Little Lost Dungeon

[Happerry]

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[X] Scry what is up with her mana. (2 Mana.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

Talking and learning sounds good to me.

 

[Latewave]

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[X] Scry what is up with her mana. (2 Mana.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

 

[Candesce]

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.) x2
[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

 

[Gaemnomut]

You could imagine it now already.

Some delver would look inside, see the shiny [ Empty Wallet ], and go "Ah hah! A value crafting material. I am wary of this powerful and beautiful dungeon so I will gather a large group of others to help me explore. Low level of course so that none of them can force them me to give up the value [ Empty Wallet ] beyond their share."

And then there'd be delvers coming.

And you'd be getting EXP and remains and patterns.

And you'd be known as a Valuable Dunegon and it would be great!

Click to shrink...

nice, we are so smart.

...you didn't feel so happy any more.

Click to shrink...

Oh.

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.) x2
[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

Plan Bii sounds good as well, but I kinda want to take it slow here. This demands a gentle approach. I hope that by removing one of her status effects we can at least delay her death, and finding out about her status lets us plan for our next encounter with her.
Also, Dungeon Lure doesn't work on those that know we are a dungeon, so if we don't out ourselves as anything other than a completely normal storage room for empty wallets we can probably call her back again soon.

 

[shade argost]

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

 

[Anaja]

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

 

[1986ctcel]

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[X] Scry what is up with her mana. (2 Mana.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

 

[Xicree]

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[X] Scry what is up with her mana. (2 Mana.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

 

[shaderic]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[NoFunposter]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[Seventeen]

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.) x2
[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

 

[macdjord]

[X] Plan Bii

Go Plan Fluffytail!

 

[LordPanther14]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[moon so bright]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[Anon̦̦]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[Merior]

Spoiler: Tally Results

Vote Tally : Little Lost Dungeon | Page 3 | Questionable Questing
##### NetTally 1.7.10.1

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[X] Scry what is up with her mana. (2 Mana.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
No. of Votes: 11

Spoiler: Voters

Plan: ◈Bii
1986ctcel
Anon̦̦
Biigoh
Happerry
Latewave
LordPanther14
macdjord
moon so bright
NoFunposter
shaderic
Xicree

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.) x2
[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
No. of Votes: 4

Spoiler: Voters

shanagan
Candesce
Gaemnomut
Seventeen

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
No. of Votes: 3

Spoiler: Voters

Aleh
Alexander
shade argost

[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry what is the matter with her class. (2 Mana.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

Aoinfinity

[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.) x2
[X] Give her a class. (2 EXP.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

prandom

[x] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[x] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[x] Give her a class. (2 EXP.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

DIT_grue

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

Anaja

Total No. of Voters: 22

Spoiler: Rolls

[X] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)

Rolled 92 vs [30+1 LVL +1 SKILL +0 Challenging] = Failure (6)​

[X] Scry what is up with her mana. (2 Mana.)

Rolled 22 vs [30+1 LVL +1 SKILL +0 Challenging] = CRITICAL SUCCESS (0)​

[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

Rolled 19 vs [30+1 LVL -10 Difficult] = Success (0) ​

Spoiler: Notes

Sorry about the delay with things. The update is partially done and I'm just having issues with the start of the conversation between Etsuko and our lovely shiny Core. I should be done by tomorrow evening though.

In the rolls the failure is bad enough to give some minor issues with similar actions, the success is what allows the conversation, and the CRITICAL SUCCESS is opening up options.

 

[Merior]

Spoiler

[X] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[X] Scry what is up with her mana. (2 Mana.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

oOo​

You... you were a good Core, you were sure of that.

You might not have paid as much attention to the blue boxes as you should. And you did skip the tutorial which you probably should have gone through despite how boring it had been. And you hadn't made a proper monster yet for your first delver to fight...

Anyway, you were sure that you were trying to be a good Core?

You were definitely one who didn't deserve to have your thoughts hurting.

Owie...

Okay, this might have been sort of your fault. [ Least Scrying ] was a skill and tried to do what it you told it to. Which meant that when you sort of asked it the wrong question then the dumb thing just had to go and dump so much weird stuff into your mind in reply.

