Lilith raised an eyebrow. “Really?” She asked, motioning towards the large display case in the middle of the room. It read “Property of Lilith Clements and Kali, do not touch!” It was currently empty, but the main problem was the little heart underneath it that had “K + L” written inside of it.
Kali laughed nervously. “That was a month or two ago while I was prepping things. Carmen had just kissed me, and I was excited. I forgot about it, or else I would have removed it.”
Lilith sighed. “Alright, whatever. I’m guessing this is where we’re going to keep the core?”
“Yeah.” Kali said, “The casing itself is made of some pretty sturdy stuff, so even if someone does get in here somehow, we should have a bit of time to react before it gets dangerous.”
“So, how do we go about actually making the dungeon?” Lilith asked.
“Easy enough. Go ahead and get your spare avatar onto the pedestal, I’ll open it up.” She went up to the display and began fiddling with it, poking and prodding various parts of it. By the time Lilith had maneuvered the spare avatar in, a door had opened, and the spare avatar squeezed inside. Kali shut the display and it sealed, leaving no trace of the door.
“Alright. I’m going to need Mae to inhabit the spare avatar for this one, since we want Lilith to be the Dungeon Master.”
Understood. A short swap later, Lilith was back in the main body and Mae was sitting still in the display case.
“Now in a minute I’m going to sever your connection like I’ve done with Carmen, just a bit more…complete. It’ll probably going to be a little unpleasant, given how you are right now…” She trailed off, looking Lilith up and down. “It’ll be fine as long as we’re fast.” She said. “So, once the connection drops, I want Mae to concentrate on making a dungeon. It should just pop up a confirmation window, and you just need to hit yes. Since I’m your sponsor, I get naming rights over the dungeon, but I’ll pick whatever you want provided it’s not lame. So, what do you want?”
“Uhh…” Lilith froze, staring blankly ahead. “Um…Don’t put me on the spot like this.” Her lips moved soundlessly as she tried out different names.
“You’ve got one more minute.” Kali said, grinning. “Or else I’ll just name it whatever comes to mind.”
“Uh, um, The Hall of Judgement!” Lilith blurted out.
Kali smirked. “Acceptable answer. No takebacks, alright? Anyway, once the dungeon is made, Mae will be able to prompt you to become the Dungeon Master. As soon as you accept, I’ll reconnect the two of you and we’ll be off to the races. Ready?”
Lilith lurched forward as her body went slightly numb. She felt…heavier, and everything responded just a hair slower than it should.
| Would you like to become the Dungeon Master of The Hall of Judgement? Yes/No |
Lilith immediately accepted, and a moment later she let loose an involuntary sigh of relief as the strange sensation vanished. “What was that?” She asked.
“I cut off your connection with Mae, and your body is linked to her main body. Unlike with Carmen, Mae wasn’t even being registered as a Parallel, and Avatar isn’t up to handling two extra bodies. Normally the second avatar would just go poof, but one was in use and the other was being directly sustained by the main body. So, you were experiencing the side-effects of that. But it’s all good now, let’s talk about how dungeons work and how you can expand.” Kali explained.
“Oh, Mae, if you haven’t gone back to the main body, you can do that now.” She said, noticing the slight movement in the Dungeon Core. “I don’t think it should interfere with the running of the dungeon.”
The movement ceased, and Kali continued. “Dungeons run off of two main resources. The first is mana, and that should be self-explanatory. It’s going to be in pretty much every purchase you make, and the Core is going to have a constant mana drain from the dungeon’s upkeep.” She paused. “You really might want to consider a Parallel for the dungeon. It’s going to increase the mana regeneration rate by a lot.”
“I just said no.” Lilith said frostily.
“I don’t think you’re considering this properly and you’re just letting your knee-jerk reaction get in the way of things.” Kali said. “I see literally no reason not to make one as long as you’re not doing it willy-nilly. As the one who actually made the Skill, I’m telling you it’s not what you’re making it out to be. And beyond that, the people who are already in the situation are telling you it’s fine.”
