Dungeon Core Academy 2

by Alex Oakchest

  “Can you feel it now, core?” asked Warrane.

  “Feel what?”

  “This leaf can feel waves in the air. We are near the mana spring.”

  I couldn’t feel it, but then I was attuned to essence, not mana. Two different things. Warrane and his people had been skinny-dipping in the mana spring for years, so they were more adapted to it.

  Though I couldn’t feel the mana, it wasn’t long before I saw its glow. It began as a hazy blue light way, way ahead of us. Every time we got nearer, it moved further away as though the light was tricking us. I couldn’t even tell you how far away from the main cavern we were.

  Soon the light grew stronger, so much that it reflected on Warrane’s face and glinted off my core surface, and it fully illuminated the tunnels.

  Warrane had changed a little. He had lost his air of solemnity and seemed more fidgety, and he was gripping the wooden pole much harder. His three pupils dilated so much they looked like coins. I wondered if all the Wrotun people here felt this way when they were near the mana springs.

  “This is it, Core Beno,” said Warrane.

  We turned a corner and there it was. The mana spring in all its glory.

  Huh? This is it?

  It was a small, square-shaped room. Stone walls, a stone floor. There, cut into one of the walls, was a hole barely big enough to put your hand into. A sky-blue liquid trickled out of it, hitting the ground and then running along the wall and disappearing.

  “This is it?” I asked. “This is the mana spring? The source of everlasting life? The reason you guys sold everything you had that was worth something?”

  “This leaf was told by his father, sometimes the most beautiful pearl comes from the ugliest shell.”

  He was right. I was just a little surprised because I’d imagined a mana spring to be more of a pool that one could bath in.

  It didn’t really matter if it looked like a leaky tavern gutter or a gushing waterfall, my job was the same.

  “We better get to work,” I said.

  CHAPTER 6

  The first step in constructing any dungeon is to make priorities. I needed two things before I could even think about constructing traps and monsters.

  “Let’s see,” I said. “The mana spring is here, and this is ultimately what I need to defend. If the Seekers find their way here, it’s over. It only makes sense, then, that this will be my core room.”

  “Core room?” asked Warrane.

  “When heroes – Seekers – come into the dungeon, I’ll watch them from the core room. This is where I will control everything. It needs to be hidden from the rest of the dungeon, and well protected. If the Seekers get here, they will destroy me and the spring.”

  “This leaf likens it to your place of rest. Living quarters for the core.”

  “A little like that, yes. But there are too many tunnels leading out of it. Let’s see…there’s the one we came through. The one over there. Another. Another. Six tunnels that lead in and out of this place. That’s way too many! I need to fill some of them. For that, I need a kobold.”

  “Second-leaf Godwin says no kobolds can be spared from the cave. After purchasing Core Beno and Jahn, we are low on reserves of everything.”

  “Don’t worry, I can make my own kobolds. Which leads me onto the second thing. Essence.”

  “This leaf does not know what essence is.”

  “It’s a little like mana, but for a core. It is the fuel for everything we do. A fire is strong, but only as strong as the wood you feed it.”

  “Ah, this leaf remembers now. Second-Leaf Galatee told him about it. Follow me.”

  Warrane began to head toward a tunnel immediately to my right.

  “Warrane,” I said. “The core bearer needs to…uh…bear the core.”

  “This leaf remembers you saying you would not need him to carry you in the dungeon.”

  “Not after I build pedestal points to hop to, but I need essence for that.”

  “This leaf is happy he can still be of service.”

  Warrane picked up the wooden rod and carried me to the tunnel. It was a short walk with three turnings, and soon we emerged into another room carved into the stone.

  I was a little surprised, to say the least.

  There was essence here. A patch of moss growing on the dungeon wall, one that I would cultivate into essence vines that replenished my essence passively.

  But here was the confusing part. There was a patch of purple essence on one wall, which looked as I’d expect it to.

  On the opposite wall, there was a spread of red essence moss.

  “Can you carry me closer to the red moss please, Warrane?”

  Up close, I could see that the color of the moss wasn’t the only difference from its purple counterpart. This moss had beads growing in it, like little dewdrops of red essence.

  I couldn’t believe my luck.

  We had covered the different types of essence in the academy, though only scant mention was given to anything but purple. See, purple essence was the most common type by far, and the other colors were so rare that it was unexpected a graduate core would ever find them. They were usually only found in master-level dungeons, such as the Necrotomitlita created by Overseer Bolton, regarded by many as the greatest dungeon ever made.

  “Warrane, who prepared this moss for me? I assume that you had to purchase it before my arrival.”

  “Second-Leaf Godwin had the honor,” he said. “She was assisted by Tavia, Fifth-Leaf of the Redbar tree.”

  He spoke the name Tavia with a strange inflection in his voice. I couldn’t work out what it meant. As a core, more and more remnants of my human feelings left me each day. It meant I struggled to process human emotions.

  “Tavia Redbar,” I said. “Is there something I should know about her, Warrane?”

  “Leaf Tavia is of the Redbar tree. Mages of great power, descended from Risto.”

  Risto, I thought. Where have I heard that name?

