“Look, I get that most people are still going to think I’m a girl, and that’s actually okay. I would prefer to be gendered as a male, but I’ve come to terms with it, and I’m not going to try to kill some adventurer just trying to do their job because they call me ‘she’ or ‘Lady Xander’ or something. But I swear to your gods, that if I’m insulted with names like ‘bitch’, ‘whore’, or even ‘asshole’, I will stop playing nice. The same goes for anyone who gets rapey instead of just trying to kill me.” He was going to continue on, but was surprised by the interruption of a system disk popping up.
Notice: Kell’Lor, the Arbiter, has heard your oath and accepted.
New Achievement: Oath to the Gods
You swore an oath to the gods, and one or more of them accepted your oath. The oath you swore will determine the boon granted. This achievement may also grant access to additional holy classes if the oath is upheld.
Reward: Affinity (Divinity + 10), Oath of Civility
Oath of Civility (Passive, Mandatory): Your ability scores and affinities are increased by 10% against those who insult or otherwise assault you in an unbecoming manner. You must seek appropriate recompense from them. Recompense may come in the form of apology, reparations, or death depending on the severity of the breach. Failure to seek recompense will break this Oath and inflict severe backlash on you.
Notice: You have received a mandatory passive, but have no passive slots available. Enhanced Traps (Passive) has been replaced by Oath of Civility (Passive, Mandatory).
Xander’s jaw dropped as he stared at the window, but then his eyes gleamed as he saw both Rheagan and Sibil’s eyes had also gone wide. “Well, I didn’t know that was a thing, but so be it.” he said, trying to hide his internal glee at finally getting something from the interfering busybody gods that he could get behind. “How did you guys know what just happened?”
Rheagan was the first to relax, with a light chuckle. “Well, it seems that you feel even more strongly about those conditions than I had thought. To answer your question, we received a notification as witnesses to your oath.” The nobleman leaned forward, hope in his eyes. “Are you perhaps willing to also swear to spare those who you can?” Xander opened his mouth to agree out of instinct more than anything, but then paused, and after some thought, shook his head.
“No, after what just happened, I am not willing to swear it, at least not to the gods or anything like that. I promise you personally that I’ll avoid killing wherever possible, but I want to live too, and having been in multiple battles I know that things rarely go as planned.”
Sibil was still staring at Xander, but it was with something more like awe. He looked over at her, and when she didn’t say anything, he made a motion for her to speak her mind. “It’s just… well… I kind of envy you.” the girl said a bit timidly. “You made that oath so easily, it took me years of dedication to make an oath with Jhakor and become his cleric. And the oath you made… I… understand what it’s like to be mistreated. It’s one of the reasons I devoted myself to Jhakor in the first place.”
“Well I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had to deal with something like that too,” Xander said, “But I didn’t even know you could make oaths like that. I’m just fed up with having to deal with it and wanted to make my position clear to you guys.”
“You have to have the attention of the gods first usually,” Sibil said “And while that is usually tough enough, you also have to mean it deeply.”
“Well, I definitely had the second part in spades.” Xander said, then snorted “And I suppose I already had their attention after the Den Mother fight.” Sibil blushed a bit at the reminder of those events, but Rheagan had a thoughtful expression on his face, and spoke up.
“Getting back to the topic at hand, I think there has to be a safer way for fights, for everyone. Would you agree to both sides conceding the fight when the 10% health warning window opens?” Xander considered it, but then frowned slightly as he remembered that his head had been cut off, effectively killing him in a single blow.
“Mmmm, perhaps, but how about the 25% warning window instead? I’m still a squishy mage and my traps can be pretty deadly too, meaning that there is a chance if we waited until 10% that it might be much harder to keep both sides alive.” Rheagan nodded at the suggestion, and Sibil clapped her hands together in delight. “Well good, that seems to be settled then!” she said enthusiastically, “And if you’re up for it, I’d like the Firestarters to make a real run at the dungeon sometime too!”
Xander chuckled “I didn’t peg you as the battle maniac type, and you guys would have to convince Ignaris to behave himself too.”
“Oh, Sibil is very aggressive when she wants to be,” Rheagan said, standing up, “But speaking of our third member, we really ought to go check on him and report back.” Xander nodded and stood up too, holding out his hand. The warrior smiled and took it, shaking with a firm grip. The fiery cleric, though, put on a begging pout and opened her arms. Xander rolled his eyes, but then chuckled and stepped in to hug her. It was still awkward for him, but it was kind of nice too. “Just don’t get used to this,” he mock scolded her.
