“Woof, Mrs. Lack did not skimp out on the portions today.” Abby patted her stomach gratefully. Laying on her bed as she was, she felt tempted to just call it a night there!

“I noticed.” Owyn grunted. He sat hunched over their room's little desk, scratching his head as he wrote down the day's expenses and profits.

“I’m sure you did.” Abby muttered. She sat upright, watching his back. “Why didn’t you sell the fragments of that last core?”

“I sold the biggest chunk, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but that’s not what I asked. Why’re we saving the fragments? The little bitty bits?”

“They’re for your stupid shield.” Owyn told her. He then turned around in his chair to face her. He held his book before him as he read out his report. “Zero initial expenses. Delve produced twelve cores, eight in great condition, three in good condition, and one poor. Quality was the same distribution as normal, but we only sold half of the poor quality core fragments.”

He then rattled off a series of numbers that corresponded with how much money was gained for each core, then for their daily expense, and finally for their net total.

“Thirty four days until we’ve saved enough.” He finished, slamming the book shut in his one hand.

Abby groaned and flopped back on her bed. “We broke even today.”

“We splurged on food, and today was a restock day. Tomorrow and the day after should make for better than average profits, assuming we stick to regiment.”

Abby reached blindly beneath her bed for her shield. “So that’s what the glue was for? We’re just gonna glue the core fragments onto my shield?”

“You were the one complaining about not having your own light.”

“Fair.” She sighed and rolled off her bed, slightly frustrated at not being able to find her shield. Once reaching the floor, she found her shield instantly and grabbed it. Owyn prepared the glue and remaining core fragments on the desk before stepping out of the way.

“Aw, come on, can’t you do it for me again?” Abby complained, noticing Owyn pointedly stepping away.

“No. You’re just going to complain about how I do it again.”

“Well can you at least tame the core for me? You’re so much better at it!”

Owyn gestured angrily at the fragments. “They’re tiny! You cannot possibly fuck it up! Besides that, you gotta learn to do things yourself from time to time.”

“But this is boring!” Abby insisted.

“Adventuring isn’t always about slaying monsters and seeing fantastic sights. Taking the time to properly prepare things is a part of adventuring too.”

Abby cringed. She should have known he was going to pull that card. Her insatiable lust for adventure always seemed to be tampered by Owyn. Never dismissed or regarded as childish, but placed in a more realistic light.

“Besides,” Owyn looked out the window. “If you do fail I’ll be here to make sure you’re ok.”

Abby was glad he wasn’t looking at her. She threw Owyn’s book at him. “Moron! Do you think I’d possibly lose to a little core! Watch me!”

Owyn chuckled, but relented. He retreated to his own bed and sat, watching her patiently.

Abby set the glue aside for the moment and instead picked up one of the dungeon core fragments. She hesitated a little, then immediately chastised herself for doing so. Adventurers didn’t hesitate!

She brought the fragment up to her forehead and concentrated. The mana within her extended outwards, touching the fragment.

Die! It shouted weakly. Kill him! Obey! Die!!

Shut up. Abby commanded it.

Die. Die!

It worked for a second. Not long enough. Abby tried to remember the lessons Owyn had given her. She had to imagine her intent. The intent for the core. She imagined light.

She imagined the sun, the moon, campfires and candles. She imagined color and vision and she willed the dungeon fragment to see it along with her.

No… The fragment said weakly. Die. Mana. Die.

Light. Abby stood her ground.

Light… The core repeated.

Light.

The will of the dungeon core broke, molding to her own. Abby felt it slowly convert from whatever it had been into a being of light. With just a small push of mana, Abby watched as the core gave off a little bit of light.

She turned to Owyn, smug. “See? Told you I could do it.”

Owyn clapped sarcastically. “Only eight more bits to go!”

Abby placed the core fragment on her shield and picked up another. Yet again, she awoke it with her mana, and then altered its will to match her vision. One by one, the fragments happily converted themselves into magic cores. One imprinted with the spell of ‘light’ within them.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Owyn nodded approval. “Good job.”

“Did I have to use all of them?” Abby pouted. She poured a dribble of glue on her shield. Then, without ceremony, she dumped the magic cores into the glue, setting them in place.

Owyn looked at her shield disgusted. “You didn’t put them in the center? Why? No- you know what, I don’t care. Look, light is an easy spell. Weak. They don’t take much core to work. If you tried turning one of them into a fireball spell, all you’d get out of it would be a little candle flame that wouldn’t exist much farther than your fingertip. At that point, you might as well just use a sword. Or punch whatever you want to hit.”

Abby stuck her tongue out at him. “Maybe I want a candle flame!”

“In that case, you could go right ahead if we ever do this again. But you can’t convert magic cores once they’ve been converted once, so tough luck.”

“Shoulda saved one.” Abby muttered.

