Day to Day

"I don't really wanna make food, I just spent a week in the game I'm exhausted I'll just order takeout, In the meantime, let's watch some TV and read some forum threads"

As Michael sat on the couch he tapped a few buttons on his phone and pointed to his television it was on the news channel, they were still talking about [Dungeon master online] but now they were talking about the game and how it plays rather than the hype around it.

"So you say a week has already passed? It's barely been an hour since the game started."

"Yes, with recent breakthroughs in technology we managed to fit the entire 24-hour day-night cycle into fifteen minutes in real life, of course, like always our techniques will be made public and tutorials are already online for any aspiring game devs who wish to further push the boundaries of the gaming world. But that is enough Jibble Jable, I want to talk to the players and what they think about our world."

"Yes, that sounds great let's start with this letter from player Starkiller who says: 'are you sure you balanced all of the dungeons correctly? I saw hundreds if not thousands of options and out of the many there were a few that look like the hard mode of the game, like the slime or goblin-type dungeons. How are slimes or goblins anything but weak?'"

"Yes we are sure, we pitted every dungeon type together in every possible configuration of internal setup and surrounding environment running millions of simulations in a single moment for months, every dungeon when given a good set up performed just as well as any other dungeon. But not all dungeons have the same character creation options, that is what primarily balances it out, for those players who picked a dungeon that uses 'weak' monsters you'll know what I am talking about. I am not at liberty however to disclose what this means. Next question please."

"Yes, this one is from-"

Michael by this point had stopped paying attention and instead looked at his phone the TV being background noise.

[I decided to fight a monster and was destroyed, turns out you need DP to respawn, luckily it was only 100, but the way it was written implied made it seem like that number might go up.]

[dying is weird in this game, I didn't respawn immediately and I was floating around my core room unable to interact with anything]

[I'M IN FUCKING DP DEBT!]

[the dungeon-making is so fun!]

"It seems like everyone is enjoying the game as much I did, I feel for the guy in DP debt, but what is this about revival costing DP?"

Suddenly the TV pierced through to Michael.

"Ah yes, quests, yes there are a feasibly infinite number of quests. Anything from your starting location to what you look like and can do can affect what quests you can and do. As we already established, certain dungeons can only be in certain places. But if you choose a dungeon like a goblin dungeon, you will take the form of a goblin variant of your choice, and depending on what you chose you might just evolve into something better as your dungeon, of course, this is an advantage unique to monster race selections, but with every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you didn't start near an intelligent monster village, you might not have any NPC interactions outside of your dungeon for a long time unless you spend days traveling which comes with its risks. You can probably count how many people in the world will give a monster a chance. In this world very few monsters are capable of becoming 'people' and more often than not those that can are naturally driven mad by their magic crystals flooding their brain with a constant need to feed on magical power from other things, if you tried hard it might work but in the end monster societies only work because they neutralize each other's instincts simply by exuding magical power naturally which can subside the need to feed just enough, but once a non-monster being comes near the magic will naturally flow to them being absorbed and it drives the monsters mad again.'"

* knock knock *

"Oh, it's here"

Once he opened the door Michael found a bag of food once he brought it inside his one-bedroom apartment, he left it on the table and started digging through it. Once he pulled out various nondescript boxes from his brown bag with two golden arches he began to dig in, 30 minutes later he was washing it down with the last of his soda.

"Welp game time, I bet my dungeon has made some progress, the sooner I fully outfit the floor with enemies in treasure I should be done. It's been about an hour so about four days should have passed in the game, at the bare minimum, that is a solid 1,200 DP leaving me at a debt of 4,100 DP, and if I drove out any invaders or better yet killed them I should be in for a real treat, I can also sacrifice any stuff I don't need and I probably should in case it somehow gets recognized."

Putting on the helmet Michael found himself in a dark void when a feint light filled his vision, as he zoomed closer and closer eventually Smaug found himself in the same place he logged off at, which was once his core room but was now a single path down to the second floor.

[Welcom back.

There have been 20 intruders in total

2 mountain Eagles killed - both killed totaling 100 DP

3 adevntures killed - totalling 600 DP

10 adventures forced to flee - totaling 1000 DP

5 adventurers who left of their own volition - 0 DP

Night has fallen 4 times - 1200 DP

On those nights 0 adventurers were inside - 0 DP

In total you have gained:

60 Mountain eagle feathers

1 Iron sword

1 Bow

5 arrows

3 sets of leather armor (chest, legs, boots, helmet, gloves)

1 Low-grade magic staff

You have lost:

15 Kobolds

3 Kobold Mages

1 Kobold has leveled up from levels 1 to level 2

2 Kobolds have gone from level 2 to level 3

(No monster is mentioned twice if they were to go up multiple levels a new line would be made ex: level 1 to level 3 right under 1 to 2)

(All monsters mentioned are still alive)]

"It's good to know that they won't mention a dead Kobold in the level-up report, nor will they mention a Kobold multiple times. But I am still in debt so sell everything except the coins."

[Sacrificing:

180 Mountain eagle wings (1 DP each)

3 sets of leather armor (chest piece 100, legs 90, boots 30, helmet 20, gloves 20) (260 each)

1low grade Magic staff (200 DP)

Total: 1160 DP]

[Your current balance is -1240 DP]

"Ugh, this debt is going to take a while, hopefully after a few more days it'll be more than paid off. I should prepare some food sources, maybe I'll turn off the teleportation traps once they are built. I can make a livestock farm, I'll raise Mountain eagles for now, and once I have a decent supply I'll bring in something to take and butcher the bigger ones. I can feed them well too, I'll potentially need to start a farm in her as well… yeah no teleportation traps until I can keep my prisoners alive. The system you got that? Temporarily deactivate the Imprisonment traps once they are built."

As Smaug was planning his future a world announcement was made

[The Surge is starting, and with it, a minor update will be coming to your dungeons. You'll be able to buy anything you can imagine in the store, if it isn't listed you can search for it and the system will give you a price based on its materials. You can even buy mana-infused meat and magic crystals, of course, magical power costs exponentially more for every 'jewel' of magic power in it.

However, the main event of the Surge is an increase of mana density in the local mana veins, throughout a slightly random period your guaranteed daily DP income will increase based on the surge's strength. But that isn't all, if you reach a certain monster threshold depending on your dungeon size, you'll;l be able to cause a dungeon break which will let you send your forces out into the world, unlike normally when they are bound in the dungeon. Once outside they can kill things to earn you DP. But outside of the dungeon, they will need food and sleep like any other animal, but if they last a long enough time they can even start their own habitation and have kids who of which can't earn you DP but be warned while monsters summoned directly by you will follow you, you have to earn the respect of their offspring. But once out your monsters can stay out and even return and leave freely. Many surges have happened in the past this is why monsters are so prominent in the world despite their nature.

You also don't have to worry about getting your big monsters through small tunnels, in a period of such high mana volatility your dungeon can easily stretch and mold itself into any needed form for free.]