I understand your hesitation, mistress. However, you and I both know that you are looking forward to the prospect of managing a dungeon. It’s not like you’re creating someone just to clean toilets. I would implore you to consider this.
“I thought you wanted me to be more assertive.” Lilith said, ignoring Mae.
“Not when it’s against your own interests.” Kali replied. “If you can give me a good reason, I won’t ask again.”
Lilith paused. “My feelings count as much as everyone else’s feelings and it makes me uncomfortable?”
There was silence for a long moment. “I suppose that’s good enough.” Kali said. “Give it some serious thought, though. If you don’t make another Parallel or even a Mask, you’re going to hit a lot of walls with this dungeon and it’s going to make things a lot harder than they need to be.”
“That’s fine. I’ll deal with it.”
Siph grabbed her shoulders. “While I can respect you for sticking to what you feel is right, even if it means making things harder. However, as your mother, I’m going to tell you that if things start going south, you really need to do this. If this is directly related to getting you stronger, then it’s a matter of life and death.”
Lilith looked away. “Well, we’d need Carmen’s permission anyway. It’s not even a sure thing.”
Mistress, we are both aware that Carmen would be telling you to make another Parallel. Don’t try that excuse.
“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be on my side?” Lilith protested.
I am. And I’m telling you that, right now, the only one not on your side is you. This is incredibly inefficient.
“Oh, come on, it can’t be that much worse.”
Mistress, an avatar has 20% of your maximum mana and regeneration, one piloted by a Parallel has 95%. Which reminds me, have you given any thought to the evolution of those Skills?
Lilith blinked. “Why? They’re not going to hit max level for a while.”
During my experimentation I hit the maximum level in most of them. The only one yet to reach maximum level is Parallel Processing, and it’s at level 9. I also hit the maximum level in several other Skills, including Eldritch Abomination. I’ve compiled a list of suggestions that I highly recommend you look through.
Kali coughed. “Later. We have a dungeon to get started right now. Anyway, the other resource is, well, we’re just going to call them Dungeon Points. Generic, I know, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Dungeon Points are a sort of processed mana, and you gain them whenever mana is spent in your dungeon by anything except the Core, or whenever anything dies in it.”
“Including my monsters?” Lilith asked.
“Yes, but there are some caveats to that. You’re not going to get as much DP back as you spent on them, and if you buy a respawning monster you don’t get DP from its death. Mana spent by your monsters doesn't generate DP, and if you do the killing yourself you get no experience. But, if someone unaffiliated with the dungeon who so happens to be in your party kills them, that’s a different story. And they’re not sapient, so don’t worry about that. Even if they seem like they have intelligence, it’s all just a ruse. They can’t really think.”
She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Well, unless you rope in something from the outside. But I doubt we’ll need to do that. Normally, Dungeon Cores have a type of monster as their specialty, but that’s tied to their Racial Class, and you’re a Perfect Chimera, so your specialty is everything. So, feel free to go wild with what you make.”
“The next important thing is dungeon effects. You can set these for the whole dungeon, for one floor, or even just for a few rooms. The one that’s probably going to be most important for you is Deathless, which boots anyone killed in the dungeon out to the entrance instead of killing them. Save the Dungeon Master and Core, of course. Given that we’re not looking to let anyone we don’t trust and want to keep alive inside, I’ve gone ahead and purchased that one for you out of my own pocket using a bit of Worship.”
“You can also place treasure chests in the dungeon, and stock them with a one-time cost of DP. The contents will respawn once a day, but that can be shortened with additional DP expenditure.” She cut off suddenly, staring off into space.
“Oh, my old administrator just got back to me on the notification thing. Alright, I gotta stop by her place and get this sorted out. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and play around with the dungeon.” She gestured towards the far wall. “That’s the portal I mentioned earlier. You should be able to expand your dungeon through there. If you have any big questions, you should still be able to contact me via telepathy, so don’t be afraid to do that.” She winked and left the room.
