The Slime Dungeon: Book 1 (The Slime Dungeon Chronicles) (2 page)

Chapter 2

After they established their bond, Doc and Claire both fell sleep; with Claire sleeping with the back of Doc's crystal body. Their sleep was peaceful, uneventful, and revitalizing to both of them. They woke up at the same time and sent each other happy thoughts as they beheld each other.

"Good morning Doc." Claire said happily. "Good morning Claire." He responded with equal enthusiasm. "Did you sleep well?"

She nodded and began flying around in front of him. "Mommy always told me the best sleep would come after a binding, but I never imagined I would feel this good!" She giggled and did a little jig in front of his body, "I feel so rested and full of energy!"

Doc gave her a chuckle, "I feel the same way. Now, what is next for us to do?"

Claire landed on the little wall extension and created a chair and table out of the stone in front of Doc's body. She sat down and smiled at him cutely. "Why, now its Q and A time, my silly Doc. Feel free to ask me anything and everything your crystal mind wants to know.” She giggled again, "This is so exciting!"

Doc chuckled to himself. His new friend sure was an adorable little thing. “What am I?” He asked her firmly.

Claire pointed as his body, “You are a dungeon; a being whose main body is that of a crystal. Your magic allows you to control the territory around you and change it to suit your needs. The reason why those like you are called dungeons is because of your tendency to create great caves and labyrinths in the earth which hide countless treasures and monsters. What else do you want to know?”

Satisfied and intrigued by his race’s namesake, Doc asked, “Okay, then, explain to me this bond thing."

Claire nodded, "Sure, I'll do my best.” She folded her hands in front of her on the table, but couldn’t quite pull off the professional look she was going for. "The bond between a dungeon heart and a dungeon pixie is very unique in this world. We connect spiritually in such a way we always know where the other is located and can talk to each other from any location. Beyond that, we can't harm each other. I have a limited control over a part of your dungeon. That area will serve as my personal home and resting place."

Sensing his emotions, she quickly corrected herself, "I don't mean anything big in your dungeon. I just have enough influence to create a home and other things for myself, like this table and chair.” She pointed down at the objects made of purple stone.

"Also, our bond will increase the amount of mana you absorb from the environment because I'm a magic being that also uses mana from the surroundings. You should be able to absorb mana passively now whenever you feel like it."

Checking, Doc confirmed he could adjust the pull of mana now without becoming tired. "I see that. Why couldn't I do that before?"

"Silly! It's because you are not a magic creature. You are a crystal that can use mana, a more special type of a soul gem. A soul gem has a natural ability to store mana, but can’t use it on its own. Under certain circumstances, however, a soul gem can evolve into a heart crystal like yourself and gain the ability to use mana. Suffice to say, most young dungeons try to absorb as much mana as possible as they wake up. When they reach their limit, we dungeon pixies pick up on their needs and use our abilities to communicate with them in order to form a bond. That's why I was upset when I came here; I thought you didn't need me which meant that I would be alone forever."

"Explain this to me: Is the dungeon connection unique?"

Claire nodded, "Yup. A dungeon pixie gets one chance to bind with a dungeon. If one fails, then they have to live the rest of their lives alone…not that we can live long without a dungeon.” She frowned and let some tears fall from her eyes. "Mommy told me Daddy got a late signal in his life, but before he could bond, adventurers had already found his partner and killed him. I never met him."

While feeling sympathetic, Doc sensed danger in her words. "A dungeon can be killed? Am I in danger?"

Claire looked up and shook her head, wiping her tears away. "Not right now. Daddy's crystal was too close to another established dungeon. When it was conquered, they searched the area and took everything valuable. Right now we are deep underground with nothing near us so there is no danger."

Doc regarded his body curiously, "So I'm valuable to adventurers? What are adventurers anyway?"

Claire giggled, forgetting her sadness, "Yup, even a small crystal like you is important because you can absorb mana. Soul gems are used in powerful weapons, spells, and armor, so they are very valuable.”

“What’s a weapon?”

“Something to be learned later,” Claire admitted. “Anyway, the bigger your body gets, the stronger your dungeon will be. To answer your other question, there are big people in the world that work and live together. Humans, dwarves, elves, demonoids, gnomes, beast-men, and other races live and compete against each other. Adventurers can be any race, and they do things for other member of their race. Some of the things they do include activities like dungeon diving."

“Why do they do things for others?”  Doc asked curiously, “Do they have bonds between them too?”

This gave Claire a large fit of giggled as she rolled onto the floor. She quickly recovered and coughed in embarrassment. “Like I said before, only dungeon and dungeon pixies have that kind of bond. Adventurers do things in order to gain one of three things: wealth, fame, and adventure. Most will die in their line of work, but they all strive toward these three things. You do understand what those things are, right?”  Claire asked cautiously.

“I think I do, though I’m not sure why,” Doc admitted to her, "So am I expected to die to these adventurers?"

