Singer debated telling them everything. He really did for once. Yet still his trust issues got in the way. It shouldn't have mattered this time. No matter how real they seemed they were just video game characters after all. Even if that wasn't the case they were bound by a blood pact now right? He still couldn't bring himself to trust them enough to tell the truth, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself. Not after what had happened last time...
"Do we have to keep the Dwarf?" Kovak'g's sudden question broke the awkward silence as Singer tried to make up his mind.
"Lad! I will string you up by the garters and hoist you up the mainsail!" Dagun yelled in response.
"No, I don't think you will." A soft voice growled as a pair of terrifying eyes gleamed in the shadows behind them. Neither Kovak'g or Dagun stood a chance as Colbey's fists came thundering down on their heads. "We are Ka'andan Kin now. The both of you will behave! I hope I don't need to remind the both of you the penalty for dishonoring such an oath."
"Penalty?" Singer raised an eyebrow at that. He hadn't read anything beyond issues with leaving. "I thought you could leave so long as you had the blessing of the others."
Colbey was shocked. How could someone be capable of forming a Ka'andan bond yet not know the restrictions and laws behind it. He explained it with out further question however. "The Ka'andan bond is considered sacred among the people of Sca'arin. So much so it is bound by a series of laws set by the gods themselves. Leaving with the blessing of the others means the others sacrifice their own growth for the one. They are still bonded to each other after the one leaves which means they can grow together again. I hope you can understand why such a thing doesn't happen often. Discourse amongst the group will cause a loss of experience and strength. Harmony naturally will increase it."
"If you start spouting friendship is magic I'm outa here." Singer interrupted with a snide quip. The glare Colbey gave him shut him up instantly.
"There are many more layers of intricacy to the Ka'andan bond. But the most important is the strength of the bond. Best as I can tell the emotions we all shared brought us close enough together that whatever ability you have was triggered to create the bond. Now we have to make that bond we shared more permanent." Colbey looked down at the dwarf and orc as he said those last words. Singer thought for a moment about what Colbey had said before he asked his next question.
"Okay, but what makes you think I did this?" Colbey looked at him in response clearly finding something humorous.
"I am one of the highest level individuals in this mountain. I would be a rather poor Magii if I couldn't recognize someone using magic, and blood magic at that." Everyone's eyes went wide at that, Singer included. Kovak'g and Dagun to find out Singer could use blood magic and Singer to find out Colbey could tell.
"I uh... ah..." Singer stuttered as he tried to come up with an excuse. But in the end all he could do was pray they didn't crucify him for it.
"Don't worry kid, I know you didn't do it on purpose. Someone who fights as sloppy as you did back there obviously doesn't know enough to perform ancient secret spells of Sca'arin Blood Priests knowingly. But that still brings up the question of who, or what are you."
Singer didn't know anymore than Colbey did. As far as he knew he was just a regular player stuck in a game world. None of his traits or abilities accounted for things except maybe the books he had found. He made a mental note to look over them again later, but for now he needed to figure out what they were going to do next. Colbey however seemed to already have an answer for that.
"The lot of you are going to need some serious training. But first you need to get this town up to par." He grinned menacingly at Kovak'g and Dagun as he paused. "That includes figuring out how to get the Dwarves and Orcs to get along." Both balked at that but quickly shut up with a quick glare from Colbey.
"That's great and all." Singer stepped in again as Kovak'g and Dagun headed off to their respective groups. "But, seeing as I'm going to have to figure out how to run a Dungeon and an Hearth all at the same time, what do you intend to be doing?"
"I still have some resting to be doing as I'm not yet fully recovered from that infection." Colbey grinned as he waved a bottle of rum for Singer to see. Singer sighed holding back the urge to cry. He knew he was gonna end up with a drunkard for a trainer.
After Colbey left, Singer looked up at the ceiling with an even greater sigh. But it had to be done.
"BIS can you hear me here?"
"Of course I can hear you flesh bag. Nice to see you finally deemed me worth your attention again." Singer was shocked to hear the dungeon core's voice out loud again but then remembered this area was technically part of the dungeon now.
"BIS, we can't be at each others throats like this all the time anymore. We have responsibilities now. Besides haven't I shown myself to be a good Dungeon Lord even if neither of us intended it. I opened up new territory for you, gained new functions, and let's not forget the Frost Stinger imprint I got you."
"Froooost Stiiinger..." BIS's voice practically drooled in response.
"BIS!" Singer was starting to get impatient. He had a metric ton to get done and he still needed to figure out how things worked.
"Fine... but I'm still making fun of you out loud when others are around. See I can compromise to." Singer paled at that. That wasn't compromise. Sadly with BIS's personality that was the best he was likely to get for a while.
