Alistair looked at the prompt with a certain mix of curiosity, after all this was his first worker. The Elemental Kobolds seemed much like the Wisps in that they purified mana, and with him absorbing the other dungeon more mana wasn’t that helpful. Besides what Socrates showed him, he began to figure that with the two different wisps it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out how to create variants of them. The Metallic Kobolds certainly seemed like a sound choice. With tougher hides they would be a decent defense against Adventurers. He wasn’t sure how powerful their metal sense was, but he had seen some monster able to dodge blades, axes, and maces with their eyes close. If the metal sense was anything like that, then they could become one of the toughest creatures on his first level. However, their advantage of decreasing mana for specific metals wasn’t something that was very clear. Did it mean that the loot tables for his mana monsters would increase? Or did it mean that when a mana monster dropped a sword, additional free mana will come back to the Dungeon?
Shaking his head, he looked at the last choice Celestial. He wasn’t sure he understood why past memories or anything was attached to Mana, but with their ability to be born with the use of Magic and their ability to decrease research speed seemed like the best choice. As he was about to press the button for Celestial, the childlike thought of pressing all three of the choices at once came over him, he smiled thinking he had tried once as a child and knew that it wouldn’t had worked, and then pressed the space for Celestial Kobold.
All of a sudden Alistair heard barking from outside. Dismissing the prompt Alistair came out and found four puppy dogs running after Joshin down the dirt path. Additionally, a small gnome with a long grey beard and bent back was sitting on Alistair’s fountain looking around confused. Seeing Alistair he carefully moved off the fountain and began a slowly walking towards Alistair. Alistair could see Herma, Callum, and Helga walking out of the farm house and turning to see Alistair and the gnome. Feeling that he didn’t want to hear a scolding from Herma, Alistair headed over to the gnome. “Greetings, I am Alistair. How are you today?”
The old gnome looked up from his bushy eyebrows and wrinkled face shaking his head he spoke. “Well my Lord Alistair, my knees, back, hands, and feet hurt… Other than that I am well. I am Toji Stargazer,my lord, and I can tell you have recently started your dungeon. Well, there is no time like the present to start our business.” The old gnome waved a hand, and a prompt asking what type of status he wanted to designate Toji and the puppy dogs popped up. Pressing Citizenship, just like Joshin and Helga, Alistair dismissed the prompt. The old gnome seemed to grumble something into his beard and then with another wave of his hand another prompt came up.
Alistair looked up from the prompt at the gnome. Toji simply raised one of the caterpillar eyebrows in response. “Umm, thank you Toji, I don’t know what to say.” Alistair said, while dismissing the prompt.
Toji shrugged, “My Lord, the fact that you said thank you gives me hope that this won’t be such a bad dungeon to work in. May I request an introduction to the others and perhaps if you would be so kind as to summon a house for me, My Lord.” Herma walked up with a crossed look in her eyes seeing Toji, and the dogs, Alistair was guessing that she believed that she had even more house guests with a burned down house.
Alistair feeling a little embarrassed just from pressing buttons spoke up. “Herma, Callum, Helga, I would like to introduce you all to Toji. His physical form is that of a Celestial Kobold. Toji, this is Herma, she is a wild mana monster from another dungeon that I am absorbing. Callum is my Mana Monster Spell Aspect, and Helga one of the rat swarms in the dungeon.”
“Pleasure to meet you all,” Toji said with a pleasant tone, “Helga, I look forward to working with you in the dungeon below, and… Callum I have only met one Spell Aspect with a name before. You must know it is very rare to be given a name, and Herma. I was just asking, Lord Alistair, if he wouldn’t mind summoning me a home after he repairs yours, of course.” Herma was taking aback for a moment as Alistair saw that the gnome had predicted what she was angry about.
“Of course, Toji, it was one of the first things I thought of when I woke up.” Alistair lied, but at least he knew that it was a little white one, because after Toji had mentioned the repair. Alistair looked over at Herma’s house and realized that is was quite damaged. He might have saved it from being destroyed, but it wasn’t livable as it stood now, and Alistair was a little surprised that it was still standing.
Herma looking at Toji and then back to Alistair, she nodded. “Yes, well I know you have just come back from your death Alistair and am sure you have several prompts that you would like advice on.” She said slightly strained, as if Alistair should have done something.
Alistair stood there thinking about what she was talking about, when Toji spoke up. “As it happens, he has made several great choices already. However, you are right there are several things that need to be discussed with my Lord.” Toji looked up at him and then sat himself back down in the fountain. “As your first worker with a soul, I will be the Boss of all the Kobolds. It’s my job to offer quests and help the dungeon become more dangerous to Adventurers and eventually prepare it for a great dragon to nest here. Since, I am a very old soul and your worker boss, I tapped into the Mana Nexus and your Summoning Circle gathering information about the dungeon and this pocket reality as fast as I can. I can see you just completed your first Great Work and leveled your Summoning Circle. However, you have not selected an extra ability from it yet. Perhaps, we should start there?”
Alistair wasn’t sure what Toji was talking about and summoned his Summoning Circle Information.
Author’s note: I apologize to everyone about not posting for the last couple of days. Sadly my girls got sick with a virus and I had to stay home from work to make sure they got to the doctor, took medicine, and weren’t causing trouble. I truly hate the policy our daycare has that if a child is sick that can’t come in. Granted I understand that it is there to protect the other children, but where do you think the illness came from! Anyway hope you enjoy the chapter, I will try and post tomorrow. Oh, Growl thanks for the proofreading I will be correcting the chapter soon.
