-Secondary Awakening Initiated-
-Converting Tier 2 Beast Core, Class Companion with Imbued Soul Magic to Tier 3 Dungeon Core Class (to be determined)-
-What is your NAME?-
“Sky Dancer” with that I meant She Who Plays Between Light And Shadow From The Sky While She Dances Death Upon The Land, my sister and her friends never could say it right.
-Confirmed-
-What is your Age?-
“I just finished my fifth heat.”
-Confirmed-
-Why did you turn and fight the [Ripjaw Ogre]?-
“I am not prey. We were getting too tired to run. We would have been too tired to fight. It wasn’t in me to die without fighting to the last.”
-Confirmed-
-What do you most regret?-
“That I could not be with my mate as he met his end. That I will not see my pups grow. That I couldn’t pee on that Ogre’s corpse before death took me.”
-Confirmed- the voice sounded a little taken aback.
-Do you not regret serving the [Ranger] Amanda Cosh?-
“She was my sister, we were pack. How could I regret binding myself to my family.”
-Confirmed-
-Why did you attempt to bite the [Ripjaw Ogre]’s groin?-
“I thought from the smell it was male, they are usually easy to hurt there.”
-Confirmed-
And so the questions went for what seemed like hours. She kept asking more and more obscure questions about me and my past, and I kept answering. I was wondering what this was about when at last she asked one that bothered me.
-What is your favorite color?-
I thought of the absolute black of my mates fur, the shadow so dark you could get lost in it. I said, “My favorite isn’t a color.”
-Denied, black is a color.-
-Awakening Completed-
The voice sounded relieved. Time started again and I blacked out for a time. I once again found myself under a pile of stones but somehow able to see in all directions. My sister and her pack mates were gone. I couldn’t blame them, being dead and all. Death was strange, not at all what I thought it would be. I always thought it would be more ‘end’ like.
It was an odd sensation, I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything, but I could see everything. I thought I should feel trapped but didn't. I was content to sit, and watch, and wait for something to happen. I saw a little burst of light and a small floating ball of glowing mist was suddenly next to me.
"Oh my," said the ball. It had a voice like a girl just starting to be a woman. It reminded me of.my sister's when we first met. "Why am I above ground? Where is it? It hasn't been destroyed, has it? dungeon cores don't do well above ground."
I recognized that last bit and realized he was looking for me. It seemed worried about my safety so it was probably friendly. I decided to speak to it. I somehow projected at it like I did to the voice of the world, “Hello, little one, who are you?”
The thing spun, not like it was turning to face me but like a dust devil. Still when it was done I could feel its attention on me. It looked at my pile of stones and said, “Hello, are you the dungeon core? I am a Wisp sent here by the world spirit to help you. I must say I’m surprised that you can speak. Most new dungeons, even though they understand Language, don’t understand enough to speak.”
“It is new to me too, though my sister did it enough I understand the concept,” I sent.
“Sister? So you aren’t a newborn but a reborn. Were you a beast before?” it asked.
“I wasn’t a beast, I was a Wolf.” I sent with some heat.
“I thought…” it started, then stopped and continued, “That’s ok, now you are a Dungeon Core. I was sent here to teach you how to be one and help you. Unfortunately we don’t have long, I am running out of energy. I need you to bond me. Just reach out with your energy like you are with your speech and touch my core.”
“Why, will that make us pack?”
“No, I will serve you, it is what I was created for. If you won’t bond with me I will die.”
“I don’t need a servant, I am not weak.” I said, and it was true. Even though others thought I was my sister's servant we knew we were sisters, having servants meant you didn’t do things for yourself. That made you weak.
“What? Please, I will die?” the wisp begged.
“So, everything dies,” I replied. “I don’t need a servant, so I don’t need you.”
“But I have knowledge you need,” it said in a rush, “Do you even know how to access your sheet? Bond with me and I will show you.”
