Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 121

Chapter 121 – Astonishment

I had to keep myself from laughing at the astonished looks everyone was giving me. I guess I had dropped something of a bombshell on them. Qeiri, the Dogik ambassador, seemed to be the first to break out of her sense of shock, as she chittered, “What is this ‘Dungeon Exchange Network’?”

I smiled, and leaned back in my throne as I considered the question. “Well, I don’t know how much you know about how the System interacts with dungeons, but suffice to say, there are two main methods for dungeons to gain new items, materials, and so forth, other than by killing people and absorbing items dropped or offered in tribute to the dungeon. The first is a shop run by the System itself, though the prices are quite expensive for the really good things, and anything you sell to the shop only gets you a fraction of what it is really worth. The second is the Dungeon Exchange Network.”

Guildmaster Miguel frowned as he considered this. “So, if the System shop is like an NPC vendor in a game, then the Dungeon Exchange Network would be like, what, Craigslist, giving you the ability to offer deals directly to other dungeons? That sounds like a pretty big deal.”

I shook my head. “Close, Miguel, but no cigar. Actually, the Exchange is formed in two parts. You have the ‘classifieds’, you might call them, where you can post that you are looking for certain things, or offer to sell certain things. But the real fun is the Auction section, where dungeons will put items up for bid, and other dungeons bid on them, and so on. From the information in the System files, you can find some interesting things there.”

Maria frowned, and asked, “But if this is out there, and you knew where it was, why haven’t you joined it already? You mentioned something about it being unlocked?”

“Ah, yes. You see, the Dungeon Exchange is locked behind a series of requirements. First, you have to be sentient and self-aware. You meet that goal, and you open up the ‘local’ dungeon network. That means dungeons inside about a one hundred miles radius. Do you know how many other self-aware dungeons are in that radius? None. There are three dungeons in that radius total, including me. That isn’t even counting the damaged or destroyed dungeons, like the Boca Raton or Miami Beach ones.”

Zygrash shook herself, and said, “Wait, how many damaged dungeons are there?”

I looked over at her. “In this area? Just the two. Boca Raton was basically a shitshow, where two people actually crushed a baby dungeon core accidentally just after the System activated. So, you have Goblins everywhere. And off the coast, the Vurlocks, idiots that they are, stabbed a core with their spears, which is why Miami has to make constant purges to keep them from overrunning the beaches. That core is only damaged, not destroyed, which is why the coast isn’t like Boca.”

I paused and then said, “Now, the other two dungeons that are actually up and running in the area are the Key West Dungeon that seems to specialize in dolphins, and the Necropolis to the north, which has only just concentrated enough magic to become a dungeon. Of course, both of them still aren’t ‘there’ enough to be considered sentient, so the local Dungeon Exchange is fairly useless for the time being.”

“Now, since I know you’re wondering, Level Two unlocks when you have people from three different cities reach your core room. That opens up the ‘Regional’ exchange, extending the radius to five hundred miles. While that does offer up opportunities, unfortunately you have to be in a mutual match range for this to happen. So, while I know that there are a couple self-aware dungeons out near Savannah and Havana, because they haven’t unlocked the ability to talk to ME yet, I can’t trade with them. You can imagine how annoying that is.”

“Level Three unlocks when people from three different races reach your core, and that unlocks the ‘National’ exchange, which is based on political maps. Level Four happens when people from three different countries make it to your core, and opens up the ‘Continental’ exchange, or all of North America for me. Level Five happens when people from three different continents make it to the core, and gives you access to the ‘Global’ exchange, or all of Earth. Level Six unlocks when people from three different planets reach your core, and grants you the ‘Solar’ exchange, or any dungeon in the solar system. Level Seven is the big one, though, and that happens when people from three different star systems reach the core, and opens up the ‘Galactic’ exchange. There’s some system notes that suggest there may be ‘Universal’ and ‘Transcendent’ levels as well, but no dungeon has been visited by people from other galaxies or other realities, it seems.”

“Anyway, unlocking one level also unlocks all the lower levels, provided the first level is unlocked. So, you lovely aliens have just granted me access to the Galactic Dungeon Exchange Network. I’m officially able to trade with any dungeon in the galaxy, and even offer things up on the galactic auction house. So, thanks for that, it was a big help in boosting my development.”

Doctor Valentine shook her head slowly. “So, you now have access to materials from dungeons across the galaxy?”

“If I can afford the auctions or make a dungeon to dungeon swaps, yeah. You would be surprised at some of the dungeons out there. Did you know that the Alpha Centauri system is one huge dungeon? I can’t wait to really dive in and see what is out there, and what I can use here on Earth.”

Zygrash frowned, her ears flattening in annoyance. “Qeiri and I have been studying dungeons for over sixty Galactic Standard Years! How is it that we are just now hearing about something like this? Sure, there have been instances of things from a dungeon appearing elsewhere, sometimes on entirely different planets, but it was always thought that it involved people bringing items to tribute to far off dungeons, or people going to those dungeons and then dying with off-world gear.”