  “Ah, the illusionist who originally found the door to this place. Galatee told me about him. I’d like to meet him; an illusionist can be important in a dungeon.”

  “Risto left us. He is the only First-Leaf to ever do so.”

  “Left in the same way as your parents?”

  A look of anger crossed his face now. “Not all trees are treated the same way. The Redbar tree, for instance, seems to be looked on more favorably. Tavia is not without honor, unlike this leaf. Although, this leaf would never wish the same dishonor on her.”

  “Makes sense, if Risto Redbar found this place, then his family gets treated with a little more honor. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have found the springs.”

  “As the scripts say.”

  “As they say? You doubt them?”

  “This leaf doesn’t presume to doubt what his elder leaves tell him.”

  “So Tavia is an illusionist?”

  “Unfortunately, leaf Tavia has not inherited the powers of her fore leaves. She earns her honor as a trapper and defense artist, supervised by Second-Leaf Godwin.”

  I thought I was beginning to understand. “You’ve been fighting the Seekers for a while, no? I take it that Tavia was responsible for making defenses and that kind of thing?”

  “The core is wise.”

  “I’ll need to speak with her at some point. See what traps and things she has placed. In the meantime, both Tavia and Galatee have done very well, Warrane. Better than they expected, I would guess. I don’t know how they got some red essence moss, but this could change things.”

  “This leaf wonders what you mean?”

  “I’ll have to show you, but only once I’ve cultivated it. That will take some time, so is there anything you can do while I’m busy?”

  “This leaf is here to serve his core.”

  “I can’t have you standing around. Hmm. Let’s see what you can do. Ah.”

  With just a thought, I sank deep into my core. This is a tricky thing to explain; I suppose
it would be like closing your eyes, and then imagining things in your head.

  Oh, that’s called thinking, isn’t it?

  Maybe it isn’t so difficult after all.

  At any rate, I conjured an image in my mind. It was a map, and it showed how much of this warren of tunnels I had seen. So far, it only showed the great cavern, the passageways we’d used to get here, the core/mana spring room, and the essence room we were currently standing in.

  I had an idea for something Warren could do, but I was a little hampered. See, when I create a creature in my dungeon, I can see their current position on my internal map. If they dig a new tunnel or explore a new part of the underground system, their progress is marked on my map.

  I had an idea that Warren could walk through the cavern for me, thus filling in my internal map. Unfortunately, I hadn’t created Warren, so he wasn’t showing on my map.

  Luckily, there was a way around that.

  I quickly checked my inner core to see my resources.

  Beno - Dungeon Core

  Level: 5

  Core Purity: 95%

  Essence: 380/380

  Rooms:

  Core / Mana Spring

  Essence Room

  Dungeon Capacity:

  Rooms: 14

  Monsters: 16

  Traps: 18

  Puzzles: 10

  Monsters:

  [Empty]

  As could be expected, I had only two rooms in my dungeon. It was likely that the Wrotun had carved out more rooms nearby, but I would have to travel to them or have a creature go there to claim them.

  As a level 5 core, my dungeon capacity was much larger than when I had first graduated from the academy. That would serve me well here.

  My monsters list was pathetically empty. Only a few days ago, back in my first dungeon, it had been filled with kobolds, fire beetles, and even a boss monster named Gary. He was a stone troll, leech, spider hybrid, and surprisingly cheerful.

  No matter. I would create new monsters. What I had needed to see, though, was my stats. Particularly, my total essence.

  Essence: 380/380

  Do you see why I felt a little better?

  I already had essence stored inside me, which I could now use to get started. Of course, it wouldn’t replenish until I cultivated the essence moss. Any essence I spent now would be gone, for the time being. At least I could do something.

  With a mental blink, I conjured my crafting list in front of me. This showed what I could make using my essence, and how much essence each item would cost. The more I leveled up, the more things I would be able to make.

  Core Crafting Categories:

  1) Dungeon Fixtures

  Pedestal Point [Cost:12.5 ]

  Lamp [Cost: 10 ]

  Door [Cost: 15 ]

  Pathway [Cost: 5 ]

  Small Loot Chest [Cost: 20]

  Iron Door [Cost: 10 ]

  Fake Iron Door [Cost: 10 ]

  Lock [Cost: 10 ]

  Rug [Cost: 10 ]

  2) Monsters

  Spider [Cost 15]

  Leech [Cost 15]

  Fire beetle [Cost 20 ]

  Kobold [Cost 35]

  Angry Elemental Jelly Cube [Cost 75]

  Sinister Owl [Cost 120]

  Stone Dwarf Troll [Cost 180]

  Bogbadug [Cost 200]

  3) Tool & Weapons

  Iron Pickaxe [Cost 200 ]

  Iron Spade [Cost 200]

  Iron Sword [Cost 250]

  Iron Shield [Cost 250]

  4) Traps

  Beartrap [Cost 50 ]

  Pitfall [Cost 100 ]

  Pressure Switch [Cost 50 ]

  Poisoned darts [Cost 250 ]

  5) Puzzles

  Floor Tile Patterns [Cost 250 ]

  Riddle Doors [Cost 110 ]

  Trick Levers[Cost 125 ]

  Transmutation Station [Cost 500 ]

  6) Loot

  Bag of Gold Coins [Cost: 50]

  Slightly fancy sword [Cost: 50]

  Semi-rare Gem [Cost: 75]

  Generic Magic Spell Book [Cost: 100]

  7) Rooms

  Essence growing room [Cost 80 ]

  Specialised insect and fungi larder [Cost 100]

  Melding room [Cost 120]

  As you can imagine, there were lots of things that a working dungeon needed to be successful, and not all of them involved traps and death. You may have noticed that I had unlocked the ability to create a rug out of essence. I still don’t know why a core would ever need to do this, but it proves my point. We’re much more than conjurers of death.

  What I needed now was a creature. This was how I would give Warren something to do instead of just standing around while I got busy.

  So, what should I create? It had to be something small and inexpensive. Ah – I knew what would work.

  Create leech.

  Essence left me. Just a pinch of it since a leech cost 15, and that really wasn’t much. It started as a swirl of purple light drifting from my core, before gathering before me and taking shape.

  Warrane recoiled, jerking the wooden rod so that I nearly tumbled off.

  “Watch it!” I said.

  “This leaf doesn’t understand,” he answered, eyeing the shape before us as the light left it, leaving behind a two-feet long leech.

  “You know nothing about cores, do you?” I said. “This is what we do. We create things. Quite gruesome things, usually. This is the least of it, Warren.”

  “This leaf doesn’t like the angry slug.”

  “Angry slug? You don’t know what a leech is?”

  “This leaf has never seen one.”

  I forced myself to be a little less harsh to him. Warrane had lived down here all of his life, so his whole world of experience consisted of whatever lived underground. If there weren’t any leeches, then, of course, he’d have no idea what one was.

  Not only that, but this was a dungeon leech, and thus was much larger than your normal swamp variety. I guessed if I had never seen one before and was suddenly introduced to this ugly thing, I would be a little perturbed, too. I knew how to ease his nerves though.

  “Warrane,” I said. “This is your leech now. I’d like you to name him.”

  Warrane looked at me strangely.

  The leech suddenly turned his way, and it leaped at him.

  “No!” I shouted. “Leech, you are not to attack Warrane.”

  The leech swiveled my way. It didn’t have eyes, as such, but I could tell it was looking at me. I stared it down, even though my eyes weren’t visible either. It was the worst staring contest ever.

  Finally, the leech gave a nod, the upper portion of its slug-like body forming into a bowing gesture.

  “See?” I said. “He’s friendly and rather polite. Although he isn’t as clever as a fire beetle or kobold, so you won’t get much conversation from him. Put him in your artificed bag and take him everywhere with you.”

  “This leaf wonders why?”

  “Because I need you to walk through every single tunnel that sprouts from the core room. The leech is my creature, and he will populate my dungeon map when you take him on a tour around it. Now, what’s his name?”

  “This leaf can name him anything?”

  “That’s the way I like to run things. Every creature has a name, and you can choose. Within reason. If name this leech Beno, we’ll have a problem.”

  Warrane stared at the leech, and he scratched his chin with his free hand. “This leaf names you Sixth-Leaf Webb.”

  “Webb? That’s the name of your tree.”

  “This leaf will not rise due to the corruption of his tree, as he told you. But if there is a Sixth-Leaf beneath him, it is as though he has advanced.”

  “Very well,” I said. “I’ll refer to him as Six for short. Can you and Six explore all of the tunnels around us? I understand that you already know what is here, but this is for me. Six needs to visit every tunnel for it to complete my map.”

  Warrane nodded. “Glad
to serve,” he said. He pinched Six the Leech between his index finger and thumb and put him in his inventory bag. “How will you walk while this leaf is gone, Core Beno?”

  “Watch.”

  I focused on the center of the room.

  Create pedestal point.

  Essence left me again, this time forming a stone pillar in the center of the room. I imagined the core room just down the tunnel and commanded another pedestal point to appear there, too.

  Done. I was twenty-five essence points poorer, but now I had the means to travel between the core and essence rooms.

  With that Warrane left, taking Six with him. I had some lovely dungeon building to do.

  CHAPTER 7

  Taking care of the purple essence was easy. As long as your name wasn’t Core Jahn, cultivating essence was the most basic action a core could take.

  First, I cast out my core arms. These arms were like beams of light that spread out from me. They let me handle essence moss and vines, but they wouldn’t work on anything else. I couldn’t, for instance, take up watercolor painting using my core hands. I would never, ever get to play the piano.

  Using my arms, I gathered all the purple essence from the wall, brought it toward me, and then I took it into my core.

  Now came the temptation. I could taste the essence moss inside me. Nourishing, sweet, so delicious that my core begged me to fully absorb it.

  But no, I wouldn’t do that. As I said, my name was not Core Jahn.

  Instead, I twisted and turned the moss inside me, and I focused on it and commanded it to change until soon, I manipulated it so that it became not moss but vines. I placed these back on the wall.

  Done! There was only a foot square patch of them, but given time they would spread over the wall. I’d then plant more on the other walls, giving myself a rapidly increasing essence supply.