As a reminder, this stands in for the chapter this week.  Next week, book two will start.

 

Tor Kot: How would you react to the notion that Blue is a sentient Power?

“That would explain so much. Also, that is a terrifying idea.”

Is Ansae, in her almost human form, considered a beauty?

“Why would I make a lesser form that isn’t drop dead gorgeous?”

Sienne: So does her void even consume fate mana?

“Void Mana cuts everything. Everything. Haven’t run into any Fate Mana defenses to try though, and I sheltered during [The Light of Eschaton]. I wasn’t going to try my luck with that!”

Blue: What is the most random (hilarious) thing any of your new villagers have done?

“One of the kids tripped over a stone, got up, kicked the stone, hurt his foot and hopped around, tripping over the stone a second time, tried to dig the stone out and failed, then wandered off. He tripped over the exact same stone yet again like ten minutes later.”

Ansae: You are unconcerned with metod of curing deplition is it becose of long life and desperation (insert other emotion if im mystaken) or having prerior experience?

“It’s a good thing I have pretty total control of my body and I’ve shut down my libido, otherwise I’d probably be slobbering all over Blue. Sex is fun and I haven’t had any for centuries. And the things he can do with those breeding stations! Mmh!”

Blue: You've realized you had a mental block against communicating with people. Did this make you wonder whether you have a mental block for anything else?

“Yes, I do wonder! I haven’t run across any obvious ones, but I’m sure they’re there.”

Blue : you intend to craft some railguns? We know you can manage some impressive metals, so both ammunition and coils should be easy, and given the side of your mana dynamo, so would be power management.

“Electricity takes a lot of infrastructure to be useful. A lot a lot. Railguns are on the “potentially” list but I don’t have a good way to aim them. I’d basically be freehanding warship ordnance…”

Blue : do you intend to expand above ground level, given the materials available, you could build some wild structure/fortress/city

“Oh absolutely I do! The less I have to worry about hiding the more aboveground I’ll be.”

Blue : when you claim territory, do you claim the area, or the ground inside the area? (In second case, can you grow "legs" out of the claimed ground and go for a walk?)

“My mana and biology saturate the area, so yeah I claim the ground. I...guess I could grow legs and walk, if I weren’t already basically a mountain. That’d require a lot of hydraulics and plumbing made from scratch.”

Cheya: What's your honest opinion of Blue as a person? Or in case you don't think of him as a person, why?

“He’s a Power. A relatively naive one, but hideously potent. The more he’s on our side, for whatever reason, the better.”

Blue: So, when you used the [Mana Diamond Anvil] on Steel it made [Firmament] which Ansae says is actually industructible. At the time, you wrote off coating everything in it as being too costly and time consuming considering how little is created with each use of the Anvil. But, would it be feasible to, say, create enough to make a microscopically thin indestructible coating around just your core itself? Maybe a similar layer of [Refined Manastone] underneath? It seems like a good way to turn you from your current state, a vulnerable if reached floating rock, to something better defended like an indestructible and unmovable floating rock. Any thoughts?

“I don’t float though? I have to be physically connected to everything, since I’m a sort of organism. That said, my absolute lower limit of size with [Customization] is about a half-millimeter, and since I can only make [Reified Manastone] and [Firmament] in fractional-gram increments, it’s going to take a looong time (and more Anvils) for me to make enough for that.”

Ansae: just how many titles/legends do you think there are about you?

“I know there are a lot. I’ve been around longer than some species, and most civilizations.”

Taelah: how do you feel about blue?

“He’s kind of overwhelming! That said, he seems nice enough: earnest and honest. I’m going to marry him after all, and I wouldn’t do that if I thought he was fundamentally rotten.”

Hurricane: why do you think there will be no repercussions from you not fulfilling your side of the deal and even attempting to rob a power?

“Pfft, Shayma’s not a Power. She’s an illusionist. What’s she going to do, scare me to death?”

Blue: I know you mostly like the ladies, but you are in a fantasy world. If a super hot guy with really useful skills turned up and offered to become a companion, would you go for it?

“No, and besides, it’s not really possible.”

Blue: After all getting cheated by Hurricane, Tor Kot teleporting in your "throne Room", Hurricane coming to "camp" you. Are you going to make defenses? Summon or Create beings able to protect you? How do you plan to stay safe for the next four months (earth time, i don't know now how long that is threre)?

“I’m working on it! I’ve only been at this three and something months! Now that I can at least deal with the less-powerful, getting a reputation will be a defense in and of itself.”

