Apinsig
patreon
Chapter 227 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”
🕑 Added 2024-10-08 16:50:57 +0000 UTCPov Dungeon Core
“217,000 kilometers in length, 185,000 kilometers in width, and 14.9 kilometers in height of the oval-shaped floor. That’s the size of the floor, and it’s currently still empty. A little bit of that space will go to the area I call dungeon rooms, which adventurers think is my entire floor size. So, the playroom’s size, where your race will inhabit, is huge. I believe it will be plenty of space,” I communicated to Ismael after he asked how much space I could allocate for this deal of ours.
He normally answered quite quickly, but this time I noticed that he activated some sort of spell that gathered him information about my dungeon. “You are still definitely not platinum. That’s damn impressive. I didn’t actually expect so much space. With so much space, you could just recreate this world with all its continents and still have more room. Would that be something you would be willing to do?”
I was originally going to do something more fantastical, especially because I was planning on doing this on floor 50. But I guess I could double up on both floors and just change things up a bit. It would also be interesting to make the trade winds, and it would mean that I could make use of all the information I’ve gathered about the outside world.
“Yes, that’s possible. Would you mind if I changed some things, like making the mountains bigger and, in some places, the oceans deeper?”
“Of course not, go wild. But could you also not put any adventurer species into this world as you call them? And I’d kind of like to see a world where, even when dragons reach platinum rank, they wouldn’t be the top of the food chain everywhere they go. Is this something that would be possible?”
“It would be easy enough not to add any adventurer species, and yes, I have some patterns that could challenge dragons, but not on their own. I understand that dragons grow in strength as they get older, and while they can kill and get stronger that way, mainly it’s due to their age. So, I think by the time most reach that strength, they would also have challengers. I would make sure of that.”
Our discussion continued like that until he seemed quite satisfied. “One question now remains, as I am willing to bring all the dragons I can into this world of yours when it’s ready, how will we do that?”
His question was an important one and something that could be done. The world’s will, what I believe is made out of dungeons that have broken the limit, allowed me another connection to a gateway I made with my skill that Ismael was currently using to communicate with me. I could easily make it bigger so entire dragons could fit through. The problem was keeping that secret.
A lot of resources went into the gateway that connected us to the underwater world to keep it hidden, but that gateway was already in a city filled with magic and in an area that wasn’t under constant surveillance, unlike the Black Ocean and especially the area where dragons resided.
It would require an immense amount of resources to make a gateway that would be completely hidden. I also wouldn’t be able to send any of the resources through the gateway, as the device wouldn’t be able to handle too much matter transportation before it burned out trying to keep it secret.
I explained that to Ismael, who was surprised by how much and how long it would take to build a proper device for a huge gateway.
“I could gather much of the resources needed and I will also help with the construction, which should make this faster, but even I don’t have access to some of the extremely rare ingredients needed for some parts of the device. It will simply have to take longer, which is a bit unfortunate, as the longer we take, the more chance of us being discovered.”
Soon we weren’t only talking to each other, as I involved almost all of my departments to help with this project. Many of the Academy scientists were excited, as the device we were about to build was only a prototype they had tinkered with, but it hadn’t been built and tested outside the dungeon before.
There were many questions I wanted to ask Ismael about how this world worked, but most of them could wait until he was in my dungeon. There was one question I didn’t risk waiting for as who knows what could go wrong and I needed to know that as soon as possible.
“Ismael, what happens to a dungeon that breaks the power limit of this world?”
“No one knows exactly, but my race has witnessed three such occurrences. I believe you might be familiar with what we call the World Will. Every new age, the vibrations and signals from the World Will get stronger, but they also change, like if you were viewing different brain signals from different people.”
“So, my current conjecture is that whenever a dungeon breaks through, they will get to shape the world somewhat while also having to take into account the wishes of the closest non-dungeon entities. The closer you are to the core, the more weight your desires have.”
