Chapter 13: Cubes for Days – Chapter 13

Doyle rotates his core to the side, ‘so we can just call it world energy? Because not having to pussyfoot around what to call the stuff would be nice.’ Ally rolls her eyes, “sure fine, we can reduce this complex subject with so many implications down to a simple two word label. Sigh, anyway now that you freed your territory I advise you shape it into a ball centered on you for now. Later on you will have to focus in certain directions but territory is your early warning system. That and since your territory forces reality on the unreal it will also hold back some of the void beings.”

“At the moment you're too small to be noticed so are safe in obscurity but once you get adventurers that won’t last. Once you have your territory expanded out big enough to fit a handful or so more rooms in any one direction, we can continue.”

‘Bit of a scholar are we? Anyway you can teach me all that later. If I am guessing right that dense layer of territory was a lot more like an eggshell than you implied.’ Ally is about to speak up but Doyle continues, ‘don’t worry about it. Knowing or not wouldn’t change anything for me so you want to keep it on the down low. At least part of the secret is somewhat obvious when you think about it though. That dense layer kept bad things out and for lack of a better term my scent in. Now the layer is gone and we need to work at some actual defenses. I won’t rush because a stable foundation is more important than short-term safety. Now I should get to work’

Ally settles down on the floor muttering about uppity cores while Doyle focuses on his new territory. At the edge, the density is so low a thought is enough to move it. Much easier than when his territory was stuck in his core room. With this greater control he is able to cast a net out and reign in the expansion. As it is, his territory is shaped like a cube with a water spout coming off of one corner.

Instead of taking back his control Doyle focuses on smoothing out the shape first. A little work later and his territory is now egg shaped but he doesn’t stop there. Now that he has the hang of it he pushes his territory outward. At least that was the plan but he quickly stops. Actively taking over territory is quite wasteful. Besides that the void resists him which is more alarming than wasting his territory. Resistance means a clash which might be visible to others. For someone whose only defense if obscurity this is quite alarming.

Not ready for trouble Doyle sits back and lets his sphere of control expand on its own. Soon though he comes upon a problem. There is only enough space for a couple of rooms but his excess of territory has run out. The sphere continues to expand of course. However this is at a much reduced rate as it takes time for his core to generate more.

‘Hey Ally, I have a sphere of control now but it is still kind of small. Problem is I ran out of spare territory.’ Ally wakes up and shakes her head, “huh wah? Ran out already? Oh right, your expanding into the void. Takes a lot more to do that so that is a decent size. I guess the first thing we should start on while we wait is to create your first room. You are a cave type dungeon but I advise you control the first few rooms to be normal rooms.”

“Because of your type if you order up a room it will end up themed like a cave with rough walls and such. This isn’t a problem but forcing the rooms into a shape right now has two benefits. The first is it provides you more room to work with. You can fit more squares on a piece of paper than you can squiggly shapes. Most important though is the practice you will get. Later on such simple manipulation of your dungeon won’t do much but at the moment this will rocket your territory control skill’s level up into the stratosphere.”

“To get started though you need to do a little work first. Normal dungeon cores would simply dig around with deconstruction but you're in a void. That means you need to create everything you want to fill your dungeon with. This includes the rock and air. In fact, if it wasn’t for me being prepared you would be stuck with just the rock and air your chamber is made with. Sure adventurers will drag stuff in with them but that only goes so far. First though we need to deal with universal deconstruction. Let’s pull up your status real quick and check on your current patterns.” They sit there for a moment before Doyle remembers he has to be the one to pull his status up.

{Name: Doyle Huxley

Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)

Companion: Ally Huxley

Paths: [9] Dungeon Core 1/1

Level: 0

[2] S[8] A[7] C[10] I[12] W[9] P[5] D[14] K[20] L[16]

Skills: Territory Control lv0, Dungeon Rules lv0, Universal Deconstruction lv0, Dungeon Pattern Database lv9, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv0}

{Dungeon Patterns: goat lv9, kobold lv3, assassin vine lv3, shrubbery lv2, vines lv2, horned rabbits lv1, clover lv1}

Ally’s eyes go wide at the goat pattern. “Well, there is your silver lining for getting trapped. Most people don’t get out of the tutorial with a skill higher than level ten. Not that it is hard to get to ten but the System puts a soft cap on such things while in the tutorial. I bet the pattern gains levels like crazy once we are out of it. Anyway move those windows to the side and focus on the air. Not all the air, just the smallest section of you can and it still is just air. We don’t want molecules and atoms.”

