He looked over the new window. With a frown, he turned his mental gaze to Dewari. Before the question even left his lips, she was answering him.

“I mentioned you would get a free boss monster through the system later? Well this is how. I just gave you a tutorial quest. Now pay attention, we have a lot to cover, and I don’t plan to tell you this stuff again. Now first, why don’t you pull up your status again?”

He nodded, “Um, how do I do that?”

“The system responds to your intent, simply will it to appear. Some find it helpful to think the word status, with intent to view it.”

It proved to be just that simple. Soon that window was in his view again.

“Good, now I’m sure you already noticed that the name field is blank. That’s because you have not yet been named. Now immediately below that is your current level which is one. As that level goes up, you will grow stronger, and unlock new abilities. Gaining experience is the primary method of leveling. As a dungeon you can gain experience in several ways, repelling invaders, summoning a new monster, completing a quest, and building a new floor all of these will grant you experience to various degrees. They are not the only ways to gain experience, and you will notice that your monsters gain it differently from you. They can grow by defeating or seducing intruders for example. Now the most important thing to know about level is that it has a cap. As a true Demonic Dungeon, you have a level cap of one hundred, when you reach that level you will be granted a chance at a trial of ascension which if you pass would allow you to evolve. Evolving grants you new abilities, increases your strength and raises your level cap.”

He nodded, that didn’t seem too complicated to keep track of. While he didn’t play many games, he did know that a higher level was good. It meant higher stats, and generally meant you were stronger. Although this status screen did look a bit weird. “Alright so a higher level is good, and if it gets high enough I can evolve. Alright, simple enough.”

“Effectively, yes. Next to your level is your current Rank, this is a more accurate measure of strength but it is one that applies to your entire dungeon. Right now you are the lowest grade, but that is only due to the fact that you are just getting started. That should rise pretty quickly once you actually set up your dungeon. Note that grade is related to tier, which is not displayed on your status. All races fit into a tier, and when they evolve they jump to the next one. When you evolve your rank will reset according to your new tier. Rank caps, at A+. 

“The next two items are pretty simple. Alignment is basically the kind of dungeon you are. There are three possible alignments for a dungeon, Demonic, Celestial, and Shadow. This influences what kinds of monsters you can summon, and affects your theme. Most importantly as a demonic dungeon it influences your nature. You have a strong inclination towards corruption, and will instinctively employ it in accordance with your attribute which in this case is Lust. Your attribute is in fact your primary affinity, and determines the kind of mana you produce. This determines the kind of AE you use, and how you get it.”

He nodded, along, with nothing to say. All of this seemed simple, and sounded like something that did not need much worrying about.

“Now for the truly important parts of your status. Below those entries are your primary resources. Mana, DP, and AE. Mana is your primary resource, it is used for summoning monsters, building new rooms, creating traps, and so on. Notice your status also tracks how much you gain naturally, and how much you can store at a given moment. Right now you have a full mana pool, and gain ten per hour. Most new dungeons actually gain less per hour, but you have the good fortune of being born on a ley line which boosts the amount you get in an hour. You can boost your income by leveling up. It can be further boosted by simply having intruders in your halls.

“DP, also referred to as dungeon points, is actually a form of currency which you can use to purchase new monsters, and traits for example. It is also used to fund the development of new monsters and traps. Right now you don’t have an income, but once you get started and people start challenging your dungeon that will change. Simply having intruders within your hall grants you a small passive income, and defeating them will give you a small bonus of DP.

“Finally AE or Attributed Energy is a special resource which is primarily used to enhance things such as your monsters and abilities. You produce this passively at half your mana income rate. Abilities and traits can be learned to boost this.”

“Interesting, I think I can manage that,” he muttered to himself. Then asked, “What exactly is AE anyway?”

She smiled, “Good question. In short, it’s a form of refined mana. Mana that has taken on an attribute. In your case that will be lust, which gives it a few special properties. I’ll let you learn what those are on your own. In the meantime let’s discuss a few of the tools the system gives you to help you manage your dungeon. You have a dungeon overview, which gives a general overview of your dungeon. It will show you a map of your floors, where your traps are, and things like what monsters you have. Very useful tool. Another useful tool you have is the dungeon planner, you can use it to plan out how you would like to develop your dungeon. Really useful for visualizing things before you actually do them. There is also a menu that can show you all the little tools you have at your disposal. I’ll let you dig into those on your own later. They are quite intuitive and respond to your intent.

“One thing you might want to check out is the Dungeon Store. The store is the main place you will be spending your DP, especially right now. Later you might consider using it to fund developments, and create your own stuff. When you do create your own stuff, you can sell those items on the store for an extra bit of income. Go ahead and take a look at the store. It has a nice set of browsing features, and even a search function which should help you find anything you might be looking for. Why don’t you go ahead, and find the entry for Imp?”

He nodded, and with a thought found his way into the store. It was really easy to find, as this system was quite responsive to mere intent. The search function was just as easy to find, and it wasn’t long before he found the entry. Its description was largely the same as what he saw earlier. The only difference was that now a price was attached, 50 DP.

“Found Imp, it apparently costs 50 DP to buy one.”

“Actually it’s 50 DP to buy the monster blueprint. Once you purchase it, you can summon as many as you want. As long as you have the mana to summon one of course. Now while you could go ahead, and buy the Imp it might not be what you want.”

He nodded, it was nice to know he could buy it here, and he looked around quickly finding his other starter options. As it turned out most of them were too expensive, but he could buy the Harpy for 200 or the Arachnid for the same price. Although only an idiot spent all their money, might be best to hold off on buying either one. He did keep them both in mind though as he wanted all of them, especially that dragon girl.

