According to the texts on opening the dungeons, the floor crystals store the Lifeforce created by using Mana until I first open the dungeon. Then it will rush out in one go, basically announcing the positions of the openings.
However that is only for dungeons with a single exit – if I open the regular exit only after the world-mana has been released through the remote exits, there is a good chance that this will be overlooked for a time.
But I will have only limited choice of defense options unless I can gain more by sending spawns out of the exits to collect more animals as templates. So I need a map to find the best places.
“Blue Core, what are… Scratch that, I need something else to call you especially as “Core” has too many meanings around here. Do you have a name?”
“As a glowing blue search engine, I name you [Booble]. You will take that designation and answer to it.”
“Booble, I can use the scout charge either as an overview to get a map, or as a collector for more templates. How does that work exactly?”
“But I have been granted three scout charges, so I’ll have two left after getting the map. Perfect.”
"OK Booble, please check my quests and my status and confirm the following numbers - this is too important for me to make a mistake."
"A floor planned in the floor crystals can be changed as long as it is not placed, so I can create three simple floors to complete the quest and get the XP, but then change the floorplans to something better before placing them?"
"And a regular core only has the dungeon training quest line, no XP from other quests, and is usually around Level 2 when they begin to build their first floor?"
"The size limit for the first floor depends on both rank and level, and a [very high] ranked dungeon can start with a limit between 26m and 28m at level 2, a [heroic] core can have between 37 and 39 meter while a regular [mythical] core might have 51-53 meter limit at level 2. But due to the added quests and the xenotic extra points, I might be able to wait to level 5 and start building with a limit of perhaps 70 meters depending on how many points I set to size?"
"The floor limits will increase when the cores level up. Do they go back to earlier levels and increase their size? If yes, in which direction do they usually grow the floors?"
"Thanks"
[Use one scout charge for map overview on the target area of the three countries mentioned in the quest]
One of the green sparks floating nearby suddenly pulsates and then grows into a large sphere.This sphere has a landscape on one half of it, but floating around it the General's soul can also see the sky above that land if he looks at the sphere from the other side. A quick check - no luck, no bird inside.
Additionally the General now sees two countdowns.
Soul Anchor [55:34:12 hours counting]
Map Display [23:59:59 hours counting]
"Nice, guessed right"
The soul floats to the side of the sphere that shows the landscapes and accesses the knowledge screen for some details. There is a large mountain range going through most of the area, from top center to bottom left edge. It appears to be a natural border for the Dverolion Empire to the top left.
Two rivers coming out of a large mountain in the center feed a swampy area on the bottom of these mountains, until the water is drained away by a single large river going to the bottom right edge. This river is the border between the People’s Realm of Kaarg to the top right and the Combined Cities of Lefor’ga at the bottom of the map.
At one place about thirty kilometers away from the swamp the river forms a larger lake before flowing on. On the border of that lake and the river there is a small independent country called “City of Rivansea”.
OK, looks like everything is in range of the remote entry halls. With the three main countries I can place the access points in a way that I have about one or two days for collecting before they can block the entrances. The Dverolion Empire is something like a roman empire populated by Dwarves and Humans and focusing on constructs and golems. I can probably get ores and geared equipment if I send someone out there.
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The People of Kaarg look like a French Revolution gone even more wrong in a land of magic and necromancers, populated by Lizardmen, Humans and some orcish variant called Orican. The Cities of Lefor’ga look like classic elven with nature and elementals, and a population mix of Elf, Human and …
OK, that is not classic, some sort of panther body with the head replaced by a full human upper torso similar to a centaur.
And the City is an independent mix of every possible or impossible race on a medieval European environment. If I place an access point inside their country it would be at most two or three hours away from the city. That might be an advantage or it could create problems, especially if they manage to block the other gatherers from the inside of the first floor.
The General checks the clocks again
Soul Anchor [54:53:06 hours counting]
Map Display [23:18:53 hours counting]
Damnit, clocks runnning. I'm almost level 3 and I have to set the core class before entering the core waiting for me - and that has to be done before the anchor runs too low.