“Hey, Mae, you figured out how to open the Dungeon Management menu?” Lilith asked.
I was wondering the same thing, so I tinkered around with it while Kali was explaining things. You should just think about it, like everything else.
Siph walked up to Lilith and ruffled her hair. “Alright sweetie, I’m going to leave you to it and go hunting. Have fun, OK?”
“Alright, mom. Love you.”
“Love you.” Siph kissed Lilith’s cheek and walked out.
Lilith turned her attention back to the dungeon, opening the menu.
|
Dungeon Name: Hall of Judgement Available Options: |
She selected the Claim Territory option and was met with an odd sensation. Despite there being no change to her senses, she knew exactly what the dungeon’s territory was, and she had a feeling that by pushing those boundaries she could expand them. She pushed the territory through the portal, then poked her head through herself. She was in a wide, grassy plain that extended beyond her line of sight. She expanded the dungeon to make her first room, securing a 10m by 10m area, extending 5m below and above the ground.
And she was nearly already out of mana. She found that, roughly speaking, each 1m2 claimed cost 5 mana, and came with 5m of height. Claiming area below or above already claimed territory cost half as much, so all in all it took 750 mana just to claim that plot of land.
Undeterred, she transferred over 750 of her own mana to the Core avatar and continued her work.
Mae immediately took half of the mana and gave it back to Lilith. We should keep the mana below capacity so we can take advantage of all sources of mana regeneration we have available.
“Ah, right. Thanks.” Lilith said, opening the Territory Editor and viewing the options.
| Designate a Floor Designate a Room Edit Floor Edit Room Monsters Traps Treasure |
She went and designated the area beyond the portal and above the ground as a floor, with the belowground area as another floor. She then designated each claimed area (including the one in Kali’s house) as a room and opened up the Edit Room menu. She selected the aboveground room and looked at her options. Since there were no outer walls, she was given the option to make some, as well as the option to make one of several pre-built structures.
But she didn’t have the necessary materials to do any of that. So, she spent 250 mana to hollow out the ground below, and then, using the stone and dirt, she spent 100 mana on a simple entrance hall, and a further 100 on some stairs downwards.
Mae took over transferring mana while she worked. She opened up the Monsters menu and scrolled through the list to get a better idea of what she was working with. She had a lot of options, and she wasn’t surprised to see that she couldn’t get anything halfway decent without bankrupting herself.
Broadly speaking, monsters came in two types, single purchases and spawners. Spawners would respawn the monster after a day but were far more expensive than a single monster. She didn’t have the DP to get one of those for the moment, so she turned her attention back to carving out space for her dungeon. She made the first room she made a hub of sorts, branching off into several separate rooms where she planned to house her monsters.
Towards the middle she had to take a break and let her mana restore. Even with the extra mana she got from Mae, she was just burning through it too quickly. Once she had finished her first floor, she got to work making DP. She began to cast spells and use Skills, just burning as much mana as possible. It seemed that she generally got DP around every 500 mana spent, so that came out to…
479.225 DP an hour. Mae said before Lilith even had time to start her calculation. If you pool all our regeneration, we regenerate 230,364 mana an hour, and if you assume we start with a full pool of mana, that is brought up to 239,612.5. Divide by 500 and you get 479.225.
“Thanks.” Lilith said.
It’s my job, mistress. While we work on this, would you look over my list of recommendations? I can handle spending mana for you.
