Tyler
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I walked away with Burt over to my truck. I had my emergency kit in there and I could give myself a quick once over. There are also beef sticks in there. And I think Burt would like one for a job well done. It was definitely a bit of a workout to carry him over there. I guess he's somewhere around a buck fifty right now. If he keeps growing he's gonna be too big to pick up soon. Getting him off my shoulders was also a bit of a chore. All that dead weight, it was hard not to drop him in a heap.
I opened the door and pulled the kit onto the seat. Treat first, then medi check. Ripping the first beef stick open with my teeth I broke it in half and threw it at Burt. It bounced off his face. I don't think catch is his sport. But he could smell it, and he went and got it with his weird tongue mouth things. And started begging for more.
"This half is mine. You did good though." He bumped into my leg. If he had eyes he'd be doing the puppy dog thing right now.
"Fine, go and get it you fat lard" I said, throwing my stick to the fence line. Burt waddled over the ground till he found one of his holes and disappeared into it, emerging almost immediately by the fence to grab it. He's fast when he wants to be.
I pulled open the medical kit in my pack and assessed myself in the drivers side mirror. But of a scrape along my chin, but I'm still pretty. The worst of it looked like the hand, but even then not too bad. Some broken skin with ground in dirt, but I didn't see exposed fat, bone, or muscles. I started flushing the wound before binding it. It would probably scar if I didn't get stitches, but I think it would make a gnarly scar. I can say its from something like a cougar. I wound the gauze in place and taped it down. Now for the back of my head. I poured the sterile solution down the top of my head to clean the area before inspection. I think I cut myself on Buddy's teeth. 6 little punctures bleeding like a son-of-bitch. Egh. That one will be annoying. Some clotting powder and another bandage will handle it for now.
I went to pack up the bloody cloth and the empties into the trash bag before remembering where I was, and unceremoniously dumped the lot on the ground. Waste not, want not. Nola can use all that.
I looked back towards the entrance. The new guy was still sitting where we left him. I should apologize for pointing a gun at him. Normies aren't a big fan.
I should also probably explain to him what's going on. He's gonna have to know the whole story if he's gonna be working with us.
I cleaned my hands off, no reason to have bloody hands for a first meeting. Its already gonna be a lot for him.
I headed over to him, if he saw me coming he wasn't responding yet. Eyes are open, but nobody is home.
Roy was still talking with Buddy, it looks like he let him up. I'll have to keep an eye on that. I tapped my front pocket. My ankle piece was more readily accessible there. My main gun was still in the dirt in no mans land...I'll get it later. Between Roy and Nola, Buddy doesn't have a chance. Plus new guy probably wouldn't appreciate me getting a gun before talking to him. He might see that as a threat.
"Hey there my man! Are you doing ok?" I called out as I was within 10 feet of the new guy. He finally looked up and noticed me. He looked ready to cry.
"I just wanted ta come over and say I'm sorry for earlier. I didn't know you and the situation was... intense. We're all good now though. Not gonna happen again" I held out my hand to shake/give him a hand to his feet.
"What is happening right now? What is that? Just...what is that?" He said quietly. He didn't take my hand.
"Hey man, I know its weird. I was freaked out the first time I saw the secret world too. But it gets better. What's your name man?" I asked, sitting down next to him. Roy probably hoped to lead this guy in slow, but we're past that now. He went in the deep end and he's sinking. He needs to know the truth of the secret war or hes gonna go crazy.
"David. Dave. I go by Dave. I'm a lawyer. I was coming here with a client to see a recycling center" He was still far away when he said it. I need to get him out of this mindset.
Lawyers. Gross. Not a fan. But right now he's just a guy, that needs to know what's happening.
I snapped a few times to get him to focus on me. There we go, now we're coming back to earth "Dave, its a lot to take in but I can help you out. I can explain everything you saw and more. Listen up and I promise it will start to make sense soon."
He lit up at that. He sat up a little straighter, ready to take it all in.
"It all started in 1912, with the sinking of the Titanic. Well, that's not technically true.. It started at the formation of the universe. But lots of those events don't matter to you yet. I'll come back to those. America's involvement in the shadow war started with the deliberate sinking of the Titanic to kill off some influential people who opposed the creation of the federal reserve. The captain of the ship had been possessed by dark striders. And while the forces of good fought against them, you might know them as "angels", the ship was still destroyed by a particle beam....."
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Roy and Verdandi
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"And why would I want to sit down?" Verdandi said to me.
"It's the thing that is said in my country when you are about to give someone shocking news" I said in response. He nodded and sat before me cross legged, waiting to hear whatever it was I was about to say. He seemed confused by the cultural tradition, but didn't question it.
"How big is the biggest... crystal domain... you've heard of?" Time for some information gathering before I give out any secrets.
"The largest? There are many it could be. I would guess the dead city of Des'a. More than 400 thousand inhabitants were sacrificed by their mad king to create an impenetrable fortress of monsters. From there he went onto conquer most of the continent of Nals before another crystal user rallied and empowered warriors to stop him. There are still legends about that told around campfires to scare recruits."
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"Well that's dark. But not the question. How big was it? Size wise." I asked. No wonder he didn't like being in a dungeon, apparently wiping out cities is a thing.
"Nearly 3 kilometers on all sides. Buildings, roads, rivers and fields. All taken and consumed by him."
Nola, you're better at math than me. What's that in miles? Also where are you in comparison.
