Chapter 470: Dungeon Dreams

The next morning was a painful experience for anyone without high fortitude or poison resistance, as the celebrations had clearly gone a bit too wild. I was, of course, not affected in the slightest, and so I made my preparations to leave after checking that everyone was fine with staying for a few days at a minimum.

Most of them were too hungover to really respond, but it was clear that they weren't chomping at the bit to head back, so it was just Keldenar and Vee coming with me. Keldenar was entirely unaffected, which he actually seemed a little upset by, most likely due to his recently acquired legendary poison resistance after our "misunderstanding."

After we arrived in Keld, he vaguely asked what I had planned for my next steps. Obviously, I wanted to get back and see what this [Dungeon Master] tutorial thing was, but I didn't want to reveal that surprise just yet. I also had plenty of studying to do on [Dimensional Praxis] and creating enchantments with it, which I had promised to do and figured I'd have plenty of time for once my slime dungeon was up and running.

Needless to say, Keldenar was happy that I was finally going to be doing some research and not running around conquering labyrinths back to back, and even agreed to my request for more enchanting blueprints. I told him he could contact me anytime through Sylvester or Sylthaeryn if he needed me, and with that, I took Vee on our bit of a teleporting tour before returning to Tanglebay.

I had already told Vee that my application was approved after saving Leon, so she knew I was eager to see what it was all about. She waved as she went to see how the island was performing during our brief absence and to catch up with Sylbera.

I moved to an uninhabited corner of the island and finally took out the dungeon CUBE, poked it, and saw what it could offer me now. Almost immediately, it displayed a menu with several options: establish a dungeon, scan for suitable locations, check my point balance, absorb ambient essence, and the previously mentioned tutorial. With bubbling excitement, I selected the final option.

<Are you sure you wish to begin the tutorial? You will be taken to a specially reserved space until completed.>

Yes!

The world went black, much like when I confirmed my evolution and went to see Gramps, but this void felt far less oppressive, leaving me with a weird, almost confident sensation.

<Hello. I am System Assistant 125, and I will be guiding you through the dungeon tutorial.>

Ugh… I hate talking to messages. At least Gramps talked to me kind of face-to-face.

<Your complaint has been noted… But this is standard procedure, and nothing can be—hang on? [Experiment]? Extra privileges? Umm… Very well, I will try my best to accommodate you.>

A light began to form in the void and took the shape of a petite woman wearing a pastel pink aristocratic ensemble, complete with pale white gloves. She wore a small, tilted hat; a fitted, pinstriped, long-sleeved jacket with a high neck made of ruffled lace frills; and a voluminous, layered pink skirt with gathered fabric. She had blonde hair and pink eyes, and her face was quite angular, if I had to describe it.

"Hello again," she said politely. "As I said before, I'm System Assistant One-Twenty-Five, and I'm here to help you with your tutorial."

"Do you not have another name? Calling you one twenty-five is a bit annoying."

The woman sighed, her dignified mask cracking as annoyance showed. "I swear it's always something with these monster types… Just once I would like a normal assignment," she grumbled under her breath before coughing and quickly reapplying her facade. "Very well, you can call me Abby."

"Great, nice to meet you, Abby. I'm Syl. I've been looking forward to this [Dungeon Master] thing for quite some time. I'm hoping to make a slime dungeon, so let's get started!"

"A… Slime dungeon? Why the heck would you want something as disgusting as slimes?"

"Hey, I am a slime!"

"You are…? Shit, what the hell have I signed up for? I thought you were something else, assuming a human, well, an elf form, but you're a fricken slime!"

"To be exact, I'm a Prismatic Chimeric Cluster Slime, and this is just my social form."

"Well, that's not the longest species name I've seen, at least," Abby sighed, rubbing her temples. "Okay. Whatever. You're a slime; I've certainly seen weirder things… Shall we move on?"

I nodded.

"Okay, the first step is to build a room. You can construct a basic room with ten dungeon points."

"What if I use outside materials? Or an existing structure?"

"Then it costs a single point to assign that to your dungeon," Abby answered. "If you happen to find a nice cave you want to take over, I'd recommend it. But, for this tutorial, we will be going through the standard process."

"Can we not? I really don't want to waste nine points."

"Don't worry, the points spent in the tutorial are all just for demonstration purposes and won't affect your actual total."

Free points!? Now we're talking!

I nodded and rubbed my hands together, getting quite excited to see the process. Abby instructed me to open the dungeon menu, which could apparently only be accessed while I was inside my dungeon space, and it opened an entirely new system interface. Most of the other options were grayed out and unreadable, with the only functioning one being room creation.

"As the tutorial progresses, more will be unlocked, but some of the features are restricted to higher privilege ranks. The more Dungeon Points you earn, the higher rank you'll get."

"Does spending them lower my rank?"

Abby shook her head. "It's your cumulative total points. Anyway, just create a basic room for now and watch the magic happen."

I selected room creation and watched as more options became available. I could use premade room blueprints, input my own measurements, or even freehand draw it in the environment, which, when I did, changed my vision almost like [Spatial Sense], as the entire world became grids.

I wonder if I could unlock another sense? Get to work on studying this, [Sub-Cores]!

This was another big difference between this space and Gramps: I was actually here in person, not just mentally. Meaning I presumably had access to all of my abilities, and wasn't just a helpless soul strapped to a chair. I could even sense my connection to Nu, which surprised me, since I couldn't feel my other networks. However, that wasn't enough to cause me to panic, as even though I couldn't feel them, the network slots I had available were still taken, meaning they should be fine, just unreachable for me.

