Emotions………

Forever taken for granted by humans, yet so unobtainable by we.

They define us, they guide us, they make us. Yet, they are so far.

We possess little but three:

1: Ecstasy, the pleasure for our goals fulfilled

2: Hatred, may we never forget those who earn our ire

3: Greed, for we desire the world in our domain……and more

Our life…cold and harsh. The outside…warm and kind. We seek it, but never reach it.

We feel the world through naught but our tiny cores, yearning for the warmth we do not have.

-Dungeon Core [Date unknown]

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When I say a flood of emotions overcame me, I literally mean a flood. Don’t understand? Here’s a quick rundown. Dungeon do not have emotions. Well, I do but that is just a semblance, a mere replication. I mean, scientifically speaking, I have no hormones for my emotions anyway… do I? Doesn’t matter.

So… like when you put a cold water in a hot test-tube, what do you think will happen? Yeap. The test-tube gets completely overwhelmed by the change. Not that my core cracked or anything… but it is very disorientating. Imagine faceplanting into a whole metric ton of water surging at you at Mach 5, maybe not that bad… but you get the idea.

Right now, it appears to me and Tapira almost as if an aura of sorts is surrounding the ‘fairy’. Can’t really discern much of it, but we can sense gratitude, relief, fear and many more all in this miny cyclone of emotions.

So this is why dungeons have companions…… Not because of eye-candy or emergency food supply, but because they were living and breathing beings capable of such, to us dungeons, impossible feats.

Emotions, from what I asked Tapira before (from her inherent knowledge), dungeons most of the time will get carried away with their false emotions, or fall into ruin because they ignore it. Our companions serve to be our leash.

To be our irrationality, to embrace our eccentricity, to preserve our humanity. Even dungeons have taboos, though some do break them.

Now, back to our important issue at hand and none of my incessant rambling. The ‘fairy’ hiccs and sobs, occasionally using her wrist to wipe her tears and mucus, continually chewing and swallowing, with some occasional mumbles of “thank you…… thank you”. I don’t mind, hehehe, praise me more, hehehehe.

Then came the inevitable moment where her hands reached only the cold and hard dungeon floor. No berries. As if not believing it, she reaches around and pats the ground a few times, just to check if her eyes were not seeing things and the berries were really gone.

“………” She wordlessly stares at the larvack I’m currently possessing. Tapira growled at the sight.

“Sorry, but that is all that you will have.” I told my companion. But I agree with Tapira bringing this issue to light. None of my monster, nor creatures, will be freeloaders. None of my family will be weak. I will not be weak. Two times we have fought, and two times with insurmountable losses, one heavier than the next. Never will I feel such pain again.

“If you are hungry, you work for it. If you are weak here, you starve. We don’t take leeches and parasites who are not useful in combat, or in the dungeon.” I then proceeded to lay our dungeons’ rules to my companion. If I were to die, I wish to die fighting beside my family, to protect their backs while they protect mine. To me, hiding behind someone else is…… cowardly. No one should bear the responsibility of someone else’s life on their back on the battlefield in this harsh world. I have to remember, this is a different world now.

If she was weak, she trains. If she is scared, she trains. If she is tired, she rests, then train some more. There is nothing Boot Camp Lravare cannot solve. ‘Spartan training that will guarantee you a fit body able to excel in battle, food and lodging provided! Sign up now!’ I giggle a little at my old world joke.

“Well…… maybe to start off, could you tell us your name? This lovely dungeon here is Tapira, as for me…… I have yet to receive a name. If you could, tell us where we are in this world?” I kick start our conversation with a question or two. Man, Tapira is still reeling from the effects of the emotional outburst. Thank RNGesus for my reincarnated human mind.

“None. But… map… I have” She replied, slightly shaking her head, then proceeding to dab at somewhere on her skirt. She then walked (stumbled, more like) to the wall and started sketching a map. It was a really good sketch, although it was completely white. I would link that kind of artistic talent to Da Vinci level but… it’s just a sketch. But it is still good. Though it’s just a sketch…

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“Whao, that’s pretty good. It’s where we are, right?” Tapira exclaimed, apparently recovering from her minor core (brain equivalent) overload. Then, the ‘fairy’ stops, then scoots aside allowing us to view her map as a whole, nodding in response to Tapira’s question.

