Trash Mountain Dungeon

It had been a long night for Albrecht Von Shultz, and waking up in a grime-covered, trash-covered wasteland was not exactly helping his mental health. To add to the fact, it seemed as though he had been stuffed into a glowing crystal ball with nothing more than a disturbing amount of detachment and little information or even context as to why he was here, in a junkyard of all places.

When I had first awoken, I immediately panicked, I couldn’t feel my bed, much less anything else, it was as if I was floating on nothing, not even air, and even if I had fallen off the bed, I would at least feel the cold floor of my room. But when I opened my eyes I found my current predicament was far from what could be expected, here I was in some massive cavern covered in trash, with the system screen you would see in oh so many games and shows.

New Core Beginning Sequence

[Translating]...

You have been transformed into a [Infant Dungeon Core]

Your purpose is to assimilate [aether energy] into usable [mana]

Entities will seek you out to consume or enslave, build up your defenses to stay safe.

Attract living beings to consume to grow, soul bearing beings do not need to be slain for growth to occur.

Choices will come periodically based on actions, both past and present.

Special Dungeon Points (DP) will be awarded after special tasks are completed.

Many Choices pending decision.

This is not your original world.

Ok, what, the fuck, is going on. Disregarding the whole part about mana and dungeon stuff, I’m not on Earth, that doesn’t make any sense though I was just in bed not even, maybe ten minutes ago, how did I end up in a whole other world?

Catching myself, even if this wasn’t some unknown world, I need to remain calm and collected, panic will only hurt me in the long run. Looking over the facts in front of me, I was intentionally put here, they want me to perform a task, and they’ve informed me of future dangers, and they’ve given me the option to not kill people. Which is a wild thing to shove in someone’s face after kidnapping them but if even half of the stuff this thing is telling me is true then I am going to be in trouble fast.

Um, system? How do I do any of that exactly?

Loading...

To build a dungeon the dungeon core will designate an area for building, all non-exotic matter within will be broken down to reduce building costs when applicable.

The core may verbally state their desire or mentally command it to happen.

Available buildings are presented based on core choices (Theming, monster variety, etc)

Special rooms may be purchased or designed with the use of DP.

So, all I do is point and click essentially, a bit simple but that’s fine with me.

Looking around, the cavern was pretty massive, not a fantasy dwarf city large cave, but definitely large for a natural formation, maybe natural anyway. The cave itself was remarkably filthy though, the only two ways out were covered by large old piles of trash and scrap materials, perhaps I could build something on the entrance to let me move out?

With a small amount of excitement at the prospect of this whole thing being real, I dramatically pointed at one of the piles and (politely) demanded that something be built.

Error

Building not possible until several choices are made. Several require other choices to be made before they themselves can be.

Necessary choices:

Dungeon Theme (0/1)

Primary Monster type (0/1) * Requires theme

Critter Type (0/3) * Requires Theme

Construct Core Room (0/1) *Requires theme

Oh, ok, I guess that makes sense.

What are my theme options then?

Loading...

Elementalism

Form a connection with the Elemental Nexus to gain access to the elemental plains for various purposes.

Unlocks:

Magical elements for theming

Elementals for summon for creation.

Dungeon and challenger rewards focused on elementals and related.

Grants the core and its creations a resistance to the elements of magic.

Mid to high cost of growth and maintenance.

Bestiary

Attract and create both magical and non-magical creatures to aid in your defense and growth.

Unlocks:

Nature and animal theming

Animals, both existing and designed are available for creation, cost will vary.

Will allow creation of beastly monsters at various stages.

Dungeon and challenger rewards focused on nature and animals.

Grants the core two additional critter slots and allows the usage of critters as non-enhanced combatants.

Low to mid cost of growth and maintenance.

Constructs

Obtain the knowledge and ability to create artificial constructs for both defense and offence.

Unlocks:

Construct Workshop theming.

