I side eyed Faux a bit, trying to consider what I should do with him.
I wanted to scold him for interrupting Abby and Owyn’s adventure, but it wasn’t like it would do anything. He was already completely subservient to me, even if he did act a little strange. I could let him touch my core so I could ask him what he was thinking, charging in like that, but he might enjoy that. I was beginning to suspect that touching my core was a special thing for my minions.
So no. He would not be allowed to touch my core. Faux needed to return to his previous task, namely finding other dungeon cores.
Faux jolted into action, kneeling next to the map and flowchart thing. He tapped a place on the flowchart, further in than what he’d explored on the map. Then, he made a fist and pounded it into his other hand. Ready to fight.
There’s a core there? I asked.
Faux nodded eagerly.
Well, at least that explained how he was able to return, despite the apparent betrayal of my direct orders. I told him to find a core, then return. I couldn’t help it that he returned in such a rushed and threatening manner. Unless it was on purpose?
Regardless. Next time I have guests, you are to act as politely towards them as you possibly can. No need to be excessive or extravagant, but another outburst like before, one that could be even MISTAKEN as threatening and I’ll bury you so deep in stone you’ll never even be remembered.
Faux shied away from me, sheepishly bowing in the direction of my core on all fours. I sighed.
Just kill all its monsters and bring the core to me.
Faux scrambled to his feet and ran out of my room. My consciousness followed him for as far as he went before being stopped cold by the black veil in my doorway. That would change now. Abby and Owyn’s presence had given me some mana. Not a lot, but some. Hopefully enough.
I swelled my intent and desire. I want to see.
The black veil burst inwards, expanding away from me in a great rush. My domain expanded into a hallway, oddly artificial in feeling. The long tube sloped slightly downwards, not helping my suspicions. The darkness flowed into the next room at the other end, a rectangular room of similar size to mine. It slowed to a stop once it reached the singular doorway on the other side.
My eyes narrowed in suspicion. This did not feel like a coincidence. The feeling of artificial nature extended in both directions out of the hallway now, forcing me to consider my own room in a new, uncomfortable light.
This felt deliberate. A design of sorts. The workmanship was shoddy, rough on every edge. But deliberate nonetheless. This cave wasn't natural. I could see no scores that would mark the use of tools. No natural erosion that indicated that this was in any way a natural formation. This was a room, the same as my own.
I teleported my avatar back to my own room to consider the map. The rooms that Faux had drawn before now seemed equally deliberate. It was as if this was a snaking path, leading deeper into the earth. I recalled similar strategies in the pathing when I thought of tower defense games. In games like that, if you had the choice, you made the path as long as possible to wear down the enemy before they got to your home base.
All of my suspicions were leading me to believe that this was intelligent design.
I had too many questions and not enough answers. Hopefully when Abby and Owyn returned, they would be willing to answer some of my questions. I would need to reward them if they did. So what could I give them?
Well to me, the answer seemed obvious. They used dungeon cores for some magic bullshit. I didn’t know how it worked, but if I was going to encounter other dungeon cores, I may as well offer their remains to the adventurers that came through.
Which brought up something else I should consider. What am I supposed to do with enemy cores? Well, according to animals, I should eat it. Considering I didn’t have a mouth, I probably didn't have that option. According to the behavior of humans though, I should smash the core into pieces. I should ask Faux when he returns.
I tracked his position as he traveled. His signature got weaker and weaker the further he went. However, he must have come upon a switchback, because his signal slowly began to get stronger again. My eyes narrowed, and returned to the map I’d drawn on the floor.
Intelligent design…
Speaking hypothetically for a second, if I were a big dungeon, and I mean big, what would I do? Step one would be protecting my core. I couldn’t protect it myself, which would mean I would need minions to do that for me. Second, I would grow my horde, in order to not just protect, but expand. But expanding meant creating distance between me and my minions. If I assumed that I lost control of my minions after they reached a certain distance away, it would make sense to expand in an open circle around myself. However, that would mean exposing my core to the elements and possible surprise attacks. Therefore, I would want to reshape the terrain around me in order to maximize both aspects of expansion and defense.
A maze, with switchbacks that ensured that whatever explored my domain would always remain within reach of my core's influence. Or perhaps it ensured they remained within my domain for longer? Was there an advantage to doing so?
Actually, yes. I gained mana from humans just existing within my domain.
All signs of the cave systems design pointed to it being a dungeon. Yet, I didn’t feel that instinctive hatred that the other core I’d encountered felt towards me. Did that mean that the dungeon that made this maze was dead? Or was it somehow able to suppress its intent?
The instant Faux entered the other dungeon, I felt its intent.
Kill.
Guess if I wanted answers, I’d need to discover them myself.
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Faux held the core in a fist, walking calmly back towards my domain.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Kill! Die! Submit! Die! SUBMIT!
The core was incessant, I would give it that. Its intent poured through so much more strongly through physical contact with Faux. I tried to remotely talk to it through Faux, but it didn’t seem to hear me. It just kept trying to convert Faux over to its side. I didn’t know if it was able to, or if dungeons weren’t able to convert other dungeons monsters. Maybe we dungeons were limited to ‘wild’ creatures only? Not each others? I wasn’t willing to give up Faux to test that.
The core and I continued our mental battle over control of Faux while he made his way home. Though to call it a battle was to call a basketball game with Michael Jordan vs a toddler a ‘fair match’. The enemy core whined and kept demanding that Faux submit to it, and I batted away its attempts with negligible effort.
