Further analysis of the dungeon heart revealed that precious materials are not just required for some of it's advanced functions, but compulsory to do anything that needed actual materials of value. Flesh, apparently, could be conjured. Wood, metals, gems, and such had a measurable value that worked with some sort of equivalent exchange system. The good thing about this was that after finding precious materials, one could use them to synthesize nearly anything of lesser value from them. Which would imply that dungeons literally ran on wealth. 'more powerful and wealthy than even kings!' Ami couldn't help but scoff when she thought back to that statement the youma had made roughly four hours ago. Keepers had no choice in the matter. If they weren't filthy rich, they were probably failing.
That did bring up and ineresting thought though. If a dungeon ran on it's weath, then how did new keepers start gaining wealth? Did they perhaps gain enough to startup before connecting themselves to a dungeon heart?
"Of course!" Self recrimination filled her voice.
"What dose the dungeon give you immediately after forming, and just happen to carry pickaxes?" The real question was how effective were they? The imps certainty didn't look like much at first glance.
"Maybe it's the tools and not the workers?" Deciding to get a better look at the small, vaguely sentient beings. She wasn't quite prepared for what she found when she turned around.
The imps were dancing... If you could call it dancing. All it was is a funny litle jig with some arm waving and lots of foot stomping. And as they finished it, the ground around them smoothed out and took a blue hue. Ten seconds after she first noticed what the imps were doing, Ami brought up her scanner on autopilot. Things suddenly started making more sense.
The hand waving gathered ambient dark energy from the air that was them mixed with the energy coming from the dungeon heart, which was then stamped into the ground. This 'claiming', for lack of a better term, seemed to tie the area around the ritual to the heart. Adding it to dungeon, which is why it remodels itself according to the heart's desire.
After she'd pulled herself together and anyplace the tools. Which turned out to be extraordinary. They were capable of making the hardest materials a defenseless as newly tilled soil. Then it was capable of transporting the dug up material into the heart where it would be processed. Microscopic bits of gold, silver, aluminum, and other such materials would be collected. After a certain amount is collected, it will be used to synthesize gold coins which are then stored or spent (as money or in through the heart). The slight smile that had been playing across Ami's lips as she worked it out soon disappeared.
"I suppose that's it, I can't delay this any longer. I now have a basic idea of how all this is used. Now I need to decide if I actually going to use it." Not even the memory of her former smile was left I the room. Because as fascinating as this all was, the dungeon heart is an artifact of darkness. Was there any reason that would justify her using it?
Ami was so consumed in her thoughts, that it never occurred to her to wonder why she was trying so hard to justify using it. Luckily, or unluckily if you were the resident Sailor Senshi/Horned Reaper, Ami was soon distracted from this odd train of thought.
"BLISSIICCCKKKKKK!!!!" the sound of ice breaking quickly gained Ami's full attention. But rather then being disturbed by this ominous interruption, she instead let a sad smile cross her face.
"No choice anyway, I can't let him out."
And so the imps were sent mining. Mining in a very specific shape while their mistress refrozen the Horned Reaper's bonds. Her icy prison couldn't hope to hold a fire natured youma for too long. The only reason they'd held as long as they had was because the first layer had been somewhere around twenty-three point seven times more powerful then she could currently manage. Still, it held long enough.
Off to the side of the heart was a chest-sized pile of gold, and the dungeon sported a new thirty meter hallway that lead to a smallish room. Neither the hallway or the room had been claimed, the room at the end was barely small office size. In other words, just big enough to fit the youma.
Two minutes, one collapsed hallway, one buried room later and Horny had the beginnings of a new tomb. While building and scraping plans Ami telepathically had the imps clear space around Horny's new prison and give it new impenetrable walls. one side at a time. In the end, horny was trapped in an ice-sickle, buried in earth, inside a cube that only a dwarf or an imp could break, which was set in the middle of a room with no door, thirty meters from his old tomb.
Ya, that probably wasn't what he'd planned.
(Posted Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:16)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.