It had a point, and I could always eat it later. I reached out with my energy and touched it. Suddenly I felt a link form between us. It wasn’t like the pack bond with my sister, but it was just as strong. The wisp had tricked me, eating her now would be like eating my own tail.
“Thank you,” she said and sent a warm feeling through the link. “I was afraid for a moment there. Now to start, would you say ‘Status Sheet’ to the world spirit...holy son of a goat!”
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Status of Sky Dancer
She Who Plays Between Light And Shadow From The Sky While She Dances Death Upon The Land
Age: 7.1 Years
Core Type: Faceted Icosahedron
Level:1
Trier: 3
Class: (MUST CHOOSE A CLASS)
Path Grade: 1
Available paths : Dungeon of the Trackless Depths, grade 14; Liminal Dungeon of a Thousand Instances, grade 11; Dungeon of the Undying Moon, grade 11; Shadowed Woods of the Eternal Pack, grade 10; Hidden Ways of the Unconquered Family, grade 10; (more)...
Essence Capacity: 45/3600
Titles: Die Hard, Undying Love, Loyal Beyond Death, Boundless Depths, Wise Beyond Years, Always the Hunter, Daughter of the Moon, Gourmand of Death, Sister of the Sky, Honorable, (more)...
Reach 18
Control 23
Perception 30
Intelligence 19
Wisdom 36
Willpower 23
Charisma 18
Presence 13
Free points: 5
Skills: See above ground 1, Rapid Expansion 1, Pack Conjuring 1, Assess Prey 1, Inherent Stealth 1, Soul Sight 1, Truth Sense 1, Way of the Woods 1, Ritualless Summoning 1, Liminal Understanding 1, (more)...
“How,” she asked me, “how are you so advanced, where did you get all these titles? It’s like you were one of the enlightened races and went through questioning but you weren’t plagued by self delusion and doubt.”
“Is that what those questions were about?” I asked. “They did go on for quite a long time.”
“Alright then,” she said. The little ball of light and mist somehow managed to look resolved. “If this is how things are with you I’m going to turn off our notifications or we will be overwhelmed at a bad time. You’ll still get the stuff, it’s just the voice won’t talk to you unless you ask. We are actually in a pretty good position. First things first. You need to eat.”
At last a sentiment I could agree with. In fact I had never felt so hungry, not even in those early years before I met my sister. Unlike when I was alive, it didn’t hurt to be this hungry, instead it just felt like a constant pressure on my thoughts. The wisp kept going and said, “Let's start with your old body. Just extend your essence around it and pull it inside you.”
It seemed a little odd but I did what she said. The dead flesh of my old body seemed like it faded into dust as it was drawn into my new self. I felt a small rush of power like when I used to draw in essence. I looked around the hollow I had created. I could now see myself, a round crystal made of little triangles. I put off a shifting light that moved along the walls like my beloved clouds leaving their sun shadows on the earth. In the light I saw what was laid next to me in my grave.
The partially broken form of my third pup who was never born. He lay there as if he was curled next to me preparing to nurse. His coloring was perfect, so unlike his parents, with a uniform dusty red/gray only becoming dark at his ear and tail tips. I would name him Dreams Undreamt as his form was so close to being asleep. I could not bear to see him rot beside me so I drew him into me. This time I didn’t get a rush of the essence like feeling. Instead I suddenly knew everything about wolves, not just how to be one, but how to make one.
“Oh, you absorbed the other wolf already,” the wisp said, “that should tell you most of what you need to make one yourself at least. It was a newborn so you won’t get any Aether from it. Aether is what you actually need to eat. The rest, the material, is just that, material. As a Dungeon Core you can use this material and Essence to create anything you have a pattern for. You can then use these things you make to hunt for sources of Aether. Unlike an Awakened mortal you can’t just draw in the straight Aether in the air, instead you can only draw in Aether that has been made into Ki or Mana. It is like how you could not drink the dampness in the air on a hot day. Instead you had to wait for it to condense into rain. Likewise you can draw Essence from the heavens and earth around you and condense it into a form you can use to lure in Awakened mortals. All mortal life has some usable Aether in it, they absorb it as they age, and it becomes ki in their mussels and mana in their minds. The Awakened have the most as they actively gather it. They also expel it when they use their abilities.”