Ansae: What are you honest thoughts about blue and his compànions? IF he can finally cure you, what will you do then? do you expect to get the immunity to depletion? aldo, what is that anomaly that Tor Kot spoke of?

“Blue’s an odd duck. He’s not nearly as paranoid as I would be in his place, but then, I’m not in his place. I don’t know how I would deal with being completely immoble and unable to cast spells, but with all the resources I’d ever need. Probably poorly! At least his Companions have better sense than he does, much of the time.”

Tor Kot: what is the anomaly that you spoke of?

“Given that all red core dungeons and Controllers have depletion-based powers and Fields, someone who is entirely immune to them sticks out as a hole in the feedback. When I saw that I knew something unusual was there!”

Blue: You seem to happily dive into exploring and optimizing the magical aspect of your dungeon-ness, but why haven't you done anything similar for the *ahem* Purification side?

“I’m not a machine, you know. I’m actually having sex with people and the breeding chamber seems to mandate we both enjoy it. Which has kind of unpleasant, mind-control type implications, aside from the fact that I’m not exactly comfortable with mass orgies.”

Blue: your knowledge of yourself and how dungeons work in general is very limited, do you ever plan to make a deal with Tor Kot for information about how he helped create you and how the red cores work to see if theres anything applicable to yourself?

“I’m pretty sure I can’t trust Tor Kot. Even if he’s not like Vok Nal was, he’s clearly unbalanced.”

Blue: What's stopping you from making deals with Iniri and the alchemist girl so that you can talk to more than, like, one-and-a-half people?

“Most people aren’t comfortable with giving up their bodies and souls. Besides, they aren’t desperate enough to talk to me for a Bargain.”

Author: How old is... Taelah? The alchemist one.

“I’m twenty-two!”

Sienne and Giorn: What’s the dummest/ funniest thing you seen your spouse do?

Also how did you two meet?

Sienne: “We met at a port in Haerlish, actually. I was supposed to get some experience with the blade while accompanying one of the caravans his family owned. We were both fourteen-ish and we ended up sneaking out to kill lower-level monsters together and...basically that’s how everything started.”

Giorn: “I guess we ended up kind of running away together. So far as dumbest or funniest, one time when we were down in Ir-”

Sienne: “Not another word!”

Taelah: How did you got into Alchemy? Maybe a kid? And you taught it to you?

“My mom is a Shaman, so I helped her a lot with her various herbal remedies. Alchemy happened to be one of the Skills I got, though it came well after I became an [Herbalist]. I got my class when I was eight, which is pretty young!”

Ansae: How does Blue's growth as a power compare to your own? Or is it not measurable that way?

“I’m not completely certain how much is dungeon growth and how much is Power growth. After all, he’s got all that weird knowledge, and unless he’s getting more and more of it he’s not really progressing in a Power way is he?”

Tor Kot: 1. Are your mantis-girl companions/dungeon monsters in general actually sapient beings, or are you just a crazy cat lady? 2. Can dungeon monsters reproduce 'normally' once they're spawned, or is depleting a living person always necessary?

“I find there’s little point in non-sapient monsters. If you want them to be powerful you have to invest almost the same amount of time and effort, and the intelligent sorts are far more flexible. Now, sapient monsters are generally not as free-willed as humans, but they are capable of rational thought so you have to handle them a little more carefully. But I think the results speak for themselves. And if you can’t understand my Pale Mantises, well, that’s not my problem.

Independent reproduction is entirely possible but requires even more investment and new, expanding dungeons can’t afford it. Back home most Controllers with mature dungeons have made that investment. It’s less of a drain on a population that, let us be honest, is already weighed down with carefully managed Depletion.”

To the Powers Blue and Ansae; Are there power worshipping cults and what would you do if a power worshipping cult showed up?

Blue: “Oh god, spare me. I don’t want crazies.”

Ansae: “They certainly exist, and they have their uses. But like any sort of fanatics they’re a particularly blunt instrument. You can take advantage of them for helping you set up infrastructure, but let them grow too much and they’ll start to try and dictate terms for you. That generally doesn’t end well.”

My first question is, are you sure that it was you saying 'it wasn't very useful' back then and not your dungeon instincts?

“Nope. A lot of the time I have to worry about whether decisions are influenced by dungeon instincts. I’m just glad I seem to have independent thought, considering the matrix my intellect appears to be stuck in.”