Claire shook her head, "No, there is no need for you to die to them; in fact, it is my desire that we both live and prosper for many years. Most adventurers should just come in and take a treasure or monster loot from you and leave you alone as long as you don't do dumb things like killing everything in sight. Long term, dungeons are a great way to make profit as long as they exist, so don't expect too much danger once a lot of people know about you."

Doc nodded, "Okay then, so how do I become a well-known dungeon?"

Claire smiled sat on the table with her legs crossed and her hands on her knee. Doc couldn't help but notice her growing femininity now that she was named. It didn't help she was dressed in a purple dress with a petal like skirt. "That's the fun part Doc, now we get to decide what you'll be."

Claire waved her finger again, and the blue mana formed another blue screen in front of Doc's face.

Doc blinked at the very large blue screen of mana in front of his face. "Claire, what is this?"

She fluttered up beside the screen, "To start a good dungeon, you need monsters. Monster will both protect your core and add an incentive to not kill you by dropping loot and treasure. Allow me to answer more questions before we look into this some more."

Doc frowned, "Okay, but how do I make the treasure and monsters appear out of thin air? I don't have any treasure beside my own body, and I’d prefer not giving that up."

Claire nodded, "Right, but there are things we can do to make treasure.” She pointed at the walls of his room, "As you can see, your magic infuses mana and transforms the stone into a part of your dungeon. In essence, that wall is now a part of you. The extent of your territory is determined by your crystal’s size.”

She flew over to a section of the wall on his right, "Here is your first lesson: concentrate your mana here and focus on gold. Picture it in your mind and focus all those thoughts here."

Doc nodded and then paused. “I have never seen gold before,” he said apologetically.

Claire nodded, then took a small coin from her skirt. It glittered gold under the purple light. “This is a small piece of gold,” she explained. “It is one form of currency used by all races, though pixie gold is a lot smaller than other sentient gold coins. Examine it, then try to make it.”

Doc huffed, then followed her orders. He felt his purple light leaving his body and concentrated around the area she had pointed to. As he pictured the gold in his head, he was surprised to find his light disappearing. Feeling nervous at the unexpected loss, he quickly stopped and felt the light return to his body.

Claire flew over to him, frowning, and asked: "Why did you stop? You didn't make much at all,” she complained to him as she glanced at the wall.

"What happened just now? I felt my mana disappearing.” Doc asked nervously. Unlike Claire, he could not see the effects of his mana’s loss and was loathed to lose any of it. All this new information had made him tense, especially when learning about death. He wasn’t a crystal that would fill with fear at the first sign of trouble, but he was trying to be cautious about alerting the dangerous adventurers of his presence.

Claire huffed, "As I thought, you've only used your magic to carve and destroy rather than create. I bet not seeing results made you nervous, right?"

"Hey, I made this room, didn't I?" Doc said defensively, “Am I wrong to take things slow and steady?”

She waved her hand, "Making a room was easy for you because you dissolved all the stone you didn't want. The reluctance you felt is actually one of your dungeon instincts kicking in. Crystals naturally horde their mana, so it’s a hard lesson to teach new dungeons how to overcome their instincts. Try looking at what’s behind the wall now.”

Doc sensed the area and was surprised. "Is that gold?"  Within the wall, out of sight, the area was intermingled with tiny gold specs that glistened in the purple light. Not enough to be called a proper vein; however, it was enough to garner interest from anyone who saw it.

Claire nodded, "Yup. That is gold you created with your own power. It is magic completely unique to dungeons. They can create minerals and monsters within themselves by using the mana created by their bodies. The strongest mages can cast a lesser form after years of accumulating power and experience, but to dungeons it is an innate ability. That ability only works when the dungeon is alive, and is impossible to be replicated by any mortal. As you just experienced, you can only create metals and stones that you understand and examine; I have some copper and iron on me as well so feel free to look at them at your leisure. When you get strong enough, you can create areas that are full of metal to be mined by adventurers.”

Doc nodded, "Okay, so I can create areas to be mined. Should I do so now throughout the dungeon?"

"NOOOO!!!!" Doc was surprised by Claire's frantic scream as she flew in front of him frantically. "Remember how I said the walls are a part of you? Well, imagine if thousands of greedy adventurers were mining your body every day and every hour searching for gold."

The purple crystal actually turned slightly white for a moment as Doc processed the information. "Okay, so I don’t make my entire dungeon a mine then; how about a small area?"

Claire calmed down and took her seat, "Yes, you can have specialized areas for mining, but don't make the entire dungeon like that, okay?"  Feeling his agreement, she sighed in relief. "Also, since my house will be hidden in your walls, I don't want miners to find me. Dungeon pixies are a rare commodity that slave traders like to hunt, and most die after being captured. Anyway, as I was saying, your walls can form the metals and you can absorb them into your astral body."