It takes Doyle a moment, not because it was difficult but because he felt the need to perfect it. There is a breakpoint where his senses go from seeing the air as air and then flips to being a mix of stuff like oxygen and nitrogen. ‘Got it.’ Ally nods, “Okay now activate your skill Universal Deconstruction on just that spot.”

A couple tries later and Doyle activates the skill. For just a moment the space was empty. Not like the void he sensed outside his walls but just a vacuum. Though the surrounding air soon fills in the pocket of space. He can sense the air pressure had dipped but this soon corrects itself as well.

He is about to ask Ally about this but she beats him to it. “You just noticed the air pressure fixing itself. Every dungeon starts with their core room under some dungeon rules that keep it stabilized. But now that you have done that check your system messages”

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{Universal Deconstruction level up

Earth standard air mix pattern gained at level 1}

“Good, now do the same thing for your wall. Be careful though as the dungeon law won’t replace material if you make a hole to the outside. Just try and skim some stone off the inner layer. This is actually why I had you start with air. They limit the shape you can deconstruct at level zero to a sphere. Once you have an actual level in it though you can take what you want. Now get to it.” Some more focusing on Doyle's part and this task is soon complete as well. With it deconstruction gained another level and the volcanic rock pattern is added to his library.

“Perfect, we can start on your creation skill and a room. Imagine a cube of rock about the size of my fist. Small, I know, but what do you expect from a level zero skill? Though once you do create it I want you to focus on your core. I know you can’t actually sense it but treat it like you were still a human meditating on your own body.”

One perfect cube of volcanic stone later and Doyle has centered himself. While a human he had dabbled in meditation so it comes easily enough but he still can’t sense anything. Then Ally interrupts him, “have you noticed anything yet?” With Doyles negative response Ally sighs in relief, “at least you aren’t that much of a monster. Genius can only take you so far. Up till now you have picked things up much too quickly. Anyway, whenever I say cube I want you to form another and try to sense again. We will continue until you can sense the change. Cube.”

Another cube and more sensing. More cubes until there enough that Ally has built a small castle out of them. Cubes, cubes, cubes and the castle has a nice wall and the start of a village around it. Cubes for the cube god. The entire floor is littered with cubes before he senses it.  A single particle of quintessence was being used. In fact, now that he can feel it Doyle gets the sense he could have made the cube a good bit bigger without using more.

Ally swipes her hand, knocking over her castle. “Since you stopped making cubes, I have to assume you got a feel for the energy use and it only took you a few short of a thousand cubes to do it. That was an important milestone for any being that uses energy under the System. Look over at your status and you will see the change this has caused”

{Name: Doyle Huxley

Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)

Companion: Ally Huxley

Paths: [13] Dungeon Core 1/1

Level: 0

[2] S[8] A[7] C[10] I[12] W[9] P[5] D[14] K[20] L[16]

Quintessence(/R per hour): 512/10(.01)

Skills: Territory Control lv0, Dungeon Rules lv0, Universal Deconstruction lv2, Dungeon Pattern Database lv9, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv2}

“Yep, you now have quintessence listed on your status. Also, you’re reading it right. You have a few hundred stored out of a possible ten and you only recover one every hundred ish hours. The system might round up there as it doesn’t like to deal with smaller numbers for energy pools. Oh, and by hour it means the system standard hour. Luckily what you used was already based on it though days and such go world by world. One of those conveniences built into it as the wavefront of dreams also nudges people to use similar measurements.”

“Another thing to note is that your creation skill is still only level two. That stems from you not really creating things so much as just copy pasting a cube. From how I understand it the first level is for the use of the skill period and the second because you have shown enough skill to repeat it perfectly. Now if you make enough stone cubes, you would eventually get a third level and maybe even the pattern. Though the pattern is less likely as the system doesn’t really bother with normal shapes. You're either able to make a cube or you can’t no matter how much work you put into it.”

“Now don’t get used to quintessence being on your status. Once you spawn a critter or plant, it will all start to convert over to world energy leaving you with only that last ten points of it. This is fine as your stockpile of it will stick around until you have used it all. Just a little bonus the multiverse gives to dungeon cores when they first open up their territory. Once it is gone though your status will no longer show it as it will just end up as one of the hidden resource pools everyone has. After all, a human doesn’t need to know how many calories they have stored up and it is the same with you and quintessence.”