My second question is, so far as you know, you are the only one able to purify depletion, basically this world's super cancer, yet you can only do so for women. Do you not see the problems and consequences that this can bring or is this problem just not apperantly obvious? Shouldn't fixing this problem be one of your priorities? You don't want to make more enemies and screw up the world because of this after all.

“Uh...it is one of my priorities. But not dying is a slightly higher priority!”

Blue: how much does he remember/think like an earthling. And what would be his profession?

“I’m pretty sure I never mentioned anything about this?”

Shayma: After this fight with Tor Kot, do you think you could take The Hurricane?

“I could put up a fight, but actually defeat her? I’d need a plan, since I can’t free-fly like she can and my toughness is limited to how much mana Blue has. Illusions only go so far with someone who doesn’t seem to care about anything outside herself.”

Shama: Under what circumsances would you want to have a baby with Blue?

“If we’re not under constant threat and danger! I’d want time to actually raise a kid.”

Shama: How would you feel about Blue being able to interact with people in general on his own?

“It’d make my job a lot easier! Plus then I could focus on more fun things!”

Blue, since your attention is drawn to people when they speak of you, how much of the Hurricane's arrangement/plan are you privy to presently?

“Pretty much all of it. Though I wouldn’t exactly call it a plan and more of an aspiration.”

Blue: When are you going to take your relationship with Shayma to the next level and open up on more of your secrets? Specifically, being a former human? Do you want to open up, but just don't want to make things awkward? Shayma's seen a lot of crazy stuff with you now - having been a human is a lot less weird than everything else she's had to deal with.

“I’m pretty sure I never mentioned anything to make anyone think this either!”

Ansae: Of all the skills and abilities you've lost to depletion, which were your favorites and do you miss the most?

“I miss actually feeling good. Depletion hasn’t affected my Skills as much as it has for others - especially since my Primal Magic Skill integrated almost all my other magic skills - but without regeneration...well. It’s awful to just sleep and sleep and sleep and never get any less tired. Or more healthy.”

Blue: What is the first action you would do outside of your dungeon once you regain a body that is your own.

“But the dungeon is my body? I’m not sure what you mean here.”

My question is for lord blue: So when are you going to have shayna make tons of pages with simple responses? (As you were able to do before) does the system stop you from using them from storage or does it keep making you forget any way to bypass in the future?

“Honestly I’m mostly fine with Shayma being my herald. Simple responses might be useful in a crisis but then I’d worry about running into the communications block.”

Iniri: what are exactly needed for getting the Tarnil's shield? It can't just be having one parent who get it, or it will be everywhere since this long. Do you have to be vying for the throne? Is this coming back every 5 generation? If you survive but Tarnil is obliterated, will Tarnil's shield stay Tarnil's shield?

“So, Lineage Skills can come from either parent, and are always inherited. However, they’re only passed onto the next generation if they can be woken from their seed form, which is a more difficult thing. Take [Shield of Tarnil] - unless you have a Light Affinity and have reached the third tier, it won’t be available as a Skill or be passed down to your children.

There are ways to encourage certain Affinities, and it’s common to have the same Affinity as your parent but it’s not guaranteed. So royal lines tend to follow inheritance based on who manages to wake the Lineage Skill first. Sometimes that’s the firstborn, but not always.

That doesn’t mean inheritance fights don’t happen, and sometimes they can be pretty nasty. But it does take a certain amount of work ethic to get your Lineage Seed to awaken, which is why kingdoms with Linages from a fifth-tier last longer than others. It doesn’t hurt that Linage skills are effectively fifth-tier Skills that are usable at third tier!”

Anyone with the appropriate expertise: What can you tell me of the structure of your worlds dungeon cores? From what I can gather, they operate very differently to the ones I see most often.

Ansae: “I don’t know what the mage-kings know, but Blue’s core is an active Artifact. That means it’s soooort of like a Power, in that it has the ability to break the usual rules governing magical items. For example, the dungeon crystal matrix seems to be able to handle nigh-infinite amounts of mana flux, and it has spatial and maybe even temporal workings integrated into every part of the matrix.

The dungeon flesh is an extension of that artifact, and I mean that literally. It grows outward from the top and bottom, operating as a channel into the world. That means he’s got a lot more direct control than most, even without spellcasting. On the other paw, not having spellcasting is a pretty big negative. Now, he hasn’t exhibited some of the things that the Great Dungeons have, but he is a very young dungeon.”

