Trash Mountain Dungeon

I decided that I would sleep, hibernate, whatever it was. If I don't do it now, I might not get the chance later, so I'll risk the six months instead, but before that, I would need to get my affairs in order. A surprisingly easy task all things considered if I'm honest, my monsters were understanding, at least they seemed like they did, and while the lack of input miffed him, Arthur was understanding, even if I hadn't given him all the details. And with a couple of more traps placed on floor 4, I was ready to begin.

Soooo, what happens now then?

The core will be put into a state of deep sleep, during which the system shall regulate and harmonize the vast amounts of mana that have seeped into the land. During this, the core will experience no time or sensation.

Well, that's neat I guess, anything else I should be aware of?

Given the core's present situation, it has been decided that because of the core's good behavior concerning its duties and willingness to correct mistakes, the core shall be allowed to advance to level 5 before undertaking deep sleep.

I thought the entire point of my sleeping for the winter was BECAUSE of how fast I'm leveling, and now you're letting me advance anyway?

The increase in work will not be as substantial as the core imagines and doing it in this fashion will allow the system to regulate the energies of the fifth floor better, reducing the possibility of this situation occurring once again.

So, you're telling me that I could end up doing this again if I'm not careful?

Indeed, offering level 5 advancement.

Congratulations!

The core has fulfilled the requirements to advance to level 5!

+1 floor limit

Added gross mana production to base production.

+500 mana storage

+1 level 5 perk choice

+1 focusing choice.

+1 level 5 monster choice*

+10 DP for leveling up.

+1 Boss Monster Option

*Requires choosing a perk and focus choice before being available.

I expected everything on that list to save the last, are you telling me that this dangerously video game of a world has honest-to-God (gods?) boss monsters?

Indeed.

These are unique monsters chosen from an existing blueprint owned by the dungeon and meant to act as a major barrier.

If I could make a genuine boss monster then couldn't I have eased up on the defenses, not that I regret it, but it would certainly help with planning.

It is not the system's job to regulate how dungeons construct their dungeons, simply that they do build dungeons.

Hmph, well in that case I'll just see what I got before going to sleep, I'll deal with the boss monster last.

Level 5 Perks

Every 5 levels a perk may be bought equal to the level. If it only exists at that level or higher, then it will not be upgraded.

Metal Garden 5: Creates an internal mechano-biosphere, accompanied by both dangerous and non-dangerous flora and fauna.

Lavished Engineering 5: Creates significantly higher quality machine-type monsters, increasing costs by 200%.

Blasphemous Engineering: Enables access to [Sin] type machine options in the future. [Sin] is a unique variant of celestial energy when non-divine entities encroach upon divinity or slight one significantly.

Alright, pulling out the 'the fucks' and 'holy hells' might be too soon, but I'm fairly certain something along those lines would be warranted. But instead, I'm going to see what's next before my internal yelling becomes external.

Focusing 5

Mechanical Focus 5: Greatly increase the frequency and rarity of mechanical options in the future.

Biological Focus 5: Greatly increase the frequency and rarity of biological options in the future.

Draconic Focus: Improves the chance of draconic options in the future.

Eh alright, pretty good I'd say.

I'm questioning the wisdom of [sin] but if I decided to go full 'kill the gods' I suppose that would be a good(?) place to start. As for the other two though, they have their ups and downs, metal garden 5 increased the 'naturalness' of my dungeon even if those 'plants' are just another kind of machine, while lavish increased machine monster quality at a higher price. Long-term, the garden would increase the value proposition per floor so when Arthur and I got around to actually making good on both our ends of the deal, whereas lavish engineering would dramatically increase the price for better monsters.

As for [sin] though, a quick snoop around tells me that in an overall way [sin] is the direct violation of divinity, a rather poorly explained thing by the system, with it as far as I understood being somewhere between willful disrespect and any direct attempt at forcing divine energy to do something, and that normally [sin] is automatic in regular people but as a dungeon I am expected to interact with divine power at some point. In the context of [blasphemous engineering] however, [sin] allows me to create 'anti-supernatural' monsters and stuff, with [sin] derived stuff dismantling and disabling magic that isn't supposed to be there, i.e. spells, enchantments, magic potions, and the like. The system did warn me though, to use a metaphor I came up with, if the cosmic forces of the universe were part of a neighborhood, celestials, and infernals are feuding neighbors, but they aren't enemies, not truly, they wouldn't go into each other's homes and shoot them point blank, but they would dump their cut grass on each other's lawns, maybe punch each other. But then comes along [sin], destroying public and private property, killing people in their homes, and generally breaking the law. Where infernals are corruptive, [sin] is destructive, where divine celestials are enriching, [sin] is despoiling, which in practice makes it dangerously powerful and dangerously hated. That is what [sin] is to the system, a malicious force that can dismantle things irreverent to the divine cosmology.

So, it was safe to say that I was very hesitant to even consider the option once I got a better picture of it because part of me felt like taking that would be an escalation I couldn't survive, assuming I even wanted to. But it was still a valid option, just one that would set me against the world, at least most of it if religion is as big here as it was back on Earth during the relatively same period.

Hm

Let's put a pin in that for now, some distraction should help.

Tell me how a boss monster works.

A 'boss' monster is created using an existing blueprint owned by the dungeon, they will be improved massively and be given special equipment that coincides with the dungeon's theme and focus. They will create a unique room that will have special rules that affect both the core and intruders.

Would you like to see currently available options?

Sure, worst case I just put off the choice until I decide on my 5th-level monster after the focus and perks.

The screen that came up was actually massive despite only having a handful of monsters. It had a version of every monster I currently owned, I could even recreate the greeble king and prince if I wanted to, thought I'd need some serious convincing to go with that. To be honest, I was seeing how this could get out of hand, how did the bigger, older, dungeons handle themselves?

Other dungeons do not require such aid as they operate similarly to machines until they obtain awareness, making their daily processes more instinctual.

Wish I could do that, I think.

Still, I'd need to make sure to keep track of future acquisitions to keep myself from forgetting.

Looking over the list one more time, each option was valid, but some were clearly better than others, for the most part. My level-one monsters like the clockworkers, spiders, or the golems would simply become bigger, better versions of themselves, the clockworker became a massive immobile mech that handled larger, more complex parts and pieces of metal, while the spiders became a duo of massive, armored spiders, that could masterfully manipulate and control well-crafted and scary suits or armor. That was to say nothing of the other dozen monsters I had available to me, but those were just the start.

With the defenses I had up right now could hold off most things, which could give me the leeway I needed to make less, murder-y, floors. Perhaps a floor that excited a sense of awe in people, or that would make people more appreciative of me. But that didn't apply to the boss, above all else they were meant to be my top killers. Logically it would probably be better to choose one of my innately powerful monsters, perhaps one of the special ones I had tucked away, both Astarion and Pandora were still available, and the brain monster was on the available list, it wouldn't be full power, but it would be better than if I made it as a regular monster. Of course, I could stick with the ones I've come to rely on the most, a ratkin or canid boss would probably be thematically more appropriate even if my kobolds were physically more powerful.

Thinking about it though, it's a choice better left once I got the perk and focus out of the way, and by that point, I might as well just take my level 5 monster while I was at it, it could be the perfect answer to the choice. But that left the question, what perk and focus would I go with this time?