Time passed and I awoke once more. Things changed in my slumber. The cuts in my exterior smoothed. I would say I was identical to the demon lord's core. However, I was smaller, brighter and filled with swirls of every color. I was a kaleidoscope of color or a rainbow disco ball. Nah, those weren’t my generation’s thing. Like a computer with an obnoxious amount of LED’s. The kind that makes your room stick out from the rest of your home, like a raving lighthouse. The kind you spend too much money on. The kind no one breaks into because you never sleep and… Oh right.

In my slumber I must have absorbed the demon lord's core. It was leaking mana all over the place. Also there's a strange creature balled around me. It reminds me of a fox. Specifically the logo of a certain internet browser. It began to stir as if it could feel my gaze. It peered under its tail making eye contact with me. I don’t know how. I don’t really have eyes. Unless I'm just a giant eye.

The creature leapt up in what I could only imagine was surprise. It gripped me tightly and started to roll around. ‘You're awake! You're awake. Hee hee ha ha ha ha… Finally! I'm Ferris, your fairy!’ Now that It was up I could see its wings. It was a fairy with the stereotypical wings albeit a bit furry. Like a little fox person. These thought were at the back of my mind. If I had a face it would be in a deadpan. ‘No.’ ‘yes.’ ‘No.’ ‘yes.’ ‘No.’ ‘yes.’ ‘No…’

The creature paused pondering something. Then it wore a most vial and devious expression. It hoisted me up and screamed. “Yes I am!” I had a flashback to when the demon lord's core smashed. I didn't want to test if my new form was as fragile. This creature seemed simple but smart enough that perhaps I could bargain with it. So I did just that.

‘AhhhHHhhh! Please don’t smash me, I'm sorry.’ I cried like a little b*tch. It raised me higher with a harrumph and stared at my core. It was then I realized. That it was in no mood to bargain and I gave what it wanted. ‘Fine, Your My FairrRRYYYY!’ (Ferris Is now your contracted fairy)

It slumped to the floor. It held me and let out a sigh. ‘I didn't think that’d work.’ It laid atop me as if it just performed a most strenuous feat. ‘I told them I could do it. I'm just as good as any fairy.’ I would be in a simmering rage after being fooled by such a feeble creature. If I hadn’t been alone all this time.

‘I’m Issac by the way.’ Just stating my name seemed to bring the fox girl.. Fox fairy.. Fairy fox back to life. She was absolutely starry eyed. She picked me up and twirled around.

‘It has a name! It has a name!. I’m so lucky! Hahaha. Suck it Janiss and your stupid core too!’ It was strange to watch her rapidly go through emotions. Relief, joy, excitement, hysteria, anger and a bit of jealousy. ‘My name's Ferris. Oh wait, I already said that. I'm here to help you build your dungeon…’

‘Dungeon?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘You're a dungeon core..’ ‘I'm not a dungeon core.’ She dropped me. Luckily we were already on the floor. Her expression spoke to me. It was like watching the world collapse. Her face paled and the light in her eyes faded. ‘I mean. I don’t know what I am.’ The light returned to her eyes with a bit of apprehension. Perhaps she thinks she's made a grave mistake.

With a simple check things became clear. She made a mistake. I think it was a rather small one. Neither of us could be blamed. I was a core, but a dungeon core I was not.

((Issac. species core. Health N/A-Fragile. Mana Surplus. Affinities unknown.)) (anomaly: Something the world never intended) (Anomalous: Operates under strange laws, twists or ignores current worldly laws.) (Variant: Familiar yet different, become something greater or lesser than your base species.) (Unique: Be one of a kind, title revoked if there are many.)

Some of that was disconcerting. ‘I’m a core Variant and I'm uniquely my own.’ ‘Variants are all and good but being unique means nothing.’ She emphasizes gesturing to herself. ‘Are you not a variant yourself? Are you not unique?...’ Apparently I touched a sore spot. “No… You can see for yourself. We’er contracted.‘ She wrapped herself in her tail and stewed there waiting, as if I'd react badly.

((Ferris Species Fairy/Fox. Health Low. Mana Low. Affinities Nature, Soul minor.)) (Dungeonborn: A being created by a dungeon.) (Unique: Be one of a kind, title revoked if there are many.) (Chimera: A being made of multiple creatures) I could see what brought her so much anguish.

‘As far as I see, we're two of a kind. Two beings who had no control over what we were made to be.’ She seemed so sad. ‘I was made this way on a whim. You were born a core.’ her words felt bitter… ‘I was a human once…’ She certainly found that skeptical. ‘Life wasn’t kind to me. I joined a heroes party. We had our ups and downs. Just when things started to look good I was trapped by a demon.’

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I had her attention now. "We found a holy sword that well. Turned out to be not so holy. I was trapped in the sword for a long time while the demon took my place. It paraded around in my own skin. I drank arm and arm with the hero. They laughed as if nothing was wrong. It got along with them better than I did… Then abruptly one day things changed.’

‘Did they figure out you were replaced?’ ‘No. My party was in a serious fight and the sword I was in cracked. They couldn't afford repairs. So they opted to scrap and sell me. I was melted down and sold piece by piece. All that was left of me was a gem. The demon hid me from the party. If I were sold I’d bring them many problems. Then it threw me in a river.’

