There was a hideous squelch as Dal slammed the machete down into the creature forming from the floor of the core room. He could almost see the melted core angrily gleam at him as he killed yet another one of its defenders. What the core must be feeling, Dal wondered.

Core rooms were a sacred place to dungeons, or that’s what he had read in the fictional books of his youth. It was their sanctuary, the safe space, the place they could kick back with a beer and put their feet up on the coffee table. Except that day in and day out Dal came to invade their home. He brought mana, but he also killed all the core’s defenders.

It must suck, Dal concluded.

Iron Bird Core Guard: killed

25 mana

10 iron feathers

The deal had been that Samira would be killing these creatures, but her time was being sucked up by the tiro and their little ambassador. Dal was deeply intrigued about what the little monkey bird had to say, but his desire to test his theories on the dungeon outweighed it all.

The trio, Garran, F’darr, and Lokkan, all knew not to go into the back storage units now. Well, they could use the crapper unit, but the little dungeon was off limits. They didn’t seem to care nor were they curious enough to defy Samira yet.

“My rough eyeball calculation on how much mana was contained within the mana flakes found in the creek were off,” Dal said, looking into the camera of his phone where it recorded. “I was basing it off the luminosity of mana crystals that were gained from killing creatures. I assumed that they would be somewhat equal in brightness, but I was dead ass wrong. The brightness of the mana flakes do not correlate to the amount of mana they have within them.

“I assumed I had collected about two thousand mana of mana flakes, but it is actually about nine thousand mana. From the current experiments, it takes about two thousand mana to trigger the dungeon core to create a Core Guardian. I believe the core is creating the strongest form it has on file to defend itself. Currently it appears to be an instinctive response, not a conscious one.”

Dal peered at the melted core. “This also brings up the question of if the core knows how a creature looked before it was killed or not. During our fighting with the iron birds; there was major body damage to the specimens. Yet what I have been seeing is a somewhat whole creature, albiet malformed and barely functioning. But ‘alive’ in a sense that their organs are functioning and they will respond to the same trauma one would afflict upon a true living creature. If the core can create dungeon critters that are undistinguishable from real living creatures, would that mean they could be harvested for meat?

“Current tests show that it takes two thousand mana to trigger a defense response from the dungeon core; then what happens to the rest of the mana? Does twenty-five mana and a dozen iron feathers represent the entire mana cost of making one Core Guard. What percentage is used to repair itself.”

Dal paused his recording and peered at the melted core. He swung his pack around and began digging in it, finally finding the translator charm. He carefully held it in his hands as he used his magic sense and mana crafting perks on it.

“Although its impossible to see without magic sense or mana crafting, the charm is lighting up pretty good. I would say… nearly three times as much as it did before.” Dal neared the core and he didn’t see any difference in the luminosity of the charm. As he stepped back out of the core room he could see that it got dimmer. “There is a difference between the brightness of the charm, using Magic Sense I, within the core room and outside of it. What that brightness difference means is that there may be more ambient mana within the core room. Which may be due to the amount of Core Guards that have been killed within this room itself.”

“This mana is not dissipating.” Dal stomped about the core room, shoving the translator charm into every corner and nook. Every section of the core room gave the same glow, but the moment he stepped into another room; the charm’s glow was reduced. “The ambient mana seems consistent within the core room itself, which means that its somehow being held within the core room. From what I can tell based on out-of-the-dungeon usage of the translator core is that ambient mana appears to be fairly consistent in all areas of the storage unit premises. I have also, with permission, compared the mana glow off the charm with those carried by Garra and his companions. They all emit the same strength of glow.”

Dal sighed and scratched his head. “Maybe I’m on the wrong track with this thought,” he said. “I don’t even know how environment effects mana or if it even really does.” Dal took a seat on the floor before the pillar of the dungeon core. There was so many questions he had and yet he didn’t know where to begin. He needed more knowledge. He needed someone who at least understood what dungeons were and how to harness them.

The monkey birds, or Cuthoma, didn’t have magic in their world. It was the first question Dal had asked when the small person hopped on his desk and peered at his phone. The ambassador, Allakor, was curious about everything. Dal been barraged with more questions than he could answer and had barely gained anything in returned.

Apparently, the entire journey back had been the same. Also as the monkey bird was small, it had to ride on the backs of the trio and that had caused more annoyances.

How many other species were out there? Dal wondered. He knew that one of them would know about dungeons, how they worked, how to communicate with them, and how to fix them. All he was doing was feeding it mana and hoping that it would get better. The melted slag before him, he knew, wasn’t its true shape. It wasn’t just knowledge he gained from fictional stories, it was also a feeling that the core couldn’t do much in its current state.

