“As I have mentioned before, these dungeons are based on the games that were created in the world I came from,” Ria began explaining the things that were missing from the tutorial dungeon, “As there are many genres of games, every dungeon will most likely be based on different genres. Since there are also not enough dungeons for every single genre, many genres will be present in a single dungeon. My database states that there are also many excluded genres, as they may either be inappropriate or may have no clear ending.”

 

“It sounds as if these dungeons were designed with fun in mind, but I don’t understand how this could be fun,” commented LisiA, “Are those barriers also part of those so-called games?”

 

“Yes, they are in place to keep players in bound,” replied Ria, “If you go out of the barrier, you will eventually see things that either no longer look right, or just nothingness. The barriers are in place so that you don’t see those things.”

 

“So you’re saying that there is just a void behind all these trees?” asked Aumo, “I can’t see an end to these trees!”

 

“Possibly. If you get closer to the trees in the back, you will notice that the trees aren’t trees, but a two-dimensional tree-shaped object with colors splattered onto it to look like a tree, but far away they look normal. As long as an object looks like it is intended to in the play area, it can be used,” explained Ria, “It is a strategy to save on limited resources.”

 

“So what I’m getting here is that these dungeons are based on game genres. Could you explain the mechanics of this particular dungeon?” asked LisiA.

 

“I won’t be able to explain everything since they slowly get added as the dungeon progresses. I can instead explain the mechanics as we go. You two saw the barriers before, and the kill counter so you should understand how that works. There is a set amount of enemies you have to kill before you progress. After you kill them, they drop items and experience orbs. Aumo can absorb those orbs and it can strengthen the core through something they added on the core when I was moved into it,” Ria started machine-gunning an explanation, “The items aren’t created from mana, so we won’t be able to store them in the Mana Storage. There may be a method to convert them into mana in the future, and they can still be used as materials to create things, so hold onto them.”

 

After attempting to interpret what Ria had just said, LisiA and Aumo somewhat got the gist of it and simplified it in their minds. They started picking up the materials that were dropped by the “wolves” that they had defeated, and threw them all into LisiA’s storage. If they hadn’t taken out all the things they had to deliver, they would have to carry all of this, which wasn’t actually that hard for them to do.

 

After confirming that they had picked up everything, Aumo and LisiA continued onwards to the next part of the dungeon. They had found that the arrow was not useful at all, especially since there was already a clear path they had to take. That path had no trees blocking the way at all, and any attempt to walk off the path was blocked by a barrier. 

 

The next few checkpoints were the same: some enemies with barriers blocking the way. The only thing that was different every time was how the “wolves” looked. Otherwise, it was getting repetitive and boring.

 

“This has been the fifth checkpoint. Is there anything else?” Aumo complained.

 

The amount of EXP that was provided wasn’t worth the trouble, totaling at only 134. Along with it came materials that neither Aumo nor LisiA knew what to do with. It was far from filling up LisiA’s storage, but it just seemed meaningless at this point. Aumo was also starting to cut into her normal MP value. 

 

“Now that I think about it, the air here shouldn’t have any mana. Is that why the mana usage is higher than usual?” Aumo noticed something when she checked her status. Her MP has started going down, and she had no stored mana left. 

 

“There is quite a lot of mana in the air. The only issue is that tools and androids are inefficient at using that mana, and the fact that they can operate with that tiny amount that they could absorb is quite amazing,” replied Ria, “Androids use their entire surface area to absorb mana, and manage to operate and restore their mana passively makes them quite efficient. Androids use up about 2MP per minute on average.”

 

“If you put it like that, it seems that 1 MP is actually a lot,” commented LisiA, “Though we should really hurry up if we are draining our own mana in here.”

 

“Except you aren’t. When you use magic, mana is released into the air. When mana is used up to power an android, the same thing happens. Mana doesn’t disappear, it just transforms when used. I’m actually busy keeping all the released mana near you two so you don’t use your own mana to sustain yourselves,” corrected Ria, “It’s going down more than usual because you have never used this much magic before, Aumo.”

 

Ria had been busy at work scraping together all the mana released by magic to keep Aumo and LisiA operating normally. In a sense, that meant that Aumo and LisiA would never run out of mana since it was an endless cycle of using and gaining back mana. The only issue was that they couldn’t regain the mana as fast as they were using it.

 

“Thank you for your hard work,” thanked Aumo.

 

“No need. Just doing my job,” replied Ria.

 

Neither Aumo or LisiA could really think up a good reply to that, so they decided to just move on. As they followed the path and turned the corner, they saw the end of the forest. Nothing stopped them as they got closer, and the first thing they saw aftering getting out was an ocean. Upon a closer look, they realized that they had been on an island this entire time. The other side of this so-called island was just a void, and in front of them was a huge ocean, except Aumo was skeptical whether or not this ocean was real or not.

 

There was no person to be seen, and there were also no animals at all. The enemies they had faced in the forest had popped up out of nowhere, which meant that there was probably nothing there until they got closer. 

 

“What are we supposed to do on this beach?” asked LisiA as she looked around. Nothing caught her eye, and the beach looked like a normal beach. 

 

She walked around and decided to check out the ocean to see if there is anything out of the ordinary. She took some of the ocean water and gave it a taste, and surely enough it was extremely salty. She had known that ocean water was salty, but never had a chance to taste it until now.

 

“I would advise against going too far out, since there will either be a barrier or a lack of a floor,” warned Ria as she saw LisiA near the ocean, “Anyway, Aumo, try using Mana and feel out anything out of place on the beach.”

 

Aumo followed Ria’s guidance and immediately found out that the ground was really thin. It was somehow able to hold everything on top of it without collapsing. At the same time, there seemed to be something underneath this really thin layer of ground.

 

“I forgot to mention that the ground is really thin. Don’t worry too much about it, it won’t collapse,” assured Ria, “If you find anything, try digging for it.”

 

Aumo continued searching around until she found the place where there seemed to be something. She started digging through the sand, which for some reason felt wrong. The ground was clearly supposed to be very thin, so why was there more sand underneath when she continued digging? It was as if the sand appeared out of nowhere as she dug to fill in the missing spots. 

 

Eventually, she felt something lodged in the sand as she dug. 

 

“What’s this?” asked Aumo as she looked at it. LisiA saw that Aumo had found something and came over to look.

 

“It looks like a mechanism of some sort?” inferred LisiA as she looked at it.

 

It was something metallic with a couple buttons on it. The sand on top of it had somehow not pressed any of the buttons.

 

Status:

 

-----------------------------

Name: Aumo

Core Level:8

XP: 171/300

Status: Normal

HP: 2138/2200

MP: 1093/1200 

MP Stored: 0

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Skills: Mana Manipulation, Mana Sight, Mana Sense, Mana Analysis, Mana Item Storage, Levitation, Mana Vibration, Small Fireball, Ice Throw, Air Slash, Body Reinforcement, Body Strengthening

 

Upgrades: Map, Gate Detector

 

Stored: Heater, Giant Breadstick

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