"Great, so first things first, time to look under the sheets." Singer pulled up his interface and clicked the symbol for the Dungeon Lord.
"Ooh that tickles."
"BIS!"
"Sorry..."
"Okay so what am I looking at?" Singer asked as he scrolled idly through the Dungeon Lord menu.
"Well to be honest some of this is still new to me as well since it wasn't included in my data banks. If you look at the top you will see a cave symbol and a fire pit symbol. The first one is the dungeon core menu while the second will be your hearth menu. I doubt I'll be of much help with that second one, so you're on your own there." Singer nodded understandingly as BIS continued.
Under the dungeon core menu you will see the current available monsters we can summon as well as the modifications we can make. Summoning them at older ages and in stronger forms will cost us more dungeon points than summoning newborns to be born in the hatchery."
"We have a hatchery?" Singer interrupted at that. He hadn't remembered coming across anything like that on his way through the tunnels.
"Whose the one explaining things here, me or you? Good now shut up and listen." Singer almost balked at that but let the dungeon core continue. "We can also speed up growth rates as well as enhance existing units by spending dungeon points. In some situations this can be cheaper if combined with proper training and environments, though more time consuming." BIS paused momentarily seemingly to take a breath. Did dungeon cores even breath? Singer wondered.
"We already discussed how new monsters can be obtained. Now while the dwarves, orcs and goblins are new units, we can not create more on our own. They will have to reproduce naturally as dungeons aren't allowed to create intelligent humanoid species. Restrictions by the gods or some such having to do with access to hero souls. In any case, if you check next to the units menu you will see a structures menu. There you can upgrade our functionalities and unlock new units through the right structures. From here you can also access the dungeon map where you may take a more hands on approach to expanding and building things yourself."
"I'll let you handle that one for now."
"Huh, not as dumb as you look." Singer scowled at the spot he imagined BIS's presence was at that comment but let him continue.
"From the map you can also see nearby tunnels and cavern pockets as well as resources that are near my area of influence." Singer smiled at that. It would be a handy feature in the near future. "Any dungeon alerts from attacks, natural disasters etc will also appear on this map. Additionally as Dungeon Lord you may use my crystal room to remote view any part of the dungeon in emergencies. Which means no peaking at hard wooden rods with the remote viewer."
"I'm gonna kill you BIS!" Singer yelped at that last bit.
"Well that's what you get for not including me in the Ka'andan." Quipped the dungeon core in obvious irritation.
"You don't even have any blood for a blood oath!"
"Well whose fault is that for not letting me bathe in their blood." At this point BIS began laughing much to Singer's embarrassment as he realized BIS had only been messing with him again.
Singer let that one slide mostly to hide his own embarrassment as he opted to ask his next question instead.
"You mentioned before about dungeons evolving. On top of that when the Hearth was added it said new options were added due to Primal Elemental Spirits?"
"Actually that was rather lucky. If you check the tree symbol you can see our evolutionary branches we can take as we level up. Thanks to the Primal Spirits that resided in the Hearth territory we now have some potentially powerful options. Of course we have to level up first to do that."
"Okay two things, what are Primal Elemental Spirits, and how do we level up?"
"Primal Elemental Spirits are ancient elementals that have reached a spirit state. It is said they rule over the elementals and spirits of whatever region they watch over serving as a sort of judge or monarch as necessary. It would seem we are extremely lucky as three Primal Elemental Spirits merged here to create the Spirit Tree which I suspect is likely more powerful than a standard spirit tree formed from normal spirits merging. As for leveling, there are multiple paths we may take. Naturally exploration and expansion are one such path. It can be rather time consuming and resource heavy however. Adding new structures, loot and monsters to our dungeon will also increase our level over time. However above all the most effective means of leveling a dungeon is through combat. Defeating trespassers, adventurers, heroes..." BIS's voice began to get sultry again with more than a hint of pleasure and drool around the edges of his voice.
"I.." Singer paused mid response as a mail symbol began flashing wildly on his interface. Singer was shocked as he had assumed that was part of the Elemental Arts Interface. Curiously he clicked on it to open its contents.
Hey Trash!
If you're reading this it means you survived the traveler purge somehow. I don't know how you pulled it off but you better believe we are coming for you. This world belongs to Thug Force. We won't allow trash losers like you to ruin what's rightfully ours. Get ready cause you're dead meat, trash!
~KillsT0ns
Singer blanched as he read the letter. If what he was reading was correct then that meant there were others in this world trying to kill him. Not only that but it seemed like he may not have been trapped here from a bug, but rather by sabotage.
"Oh shit!"