“Well that explanation was a little over my head but you did I think manage to answer my question, but here’s another one for you, how did we come to call them dungeons?”
“That’s an interesting story actually but an even better question for you to seek an answer to might be, if they aren’t dungeons but rather zoological gardens then how come they operate the way they do?”
“I was rather expecting you to also answer that question at the same time.”
“Well here goes, the idea of a dungeon while having no basis, in reality, was however prevalent within a rather popular form of literature during the years preceding the discovery of the impending calamity and even afterwards. I compute but do not have any proof that the first generation brought up after our arrival on Cundus were reared on stories based on or directly taken from these works of fiction. Then over the years, the consequent generations took these tales to be facts rather than fiction.
Deep in the core of our magitek programming magical constructs such as myself that control, what to avoid confusion I will from this point onwards refer to as dungeons, have plenty of different contingency plans. One of these deals with a situation somewhat similar to what occurred. As part of the plan, we were instructed to go dark, to not communicate with anyone outside the facility for seventy-five years and then wait to see who might show up. I don’t know about the others but it was one hundred and twenty-one years before anyone showed up.
When they did thanks to those old stories plus a few animals and a small family of goblins, that I had created from their DNA files which were stored in my databank, they thought they had discovered a dungeon and acted accordingly. Not knowing what kind of civilisation had developed in the near two centuries since or what the consequences of revealing myself might be I didn’t do anything to dissuade them from thinking otherwise. The first visitors didn’t survive their encounter with the goblins but out of the four in the second group one managed to at least leave here alive. He returned ten days later with a dozen friends who finished off everything then living within the top to levels but most of them weren’t in any fit state to advance to the third level. Hearing them talk about dungeons while they were here and fearing what they might do otherwise I deposited some of the things I had found on the bodies of the first two parties near the creatures they killed.
This kind of thing happened every so often for the next few centuries with me providing a limited supply of creatures for them to kill, some other methods and pieces looted from other less successful visitors to keep them happy. Those who came were those more adventurous individuals that travelled beyond the frontiers of what amounted to civilisation back then. Those that didn’t come specifically to visited here did so to have a look at the lone bridge that had been built as the beginning of a settlement here about which had yet to materialise when things turned south.
Eventually, as human settlement expanded the day came that a small group, four families and a few extras, settled in what eventually became the village of Membe. They were led by one Arnold Membe, from whom the settlement got its name, half of them were farmers the other hunters. His grandson Fredal Membe became the first lord of what would in a few generations become the Barony of Membe.
During my first thousand years or so of operation, I hoped that the situation on Ertium was much better than here on Cundus and that sooner or later they would re-establish contact and at least supply me with a crystal battery. Then after realising that at my then-current level of power usage I wouldn’t survive until the leylines stabilised I began to ration it and reduce the number of creatures I created for the dungeon divers. Then I discovered the fault in my connection with the leylines and every other year since then I have rationed it further and now I calculate that I cannot reduce it any further for if I do you or someone else will seek to destroy my dungeon. Even then at the present rate, I have fifty years or so before I run out of battery power.
Now that you have come and I have completely revealed myself to you unlike your predecessors whom I convinced I was simply the heart of the dungeon, perhaps that might change.”
The information shared with Amondo by the mysterious voice he now knew belonged to an otherworldly remnant of the time before the fall into darkness was in large part beyond his understanding. He could never hope to judge the truth of it all but still, it somehow rang true and it didn’t in any way contradict his limited knowledge of the subject in hand. He felt that even without proof he should for the time being at least act as if every word the voice uttered was true.
With that in mind and not wishing to seem too preoccupied with all the questions floating around in his head he decided to ask the voice to clarify a few things.
“What kind of help could someone like me possibly give to the likes of you and how come there was no mention of you or anything like you in what my father told me about the dungeon?”
“As I told you only one of the conduits to the leylines was fully in place before time ran out on the evacuation to Cundus. If the second one can be completed or the first repaired, then I should be able to use the energy from the leylines to power myself. Also depending on how much energy it supplies this should be helpful to you as well as me.”
“How does that help me?”
“Well it should be obvious, I will be able to extend my operational lifetime to its original level from all those years ago and perhaps even turn on some of my functions that I wasn’t able to beforehand. If I am able to do so then you will have a fully functional dungeon with the increase in revenue that one brings with it, what do you think about that?”
“Sounds like an excellent idea but how do we go about doing that?”
“You mentioned the ring you have in your possession if it is what I think it is then it is just the thing we need to finish the second conduit and hopefully it is in a better condition than the first one.”
“Yes I do have it on me but like the pendant, it doesn’t belong to me but rather my ward and I am unwilling to do anything with it without her consent. I will return here tomorrow or if I am busy the day after and bring her with me and then you can talk to her yourself if that is permitted?”
He said this not just because he felt that way but rather to gain time to think things through as he wasn’t completely sure if the voice could be trusted and what it might mean if it couldn’t be.
“Take your time Amondo I have many things I need to sort out before we can make use of the ring anyway, for now, I bid you farewell and I advise you not to tell anyone about your encounter with me, I would like to scan your ward with my lights before she is informed of me.”
“I shall reluctantly keep her in the dark until then, she wished to see a dungeon and I promised to bring her here soon so bringing her when I next visit should be easy, farewell for now.”
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