Chapter 11. Buying information is as easy as..._Dungeon Core Chat Room.

> The danger of combining opposing elements: Rank 1 mana is fine to use in an opposing element monster (but not recommended) even if it gives a monster “light madness traits” however Rank 2 mana is much much worse. The mixture of Life and Death mana has a high chance of resulting in Demonic mana- Giving life to that which is not of this world as if it reached into an imaginary plane perpendicular to both Life and Death on the axis of “alive and dead”. Terrifying abominations could appear that seek to destroy all - and will use incomprehensible means to do so. Demonic mana is nasty.

> The Combination of Kinetic and Mental is not nearly as shocking but equally as dangerous for Dungeon Cores-a myriad of Discombobulations and monsters that let loose waves or miasmas that can- And have- severed a Dungeon Core's mind from their physical core. This act of pushing them out into the world beyond one's influence is a death sentence- as without the physical core to sustain yourself all that's left is to quickly perish. The Kinetic and Mental combination could also create MIM's or "Moving Insane Minds"- Angry Spirits essentially that can pass through all matter and attack anything they came across...such as a defenseless Core. Really as long as small amounts of opposing elements are used in a large creature with a heavy number of other elements to offset it there might not be as bad of a reaction...but why risk your life just for some experiment? A lot of the cores that have died by Demons or MIM's thought they could do it right up till the end- do you really want to join their ranks?

Excerpt from the useful Dungeon Information packet "Tier 2 Primer by Jess"

The information packet he just bought gave him multiple options once he received it. He could either consume it directly, or leave it in the system display. Hesitating slightly then selecting "system display" a pop-up appeared in the corner of his vision that smoothly expanded to a long strip of text.

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Alright, now that I’ve got you here I have some important information to pass on!

First order of business. Get used to death... Reaching Tier 4 is a wall that many many of your fellow cores will not be able to reach. But that is okay! By reading this pamphlet you are already taking the first steps towards surviving and if you follow some of the following guidelines you are already ahead of the curve!!!

Do not accept trades in raw materials unless it looks advantageous especially large amounts! #2 cause of death besides dumb experimentation is by getting plugged! PLUGGED!!! That's what we call reaching a point you can’t expand anymore- Having your inventory get full and expanding out as far as you can but being unable to continue is a slow suffocating death sentence. Following that point do everything you can to prevent creating endlessly expanding materials! They can slowly fill your halls and will end in much the same way as above- Kill the mana and material if you gain it- anything is better than that!

The next point and #1 cause of Core death is experimentation! I will leave it to other more detailed primers to provide information about the different mana types and how they react, and just give the following warning. Do Not Mix Opposing elements!!!!!! Unless you have specifically (and dumbly) picked a dual specialization (and even highly recommended in that case) Do Not Mix Opposing elements!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That way leads to madness and madness corrupts and harms its user. On that note, if you ever find Madness mana- DO NOT PRACTICE USING IT!!! You have been warned! Experimentation is not nearly as dangerous with Rank 1 Mana as it is with Rank 2...I Recommend you don't partake in it and stick to buying some of the well-tested monsters. They are safe!

Finally just some common sense. You (as a Tier 2 Dungeon Core) are lumped in with the other Rank 2 cores (The Tier 3 Dungeon Cores). The system upgrade for Tier 3 gives access to a few things one being the ability to use mana as a currency! Yes, it's as convenient as it sounds!!! A lot of cores like being paid in cool hard Mana- however, understand Tier 2s are more limited and will accept being paid in Pure Cores- or barter! This is likely a new concept for you and if so you can purchase Pure Core creation lessons Keep in mind upper Tiers trade in "system-aided" cores and have strict standardized measurements for the currency.

When Trading check the profile of who’s trading! Important! They should have a rating on how many successful trades they have completed. Even if they change their name those positive and negative trades are still visible! Be wary and don’t promise anything too big for any core that has several downvotes on their trade profile. Additionally, be wary of any trader with few trades offering high-priced items! Before accepting any trade make sure what they are offering is exactly what you signed up for and leave feedback if you think you were scammed!

