Harvest Dungeon

I glared at the small neon green sprout that was growing out of the dirt. I personally felt it was stupid to glare at a plant. While alive, I knew it wasn't sentient so no matter how much I glared at it, it wouldn't notice or care. Yet the care instructions for the plant said I had to feed it my negative emotions, so here I was glaring at a tiny little neon green sprout. Nothing happened.

With a sigh I rubbed my forehead. I was doing something wrong, that was obvious, but what?

I looked around hoping to see something to inspire me. There wasn't much to see. I had been here for two days and nothing had changed. It was a twenty feet by thirty feet space split into six ten by ten squares forming a rectangle. Four of the squares were dirt plots. Another was the home of a rough wooden shack, and the last was where everything else was. A well, two wooden bins, a fire pit and a storage shed that looked more like an outhouse.

It wasn't much, and worse I knew that it was a prison. Beyond the borders of the six squares was an endless green meadow with the hints of mountains, a forest, and a large body of water in three directions, while in the last direction the endless meadow seemed to continue on without end. I would give directions, but I had no idea which way was north or any other direction. The sun didn't rise here, there was just light, then at night the light would fade then change to imitate moonlight. Yet nowhere in the sky was there any signs of a sun or moon, just light coming from somewhere.

If I tried to take a step out of the six squares I would be stopped by a barrier and nothing I had tried was able to break the barrier. Unfortunately I was limited to my fist and the few farm tools I had available to me. Nothing seemed able to do any damage to the barrier. Or at least that was my impression. I couldn't actually see the barrier. Every attack I used was repelled, gently, as if trying to make sure I wasn't harmed.

I didn't get any inspiration.

I looked back down at the little sprout but it hadn't changed in any way.

With another sigh I grabbed the watering can by my feet and poured some of the water onto the sprout. Water rained down on the sprout gently for a few moments then the water ceased despite the fact that I was still holding the can like I was watering the sprout. The water didn't stop because it had ran out. The watering can itself was special. It only allowed me to use a specific amount of water per plant. No more could be used on the same plant until it was time to water the plant again. As I couldn't see anything unusual about the watering can I could only determine that it was magical, or a technology so advanced it seemed like magic. Either way I had no idea how it worked. However seeing that the watering can allowed me to water the sprout made me relax. I wasn't doing anything wrong. The instructions had stated that the plant only absorbed negative emotions after it stopped absorbing water.

Then why didn't I try and water it first? Simple, I am impatient.

During those two days I had planted another crop in the four dirt squares, I didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to eat. They were the simplest and easiest plant available to me. Blue Dandelions, they grew quickly in comparison, and sold for twice the price of their seeds. That money was just enough to afford food while I tried to find a way out of this prison.

The results? I was trapped. I couldn't find any way out and I hadn't seen anyone the entire time I had been here.

While holding the watering can I walked over to the storage shed, opening it up I saw the hoe, and sickle which were the only other tools that had been provided to me. Like the watering can they were magical, the hoe made perfect holes or rows for whatever I was planting, and did nothing if I was just swinging it around for fun. The sickle harvested the plant without excessively damaging it despite the fact that I had no idea what I was doing, and given how clumsily I handled the thing, I thought it was closer to a miracle. I set the watering can on the shelf made for it then closed the door. If the sprout wasn't ready yet there wasn't much I could do.

Glancing around again hoping for some kind of change then seeing nothing I headed for the shack.

Inside the shack there was a cot that barely fit my six feet two inch height, and was too small for my broad shoulders. It was uncomfortable but still better than the floor. I had already tried. A thin blanket was folded up neatly at the foot of the bed. It wasn't a magic blanket that folded itself. I folded it myself because other than the cot there was no other furniture in the shack. If I wanted to sit down I had to use the cot.

Floating in the very center of the shack was a blue orb four inches in diameter. It floated four feet off the ground. If the floating didn't give it away as abnormal the faint glow it gave off should.

The orb was the heart of this whole place. A repurposed dungeon core.

I had no idea what a dungeon core was or how it could be repurposed but I also didn't have anyone to ask.

