Does anyone remember the first time they saw a gold bar? It looks rather unimpressive, and while it’s nice and shiny it doesn’t really look like much. But even though all those factors exist, you still have this nagging feeling while looking at it, a feeling or awareness that this little piece of metal is worth more than everything you own combined and then some. This is the same feeling I had when Hornscale took the book from his robe.
It seemed unimportant, with a ashen grey cover. On the cover were two purple-blue triangles, drawn in such a way that they seemed three-dimensional. The top one of the two pointing to the top of the book, then about a thumb width space of nothing, followed by the second triangle facing to the bottom of it.
In all it looked unimposing but it made the hairs in the back of my neck stand tall. Unlike Hornscale who’s first impression on me was almost horrorlike, this seemed to scream at me that it was worth more than I could imagine. This conflicted with its look of almost complete simplicity causing me to grow hesitant.
“Take it and read it” Hornscale said as he offered it to me, bowing down because I was still sitting.
“Why” I asked, still both afraid and confused.
“Because I need you to” Core projected into my mind. And for the first time he seemed forceful.
“Then no” I replied “you’re not my parents.”
Hornscale sighs and Core remains silent. Just as that moment passes I realized that I most likely wasn’t supposed to refuse, and that whatever the situation was, I just let it take a turn for the worse.
“Read it.” Core ordered, anger could be heard inside my head. A surge of pain seemed to push through my mind.
“Master, calm yourself. You said yourself we can’t force it.” Hornscale said pleadingly. Apparently they had expected me to refuse to some degree.
It was quiet for a while. The headache I had less than a second ago disappeared and I had time to look around. Hornscale had a complicated expression, maybe even pained. And seconds later the ground beneath my feet shook, and I dropped down.
“You will do as I tell you, human” Core bellowed in my mind as I fell.
“I really do suggest you do as he says” Hornscale said as he jumped after me.
I hit the floor below, having the feeling as though I nearly broke my legs as I landed. I landed first on my feet, bending my knees, before feeling the rest of the force drone down and making me land on my rear.
“I think I twisted my ankle” I complained.
Hornscale landed far, far more graceful than I did. In a way that could almost be called gravity defying, he landed on a single foot, not even making a sound. I could almost hear my jaw drop at the sight of it.
“I suggest you read the book. Master Core can’t handle those that refuse to cooperate.” Hornscale pleaded, seemingly worried for me.
“What’s in it” I asked “I can’t just read it. It’s probably dangerous or something isn’t it.” I called out.
“It’s a skill book, have you never heard of them? They teach you something after you read through it.” Hornscale argued. He seemed calm, calmer than me at least.
“A… Skill Book? Does that mean I need to read a lot?” I asked
“Only a little. Maybe a page or two.” Hornscale said.
I considered it a while as I stood up, not wanting to fall on my rear if I dropped down again. I looked at the scaly monster, and it held the book towards me. The feeling it gave me was still that of something which was worth far more than I realized, packed in something that completely didn’t look the part.
“Fine, I’ll do it” I said as I grabbed the book from Hornscale’s hand.
I opened the book, the hard, leathery cover feeling slightly cold against my skin despite the air being rather comfortable. The first page had a single line, it was filled with lines and dots which seemed to be dancing over the area, before slowly forming into words. The words forming what I assume to be the title of the book. “The dungeon, Core”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
A few thoughts surfaced within me, but I decided to let them pass by me and focus on the matter at hand, I turned the page. This time there were two pages filled with lines, dots, squiggles, and shapes all dancing around the page before forming into words. I began reading as the words nearly formed under my vision.
It was a bit of a confusing story about a spirit which wanted to influence the physical so much that it transformed into a solid object: a Dungeon Core. The Dungeon Core had lost all its memories from the time that it was a spirit, but knew things. The first of which was that it had to collect mana. The second was that it could collect mana from its environment far better than any creature. The third was that it could increase the area which it could influence by spending its mana to do so. The fourth was that it could add and remove stone from the area it was in. The fifth was that it could create objects and materials by spending mana. The sixth and final thing it knew was that it had to defend itself, though it didn’t know from what.
I flipped the page, finding another dance of shapes which solidified into words under my gaze. The Dungeon Core soon learnt that it could bind spirits to its service, who knew far more than it did, and began telling it bits and pieces of its previous life. How it had lived for centuries off the mana in the air, desperate to influence the physical world. The Dungeon Core was sad, realizing it wouldn’t know the joy of being able to actually doing it, now that it was capable, but couldn’t remember. Another page and another jumble.
It realized it could also summon living creatures, some containing intelligence, others with nearly none, but it would cost immense amounts of mana, compared to what it had at least. It also found that it could create plants, though it didn’t know what they were for. And with that knowledge it began creating a cave around itself, expanding in all directions, though ever so slowly.
Time passed and eventually it had several rooms, then one of the spirits told it to make a straight tunnel in a certain direction. It didn’t question it and eventually breached to the surface, which caused an immense rumbling. Animals approached from the outside, but as soon as they entered they felt watched and quickly ran off. Soon after bipedal creatures which the spirits called Humans came to explore, this was both the best and the worst thing which would ever happen to the Dungeon Core.
These humans realized they were watched, but for some reason decided to go deeper. The Dungeon Core felt threatened, and summoned the cheapest living creature it could manage, and sent it to chase the humans away. It succeeded, but it soon realized that their arrival had given it a large amount of mana.
The book abruptly ended, before it started to emit a bright light which soon turned blinding. I felt the book disappearing from my hands, and the shape that was emitting light changed from almost rectangular to circular. At that point it suddenly disappeared into what I can only assume to be my head, as my head started to hurt as though it was cracking open.
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Hey, Author-sama here. I hope all of you are enjoying the story. I’m sure you can probably see my inspiration, but I just hope I’m doing a good job, and that people can appreciate it, or even enjoy it. Thank you for reading so far. I managed to finish this today, so I’m happy about that.