The dumb thing should have known that the proper response to "Tell me everything that is going on in Etsuko's head?" wasn't to suddenly bombard you with the current individual status of over a hundred billion neurons!

(Whatever a neuron was anyway. Probably something stupid.)

Even for a smart Core like you that had been a painfully large amount of information and it hadn't been packaged up in a convenient [Pattern]. After struggling for a few moments you ended up having to discard the entire mess without having actually examined, let alone understood, it.

You wanted a refund on those two points of mana!

Despite the vague throbbing somewhere on your facets you didn't dare leave your First Delver Ever! untended for too long. Taking a lot more care in the 'phrasing' you tossed another question at [ Least Scrying ], this time concerning the weird entry she had for mana, and this time the response made sense?

Well, a little more sense anyway.

Weird things which meant that someone's soul, and thus their mana, was isolated from their body might have been something covered in the tutorial but you somehow doubted it.

The condition didn't seem linked to the still concealed bits of Estusko's status, at least none of them had resolved when you'd found out about it, so you were guessing that it was something to do with the local type of Humans. Racial curses, or traits, didn't show up without a more in depth look (or so your instincts about it being beyond [ Least Scrying ] said).

Thinking about it really, really, really hard something popped up out of your racial memories as a Core. It might not be a racial thing at all: it might be a [ World Rule ].

That would be... bad.

For you and Etsuko and maybe this world at large.

The idea of delvers tossing around spells, pulling off special moves, and generally using mana inside of your dungeon didn't just seem totally cool but generally as a Good Thing. The idea of there being a [ World Rule ], something about the laws of the reality you'd connected to, which meant that nothing local would have developed the capacity to use mana at all?

That felt bad and made you feel all growly and empty in your [ Inventory ].

Trying to cheer up you reminded yourself that at least nothing got in the way of mana. The fact that you could scry without problems, absorb local things, and even just open an entrance showed that.

In fact, now that you thought about it, it did seem like you could probably fix this. A Core could do an awful lot in their dungeon and it wasn't that Estusko didn't have a soul. It just didn't know how to make with the mana and stuff.

Maybe if you reached out and found a way that humans used mana you could just... nudge it into her? The idea of teaching her how to use mana like you did, like a Core ,brought to mind a series of images that were really icky.

You wanted her to be a delver, not a way of colouring the walls. You could make your walls turn red/brown yourself already if you wanted that!

It occurred to you that poking about in someone's soul without even asking would be sort of rude. Thus, obviously, you just had to let her know first and she'd say yes and then she'd be using mana and it'd be all fine...

There was just one problem: you sort of couldn't speak.

Or could you?

Bracing yourself you mentally pushed at whatever was blocking you from affecting your [ Room ] while Estusko was in it. It resisted, feeling more solid than a steel wall (Oh! Steel walls which slide around would be an even better maze!), and slowly you adjusted what you were thinking while exerting increasing 'pressure'.

"Of course, I'm just going to.... not change anything."

Yeah, that was a bit better...

"I was wasn't going to altert things at all."

Nope, not cheating at all here.

Maybe not focusing on changing?

"I just want to talk taunt with the delver a little.

To provoke her.

Right?"

Whatever force had been blocking you suddenly gave away, some of your precious EXP vanishing to provide the opening, and you suddenly new that you had a voice!

"Hello there, cute human..." You began then nervously babbled as you realised that wasn't the sort of thing that a powerful dungeon should say. "I mean... Uh, let me try that again."

Etsuko had looked up when you had started to speak, confusion on her face, but had just stayed where she was sitting hugging her legs to herself. There was traces of liquid at her eyes, more than you were sure a human should have, and some of it was trickling down her face.

When you didn't immediately say anything more, still thinking about the best approach, she did this weird choking sigh thing (She wasn't going to drown on those liquids, was she?!) and put her head back down on her knees.

