Dungeons

Dungeons are... quite an interesting phenomenon. They're tied intrinsically to the System itself and form what we can determine to be a symbiotic relationship with us, the ones that delve into them. They come in many different types and tiers of danger, and have quite a few unique properties to them.

— Madame Herta

Dungeons are a core part of the System, that allow for renewable Experience gaining and the collection of a wide variety of materials in the form of Loot. They come in a great number of variations, both in physical size and design, but also in difficulty, traits and more. To many, they are an oddity of the world, but to those who understand the deeper intricacies of the system, they know that Dungeons serve a very important role behind all of that.

The Dungeon Ecosystem

Dungeons are, at their core, parts of the world that house Monsters, Loot and Traps of all shapes and sizes, within which Experience can be earned in bulk, and paid out to the being upon exiting the Dungeon. The curious aspects of Dungeons arise when you look closer at how they function.

Dungeons are able to perfectly capture any Magia or Stamina used within them, be that by a Monster or a Corewalker, and they convert either energy into the power that the Dungeon requires to develop itself, generate new Monsters, Loot, and even expand itself. Dungeons are able to fully subsist themselves on the magia they spend to create - known as Spawning - Monsters within their halls, with only the magia spent to fabricate Loot being lost - but this is easily recovered from the magia and stamina that Corewalkers spend to clear the Dungeon itself.

In essence, this makes Dungeons naturally self-sustaining, and when cleared, a Dungeon is naturally able to 'reset' its halls and Respawn all of its monsters, expending the magia it obtained to do so. The Dungeon must then also Spawn more Loot to be obtained by Corewalkers, which expends more magia, but this is only necessary to do if the Dungeon had its Loot taken by a Corewalker.

Naturally, this also means that the magia of a Dungeon builds over time, as it doesn't need to expend as much as it can gain from even a single Corewalker clearing out its Monsters. Dungeons can expend this magia for a variety of things, but most are known to expand their halls with it, building new rooms, entire sections, or even entire layers to themselves, or they can spend it to 'level up' certain areas of the Dungeon, increasing the level of Monsters and the quality of Loot in that area.

This does indeed tend to mean that Dungeons get larger over time, but this rarely poses issues, as all Dungeons are generally in remote areas where they can expand unimpeded, and if they aren't, the System constrains their expansion.

Types of Dungeon

There are several distinct Types of Dungeon defined by the System, and they generally concern the kinds of Monsters and Loot that a Dungeon can feature. These are generally your famous norms; crypts, barrows, towers, pyramids, abandoned mines, and so on.

While these Types do primarily only concern the kinds of Monsters and Loot that a Dungeon can have, they have other effects too, and they generally depend on the specific Type being discussed; it's important enough that it's often advised to identify the Type of a Dungeon before delving into it for the first time, and the Type of a Dungeon can change when it finishes a 'hard reset', though not after a 'soft reset' (see below).

Dungeon Clearing

Dungeons are notable for being a renewable resource, which is quite interesting. After any Monster is defeated or any Loot is taken from a Dungeon, it will always be mandated by the System to reset everything and Respawn its Monsters and Loot after 3 months have passed, which is generally regarded as a 'soft reset', as the Dungeon has not been cleared and still has Monsters and Loot within it.

If a Dungeon is fully cleared - all of its Loot is obtained or 75% of its Monsters have been defeated - the Dungeon will begin what is known as a 'hard reset', sealing its entrance - be that a set of doors, gates, or anything else - or even disappearing entirely. After a period no shorter than 1 year, but also no longer than 5 years, the Dungeon will resurface... somewhere.

It will never appear in the same exact place twice, and a Dungeon will always be fully set up before it reveals an entrance to Corewalkers, but it has been known for a dungeon to reappear on the exact opposite side of the world, at least, people assume so. The reality is that nobody truly knows how all of the specifics here work.

The Sentience of a Dungeon

Despite evidence to the contrary, Dungeons are not sentient beings and have no thoughts of their own, but are instead all expressions of the System and its influence across the cosmos. This is why many Dungeons - despite being able to - simply never change in any way; they likely have an inordinate amount of magia collected, but don't use it.

A Mutually Beneficial Relationship

Ultimately, Dungeons are a very curious case of the System enabling a very mutually beneficial relationship to form; the Dungeons need Corewalkers to adventure through them, kill Monsters and provide the Dungeon itself with magia with which it can expand itself, add new Monsters, Loot and harder Monsters, and the Corewalkers are incentivised with challenging fights that can let them continue to gain Experience & Level Up, as well as obtain powerful Loot and so on.

It's also notable that Dungeons don't grant Experience to a Corewalker right away, and instead it 'pools' that Experience and grants it all at once when the Corewalker leaves in any way. This is notable as it is a distinctly different paradigm to literally every other way Experience is earned, and applies no matter how Experience is earned in a Dungeon, even if that Experience being earned isn't directly related to the Dungeon. Additionally, Dungeons apply a 25% bonus to any Experience gained from activities that do relate to clearing them, making them a quite efficient method.

Type

Metaphysical

Dungeon Difficulty

Dungeons are typically assigned a difficulty by the System, known as a Tier, and this is what determines the level range of Monsters within it, and the expected power level of Loot those Monsters - and the Dungeon itself - contain. Once assigned a difficulty tier, a Dungeon cannot alter that tier, but it can alter the level of Monsters within certain areas of itself to push them closer to the maximum of its level range.

For example, a Tier 1 Dungeon might have a Monster Level Range of 1-10, and all of its Monsters begin at the lower end of that range, but the Dungeon can expend its gathered magia to increase where in that range its Monsters Spawn in certain areas of itself. This increase must be done in increments, and costs more magia the higher the level the Monsters are being set to.