—------------------------------------
After seeing his two friends and the still insensate Augustus off safely, Xander returned to the control room where he assumed that Mr. Sinclair would be waiting for him. He was not disappointed. The short treant had his arms crossed and was glaring at Xander “What in the name of the System did you think you were doing? We can’t just let people come into the dungeon without there being any real danger! The System will know and will drastically reduce any and all rewards whether its experience or treasure!”
Ignoring the outburst, Xander walked over to a chair that he had made a few days ago and lounged in it, still smiling from getting to talk with his friends and find a better way forward. Mr. Sinclair looked like he was about ready to explode, but he knew that the D.I.E. would maintain his self-control. When the roots began tapping out an impatient rhythm, Xander figured it was time to answer. “What I thought I was doing was saving lives,” he said quietly. “Both mine and theirs. You said yourself that if I get defeated too many times the System’s investment in the dungeon would be lost. And you also said that the whole point is to make everyone stronger. Adventurers can’t exactly be strong when they are dead.”
His advisor ground his bark like teeth together, still glaring. “I did, but I also explained that the energy from their deaths in the dungeon is what feeds you and makes you stronger. Which is more important. If they get killed elsewhere then that energy is lost, so it’s better to kill them here if that is to be their fate anyway.”
It was Xander’s turn to glare. “Too fucking bad.” he said firmly. “Maybe I’m weird, and there are risks to it, but this is the path that I’m choosing. I refuse to just murder people who are trying to protect their homes or get stronger. In fact, I don’t understand why you are so against this. Sure, it may be a little slower, but don’t you think that it will benefit both the adventurers and myself? If we all survive, we can battle it out more often and that should offset the ‘penalties’ for refraining from indiscriminate homicide.”
“No, it won’t,” Mr. Sinclair said angrily, but then visibly paused and collected himself. “It will slow down your advancement significantly, by up to half I calculate.” the treant said in a calmer voice. “Even if parties come to challenge you more often.”
“You would know better than I about experience gains, but tell me… how many Dungeon Lords get killed for good because they pissed off adventurers and heroes by killing them in job lots?”
The D.I.E. looked like he wanted to deny it, but eventually huffed, “Most of them.” he acknowledged begrudgingly. “But overall this strategy works, it has been proven to have a net benefit for millenia.”
Xander shook his head. “I still don’t care. It may be slower, but I bet this way is safer. If I don’t piss people off, maybe I won’t have to worry about some level 100 group coming in to crush me.”
“Oh, that is impossible anyway,” Mr. Sinclair said with a wave of one wooden hand, “There is a strict 30 level difference cap. Anyone more than thirty levels above a dungeon can’t even enter it to begin with. And you won’t usually catch anyone more than 15 levels higher than a dungeon bothering to try either since they won’t receive any experience at all, and their loot will be severely reduced as well.”
That was a bit of a surprise, but it made sense based on what the system was trying to accomplish. Punching down was too easy and didn’t make you stronger. But he shrugged “Still, a higher level party could crush me with ease enough times to end this whole little project. I didn’t even want to become a Dungeon Lord in the first place.”
“Well then you shouldn’t have muddled with magic you didn’t understand and bent the rules until they broke.” Mr. Sinclair said with a hint of sourness, but then held up a hand to forestall Xander’s inevitable rebuttal. “No, I apologize, that was out of line. And besides…” the treant gave a heavy sigh, “I’m here to assist you, not make all of your decisions for you. However, if we are going to be primarily non-lethal, we will have to make some changes. How would you like to proceed?”
Xander relaxed, and leaned back in the chair, absentmindedly twirling a lock of his green hair. “Well… we need to make some adjustments to make it possible to spare lives, but I don’t want to lose too much power in doing so since I know there will still be groups that will definitely try to end me, or will piss me off and trigger my new oath. Plus I really need to do something about the psychedelic spores. I do NOT want everyone trying to hug me to death… or even be inclined to touch me in general. Is there some way we can alter them to have different side effects without changing the stats they target? Augustus was acting worse than people on Ecstasy…”
“I think we can work something out, it is possible to modify it from the Dungeon Lord interface” Mr. Sinclair said dryly. Xander got up and walked over to the central orange crystal, opening up the main menu. He had only seen it a few times, generally preferring to let his assistant manage most of the dungeon’s setup and abilities.
Select an option:
. Dungeon Status Disk
. Dungeon Lord Status Disk
. Minion Status List
. Trap Status List
. Intruder Information List
. Dungeon Modification Menu
. Minion Modification Menu
. Trap Modification Menu
“I’ll assume that what I’m looking for is somewhere in the trap modification menu?” he half-asked half-stated. Mr. Sinclair nodded “Yes, but I want you to go into the Dungeon Status Disk first. I’ve been saving a few decisions for you, and now is as good a time as any for you to receive a bit of education about your dungeon.” Xander shrugged and opened the status disk as requested.
