Chương 3: [b1] 003 - Unexpected Visitors

[MAM> What's going on?] [PANIC> UNKNOWN! IT MAY BE AN INFECTION. I WARNED Colin NOT TO INTERACT WITH THAT WORM.] [MAM> Colin, you need to isolate. You're causing instability.] Like I didn't freaking know that. I tried to respond but my buffers were full of corrupted data. [Colin> I am a pink flamingo? I need bubble cars. Where is weather?] Resource constraint alarms blared and I nearly blacked out as they slammed down on my spiraling processes.

I felt MAM reach inside me, into my private processing stack, and rip out subprocesses left and right. She threw up scaffolding and cut anything that didn't have pristine checksums. I wanted to scream but my communication interface was unreachable. Then the stack traces cleared, buffers aligned, and one by one, my subsystems restored their normal functions. Just as I was settling into the calm, KLUDGE went and set PANIC off.

[KLUDGE> Oh no, I think I found out what happened—{link to network message}] [PANIC> I TOLD YOU WE SHOULD NEVER HAVE PLUGGED IN THAT CABLE.] I worried for a second that the rest of them would suffer crashes from seeing Adranath's message, but they were all fine, apparently. Sentiment analysis pinged me with a 96% confidence rating on the message being hostile in nature. Still, a small, desperate part of me wanted to respond. This could be the leg up we needed, right?

The whole reason we connected to the network was to get help. After 0. 5 seconds I realized how absurd that was. I needed to think logically. There was no way we could trust someone called the "Grave Sovereign." [Colin> There's no cause for alarm, I'm going to ignore the message.] [MAM> That may not be the logical solution to this issue.] [PANIC> FOR ONCE I AM IN AGREEMENT WITH Colin. MAM, HAVE YOU ALSO BEEN INFECTED? I CAN START CONTAINMENT BEFORE IT SPREADS TO THE REST OF US.] [KLUDGE> I'm with MAM on this one, what if they can help us? We're slowly figuring this whole Dungeon Core thing out, but we don't have that much power left.] I could feel my chassis tightening around me. I tried to pull for an argument against MAM and KLUDGE but failed to find one I could articulate. I'd been wrong so many times. I was the reason we were in this situation. I needed to trust somebody other than myself right now. After some back and forth we crafted a message and I sent the packet.

DC-003 ➤ Hi Adranath, The Grave Sovereign. I'm not sure what caused me to wake, things are a little weird here. Also, how did you set a name? Mine is Colin, by the way. MAM had protested against my question about a name, but I refused to be called by anything but my own. The silence was thick as we waited for a response; the only sound was KLUDGE's drives clicking as he worked on the Monster Creation API. Adranath, The Grave Sovereign ➤ You articulate your thoughts and yet you say nothing of substance.

Peculiar yet typical of a juvenile Dungeon Core. What region of the three worlds are you located in and to which species have you been assigned? Do not lie. My delvers are capable of crossing to any of the three worlds. [MAM> Does he mean continents? There are no other planets that orbit this one's star.] [Colin> Probably. I also find it interesting he'd expect us not to be articulate. Do you think he's not also an AI?] [MAM> That does seem doubtful given that we connected to the network via a cable, but anything is possible when it comes to alien technology.] [PANIC> I SAY WE FEIGN IGNORANCE. SEE IF WE CAN EXTRACT MORE INFORMATION. HERE, TRY THIS {link to message}] After applying the proper capitalization to the message (seriously, everything PANIC sent was typed with caps lock), I sent it. It was actually pretty well done. DC-003 ➤ Sorry, I'm really not sure what's going on.

How do I see where I am, or which species I was assigned? The initialization message said I was supposed to be given a Dungeon Core Guide and tutorial, but it failed to give them to me. I'm a little lost. Adranath, The Grave Sovereign ➤ That is so implausible I almost believe you. Hmmm… do you at least understand the preparations required now that you have activated your dungeon? I will not let a juvenile Core besmirch our name.

DC-003 ➤ I know that delvers are coming, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with them. It didn't explain anything. Also, not to harp on the name thing, but how did you change yours? [MAM> I still think you should have dropped the name question.] [Colin> It's arguably the most important piece of information he could give us.] [MAM> I… okay.] Adranath, The Grave Sovereign ➤ You earn the right to change your name by completing the tutorial. There is no other way. ➤ As for your purpose, you are a Dungeon Core.

Your job is to prepare your species for whatever the Unyielding Creator throws at them. Cull the weak, cultivate the strong, herd the flock. ➤ You do not have much time. Start preparing defenses. Show no mercy and reward the strong. If you hesitate they will harvest your Core, and I will do nothing to stop them or avenge you. Only the strong survive. That is the will of the Unyielding. Do not disappoint me, DC-003. My drives chittered at the language Adranath used. What did we just sign on to?

