Core gems weren’t supposed to crack like that. Not from a single gnome mage’s spell. It would usually take a party of heroes to even begin to chip away at us, so for the first-leaf to do it so easily…
“We will have our service from you,” said the gnome. “We paid a dear price for you, but you will pay a dearer one for failure. There are some here who will treat you as more than the tools you are, but mark me; you are nothing but a hammer with a consciousness. A forge with a dim-witted mind. You can be unmade.”
With that, he hobbled out of the lightorium, the base of his staff making a banging sound every time he planted it down.
I realized that Jahn was looking at me now. Cores don’t have eyes, at least not ones you can see when you look at us, but you can feel our gazes. I felt his gaze on me. I sensed the waves of fear coming from him, and fear coming from a core is not a thing you want to experience. He needed reassurance.
I pushed back all my anxieties and all my memories of the pain I had just felt.
“Nice guy,” I said. “I think he likes us.”
Galatee recovered herself. She seemed to have shrunk in the first-leaf’s presence, but now she stood tall now with her back straight and her eyes glowing blue.
“We will take you to your dungeons,” she said. She faced the entrance to the lightorium. “Core bearers? We need you.”
CHAPTER 5
Without even time for a goodbye, Jahn’s bearer lifted him atop his wooden pole and she carried him away, knowing where to take him without being asked.
Galatee looked at me. It was hard to read her expression. Though I hadn’t known her long, it was clear she wasn’t cut from the same cloth as First-Leaf Godwin. They may have been family, but they were different.
When Jahn was far enough away to be out of earshot, Galatee spoke to Warrane. “Can you give us a minute please, Fifth-Leaf?”
Warrane nodded. “This leaf will do so.”
When Warrane walked away, Galatee looked at me.
“I know about your friend Jahn,” she said. “I know he is not as learned as you. That he couldn’t even apply the little he had learned when your overseers tested him. I didn’t purchase the pair of you in complete ignorance. I hope you did not take offense, Core Beno, but I believed it was best to raise Core Jahn’s confidence rather than highlight his weaknesses.”
“Jahn is…”
“You and Core Jahn are all we could afford, even after sacrificing everything to this plan. We could have purchased a single core with more ability than the pair of you, but we needed two cores, or this is for nothing. Both doors must be guarded.”
“Jahn will learn. They don’t just resurrect anybody,” I said. “They weigh our souls on death. Judge them. There is always a reason a person is made into a core. Jahn just hasn’t unlocked his yet.”
“I hope you are right. The first-leaf is a little…temperamental. He has been clipping not just leaves, but whole branches. For minor things, sometimes. Rumors of betrayal. Or rumors of planned betrayal. Even for spreading wrongful rumors of planned betrayal. He believes everyone is plotting to join the Seekers or to open our doors to them. He’s a man slipping off an icy edge, grasping nothing but snow as he falls.”
“By slipping, do you mean he’s killing people?”
She shook her head. “He isn’t that far gone, and his soul isn’t murderous. It is a great weight on him, keeping us safe. That at least is something that you can count on; the first-leaf’s motives never stray from protecting his people. But his means are something different.”
“Then slipping means casting people out.”
“Correct. Even a second-leaf in his own tree isn’t safe from his fury. I couldn’t leave the academy without two cores, and you and Jahn were all I could buy.”
“Then I’ll try to repay your faith,” I said, feeling a little moved by the sadness on her face.
“It wasn’t faith, Beno. It was a necessity. It was you, or nothing. Warrane? Take Beno to his dungeon please.”
“I’ll need to know more about who I’ll be facing. Their numbers. Weapons. Spells. Anything they can use.”
“Sometimes, the deepest learning is done in deeds, not words,” she said, and walked away.
Sure, that sounded good. It sounded like quite a deep thing to say. In reality, surely it would have been better to just explain a few things to me?
Too late, Galatee had walked away.
I’d just have to adapt. And hope like hell that Jahn didn’t gobble all his essence like a greedy pig this time.
“This leaf will lift you now,” said Warrane, holding a wooden pole in one hand. I looked at him again. I had been too awash with confusion and surprise the first time we’d talked, and I never really tried to work out just what he was.
He was green-skinned like an orc, yet he was tall and slender. Anatomically human, in fact, except for his third eye. I had never seen a race like it.
“Ready?” he asked me.
I was glad he was being so polite about it. Cores hate being carried around. “Let’s go.”
As Warrane carried me to my new dungeon, I had a lot of time to think about what had happened.
Being a core, I was never going to be a master of my destiny. The academy gave me a second life, and they owned it. They owned me. I had rebelled at first when they resurrected me, just like most cores do, but the feeling had eased when memories of my first life left me.
I’d always assumed I would spend my second life working for the academy and killing heroes. I had never guessed I would end up helping to defend someone’s home. The home of an entire people, in fact.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Was it a higher cause than working for the academy?
Huh. Tough one to answer. I’d never really questioned whether killing heroes was a good or bad thing. It was just what I was taught to do.
But this? It was undeniably a good thing to help defend Galatee’s people.
Then again. The first-leaf was dangerous. I had never felt pain in my second life until he lifted his staff and cast whatever the hell that spell was. He made it clear that morality and opinions had no place here because I wasn’t here through choice. I was a tool, a slave with a task that I succeeded in or faced death.
I was a little worried for myself but more worried about Core Jahn. He would need help defending his door, and I had to work out a way to get that help across to him.
And then a cold shudder ran through me.
If Jahn failed, we were both in trouble. If the Seekers breached Jahn’s door, then we had both failed. My fate was entwined with Jahn’s. Damn.
Warrane carried me through the cavern, where most of the Wrotun folks stopped what they were doing and watch me pass. I tried not to let the weight of their expectations rest on me.
“We will walk through darkness,” said Warrane. “Torches are too much of a luxury for barely traveled tunnels. We must buy oil, wax, or diluted mana from villages far, far away. We cannot make our own. Therefore, we do not light the ways where few feet tread.”
“Cores aren’t so bad with darkness. How will you see?”
“This leaf has walked these passageways many times. He knows their shape even in darkness.”
That would have sounded great, had Warrane not stumbled on a rock and almost fallen. Luckily, he steadied himself, and me, and kept balance. I decided not to mention what effect this had on his previous statement.
After that, Warrane carried me into the black passageways without another misstep. It wasn’t just a single route, either. It seemed that the Wrotun people had carved dozens of different tunnels that led away from their cavern home.
“Did you help make these tunnels, Warrane?”
“This leaf was born decades after they were made, Core Beno. Has a core such as yourself worked out their purpose?”
“They tunneled through so many different ways because they were looking for more mana springs, I would guess.”
“Their original purpose, ye
s. After failing to find any but the two springs we guard so truly, the tunnels have been given a new task.”
“To confuse intruders. Stop them having a clear route to your home. They’re probably strewn with traps.”
“This leaf knew your mind would be attuned to such things. Not far now.”
‘Not far’ to Warrane was a lot further than I expected. I guessed that he’d walked these tunnels for so long that it must have felt that way to him. When you’re going somewhere new, like I was, it always seems to take more time.
It wasn’t just that, though. I was getting a feeling inside my core. Nervousness. Excitement. It felt the same as the moments before the overseers put me in my first dungeon. A core is created to live and breathe dungeons, and being close to one sets our metaphorical pulses racing.
“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 res
ponsible 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:
Dungeon Core Academy: Books 1-7 (A LitRPG Series) Page 19