Grand Discovery

  Jim looked at the core, then to Lorem, and then back at the core. The two had planned to acquire a core, but never suspected John would just hand them one ready to go. Jim pushed a little essence into the core and accepted the role of Dungeon Master. A glowing ball appeared. Jim received a prompt asking what he should name the dungeon. He could only think of one name. Bessie.

  “Hello, Bessie. What configurations for travel do you currently have? Do you have any abilities to locate resources? And what course of action do you recommend we take with your upgrade options?”

  “I have a relatively high speed flight design and a couple ground transport designs. I also have the necessary schematics and resources for a basic aerial combat configuration and both mobile and stationary ground combat.” Bessie paused and Jim sensed her focusing on Lorem. “Sir, are you aware of the entirely evil nature of your book companion?”

  Jim nodded and said, “Yep.” Lorem winked at the dungeon core that just sat there glowing for a few seconds before it continued.

  “Uh…Ok. As long as he doesn’t eat me, I guess that’s okay. I’ve been known to be a little naughty at times. This one time at Dungeon Training Camp, I …” Bessie started, but Jim interrupted her to get her back on topic.

  “Bessie. Resource recon and course of action?” Jim asked.

  “Oh, yes. I can sense resources depending on the quantity and strength up to five miles away unless I'm traveling at high speed. In that case, I will only sense the highest quality resources. I cannot suggest a course of action without knowing your intent, master.”

  Jim seemed to think. “Well, we’ll save as many humans as we can. Provide them with some training opportunities to keep them from bothering us too much. When the invasion comes, we’ll find out what John, Drake, and Siegemaster are planning and see how we can fit ourselves into their plan. We need to make sure you can protect yourself first and foremost. The book there can handle anything native to this planet pretty easily, but we don’t want someone stealing you away.”

  Bessie glowed brightly. “Sounds like fun. Don’t worry about me. I was able to inherit some high level defenders from Sparkie. But if someone stole me, couldn’t you just…” Bessie cut off mid sentence as Jim quickly added some commands in his interface limiting what the core could say about him. Lorem looked suspiciously at the two. He was becoming suspicious of why Jim seemed strangely proficient at times and there was the whole scenario of an old man living by himself up in the mountains during a planet’s integration.

  The book was once again attempting to analyze the low level miner to figure out what he really was when Bessie continued. “Oh, Ok. Oh…I know what we could do. Dreadnought weapon platform. We can start with low level weapons and take on targets of opportunity to level the humans we acquire. The data I received during training mentioned a continent almost entirely taken over by beasts excluding a few enclaves controlled by warlords. That would be a good place to level our people’s weapon’s skills before the invasion.”

  Jim nodded. “I’m fine with that. I assume you can handle the upgrade selection? Just keep it in mind that we plan on going exploring the universe as soon as the invasion is over. Let’s go with the flying configuration for now.” The dungeon transformed into a ship that reminded Jim of the old time stealth fighters that were actually bombers. When Bessie opened a portal, he stepped through with the book floating behind him.

  Once inside he began emptying his inventory of pretty much everything he had that he didn’t think he’d need. Lorem floated around the plain walled room examining the structure while the brightest part of Bessie’s nearly translucent orb followed the book’s movement, wisely not trusting Lorem.

  Jim finished emptying out his pockets and announced, “All that is for you, Bessie.” He laughed when he saw Lorem’s eyes go wide and then a pout formed on his face, obviously noticing that Jim had just freely given ore, equipment, and other resources containing much more essence than what Jim had allowed him to absorb during his entire time on this planet.

  Pulling out a copy of a world map Jim had acquired, he asked Bessie, “If you absorb it, will you be able to add the data to your map?”

  Bessie’s orb floated closer and she excitedly said, “Africa. That’s the place I heard would make a good hunting ground. Sparkie gave me an updated world map, but extra data never hurts. Two dimensional maps are often lacking in accuracy. I assume the path you marked is the route we want to take?”