“Yeah, well, that’s on you.” Owyn headed for the door. “I’m going to check on the kids. I haven’t seen them come back yet.”

Abby went to join him.

They walked through the bar on the bottom floor, passing through the growing crowd of farmers and ranchers, drinking away at the end of the day. One such patron noticed their arrival and got out of her seat.

Abby and Owyn noticed her approach and moved away from the noise to talk better.

“Evenin’” Ms. Brook said once she was within hearing distance.

“Greetings.” Owyn said.

“Hey Ms. Brook!”

“Has Barry been back yet?” Her words were a little slurred.

“Not yet ma’am, but we’re going to make sure he’s ok.” Abby assured her.

The woman nodded gratefully. “Good’n. Tha’ss all I wanted.”

Owyn nodded politely before leading Abby out. “Please don’t become like her in the future.”

“What, a loving mother who’s concerned about her kid?”

“A drunk.” Owyn said.

Abby had to give him the point. “I don’t really blame her though. It’s still sort of fresh.”

Owyn grunted. The death of a loved one, especially a husband like Mr. Brook, was hard for anyone to take. They could only be grateful that Barry had taken the news well enough, even if he did become an adventurer for it.

Owyn and Abby didn’t need to be concerned about the kids late arrival it seemed. Barry, Grant, and Lady Bellaby all entered the towns edge just as Abby and Owyn were about to leave. They waited for the kids to approach.

“Barry broke his spear again.” Owyn observed.

“He’s probably had more practice with his knife than that thing.”

Owyn shrugged. “Maybe that’s for the better. Dungeons like tight quarters and many turns. A knife is better for that anyways.”

“You know he’s not going to stop trying.” Abby sounded a little sad at the fact.

“I’m not going to stop him.” Owyn took a step forward and raised his voice. “How’d you do?”

“Fifteen cores!!” Lady Bellamy shouted back.

Owyn clicked his tongue. For being so mature, he could be so competitive, Abby observed. He hid it well though.

“Any troubles?”

“What route did you take?” Abby asked, pulling out her own map from her back pocket.

The map wasn’t actually a traditional map of the sorts, but more of a flowchart of pathways adventurers could take within the cave system. As the oldest adventurers in town, Abby and Owyn had unrestricted access to every path available, and were in fact encouraged to go down the pathways that went deeper than the map showed. Owyn then fitted rules to each adventuring team as he saw fit, restricting them to certain areas to ensure equal distributions of loot and appropriate levels of challenge.

Barry, Grant, and Lady Bellamy, collectively “Bellamy’s Troop”, were of the more experienced and better equipped parties within Setterton. Not that there were many, but regardless, that fact did not lessen their stature. Lady Bellamy equipped her friends with not-cheap armor. Metal where it mattered, and leather where it needed to flex. Not to mention Lady Bellamy herself.

She strove to be a mage, and with her kind of money, she could afford it. Broken magic cores, like the ones every party in this town collected, were far weaker than their whole counterparts. Even if it was merely a chip off the top, that was generally enough to silence the will of a dungeon. When they were whole however, they fought back. Trying to convert a whole, unbroken dungeon core into a magic core was like inviting a monster into your home. You opened up your mana to the core when you attempted to convert it, and that meant risking death.

Lady Bellamy had three whole magic cores under her control, and several halves and other fragments. After conversion, magic cores could be wielded by anybody with enough will, but the risk associated with converting them made them ridiculously expensive. It helped then, that Baroness Bellamy, her mother, had both the money to buy whole cores, and the will to convert them herself.

Owyn and Grant sifted through the cores the Troop had collected.

“You need to work on your spherical cores.” Owyn said, picking out a half and inspecting it. “Splitting them in half so cleanly is a sign of better skill, but the larger chunks sell for more, and you can always sell the smaller fragments to be ground into dust for mana potions. Despite there being the same volume of core, you’ll get more money per core if you keep the chunks as large as possible.”

“Thank you!” Abby said to Lady Bellamy, mentally marking down the path she had specified. As instructed, they didn’t go too deep, but that meant they went down more branches than Abby and Owyn would. They’d have to compensate tomorrow. “Owyn, leave Grant alone. You’ll convert him into a dungeon nut too!”

“Is that a bad thing?” Owyn asked, probably innocently.

“Hey, what’s the difference between shapes of cores?” Grant asked.

“Oh no! It’s starting!” Abby threw her hands in the air. She rounded on Lady Bellamy. “Quick! Take them home before Owyn infects them beyond the point of recovery!”

“Boys!” Lady Bellamy called. “Let’s go!”

The boys quickly snapped to attention. They gave Abby and Owyn quick goodbyes before running after Lady Bellamy into town. Owyn stood next to Abby, watching them leave for a while.

“The difference is their shape.”

“I didn’t ask.” