Homebrew Problem

[Dungeon Management Unlocked]

[Unified users energy pool with dungeon]

An entirely new system interface opened in front of Riva.

It was larger than all the ones she had seen before. It displayed a grid and at the bottom was a toolbar with a multitude of tiny icons. Their meaning and use was obscure. They were represented by tiny runes, which Riva failed to interpret. Riva started with something, that she could understand.

"This should be my energy, right?" She pointed at a field with colored numbers. A white 30 and next to it a green +0.

[Correct, this is the user's and dungeon's energy. It combines life energy, mana and thought energy, and any other relevant energy source the user may need into a unified energy unit]

Is it me or is the system talking a bit more fluent? Riva wondered to herself.

"Then what's that number supposed to be?" Riva pointed at a field containing a white 5 next to the energy display.

[That's the dungeon's population. Everyone that's contracted to you is considered a dungeon resident]

"But I'm alone?" Riva interjected.

"No way!" She found the reason before the system had the time to answer. "You're counting not only me but also the three rocks and the sword as residents?! You've got to be kidding me!"

[This was not intended as a joke. The user has four tames resulting in five residents after adding the user]

Riva wanted to argue that none of her four tames could be considered alive. Then again, she also tamed them despite the fact that they weren't living beings.It appeared that being a living being wasn't deemed necessary. The system was simply weird that way.

No, wait, maybe that's the issue! They adjusted the system to my 'being-already-dead-problem'. I'm not a living being. Maybe they made everything accessible for non-living entities. They could have ended up allowing all non-living things ultimately including inanimate objects.

Next, Riva proceeded and tested the different rune-icon buttons.

The first thing she opened was a menu filled with all kinds of props. Anything from a stone brick to an entire castle, from a pitfall to a sea of lava, from a pebble to a mountain range could be found. And once again almost everything was greyed out.

Riva groaned when the system informed her that she needed to acquire blueprints and building materials and provide enough energy to build anything. Let alone a castle she couldn't even afford to build a single brick. The only things she could pay for were the pebble, a stick, and a single grass seed.

Riva sighed, decided to save it for later, and moved on to the next tab.

This time she opened what was called a creature summoning pool. And it too was greyed out. She found that she could summon random creatures by sacrificing energy to the pool. Furthermore, when Riva clicked on the information window next to it a list with a multitude of different creature silhouettes opened.

"It's a gacha*!" Riva exclaimed.

"By paying energy I can summon a random creature from the list! A dungeon ca create it's residents and this should be how the system interpreted it."

Riva spent some time clicking through the remaining icons. There was one tab telling her about defense placement, one about unit management, one about climate management, and finally one about space expansion.

Everything sounded super cool. In theory that is. Everything was locked. Riva grew increasingly annoyed by the fact that she didn't find an explanation for why she couldn't use most features.

"It's reasonable that I can't use everything at the start. Slowly unlocking the mechanics to have the player familiarize themselves with it one at a time is common practice. So where's the feature that I can use? How about a bit of user guidance? Where's the annoying fairy telling me to listen?" Riva grumbled.

It wasn't until the last icon that Riva finally found something useful. It was the statistics page. It contained information about the dungeon. She was too impatient to care about the details because the huge button at the very bottom drew her attention.

[Upgrade Dungeon]

To her dismay it couldn't be clicked.

[The core of the dungeon remains in an unborn state and needs to be fed sufficient energy]

[Energy Required: 1000] A prompt informed her.

"How the hell am I supposed to get that much energy?" Riva complained.

[Why don't you check your other stats, before you keep complaining?]

Riva hesitated and suddenly asked "System, you've been acting strange! Who are you really?!"

For a while now, the system was talking unlike its usual self. Riva had been keeping an eye on its behavior ever since she noticed the discrepancy. Gradually, its way of talking had grown more and more human-like.

[User must be mistaken. System is system. Attribute it to my recent update!]

The window refreshed.

[User must be mistaken. System is system. Attribute it to system's recent update!]

"..."

[...]

"Okay, open the 'Skills' Window for me." Riva ordered after the awkward moment of silence and followed the system's earlier advice.

[Synchronizing Skills - Successful]

[

Physical: Haste[2 Mana],

Magic: Magic Detection, Perfect Disguise [5 Mana],

Mind: Self Control(Level(1)), Predator Aura[1 Mana], Advanced Identification,

Special: Taming(Level(1)) [? Mana],

Racial: Craving for Life, Devourer(Level(3), Poison Nullification, Infectious(Zombie)

]

Riva immediately noticed that there had been a few changes and asked "Is mana considered a part of the energy that I and the dungeon share?"

[Mana is separate from your general energy pool. As it is an energy type, user can convert it into general energy and vice versa]

"Then what's the point of separating the two?"

[Simple, when you run out of mana you won't face any serious consequences but when out of energy your body won't be able to sustain its activity and you fall asleep]

"Then what's the conversion rate between mana and energy?" Riva perceived the hint of an absurd possibility.

[1:1]

"And my mana recovers by absorbing energy from my surroundings…!" Riva exclaimed excitedly. "System, I want to make a custom setup."

"I want to convert all my mana into energy at all times! When I use something, that requires mana, just convert the required mana from my energy... but only if it doesn't empty my energy, in those cases I want you to confirm with me first. Does that work?"

[Affirmative, setup completed and mana conversion started, 30 points of energy added] The system informed.

30 energy! That was equal to a night's hunt!

All of a sudden Riva felt light-headed.

She staggered and limply fell onto the bed, invisible pressure was weighing her thoughts down.

She couldn't think.

She impassively lay there, eyes open, head empty.

~

The sky had long turned bright by the time she managed to gather a few stray thoughts.

~

Time passed and the sky turned dark once more.

The time came when Riva found enough energy for an attempt.

She groaned and strained to form words.

"System..., what's... wrong?"

[Mana withdrawal] It answered succinctly.

Riva groaned again and strained to say more.

"Reset… Energy…" She didn't make it any further.

[System doesn't comprehend] A window informed her.

Riva frowned and focused.

She needed to think!

A vague idea formed.

She closed her eyes.

There she felt it. The connection with the dungeon in her mind space.

She grabbed onto it. Through it, she pulled herself into the mind space.

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