“Like consume ambient mana,” Dal said and snorted. He’d been killing Core Guards within the core room and that mana had been building up within the core room. From what he had felt and heard when he touched the core, it couldn’t take in ambient mana.

Dal looked around the room and thought back on the stories he had read. Several had been about cultivation and absorbing the ‘cleansed’ mana of dungeons. He looked at the core and brought out the charm, which had its brighter than usual glow.

***

Dal opened his eyes when he felt Samira’s boot nudge him. He looked up and was blinded by her flashlight.

“You fall asleep?” she asked.

Dal blinked. “No, just meditating,” he said.

“Medi- why?” she asked.

“Just an idea. One that…” Dal blinked and slowly smiled. “It worked.”

Dungeon Meditation: 400 mana

Dungeon Purification I Perk gained

Knowledge Seeker: 25 bluestones

“Oh, shit, it really worked!” Dal laughed

“I swear, you’re getting crazier every day, Dal.”

Dal informed her on what he was testing and the results he had gain.

“So you can just sit here and gain mana, for free?” Samira asked.

“Well, no. You can meditate within it and then you can purify the ambient mana,” Dal said.

“Purify? You mean the mana in here is dirty?” she asked.

Dal thought for a long moment, enough that Samira gently nudged him with her foot again.

“Oh, yeah. You know the core can’t take in ambient mana, right? We discussed that. Anyway, I think that whenever it produces a guard and that guard dies in the room, excess mana is released, but not in a good way. Think of it like car exhaust. If the core was whole and fully functioning, then maybe it would be able to suck up and clean the ambient mana, but as is, it can’t and that might be an issue.”

Dal took out his phone and showed her the latest iron bird it had created.

“Ugh, Its near bedtime and I don’t want to see that,” Samira said.

“I’ve been noticing a quality decline in the Core Guards its been creating,” Dal said. Scrolling through all the pictures he’d taken of the iron birds he had killed that night. Five in total. “So I think the ambient mana is choking out our little buddy over there.”

Knowledge Seeker: 4 bluestones

“Okay, the system just proved me right. Knowledge Seeker just gave me four bluestones,” Dal grinned.

“You’d better upgrade that Perk right now,” Samira said.

Dal paused and nodded. He had been thinking of purchasing another perk, but if he upgraded Knowledge Seeker, then would that mean he could gain more from the discoveries he made? It would be best to find out.

“Trade?” he asked.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Samira grinned. “Sure thing, Trader Dal.”

***

Dal Park

Health: 1

Regeneration: 2

Toughness: 1

Heart: 1

Perception: 2

Knowledge: 2

Insight: 2

Wisdom: 1

Perks:

Organization I

Knowledge Seeker II

Magic Sense I

Mana Crafting I

Dungeon Purification I

***

Dal winced at the price he had to pay to upgrade his Knowledge Seeker Perk. Four purples, which meant sixteen red and blue stones, and even though he had a windfall of bluestones, he had only one redstone and a few hundred mana.

In the end Samira was left with twelve bluestones and was wiped of all her mana. It was a pricey expenditure, but at Samira’s insistence, he did so.

“Feel any different?” Samira asked.

“Nope,” Dal responded.

“Quick, discover some hidden truth about the dungeon or our world,” Samira said.

“Doesn’t work like that,” he replied.

“Can’t preform under pressure?”

“It’s the judgmental audience,” Dal replied.

“Perhaps you should upgrade your blue skills too,” Samira said.

“Blue skills?” Dal asked. He thought about it for a moment. “Oh, right.”

“Maybe investing more into Perception, Knowledge, Insight, or Wisdom will allow you a better grasp of things.”

Dal shrugged. “Maybe,” he said. “Wanna mediate with me?”

“I didn’t expect you to be the meditate type,” Samira said, settling down beside him.

“Lapse Buddhist,” Dal said. “My grandparents and my dad were into it, but never stuck with me. My mother was Christian in a Buddhist family, her choice. But they never really pushed religion on me. I choose Buddhism mostly after realizing it got me more attention and made me more exotic in junior high.” Dal laughed. “That didn’t last into high school or university.”

“So Buddhist master, show me the ways of meditation. They kept trying to force it on us when I was at work, to help deal with the stresses of death, sickness, and grief, but I was always too busy to really get into it. Now, I guess I have some time to spare. No twelve hour shifts six days a week.”

“Just trying to survive an apocalypse and being tossed onto a strange world filled with reptiles and bird people, not to mention monsters.”

“Way less stressful,” Samira laughed.

***

“That’s a big one,” Samira said, shielding her eyes.