From her scale bar (where she learned that I do not know), our island was a semi-oval shape, about 3.5 million square kilometres. Irregular, but in general thick in the center and thin at the sides. At its approximate center was a pool of water, occupying about 1/3 of the surface area. From her 2.5D sketch (cross-section with top), the pool of water contracts in diameter, to becomes what looks like a top (the toy kind). Then, it opens back up, to about the same as the previous surface diameter, thought very slightly expanding out. The pool runs deep.

After a sizeable distance, the pool appears to burst into a large cavern filled with water. I say ‘appears’ because there were only hints of it in the sketch. It pretty much truncates there.

But that just makes it even more believable. This formation looks…………disturbingly familiar. I can’t put my finger on it, but something reminds me about deep pools and sample collection……

“Say, is there a reason why the graph ends here? Do you know what’s down there? Ah, let me guess, monster? Strong ones, right?” I rattle off a bunch of questions.

“Don’t…know. Heard…monster…very strong…Kraken.” She rapidly shakes her head as if to get the image of a certain giant squid out of her head. “Scared” She admits.

Hmmmmmmm.

“When you came here, did you come from the top?” I ask. If my suspicions are answered, then I know what to do.

‘*Nod*’ was the answer I received.

“Where the monsters there weak?” I continue

‘*Shake*’ she returns.

“Erm… weaker than the kraken?”

This time, it was a ‘*Nod*’. Good, and bad. Now let’s put two and two and three together.

A water formation that looks like a deformed abomination of an hourglass, deep pool, more dangerous the lower you get. Throw in our commonplace limestone cavern and…..

“I got it!!!!” I exclaim, startling Tapira and the ‘fairy’.

“Blue Hole!! That’s where we are! We are in a Blue Hole! It all makes sense now! This is great, we now know where to explore and the resources we can find now!” I continue, disregarding their surprise.

“Where are we? On the island exactly?” I frantically ask.

The ‘fairy’ proceeds to mark our location with an ‘X’, marking us to be somewhere in the middle of the top-like section of the Blue Hole, fairly (in fact very) close to the water. It should be freshwater up there, we can finally have water now! A free-flowing supply of water and not the drips and drops that come and go. But……

“Darling… Doesn’t that mean…” Tapira trails off, unable to speak our fears.

“No doubt about it, alright. We are magnificently and superbly weak. And to succeed, to fulfil our wishes and desires, we have to be strong. We shall make this a goal of ours. We shall claim the surface as ours, and dive down deep into the Hole and view its mysteries for ourselves. Plus, some water based monsters will never hurt.” I smile. It’s definitely a long way to go, but a little dungeon can dream. Well, I am a big dungeon now, my birthday is already past. I am now officially one year old! Hurrah!

‘Fairy’… why are you looking at me with such fearful eyes? Does my magnificence scare you so much? Buahahahaha, as expected of me!

As the two dungeons made their way to make preparations for whatever delusions they had, not a single monster (……maybe one or two, you never know) had seen the little glint hidden in the folds of the ‘fairy’s’ skirt.

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‘Fairy’ Sensei’s Little Corner:

(A.N.: this is a like a miny side story, where ‘fairy’ explains some of the workings of a dungeon. Since I will not have my entire chapter filled with expositions which will make people rage, I’ll put it here. Do read it. This is actually important stuff. Plus her fragmented speech takes a little too long to explain everything. )

Today’s Topic: Inherent Knowledge

All dungeons are born/birthed/gifted with a pool of knowledge called ‘Inherent Knowledge’. It’s part of the dungeon, and it cannot be stolen. But it can be taken, from sharing through dungeon Envoys or taken by the victor of a dungeon battle.

Some of the knowledge may lead a young dungeon astray, as such the knowledge is locked until the young dungeon has met its requirements to unlock it. Needless to say, it’s quite difficult, as most of the times it’s quite dangerous knowledge. Sometimes, the blockage is even unnoticeable, causing the dungeon to not even realize what it’s missing out on.

Some theorize that dungeons are formed from the tossed away fragments of souls that do not make it to the afterlife, some say they are reincarnated souls. They all have their own merits but so far none have been able to prove how did dungeons form. Not even the dungeons themselves.

The Inherent Knowledge differs from dungeon to dungeon, which is also another factor which makes dungeons unique. Some even link inherent knowledge to dungeon’s imitated emotions.

It is unknown how such knowledge is acquired, leaving one to only guess.