The Whimsical Dungeon

The ship was now within a few hundred meters of a large and incredibly steep mountain which existed at the centre of an even larger bay. At the top of the formation existed the largest castle Crystal had ever seen. It resembled a painting Crystal had once seen of the lighthouse of Alexandria, though the domineering vibe it gave off made it clear that it could be nothing other than a castle.

The storm, however, allowed little time to celebrate or inquire further about the structure.

Crystal stood atop the ship"s observation deck, watching the cyclone of wind and water as it grew steadily closer.

She felt joy, excitement, antic.i.p.ation, yet not an ounce of fear.

The imp furrowed her brow at the lack of the expected emotion.

"Hey, Alexa," Crystal began, "why aren"t I even the slightest bit worried, right now?"

"Why do I feel so... hyped?" She added.

The voice in question replied immediately, "the ship is indestructible and your core is safe in a fortress of pillows, why should you worry?"

That was true, of course. If the storm caught the ship, the ship would be fine, merely inconvenienced for the storm"s duration, so long as it didn"t take on too much water and sink.

"Also," she continued, "natural phenomena like storms contain a lot of energy, as well, and energy means DP."

The imp took another glance at the angry-looking vortex. There were a few flashes of lightning deep within it, followed shortly thereafter thunder. The wind and rain were both steadily growing stronger, as well.

"What about the prisoners?" She inquired, "why aren"t I worried about them in the slightest."

Crystal correctly a.s.sumed that the prisoners would be bludgeoned to death against each other and the walls of the prison which held them should the ship capsize in the storm, becoming an indestructible rock tumbler rather than a ship.

Alexa chuckled, "you"re a dungeon core, silly, in that case you can just absorb them all the sooner."

Crystal frowned at the expected answer.

"...I think you might be a bad influence on me," she muttered with a sigh.

The imp then joined Daisy on the deck below.

"You think we"re gonna make it?" She inquired.

Daisy gave a brief glance towards the storm, doing a few calculations within her head.

"Depends," she replied calmly.

The dungeon core tilted her head as if to say "on what?"

Daisy pointed past it, towards something at the far end of the bay, a large structure of iron and white stone, a strange hybrid between a dam and a gatehouse. It was several dozen meters tall. Through the gate was a waterfall which would, supposedly, fill the area behind the dam with water whenever the gate would close.

They actually existed back on earth as well, though they looked fairly different and were not normally powered by waterfalls. It was a structure known as a lock, a way for ships to smoothly travel between bodies of water with different elevations. Basically a ship elevator shaft that would fill with water to float a ship to the desired height.

"It will depend on Eleanor," answered Daisy.

"And them," she added, indicating towards the few figures that lined the top of the wall.

A monkey, as if on cue, suddenly climbed its way Daisy"s shoulder and handed Crystal a spygla.s.s to look through. The imp silently did so, after giving Jackie a brief pat on the head, of course.

Through it, on the wall in question, she spied a few dozen elves, like Eleanor, but ashen in skin tone, and all with silver hair and dark blue clothing bordering on black.

"Dark elves," she and Daisy both said in the same moment, though for Crystal it was more a question than a statement.

The imp"s tail twitched slightly in antic.i.p.ation, and her mood immediately began to brighten. Dark elves were one of her favourite fantasy races, after all.

A moment later a strange and haunting whistle was heard from atop the wall, similar to El"s leaf whistle, but deeper, and slightly sorrowful sounding, like the call of a lone whale on a foggy day.

Eleanor immediately emerged from Tina"s inn upon hearing it.

She seemed visibly distressed by the sound.

"Why are we here?" She inquired anxiously the moment she arrived at Crystal and Daisy"s location, "are you trying to get us killed?"

Daisy ignored her, instead turning to address Crystal.

"You need to hide," she ordered, "no one can know that you are in any way a.s.sociated with imps or Scree in any way, at least until we are past the gate."

"And build at least one floor that can slow down intruders," she added.

Crystal visibly drooped upon hearing the order, but ultimately nodded, heading to the captain"s quarters a moment later to do as she was told. She had given Daisy authority in situations like these for a reason, after all.

The lich then turned to El.

"The most convenient way to escape the storm is by heading inland," she stated plainly, "it"s the only direction we can be sure is safe."

The elf glared at her.

"Safe from the storm, maybe, but not from my siblings, or the guardian of the world tree," she argued, "they"d never knowingly allow an imp or dungeon that close to the world tree."