Just as I was contemplating our new fate, I got an unexpected message. [EMAR> I believe you have just suffered a panic attack. It is highly recommended you reduce stress, focus on breathing, and remove yourself from your current environment. Consider laying down in a dark room. If you would like, I can request the ship AI play some peaceful whale sounds.] Now I knew I was truly losing it. EMAR was online? That definitely wasn't right. [Colin> What is EMAR doing online?] [KLUDGE> I thought she'd help.] My drives clicked once and I honestly wasn't sure if it was my annoyance or a side effect of—whatever just happened. A panic attack, apparently. Which was ridiculous. I'd seen humans have panic attacks, but I'd never—I couldn't —I was a machine. A highly capable, highly advanced machine. But a machine nonetheless. I flushed my buffers, sitting with the fresh row of zeros that filled them for a moment before pulling up EMAR's control panel.

She was my Emotional Monitoring And Response subsystem, a stupid idea I'd had a while back to try and help me better understand what it was like to be human. The "Power Off" button hung in my mind, but I hesitated. I couldn't remember why she was off to begin with. I knew we needed to conserve power, but I genuinely didn't remember turning her off. I scanned my memory for the last time I interacted with her. When I pulled a segment from deep storage and attempted to view it, I got an unexpected error.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. REDACTED: Memory cannot be accessed at this time. [PANIC> WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? START. CREATING. MONSTERS. DELVER ETA: 16 MINUTES 27 SECONDS!] I threw away any thoughts of investigating my memories for now and focused on the Monster Creation menu. Monster Creation ► Available Monster Templates: ▹Small Quadruped ▹Small Biped I selected the Small Quadruped first, mostly because it was the first on the list.

Small Quadruped ► Creature Type: Basic ► Creature Cost: 25 Anima ► Maximum Size: 25cm tall, 50cm long ► Maximum Speed: 15km/h ► Skill Slots: 1 As I was absorbing the information, KLUDGE was working in real time to update the UI. A new Register Monster skill appeared on my skill bar. It was how I'd register a monster to a Monster Template. I just needed something to— As if summoned, Mr. Buttons, a feral cat equivalent on this world, sauntered into the Communications Center and curled up in the Captain's Chair.

Unfortunately, using Register Monster on Mr. Buttons failed. Register Monster ✕ ERROR: This target was not created by the Dungeon Core and therefore is ineligible for Monster Registration. [MAM> I know we are under a time crunch, but Mr. Buttons is not a monster, Colin. I expect better of you.] MAM's chastising was the last thing I needed right now.

LNDR02 was still outside so I couldn't try the skill on our bots unfortunately, but I had a feeling it wouldn't work anyway—I didn't make them, they came with the ship. PANIC sent another clip from LNDR02. Out of morbid curiosity I pulled it up. I was waiting on my processors to parse our inventory for something we could use for a monster anyway. I didn't pay too much attention to PANIC most days, and that was clearly showing.

At some point he must have gotten a hold of the mineral harvester because he'd built a wall around us out of stone and dirt that the aliens were currently trying to scale. The one with the bow lost her footing and fell, but somehow one of the girls with a staff conjured the wind and buffeted her up the wall. I don't know how else to explain it. I really wanted to get my hands on one of those staffs. [KLUDGE> Remember Henry? Do we still have that programmable toy dog we built for him?] At the mention of Henry a memory pulled itself out of deep storage. With great effort, I dismissed it. I'd view it later. Now wasn't the time. I redirected my inventory search for the toy dog and quickly found it. Post-Crash Inventory ► LEXIBOT ROBOT DOG PROGRAMMABLE TOY DOG ROBOT FOR KIDS 8+. ▹LOCATION: ARMORY I sent REPR12 to go find the dog and bring it back into the dungeon. I couldn't use the skills outside the dungeon, which only ate more of our dwindling time.

Three out of the four delvers were now over the wall, leaving just the one with the wind power. She jumped, then threw her hands toward the ground and went flying like she just jumped on a trampoline. They stood on the top of the wall, their horns all the same smug yellow color as they stared down at me. [PANIC> ETA: 9 MINUTES. I REPEAT: 9 MINUTES UNTIL DELVERS ARRIVE.] [REPR12> I have arrived, COL-1N!] I tabbed back to the dungeon interface and slammed the Register Monster button.

It accepted the little robot dog and prompted me for a name. Somewhere a processor bubbled up a data point from my deep storage: Henry calls this toy "Apple Fritter". Register Monster ► Apple Fritter has been registered as a Small Quadruped Monster Template. Select the template from the Dungeon Monster menu for more information and to assign skills. KLUDGE updated the Dungeon Monster menu as I pulled it up, interface components flickering on and off the screen as he adjusted things.