Various construct types for creation

Dungeon and challenger rewards focused on constructs and related.

Grants the core the ability to specialize and customize constructs, costs will vary.

Mixed cost of growth and maintenance.

Umbral

Partner with the umbral forces of this world and beyond to create and summon undead creatures, dark aligned monsters, fel sorcerers.

Unlocks:

Dark foreboding theming.

Various undead, fiends, and shadow type monsters for creation or summoning.

Dungeon and challenger rewards focused on umbral and related.

Grants the dungeon the [Miasma] passive ability, creates a toxic miasma that can be expelled from dungeon entrance, does not affect umbral or celestial creatures.

Mixed cost of growth and maintenance.

Celestial

Beseech the orderly, if alien, powers above this and many other worlds.

Unlocks:

Several different sub-types of celestials may be taken as a theme.

Celestial type creatures and constructs may be summoned after theme focusing.

Dungeon and challenger rewards focused on celestials.

Grants the core the [Divinely Marked] title, grants immunity to enslavement or consumption but reduced growth opportunities and progress by 50%

Extremely high costs of growth and maintenance.

Chaotic

Embrace the random and eroding powers of chaos, taking away choice but giving every other opportunity.

Unlocks:

Amalgam Theming.

Amalgam creatures for creation.

Dungeon and challenger rewards will have no distinct focus, but all will contain the [chaos] element.

Grants 200% growth progress and increases opportunities, but the core will have any choice they decide on be given a random twist.

Cost of growth and maintenance varies.

WARNING: The [chaos] element can cause [planar erosion] and will attract incursion forces from the [Prime Material] as well as the adjacent realms, choose at your own risk.

That is quite a selection here, and dangerous.

Going down the line, elementalism has me using elementals, whatever those are in this world, and is rather high on the costs, bestiary is essentially animals and is relatively low cost, constructs feel familiar somehow, just some weird Déjà vu, but it seems to be robots and moving armors, I guess. Umbral was the dark and undead choice, zombies and vampires maybe? I assume celestial just means godly which is a terrifying implication since the “alien” part implies an almost eldritch theme, and I’m not so sure I want to be running this world’s real-life mountain of madness, cool as the name would be. The final choice is also the most problematic as well, the super bonus to growth would be amazing no doubt about it, but the part about incursions and the random “twists” that could be put on most likely life-altering decisions could bite me in the ass later on.

That wasn’t even getting into the different bonuses the others give, I mean, how many people are spewing fire and chucking rocks with magic, what are critters in this context, what does customizing a construct even entail, and so many other factors to consider.

Uh, system, can you tell me everything I want to know?

No.

Damn.

I’ll just have to trust my judgment and hope for some good luck then. Nonetheless, despite how strange and fast this all is I should try to consider each opportunity at the very least, despite the potentially evil connotations behind umbral and the whole undead part, it could turn out to be some widely accepted or understood thing, removing the fear that I would be targeted because of my theme, hopefully anyway.

Elementalism seems to focus on magic and magic entities I suppose, generally, elementals in games and stories are just magical expressions of a thing, with fire elementals almost always being shown as some sort of vaguely person-shaped gout of fire, other times they are contained in some form of armor to keep them together. If that applies here, or at least the idea of it, that will make elementals potentially very dangerous to anyone who couldn't counter the innate nature of an elemental. The bonus resistance is a nice touch as well but I’m not sure how much it would help me grow in the long run.

Bestiary focuses on animals and the living world and was the lowest-costing option overall, the biggest question, however, is whether that’s a good thing or not.

Am I able to see just how much of this mana I have?

Mana Production

Stored (100/100)

Production: 1 per hour

Construct a dungeon core room to increase capacity.

Dungeon Points

Stored: 10

Production: 1 every 30 days

Complete essential tasks to gain more DP.