Daisy just sighed.

"No matter, it"s too late to turn back now," she stated as she gave a casual glance towards the storm and the structure which blocked the river.

"Have the elves operate the lift for us. Or let the prisoners die," said the lich, "those are your choices."

Meanwhile in the captain"s cabin...

Crystal heard the faint whistle of El"s leaf as she sat alongside her core in the room"s closet. The walls of it were padded in a similar fashion to the cell of an insane asylum. A pink insane asylum.

On the imp"s right sat her true body, her core, and on her left sat an upside-down top hat, filled to the brim with tiny slips of paper, all of which were folded in half.

Crystal picked one at random and unfolded it.

The imp read the note.

"The floor is made of lava, but with actual lava," she read.

"Not on the first floor, at least," she commented.

Crystal tossed the paper aside and drew another from the hat.

"An invisible maze," She read.

The imp took a moment to visualize what that would look like...

She saw an empty room.

"Lame," she declared as she tossed that paper aside as well.

Such was her newly developed system for deciding the layout of her dungeon"s floors. Created, not due to a lack of ideas, rather, due to an overabundance of them.

Crystal read the next piece of paper.

"Embrace being a l.u.s.t dungeon and leave everything to Alexa..." She read, before immediately crumpling up the piece of paper in question.

"Very funny, Alexa," she commented towards the empty s.p.a.ce above her.

A small chuckle was heard from it.

"That wasn"t a joke, y"know," the a.s.sistant replied from thin air, "the sooner you accept the fact that you"re a l.u.s.t dungeon, the soon we can start putting all the bonuses that come with it into use."

"We could even start breeding monsters rather than paying for them..." She continued, but Crystal just ignored her.

The imp drew another piece of paper from the hat.

She read it, smiled, frowned, and then discarded it.

"What"s with that reaction?" Alexa inquired, somewhat intrigued.

Crystal shrugged.

"Giant board game where the people are the pieces," she commented, "fun, but it"d too be hard to make the people actually follow the rules."

"Especially when their lives are on the line," she added.

No point in setting up such an elaborate and dungeon experience if people can simply walk past it, after all.

"hmm..." Pondered Alexa, "dungeon law would work but you"d need the second version of it... which you can no longer afford due to your manic spending of trait points.

The imp crossed her arms in defence of her actions.

"So I"d just need to level up a few times then, right?" She concluded, and received to objection from the voice in question.

"Oh, I buy a really big core and do the cannon thing ag-," she began, but was immediately cut off by Alexa.

"No," was the reply, "it is now impossible to acquire DP, TP, or levels from outside the dungeon in such a manner."

Crystal widened her eyes. Her trump card had, at some point, gone up in smoke without her even knowing about it.

"Eh," she exclaimed, dumbfounded, "since when!?"

Alexa"s response was instant and condescending.

"Since about 30 seconds after some idiot used a cannon to part the sea, destroy the ecology of a certain island, and gain an unfair level boost in the process," she chided mockingly, "that possibility has now been dealt with so it can not be abused by either the stupid or selfish."

Crystal avoided eye contact with the empty s.p.a.ce. She knew which of the two categories she fell into.

"That was already meant to be technically impossible, y"know," continued Alexa, "acquiring DP from outside the dungeon territory by killing things, without the proper circ.u.mstances, at least."

"However, due to the cannon"s power supply being your own vitality, the resulting beam was considered to be an extension of yourself, as well, and thus capable of acquiring DP," she concluded, "you basically melted them to death using your own life force."

"That"s so metal," thought Crystal.

The imp sighed, realizing she had to actually make a decision rather urgently.

"I"ll pick three, and do them all," she resolved herself, and then proceeded to do so.

The imp looked them over.

"Water level, an escort mission, time trial," Crystal read them one by one, "ew..."

"The worst possible combination..." she concluded before then discarding them.

""kay, once more, with spirit," she declared.

Crystal then tossed the contents of the hat into the air.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed three of the falling pieces of paper as they fell.

Without even looking at them, she then gave an order to Alexa.

"Make a floor themed around these ideas," the imp ordered, "no take-backs, just make it work."

Alexa snickered, giving an amused sounding, "ka~y," before quickly going silent.

Only then, after Crystal was certain that her a.s.sistant had left, did she finally read what was written on the three pieces of paper. They were "occult-themed," "living labyrinth," and "game show."