The infinity dungeon 216

Chapter 216

The ground rumbled with activity. On a plateau a third of the way up a barren mountain, dozens of ponderous stone golems hammered away with their bare fists against the rock, digging into the side of the mountain with surprising speed. Below, in the stony plains at the foot of the mountain, more golems were digging giant holes, following veins of metal and pure stone.

Mounds of materials dotted the land beside the spiked trees of the stone golems’ domain. Ore of many colors shone under the light of the Misty Valley’s fake sun.

Michael approached one such mound of ore and refined stone. It was twice as tall as he was, and very wide at the base. He took a deep breath, readied his magic and plunged a hand into it.

Rather than hitting the hard rock and feeling pain, his hand sank into it like in goo. Inside his inner space, spiral glyphs flared to life, and the central black hole hummed with power. With a grunt of effort and concentration, mana was expended, and the mound of rock and ore disappeared.

It popped into existence at the boundary of the inner space, where Icarus was waiting for it with his mining drone.

“It almost looks underwhelming when seen beside the drone,” Michael said.

“Agreed,” the AI replied. “The mountain of ores looked impressive in the Valley, next to normal reference points. But in here, we have moved way more impressive amounts of materials around before. You have to realize, your space machines are big. This will be enough perhaps for a couple of collectors or a battery.”

Michael grumbled. At this rate, he would have to reduce the valley to rubble to get the materials he needed to grow his power. Talk about unsustainable growth.

“I’ll prioritize batteries for now. The collectors are just too inefficient with how dim that accretion disk is.”

Icarus nodded, bringing the material to the designated location. As Michael built, he absorbed mana from the rich Valley air outside to replenish his reserves. Thanks to the spirals, the process was very quick, but it still required his almost undivided attention to open up the inner space boundary and then direct the flow of magic to his batteries rather than letting it fall into the black hole.

After he was done, he moved to the next mound and repeated the same sequence of actions. When he was done a few hours later, sixteen piles of materials had been transformed into more than twenty new battery packs, concrete structural beams, catwalks, and orbital propellers.

With 36 batteries, his mana capacity was now 36 Silver - a great deal more than it had ever been.

Sitting down, he crossed his legs and closed his eyes. The boundary of his inner space became permeable, and a storm of mana invaded the almost empty solar system. Most of it went to the batteries, filling them, but a small trickle escaped Michael’s grasp and fell into the black hole. The sensation of space stretching as the black hole fed on the magic was almost like scratching a bug bite. It felt nice for a while, but then the skin would get raw and it would hurt and sting a little.

Ten minutes of meditation later, the batteries were finally full.

“Which is all good and fine in the Valley where it’s safe.”

“But what of the battle floors?” Icarus finished his sentence.

“Exactly. I have more than twice the mana I used to have, but it takes more than an hour for my normal regeneration to refill my mana pool.”

“No fights of attrition, then,” the AI said. “However, if your regeneration no longer depends on the environment…”

Michael’s eyes narrowed as the words hung in the air. “Then I might be able to regenerate even outside the dungeon’s area of influence! We will have to test it as soon as I leave the dungeon.”

“Your collectors feed off of the energy released by the central spiral’s accretion disk after all, no external input required. It only makes sense.”

“It could be huge,” Michael said with a grin. “But there’s lots of work to do before I am ready to leave the dungeon.”

Days blurred into one another. He had all the time he wanted thanks to the Valley’s time dilation factor, and so Michael spent the first month familiarizing himself with his powers. He did not seek to add anything new to his inner space, only building more collectors and batteries.

The thirtieth day, just as he plunged a hand into a mountain of ore gathered by the stone golems and absorbed it, a flash of magic caught his attention. His head snapped to the side, and he pushed some magic into his eyes, squinting. There was a group of Fae and a couple of golems working on a half-hollowed-out mountain.

Some of the Fae had started to help with the digging, and even Drullkrin had taken to swinging a pickaxe with surprising glee. His tremendous strength and stamina allowed him to gather materials quickly enough to rival even the golems.

The flash of magic blinded him, and when it passed… the mountain was whole once more.

“My lord!” Drullkrin heaved after running to Michael as quickly as he could, “did you see that?”

“Hard to miss it, really.” Michael chuckled, “what’s got you so worked up?”

“This is momentous! That mountain, it was the first one the golems started working on. It was almost completely hollowed out, and now it’s whole once more. Now, Johanne taught me the scientific method, and thus I have formulated a hypothesis from observation.”

“Oh?” Michael grinned, “interesting. Do enlighten me.”

Drullkrin hummed, “I say that the Valley regenerates major terrain changes after exactly one month. If the hypothesis is at least in part correct, then my prediction is that the ground over there–” he pointed. “will be the next to return to its previous state. What’s momentous about this is that now we know that we can extract all the resources we want without limit! Your growth will be glorious!”

Michael laughed at the goblin’s antics, “you’re even more enthusiastic about my growth than you were when the dungeon controlled you.”

A shadow passed on the goblin’s face, and Michael realized he had gotten carried away. It didn’t last long, but the goblin’s commander’s voice had lost most of its enthusiasm when he spoke again.

“I wish you did not joke about these things, my lord. I am happier now than I was before, which makes me able to enjoy moments of accomplishment more. I am also fascinated by the dungeon’s mechanics, a thing I had not been able to enjoy before.”

“Of course,” Michael said apologetically, “I’m sorry.”

“It is all right. I know you did not mean to offend me. It simply is a sensitive topic for me right now. In any case, I must plot contingencies now. I know you plan to develop this land with infrastructure from your world, but if the dungeon reverts major changes it might be a problem.”

He hummed, continuing. “However, we know for a fact that small buildings do not disappear. To be certain, we will have to begin a major project that impacts the lay of the land, and see if it sticks. If it’s okay with you, I will gather some Fae and begin testing this theory as soon as I can.”

“Sure, go ahead. Happy to see you’re being proactive.”

“Then if you will excuse me, I will be off to find some minions to do the grunt work. I will make sure the infrastructure we build will be of some utility to you down the line, of course. No work should be wasted. To that end, I will have to speak to your digital intelligence when it is free.”

From within the inner space, an amused Icarus told Michael to give the goblin a thumbs up.

With the goblin stomping off to test his theories, Michael turned his attention inwards, where the recently absorbed mountain of ores was being carried by Icarus’ mining drone towards the main base.

He mentally selected the blueprint for a battery, and placed it next to the others. All together, the 99 batteries present formed a gigantic cube with the single elements kept in place by steel, concrete, and forcefields between one another.

After building the last corner of the cube, he checked the numbers, preparing to add another layer to it. “A hundred Silver of mana pool. Crazy. Crazier still is that with only 13 collectors operating at 10% capacity, it would take me more than ten thousand seconds to refill it without pulling mana from outside.”

Icarus laughed, “Are you switching to collectors then? Or will you try to make the accretion disk brighter?”

“Neither. I’m on a battery building streak, why stop?”

That’s when he ran into a problem.

“Icarus, I’m selecting the blueprint, but it won’t let me place it. What’s the problem? Is there a bug in your magical interface software?”

The AI snorted. “A bug in the system? Unlikely. Let me look into– ah, damn. I take back what I said. This might be a problem after all.”