Blue: is he going to be monogamous or polygamous in terms of people he actually loves(so not political marriages)

“I mean, I guess I’m going to be polygamous...ish? I’m kind of in a unique situation here.”

Shayma: are you jealous, even a little bit, of Blue's relationship with other women? Do you wish to have a propper wedding? Do you wish blue had a human form (for you know what)? Do you want to have children? If so, how many?

“Of course not! Blue’s amazing and other people ought to have the chance to experience that themselves. I wouldn’t mind a wedding ceremony at some point, but it might be a little, um, late. It’ll have to wait until after the current crisis. I don’t think he really needs a human form but I wouldn’t mind a less, um, sex oriented way of interacting. Also, a kid would be great...again, after the current crisis.”

Shayma: are there any signs of your pregnancy? (I think it was mentioned that there weren't any, but I don't know how long ago that was) Do you want a normal child with Blue?

“I can feel it a little bit, but that’s all. Which is just as well, I’d hate to try and fight while being fully pregnant!”

Blue: Do you have any ideas for new weapons? Dungeon weaponry seems like a good skill and creating more things for it to utilise seems like a good plan. What about replicating the mana wave effect of the forge? It could break spells and cause dizziness.

“I’m working on them! The mana wave is pretty interesting, and I’d like to be able to channel it better.”

Ansae: Have you ever cooperated with another Power? Also have you been to outer space? Do you plan to stick around after you are cured of Depletion? Alternatively what are you planning to do?

“I have, in the past, but not for very long. Of course, for me, decades is ‘not very long.’ I haven’t been beyond the atmosphere - that’s just silly! And I haven’t made any long term plans yet”

Taelah: How many kids do you want? Do you expect them to be special in any way?

“Three or four eventually...they don’t need to be special, just healthy!”

Annit and Keri: How long do you know each other? How long have you been a couple? How did you meet?

Keri: “We’ve been together for about five years now. I met Annit when she was working on one of my family’s boats and she stole me away. It was so romantic!”

Annit: “Actually I thought it was just awful what she had to deal with as a noble. I thought they had it easy but I didn’t realize they didn’t have any freedom at all. We got to talking and...I honestly don’t know how it managed to happen, but we skipped out of Nivir entirely together.”

To hurricane: what do you expect to get from blue, since he doesnt have clearly understandable items to give upon conquering and if they took over it that would draw the wrath of those who truly matter?

“What? I just want more of those primal stones! Just gotta figure out where in the dungeon they came from.”

To The Hurricane: Are you returning to Blue more for the benefit of Hearlish, or more for the Kinky Dungeon Sex™? What kind of resistance do you expect from Tarnil? Or from the dungeon itself? How hilariously badly is your team going to ROFLstomp that resistance?

“Why not both!? Ought to be easy enough.”

Shayma: how do you decide what to say for Blue so that he doesn't sound like a happy-go-lucky kid?

“I just think about what sounds official and a little bit scary.”

Blue: We know you play with mana like it is Nealy free, but why don't you spend a while just expanding(north, south, east, west, not down) as rapidly as is practical and plopping down mama dynamos at an equal pace until you can use the device of Draconic headaches without pause and without crippling your mana regeneration?

“There’s only so much space I can make without compromising the integrity of the mountain. That said I’m absolutely working on increasing my infrastructure.”

Blue: Greetings Lord Blue the great and powerful, have you considered using your fields that improve health and mental health on the group catatonic women rescued from the Red Core clutches to see if they can be brought back to themselves

“Yeah, it’s on the list...I have a really really long list.”

Ansea: You can manipulate all of the elements (fire, water, earth, etc if I'm remembering her powers right). Which one is your favorite?

“I can manipulate any Affinity, yes. I prefer suiting them for purpose but I admit I have a soft spot for Fire, simply because of my draconic nature.”

Ansea: Did you ever have a significant other? Children? If so do you keep track of them/their descendants?

“Alas, the fact that I have a Primal Affinity means that there aren’t many male dragons around who have a potent enough magic for me to have children. I’ve had lovers over the years but not an actual mate.”

To any classer that wants to weigh in: Which Skill makes your day to day mundane parts of life better?

The Hurricane: “Being able to fly from place to place is the best thing ever. Walking is for losers!”

Ansae: Given that only you and Shayma can hear Blue, and the nature of Shayma's contract, have you noticed anything that Shayma can't notice because Blue would rather she not? Or conversely, something she pays more attention to than she should? (Edit: tangentially related, does Blue wanting to pleasure Shayma during sex make it impossible for her not to be pleasures during sex?)

