Ch 21

“Just like this, then?” Casimer asked, cross legged and staring at the green dungeon core in his hand. His body had swelled to three times it's previous proportions, his mouth filling with bear teeth; eating those bears had really done wonders for his temperment as well. Casimer had never felt so relaxed.

“Yes,” Labrynthee said, sounding intoxicated as he hovered over the ruined site of the 'Den of Monsters'. From the ground, tiny two leaved shoots grew with supernatural speed, and Labrynthee pounced on the new growth, scorching the ground wherever something tried to grow. He seemed to derive great amusement from this.

“So,” Casimer said, voice even and patient “What do I do with it?”

“It's so simple. You simply claim it, move inside of it, and it's power is yours.”

Casimer pulled the corners of his monstrous lips down and shrugged.

“I claim the core!” He shouted, then hunched over and pushed his head onto the core. He sat there for a moment, then Labrynthee began laughing wildly.

“It didn't seem to work,” Casimer said, voice calm as he reset his posture and went back to staring at the core. In a fit of minor realization, he directed Melchsee to scan the core and see what she could find out. Melchsee removed herself from Casimer, and grabbed hold of the dungeon core with a cube of blue light. Labrynthee stopped laughing almost at once and floated overhead, focused intently on the events below.

The core resembled nothing more than a chunk of viridian green petrified wood, a long and textured chunk of smooth stone with grooves and a single big knot near the thickest part of the bottom. It floated motionless, then rotated 180 degrees along the vertical axis, then the same turn along the horizontal axis, then several even turns along diagonal lines. At one point, the core began to vibrate, and at another, it produced green sparks that turned to grass when they touched the ground.

“Please,” It screamed at one point “the kingdom-” but it was cut off by a flash of light from the cube it was encased in.

Abruptly, there was a 'ding' sound, like the alarm for a toaster oven, and the core was shifted and then dropped into Casimer's open palm. It projected a blank white background window with a gold border. It hesitated for a moment, then all at once, words materialized on it.

Viridian Dungeon Core, Quality: Unknown.

Composed of a vivid, light green petrified wood, this Dungeon Core was captured from 'The Den of Monsters' by Casimer, the only dungeon of Earth. Investigation by sophisticated psychic means has shown the fragmented, mostly destroyed remains of a mind that once occupied the core.

Then, above that window, another appeared.

You have created a new skill, Analyze.

Would you like to see your existing skills? Y/N

Casimer was about to say no, when he got an absolutely, rock, certain impression that he would want to look at his skills. The effect was subtle, but Casimer was certain that Melchsee had altered his thoughts and perceptions to make that pun.

Currently Known Skills:

Absorb (Dungeon Only)

Aim (New)

Analyze (New)

Bend Light

Change Environment (Dungeon Only)

Create Dungeon (Dungeon Only)

Merge (Dungeon Only)

Monster Creation (Dungeon Only)

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Plane Shift (New)

Psychic Link

As Casimer stared, each set of words morphed into small icons arranged in a grid along the window. The skill for merge, which showed a venn-diagram of two eyes coming together, rose from the screen and hovered in the air.

“Oooohhh,” Labrynthee said, voice soft, child-like, heavy with the pain of beauty “how elegant! What a refined creature you are,” he nearly whispered, drawn tears appearing on the mask and running down. “Please,” he said “please touch it!”

Casimer mentally checked with his companion and got the impression he should indeed touch the icon. He reached a scorpion stinger tipped finger out and tapped it, a sudden stream of understanding in his mind revealed something he had apparently already known how to do. Above the Viridian Dungeon Core, a new window appeared.

Would you like to claim this core using the Merge Skill? Y/N

“Yes,” Casimer said, and without ceremony or fanfare, the Viridian dungeon core lifted into the air and slammed against his chest, sinking into his body like a boulder through deep mud. Before Casimer had a chance to examine how he felt, Labrynthee began speaking.

“Ah,” he said, a content look on his face “It truly is good to see the young and impoverished thrive. A dungeon born on barren land,” he said with a near musical tone, like he was reciting something “with nothing but his wits in hand; below the mountain, below the pits, below the bottom of the world he stands, with poor, exiled, fangless me.” He sighed, then started speaking normally “I saw your birth, little dungeon. A tiny fire, and a bold, saucy proclamation. You said 'Hear me, you who call yourselves powerful. I am coming, and I will eat you.' Or something like that,” he said with a dismissive tone.