"Great," She murmured softly, "I'm now hearing voices on top of everything el-"

"GREETINGS, DELVER!" You announced in your deepest boomiest voice, some of the random cosmetic junk in the Furniture Maze stirring due to the sheer volume. "WELCOME TO THE GREAT AND POWERFUL DUNGEON!"

Etsuko certainly found it goodly scary judging by how she suddenly put her hands over her ears.

Since you'd made such a good started to decided to go on.

"I AM A GREAT AND POWERFUL DUNGEON." You repeated, just in case she had forgotten it in the few seconds since you had last spoke.

It was weird though. Etsuko didn't react as you had thought and just stayed where she was, looking confused. She had stopped crying th-

Oh!

Inspiration stuck as to what the problem was. Etsuko was a new delver! She'd probably never been to a dungeon before and if she'd been the sort to be a scholar she'd not know what to do.

"FEAR ME!" You told her then helpfully tried to prompt the correct response, "GRR?! RARRR!"

...at least she wasn't crying again? You weren't sure if a giggle was any better, but you liked the giggle better than the way her face changed colour and went all white.

"Um, you shouldn't be here." Etsuko said, sounding kind of nervous. Or was that worried? "I'm not sure what trick you're doing with a microphone or something, but you really shouldn't be playing here. Why don't you go find your teacher?"

Concern. That was the emotion she had. Concern for you.

You didn't have a teacher, you'd wandered out of the tutorial, and now your first delver was all worried and nice at you even though she thought that she was going to die and…

"I'm lost!" You admitted, giving up on the scary voice. You were a brave and powerful dungeon Core so there was definitely not a wobble in your voice. "I- I didn't mean to, I just was bored, and wasn't paying attention..."

Your voice had gotten quieter and quiet as you'd continued until it was really tiny as you finished,"...and then I got really lost and can't get back."

Etsuko took a deep breath then stood up. There was something different about her now than before, a certain gleam in her eyes and strength to her posture which she had lacked before.

"Where are you?" She asked, her voice calm and gentle yet strong. "I'll get you safe before I have t-to do a few things. Just tell me where you are?"

Despite the slight stutter over her words at one point (in her status [ Moribund ] still stood out, telling you what she really meant) Etsuko sounded confident. Determined. You'd say like a Hero, but she was being nice to you rather than nasty as one of them would be.

It suddenly clicked as to what she sounded like.

Not a hero at all. She was being strong despite her level and she obviously wanted you to be safe so there was only one thing that she could be talking like:

Etsuko was talking like she was a [ Boss ].

You'd never seen anything like it in all your life and It was so so cool!

"I'm in the maze." You told her, saying that much going against every instinct you had.

"What ma-" Etsuko broke off as she seemed to actually notice the room around her for the first time. "This shouldn't be this big?!"

You hoped that the look on her face was awe. You really liked the idea of Etsuko being awed by your awesome first room (you hadn't even needed a full floor to get that sort of reaction!). As first delvers went you were sure no Core ever had one as cool and great as Etsuko and she didn't deserve to die from whatever it was she was so sure of.

It wasn't you, you had worked out that much, and so whatever it was wouldn't get to get your Etsuko.

So there whatever had gotten your Etsuko like this.

Nananana.

Nana!

"I'm in the middle of the maze and can't get out." You told her, fighting against how weird it felt just to tell her that much. "Come and find me!"

"What do you mean?" She called, looking around in confusion, but you had started to turn your attention elsewhere.

Fiddling with her [ Status ], and those nasty question mark things, felt like something which would be really hard and stretch you in a weird way. That was probably because she wasn't part of your dungeon or domain. Poking about in the back of your mind, and checking a few blue boxes which popped up, had shown you that there was another easier option.

A delver was supposed to get a reward, an empowerment or something, for beating a dungeon if they didn't do anything to the Core. And Etsuko was so cool and nice that you were sure she'd leave you alone so then you'd get to do something which would help her.

Or, and you suddenly felt a spike a glee even as you watched her start to make her way through the narrow passages of your maze, there was something else you could do.

After all you'd already noticed how Etsuko had sounded like a [ Boss ]...

oOo​

Etsuko is being a good delver and trying to solve your maze!
Do you want to keep talking to her as you do?

[ ] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[ ] No. (Grants Etsuko a bonus to solving the maze in time.)

When Etsuko reaches the center you can try to do something "nice" for her!
(Pick as many as you wish and can afford. Rolls will be involved for success.)

[ ] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[ ] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[ ] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[ ] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
[ ] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)
[ ] Sort out her mana. (5 Mana. Incompatible with "Open the Door". Requires Upgrade her class.)
[ ] Spawn a piece of Boss loot. (20 Mana. Penalty due to limited loot [Patterns]. May grant pattern.)

 

[Merior]

STATUS <UNNAMED DUNGEON CORE> LVL 1 (3 EXP) HEALTH 75 (100) MANA 26 (30) [ Invaded], [ Newborn ], [ Undungeoned ]

TRAITS [ Blissful Ignorance ] [ Dimensional Affinity ] [ Race : Dungeon Core ] [ Wandering Door ]

SKILLS [ Core Restoration ] [ Dungeon Lure ] Least Scrying (LVL 2; 2 XP)

INVENTORY [ Institutional Utility Area ] [ Row of Lockers ] [ School Bookshelves] [ Teacher's Desk ] [ Wooden School Desks ] [ Dollar Bill ] (Feeble) [ Empty Wallet ] (Feeble) [ Wallet ] (Poor) [ Full Neural Mapping (Etsuko Ableson) ]

FLOOR ONE [ Inactive ] [ Invaded] Furniture Maze - [ Institutional Utility Area ]

 

[Anaja]

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)

[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)

This seems like a good bunch.

 

[Candesce]

I think we've got 21 mana at the moment?

- Oh, wait. We've got 26. Not bad.

That's enough for the full heal + status cure, and still give one of the 20 mana options.

That said, I'm more with the following. Not sure I want to offer boss contracts yet, but Etsuko's probably a good choice, given her responses so far.

[] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)

[x] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[x] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[x] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[x] Sort out her mana. (5 Mana. Incompatible with "Open the Door". Requires Upgrade her class.)

 

[LordPanther14]

[X] No. (Grants Etsuko a bonus to solving the maze in time.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)

 

[Robotninja]

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)

[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)

 

[macdjord]

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)

[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)

 

[Merior]

think we've got 21 mana at the moment?

- Oh, wait. We've got 26. Not bad.

Click to shrink...

I'll quickly confirm that isn't an error on my part. If the Core wasn't preoccupied with things then the gain might have been noticed IC.

 

[Candesce]

[ ] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)

Click to shrink...

Question about this one.

As far as we know, can Bosses leave the dungeon?

 

[Latewave]

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Sort out her mana. (5 Mana. Incompatible with "Open the Door". Requires Upgrade her class.)
​

 

[Merior]

Question about this one.

As far as we know, can Bosses leave the dungeon?

Click to shrink...

The Core honestly doesn't know.

It's not like there's been a [Boss] in the dungeon before. However the Core does know that being made one is a special form of status effect and about the 'respawning'.

Oh, and that a boss is powerful and cool.

 

[Candesce]

However the Core does know that being made one is a special form of status effect and about the 'respawning'.

Click to shrink...

And the respawning might be pretty critical in the not-too-distant future, yeah.

Hrm.

And Etsuko needs to roll successfully to make it through the maze in time, and we don't know how hard a roll that is for her.

I think I'm going to go with No Boss offer / No talking while she goes through the maze, to give her better odds of making it through in time.

But talking to her / Boss offer is certainly an attractive option.

[x] No. (Grants Etsuko a bonus to solving the maze in time.)

[x] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[x] Full heal. (5 Mana.)

 

[Biigoh]

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
[X] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)

Let's do more social fu! Because Dungeon Cores have bosses and minions, right? Right? :3

Also, I'm going to try for the gacha! Lord Gacha is kind and merciful... his benevolence is known far and wide!

Also, Core is best core... prettiest and shinest! Also, cutest!

 

[Seventeen]

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Sort out her mana. (5 Mana. Incompatible with "Open the Door". Requires Upgrade her class.)