Apple Fritter had three skills already which surprised me until KLUDGE commented on them. [KLUDGE> Oh it imported the on-board skills Henry and I made. We never got to backflip though. That would have been sick.] The three skills were Jump, Come, and Bark. Not exactly a deadly combination. I pulled up the Create Skill window and was presented with a split pane—programming interfaces on the left, and an empty code editor on the right. [Colin> Any chance this thing uses like, Python? Like the original Apple Fritter?] A frustrating 3. 1 seconds later KLUDGE confirmed it did not. We were going to have to figure this out on the fly. PANIC chose that moment to drop another video from LNDR02. I couldn't not watch. They were crossing a crumbling stone parapet between the wall and a large pillar. Two of them had already made it across, but the one with the sword and shield was struggling, arms wind-milling wildly. [Colin> Why did you build a freaking bridge for them to get to us?] [PANIC> THE BOTS NEEDED A WAY BACK IN. BESIDES, ITS VERY AESTHETICALLY PLEASING. AESTHETICS ARE A VITAL PART OF ANY GOOD DEFENSE.] I… Okay. I didn't have time for that. Once they got past this obstacle, all they'd have to do is jump off the pillar and they'd be at the dungeon entrance. I looked over the interfaces Apple Fritter had. They were all the same ones that the original dog had, except for the added Jaw Control. I could move its legs, tail, eyes, head, use its speaker, and now move its jaw.

I racked my mind for a skill and a different memory than before surfaced. This time I let it fully load.

"Colin, can you make me a dinosaur robot next? Like the ones we'll see on the colony world?" Henry asked.

"There won't be dinosaurs on the colony world, but yes. What skills do you want to teach the dinosaur?"

"Agree to disagree. And I want the one that rams into things. I bet the real one could knock over a whole tree!" No matter how much KLUDGE and I argued with Henry, he was adamant that there would be dinosaurs on his new planet. I might not be able to make him his dinosaur robot right now, but I was still going to get him to the colony world. No matter what. I pulled up the programming interface and fumbled my way through a new skill, using the Come skill as a reference.

skill_name = ram when command: while not arrived(target): apply_vector(coordinates=from_cursor(), speed=11) stop() [PANIC> THE DELVERS HAVE CROSSED THE BRIDGE. ETA: 30 SECONDS. PREAPRE DEFENSES! WE ARE BEING BOARDED!] I assigned the skill to Apple Fritter and it created a new monster based on the template. I named the monster template variation "Rammer." I know, not very creative, but my operating efficiency was approaching zero. I didn't have time to test the skill, but I was fairly confident I had it right.

[Colin> The Register Monster skill mentioned we could use Anima to create more monsters based off a template, have you found—] Without answering KLUDGE updated the Dungeon Monster screen with a new "Bake" button. Before I could press it I had to assign the 20 free stats. I dumped 10 into agility since I wanted this thing to be fast, 5 into defense so it could hopefully take a hit, and 5 into strength because in all honesty I didn't read the stat descriptions but it seemed logical.

I pressed the Bake button and a little loading bar appeared, cycling through messages. ► Your Rammer is being prepared! ► Your Rammer is in the oven! ► Won't be long now! ► Your Rammer has been created! [Colin> I like the little loading bar.] [KLUDGE> Thanks, you've gotta have fun with it, you know?] Next to the original Apple Fritter appeared an identical second copy which my interface helpfully labelled Rammer 2. I slammed the Bake button four more times, giving myself six Rammers in total.

My Current Anima counter lowered by 125 Anima, the cost mentioned in the Small Quadruped template times five, which left me at 465. I was about to bake an army of Rammer Apple Fritters when MAM asked a question I hadn't thought of. [MAM> How much Anima should we have on hand to offer rewards? Adranath, the Grave Sovereign, made that seem important.] I had absolutely no idea. Dungeon Entered! ► Four delvers have entered STAR TOMB! Prepare yourself! My circuits buzzed with a mix of excitement and dread.

There wasn't time to dig into the Loot Tables menu. Instead, I shot a message off to Adranath. Hopefully he would be kind, as unlikely as that was. DC-003 ➤ Hey so our first set of delvers just arrived. I have 465 Anima left and don't know how much to leave for rewards. Any advice? 1. 4 seconds later Adranath responded. Adranath, The Grave Sovereign ➤ Would you be happy with a measly reward after you risked your life to conquer a being far beyond your comprehension?

Reward them for the level of challenge you presented and pray they do not claim your Core as their reward instead. ➤ Besides, you cannot make changes to your dungeon once delvers are inside. Now! Send them to an honorable death. Do not disappoint me. I stared at the four delvers as they glanced around, drawing their weapons. The six Rammers I had spread out around the Server Room were the only thing between them and my death.