1.864 miles. 3.47 square miles, not accounting for any air space.
And it's tiny. I have 23,000 miles of lanes, 10 ft wide each on average. I'm 479.5 square miles. And growing. And I didn't have to wipe out whole cities to do it.
Yes yes I'm very proud of you. Keep up the good work.
"I skipped the tutorial, I am not sure the full capabilities of a dungeon. Does size matter all that much?" I asked.
"Absolutely. You have total control of your domain within. Water can flow fresh and clean out of every river within your domain, or be poison. The weather can be as hot or as cold as you would like. The ground can become fertile beyond natural capabilities, or itself become a predator. The air itself can change to your whim. In the right hands a crystal domain can create the strongest nations in the universe; wealthy, healthy and powerful. Cores can be used to quickly terraform whole worlds. In the wrong hands...incorporated worlds have fallen to darkness."
"Terrifying. And fighting a large dungeon?" I asked to follow up. The implication of what I just learned, Nola and I are really gonna have to be careful.
"Very difficult. warriors have to reach the core to destroy it, usually at the cost of their own lives. Even with the best magical equipment the volatility of the dungeon in distress makes it nearly impossible to reach, let alone fight a core. The core grows in power from those trying to fight it, so the longer the fight lasts, the more powerful the foe. Most dungeons cannot be brought down without the aid of another opposing core master" Verdandi said definitively. I guess that's good news for us. We have some options if anyone comes after us. Also, I wonder if anyone has ever tried nuking one? That seems like a fast way to destroy a core.
I'm sure I don't want to find out.
I wasn't talking about you.
"That's all very interesting, but how does a dungeon get enough energy to do all that? Nola and I have been working and the biggest thing we've gotten is Burt over there." I gestured over to where Burt was but didn't see him. I did see Tyler talking to Dave though. I should probably check on that.
"You said you haven't killed, yes? The strongest energy available is from the consumption of a sapient mind. Delving by skilled warriors is a great substitute, but never the same." He looked down in shame before continuing "Even many the brightest of the white cores got their start with... sacrifices. Unintentional or intentional. Even now, under-skilled warriors that fall within those old fortresses... are used to fuel them." He shook his head. I'm glad we both disagreed with the practice.
"Hard pass on that method. We are growing just fine as is. We'll just increase the bug amount to get more energy." I started rubbing the top of my head as I started thinking. Who would have thought converting all of my towns trash into brand new consumer goods was thinking too small?
"I want to get ready for whoever attacked you. Without killing, how can I do that. We've got space, we've got delvers and we have a large supply of matter we can bring in any time."
"You've mentioned that before. What matter are you referring to? Matter could refer to anything, it is the building blocks of all things. What matter could you have in such abundance worthy of feeding to the core." He asked me. I have a feeling I am about to wander into a cultural faux pas. Never stopped me before, not stopping me now.
"Garbage" I said matter of factly. "Tons and tons of garbage"
Yeah, he didn't like that.
He opened his mouth to speak before closing it again. While remaining seated he turned away from me shaking his head and clenching his fists. He took a deep breath before turning back and starting to speak again.
"You fed the most powerful known weapon in the universe....trash? Refuse from commoners? What's next, sewage?"
"Hey. You said other white cores can change rivers, I can't be the first one to use it for things like this?" I said in response
"Yes. You can be. No one with sense would use a weapon like this for something so.. soo.. mundane!" He nearly shouted. I think only the fear of Nola's vines kept him from jumping up and throttling me.
I don't see what he is so worked up about. I like it. There's so much to learn in the garbage. I'm basically an archeologist for the near past! I can do what I want, and I want to keep doing that. I'm a powerful super weapon after all.
That must be one of those things we would have learned to hate in the tutorial
"We'll I'm different. It seems to be working for me."
"Yes, you are a lovely master of a garbage core." He said in response
You can hit him or I can.
"We aren't going to hit him. This is America, free speech. Even when he's insulting a world changing superweapon." I said out loud with a rye smile. He just got done talking about how powerful she is and says all that? He's a bit of an idiot. He'll fit in well on this crew.
"Who are you talking to?"
"Nola. She's a little unhappy at being called a garbage core. Processing plant is the preferred name." I said back to him, emphasizing plant as the important word.
"You daft little alien. What are you talking about? The core isn't a person even if you name it. It doesn't think, it doesn't prefer. It is the extension of the core master, nothing more."
I sent the equivalent of a mental shrug to Nola, she sent one back.
"Gonna have to disagree with you on that one. We both are."
Yeah, you tell him! Also, please? Just one quick hit from one of my vines. I already have one growing behind him.
No. Not yet
"Either the other core master's aren't giving you the whole story or Nola is different. In either case, she's thinking and I'd like you to stop being a dick about it. Or she will probably injure you" I gestured to the 1 foot tall plant directly behind him that was growing quickly. It had a spiky goathead looking seed pod on top. That would probably hurt.
"And we are on the same side. You are gonna have to work with me And Nola to get through this. Now, I need to go talk to Dave and Tyler before Tyler says something off. Can I trust you to wait here?" Nola was done with the conversation, and a bit of anger was bleeding back towards me through the bond. A minuet to cool off would be ideal. The two of us can work on separating out emotions.
"I will remain as you command, core master. I will control my tongue in the future." Well at least Buddy can admit when he's being a dick. Or know when he's out matched. Or both. Also I have to stop calling him Buddy. Why does his name have to be so weird.