  Jim nodded. “Keep your speed to where you can detect any resources that would be easy for you to absorb. Is there an upgrade path that will allow us to send humans to Sparkie?”

  Bessie took a few seconds to respond before saying, “Sparkie should have it shortly, but I will need time to absorb a significant amount of essence before I can purchase the required upgrades.”

  “Make that our priority. How do you upgrade your creatures?” Jim asked.

  “We have the standard Drake dungeon creature training going at all times. I’ve put a heavier focus on humanoids fighting from defensive positions against horde opponents. Sparkie purchased some basic insectomorph templates to use for training. We estimated our current abilities to be below what is necessary to hold off the first invasion force, but will be more than ready to defend ourselves by the time they launch their attacks.” Bessie explained.

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  *****

  Slightly disappointing the new inhabitants of the dungeon, Drake had left what the locals called Canada to head south along the eastern coast to begin absorbing the cities located there. After seeing John's methods, some of his newly acquired people were spreading the word of the dungeons course and expected arrival times so residents in smaller communities could make their way to the larger cities.

  Everything was going smoothly, but Drake was annoyed. He had some motivated people jumping into training, but he had far too many people who seemed to think their path would be event coordination, poetry reading, interior design, or arts and crafts with the emphasis on art instead of producing useful items. To put it mildly, he was getting frustrated.

  Finally having enough, he rose and looked at the representatives who had gathered to provide their feedback. “You are not understanding. We will need every one of you ready to defend yourselves in order to beat the invasion. You are not going to be able to just hide in the dungeon and let it do all the work.”

  “But…” one of the pink haired representatives tried to say, but Drake cut them off.

  “No buts. If you are not willing to train and prepare yourselves to defend your planet, I’ll let you die. Horribly. Over and over until you come begging for me to assist you in training to defend yourselves. Only the skilled and strong have any control over their lives under the system. You don’t have to become warriors, but you need to learn and level skills to defend yourself and those that you love.”

  John knew he had laid it on a little thick, but he had lived through too many planets where the majority hid behind the strong until the real powers came in and took away the strong and mined the essence from the planets leaving them weak and futureless. Back in the empire, as it spread he had always had the dragons, gummy, the travellers, and the noteworthy residents of Homeworld to light a fire under the new residents behinds. John loved helping those that sought to improve themselves, but dealing with this… lack of motivation was not his cup of tea.

  *****

  Bessie slowed as she pinpointed the essence source her scanners had picked up. Lorem and Jim were training. Well….actually Jim was singing and dancing while Lorem leveled his spells on hordes of dungeon creatures. As Bessie evaluated the source while also watching the two, she began to realize that Jim almost seemed to purposely put himself at risk making things more difficult for the book. Well, seemingly at risk. Nothing could hurt her master unless he chose to allow it to.

  “Master. I seem to have found something interesting.”

  Jim stopped hopping around like a drunken monkey and singing something about hearing him roar. “Let me see.” Bessie opened a projection for him with data she had acquired. Jim took the image and zoomed out. After a few motions to expand the image, he said, “Ahh…the Grand Canyon. There were always rumors about the government hiding the ruins of an advanced ancient civilization there. Get us as close as you can and we’ll go the rest of the way on foot.”

  Bessie shrunk her size down and worked her way into the deep canyons. Jim and Lorem teleported up to the control room/bridge that housed Bessie’s core. Bessie opened projections for them to observe the dungeon ship’s surroundings. Locations along the wall highlighted and Bessie announced that they appeared to house sensors that were no longer functional. Jim had her maneuver closer and absorb them in case the technology proved useful in the future.

  The process was quick as she spread her influence over the alcoves hiding the sensors before absorbing them, gaining information on their function and purpose. The designs were a bit crude relying on a form of lightning essence, but they had parts that were rather ingenious. She kept part of her mind reviewing the schematics absorbing them had produced as the trio worked their way through the canyons.

