Chapter 47 Going Nuclear (Patreon)

                         The dungeon watched Ernest and the other babies grow up with a lot of apprehension. Whenever the babeis laughed, cried, or did anything, the dungeon felt no emotional response. The dungeon could remember in its past life that babies ran him through a minefield of emotions, as he was made an uncle when he was just in his teens. As he watched these babies grow as months passed, the dungeon grew more and more concerned that he would become an uncontrollable monster, and he really began considering how to protect those under his care to whom he felt no emotional attachment.

                         As the dungeon pondered his emotions, he was not idle. In fact the only thing that really seemed to help the dungeon was attempting to quench his thirst for knowledge. As far as the dungeon was concerned, the greatest essence beast it could make with dual earth and wind cores was the ghillie dragon, so the dungeon was focused on making an electric core as the dungeon knew some tricks with electricity that would allow him to make devastating weapons to work with an electric core essence creature.

                         That said, making an electric core was going slowly. No matter what the dungeon did, the dungeon was unable to create an electric core. Part of the issue was that the dungeon was unsure what an electric core was supposed to look like, as the mages wanted him to figure it out on his own, albeit their servant, the imp, called it a lightning core. They hoped the dungeon figured out a new and novel way of making the core.

                         Since the dungeon was having serious issues figuring out how to make an electric core, the dungeon decided to split its time between experimenting with electric cores and giving the labyrinth an electrical system. Thanks to the BAFS, the dungeon had enough copper to make a generator and enough uranium, specifically uranium 235, to start a nuclear chain reaction which would produce plenty of heat and radiation.

                         The dungeon had a lot of work ahead of him to build the reactor. First of all, he had to make all the plumbing for his nuclear power plant, alongside clearing out spots for fuel rods, control rods, turbines and electric generating motors. The plumbing would be somewhat complicated as it needed to bring water to hot nuclear fuel rods to cool the fuel rods and make steam. Then, he needed more plumbing to take steam to the electric motors to produce electricity. On top of that, he needed a place to vent excess steam and another place to store water to pump into the nuclear reactor.

                          Once the dungeon made the first round of plumbing, he made an electric motor for his nuclear power plant. To do that, he had to turn his copper into wire and then coil it tightly. Then, he had to make magnets. Fortunately for the dungeon, he wasn’t limited to basic iron magnets, as rare earth metals needed to make magnets very powerful are not exactly rare; they can be found in any patch of dirt, it's just that they are known as rare earth metals because they are not very concentrated. With the dungeon’s ability to absorb any non-living thing in his area of influence by filling it with essence before moving it into his core, the dungeon easily found plenty of rare earth metals. After a few days of experimentation, he was able to dramatically increase the strength of the magnets he made for his electric motors.

                         Once the electrical motor was finished, he made a turbine and connected it to the electrical motor. The turbine was much simpler to make, so the dungeon did not spend too much time on it. The dungeon figured that if it needed to adjust the turbine it would not be difficult.

                         From there, the dungeon began working on the pressure chamber for the nuclear power plant. This was where the fuel rods and control rods would go. That pressure chamber would be where the dungeon core was. The dungeon could not imagine anything safer than being protected by nuclear radiation, and the dungeon hoped that the radiation would kill the imp.... but if it didn’t, then the imp couldn’t exactly say the dungeon was trying to kill it.

                         The pressure chamber consisted of making all the walls of the room ten foot thick concrete, just so that the radiation did not leak out, albeit there were entrances into the room via plumbing. Then, the dungeon filled the room with water, although the dungeon was careful to make sure that the water didn’t get close to touching its core. The core was on the center of a carbon fiber pillar in the pressurized chamber room. The pillar was on a twenty-foot diameter island, and surrounding the island was a ten-foot deep pool that extended the room another ten feet on each side of the island.

                         During the construction of the room, the imp asked the dungeon, “What are you doing?”

                         “I am trying to make lightning.”

                         “With a pond?”

                         “Yes. Although the pond is just one part of the entire system.”

                         “Elaborate.”

                         “Are you familiar with the concept of steam?”

                         “Yes. Anyone who has ever boiled water is familiar with the concept of steam.”

                         “On my world, they know how to take a rock and make it so that the rock gets very, very hot. Albeit, the rock must go through a special process to do so. Once the rock has gone through this process it is able to become very hot, that’s when they put it in water to make steam. The steam pushes some mechanisms that then produce lightning.”

                         “I am familiar with steam mechaniss, as steam warriors use steam to power mechanisms in their armor which gives them strength that they would not otherwise have. I am not familiar with mechanisms that make lightning.”

                         “Are you opposed to mechanisms that make lightning?”

                         “No. Such things are exactly why mages pull souls from other worlds. I am sure that if this is an unknown concept that when the mages come, they will be excited to learn about it. I was just curious as to why you are making this mechanism in your core room.”

                         “More and more warriors are making their way through my labyrinth. I am making this room to protect my core just in case they decide they want to take me.”

                         The imp chuckled and said, “They would have to get through me first.”

