Dungeon Robotics 9 - 5

Evening everyone! It's still Monday! So it still counts! hahaha.

Regan

I massaged the bridge of my nose as I thought about what to do. Vlad either had amnesia or due to the overwhelming damage to his core, he’s basically been reset. I had feared something similar would happen when I destroyed Alara’s core. The reason she was safe after the affect was due to the fact that I protected and maintained her avatar until the core was repaired to a point.

It could be that that knowledge from before his core was shatter might still be there. Evidence to that was in his tone, as even though he physically sounded like a boy. He had the presence of a learned old man. Adding to that the fact that he asked if we were his parents reinforced that idea. If he was completely reset, then he would almost be a blank sheet with little knowledge on mortal matters.

I kneeled in front of the boy. Sadly, my avatar still towered over his form by several centimeters. “Vlad?”

Even if his form was that of a young boy, he didn’t show any fear or anxiety about my towering over him. “This that my name?”

“Yes. Do you remember anything from before?” I asked. It might just be a matter of jogging his memory.

“Remember?” he asked with confusion. “What should I remember? Why?”

I patted his shoulder. “All in good time. For now, just be a good boy and try to remember,” I said with a sigh.

Vlad closed his eyes. I didn’t want to rush him so Alara and I waited for him to decide when to stop. Close to half an hour passed before his eyes flashed open and there was a burst of light from the side of the room. We directed our weapons toward it, but once the light died down lowered them.

A small fairy, a gothic version of Ignea, Lena, and Glint, appeared. She possessed ghost like batwings and bone white pale skin. With a yawn, she stretched like she was waking up after a long nap. “Opal!” Vlad exclaimed excitedly and the fairy flew over to his open arms.

“Did you remember something?” Alara asked excited that he had made progress.

Vlad shook his head. “I only recalled one thing. A name. When I said it in my heart, the fairy appeared.”

“I see,” I said, patting his head then turned my gaze on the tiny fairy. “What about you little one? Do you remember anything from before?”

“I am the dungeon fairy created to help my master. I have only the few seconds and the inherited memories of my forebearers,” Opal said tilting her head to look at us.

I dropped my head to hide my disappointment. I knew that Ignea said there might be unforeseen issues with this type of resurrection as it were. While I was certain that Vlad’s soul was still here. The mind that went with his soul before his core was destroy was gone. Much like when a mortal had their brain damaged but still alive.

I wouldn’t call it right this moment though. There was still the chance that his memories, at least some of them, might recover if he was given time. For now, I would just have to keep an eye on him to make sure that nothing adverse happened as he rebuilt his dungeon. Unlike Alara’s dungeon, he didn’t have to contend with decades of unholy taint buildup in his halls.

I gestured without much thought and created a table for us all to sit at. That’s when I realized I had a faint connection back to my other dungeons. It felt different from my sub-cores and yet different from the bond I had with Alara’s core as well. I rubbed my chin as I pondered it, but looking at the boy decided to worry about it later. At least I wouldn’t have to bind him with a control collar.

“Vlad. I want you to listen as I try to explain your situation.” I tried to use as authoritative a voice as I could. This matter was just that important and it was better for him to be fully aware rather than find out later.

“All Right?”

I tried to smile softly at his nervous tone. “Don’t worry. Believe me when I say that Alara and I are friends.” I quickly created a map. “This is the Eruio Continent…” An hour later, while looking a little pale, Vlad seemed to understand the situation. Being told you technically lived for almost two hundred years before your body was destroyed by some passing demon wasn’t that easy to accept.

“What should I do from here?” Vlad asked holding his head. “I feel there is so much missing.”

“Like I said before. Alara and I will be here to help you through any trouble you might have.”

Alara appeared behind where Vlad sat and wrapped her arms around him. “That’s right Vlad! You can call us mom and dad!” she exclaimed.

I rubbed my head not sure how I felt about that but decided not to go against her decision. It was true in a sense. We both used our mana to repair his core. He wouldn’t exist without either of us being here. My biggest issue was simply the fact that I met Vlad before, and that image was going to overlay him for a while.

“What do you say Opal?” Vlad asked the fairy that was currently sitting of his head.

“Dungeon cores are usually created by two older dungeons ‘retiring’ or permanently using up to or over half of their mana pools to create a brand-new core. While the process was a little… different. It could be said that was what happened here. I see no reason not to go along with it.”