“What a shame,” he said with the tonal equivalent of a shrug “There's nothing else on this plane, no other dungeons. Nothing but me. A core must be bet to travel to this place, and a core must be sacrificed to leave, forming an anchor, your body that exists here, the entrance to your dungeon, to you. Perhaps, if you had made a friend of that core, there could have been a way.” He laughed. “If you leave now,” he said, voice betraying a nearly sadistic delight “Your next trip here will be one way. If you stay,” he said “you will wander, and wander and wander till you find the edge of this place, ascend to a higher level, and die to opponents far too powerful to even describe to one such as you. You are as doomed as I,” he hissed, eyes growing wild “yes, and even now powerful agents will be sent to investigate the destruction of the outpost, and when they find you, we will both be destroyed. Finally,” he said, voice breaking into total madness “Finally I will be killed!”

A clandestine window appeared near an eye on Casimer's shoulder, out of view from Labrynthee, who was twisting and wiggling through the air, alternating between weeping and laughing.

Casimer, it's Melchsee. (If you hadn't figured that out already). This guy's nuts, and more importantly, I don't think we can get anything useful out of him anymore. Let's get out of here, I've been examining the Create Dungeon skill, and it's pretty great. Here's what you need to do.

Casimer read the simple instructions displayed on the screen, nodded, and the screen vanished. His hands morphed, becoming more like bear hands with thick claws at the end, and started digging a hole. The ground was hard, and his claws were harder, his body strong, and the dusty, parched ground broke apart.

“What are you doing,” Labrynthee said, sounding annoyed.

“I'm looking for a rock,” Casimer said, voice deeper, slower, more bear-like.

“What kind of a rock,” Labrynthee said, voice frozen into sanity.

“A nice polished rock, preferably a gem” Casimer said, now waist deep into his hole, voice muffled.

“Oh,” Labrynthee said, bored “I'll look as well. We might as well get comfortable with one another. There should be some in the distance, I've made a game of stacking things as high as they will go and knocking them over.”

“No need,” Casimer said, feet sticking out from the mouth of the hole “I've found something.” His body contorted, and he pulled himself up, a regular, roughly spherical rock that looked like pitted granite held in his mouth.

“Oh, well good then, you've found your favorite rock. Congratulations.” Several of Labrynthee's streamers slapped together in a limp fish parody of applause.

Casimer conjured his skill window and pulled the icon for Create Dungeon off of it. This icon shone like a crystal, vivid colors depicting a man in a pointy, conic hat with his arms raised in the air, wand in the right hand, facing away and looking at a levitating, bright stone. He touched it with a bear claw, and it turned grey.

Would you like to use Create Dungeon on this 'Common Stone'? Y/N

Cooldown for this skill: 1 Year. 5 Years if failure occurs.

80% chance of failure.

Without hesitation, Casimer selected yes, and the stone rose into the air, a golden fire surrounding it. Labrynthee began to scream, hateful, murderous screams, his streamers turning to claws the couldn't seem to reach Casimer, regardless of how badly he wanted to kill him. The stone began to rotate erratically, great fast movements that slowed without discernible pattern, each fast motion causing it to flare with brighter light.

Casimer, without waiting a moment, pulled the icon for Plane Shift from his skill window, a pictograph showing a humanoid figure, and another figure moving away from it looking insubstantial. A window appeared, and Casimer dismissed it without reading too carefully. He already knew how it worked, the skill was just a shortcut to something already there.

The dungeon core stopped rotating in the air and dropped to the ground, the same rock, but shining with normal, undifferentiated light. The skill window engulfed it, wrapping around it like a plastic shell, and the core plunged into the ground.

“This cannot be!” Labrynthee screamed, ineffectual strikes landing on Casimer like being hit with a ribbon “I hate you! Escape artist! Trickster! Liar! Evil God! I hate you! I will betray you!”

“Thank you for your help,” Casimer said, voice as calm as a bear in the woods “But I must go now.” The point where the core entered the ground became a wide staircase leading straight down into black, unknown depths. Casimer, standing on two legs, walked into the black.