The dark and smooth stone walls that surrounded Skuggir had no holes or exits to be seen except for a pair of towering doors not too different from those he saw in what formerly John, thought was hell, or something similar.
after his brief inspection of the cave, the hologram appeared before him again and this time its words were directly said into his mind and displayed before him "Providing memories of the world" was all Skuggir heard before his mind felt like it was ripped forward and placed into a birds view of the world as many era's passed and civilizations fell. Each civilization was like a blink in existence, the marks they left barely noticeable by the time life flourished again.
The speed slowed as the view dived onto a mountain with a plateau, where the construction of a small town was being built around a tall and familiar pair of doors... his doors.
the town grew into a small city, it resisted invasions and eventually had a palace built among other grand structures, its building now leaking down the side of the mountain, and magical towers erecting themselves, but the doors never opened.
Suddenly His view was yanked back into his own body, and if he had a fleshing body he would barf.
[Hello Skuggir! A little message from the three of us up here. we gave you this little cheat based on your past choices. youare a minor lich and the dungeons core is your phylactery. it's the blue gem in your ribcage. Have fun! - Loki]
I'm a minor lich? whats diffrent from a normal lichee. Skuggir thought as he messed with the perfect sphere of deep aquamarine, his bony hands gliding across its surface. As the message faded it was replaced with a menu, what the divine trio must have meant as their gift.
navigating the menu like a pro due to its videogame-like format, Skuggir explored each tab. [home] showed his stats and the current state of the Dungeon, currently displayed as dormant. the [Map] tab showed a small over with a door on one side and a red dot in the center, must be me. [Store] had a variety of things to purchase, but most of them were greyed out. his only current options were a pickaxe, skeleton minions, and false treasure. and lastly was a tab called [bank], its sole purpose seemed to be to steal all his money as it only offers loans and no way to store money.
seeing no other choice, Skuggir immediately went into debt. obtaining a loan that gave 1000 gold with an interest of 10% every month and bought a squad of four skeletons and pickaxes for each.
commanding them to mine through a series of mouth clacks, Skuggir noticed an unintended benefit of picking skeletons. a Skelton's need for food was a benefit, or its lack of need. This meant that not only would there be no unexpected resource use and overhead but the skeletons would not need any rest from working!
Picking up a pickaxe himself, they all spent the next few days clearing out two rooms and a hallway connecting them. During these few days, the growing cave was filled with noises of bone-on-bone clacking, while simple Skeletons were not mindless.
Skuggir appreciated the chatter and even bounced ideas for how to make money, which he had to explain to them so that they could gain more friends.
one of the skeletons, Clacker as he had been called, gave the idea of inviting people in and killing them. this was the same conclusion Skuggir had come to but he was slightly apprehensive of killing humans, but with no other choice he went back into the shop and purchased three swords, two bows with quivers, and a staff for himself. After the purchase, they all appeared before him in a wooden box.
The three swords were shoddy at best their blades chipped till they looked more like a design choice than wear and tear. The bow was made of literal twigs some leaves still connected and the arrows were the only thing of decent quality. The magic staff sitting by itself was a slightly thicker tree branch that came to a point like a spear.
picking the swords up, Skuggir Menu appeared again and asked Skugirr if he would like to become a fighter and gain the appropriate skills, picking up each weapon, Skuggir got an option of an archer and mage as well. Skuggir immediately picked the mage as in his mind, Magic Promised adventure and new experiences.
with his newfound class, his status in the [home] Tab was updated, showing not just the class but also his new magic spells and his mana bank which seemed disproportionately high. it also showed a dungeon level.
My mana must have something to do with being a minor lich.
Inspecting his new spells Skuggir Read their names and descriptions.
[Flame] - Start a fire above your hand. more mana means more fire.
[Breeze] - Blow a slight breeze in the direction you cast.
[Mold Earth] - Move the earth within the area you can see.
[Ice spear] - Make and launch a spear of ice.
The [Ice spear] will be handy later, but I can use the [Mould earth] now! Excited to improve the monotonous process of mining the cave, Skuggir moved the stone in great volume. The moved earth hollowed out another room and was put into pillar shapes in the other rooms. This took almost half of Skuggir's mana pool and he felt mentally drained even without a brain to tire!
must have something to do with my rapid use of mana, maybe I will get used to it like a muscle.
hanging out the new weapons to each Skeleton and buying 5 new skeletons to continue working, Skuggir prepared his skeletons to face some intruders. telling them of the dangers of magic and even having them spar against each other in mock battles two vs two style with the last one spectating and trying to figure out what they did wrong!
when it was finally time, Skuggir opened the dungeon gates to individuals above 12 and no stronger than the average human back on Earth. in terms of the world outside, only F-rank adventures would be allowed inside the dungeon.
--- Chapters 1-3 revised for clarity on 8/9/24