I understood what she was saying at an instinctual level. I knew I could create a wolf now that I had absorbed a whole one. I also had a hunger for the Aether. I knew it would make me stronger, and I knew that I needed it to live.
“Can you reach outside your cavern?” the wisp asked. “I think you should be able to since you bound me outside. If you can, try to absorb a little of everything you can reach. Once we know what we have to work with we can pick a compatible class and get to work. Part of the problem of you having all these titles is it makes you qualified for a lot of paths you don’t have the resources to to sustain. Like this grade 6 Redoubt of the Ravening Legion, if you took that class you couldn’t advance unless you made tool-using monsters like orcs or hobgoblins. I don’t even want to think what you would need to make use of the grade 9 field dungeon class Peaceful Glade of the Gibbering Horrors.”
While she was talking I was absorbing things from the clearing around me. The grasses and shrubs gave me a little Essence but mostly everything just gave me patterns. Soon I knew about all kinds of rocks, plants, and even insects. I quickly learned to recognize things I already had and left them alone. After I got several dozen yards from my cave I was starting to think I had gathered everything I could. That was when I found the body of my murderer. I absorbed it with relish, pleased that it wouldn’t even have the legacy of being scavengers’ excrement. I was surprised it gave me a large amount of the Aether I craved, enough I was starting to feel full. I didn’t learn how to make an ogre but I did learn how to make its hide and bones as well as the deer hide and rope.
To my shame I may have become a glutton. Even as full as I was from the ogres corpse I looked with hunger at the glowing stone at the end of its club. I figured a taste couldn’t hurt and I started to absorb it. That was when I found out that absorbing something was an all or nothing deal. I quickly went from sated to painfully full.
“What happened?” the wisp asked in a rush. “You are over full of Aether, you have to advance but you don’t have a path. There are only three high grade paths you can use with what you have, pick one quick: Shadowed Woods of the Eternal Pack which is built off your Pack Conjuring skill; Hidden Ways of the Unconquered Family which is based on you inherent stealth and undying loyalty; and Trackless Wilds of the Hunters that based on your always the hunter title. They are the only ones that can work with only wolves as creatures.”
I thought through the pain. The Unconquered Family called to me, even as I thought of my pups. Then I thought of my last memory of my sister, her fight with the red woman's brother. She had always said the red woman and the others were family but in the end they didn’t care. They did not care because they were not really pack and saw us as other. Pack was stronger than family, so I chose my path.
-Your New Class Is: Shadowed Woods of the Eternal Pack-
-You are now LEVEL 2-
-You are now LEVEL 3-
-You are now LEVEL 4-
....
-You are now LEVEL 18-
The droning voice of the world spirit made me miss when the pain subsided. As it did I felt that I could “see” much further than I did before. I looked at the wisp and saw that she was brighter than before. She looked back at me before asking, “What did you eat?”
“It was apparently called a corrupted greater soul stone fragment.” I told her. “It is what that creature hit me with to kill me.”
“That explains a lot. A soul stone is used in binding magic and can hold a lot of energy. For someone to corrupt it would take a lot of Mana.” she said. “Well, no use for it, now that you have a class we need to make some floors. It looks like your class makes you a breach dungeon, which means the surface counts as your first floor. If we can make the cairn you are in into a proper cave entrance we can dig down from here.”
“First,” I asked, “what should I call you? I can’t just keep calling you the wisp if we are to be pack.”
“I don’t have a name.” she said sadly.
“Then I shall call you Star,” I said, and by that I meant The Light of the First Star of the Night Reflected on Rippling Waters.
"That is beautiful," Star said, "I love it. Now let's get to work.”