  Bessie highlighted some projectile weapons and spoke up, “There is a cave hidden behind a wall beneath the launcher locations.” Jim had her continue absorbing everything of interest and the concrete covering the entrance. A short distance in, Bessie stopped. The way was barred by a metal wall. An essence enhanced metal wall that was not something that could have been produced on the essence locked planet.

  “Before you absorb it, let me and Lorem take a close look at it.” Jim said. Bessie opened a portal. Before stepping through, Jim froze and asked, “Uh, Bessie. How big are you right now? And will there be room for me in the cave?”

  “Oh. I’m about one tenth normal size for this design. You should fit easily in the cave.” Bessie answered. Jim stepped through the portal with Lorem hot on his heels. Bessie lit the area up and Jim looked around at the rough walls rising twenty feet high on either side of the cave.

  He walked forward and asked Lorem, “What can you tell me about the metal?”

  Lorem moved closer to it and Jim could feel essence moving from the book to the wall. “It appears to be an alloy made from copper and tin. Greatly enhanced with essence. The metal itself isn’t that impressive, but the amount of enhancement is.” Lorem said after a few seconds. “I found a control panel on the other side.”

  The metal began folding back up on itself. Jim grabbed the book and held it in front of himself like a shield and backed away from the doorway edging closer to the nearest wall. Bessie had shrunk down to a floating ball of glowing metal and hovered behind him. “What are you doing?” Lorem asked.

  “Don’t just open ancient doorways made with unknown technology. You never know what could be behind it, you dimwit.” Jim said as he released Lorem as the book floated away and through the doorway. The cave changed into a hallway with the ceiling, floors, and walls lined with a mostly red stone.

  “Tezontle Azonite.” Lorem announced as he focused a blast of wind down the hall to blow out the dust and sent a light floating down it to where it ended twenty five meters away and the cave opened up into a larger cavern. The book flew forward to have a look into the deeper cavern with Jim and Bessie cautiously following behind. “Pyramids. Essence concentrating. Unable to determine further function. I think…yeah, it has to be. There is an exposed essence vein deeper in the cavern.”

  After Jim let Lorem hover out there alone for a few seconds, he and the core followed him. When Jim stepped out, nothing happened, but when the core moved into the larger chamber, Lorem spoke up. “Something is … Get back.” The book shouted as the tips of different weapons held by statues lit up and beams of essence shot towards the trio.

  Jim jumped toward the exit grabbing Bessie in his arms. Lorem quickly broke the essence rays down and absorbed their energy, but he missed one that hit Jim between the shoulder blades as he shielded Bessie while attempting to rush away. The human was sent flying towards the opening to bounce off the frame surrounding the entrance to the hallway they had walked down.

  Jim screamed out in pain as he curled his body around the core. Lorem quickly dismantled and absorbed the ray and shielded the two. Jim laid their moaning for a few seconds before unfurling and frantically checking Bessie for damage. “Bessie? Are you okay?” He asked.

  “Yes. Master.” Bessie said appreciative of the fact that Jim had shielded her. Lorem just looked confused at Jim who the book had noticed through their link hadn’t taken any damage from the powerful ray.

  Continuing to keep his body between the core and the defenses, Jim walked back down the hallway. “Let’s back out and just absorb the whole compound. Lorem, since you saved us, you can have one side of the hallway.”

  Lorem looked at the wall with a greedy smile, but hesitated to absorb anything. “Shouldn’t we let the dungeon have it all so it can advance?” the book asked. Jim was at first shocked that the hungry book didn’t jump at a chance to absorb the rich material, but then he looked down the hallway and back suspiciously at the book.

  “You sensed something down there that you want to absorb and are scheming to get me to let you have it?” Jim asked.

  “We’ve got a young dungeon that needs…” the book started, but Jim’s scoff told him lying was useless. “Yes.” the book said, shrugging his eyebrow bones.

  Jim rolled his eyes and said, “Okay. We’ll talk about it after Bessie has added it to her territory. No promises though. You can still have the side panels, but leave the gate for the dungeon.” Lorem began greedily absorbing the essence rich material as he followed the dungeon core and the human down the hallway and past the gate.