“How in the world does he know that?”
“Ah, there you are! When you went silent a few rooms ago, I thought something might’ve happened to you! Anyway, I’m guessing that you aren’t able to verbally speak human; that’s ok, though, because you can obviously understand it well enough.”
There was silence, both from the core and from the others in the room who were staring at him in confusion. This probably looks like I’m having a conversation with myself – but there isn’t anything I can do about that.
“Now, now – don’t be shy. I know you can hear me just fine and I can hear you. I just have some questions I need answered and then I’ll leave you alone.” There was another few moments of silence, before the core finally decided to communicate.
“You…you can hear me?”
“Yes, I think I have already established that I can hear you. Now, I apologize for barging in here like this, but it couldn’t be helped. Let me introduce myself: my name is Fredwynklemossering. I came to get some answers to some questions, and this was the only way I could think of to accomplish that.”
“I don’t know who you are or what game you’re playing, but I’ve already alerted my friends and they are sending their defenders here now. You better leave now before you and those filthy human scum are overwhelmed and killed!”
“No, I don’t think so. My friend here—” Fred indicated Deecy with his hand— “has cut off any outgoing Mana Communications, so no one knows what’s going on here. Now, like I’ve said, all I want is some information; I don’t want to harm you, but I will if I don’t get what I need.”
“Why should I listen to some sort of freak human livestock – you’re all worthless other than as a source of Mana for me! Besides, you can’t hurt me – I’m invulnerable.”
This guy is really annoying; this is going to take longer than I thought. I guess being reasonable isn’t a common core trait. “I may or may not be able to actually physically harm you, but I can definitely pick you up and move you away from your Mana source and territory before you could do anything. By the look of this place, I’m sure you’ve invested at least two centuries’ worth of time and Mana into it – it would be a shame for that to go to waste.”
“How dare you threaten me, you worthless—”
“Ok, I’m done with your own threats and name-calling. I said I didn’t want to harm you and I meant it. However, I’m not leaving until I get some answers – or I can bring you with me and we can get some answers…elsewhere. What will it be?” There was an even longer pause as he figured the core was thinking it over.
“You’re bluffing. If you touch me, every dungeon in this sector will send defenders to avenge me and destroy every human within 100 miles. I’m not answering any questions, but I’ll be lenient; leave now, unblock my Mana Communication, and I’ll let you live. I promise not to attack you or the nearby human dwelling-places.”
Stubborn. Fred leaned close, just barely above the floating pulsing-green crystal, as he whispered so low that he was sure that even the core had to strain to hear. “I don’t care about the humans…because I’m not one of them.” Looking around at the other people in the room, he was relieved that none of them had heard, despite the boosted Perception that Raspel possessed. If they had heard, it would’ve…complicated matters.
The silence was even longer this time, though it could be just because the room was so quiet at the same time.
“What…are you?”
“That’s not important. What is important is that you answer some questions for me, otherwise you’ll be seeing a lot more of me than you probably want to. So, what’ll it be?”
“Fine. Ask your questions and then begone! After you’re done, I don’t want to ever see you in here again.”
Finally. “Ok, just a few simple questions and then I’ll be out of here. First, what do you know about Pyrannelstencia and Aquelsterico?” Fred felt that getting straight to asking about his parents would be the best idea in the situation. He could sense a little hesitation on the part of the dungeon core in front of him, though he didn’t think it was from not wanting to answer.
“I…think I’ve heard at least one of those names before, but I’m not sure where or why. I need more information.”
I figured that might be the case. “Pyrannelstencia was a Fire-faction core and Aquelsterico was a Water-faction core—”
“What do you mean by ‘was’?”
“Dungeon defenders from every faction that I’ve ever heard about hunted them down and killed them around two years ago—”
“TRAITOR! Now I know where I’ve heard the name before! Aquelsterico was a traitor to his faction and his alliance – he got everything he deserved! Pyrannelstencia too! I’m guessing that the Supreme Council finally tracked them both down…”
Fred didn’t like to hear his parents called traitors, but at least he thought he was finally getting somewhere. “What do you mean by traitors and who or what is this Supreme Council?”
“For someone who seems to know so much about dungeon cores, you seem to be awfully ignorant of the most important matters.”
“My education was…lacking in some areas. Now, answer the question.”
“Fine, I guess it couldn’t hurt – especially if you are planning to go against the Supreme Council. In fact, I hope they hear about you – because you won’t last a month before they find you and kill you wherever you try to hide!”
Fred was starting to get really annoyed. “Enough with the threats – answer!”
