After constructing their shoddily made pillar, Alex takes a fair moment to let the reality of their situation properly sink in. Before, they were simply distracting themselves with the new things as to not panic, but now they find themselves in a lull of things to do. That, and the new ability to look at themselves using Dungeon Sense is not helping the matter.
"I really am a crystal, huh? To be honest, I'm feeling a little claustrophobic right now. It's like my entire body is stuck in this unmoving stone."
After a brief mental shiver, Alex takes on a determined tone.
"I've said it before, I will not be stuck here forever. Even if I need to get a friendly adventurer to carry me, I will escape this place."
Alex thinks back to the time before they spread their awareness to the surrounding walls. Before they formed the dungeon proper.
"A lot of stories end up restricting the core to being within the dungeon, but I already saw everything I needed to. Before I claimed the stone around me, I was just a dungeon core. I would consider that as already being outside of a dungeon. I was just a core in the non-dungeon ground, so this must mean that I can survive outside of the dungeon, right? All I need to do is figure out a way to move."
"I could try and rely on terrain manipulation, but I can already guess that this is a no-go."
"Status"
"My mana went down by 10 points just by forming this shitty pillar. Okay, I take that back, sorry pillar, I love you. But still, it's not going to be feasible to just carry myself with terrain manipulation. Should I get a summon to do it?"
"No, they probably also need some form of mana upkeep, or at least need to be inside the dungeon. I'll need a more permanent solution, although I would like to see if summoning would still work outside of the dungeon. It may be a good tool to defend myself."
Alex ponders on their locomotion problem before getting an idea.
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"Thinking back to my times playing D&D, I've never played a warforged as my race, but it's always been a fascinating idea. I think something similar may be the solution to my problems. Not only will it give me a vaguely human body, but will grant me a way to move around. My inventory skill said something about crafting and transmutation, so I may be able to make an android, or at least the frame of one."
"But how will I control it? I'll figure that out once I get there, but first things first I need more mana, which mean it's time to start digging."
Now with a plan on how to proceed, Alex begins chipping away at the wall and ceiling using his inventory skill, siphoning in the dirt and stones as they get displaced.
Every foot gain seems to take about a point of mana from their total pool. While being much cheaper than Terrain Manipulation, it does not seem to give any sort of precision. The tunnel being produced was rough and chaotic, like someone used their hands to scoop the material away. But the tunnel was progressing smoothly. The only hurdle being the sphere of influence.
"Guah, this is exhausting. I can only dig a few feet before having to claim the walls to increase my interaction area. Claiming the stone doesn't take too much mana, but it along with the digging is starting to add up."
"My status shows that after maybe 10 feet in I'm at around 84/100 mana. That's about 1.6 mana per foot. I don't know how far I am from the surface, but if it's anything beyond 50 feet I'm going to run out of mana before I get there. However, I have a fair amount of room now; so maybe I can summon something to dig for me now?"
"Help
"Wow, that's a whole lot looser of an ability than I expected. I thought there would be a list of unlocked summons or something like that, instead I'm only limited with the amount of mana I can use. But other than that, I can request a summon for any role? Although I assume some jobs cannot be done with lower level summons."
"Well, now's the best time to try it out. Lets try to summon a mole, or something good at digging at least."
"Summon!"
After activating the skill, a flash of light brightens the now 10ft by 2ft tunnel. Thin threads of mana extend out from Alex's crystal body and a magical circle is formed in the air in front of them. They feel the hunger radiating through the mana threads. Because the summon skill is only at level 1, Alex lets the circle take as much mana as it wants. In an instant, around 10 points of mana are syphoned into the swirling mass of magical lines. The circle then awaits for Alex to make their request.
"I require a creature which is skilled at digging through stone, preferably small is size as there is not much room in here."
Alex was not sure if the last part was necessary, but the circle accepts their request and flashes once again. After a brief moment the circle opens, revealing a bright white portal and deposits a brown shape onto the floor before evaporating into the air. The shape, or creature, appears to be a curled up ball of slick fur roughly a foot in diameter. After a moment, the ball make a movement and un-curls itself to reveal a rather odd beast.
Rather similar to a cross between a mole, a beaver and a prairie dog, the creature is surprisingly adorable. It has a sharp head like that of a mole, but soft and light brown fur. It has four hand-like feet with large claws at the front. Behind it lay a flat and furry tail. The creature, after getting its bearings, sits patiently while staring at Alex with its strange, beady eyes.
"Oh, it's probably waiting for a command. Luckily, I have an ability just for that."
"I Command you to dig a tunnel to the surface."
The creature gives a small nod before starting to dig at a wall. Surprisingly, it's not the same wall Alex was digging at.
"Oh man, don't tell me I was digging the wrong way."
With a quick glance, the mole-like creature give a slightly exacerbated sigh. Or that's what Alex interpreted it as.
"What is this thing anyway? Identify."
"Huh, that's pretty neat. So it is a mole, just a fantasy version of one. It looks like the extra level in Identify allows me to see a bit of its status. I wonder what else I'll be able to see once it levels up more."
"This also makes me think, are these summoned creatures taken from somewhere? Or are these creatures entirely new, like freshly spawned in or something? Maybe if I summon something that can talk at some point I'll get an answer."
After checking their status, it appears that the rock mole doesn't require much mana to maintain. After about an hour, its only eaten a point, and by that time ambient mana had already filled Alex's pool by 5.
"5 mana an hour is not great, but I'm sure it will be much better once we breach the surface. Even just claiming the walls as the mole reveals them is costing me a fair bit, but much less than digging myself. I'm down to 68/100 mana and we've gone maybe 200 feet."
"I wonder how much longer until the surface?"
Just as Alex was thinking that, the sound of crumbling stone and soil echoes in the small tunnel. As loose pebbles and debris tumble down the subtle incline, a blinding light illuminates the bare stone, and for the first time in many hours Alex's mana pool is completely filled.
Almost immediately upon breaching the surface, a chaotic torrent of mana rushed into the tunnel and saturated the core chamber. To Alex's mana sense, it was as if the air were filled with a thick and slightly luminescent smoke. But most importantly, their mana pool was bursting at the seams.
"Status!"
Within a minute after opening their status, their mana capacity reached 200 and Alex was greeted with an unexpected message from the system.
Edited 7/18/23: Sorry for the massive delay, things got chaotic. However, the next chapter will be releasing soon.
Edits: