NOVEL FROG 4 – The classic technique of ignoring problems until they go away. Surely this can’t backfire on me
With Faellen currently, ahem, indisposed of (read: in a fit of rage), I had a bit of time to focus on other things. Mainly, the new quest I got for completing the first part of Burgeoning Dungeon.
Quest: Burgeoning Dungeon 2
With your basic Dungeon established, it’s time to expand. There are many types of Dungeons out there, but one feature is a staple in all of them. Rooms!
Objective: Construct a second room
Reward: Burgeoning Dungeon 3
Don’t call my Dungeon basic, bitch!
Excuse me, I don’t know what came over me. Anyway.
How do I go about doing this? I guess the first step would be to pick which direction to expand in. But since there’s no gravity here, it doesn’t really matter.
I pick a random spot on the wall and begin pushing with the Control ability. Maybe normal Dungeons would use Destroy to tunnel into the earth and claim new areas, but since I’m in deep space, there’s nothing there to destroy.
Instead, I push material that’s already there into the shape I want, and when I begin to run out of material I use Create to make more of it, which I then stretch further, and so on and so on. It’s not exactly fast, but not even a minute into it I already have a sizeable divot into the wall.
Annoyingly enough, Ignore That keeps activating throughout the whole process. For an Ability that’s named like that it sure doesn’t want to be ignored.
My work seems to interest Faellen, as it flies over to the spot I’m working on and begins inspecting it. At least that’s what I think is happening, but really I just see the fairy fly about the slowly forming tunnel.
Damn, I can’t take this any more.
“Faellen? How do I silence System notifications?”
It startles a bit, as if interrupted from a state of deep focus, before speaking, “Huh, oh, right. Just think about it real hard and the System should acquiescence.”
I do that and, surprisingly enough, it works. I’m not actually sure why I’m surprised though. I can bring up my menus with just a though, don’t know why this would be any different.
Finally, I can concentrate on tunnelling without being interrupted every couple of seconds. Or not.
“In general, that’s how the System functions,” Feallen continues, “if it’ll do something, usually you just have to want it. What was annoying you so much you had to mute it, by the way?”
“Just the same stupid message about an Ability activation.”
“Oh, which one? I can see you’re using Control and Create right now, but conscious use shouldn’t notify you each time you use it.”
“Ignore That.”
“Okay!”
“No, no. That’s the name of the Ability. You know, the one that forced the System to not abort a bunch of processes, bringing you here being one of them.”
“Ah, of course. That one,” a slight, suspicious, pause, “Hold on, why is it activating? Actually, why did it activate beforehand?”
“I don’t know. It just tells me it activated.”
“Bring up the old messages, dipshit. The circumstances around the earlier activations should help us figure it out.”
“You can do that?”
“Of course you can. Now get to it.”
remembering what Faellen said earlier, I think real hard at the System to give me the old notifications.
Missing resources, can’t establish Dungeon
Aborting process
Ignore That activated!
And then.
Missing resources, can’t use Create.
Aborting process.
Ignore That activated!
And then again.
No Dungeon Fairy found in System area.
Aborting process.
Ignore That activated!
And then one last time.
Candidate unable to be move to present location.
Aborting process.
Ignore That activated!
Disregarding the latter two, since I’m pretty sure those are about reaching through time, I instead focus on the earlier two. And the answer is right there, staring me in the face. Missing resources.
“It just says missing resources. Which is weird, because isn’t Create supposed to make resources?”
This, apparently, only earns me sigh from Faellen.
“You can’t make something from nothing, at least not at the lower levels. And as a Dungeon you likely won’t be capable of it even at the higher levels.”
“...why not?” I ask, disappointed. Honestly, it would be really cool to violate the foundations of physics like that.
“Because as a Dungeon Core, your role in the ecosystem is to repurpose mana. Like trees refresh air for animals, you refresh mana fro everyone else. Which brings me to your missing resources. I should have realized it sooner, but it does make sense. Basically, mana isn’t everywhere, it gathers at according to something similar to gravity. And while ‘mana gravity’ isn’t the same as gravity, there’s a strong correlation between them.”
“Oh, and since we’re in deep space with no strong sources of gravity nearby, there’s no mana here?” I finish the thought.
“Correct. Damn, this’ll be a huge pain in the ass.” Faellen falls into thought
for a little bit, then speaks, “You keep working on this Dungeon quest-line for now, keep me updated on your progress, while I try to figure something out. Judging by your lack of any other material other than Dungeon stone, I doubt this will be the only problem.”
After that, the formerly inquisitive fairy stops paying attention to my tunnel and adopts a pondering pose, all the while aimlessly floating around my Core Room.
With that, I can finally give my full concentration to my tunnelling efforts. That causes a significant increase in construction speed, and it shouldn’t be long now until I have my first proper room done.