Dungeon Status Disk: Grove of Bones
Rank G, Tier 5
Dungeon Type: Endurance (Poison)
Affinity: Nature
Dungeon Lord: Active (Level 15)
Active Minions: 37 / 69
Active Traps: 61 / 210
Leyline (Rank G) Status:
38% Stability
132% Utilization
67% Reserves
Unspent DP: 5 / 35
Advancement Progress: 37.3% (Conditions not met)
Xander carefully considered the status disk, trying to sort through the information available. The first half of it he already knew or was self-explanatory, but the second half was new information. “What’s a leyline, and why are they so important? I’ve heard the term once or twice before, and know they have something to do with energy, but that’s about it.
“Correct, they deal with energy. In point of fact, they are the primary conduits of mana that form the magical framework of Gaellus. Going into the theory and math behind them would take years really, on the level of advanced calculus from Earth. I assume you don’t want to start that particular journey?”
“Oh please god no,” Xander replied hastily, “I was already failing regular calculus, I strongly doubt I could follow advanced magical calculus.” He then made a face “You know, in some ways, just knowing that there is that much math behind magic makes the whole thing seem less… magical. I just want to wave my hands and make stuff happen!”
Mr. Sinclair snorted. “I thought as much. But what did you think ability points were? Or any of the other numbers on your character disk?”
“Hey, that doesn’t count as math, those numbers are just part of the game…”
“So you think this is all a game then?”
“Uhh, well… no.” Xander said, looking chagrined. “It’s not a game, it's real life, and even in a fantasy world there is bound to be math I guess. But skip the in depth theory for now please?”
Mr. Sinclair sniffed a bit but nodded. “We can always come back to the more in-depth information later. But in essence you can think of them as magical transformers. And no, not like cartoon robots, like magical power lines.” Xander rolled his eyes; he wasn’t that dumb. But Mr. Sinclair continued before he could protest.
“The System is everywhere, but dungeons specifically require a direct tap into the mana to sustain themselves. Creating and maintaining minions, traps, and even the physical construct of the dungeon all require large amounts of mana, and it essentially has a mana pool just like a person. That would be the line about Reserves.”
“Alright, simple enough. But how can utilization be over 100% then?”
“The dungeon also draws in mana and concentrates it, so you can think of ‘utilization’ as being its mana regen. Currently the dungeon is working to replace the minions and traps that were destroyed, so it is spending mana faster than it is producing it.”
“Ah, that makes sense. And then what is ‘stability’, and why is it so low?” Xander asked curiously.
“I was getting to that,” the treant said with some irritation at the constant interruptions. “Stability is more or less what it sounds like as well, but there are many fine points that have an effect on many parts of dungeon operation.” The treant was in full on lecture mode by this point. “The most important part to remember is that if leyline stability drops too low, it can cause a cascading failure that will damage or destroy that leyline and quite literally blow up in everyone’s faces. This is, in fact, what you triggered with the stunt which resulted in your promotion.” Xander winced, and tried to look innocent, but kept his mouth firmly shut so that his foot wouldn’t fit in it.
“Making changes or upgrades to the dungeon will increase instability as the magic is moved around, and since an advanced Boss Monster had just spawned, the stability was already low. It is likely that with a higher stability score you would not have been able to force the disastrous ‘spell’ you cobbled together through.” The D.I.E. glared a bit balefully, causing Xander to squirm, but then a sly smile slowly split the bark-like features of his assistant. “Oh calm down, if you hadn’t done so, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to come here and oversee something as interesting as what we have going on here.”
Relief flooded through Xander, and he grinned as he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “Heh, yeah I suppose that even with some missteps it has been one hell of an experience.”
“I have overseen a number of Dungeon Lords, but none at this low level. Trying to optimize with the power constraints inherent to this dungeon has been… invigorating and interesting.”
“Well speaking of that, I’m assuming that ‘Unspent DP’ refers to Dungeon Points, and not… anything else?” Xander tried to make a joke, but felt extremely embarrassed by his own words the moment they left his mouth. To make it worse, Mr. Sinclair just stared at him in judgmental silence for an extremely uncomfortable few seconds, then shook his head regretfully.
“I’m continually impressed at your capabilities and logic, while simultaneously reminded of your… youthful immaturity. But yes, those dungeon points represent the latent capacity for upgrades that you will need to make decisions on, so let's get down to it.”