invaders. They didn’t actually do any of the heavy lifting themselves; they only had to wait for some humans to arrive, where their minions did the work for them and they raked in the extra Mana from their presence. He was essentially doing the same thing – it just looked vastly different.
Instead of Mana, he used his “wealth” to dictate what he wanted done. And while he couldn’t control his guild members like the cores did their defenders, they could be guided by the promise of more coin. At times, it felt like he was taking advantage of their innate greed, but when he looked at the big picture it was a win-win situation; they were getting what they wanted, and he was getting what he wanted: power.
And not just the Power he used to fuel his spells and abilities he had picked up from watching so many different humans flexing their skills, but his own personal power. He was stronger and more durable than ever, not to mention his new abilities. From where he was only a few months ago to now, he could probably solo that first dungeon without even getting hurt.
Fred was just glad that he had chosen to be a Researcher that first day – the increase in his Power was what made the ultimate difference. When he had woken up that next morning, he realized that he was too caught up in what a human would do to get stronger, almost completely ignoring his “other” nature.
Sure, he could spend a few years delving through dungeons with Eisa – and possibly other Syndicate members if they changed their mind about her enough to group up with them – and become stronger over time. That was what a human would do if they were intent on getting more powerful; he wasn’t human, though – he was a dungeon core. At least on the inside.
Therefore, he spent his (relatively sm
all) accumulated Essence that morning on something no normal human would do if they wanted to be any bit effective in a dungeon: he unlocked the Conjure Object adapted ability. While it would probably be next to useless while delving through a dungeon, it was perfect for his own purposes. With a little practice, he could essentially convert 1 Power into a single gold piece – and it was permanent, just like his dungeon core Creation skill!
Using all of his Power that morning, as well as a small amount of his available Mana, he was able to Conjure or Create enough gold pieces to pay for the initial guild setup fee as well as paying for the first year – at a total of 600 gold pieces. He then shoved it in his pouch so that he didn’t have to carry it downstairs, meeting Eisa in the common room and telling her his plan.
The look on Jaymes’ face was worth every drop of Power and Mana he had spent.
It might’ve been knowing that Fred was “rich” or maybe he just had a change of heart; either way, the Syndicate representative treated them both with respect after that, even when he announced that he was going to be paying the loot fees for anyone that joined his guild and wouldn’t take any percentage off the top. That alone meant that the DAS would still be making plenty of money off of them, which in turn made Jaymes happy.
Initially convincing the other Syndicate members in town was slightly difficult, though once he proved that he could deliver on his promise, they practically flocked to his new guild, Core Power. He thought the name might get him in trouble with anyone who connected him with a dungeon core, but instead most of them thought he was being vain thinking he was the “core” of the guild and held all of the “power”. He didn’t dissuade them of that.
Dungeon World: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 22