“Oh, uh, yeah. Thanks.” As soon as she said that, a window popped up in front of Lilith.
|
Mae’s recommendations: Class Experience Up (Moderate) -> Class Experience Up (Major) -> Class Experience Up (Maximum) Growth Up (Moderate) -> Growth Up (Maximum) Racial Class Experience Up (Moderate) -> Racial Class Experience Up (Major) -> Racial Class Experience Up (Maximum) Skill Experience Up (Minor) -> Skill Experience Up (Moderate) Diagnosis Skills -> Full Diagnosis (Moderate) Other Biologist Skills (Specialized) -> Other Biologist Skills (Generalized) Parallel Series of Skills + Eldritch Abomination -> Hivemind Mathematician Skills -> Eye of Laplace And, finally, go pick a Class. I’d suggest resetting Progenitor and getting the maximum possible bonus from it before moving on to High Arbiter. |
That all sounded fine to Lilith, so she went ahead and did everything that Mae recommended. Experience had started coming in from Siph again, so she was able to reach maximum level in Progenitor in one go. Before she officially switched to High Arbiter, she took a look at the Class, just to see what she was getting into.
|
Class: High Arbiter Level 1: Contract Control Contract Control Aura of the Arbiter Judge of Character Watchwoman Righteous Indignation |
Well. That was quite the Class. Lilith took it immediately and watched as her remaining experience converted into levels for the class.
As Siph and Mae worked, she began to think about what she’d take next. As she browsed through her list of Classes, she started a mental list of her priorities. Non-combat Classes would be less than helpful at the moment, so any of those were immediately thrown out.
What she needed right now was something she could pick up and use with relatively little learning. Unfortunately, that ruled out most close-combat Classes immediately. She wasn’t confident in her hand-to-hand skills, and the Classes wouldn’t actually grant any techniques. They’d only provide bonuses to her when she used those weapons.
I would suggest Gunslinger or a magic Class. Mae said. With guns you just need ammo and good aim. I can help with aiming, so with practice I think we can hit almost every shot and make some pretty ridiculous ones to boot. On the other hand, increasing our magical capabilities is always welcome. We’ve got an innate advantage over everyone else there thanks to Decipher, so either way we’ve got a leg up on the competition.
Right. So, her options were Gunslinger, Mage, Sorcerer, and Warlock. She had to admit that they were all very tempting options. Gunslinger was tempting, and she had to admit that snapping off shot after shot with near-perfect accuracy sounded pretty cool.
But...so did throwing out fireballs and lightning bolts. She soon decided that the question wasn’t what to take, it was what order to take it in. Warlock was last on the list for sure. It required more EXP than Mage or Gunslinger, and it focused more on harnessing black magic, making risky pacts, and generally seemed to be unnecessary for her. She could already do most of that stuff and if weren’t for the fact that it had a Skill that would increase the efficiency of that type of magic, she’d ignore it entirely. Sorcerer was probably next, as it focused on raw power at the expense of mana efficiency, and she wasn’t too interested in that. If she needed more power, she’d be basically unable to win anyway, so there wasn’t much benefit to her.
That left Mage or Gunslinger. Mage would give general bonuses to magic, and that was something she could get behind. It led into all sorts of other Classes too, so it was something she’d end up taking eventually anyway.
Then it hit her. She didn’t have any guns right now. She could probably get one from her dungeon, so that wasn’t an issue in the long run, but until she had a gun the class was basically pointless. So, that settled it. She’d pick Mage now and work through some of the classes derived from it and pick up Gunslinger whenever she could find a gun.
With that settled, she…really didn’t have anything else to do but wait. Not enough DP to do what she wanted, not able to leave without stopping her DP flow. It was going to be a long couple of hours.
Patreon
It's cute to see Kali embarrassed at having forgotten about the K+L heart she made before.
Lilith's stubbornness about making another parallel to handle the dungeon core stuff is frustrating but understandable and in character based on how rigidly she holds to her beliefs and that the parallels are their own people. She's changing to be more flexible seeing as Mae exists now, but it's a slow process for her
Magic Gunslinger when
Eventually
so she was able to reach maximum level in Progenitor in one go
You mean High Arbiter?
She reset Progenitor, and then grabbed High Arbiter. I didn't make it very clear lol
"I just said no." Lilith said frostily.
zzzzzzz
"I don't think you're considering this properly and you're just letting your knee-jerk reaction get in the way of things."
preach. I swear if she doesn't get rid of that mentality I might go nuts.
Don't worry, it gets much better later.
“K + L” written inside of it.