“Booble, do you have any info on what will happen if I enter that dungeon core that has been prepared with a soul anchor? Or how long that process will take?”
So it will probably take away time from the map countdown, but hopefully it will also give time for mana regeneration. I just have to set the core class options before entering - the class level gives me one skill or ability each level plus one core type of either node or spawn class to construct.
I don't have time to check two sets of forty options each, but for now I only need the first few levels - I can take the time for later levels after I'm anchored and no longer on countdowns - I'll need months to build with this slow mana regeneration anyway.
[Set Core Class Ability Level 1 to 5 as "Floor Awareness", "Illusion Magic", "Dungeon Alerts", "Identify Explorer" and "Shield Magic"]
[Set Core Class Coretypes Level 1 to 5 as "Create Rations", "Class Ranger", "Create Water", "Class Elementalist" and "Create Wooden Tools"]
That should fit or complement with the things I got from the starting package and the scouting.
[Use Mythical core with Soul Anchor]
…
“Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh”
The only similar thing the general ever experienced was when he once participated in centrifugal training for pilots – only this time it is without being strapped to a chair, but simply thrown around while hundreds of nails pierce him at every impact.
After a while the process stops and the general slowly becomes aware of his surroundings again. He still floats in the air, there still is the blue core and three crystals nearby and the sphere of the map as well as the other two scout charges are also available.
“That was NOT ‘slightly’ painful…”
So, high-level dungeons can become people? But I bet when faced with a low level sapient core most people will use that for taming or destroying the core. I'll ignore that for now, back to the map.
Map Display [09:54:48 hours counting]
"Booble, can I select a place after the map is gone or do I need the place within the next ten hours?"
"Pedant. OK, Zoom into the center of the map, scale to about 50km instead of 300km.”
“That vale looks promising with one small creek and only half swamped internally but ending completely on the main swamp. Are there any natural caverns in that area?”
“Nice map features to display topographics and specials. Two caves even, but the one there is not deep enough and a bit too exposed, I want to hide my real entrance from casual scouting. The other is a bit near to the entrance of the vale, but that might even be an advantage if I get some tunnels from there.”
"Even with the remote entries? I even planned to keep the real exit closed for a few days after opening the remote exits, and from the description of the transfer magic they should allow the LifeForce to exit as well."
"Booble?"
"That might even work out as a positive as I need to get attention, as long as they don't decide to crush me to be sure..."
"OK, final question before I activate the floor crystals. I plan to try to hide my true core rank by pretending to be smaller until I have a real defense. I think the biggest problem on that are the [heroic] ranked remote entry halls. How long would it take for some adventurers to identify them as [heroic]-ranked?"
“OK, so they’ll learn that I’m [heroic] ranked or better at some time, but not directly. I should use a double misdirection to hide that at first - which is why I asked for the sizes earlier. So I have a 30 meter area to hide from [mythical] and level 5, then there are eleven meter difference between [heroic] level 2 and [very high] level 2 - something that they should be able to find out after a month or so."
[Activate Floor Crystal for first floor]
No need for anything fancy, I just want to trigger the quest rewards and complete the dungeon as planned later. So the Entry room goes from coordinates (30:41) meters to (36:47), Entry ramp on the west side and a room to the south with a ramp down
[Activate Floor Crystal for second floor]
Another room and another ramp down
[Activate Floor Crystal for third floor]
and again
“Can’t work – my position will be in a frontier zone where a lot of high level soldiers are stationed. The level limits on the first floors will make them laughable to any such soldiers. I need to focus on delays to get the time to create more floors. Besides this is the only entry that no one should know about - the paths from the other entries will be different.”
“I think I’ll know how to confuse them – I’ll make a lot of transfer connections between floor two and three. That will cause them to lose time to mapping, especially if I place both floors under a misdirection effect and use clever illusions.”
"However the true floor design will happen later, for now I just want to see if I can trigger the quest completion to level up before putting my entrance down."
[Close Floor Planning]
“WHAT?!? Master Gunnery Sergeant Parkinson tagged along?”
“Again I might say” – you could hear a grin from the souled dungeon core.