I shrugged at them. “Well, I can’t tell you how much of that happened through the Dungeon Exchange Network and how much of it happened the ways you thought they did, but the Exchange Network is definitely a thing. In fact, once I have some time to look through the options, I expect that I’m going to have all kinds of fun things to add to the dungeon. I’ve been limited to plants that are basically changed versions of Earth plants, with some that incorporate things that wouldn’t be possible without magic, like the Seeder Bushes, and the various types of slimes I could create through experimentation or buying from the System. I can go back to my ‘roots’ as it were, and create all kinds of interesting things, once I start getting material from off-world.”

Qeiri clacked her mandibles in a fashion that I took to mean that she was annoyed at something. “But Zygrash is right! We have been studying dungeons for long enough that we should have heard something about this! Even if you talk to other researchers, none of this is in the literature! How is it possible it was hidden from us all this time? We should have known about such an exchange ages ago!”

“Have you ever tried just asking directly?” When the ambassadors looked at me like I was insane, I smiled. “Pop quiz. How many dungeon cores have you actually spoken to? How many of those cores were you talking to just having a conversation, like we are right now, and how many were times where you were trying to forcefully negotiate some point? Even when you were discussing, how often did you actually ask if dungeons could communicate with each other? And of those, how often were those cores that refused to lie?”

Sara frowned as the two ambassadors considered what I said. “But why would the cores lie, or leave out that information? What reason would they have for doing that?”

With a smile I patted the scientist on her rear, watching as she barely flinched any more. Before, she would have jumped away, but her training had come along nicely. Maybe I could find a way to make her a gift to Miguel, and win some points with the guild leader… I shook those thoughts out of my head. “Well, Dungeons are, by their very nature, predators. Some tend more towards ambush predators, and some are pack hunters. Some are even persistent predators, like humans themselves. And some, like yours truly, are able to use various tactics to keep any one group from having it too good. The point is, however, that we are all predators, of one form or another. And predators rarely just give information to their prey, unless they think it will help them in some way.”

Miguel nodded slowly. “And we are all your prey, aren’t we?”

“Oh yes. Not all the same kind of prey, naturally. But yes, you are all my prey, and I enjoy all the different ways I have of stalking hunting, and claiming you, either in death, or in bondage, either by contract or slave brand. The simple difference is that, unlike all those other dungeons, I knew from the beginning what it was like to hunt and stalk a target, and to do so with a human mind, a human intellect. Not like those instinctual hunters that stumble and make mistakes until they learn enough to be clever, but retain the bad habits they formed while they were young.”

Maria looked at me, as if understanding me for the first time. “So, you intend to hunt people as much as you can. It isn’t a matter of survival for you, unlike the ‘normal’ dungeons, but a way you use to entertain yourself. You are trying to become a super-predator that hunts for sport. And not just the killing kind of hunting. You want people to submit to you.”

Zygrash’s ears went back in alarm. “Then, your attempt to become a god… Oh, oh no. There have been gods and goddesses of dungeons before, and gods who have created or controlled dungeons in the past, but never has there been a true deity that was actually and truly a dungeon! The implications of this are far more terrible than I ever thought!”

Qeiri nodded swiftly. “Yes, it was bad enough when we thought a Dungeon may have been unjustly enslaved by a creature, and being forced to do that creature’s will. Such things have happened, even then, there is no comparison to what might happen if a Dungeon became a god! Your power would be unstoppable!”

I laughed deeply at the melodrama unfolding in front of me. “Oh, not unstoppable. After all, there is nothing in this galaxy, ruled over by the System, that is truly invincible or immortal. Anything with stats may be killed, with enough time and effort. Sure, sometimes the time and effort required are not worth the benefit of the creature’s death, but that is where the great game comes in. How do I make killing me more trouble and more of a hassle than working with me, or, at the very least, ignoring me? How do I make my destruction so problematic, either by the difficulty of the act or the consequences and aftereffects being so dire, that people would rather brave my halls and endure my tortures for the rewards I offer, even knowing that they may end up dead or broken by coming here?”

I leaned back in my throne, and said, “And that, my dear ambassadors, is why I have taken the course I have, ever since the beginning. I’ve engaged with the military, with the Adventurer’s Guild, with the media. Each has things I want, and each of them wants things from me. By speaking truthfully and engaging with them, I move myself from the category of a threat which must be destroyed to a powerful force which can be bargained with. This is also why, despite the fact that my territory exists on the surface for quite a way in all directions, I only very rarely send my minions out of the dungeon proper. It is a signal that I have boundaries I am willing to place upon myself, to help foster cooperation between myself and others. And, because of this, the military, the Adventurers, and the media all prosper. Oh, sure, I may not make as many gains in the short term as I would hunting and killing everything within my reach, but I have set myself up for the long game. And, now, I’m setting it up with the Galaxy as a whole.”