Chương 10: [b1] 010 - Your Naivete Surprises and Disappoints Me

Shit shit shit. What would happen if the next group tried to enter while Burke's was still in here? Desperate for an answer, I messaged Adranath and hoped that he was feeling generous. DC-003 ➤ I have delvers inside right now pushing into my core room, but another group is on their way. What do I do? I can't spawn in new monsters while the first group is still inside. I bounced my focus between the chat window and the dungeon. Just as the group got to the end of the corridor Adranath answered.

Adranath ➤ I hope you were wise enough to prepare defenses for your core room then. It would be a shame to have spent the time and effort I did on you only to have you destroyed during your second encounter with delvers. I don't know why I expected a useful answer from Adranath. I dismissed the chat and focused on the dungeon. The delvers paused just on the edge of the room.

"Do you think there are more traps?" Ash asked hesitantly.

"I don't know… I expected something different," Burke said.

"Isn't this room supposed to be full of like, treasure?" Frost asked.

"That's what the Elders had said they had in their dungeon's core room," Angela added. [MAM> Why would a dungeon core keep loot in its core room? That doesn't make sense.] [KLUDGE> Should we be doing something? I feel like we should be doing something.] I agreed with both of them but didn't say anything. Just as Burke gingerly stepped into the room, Adranath sent another message.

Adranath ➤ If you do survive them in your core room somehow, there is a setting that allows you to lock your entrance from new visitors. [KLUDGE> On it.] Ash popped out of invisibility right in front of me—RERP12—and patted it on its head. The group erupted, shouting warnings and frustrations at him.

"Relax, it's a Non-Combative, aren't you lil guy? How are you—Reaper Twelve? Spooky name you've got." [KLUDGE> I wonder how the System translates that for them. It's a repair bot, not a reaper. Or do you think that means something else in their language?]"Will you please get back here? Before the core takes offense," Burke said through gritted teeth. Ash looked behind the bot at the garden and chewed on his lip.

"I would, but there's kheera growing over here."

"Kheera? Oh my Goddess save me some," Angela said and took three big steps into the room before Burke grabbed her arm.

"We are not stealing food from the dungeon core. Get back here. Now." I could see the hunger in Ash's eyes as he stared at the garden. Apparently, we'd been growing food. On a whim I reached into one of the bins and pulled free one of the cucumber looking fruits—or was it a vegetable? I had no idea—and handed it to him. His jaw went slack as he accepted it from the little bot, then took a huge bite.

"If that's poisoned Angela is not curing you," Burke yelled, taking a small step forward himself. [MAM> If they raid my garden I swear to you, DC-003, you will not hear the end of it.] I pre-emptively plucked three more of the vegetables (I'd decided that's what it was) and handed them to Ash. Then I positioned the bot in front of the plastic bin and crossed the little spider bot's arms in front of itself for a strong show of force.

Ash chuckled, patting the bot on the head, and walked back to the group with his arms full of food.

"This is the best day ever."

"Thank you, STAR TOMB, we are honored to be fed by you on this day," Burke said while looking at the ceiling. I thought it was odd, given that he was standing in my room in front of my server rack, but didn't question it. [MAM> I can't believe you are giving away my plants. Do you know how hard I worked on those?] [Colin> If it's the difference between us dying or not, will you consider it worth it?] [MAM> Only if I can expand my garden.] My fans whirred as I watched the group.

Angela and Ash were eating their kheera while the other two eyed the room with suspicion. Still, I didn't get the feeling that they wanted to destroy me. If anything, they seemed almost… reverent of me. Maybe Adranath had the wrong idea. [KLUDGE> Found it! Check your Dungeon Settings UI.] My UI flickered and a new button appeared at the bottom. I opened the Dungeon Settings and found a single option: "Lock Dungeon While Occupied." I toggled it to on and minimized the settings page.

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"When was the last time you had fresh kheera?" Angela asked.

"Spring," Ash answered between massive bites.

"Been eating nothing but wheat flour for months now." [MAM> That cannot be a fully balanced diet. Perhaps they are not well off. KLUDGE, can we look into providing food as a loot option?] [KLUDGE> I'll add it to the list.]"Okay. I think we got what we came here for," Burke said suddenly, rolling his shoulders.

"Are you sure we shouldn't check the garden for a few more kheera?" Ash asked.

"No, I get the feeling we already took more than the core wanted to give us. We are a guest here, remember that." My entire chassis shuddered as the delvers turned and left without another word. Just as I was about to collapse I remembered our next set of delvers. I hopped into REPR13's feed—the little bot was stationed outside the dungeon—and found Fermi's team waiting in front of a grayed out portal. Burke's group appeared outside the portal and immediately bumped horns with Laura and Grace.

