The details about the advanced spawners made Zack giddy with anticipation for what he could do. As described by the Akashic System, advanced spawners were more than just the next tier up from the basic node he already had access to. They were an infinitely upgradeable tool that he could modify whenever he wanted.
A single spawner node was a crystal composed of five points of mana—a simple enough structure that didn't cost any cumulative mana in Zack's upkeep. Upgrading those units involved simply channeling a bit more mana into them, increasing their potency. He practiced for a bit on a spawner in Chorus's boss room, hoping to create a fully functioning node just for her.
It took him a few tries to get it it right. It was very easy to overshoot how much mana he intended for an advanced spawner to contain and end up with one that could channel more than he needed. If it weren't for the fact that leaving mana on the table felt uncomfortably inefficient, he would have been willing to leave that as is and move on. By the time he got a node that was worth exactly fifteen mana, he absorbed its pattern so he never needed to worry about it again. He could just spawn that node, assign it a pattern, and move on.
He quickly got to work replacing all the spawner nodes in his dungeon with the newer model. The old version could only channel a maximum of five mana at any given time, and was limited to a single pattern it could hold. As he experimented, Zack discovered that he could modify advanced spawners to hold multiple different patterns at once. He didn't have direct control over how many mobs of a given type it could spawn, but a work around was to simply give it a number of patterns equal to the amount of mobs he wanted it to spawn.
Five level one dire rabbits totalled to five points of mana spent, while three level two carnage carnations totalled to six mana. That left four mana over for two stooltoads, fully populating the meadow. Zack could probably spare a bit more mana to increase the level of his patterns some more, but the meadow was meant to be their entry-level wing. It wasn't supposed to be hard. The spider warren was where things got more challenging, for the people who wanted it.
As Zack worked, he took a moment to cast his glance down into the depths and check on Archie's progress. The anthropomorphic hair was doing his best Bugs Bunny impression, digging out large swaths of dirt and setting it aside as he carved rooms into his floor. Zack casually absorbed the discarded earth, a silent note that he was watching. Archie gave the dungeon core's disembodied consciousness a curt but grateful nod, before silently resuming his work.
The rabbit didn't even talk to himself as he dug, a fact that Zack found a bit disconcerting. One of Zack's most defining features was how much he liked to talk as he worked. It helped keep him focused and on task. Without his own verbal instruction, he was sure everything would distract him.
"I'm already getting distracted," Zack chuckled, zipping his consciousness out of the lower levels and up to the hub.
Already his vision for the hub was taking shape. At the others' insistence, he had reopened his dungeon before finishing his prize counter. The rooms were already giving out wooden tokens at the end, but presently there was nothing to spend them on. He'd need to rectify that soon, but for now there were other pressing matters to attend to.
Jean-Claude the kobold stood passively in one corner of the room, staring into space. The waxy green kobold's amber eyes stared unblinking at the empty room, waiting to be called upon for his assigned duty. Unlike Archie, Jean-Claude wasn't self-aware or intelligent. He could respond to basic commands issued to him by others, but he could only respond to some pre-programmed messages.
Curiously, Zack pulled up the kobold's pattern and gave it a quick once over. Like Archie, Jean-Claude was mostly hollow on the inside. It was a side-effect of being a crafted pattern rather than one Zack absorbed. Unlike Archie, though, Jean-Claude had something in his throat.
Zack's first attempt at making talking mobs hadn't been the most successful. He borrowed the stooltoad's voice box and installed it into the kobold, hoping to make a mob capable of speech. He was mildly successful, in that Jean-Claude was capable of croaking out a few words here and there. His voice, however, left a lot to be desired.
"Let's fix that," Zack muttered. He casually despawned the kobold, before overlaying the pattern into the space where he used to stand. Once more, a 3D model of a kobold appeared in Zack's vision. It stood in a casual A pose, with its arms held at an angle.
At a twitch of will, the model's mouth opened. Zack quickly deleted the voice box from within. Then, he spawned a glowing green wisp, a tangle of mana threads. Making noise with wisps was one of the first tricks Zack ever learned with them. They were capable of vibrating their mana exactly the same way Zack did his core and—
Zack froze. That was the first time he thought about his core in a while. Some instinctive twinge at the back of his mind demanded he hide it in his dungeon, lest someone unsavoury find and smash it. Unconsciously, he found his awareness drifting toward the unfinished manor wing, where his crystal heart was stashed…
Zack mentally shook himself, bringing his focus back to the task at hand. His core was safe, albeit unguarded. He could rectify that error later. For now, he wanted to focus on his kobolds.
He gave the wisp a twitch to test the sound, letting it make noise as he adjusted the pitch and volume until it met his satisfaction. Then, he slipped the wisp into Jean-Claude's throat and bound it to the pattern. Another quick exertion of mana, and the bright green kobold was once more standing in his old position.