Dal nodded. The magical backlash was intense. He would have been tossed around if not for bracing himself against the shockwave. He marveled at the amount of mana that was suspended in the air, not the ambient mana he couldn’t see, but the small glittering sparks that moved through the charms and around the core room.

“Those things are releasing an epic crap ton of mana,” Dal said.

“Official measurements? Epic crap ton,” Samira asked.

“What was it?” Allakor asked. The monkey bird perched on Dal’s camping chair as he pressed his face against the window. The Cuthoma were a species with males and females, but there were only one male for every ten females, plus the males never left the nests. They were cocks of the walks, peacocks in fact, full of plumage and indulged like little kings.

A strange change in chemistry and biology caused some females to temporary forgo their reproductive abilities and instead change into a larger and more muscularly developed gender. The same could happen to males and Allakor was one of those males.

Willingly becoming a non-reproductive male had caused him to be an outcast of sorts. He had been hiding out at the temple when the scramble occurred. The temple was a place of healing and offered sanctuary to all those that came there, the Great Nest of the Golden Feathered.

The temple had been taken from the heart of their city, apparently a metropolis of nearly sixty thousand. All those that were in the temple, a total of seven hundred and twenty five were brought along. That had been five days prior, just a couple of days after Samira and Dal had arrived.

The amount of people boggled Dal’s mind. They were only five of them here and he was already getting a headache on how long their supplies would last. But a temple of over seven hundred? Most of them sick or in need of some kind of spiritual help?

The good thing was that the temple had its own internal storages of food and water, but they were burning through that fast. Combined with the fact that there was a pack of eight legged bear pigs that made the region their home. They had managed to successfully kill one, but they had lost ten of their fighters against it.

The change into the more muscular and tougher version of their kind required weeks of meditation. So they were stuck with the forty temple guards that had been there at the Scramble. They were not hunters or fisher people, but they were trying their best.

“We believe that is what is bringing people to this world,” Dal said. “Your people, Garran’s people, and Samira and I.”

“These Dirty Dozen you say, they are what makes those?” Allakor asked. He hopped off the chair and peered at Dal. “They give us the System too?”

“The Dirty Dozen brought us here, but I don’t know if they’re responsible for the System.”

“But you do not know,” Allakor said. “They could have given us the System?”

“Yeah, they could have,” Dal said.

“That’s roughly the same area that it hit a couple of days back,” Samira said. “It can’t be coincidence that the Scotty Beams are hitting the same spots or near each other. Random doesn’t work that way.”

“Someone’s trying to put together a lot of pieces to see what’s gonna happen,” Dal said.

“The gods have their own designs,” Lokkar said.

“Should we investigate?” Garran asked.

“No.” Samira said after a long while. “We need to help our little buddies here with an eight legged bear pig problem. How many bears were there, Al?”

“Seven more out there,” Al replied. “We killed one, you killed one, seven more.”

“Seems too small of a territory for big predators,” Samira said. “Usually large animals have large territories, just so they can hunt and survive.”

“Pack animals?” Dal asked.

“The bear we killed was on its own,” Samira said.

“As was the one that the guards killed,” Al replied. “They do not fight together, but they may be all here for my people. We have lost about fifty to them, they stalk the woods and strike fast. It is why we do not go outside anymore.”

“What about the one who was outside picking bug and shellfish?” Samira asked.

“Hollow Wing, she is always hungry,” Al replied. “And foolishly brave.”

“I want to go too,” Dal said.

Samira pursed her lips. “Don’t you have your homework to do?”

Dal scoffed and dug into his pack. He placed three plastic wrapped plants onto the small table they had set up. “These three had magic in them, it was fading once I got a chance to look at them. If I can get to them while they’re fresh, I might be able to see what they can do.”

“The wandering mind is a burden,” Lokkar said.

“Is that scripture or something?” Dal asked. Lokkar jerked as if he had been poked.

“He thinks he is wise,” F’darr said. “He warps what he was taught while becoming a Priest to sound wise.”

Lokkar hissed at her, but did nothing.

“F’darr is right. Best not to acknowledge it,” Garran said. “He gets sulky if we tell him to stop or if we make joke of it.”

Dal looked at Lokkar and shrugged. The reptile seemed more embarrassed than sulky as he leaned against a storage unit door.

“Can you hack the travel?” Samira asked. “It’s about a dozen miles to Petra and it’s not soft country. I’m a bit sore even with my Regeneration and Endurance. It might be a couple of days kind of thing too, we don’t know where all the bears are at and hunting predators isn’t a one day thing.”

Dal frowned and nodded. Leaving the storage unit untended for multiple days wasn’t a good thing. He wanted to see Petra and he wanted to collect the plants, he especially wanted to collect more mana crystals.