Kali laughed nervously. “That was a month or two ago while I was prepping things. Carmen had just kissed me, and I was excited. I forgot about it, or else I would have removed it.”
Shouldn't it be K + C? it was Carmen that kissed her after all.
Kali views them as fundamentally the same person. She wrote L because Lilith is the main personality, it didn't have much to do with who exactly did the kissing.
now i'm finding lilith's stubbornness a little idk forced(?) at least in this chapter. you have the person who made the skill telling her it's not what she thinks, you have someone made from the skill telling her it's ok, and you have her mom telling her it's better to do it. add all that on to lilith's base personality of being a walking doormat it doesn't seem like she should be this obstinate about it. especially when she starts to feel the negative effects almost immediately. granted i see she's trying to change being a walking doormat but i don't think it's been enough time yet for her to be this stubborn.
In this case I'm calling it as more of a particular hangup about Parallels than anything else. She's viewing them as a full person, and her desire to...protect their rights, I guess, takes precedence over her desire to listen to others. She is capable of being stubborn if it's not for her own sake, and, although this isn't made clear in the story itself, she is used to ignoring people when it comes to her fixations like this, especially her parents.
But, honestly, the real reason behind it is that it just felt right when I was writing it. I honestly do want a Parallel for the dungeon, but it just didn't feel right to have her just accept that. That's just me, though, so it's completely possible I have a subtly different idea of what Lilith is like in my head than how she's portrayed in the story.
Thanks for the chapter.
Would you like to become the Dungeon - shouldn't this and the line below it be in a dialog?
And, finally, go pick a Class. I’d suggest resetting Progenitor - should be in italics (or in a dialog)
They were both supposed to be in boxes. It's been fixed, thanks!
Righteous Indignation is a [censored] scary skill. About the only persons who don't break the laws are in areas that have no government (kind of hard to break the law of the jungle).
Take for example driving somewhere. You go there at the speed limit but due to the limits on the speedometer it won't show you the exact speed. If the speed limit is 50 KM/H you need to drive somewhere between 0% and 10% faster (that is 50 KM/H-55KM/H), car manufacturers make certain of that to prevent people from going but I went only 48. Are you breaking the law at this point, technically yes. If you do drive 50 KM/H (after adjustment) due to wind and other factors you will end up going a bit faster or slower along the way, the moment you go a bit faster you are breaking the law.
And then we get to the funny bit. A general catch all law that states do not endanger other traffic. That one is really fun since it depends on the expectations of others. If they expect you to drive at or over the speed limit and you are not doing so you are breaking this law because you are creating a possible dangerous situation.
Work is a goldmine for law/rules breaking. We ignore so many rules and regulations to get actual work done that following them can be considered a form of strike. But not following them is breaking them.
Then there are plainly badly worded implementations of laws. For example when I was looking for a summer job during my college years I was working at a butcher (well more final processing of meat for a chain of stores). I would be breaking their implementation of the hygiene laws by not wearing a hairnet the moment I'd get on the premise. Technically I'd needed to put it on (and the other bits and bops of clothing) while still on the bike/car/walking through the gate around the terrain the building was placed on.
Mutually exclusive laws. Having a store in France where the door in the entrance isn't a sliding door (that one is covered by different regulations). It is mandated by law that the door only opens to the outside in case the premise needs to be evacuated. It is also mandated by law that the door only opens to the inside as to prevent the door from blocking the street.
That's...entirely fair. I'm going to go ahead and change that to "major" crimes (robbery, murder, etc), since that fits more with what was intended when I wrote up the skill.
Also that mutually exclusive thing is weird. Bureaucracy is nuts. You'd think they'd either check beforehand or just state that the door needs to be sliding, but I guess with so many things going on you'd have a hard time knowing every little code and regulation.
Edit: Updated. Also updated Watchwoman to match, although I'm keeping Judge of Character the same, since I think that one makes sense to see all the little things.