                         “And if a mage decided to come here?”

                         “All mages are able to protect themselves from heat, so it won't slow them down all that much.”

                         “Are you afraid that the steam will hurt you?”

                         “No. Steam is incapable of harming me.”

                         “Then I guess there is no problem.”

                         “No, there is no problem. I am curious, though, why are you trying to make lightning?”

                         “Many years ago, you made it very clear that I had to touch my element or lose my power. In contrast, you said that if I had lightning coming through me, then it would empower me.”

                         “That is true. Continue what you are doing. If you succeed, then the mages may find your work interesting.”

                         The dungeon did just that. Once the pressurization room was complete, the dungeon moved on to other important tasks. He had to make electric motors to run off the electricity produced from the nuclear reactor. If electricity is made with nowhere to deliver the electricity, then the electrical system will just overheat and melt. That said, the dungeon had plenty of things to build. First of all were the pumps to keep the water in the pressurized room topped off. Then, the dungeon also needed conventional compressors. Despite already having the BAFS, the dungeon could easily scale up an electric compressor in a way he could not scale up a biological compressor. Furthermore the dungeon wanted to create a workshop filled with oversized power tools, as the dungeon wanted his humans to learn to work with power tools.

                         The reality was that the dungeon needed his humans to get comfortable with electrical systems because he needed their help in figuring out how to make computers and computer language. The dungeon had long-term plans, and they required computers. If the dungeon needed to make light bulbs and vacuum tubes before he could make integrated circuits and computer chips, then so be it. If it took a thousand years, that was fine, but the dungeon had an end goal, and computer chips would provide him with what he needed. Power tools were just the first part of teaching humans to tinker.

                         With that in mind, the dungeon made a direct current electrical system throughout the labyrinth. The top of the labyrinth was turned into a compressor factory. Inside the bulb that the humans were living in, the dungeon built two rooms. One was a workshop with electric power tools, including an electric loom, and the other was an electrical kitchen. The dungeon did not allow humans to enter it at first because the dungeon needed to power up the reactor first and make sure everything worked. Although the dungeon was making what he thought were electrical systems, he was just remaking what he saw in books to the best of his ability. Unfortunately the best of the dungeon's ability included using carbon nanotubes to move electricity anywhere his electrical devices did not require copper, so the dungeon suspected he would have to make a lot of changes.

                         Once everything outside of the pressurization room was ready, including carbon nanotube wiring, the dungeon began working on all the systems inside the pressurization room. This consisted of electrical arms to move both the fuel rods and control rods, pressure control valves, and water control valves. Each would be powered by electricity. In most circumstances, powering your nuclear reactor with electricity supplies by the nuclear reactor would be a bad idea, except that if the nuclear reactor did not produce power like the dungeon thought it would, then the dungeon could manually move any of the items around. The purpose of most of the systems the dungeon built was to run the nuclear reactor and the electrical equipment without the dungeon having to pay it any attention.

                         The last thing the dungeon made before making the fuel rods was the control rods. They were made from boron, element number five on the periodic table. The control rods had the ability to stop the chain reaction that caused the fuel rods to become hot, keeping them from melting. Boron was simple to find as most biological matter had boron on it.

                         With everything else finished the dungeon began forming his fuel rods in something called a fuel assembly. A fuel assembly was where a couple of hundred fuel rods were placed near each other to cause a chain reaction that produced a tremendous amount of heat and radiation. The dungeon chose the fuel rod reactor instead of the pebble reactor specifically because it produced more heat and radiation. In fact, if you were not careful, the fuel assembly could heat up to nearly three thousand degrees Fahrenheit and melt, which is where the term meltdown comes from. As the dungeon made the fuel rods, the dungeon had no choice but to make them next to the control rods so that their chain reaction could not start until the dungeon was ready. Since there was no power in the system yet, the dungeon also had to make the fuel rod assembly underwater in the pool next to the dungeon’s core so that the water would produce steam as soon as the dungeon removed the control rods.

                         Once the dungeon had completed everything, the dungeon absorbed the control rods back into itself and the fuel rods began to get hot. After about an hour, the pool began to steam. After three hours there was enough steam that the dungeon felt comfortable opening up the steam valve. The steam went up the plumbing at a high rate of speed and pressure and began turning the turbine, which began turning the electric generator, which began producing power. The first bits of electricity it produced went through the dungeon, and to the dungeon's surprise, as the electricity hit his core, it immediately began turning into essence.

                         It was very similar to how when a mana creature died in the dungeon’s area of influence, the dungeon got essence from it, and his area of influence was expanded. It just showed the dungeon that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, just turned from one form into another. Once electricity reached his core he was able to turn it into essence and grow larger, albeit very slowly. If the dungeon could have, he would have smiled; this would greatly aid in the dungeon’s long-term plan.

                         Before the dungeon could enjoy himself too much, the imp screeched, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” Then, the imp teleported outside of the pressurized room. The second he reappeared, the imp yelled out, “SOMEHOW YOU POISONED ME!”