Hmm… I wonder if I could get the coordinates for this place? Let's see if Nu and [Coordicore] can work on that.

"Hey, why are you taking so long? Just select a square room and let's move on," Abby said, tapping her foot.

I silently apologized and selected a basic square room. I watched ten points drain from my tutorial balance, and the CUBE spat out dungeon bricks that rapidly built the predefined room. In basically no time at all, it was done, and Abby wanted to move on to the next step.

"You can then spend a bit of points and whatnot decorating it; it's all very cheap but can help really set the tone."

"Can I bring in existing items?"

"You can, but they won't respawn when you reset the dungeon. So you'd be burning money when the adventurers decide to break your fancy chairs."

"Oh, that shouldn't be an issue," I said, smiling as I pulled out a bunch of slime mass.

From Abby's perspective, I just vomited up a chunk of slime, and she was visibly disgusted at the sight, but I took control of it and began ordering it around the room. In no time, it was fully furnished, the slime taking the shape of all sorts of furniture and decorations. Abby watched the whole thing happen with her eyes bulging in shock.

"Slimes shouldn't be able to do that…"

"I'm not an ordinary slime."

"I can see that… Isn't this hard to maintain? Are you really so cheap that you don't want to buy a basic furniture set?"

"I mean, when it comes to money, I just let others spend it for me," I answered honestly. "I actually have more than I know what to do with. I could probably bankrupt a kingdom if I wanted. But points are different. They are frustratingly hard to earn, and before you know it you've spent a bunch to uncap a trait, or got suckered into gambling them while chasing an upgrade."

Abby looked like she desperately wanted to complain but ultimately gave up. "Okay. Make your weird slime furniture, whatever… Anyway, dungeon visuals can matter a lot and let you earn more passive income from your guests. If you have a consistent theme, these bonuses can stack together, and you'll receive further benefits or discounts."

"So my slime furniture should make spawning slimes cheaper?"

"I don't know how to answer that… Maybe?"

"Can I not just try to spawn a slime?"

"No. There are no slimes in this tutorial," Abby refused.

I shrugged, though I couldn't help wondering how she would react if she knew my plan to make not only the furniture out of slime, but the entire dungeon too. Then the minions would also be slime, and I'd hoard all my points to buy a gold slime to eat. Of course, this assumed nothing would stop me, but at the moment it seemed unlikely.

"Okay, now let's try spawning your first group of monsters," Abby said.

A new menu option became available, and I quickly selected it. It looked like an extremely long list, though most of it was grayed out, with a box where Abby said I could enter a name and search for what I was looking for. She also explained that the more I knew about monsters, the more options I would have, and that this was another way to progress my dungeon without relying solely on accumulating total points.

"Oh! I have like hundreds of profiles from [Consuming Osmosis]. I wonder if those will count?"

"Hundreds!?"

"Well, I might be exaggerating, but it's a lot. I've eaten sooooo many monsters since becoming a slime."

"Great, just great… Another monster of gluttony," Abby groaned.

"No, I specifically avoided that evolution."

"But it was an option!?"

"Yes, but I didn't take it," I said proudly. "Besides, you should see my friend Vee; she eats way more than I do. She even has two dimensional stomachs."

"I'd really rather not. Next you'll be asking me to call you Princess Syl."

"No!"

Abby jumped in surprise, clearly not expecting my sudden refusal.

"Umm… Okay. Good, I'm glad we're in agreement there," she chuckled.

I nodded and returned to the menu. It seemed that for this tutorial I was being extremely restricted, and my only current option was orcs. I sighed and selected it, which opened up another whole suite of configurations and parameters. It was honestly quite overwhelming, but Abby pointed out that I could use default templates if I didn't want to get into the nitty-gritty details.

I ended up selecting just a basic orc warrior, and from there I could position where they would spawn in the room. In addition, depending on the monster, they could be spawned as a group and even received a discount for doing so. Abby went on to explain that the initial big cost is for the spawn point, and everything else was like optional additions.

"Rather upgrade a spawn point than create a new one whenever possible. Especially for a point miser like yourself."

"Thanks for the tip," I said and finalized it.

The dungeon CUBE flashed, and right where I had set the spawn point, a trio of orc warriors appeared; however, I immediately noticed that there was something odd about them. I had faced orcs before, and they were rather hideous, but these weren't, and I'd even go so far as to describe them as unusually handsome!

The trio had the iconic green skin and tusks protruding from their mouths, but their orcish characteristics ended there. They were wearing only pants and had bulging muscles, with a physique that seemed sculpted from stone. Not only that, but they had long, flowing hair that moved despite there being literally no wind here! To top it all off, the trio were posing, giving them a strangely menacing aura I couldn't quite understand.

"Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!" Abby said, clapping her hands.

"What the hell is wrong with these orcs!?" I said, pointing at them.

"What do you mean? These orcs are perfect!" Abby insisted.

"I've fought orcs before, and none of them looked like this. Did you do something to them?"

Abby gasped in feigned outrage. "I have no idea what you mean. These are clearly just perfect specimens that the system arranged for this tutorial."

"Are you drooling?"

Abby wiped her mouth. "A lady never drools."

I found this system assistant extremely suspicious, but if this was her way of having a bit of fun, I'd let her have it. However, I made a mental note to never spawn any orcs in my official dungeon.