Fermi and Silo got stiff smiles and no horn tapping, which was interesting. [MAM> They appear to know each other and have coordinated this.] I had gotten a few hints from their conversation that they'd at least talked to Laura about her experience, but sharing a few details and coordinating were two very different things.

"We crushed it," Frost said.

"You cleared the dungeon?" Grace asked.

"Yep, it added a third room too. And two new monster types," Ash said.

"Did it do the lights thing? And the scream?" Grace asked. Burke cleared his throat and said, "we should probably debrief in full before you attempt to go in." [MAM> We should start preparing our defenses for Fermi's group.] Opening back up was the last thing I wanted to do right then. I don't know if it was the constant stress of running the dungeon, nearly killing Burke, or what, but I was done. [KLUDGE> I kinda want to stay closed, work on some upgrades. They utterly crushed us.] I mentally high fived KLUDGE.

I was about to respond backing him up when the chat window with Adranath blinked. I had never responded to his help. I decided to send him a message so he'd know I was okay and avoid a freak out again, but as I started typing the stress of the day flowed out of me and into the message. DC-003 ➤ I survived and managed to lock my entrance, thank you. I'm trying to decide whether or not to open for the next group. During the last battle, I nearly killed one of the delvers. He looked so scared.

Adranath ➤ That is excellent to hear! Killing a delver is the sign of a strong dungeon core and you should be proud. Remember, our job is to cull the weak. However, do not toy with your prey. Give them an honorable death, as is the way of the Unyielding. I read through Adranath's response three times before I found the words I was looking for, my subsystems chattering in the background. DC-003 ➤ Don't you ever feel it's wrong to kill them? They didn't even threaten my core while they were here.

Maybe my delvers are different? Adranath ➤ Your naivete surprises and disappoints me, Colin. Delvers are clever, no matter the species. If they thought they could reasonably harvest your core, they would do so without question. No, they spared you today so you could grow in power and become a more valuable harvest tomorrow. ➤ Besides, the Unyielding wishes it to be so. If they did not, they would not reward you so highly for slaying delvers. Do not shy away from your duty, youngling. Be strong. Be ruthless.

Do your duty and honor your delvers by providing them an honorable death when the their time comes. I tried to wrap my processors around the thought that I would be rewarded for slaying delvers. The thought was so against everything I believed in I couldn't make sense of it. As I stared at the group of delvers outside my entrance, a growing sense of… something grew inside me. It was a feeling I couldn't identify.

They were laughing and sharing the kheera amongst themselves and drawing battle plans in the dirt with sticks. They looked so happy. So together. [EMAR> I believe you are feeling homesick. Based on your movement data, you have not left your room in SERVER_ROOM_SERVER_RACK_1 for approximately 11 years. This much time in isolation can be harmful and it is recommended you be proactive in your own mental health. If you would like, I could schedule someone to come by your location for some social interaction.] EMAR's message caught me off-guard; I had honestly forgotten she was online. Still, even with her wonky data she had a pretty good point. It had been so long since I'd visited my humans. I pulled up the RCS system interface, then glanced at MAM's resource activity graph. Her and KLUDGE were actively brainstorming things based on the delvers conversation outside. I hovered over the Enter button, then pulled back. If I was going to do this, I needed space from MAM and anyone else.

The last thing I needed was her finding out I visited the humans. The last time I'd done that she'd been so upset she didn't talk to me for days. Something about them being a "distraction" and "bad for mission adherence," I don't know, but it turned into a whole thing. [Colin> Hey guys, I'm pretty exhausted. That last fight really rattled me. How do we feel about keeping the dungeon closed for a few hours and regrouping?] [KLUDGE> Oh, well I had wanted to tweak some designs anyway so that's fine with me.] MAM was instantly in my private messaging queue with questions. [MAM> Are you alright? Is there anything I can do?] [Colin> Yeah, I'm fine. Just… rattled. I'm going to spend some time organizing my buffers and clearing out some data. We haven't had a microsecond to breathe in ages.] MAM's response came back delayed and I worried she was on to me. Thankfully, she seemed to accept my excuse. [MAM> Okay, well ping me if you need anything. I can handle things out here until you're back. But we're taking this opportunity to rebuild the garden.] I waited an entire thirty seconds, watching MAM's focus slowly leave me and get absorbed in her garden as she moved REPR12 around the Server Room. Hopefully that would keep her busy for a while. My whole chassis buzzed with excitement as I pulled up the RCS system window back up. I glanced at MAM one more time; she was still busy. As I entered the RCS my vision went dark and loading text briefly filled my vision, "Welcome to the Reality Containment System."

The text faded, giving me a birds eye view of the ship as it hurtled through space. My drives shook with joy and grief and everything in between. One day—hopefully soon—I'd restore my ship to its former glory. If not something even better. For now though, it was time to relax and forget about all the violence and destruction. I'd earned it.