@Fighterman481
That door thingie in France is certainly not the only time laws are drafted like that. I just got that one as example since just happened to read about this last week. And it is easy to understand since it only involves two laws.
Lets continue with this but now with what you consider major crimes. Just keep in mind that laws are rigid and we tend to bend them to make them function in society. I'm not trying to be mean (although due to the next paragraphs people might beg to differ) but laws & rules are the programming language of a social group, they would work like intended if everyone would behave like computers. But we are not so a lot of laws require a value judgement before being used to go after someone. It also works the other way where a law can be interpreted in such a way that someone who didn't break it can be convicted of breaking that law based on a value judgement.
That law that essentially states do not endanger other traffic. If I'm not fulfilling the expectations of the rest of traffic and thus possibly endangering traffic I'm trying to commit involuntary manslaughter, or worse, because that is one of the possible outcomes. And anything that involves killing is a major crime. That is the rigidity of the law, we bend this as the situation warrants and just press the horn (possibly also a violation of the law), signal with lamps (also a possible violation of the law) and law enforcement ignore you (depending on where you live also a violation of the law) as not dangerous (Unless you are driving while black in the USA then staying inside the speed limit can become probable cause for an investigation of your car, like I said value judgement to go after someone who is innocent.) But that is a value judgement that technically contradicts what the law says.
Cannabis. In the Netherlands you are (with the right permits, etc.) allowed to sell it in a shop. Said shop is just not allowed to buy it (and you are not allowed to grow the amount that a shop needs either). That law is ignored if the shop keeps the supply below a certain level. The shopkeeper is still breaking the law of being a drug trafficker (which is considered a major crime).
Killing in self defense. That last bit is a value judgement, whose values? Normally a case like that before a judge will look at is if the reaction done in self defense is proportional and if you could not have substituted another reaction that would also result in a successful defense.
@SneezyOfTie Unfortunately, I don't think there's a satisfactory answer as to what is considered a "major crime". In the end, that's going to change from region to region, and maybe even person to person. Given a well-defined geographical area, you could perhaps determine that for that area, but even then I think it'll be fairly vague.
At the end of the day, I have to keep a balance between getting the intended meaning of something across and not making it overly wordy, and given this particular circumstances, I just don't think there's a way to actually pin down a discrete set of criteria for the Skills to activate. Sure, you could go by local laws and their punishment, but I still think that's a rather poor way to do things in this instance. Lilith could make something like breathing be punishable by death and under a 'punishment for crime' criteria suddenly everyone in that area is target for Righteous Indignation and I just don't think that's how it should work.
Perhaps we're getting at the same concept here and I'm not realizing it (it is quite late here), but I'm just at a loss for a way that it'll be possible while keeping the Skill reasonable to set hard boundaries on it. So, for now I think the best course of action is to leave the vagueness at "major crime" , and hope people can understand the meaning and intent without needing to lay out paragraphs of description.
So, at the end of the day, whether the Skill activates or not would likely fall onto Lilith's subconscious notion of what a "major crime" is. I...think that's the best I can get, but that's also not something that can directly be stated in the Skill definition in-universe without opening it up to a large amount of potential loopholes and workarounds that make it stronger than intended (such as deep hypnosis from Kali, although that would have a lot of other side-effects and wouldn't be good for living a healthy life).
Of course, I'm open to suggestions on how I could improve this (given my solution at this point is basically just throwing my hands up and saying that society's whack and just go by what people feel is a big deal) - the law is by no means my area of expertise, and most of my knowledge and viewpoint on the subject comes from life experience and a passing interest in philosophy.
Oh, and don't worry about the post being considered mean. I get where you're coming from with this, because I do similar things all the time, so I really don't take it as such.
@Fighterman481
You already solved the problem. Vague is good. Vague stops people like me from playing sophistry games ( like that one turning driving slightly below the speed limit into an attempted murder case).
Combined with not taking the law itself (seeing that those are unyieldingly rigid) but the interpretation of it by, in this case, the MC. That is the same as what, at least around here, judges do when someone pleads killing in self defense.