“I told you I would, so calm down, you freak. The Supreme Council is an assemblage of the highest-Rated Supreme dungeon cores from every faction; not only are they the oldest and most powerful, but they also oversee the entire world – including the cultivation of human territories. They don’t take sides in the ongoing wars between alliances, but they do take the regulation of the factions and dungeon construction very seriously. And when an S-Rated Fire and Water core fled together and disappeared, that type of forbidden arrangement doesn’t go unnoticed. I didn’t have anything to do with it, but I’ve been visited by their roaming bands of rogue core hunters a few times over the last decade or so. I’m glad they finally found those traitors!”
My parents were S-Rated? They must have given up a lot to be together. Now that he thought about it, he realized that the dungeon core in front of him was really tiny in comparison; whereas his parents had been the size of his head, this Nature core was barely larger than his thumbnail. “Thank you for telling me that, but that doesn’t exactly explain why they were ‘traitors’.”
“Wow, you really are ignorant. They were traitors to both their factions and their alliances, as well as potentially being rivals to the Supreme Council. The Fire-Dark Alliance was led by Pyrannelstencia at one point in their war against the other two: the Air-Light Alliance, and the Nature-Earth-Water Alliance – which was at one point led by Aquelsterico. For our alliance, when ‘Aquel the traitor’ disappeared, it left a huge void in our defenses that the other two alliances took advantage of all over the world. I can’t speak for the Fire-Dark Alliance, but I’m sure the same thing happened there when “Pyra the traitor” left as well.
“That would be bad enough, if it weren’t for the fact that they were both so highly rated cores. The Supreme Council keeps an eye on every single one of the S-Rated ones around the world; if enough were to break away and form a rival Council, the war between the factions and alliances could potentially be catastrophic. Think about what is happening right now on the front lines and multiply that by at least a hundred.”
That…sort of makes sense. Although he knew that what his parents had done was forbidden, he never understood why it was or why they had to hide. Despite that knowledge, he couldn’t forgive this “Supreme Council” for what they did; they weren’t hurting anyone, only enjoying their “forbidden” love together – not forming some sort of rival Council. But what was he saying about some sort of war? The core was silent for almost a min
ute after Fred asked about it.
“I think I’ve just understood how stupid you are. How can you not know about the war? It’s only been going on for the last millennium or so.”
“I think we’ve already established that I’m ignorant—”
“It’s not ignorance if you’re blind! Can’t you see that every dungeon has been competing over resources for years? Not only access to human livestock, but Mana-rich environments; along with the most-dense concentrations of Mana, the front lines of the war see dungeon cores sending their Mana-fueled defenders against dungeons not of their alliance every day.
“In addition, despite warnings from the Supreme Council, many cores have started to creep closer to the human dwellings in order to gain more territory to get stronger. This, in turn, leads to less that we can harvest from them for the ongoing war. It’s a cycle that has to stop soon or there won’t be anything left. We were getting so close to ending it with our Alliance; if it weren’t for that damned Aquel the traitor leaving, we would’ve been victorious!”
Angry at the core calling his father a traitor, Fred unthinkingly yelled, “Hey, stop talking about my parents like that!”
“Your…parents? What are you talking about? You’re a stinking, filthy, waste of a human if I ever saw one. Just because you’re some freak of nature doesn’t mean that you can claim to have dungeon cores for parents!”
He figured he wouldn’t be getting anything else useful from the Nature core, so he held his anger in as he looked around the room at Eisa and the others. They all had wide eyes and open mouths, standing stock-still as they watched him converse with the core. “I think I’ve got the information I need, let’s get out of—”
“You want to know how I know you’re lying? Because it is impossible for two different factions to produce an offspring. Regardless of whatever spawned you, I’m sure your worthless excuse of a mother is sickened by the sight of what you’ve beco—”
Before he could stop himself, Fred reached out and grabbed ahold of the floating dungeon core; he just wished the crystal had some sort of a throat so that he could strangle it. “I told you to stop talking about my MOTHER!”
Do you wish to absorb: Nature Core F-3rd-Rating? Yes/No
Time seemed to stand still as the strange question flowed across his mind. What does that mean? He had no idea what would happen if he said yes, but his curiosity was piqued; he had never had something like this happen before. He wished he could ask Deecy, but she was still blocking the Mana Communications from reaching outside of the dungeon. Not only that, but he couldn’t move even his eyes to see if she was still there.
He – and everything else – was completely frozen for some reason.
Fred wasn’t sure if it was only temporary but guessed that the dungeon core system inside of his body and mind was speeding his thoughts up so that he could make the decision. The problem was, he didn’t know what to do.
The smartest thing to do would be to say No; as he didn’t know what it would do – good or bad – he shouldn’t risk it since he had just found out the information he had been searching for. On the flip side of that, maybe absorbing the Mana from the core would prevent it from having enough to communicate with to other cores? If it did that, it would give Fred time to figure out what he wanted to do next before he had to worry about retaliation for his little…interrogation. With that consideration in mind, he thought Yes.