Yet there was the threat from the bears to the Cuthoma, seven predators roaming around their temple and only thirty guards to fight them. The Cuthoma would begin starving soon too, as their supplies were running low. The bears needed to be taken care of and it seemed Samira and her trio were the only ones able to.

“Fine, I’ll stay,” Dal said. “Hope they’re paying you well.”

“We’re not mercenaries,” Samira said.

Garran let out a weird honk. “Sorry,” he said as Dal and Samira looked at him. “We, uh, technically are mercenaries.”

“Oh, yeah. Besides the loot from the bears and the mana, what do you guys want?” Samira asked.

“The High Mother honors us with allowing us to keep the mana and stones,” Garran said. “Especially with the mass heater Trader Dal has built for us. But we need more clothing, it is too cold out there.”

F’darr and Lokkar hissed in agreement.

Samira shrugged. “Deal.”

“The Elders want the flesh of the bears,” Al said. “Consuming powerful enemies will only bring strength, especially the heart.”

“We’re already killing them for you,” Samira said. “What are your people offering me and mine?”

“The prestige and honor of helping the sick and injured, of saving a people who were ripped from their world, to have your names remembered for as long a the Temple survives,” Al said.

“I’d prefer copper or bronze,” F’darr hissed.

“How about gold?” Al asked.

“Gold?”

“The temple is also a treasury. Much gold and silver and jewels were stored there,” Al said. “The Golden Feathered watches over it.”

“What do you think, Dal?” Samira asked.

Dal shrugged. “We found some jewelry in the storage units, not a lot, but we’re fairly set on metals. There are some copper tubing, galvanized steel, a ton of aluminum, and various metals. But I would like to experiment with the different metals to see if they effect the charm.”

“You’re going to copy it?” Samira asked.

Dal grinned. “Yes. I found a Dremel tool and some engraving tools in one of the units. I think I can copy and maybe replicate the translator charm.”

“Only the White Priests can do that,” Lokkar hissed.

“Their acolytes make them,” Garran said. “I have been in the White Temple in T’loz’kak’van as I was escorting an official. I saw their acolytes making many magical items, but it is said that only the Priests can bless it.”

“I’m guessing it was infusing mana into them or your world’s magic. There is a Perk called Infusion, so maybe that’ll be the right track. It was already on my list of things to get.”

“Gonna Oom-Oom-Oom to get the extra mana?” Samira asked, not wanting to disclose the dungeon.

Dal barely held back a chuckle. “Yeah.”

“We still don’t know what those Scotty Beams are doing,” Samira said, glancing back out the window. “You’ll have to be extra careful.”

Dal looked out the dark window and nodded.

***

“You’re loaded for bear,” Dal said and Samira glared at him.

Samira had decided to pull out all the stops for the Bear Hunt. She had her camping and hunting gear brought out, along with Grady’s stuff, some other items they had collected from various units and loaded up the K’thari.

The three were also more heavily clothed, wearing an assortment of coveralls taken from the metal shop and some winter clothing. The bone and bronze weapons had been replaced with steel. F’darr was hugging the compound bow and Garran was swinging a machete and hatchet of his own, while Lokkar was hefting a spear taller than he was.

Garran and Lokkar wore a makeshift brigandine that they had created during the night. It was made from a heavy canvas coat and steel plates riveted onto it. Dal didn’t know if it would hold against an attack, but the chitin armor Garran wore didn’t seem enough if one of the eight legged bears attacked. Anything was better than nothing. Samira and F’darr had covered the plates with the leather they had gained in the fights and soon the heavy coat was ready to be used.

“Next time, we make better armor,” Samira said. Although she had been up for most of the night, her eyes were bright and she was eager to go out and hunt bears. Dal envied her but remained silent. There was a lot of stuff to do in the warehouse.

“Warriors will want armor,” Al said, watching them. “The Golden Feathered’s temple didn’t allow weapons or armor. The only weapons they had were clubs and sticks to keep people in order.”

“You don’t seem to wear clothing,” Dal said. “But you have armor?”

“We need to bare ourselves in the presence of the Golden Feathered,” Al said. “So most are naked, but it bothers us not. Clothes mean status and we are all one under the Golden Feathered’s Talons.”

“Want a shirt?” Samira asked. “I think there are some baby clothes in the back.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Dal said.

Al wasn’t going with the four. He was an outcast, the other males didn’t want him there and the Elders feared he would be harmed by the less than accepting females. So he had been voted as ambassador and sent on his way to Samira.

At least Dal wouldn’t be alone.

“Be safe,” Samira said.

“Bring back souvenirs,” Dal said.

Samira scoffed and the four left through the front glass door.

“What are souvenirs?” Al asked.