“What happens to the dungeon and its consciousness afterward, we have no idea. But from what we can tell, they will no longer have any influence on the world itself, just maintaining it in the vision they had when making it. I hope that helps, and even all of this is somewhat of a guess on my part—a good guess, but a guess nonetheless.”
He finally removed his hand after we said our goodbyes and reaffirmed the current timelines. I would need to work fast to finish making the 49th floor, and while I have to do the dungeon rooms after I finish the playroom, that shouldn’t be a problem.
I had kind of guessed most of what he told me, and I guess I could also see the reason why a dungeon wouldn’t want any other dungeons in the World Will—most likely destroying the other consciousnesses whenever they break the limit of this world.
We are solitary creatures, but that’s also really unfortunate. It would mean that whoever came after me would most likely end my life, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Would I even want to live after all of that? I would not be a dungeon core after I broke the limit—I would become the World Will, as everyone calls it, and that doesn’t act like a dungeon.
I’ve only experienced its presence twice now, and I knew if I was a dungeon in control of a whole world, I wouldn’t let anyone do what I did. The connections I had to my gateways that were outside of my dungeon were originally part of the world's will, but it simply gave them up and let me claim dominion over those pathways.
It did seem to put up a fuss, but in the end, it didn't seem to do anything about it, and it could put pressure on me to stop me doing it even if it couldn't actually stop me.
That was not an existence I was looking forward to, even before I learned of these guesses that still made logical sense to me. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I didn’t feel like I was. But what could I do, so I wouldn’t end up like that?
I certainly didn’t want to stop advancing—that would mean I couldn’t make new worlds and see all those creatures inside the worlds, their lives, and how they succeed in unique ways. No, that was unacceptable. I guess it’s time to make a new project, and let’s just simply call it Good Future, and try to figure out another way.
Comments
Robert
The life creates the mana and the dungeons refine it until there is enough mana concentration and purity to create a whole universe is my guess in this story , who's to say the planet they are on is in the same universe as the one in the first age the people on the planet wouldn't even know not like anyone goes into space
Emma Baker
Thanks for the chapter. Can’t wait to read about the specifics of the Good Future Project. Stargate Atlantis but with a Mountain instead of just a City? I wonder if leaving the planet would be enough or if leaving the galaxy or universe would be necessary. Does mana exist in deep space in large enough quantities to not need mana-storage? Would a Massive Stargate… *cough*, I mean, Dungeongate be a better option? Time to experiment with the nature of the Universe. Perhaps the universe is really just a floor in a Dungeon; how does one escape one’s fate then? Maybe leaving isn’t necessary and there is another solution. Still very excited. Does Ismael not want any other sapient species or just the Adventurer species (“Big 4”?)? I think Ancient Ants [modified] and Dragons could have some very interesting dynamics especially in a room so large. Would he rather have a world of non-sapient creatures that the Dragons can colonize themselves? No judgment, if my species was being hunted to extinction (justified or not), I too would want the chance to form a civilization without those who hunted them.
Zarik0
Project Ark Going to space as a World Vessel/Ship Well as of now too many possibility how it can end up (and how it is exactly in the first place) to make good prediction about what will happen
SpaceGoddess76
I’m still thinking ETG needs to get some sort of Time skill to allow more time to pass in his playrooms. We know Ace had some sort of vision of the area in a few hundred years, but that’s not terribly long to some species. So allowing more time to pass would allow for more to happen. For humans every 100 years is 3-5 generations but with power levels allowing for longer lives, this might be even less. For elves, dragons, dwarves etc they tend to live longer and have less births (in fantasy books). I’d just like to be able to see more happen in the playrooms (& potentially dungeon rooms). A Time skill would need to be just right to not be OP with probably some cons like requiring mana so maybe it now takes longer for advancement, or it’s limited to a certain number of floors like only 1/2 or 1/4 of all floors can have this effect, or some other type of negative or limiting aspect.
SpaceGoddess76
I’m looking forward to his “Good Future” I like your world design and evolutions but I hate to see ETG just “die” after. It would also open up the Webnovel to continue rather than just end. I love dungeon books and especially when they have the power of worlds/more.