Useful, but also not, while I’m sure that 100 mana can be useful if I’m an [infant dungeon core] I doubt it’s that much in the long run, and without any information on the actual costs of anything the extremely costly celestials might be too slow to grow, add to the fact that [Divinely Marked] reduces my growth considerably and I could have a self-killing combo here, benefits be damned.

But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t consider it still, if this system is offering it then at the very least it can be done, if painfully.

Looking over the cave, there was also the matter of space, the cave’s actual size could accommodate most animals I know of aside from maybe the bigger ones like a giraffe so unless the monsters I would make from the other options were larger than a giraffe then I should be good there.

Am I able to get an idea of just what I would be working with?

Allowed

At the first level of each theme the dungeon core will gain access to the basic theme items, buildings, and creatures.

Basic example has been permitted, -1 DP

Wait I need to pay for this?

Mephit*

A young and weak elemental mephit, can use [Fly] and [Elemental bolt]

*Mephits come in a variety of elements

Creation cost: 25 mana

*Once summoned elementals are self-sustaining.

Stone Wolf

A well-known danger to cattle and fringe settlements, typically lives in rocky environments and goes down to forests and plains to hunt.

No special abilities outside of its normal physical capabilities

Creation Cost: 15 mana, 1 pound of food per 24 hours*

*Dungeon born creatures require less sustenance but still require a small amount, additionally it does not matter what kind of food as they lack any food preference.

Clockworker

A simple and easy to maintain construct, capable of performing a variety of tasks aside from those involving magic.

Can use [Self-repair]

Creation cost: 15-100*, 1 pound of scrap*

*Cost varies with customization, additionally, constructs require a steady source of material to maintain themselves, especially for damage repair.

Lesser Undead 1*

A variety of weak undead, dangerous in groups or when coordinated properly.

Undead can use [Grave Strength]

Creation Cost: 2 (with remains) 6 (without remains)

*Creating an undead without physical remains will cost 3x more mana, some undead require specific types of remains.

Blessed Vessel

A tall wooden mannequin that contains the smallest amounts of celestial power.

Can use [Lesser Turn Umbral] and [Minor Heal]

Creation Cost: 90 mana, 5 mana sustained*

*5 mana will be deducted form your hourly production, without the required production the mana will be taken form stores, failing that the doll will enter a dormant state.

*Sustained creatures pull from you every 24 hours.

Randomized Amalgam

An amalgam if chaotic energies and flesh, this creature is the smallest expression of [chaos].

Can use [Choatic Aura]

Creation cost: 25-50 mana*, 5 sustained

*Final cost will be determined by the "twist" when creating this creature. Will be no more than 50 mana

Grumble, at least it’s good information, could’ve told me it would cost something, but at least I got what I needed to know for now.

But with the new info, it would be easier to deduce what I was going to pick, not that I had decided but the fact that I know more about how each theme would more or less work does help immensely. Elementals are self-sustaining so they would be a one-and-done thing, beasts would need a steady source of food, constructs need whatever they were made of, the undead had the caveat of needing existing material, a vessel was super expensive both toward my stored mana and my production, and the amalgam was only slightly better as far as cost was concerned.

Of course, I could see the obvious benefits of each too, elementals seemed more economical and potentially very useful as ranged fighters, wolves are always dangerous in packs and if they can leave the dungeon then they could hunt for their food, the clockworker seemed to be a versatile choice with scrap being relatively available from what I can see around the room. The undead had no sustaining draw so it was possible to make a small horde of them with this “[Grave Strength]” ability of theirs.

The last two would also need some thought, being able to heal, even if only itself, would be a massive boon to its survivability, and while targeting Umbral was potentially useless depending on how common Umbral creatures are, it would be useful at some point, I guess. On the other hand, the amalgam had a [Chaotic Aura] which could mean several things, my two thoughts are either it’s some kind of damage aura or the more ridiculous idea that it increases the “chaos” in a given area which might be good, maybe?

Regardless, my time on this world would be determined by this first choice.