Interrupting his thoughts, Dewari pulled out a small crystal, “Alright I think we are about ready to start building your dungeon. First however, I’d like you to focus on this crystal with the intent to learn more about it.”

He shrugged mentally, sounded odd, but there was no reason to refuse. He focused on the crystal, and a box expanded. Telling him that it was a small F-grade mana crystal with ten mana in it.

“Congratulations on your first use of the ability Inspect. It’s a very common skill, and it can evolve. Right now it displays only basic information about objects and people you may come across. When it evolves it will display more information. For example with a person you will only see their status, but once it evolves you will be able to identify their Skills. One thing you need to know is that dungeons have abilities and people have Skills, but they are effectively the same thing. You can check your own abilities by simply looking at the ability menu. I suggest you look at them later.” then Dewari gestured at the wall, “now about building your dungeon, it should be pretty simple. Direct your intent at this wall, focus it, and will it to reshape into a tunnel.”

He sighed, and followed her instructions. It took him a few minutes to figure it out, and then before his very eyes the wall melted, and a tunnel formed. It was short, only maybe five meters to a dead wall, but it was a tunnel. As it formed he felt a bit of discomfort, not unlike the ache his bones used to get when he had a growth spurt, just less intense. 

“Good job! That is how everything about building a dungeon works. You simply focus your intent, and reshape yourself to suit your purposes.”

“Why does it feel... uncomfortable?”

She giggled, “Well because that wall is you, and that tunnel is now also you. Congrats, you are now a little bigger. Anyway, you should check your status.”

With a thought he brought the menu up.

It took him only a moment to notice that his mana had gone down, by five.

“As you can see, digging that tunnel drained a small amount of your mana. Five mana for that short distance isn’t all that great, but you're still new at this. As you develop, you will get more efficient at building your dungeon. Now let's get started on turning this into a proper dungeon. I’ll help supply you with mana so we can get done faster.” as she said that he watched as his mana instantly jumped back to a hundred. Before he could comment she directed him, “for starters, let's expand and lengthen this tunnel”

Before he knew it, he was following her instructions, and building out a floor. Creating a number of rooms, and passageways. She instructed him on how to hide certain areas. It wasn’t long before his first floor was shaping up. In the hidden areas, she had him create a living area for his monsters with everything they will need. Outside of that, a simple dungeon path with a single dead end was created, and a final room for a floor boss at the end. That boss room was the room just before his core room, which by the time they were done looked like a proper throne room for a castle.

She smiled, “Okay good, not a bad job for a first time, and it seems you ranked up a few of your skills while doing it. Now for the fun bit, summoning your first monster.”

Feeling a little eager to see what kind of cute monster he would summon, he responded, “Finally! Now how do I do that!?”

“It’s quite simple, the first thing you need to do is focus on the monster you want to summon. Once you select a monster, your mind will instinctively bring forth its blueprint. Once you have the blueprint in mind, you can customize the monster. However do note that modifications to the summon cost AE for example increasing the summons initial level by one will cost one AE.”

He mentally picked Lesser Demon Girl, and almost instantly he was greeted with a blueprint and a status page. Although he couldn’t help but notice that the status seemed to be missing something.

Where were the stats? Didn’t games usually have stats? He must have asked out loud because he was told. “The system doesn’t use numbers for anything so abstract. Health is always measured as a percentage. Mana has concrete values however and is measured exactly. Things like strength can be measured in terms of grade, not value.”

“I see, what is this Shields thing?”

“Shields are a magical defense possessed by magic users, which can absorb a set amount of damage and prevent injury. Your core also has a shield, and if you checked your core you would find that your core's shield is reasonably strong, and it will help protect your core from damage. At least until it is drained. Shields can recover by draining your mana after you have been attacked. Consider them an investment, and invaluable.”

He nodded, and focused his attention on the Demon Girl he was planning to summon. He found that he couldn’t adjust her physical abilities, but he could invest points in raising her level or increasing her mana pool. He could also invest points in unlocking Skills for her. For Five points he could give her access to dark magic, which the system labeled Initiate Lesser Dark Magic Grade C, whatever that meant.

When he asked, Dewari told him, “A skill is a measure of ability, in translation, it means she will basically be average for a beginner at Dark Magic. Which is perfectly alright, remember your monsters can grow. In fact, if your monster is killed for a small mana cost you can resummon the same monster with all of her skills and memories back. Most dungeons do this, since monsters are an investment, and that price is less than a new monster.”

“Logical, pay a small cost to get a good monster back. That makes way more sense than paying more for a weaker new monster.”

With that in mind, he considered the monster. Choosing to give her dark magic, and healing magic, and boosting her level to five, which brought the total cost to fifty mana, and fifteen AE. Glancing at his status, he noted he had more to spare, so he added three more points to boost her mana pool a little. The final result was something that looked like this.

That seemed good, and with a mental flex he finalized the summon. Light swirled, and a circle formed on the floor in front of him. In moments a cute little red-headed girl stood before him, entirely naked. She was quite short, just barely over a hundred centimeters tall, with a very cute roundish face with a button nose, and gem-like ruby eyes. Poking out of her long gold-red hair was a pair of small silver horns. She had a rather flat chest with cute little nipples, and her little mound seemed quite delicate. There was not a speck of hair on her, aside from her head. It did not escape his notice when her sex started to glisten and behind her a cute little black tail ending in a spade seemed to extend from nowhere, and wag behind her like a puppy. She was a very cute, almost innocent-looking, loli. Almost.

The girl smiled lewdly, and then said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mistress!”