Here is a list of useful curated info packets I recommend buying. If this guide helped you feel free to leave a positive vote and or gift me something good!!!

Both of these are really good descriptions of a bunch of basic information and can be bought together for 1 Tier 1 PureCore! What an amazing DEAL!!! 2 for 1!!!

Slightly Pricier this packet is currently being sold for 5 Tier 1 Purecores but I really really recommend it. It’s basically a staple! And while the core that wrote it initially has long since advanced, several cores are currently selling copies that faithfully contain all the information originally gathered! Isn't that great!

Written by a core that broke through the surface earlier than most and actually had adventurers delve them while they were still Tier 3 this is not necessarily essential...but high key really informative and one I recommend wholeheartedly if you have the mana to spare...it might shake your worldview a bit (I know it did mine!!!) and contains some useful insights.

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Closing the popup Indecisive Earth sent a quick trade to the owner of the guide with a single living crystal, and then followed the link to the PureCore Creation Lessons.

This guide was written by the same Dungeon Core as before and simply described how to make an attributeless mana core by pushing pure mana into an element (they recommend metals because they are somewhat consistent) then surrounding it with a shell thick enough to prevent the denser mana from leaking out.

For the most part, all the information was already known, but it gave a few points that were new to Indecisive Earth. One being that when trading in mana he should switch his mana pool into being displayed with AMU (Absolute Mana Units) Instead of the default which was slightly "Core specific" and influenced by the default concentration a Core stored mana at (a value that steadily increased with each level)...thus 1 unit of mana by a level 20 core was worth a lot more than 1 unit of mana from a level 10 core- At least before you did the conversion.

The Standard unit of a Tier 1 core was stated as being a perfect sphere 6cm in diameter created using at least 200 Absolute Mana Units and surrounded by a shell exactly 2mm in thickness. There were also instructions on how to create a Tier 2 core using 2 separate densities with a center "super mana dense" section and a middle-"high mana dense" section using 600 total AMU.

Apparently, these were the sizes the system liked giving when automatically making cores, so they were the baseline in terms of value. You could trade in ones over that but then you were overpaying, and most cores wouldn't accept cores under those values.

Finally, there was a description on why these cores were valuable. Namely #1 Having a core was almost the minimum requirement for a monster to be able to potentially evolve into having a partial system and #2 that the act of having a core allowed them to host a strong enough soul to sense its surroundings and reason about things independently of its creator/base instincts.

All he learned was that with enough experience* (asterisk on it requiring a lot...i.e. surviving several several fights against adventurers) Silver or Gol1&2 might be able to level into an evolving dungeon monster.

He really wanted to start experimenting with his new mana but held off just a bit longer to scout out information. First making one of these standard pure cores (changing his status to show 316.7 AMU and trickling mana into his sphere- stopping just after his goal at 115.2 mana left...damn these are expensive imagine the monster I could make with this) he went off in search of the primers.

Being impatient and opting this time to consume them directly he quickly paid for his packets and then consumed the entire “Tier 2 Primer” packet of information in one go. A long essay of information imprinted into his mind similar to that very first packet way back in the tutorial, and he learned all sorts of information about his Tier. A brief overview of the effects of different mana and several “common knowledge” tidbits that trip up new cores.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

It was much lower quality and less professional feeling than the tutorial information but in return, it was easier to access...the language that was imprinted was cold and clinical but the information packet included all sorts of side notes and the personality of the core who wrote them. This packet included another warning about mixing opposing elements. Eesh...Demons sound rough I guess. I can probably handle it but I don't want to be overconfident at this stage. I'll hold off on making a decision till I get more details.

The more exciting information contained that wasn’t just a warning, was about "unique monsters". Apparently, most bosses were made as unique monsters and regular monsters weren’t. The concept behind a unique monster was somewhat novel but made some sense to Indecisive Earth.

