And so, a new day dawned. A good night’s rest cleared my head right up, so I put the futon away in my inventory, then opened the DP Catalog to look for something to eat for breakfast.
Speaking of the inventory system, I found its operating mechanism fascinating. Activating it opened a rift in the air near you, and you’d just shove whatever you wanted to store into it. After trying it out earlier, I’d wondered how I’d be able to take things out of my inventory. The moment I’d had that thought, a list of inventory items popped into my mind. All I had to do was scroll mentally through the list, then stick my hand into the rift to grab whatever it was I wanted. Can you say “convenient”?
By the way, you’re probably wondering how I, in a windowless room, knew that it was the next day, or that it was time for breakfast and not lunch, or about the existence of time at all. Get this: the top-right corner of the menu screen showed the date and time. When I first saw that, I almost thought I was actually in a game. Then I realized that the menu was just based on a game I knew. I guess you could call that a reality check.
Anyway, back to business. I chose bacon and toast for breakfast, then planted my butt on the throne since there was nowhere else to sit. I ate restlessly as the wheels turned in my head trying to figure out how I could get more Dungeon Points. The thousand I’d started off with seemed like it was the default amount, but it was my only lifeline. So, rightfully, it made me kinda anxious that the only direction that number went was down.
There were four ways to get more DP: having monsters I didn’t summon in the dungeon’s territory (stronger monsters gave more DP), killing intruders in the dungeon’s territory (stronger intruders gave more DP), turning monsters’ corpses or other items into energy in the dungeon’s territory (stronger items gave more DP), and passive generation (a stronger dungeon produced more DP).
Just looking at the options made it obvious that the most efficient way to increase my DP was through monsters. Seemed ironic that the dungeon had summoned a caretaker—me—so it wouldn’t be killed by monsters, but then the dungeon lord—still me—had to rely on those monsters to make a living.
This had to have been survival of the fittest in action, seeing as the dungeon was alive too. The circle of life was truly inescapable, huh? And as for option four, passive generation, I only got one dungeon point every three hours. It was such a negligible amount that there was no way I could rely on it. Especially not when I didn’t know what would happen going forward.
I knew I had to set up the dungeon as soon as possible so that we could both survive, but there were a few things I still needed to know before I could do that. For starters, what exactly were dungeons and lords? And what did others think of them? It’d help if I knew the actual lay of the land too. I had to learn as much as I could before I made my move, and I had to do it fast. Oh, hey, that’s like conducting market research. Crazy that I remembered something like that from my old life.
In any case, thanks—or maybe no thanks—to the mental wiki the dungeon had forced into my brain, I still didn’t really get what “intruders” were since they were only described from the dungeon’s perspective. According to my wiki, “Intruders are evil beings that come to destroy us.” I mean, technically it wasn’t wrong. Things that try to kill you would be considered evil.
“Well, time to get going.”
Swallowing my last bite of breakfast, I brushed the breadcrumbs off me, then dragged my gaze to the only door in the room. For the time being, I needed to prioritize learning what lay beyond it. I was scared and curious at the same time, but I knew that nothing would change if I didn’t take this first step.
Once I’d tinkered around a bit more in the DP Catalog to get ready, I stood up and started walking across the room. Ever so cautiously, I approached that imposing door. Pulling it open, I saw...
“The hell? A cave?”
A giant cave opened up outside the door. Crystal clear stalactites that looked unbelievably old dangled above and refracted light that beamed in from a small crack in the ceiling. The whole area sparkled like a ballroom lit by a chandelier.
As I kept walking, I saw water collected in a sunken part of the cave. It was so clear and pure that I could see straight through to the bottom. The view almost made me feel like I was in a fairy tale.
Turned out that the door had been created deep inside this cave. The dungeon’s territory was still just that throne room, so it was a natural cave, not something built by the dungeon.
After making sure nobody else was around, I looked toward the cave’s...exit? No, its entrance, where I could see sunlight glowing. My footsteps echoed as I headed for that light, and I could feel the fresh, cool air flowing in. Definitely wouldn’t need an air conditioner in the summertime here.
When I finally reached the entrance, I couldn’t believe my eyes. An endless, clear blue sky stretched out above me. A vast green forest filled up my view below. Wind blew through the trees, rustling the leaves enough that I could hear them if I listened closely. A huge river, sparkling under the sun’s rays, wound through the land.
With a horizon that seemed to go on forever, the visual feast didn’t end there. Soon enough, I found a breathtaking mountain range that pierced straight through the clouds. And way off in the distance peeked a different but no less magnificent blue—the sea? Lastly, at the edge of the infinite sky floated what looked like an island. A waterfall rushed down from it, the sunlight shooting through it and creating a rainbow.
“Wooow...”
Stunned by the gorgeous view, tears unconsciously slipped from the corners of my eyes. Before me lay a mysterious, majestic world I couldn’t even begin to describe. My limited vocabulary would never do it justice.
And I was a part of this world now too. I wasn’t human anymore, and I had wings. I wondered if I’d be able to use them to soar through the beautiful sky soon. Just thinking about it made me giddy.
Oh, side note: my wings were gone right now. I hadn’t been able to fall asleep last night because they were a pain in the ass, so I’d tried to think of a way to make them smaller. While I was testing out different ways to fold them, they’d suddenly disappeared, just like that.
I still didn’t know the extent of my new powers, but I did know that my magic had something to do with the wings. And now I also knew that I could control whether the wings were there or not. So, since last night, I’d been keeping them out of sight. It was reassuring to know that I could control my own body, at least.
After being lost in the view for a while, I snapped back to reality and remembered why I even came out here in the first place: to get the lay of the land. I needed to understand the geography of this world. From the looks of it, I was halfway up a mountain—okay, “halfway” was probably an understatement, considering the view. Realistically speaking, I had to be pretty high up. As for any villages or other signs of life...it looked like nothing was nearby.
Still studying the landscape, I realized that the cave I’d just walked out of was carved into a cliffside. And shit, there was no way down; I had no choice but to go up. With that decision made for me, I headed around the mountain, looking for a way to climb up.