Vlad nodded nearly tossing the fairy from her perch. “Sorry, and I agree.” He looked to the side where Alara was still hugging him. “Mom.” He coughed from the pressure than looked over to me. “Dad.”

“Call me father. I’m a bit more partial to that version.”

Alara squealed with joy before she squeezed the boy even harder in her hug. She released him only to rush me and nearly tackle me with a flying hug. I smiled, glad that she was happy. I knew this wasn’t exactly what she wanted when she said she wanted to create a child, but it would certainly be exciting going forward. Plus, one day we would likely give Vlad a sibling.

~~~

Outside Vlad’s dungeon, I took a deep breath of the morning air. Strange for a machine, but something even in my mechanical form I enjoyed doing. With the combination of the time it spent to reach the core room and the time it took to explain to Vlad. The day had swiftly passed to night and back again to morning.

Alara was going to handle Vlad adjust for the moment. It was going to be a long process. It might actually be easier had be become a blank sheet, but instead he had partial flashes of things he’d done in the past. According to Alara, Vlad had already been considered a senior by the time she was born. Even with just the fingernail sized shard, there were plenty of memories possibly stored inside.

Looking at the mountains, I remembered that there was a portion of the fleet stationed on the other side at the old Dwarven city, Iron Hammer. They were investigating to see if they could find anything of value. Rather than material, what I wanted most was information. I hated the lack of the valuable resource I was currently experiencing.

The records stored at the Gnome city of Jade Wind had several details on the Demon wars, including many of the methods used to fight back. Sadly, the damage the city received due to the core overload and the impromptu teleportation rendered most of the information gone to the specters of time. What I had managed to gather was from the librarians of the records that escaped the city with the rest of the gnome population.

Deciding to check in on the group heading the search, I sent a message to Alara on what I was doing and jumped into the sky. Circumventing the mountains by flying around the ocean, I took in the distant maelstrom. Another mystery that I needed to unravel before our guests from the demon world arrived.

I already knew that it was artificially created. The question was who and why. The only facts that I knew where that Murgin was some sort of prison for increasingly dangerous individuals. Modderm, Teriso, the Sovereign element, the original. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an even more dangerous individual locked in the maelstrom.

Turning back to the continent once passed the mountains, I made for the fleet stationed here. Most had been pulled into the battle with Glorious, but a few of the smaller ones that weren’t much help in a fight like that were still here. With their network, most of the lower tier automata shared information with ease making it so that one automaton knew what the others did so long as they were able to access a node.

It was how the term ‘Selected’ got around to all the automata. It was also something they mostly created themselves. I had placed the groundwork for something similar but the smarter automata had enhanced it. Once I learned of it, I made sure to check it over to make sure they couldn’t betray me like the ones on Earth did. For the time being, it was a good thing.

After quarter of an hour, the detachment from the fleet came into view. Three ships that were roughly a hundred meters long each with sharp metal hulls. They hovered over the center of the city that stretched as far as the eye could see. Thinking about it, it made sense that Rin, the girl that my automata saved from the north, and her family had been able to hold out here. It was virtually a maze and undead weren’t that smart without a necromancer to assist them.

I came to a stop over the lead ship and descended onto the deck. One of the scientists paused the work he was doing and moved over to greet me. “Machine Father. A pleasure to have you visit us.”

“The pleasure is mine.” I glanced around there were at least a dozen of the scientists, models based off Jarvis, working on this ship. From appearances, they looked quite excited. “Find something?”

“Oh yes! We finally found the mine that had to be the reason this place grew to this level.”

“Mithril like we expected?”

“Yes, and much more. We are still checking the data, but we believe there was a vein of adamantine.”

“Was?” I asked. I would kill to get my hands on a source of adamantine. It required more Adherent mana then I liked to part with to create it in my dungeon.

“We have readings for the signature mana structure that makes up your adamantium, but all we are detecting is residual. We are certain that the metal was here. We just can’t be sure that there is any more to be mined.”

“I understand. Make sure to study the properties of the mine. If we can track places of similar make up, we might be able to find more natural veins. Or create a mine that will do the heavy lifting for me.” Never underestimate what a dungeon can do, I thought with a chuckle.

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