‘Its depressing, I know. After a long while fate nearly brought me back to my party. I fell short… But I did end up killing the Demon lord They spent years chasing. Took it right out from under them.’ ‘Bull! There's no way that happened.’ ‘Fine, suit yourself. But I am a bonafide demon lord killer.’ ‘hmmph, ya right. You would have a title for that.’ After an awkward silence I could see her eyes dart around. She was definitely reading something.

‘You have it! What the heck.! You actually have it! Hmm I thought you were just trying to cheer me up.’ ‘I was.’ ‘oh.’ ‘So how do you feel about being the fairy to such a badass.’ ‘I mean it's cool but how did you do it? You were stuck in a gem.’ I could feel a cold sweat. ‘Well... It was a long protracted battle... It took place in this room in fact!’ ‘Ok now I know that's bull. What realy happened?’

“They fell on me.‘ “Fell?‘ ‘like really hard.’ ‘ahuh.’ ‘Then they just broke… At the time I was just a gem and they were a core but they fell on me so they just broke’ ‘Wow that is anticlimactic. I believe you.’ ‘Realy?’ ‘Yeah your embarrassment is coming off in waves.’‘My what?’ ‘embarrassment’

“Being core means you mana permits your dungeon and the very air we breathe. Your emotions are carried in it. It's like an ant's pheromone telling the colony how it's feeling, be it happy, sad, angry, scared. More than that if you had monsters they could tell when you were watching when you urged them to fight and stuff like that.”

‘Wow you just went into full tutorial mode.’ ‘yeah it's kinda my job. Ah. What kind of core are you? I know you said you were a variant.’ ‘Just core. I don’t know what that means but I think it's special.’

‘Ok. Cores are categorized by what they do. Dungeon cores make dungeons and are the most abundant kind of core. Their forest cores literally only make forests. I mean there's a core for anything basically. But there‘s only one world core. It basically sets the rules for cores. They don’t make every core though. Say an army cuts and burns swaths of forests. The world core would gather mana in the region to create a forest core to replace the forests. The forest core would also attack anyone who tries to cut its trees.’

‘Cores form naturally too when mana is gathered densely in one place. It takes a lot more time. The first cores were wild, ruthless and monsters in their own right. The world core intervened and forced cores to comply with a set of rules. Cores that broke the rules would be punished. Not every rule breaker would be punished. Only the truly deranged or dangerous ones. The world is really big so it ignores most things.’

‘Think of it like flies on a giant. The giant won't notice. But when one becomes a leach or a swarm. Then sure as hell the world notices. I mean it won’t mind being a little itchy so you don’t have anything to worry about. Maybe.’ ‘How will I know if I'm breaking a rule?’ ‘You’ll know. You’ll feel it just before you do it. Although I don't know what rules apply to you since you're just a core’ she finger quotes.

‘How did the world core make the rules?’ ‘A little divinity, intent, magic and the help of a few gods. It's basically a system of magic that affects cores as a species.’ ‘Wait I don’t follow.’ ‘You were a human once. Ever wondered why different races have similar classes with different names. That is the product of magic and gods interfering.’

‘What about runes and spells? Did the gods make those?’ ‘They more or less co-opted them. Mortals made them with pure will and intent. Basically if a group of people believe something works a specific way it does. It's the same way cult leaders create priests and even angels. Eventually if enough people believe they could create their own god.’

‘Spells and runes. A group believes mana can be controlled, one day they start to shape the mana around them. Next they categorize it by element and believe the elements oppose each other. Now they have a basis for schools of magic. They replicate each other's spells and they believe they discovered how magic works. It's all one great delusion really. But hey it works’

‘Some will make symbols giving them meaning. Simple things like fire, water, earth. Then cold, hot, push, pull, expand and contract. Eventually they have a whole runic language. Its all about intent and belief. They unknowingly imprint their ideas on magic itself.’

‘Magic is familiar with you as you are with it. It imparts itself onto you. On to your entire race. It's why each race has a hard time expanding their magic outside their race's norms. why performing another race's form of magic is difficult or impossible.’

‘Ancient dwarves had their own system of runes. Current dwarves have a different system and vaguely resemble their ancient kin. Ancient dwarves were widespread and prosperous. Their magic was powerful. Unfortunately there are none left. Their spoken language is dead and all that remains are their runes and a scarce few artifacts. Modern dwarves can use ancient runes although their meaning are lost. The better a dwarf grasps their meaning the greater the effect. Magic in a way remembers the dwarves.’

‘Current day dwarven magic is similar to ancient dwarven magic. It took millenia for their magic to drift. It's almost a new system. Given a few millennia more and the dwarves won’t be able to use ancient runic magic. Hell no one will. The magic would simply stop working and eventually fade away.’

‘There was a race similar to elves known now as the Kari. No one knows what they called themselves. They were an islandic group. They ate mostly meat of the sea, which is very different from elves of today who can barely survive trying to eat meat. These people went extinct a few millennia ago. As much as the elves have tried, none have been able to revive their form of magic. They have gone so far as to use a dungeon core to create a community of kari. They were unable to use their magic. But their close relation to elves allowed them to use elven magic to some success.’

‘That's a lot to unwrap. Mind warning me if you're going to give a history lesson.’ ‘If I'm going to teach you something then I'm going to do it right the first time.’ Great, now she’s pouty…