Faux entered my second room. Instantly, I felt the enemy’s intent even more strongly. An upgrade from toddler to ‘slightly older’ toddler. My avatar floated in the room alongside Faux, watching curiously, specifically, the core that supposedly hid within his hand. A black sphere encompassed his entire hand, hiding it from my view. I could only see up to Faux’s wrist, everything else was hidden within the inky veil. The only reason I knew he still had his hand was because he still held his knife, which poked out the side of the veil.
Mana leaked out of the sphere, and it grew slightly. I didn’t stop it at first, but when the inky veil reached up to Faux’s elbow, I decided that was enough.
Suddenly, the core’s intent slammed into me, like a full blown fist. A toddlers fist, admittedly, but when you weren’t expecting it, it still hurt. Mentally speaking of course, since this was a battle of mana and intent. My intent to stop the growth of the veil faltered for a second, and it grew just a bit more. I forced it to stop again, this time expecting the mental blow. It happened without much effort, and mana still leaked out of the veil.
After Faux took a few paces and the veil still hadn’t expanded, the enemy core settled down, resuming its mental attack against Faux, trying to get him to submit. The flow of mana stopped, but the inky veil didn’t retract. For some reason, that irked me. I wanted my territory back.
Mana flowed out of me, along with my intent. It crashed into the enemy core, shoving the veil inwards. The core reacted out of surprise, completely abandoning Faux.
Stop! Stop! Mine! Give back! Mine!
I did not stop. The gut punch the core hit me with pissed me off, and now that I knew how to hit it back, I would punish it! Using the mana I’d gained from the veil expanding, I shrunk it all the way down to nothing. Only when the veil hit a physical wall did I stop crushing the other dungeons' territory back. Faux waded through my pond, and at my command, held out the other core between his fingers.
A perfectly black sphere. Exactly the size his fingers indicated it should be. No more hidden darkness bullshit. I could see the other, marble sized core.
Peekaboo. I muttered with a devilish grin. Faux? I would very much like to speak with our guest.
Faux stuck his arm through the stone bars of my alcove, reaching the other core towards my own.
Come back! The other core shouted. See! My territory! You! Submit!
Our cores touched.
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I stood on nothing, floating entirely within free space. I couldn’t see Faux, my dungeon, nothing from the real world. Three miniature galaxies surrounded me, burning brilliantly orange and yellow. I gently moved outstretched arm through the hundreds of stars, pushing around the motes of light like water. The stars swirled through invisible eddys, forming new galaxies around the three largest stars from the ones I’d disturbed. It was beautiful, and I wished I had more stars.
There was just one problem though. One star that stood out. A black sheep, green in color. Ugly, and out of place. I bent in close to focus on it.
Meep!
Meep? The star spoke?
Please… mercy.
It’s voice… the enemy core!? This… frankly pathetic mote of light was the enemy core? What did that make these other stars then? They more or less matched the amber color of my own core, so were they me?
I noticed once again the three largest stars. Two of them were basically identical in size.
These are my minions! I realized. And those two are Mimi and Rab! And that’s Faux! So all these other mini stars must be the guppies! Wait, where are the two bigger fish? I can’t see them.
No kill. The green star reminded me I had company.
I leaned in again, bringing the core back into focus. It was about a quarter the size of Mimi and Rab’s stars, which was to say, rather tiny. Mimi and Rab’s stars were about the size of beads to me, and Faux’s was the size of a marble. Still, the ugly green star was at least ten times the size of my guppy stars, so at least I could commend it for that?
Still, I didn’t think I needed to go easy on it. After all, it tried to steal Faux from me.
Mercy!! It cried.
Subm-
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My head slammed back, and then I was back in the real world. Faux fumbled. A green, glass marble in his hand crumbled into a bunch of pieces. He lunged, collecting most of the larger pieces and my own core as well. With delicate fingers, he separated me out from the pieces and replaced me back on my pedestal perch.
What happened? I asked him.
Don’t know. He replied through our contact. You destroyed the core.
That green marble is the core? What happened to the black stuff?
This was always the core. Faux answered me. What did you see? Wait, no! I’m unworthy to ask my master such a question! Please, ignore one as lowly such as myself!
I sent him a mental image of what I saw from my perspective regardless. Maybe he would learn something of it?
Faux pulled his hand away from my core, cradling the broken pieces of the green enemy core. Once a sphere like me. I counted four major pieces, as well as dozens of smaller fractures and a bunch of other insignificant pieces.
We’ll keep the smaller pieces as prizes. I decided on the spot. We’ll keep the larger pieces for if we ever-
Mimi and Rab caught my attention. They both stood at the top of their staircases, waving and snipping their claws frantically.
What?
They both pointed to the core and opened up their hatches. They shoved air into their giant, grotesque mouths, very pointedly eyeing the core fragments in Faux’s hand. Faux made a fist and shook it at the crabs, even crouching down to try and close their hatch mouths.
I decided. Faux. Give them each one of the largest fragments.
Faux immediately stopped fighting the mimic crabs and reached into his open palm, plucking out the two largest fragments. He gave one each to Mimi and Rab. Both crabs eagerly threw them into their hatches and clapped them shut with an audible clunk. Their crowns rose as their clamps held their mouths shut.
I watched them for a while, interested in their reactions. All of my instincts shouted at me, telling me that something very interesting was about to happen.
I grinned. Faux, leave the large and small fragments with me. Throw the dust into the pond.
Faux did as he was told. I watched with unrestrained glee as my fish thrashed over each other, fighting to eat the core dust without my prompting.
Something very interesting…