“Shayma doesn’t seem to really question how Blue knows things, even out of idle curiosity. I find that pretty suspicious. Same goes for some of his weird turns of phrase or occasionally using words I’ve never heard of. Maybe he told her before I started listening in, but I doubt it.”

Cheya: what is the most hilarious thing you have seen or discovered over the course of your career?

“That’s a state secret, actually.”

Cheya: How did you come to be Queen Iniri's [Spymistress]?

“It’s a Class that is pretty difficult to happen into. I was one of the agents for the previous [Spymaster] when I was young, and considering my Affinity and the Skills I was acquiring, it made sense to groom me as a replacement.”

Shayma: What was your childhood like?

“Not very eventful really! I mostly lived at the shop except when we took trips outside the city. Mom and Dad had enough money that I could go be educated a bit with other not-quite-noble kids, but a lot of my youth was spent just hanging around the shop.”

Shayma: How did you come to be in service to Queen Iniri?

“Mom and Dad were on a trip when Tor Kot invaded, but I’d heard enough adventurer stuff to know that I couldn’t fight any of the monsters. They were high level! So I just kept my ear to the ground and followed people who weren’t being captured and so on.”

Blue: Since this is probably non-canon, can you finally talk to everyone?

“Well, I mean, obviously.”

giorn, sienna, and shayma : what was your shop like in tarnil before things burst to flames?

Sienne: “It was a cozy little two-story place. Top was where we lived, bottom was the shop itself. We mostly had items and supplies we found while adventuring, though we offered some specialty services. Mostly my [Curse-Breaker] Skill. Getting rid of bad affinities or effects on items or resources was very useful.”

Giorn: “We were one of those shops you never hear about that only adventurers go to. We never got incredibly rich but we never had to worry too much about money either. Admittedly, part of that was because I invested in my family’s caravans. It gave us time to go out adventuring now and then too, to restock and keep our Skills up.”

Shayma: “I was kind of the shop mascot. It’s a little embarrassing in retrospect I guess, but I hung out and was a cute Classers’ kid. So I learned about adventuring and adventurers and money stuff too.”

Blue: why do you not have your companions re-transcribe their new skills back to you, and then you transcribe to them, repeating until nothing new arises? You're losing out on a lot of skills by only going once in each direction every time you have a transcribing session!

“I’m not missing out on any Skills. There’s just no recursive skill gain. Or rather, one iteration is enough for “nothing new arises.” Not only that, but only a tiny subset of my Skills will map to theirs. It looks like there needs to be a genuine new Skill gain or evolution for it to be valid for transcription.”

Iniri: When you were trying to get to third tier in Ir's great dungeon, what did your typical day look like?

“Ugh. It was get up, early, spend hours fighting through the fourth or fifth floor generally, then take a break. You have to understand, Great Dungeons are absolutely immense. Miles and miles, and I’m pretty sure they use spatial magic like Blue does. It’s possible to clear out levels of one, and the first and second levels are basically completely tame, but as you go deeper and the mana density goes up, things start maturing faster and getting larger. Sometimes they even come up from lower levels.

If nobody was hurt we’d stay camped in the Dungeon, otherwise, we’d make our way back out, but either way at night I had to study. Runes, history, statecraft, all that. Basically no free time, but I needed to get to that third tier and be prepared for it. I didn’t expect to inherit the throne as soon as I did, but even if I hadn’t, I would have been given a position and expected to work at it.”

Joce: What do you think of your queen's decisions and judgement following the invasion of Tarnil?

“Ohhh boy, we haven’t had any real choices have we? I think she’s really lucky we weren’t all killed, regardless of what she did. It’s been really awful and I probably would have given up a long time ago. Just gotten out of Tarnil.”

Taelah: Before Blue introduced new ones, what was your favourite plant? Why?

“Attil weed! You can use it as a spice, for medicine, for alchemy, or to make soup stock, depending on which part of the plant you’re using.”

Cheya: What's the most ridiculous Class you know of, that's actually somewhat effective?

“[Dancing Defender]. Seeing them in action just makes me laugh and I wouldn’t consider the Class to be a good defensive Class, but it doe work.”

Tor Kot: What's the gender distribution among Controllers? I'm assuming it skews male, but is it an actual requirement?

“Not an actual requirement. It’s similar to Classers the world over, about eighty percent male and twenty percent female.”