Warning! This will destroy the F-3rd-Rated Nature Core! Proceed? Yes/No
Well, that puts a bit of a twist on things. Fred didn’t want to actually destroy the dungeon core, since it hadn’t actually been a part of those that had killed his parents. Sure, it had tried to kill him – but it was just doing what it would naturally do against invaders to its home; he couldn’t blame the core for that. But then he thought about what the core had said about his parents and the way it gloried in the fact that they had been destroyed. Added to that, they considered humans as nothing more than “livestock” that they fought over like precious resources. Are they all like this? All so…blood-thirsty?
Even though Fred was a dungeon core, he was also human; but does that mean I have to embrace one over the other? His dual nature was hard to come to terms with sometimes, though more on a philosophical level than an instinctual. The fact that dungeon cores seemed to actually like it when they caused the humans pain or even killed them wasn’t something that he wanted to pursue; he had enjoyed his time with the Syndicate and his guild – and especially Eisa. Without her, he didn’t think he would be where he was today, both strength-wise and knowledge-wise.
The fact of the matter was he identified with humans more than dungeon cores; if he were to destroy this core, he wouldn’t be any better than they were. With just a little reluctance, he thought N—
Time elapsed! Now absorbing Mana from F-3rd-Rated Nature Core.
No! That’s not what I wanted! Fred felt an intensely sharp pain radiate through his body starting with his hands. Looking down, he only barely registered that time had seemed to speed up again; the green-glowing core and the pain it was causing him the only things that concerned him.
His throat started to feel raw and he realized that he had been screaming for some time. The glowing core started to flash, blinking on and off faster and faster, increasing the agony suffusing his body. With his vision starting to fade from the overwhelming pain, Fred saw the core flash so quickly that it was almost steady, before it…stopped.
And with the flashing went his pain.
Legs that had been locked in the upright position folded beneath him, and as his knees hit the floor, all he could do was stare at the inert green crystal in his hands. Within seconds, it started to break apart and crumble beneath his fingers, turning to dust as any Mana that had been inside of the crystalline structure was now gone.
With lungs that were heaving like he had just run for three days straight, and with the memory of the pain suffusing his body just a short time ago, all he could do was stare at the green dust in his hand while listening to his own labored breathing.
“Oh my Gods, Fred – WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!”
I…I don’t know.
Chapter 40
Eisa was right to be concerned; Fred had invaded another dungeon core’s domain and Core Room and essentially held it hostage while it answered his questions. If he had been alone, that kind of thing would probably be bad enough that some of the nearby dungeon cores would’ve sent some of their defenders to hunt him down. It would not be the best outcome, but he had figured that might be the case and had planned to move on afterwards out of their range.
But now he had actually destroyed a dungeon core; from what he remembered of his parents’ teachings, the dungeons would take swift action to ensure that the humans knew their place. The retaliation might be only centered on him and possibly his guild members – but he doubted it. He thought that the entire town of Gatecross would be in danger – and possibly more.
“What happened, Fred? How did you destroy that core?”
He hung his head as he considered what to tell both Eisa and Deecy. The fact that the Dire Wolf didn’t really know what had happened wasn’t encouraging; he thought she might have some answers to questions that he had.
“I…don’t know. I didn’t mean to do that.”
“YOU DIDN’T MEAN TO DO WHAT? DESTROY A DUNGEON CORE?” Eisa was apparently quite mad.
“Yes, that was not my intention—” he started, before his mind finally kicked into action— “but there isn’t anything we can do about that fact, now. We need to get out of here before another core comes to investigate.”
“And where do you think we can go, Fred? You just destroyed a dungeon core; from the legends I’ve heard, they don’t take that kind of thing very well. They’ll kill us all! You’ve put everyone in Gatecross in danger – maybe even the rest of the Kingdom!”
Fred stood up and looked at everyone, who had varying expressions ranging from complete astonishment to frightened
anger. Over their heads, he looked at the wall of the Core Room and saw a slight tinge of green highlighting the stone he hadn’t seen before. Looking around the room, ceiling, and the floor, he saw the same highlight everywhere he looked.
“That’s the dungeon territory you’re seeing for the first time. I’m actually surprised that you can see it, as only full dungeon cores – and me, apparently – are supposed to be able to see them. The different factions will have different colors, so you can see even from off of their territory what kind of dungeon core they are.”
But that wasn’t the only change. Back in the recesses of his mind was some knowledge he hadn’t had before. It was small, but very significant: the precise process of creating a dungeon. And not just a Nature dungeon – a Fire and Water one as well. He wasn’t sure why it was only now that he gained access to the knowledge; it was like it was locked away in his head and the introduction of a Nature core had unlocked everything.
Dungeon Core Status
Fredwynklemossering
Core Faction: Fire-Water-Nature
Core Age: 2
Dungeon World: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 27