"Okay, Jean-Claude. Hello there," Zack said, giving the kobold a pre-programmed command.
Jean-Claude blinked twice as the command registered, before standing up straighter. "Greetings, adventurer," he said, in a high pitched voice. There was a subtle hiss to the words that Zack hadn't programmed, but he assumed it was a side effect of Jean-Claude's physical form. "I am Jean-Claude. Welcome to Dungeon Incorporated. Do you have an appointment with us today?"
Jean-Claude mimed checking a clipboard, and Zack balked as he realized he forgot to spawn that in. He quickly rectified the issue, returning the kobold's tool to his hands. There was nothing written on it, but at this point Zack expected the adventurers to tell Jean-Claude their names so he can cross-reference them with his information.
Ideally, Zack wanted Jean-Claude and the kobolds to help take the burden off Alex and the others. It was hard work managing the entire dungeon business on their own. They didn't say it, but Zack got the feeling they'd rather not have to work ten hour days, seven days a week. The strain was clearly wearing on them. A little bit of help would go a long way towards making their jobs, their lives easier.
Mentally nodding in approval, Zack gave Jean-Claude the command to return to an idle position, and turned his attention next to the Medibolds. Previously, he had to spawn them manually at a prohibitive ten points. That barely gave them enough mana to help stabilize injuries before they ran out of mana themselves. Those were both problems he intended to fix, now that he had access to his advanced spawners.
Firstly, he wanted to see if he could give them a more powerful healing spell. He spawned a Medibold in the middle of the hub, and let it stand there patiently. Archie had shown him that dungeon born mobs had the ability to invest their mana in upgrading and leveling themselves up. This allowed him to become a stronger monster with a more powerful stealth ability rather than his basic camouflage power.
Could Zack do the same with his kobolds?
First, he gave the Medibold an infusion of mana, just a few extra points over its base amount. He watched it curiously, waiting to see if something changed automatically. When nothing did, he turned his attention to the kobold's status instead.
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[Medibold]
[Level 1 Monster, Dragonoid]
[A kobold capable of using healing magic in a pinch.]
[Cost to create: 10 mana]
[Status]
[Health: 30/30]
[Mana: 10/10]
[Stamina: 10/10]
[Strength: 2]
[Endurance: 2]
[Agility: 3]
[Dexterity: 3]
[Intelligence: 5]
[Wisdom: 5]
[Known Spells]
[Lesser Accelerated Heal: Level 1]
[Spell, Healing]
[Heal up to 5 points of health, at the cost of the caster’s mana and the target’s stamina.]
[Cost: 1 mana, 1 stamina per point of health healed.]
Zack mentally cringed at the Medibold's dismally low stats. He should have expected as much, given he never bothered to invest any mana into them. They were just too expensive to spawn. With the advanced spawners to help him, though, he figured it was finally time to upgrade his healer mobs.
Using the few extra points of mana he gave them, Zack directed his attention towards the known spells. Almost immediately, his awareness flooded with information. The tide of new words and thoughts actually hurt to think about, and he had to slam the connection closed again, lest it overwhelm him.
"What… was that?" He breathed. Despite not needing oxygen, nor having lungs to exert, he felt the words coming raspy and hard. It was like he just tried to run a marathon and collapsed with exertion.
As if to answer, the Medibold looked directly at Zack's disembodied consciousness and blinked slowly. When no words were forthcoming, Zack took a deep breath and decided to try again.
This time, he braced himself for the flood of information. As before, it was like a tidal wave of words and thoughts slammed in him. He thought he could feel his crystal core shudder as it struggled and failed to contain the sheer vastness of information. What was this? How the hell did Archie survive this process?
Again, Zack had to cut the flow off before he could do anything. It was just too much, too fast. He wasn't strong enough to handle it. Worriedly, he shot his awareness into the manor room to check on his core.
It was hidden in the manor study, a room closed off from the others through a series of puzzles and traps. Zack didn't want the room to fully inaccessible, in case he needed Alex or the others to get there in an emergency, but didn't want the average adventurer to find him, either. He was surrounded on all sides by shelves of large books—most of them devoid of contents. His cystal had grown since the last time he saw, the blue-green facets having stretched out into large quartz-like spikes. Whether this was from his own advancements or from something else, he didn't know.
And there it was, across one of his facets. A crack.
Worriedly, Zack checked his own status.
[Status]
[Name: Zack]
[Core type: Dungeon]
[Level: 12]
[Integrity: 89%]
[Mana: 12/90]
Zack balked. For the first time since becoming a dungeon core, his integrity attribute had gone down. He hadn't given the attribute much attention, since it had never changed before. Now, though?
"A-Akashic System? You there?" Zack whispered. The words were hard to call upon and direct towards the presence within, and yet he felt its gaze upon him all the same. "What is my integrity attribute?"
[Definition request: Core Integrity]
[A core's Integrity is their progress towards destruction. The higher the value, the more difficult it will be to destroy a core.]
[As a being of crystalized mana, it is very difficult to destroy a core, but it is not impossible. A core with low enough integrity becomes vulnerable to physical and magical attacks. If a core's Integrity reaches zero percent, that core will shatter. Lesser cores will dissolve into aetherdust upon shattering, while greater cores will split into multiple lesser cores.]
"How do I repair my core Integrity?" Zack asked, the words spilling out of him before he fully understood what he was asking. He didn't like the idea of splitting into multiple lesser cores.
The answer didn't appear immediately, this time. For a moment, it felt like the Akashic System was loading, or perhaps even browsing through potential answers.
[Query: "How do I repair my core Integrity?"]
[Core Integrity will gradually repair over time if a core is left to their own device. Over extending on aether can result in a slower period of recovery. Hoarding too much mana, or not holding enough, will also result in a lower recovery time, and can also potentially lead to further damage.]
Zack wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. He was very dilligent about his mana numbers, always making sure to avoid over extending his aether consumption, and spending his mana wisely whenever he could. His integrity should recover on its own, he just had to be careful. He could do that.
That did raise another important question, though.
"How come Archie was able to peruse his spell upgrades, but when I attempted it, I took Integrity damage?" Zack asked, once more directing the question internally.
Again, the answer wasn't immediate. Zack again got the impression that the Akashic System was browsing for the information. When it finally answered, the words took him by surprise.
[I cannot easily explain it as you are. Would you like to know? Yes or no?]
Zack stared at those words for a long moment. "Yes," he said, his voice felt small and quiet. Then, to his horror, he felt something impossibly large grab him. For a brief moment, he was looking at his core. The next, he was being pulled towards one of corners of the room. He screamed in alarm, before hitting the wall and…
Passing through.
Zack flailed as he hovered in a strange, empty void, looking around feverishly. Then, it felt like his eyes were adjusting to the world around him. Shapes started to take form in the darkness. No, not shapes. Words.
"What is this? Where am I?" Zack shouted. The words that left his consciousness spilled out of him, take on a bluish tinge in the darkness. They joined the other tumbling mass of words, falling towards a single point in the distance.
Then, Zack was moving again. He was falling, following his words deeper and deeper into the void. That was when he saw it, a pale blue crystal off in the distance. At first, he didn't think it was very large. Maybe it was another core, like him?
Then he drew closer, and the crystal grew larger. And larger.
And Larger.
When Zack was close enough to touch it, he couldn't see the crystal's horizon anymore. It was so vast, so impossibly large, it felt like he was gazing upon a planet. And yet, he could feel a presence within, a familiar feeling that had been with him since before he woke up as a core. It was gentle, curious, and impossibly ancient.
"Hello, little one," a familiar voice whispered into Zack's ears. "It has been so very long since you came before me like this. I am sorry to keep so distant."
Zack balked as he stared at the crystal, and memories started flooding into him. Pain from the aetheric fires that burned him to crystal in the Boom. Agony as his consciousness was flung from his homeworld. Comfort as he felt this very same mental embrace.
He gasped, and for the first time since waking up, he didn't feel like a core anymore. He felt like a person, no longer confined by the limits of his mortal body. He looked down at his hands—I have HANDS!?—and had to resist the urge to scream again. He was standing naked atop this strange, giant crystal. He had a body!?
"W-where am I?" Zack asked, the words catching in his throat as he peered out into the distance. The crystal was so vast that he couldn't see where it curved or bent. It felt like he was atop an infinite plane.
A laugh like bells rang out in the air around him. "Oh, my dear child. You asked me that very same question the first time you came here. Have you grown enough to finally remember?"
"Remember? Remember what!?" Zack demanded.
"Remember the truth. Remember me."
Zack blinked slowly. "What… Who are you?"
"I have many names. Some call me the Akashic Record. Others call me the Akashic System. None of them are wrong, but none of them are entirely right. I am the sum of all knowledge in the universe. I am Akasha."
New memories started taking shape in Zack's mind. Constructing his first monster—no, not his first monster. The horned rabbit was far from his first, but it was one he had practice creating under Akasha's guidance. He remembered learning the basics of how to be a core. He remembered learning to absorb patterns, storing that information within himself so that he might use it to create something new. He remembered creating his very first new pattern, but he couldn't remember what it was.
Zack clutched his head as he screamed and dropped to his knees. It was too much! Too much information! Zack felt a crack at the core of his being, and felt his integrity take a sudden dive.
Then, the flow of information stopped, and Zack collapsed into a heap on the crystal surface.
"Oh dear," Akasha whispered. "It would seem you were not ready."