Apparently, when making a material, only one type of personal mana could be bound per element. Thus, only one main effect could be produced per type of mana. However when releasing mana and letting it bind naturally to say a rock...a dozen different effects would be forced out as each element and each component that was even slightly different in its makeup provided a different effect- each stemming from the source of the mana or even twisting to completely different aspects before being combined in both strong but unpredictable ways. The more elements and the more they are structured the more effects could be mutated and combined in that one material. The problem of course with these materials is that a Dungeon Core could no longer mold them to their will.

That however, doesn’t prevent them from being used in a monster and so, if one or more of these “Wild” and random materials were used to create a monster it was in essence a unique monster- one that was hard to impossible to recreate due to the random aspect of one of their ingredients. If materials were rationed it was technically possible to make multiple identical copies of a single unique monster however the system deemed them all "unique" all the same. It was also theoretically possible for multiple unique materials with the same properties to be made but in practice that didn't happen- even similar scenarios resulted in different magical materials. Most cores ended up using all the useful parts of the material in 1 monster, making it as strong as possible.

At the same time, there were many benefits of not going down this route. Some material combinations could be dangerous, and some could create insane monsters so they must be studied beforehand. Even then it was hard to predict how a monster made using rare materials would react.

I think that's enough basic info for now. I could keep buying information on every single concept...but I get experience for experimenting and don't know if I'll get that by copying others.

Indecisive Earth Level 9 13/190 exp to next level. System Access Level 2 1/2 requirements met to advance. -1+ Unique Monsters -Level 20+ Stats Mana Regeneration 6.9 unit/min Mana Storage 81.4/190.0 units Physical Storage 42% units Titles. Earth Mana Specialization, Advanced Crystal Mana Specialization

I can pull out 1.0 mana pretty easily and don't need to check this status to know how much I've used-other cores are standardizing it to this AMU or whatever but changing it might just confuse me. I'll do it if I have to make more cores but first, I want to practice using what I know.

First, I'll quickly check exactly how good my control with Crystal mana is then move on to each new mana type and see how I can go about using them to make a new and improved monster.

Copying the steps he had taken making Silver, he rushed through the body for a crystal snake. As soon as he reached the scales the difference became apparent. He thought 3x the control would mean he could make 6 scales at a time instead of 2, or maybe 9 instead of 3 now that he had a 3rd floor, but the truth was much much more pronounced.

He could feel out the correct way of using Crystal mana. Could feel just how limited his use had been before and exactly how to go about using it more efficiently. And so, every single scale grew simultaneously. The repeating nature of each scale appearing and growing into position as each scale was simply a part of the whole made the longest part of the monster creation the shortest.

It was just so...easy. Why would he want to use anything else? He remembered he had been given a bonus to Earth mana but...at this point was that even important? Earth was fun and all but when he compared it to crystals in his mind it just seemed so...lacking.

He had reached the point where he needed to make a head/core for it but had used much less than he had the first time around and didn't need to wait for his mana to regenerate enough to finish. And just like that, a second crystal snake joined his halls.

I'm definitely going to make more of you when I have the chance. I'm also not sure if my name fits as much anymore. I don't completely want to change it but maybe a slight alteration is in order. I don't want to be made fun of and think changing my name slightly might make it roll off the tongue more.

Playing around with a few concepts Indecisive Earth shortened his name to Innearth. There we go... That might sound a bit better.

Taking a metaphorical breath, he once again sent off a message into the public chat.

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Innearth: Hey what's up. What kind of specializations did everyone pick?

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Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Only the most mysterious and enlightened of choices will do. Mental affinity is the perfect addition to an already nearly perfect incorporeal spirit.

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Carl: Hey if you want that information I'm happy to give it to you. Heres a link to my packet its nothing really just costs a pure core you can make those right?

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DunCor: You ever just want to squish something? I've taken to making monsters for the sole purpose of squishing- it really does make you feel great.

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DigTracker: Day 489. Still digging. Will provide an update tomorrow.

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Pxo128: I'm going to find where Dig Tracker lives and drop the biggest demon I can find in his core room if he doesn't stop posting. Don't test me. I'll do it. It's my new life mission.

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...The chat was still as overwhelming as the first time he had tried to touch it. Latching onto the single-core that had actually responded to him he pulled up their information and sent them a private message-

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Innearth: Hey do I know you?