Chapter 70：The Dungeon Lord slaps the Dungeon Core.

I know I said we had all night, but it never really went through my head I would really spend all night long trying to figure this alliance thing out only to discover by mistake that I was completely on the wrong path from the start.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the key word was Status!

What? Status!?

Yes! It seems like our old and trust worthy status that was actually hiding some secrets from us!

The discovery happened completely by accident:

After trying more than a hundred words and combinations without any success, I was convinced the way to access these Settings were not as straight forward as the rest. Pretty much like the Radar that can only be accessed through the activation of the Building Mode, I started guessing the Alliance Settings should be hidden under another command like Status, Summoning, Expansion and Building. The new question was, which one? For summoning, expansion and building, it didn't seem too appropriate, so I started testing on Status.

"Status!"

[Understood!]

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Name: Plate's Holy Ground

Rank: E

Avatar level: 36/40

Floors: 2/2.

Task Force: 3E.

Defense Force: 1F, 10E.

Invaders: --

Available Mana: 20u

Available Miasma: 269955u

Productivity: 30u/d

Event Log:

-Alliance Setting unlocked

-New Alliance Contract Signed

-Creation of Miasma draining tunnel complete.

-New source of Miasma detected.

-New commands available, "Turn on The Sun" and "Turn off The Sun"

...

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"Allies!"

...Nothing...

"Settings!"

...Nothing...

"Rules!"

...Nothing...

"Allies Rules!"

...Nothing...

"Allies Management!"

...Nothing...

"Allies Settings!"

...Nothing...

"Poop!!"

...Nothing...

Damn!? Was I wrong all this time!?

As I said the words, I slapped the Crystal from right to left, and suddenly, as if I was flipping a page, a new screen appeared!

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1st Floor:

Creatures Inside:

+68 - Elf: Geo Mastercraft, Lillica Rose, Michella Moonlight, Stone Mastercraft, Tally Rose, ...

+6 - Skeleton Lancer: unnamed(6)

+3 - Water Sprite (baby): Aqua, Blue, Marine

+2 - Fire Chicken (baby): Spike, Fluffy

+1 - Goblin Thief: Ruyk

Traps Installed:

+5 - Guillotine Trap

+5 - Earth Lances Trap

+1 - Continuous Poisonous Gas Trap

+2 - Fire Spark Traps

+1 - Oil Field Trap

Special Functions: (locked)

-

-

-

Environment Modifiers: (locked)

-

-

-

Report:

Unknown object is interfering with the Dungeon influence, blocking the Dungeon scan and creating a shadow on the influence radius. Recommended elimination of the unknown object as soon as possible.

Miasma Source found. Draining pipe installed. Recommended installation of Mana Pump.(locked)

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What???

How come I never saw this before?

How did I get here? Hmm... was it the slap?

I tried doing it again, in a slower pace and sure enough, it worked.

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2st Floor:

Creatures Inside:

+1 - Skeleton Lancer: unnamed

+1 - Elf: Alice Brightstar

+1 - Mud Gollen: Muddy

Traps Installed:

-

-

-

Special Functions: (locked)

+Dungeon Core

+Floor Adapter (Last Floor modifier)

-

Environment Modifiers: (locked)

-

-

-

Report:

Dungeon Core installed. Maximum conversion rate reached. Recommended installation of additional purifiers.(locked)

Miasma Source found. Draining pipe installed. Recommended installation of Mana Pump.(locked)

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Oh! This one has Special Functions...

The Dungeon Core is obvious but what is this Floor Adapter?

I tried clicking on it and a floating line appeared over it.

[Ensures the Floor's position follows the rule: "Last Floor modifier"]

Sigh...what does this even mean?

Maybe it's just to ensure the Dungeon Core stays at the last floor??

Aside from this I have no idea what else it could be...

Let's try again and see if there is more...

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Settings:

Language: Elven Classic

Date: 3:47 am, 15th Sun 3447.

Version: 2.25p (Updated)

Interface Options:

Show Date on Dungeon Core: OFF

Show Available Mana on Dungeon Core: OFF

Show Available Miasma on Dungeon Core: OFF

Show Event Log on Dungeon Core: OFF

Show Avatar Status on Dungeon Core: OFF

Show confirmation windows on Summon: ON

...

System Function Options:

Provide Mana to Summoned Creatures: ON

Provide Mana to Native Creatures: OFF

Provide Mana to Native Plants: ON

Provide Mana to Objects: ON

Provide Mana to Traps: ON

Provide Mana to Allies: OFF

Automatically connect with Magicraft artifacts: ON

Automatically enable Magicraft artifacts remote control: ON

...

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This next windows was a real surprise.

Instead of having information about the Dungeon, it allowed me to change the Dungeon System itself, letting me give out Mana to my allies or stopping the flow of Mana to my own creatures.

Of course such action had risks as the Dungeon Mana was not infinite and right now I couldn't afford to give out Mana for free, specially considering I would need this Mana later, on the other side, if I stopped giving out mana to my own creatures, I could save a lot of Mana, but I'm not sure what effects I would have on the creatures themselves. Unsure if they would die or stop evolving, it didn't seem like a good idea to stop providing them...

After reading all options, I only changed the interface settings, allowing me to see the clock, mana and miasma available all the time. As for the others, I was either satisfied with the current settings or too afraid to change them.

Well, we got this far, no need to stop now!

Slap!

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Alliance Settings:

Current Allies and Rules:

-Elves - Default Rules [Edit] [Remove]

-

-

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The screen was fairly simple, just a table with one line for each ally group.

At the end of each line, an option to edit or remove the Ally.

I tried clicking on the button Edit and it opened a new window entitled "Default Rules".

Like the Settings screen from before, it had many options available, including which floors they had permission to go, what they could eat/take, if they should realize some kind of work for a number of hours a day, and what kind of punishments each broken rule would receive.

"Damn, this seems more like a Slave management system than anything else..."

The system also allowed to register rewards for determined tasks, was able to confirm if the task was complete and registered each reward and punishment separately for each "ally".

"I bet some Kings would pay any kind of price for this kind of System..."

After taking a look at everything, I set the rules exactly as stated in the contract and turned on the warning message to appear if any rule was broken.

As I tried to exit the window, a question appeared asking if I wanted to save these rules over the old ones, save under a new name or simply ignore. I decided to save under a new name and named it "WRR" (Wars Refugees Rules).

"Perfect! This will make administering them a lot easier..."

Slap!

...Nothing...

Hmm, either there is nothing left or whatever is left is still locked...

This is enough for now. Let's go to bed now and wait for the next morning...

And just as I was going to walk away from the Dungeon Core I noticed the new clock on the top left of the window.

[09:14 am, 15th Sun 3447]

"What!? Nine a.m.!? You must be kidding me!!!"