I walked over to the orb and set my hand on it. A screen appeared in front of me as soon as I touched it.

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Dungeon Core(Repurposed): Level 1

Dungeon Master(Temporary): Jason Nellis

Dungeon Size: 6 tiles

Funds: 5 Bronze

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Below the Dungeon status were options for the crop store, general store, dungeon expansions. There were more options farther down but all were grayed out and titled, 'Insufficient Level' so I had no idea what there were. The general store had meal bars and other luxuries to make my life easier, though I couldn't afford any of it. The dungeon expansion allowed me to add more 'tiles' to my area but the price for that was too much to consider. An expansion of two tiles cost ten silver and would change the tile grid to a four by two, a three tile expansion cost fourteen silver changing the tile grid to a three by three.

I could eventually repurpose the tiles, but that was also grayed out so I had no idea what I could do with each tile. In some ways this place reminded me of a game I played before, just more imprisoning with no contact with neighbors.

I opened the crop store option.

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Crops Available

Blue Dandelion - 5/10 Bronze

Red Grass - 10/17 Bronze

Blue Grass - 12/21 Bronze

Neglism - 20 Bronze/ Varies

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I focused on the Neglism which was the crop I had planted outside.

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Neglism - a dangerous plant the invokes and feeds off of negative emotions. A useful component in creating status cures and poisons. The quality of the negative emotions determine the fruitfulness of the harvest. Lowest quality Neglism pods sell at 5 Iron while the highest quality have been sold for Gold. Caution to farmers, negative emotions evoked by Neglism can cause depression, bursts of extreme rage, jealousy, greed, suicide, murder, and in some cases apathy so extreme the farmer in question remained in a vegetative state until he died of natural causes.

Neglsim will begin to invoke and absorb negative emotions shortly after sprouting. Once Neglism begins to absorb negative emotions it will no longer need to be watered. Neglism is harvestable only after absorbing sufficient negative emotions to produce lowest quality seed pods.

Neglism is only recommended to be grown once, as all memories and thoughts used to create the negative emotions fed to the Neglism will no longer invoke negative emotions.

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The descriptions for the other plants were much simpler describing the kind of soil it liked and how long it would take to grow. Given the soil I had outside the Blue Dandelion was my only choice besides Neglism.

There were harvest guides that came with the crops, and besides the seed pods, almost everything else on the plant could be used or sold. A reduction of the sap that wasn't available for sale as it had no shelf life interested me as the consumer would gain permanent increase to their to status effect resistance.

The warnings that went along with the crop scared me a little.

Unfortunately with the long growth time of Blue Dandelion, twelve hours, which was short compared to the growing time of Red and Blue Grass which was one day, made it impossible to save any money as I still needed to eat.

I shook my head as I realized that I was considering a twelve hour growth time as long. What plant grew in twelve hours? Or even a single day? The specialness of the tools was warping my concept of normal. I wasn't sure if I should be happy I was adapting so quickly or scared that I was devolving into insanity.

Shaking my head I decided not to think about it for now.

The Neglism was my only chance for extra cash. As I was sure I couldn't escape I hoped I could find something else in the upgrade options, or at the very least make my life a little more comfortable. There was a pretty comfy looking bed in the general store for three iron.

More importantly given the choices available to me in the store, whoever put me here wanted me to grow the plant. That or spend the rest of my time constantly growing Blue Dandelion and living off of what little I could get from the profit made on those.

Satisfied that I remembered the information about Neglism correctly I moved to sit on the cot then closed my eyes. I could try and sleep but I didn't bother. I had already slept a lot since arriving. There wasn't much else to do. Watering could only be done every two hours. I had watered the Blue Dandelions every two hours once before, there had been no change in the final harvest so I didn't bother now. I would try again in two hours with the Neglism because I needed to feed it my negative emotions for it to grow. I had plenty of those. How I got here, my girlfriend, my parents, and if that wasn't enough I was sure I could come up with a few more.

Then again as dangerous as the Neglism sounded the last line in the description sounded like the ultimate therapy session. Maybe that was the real reason I had chosen to grow it, though the extra money was definitely a close second. This cot didn't even have a pillow.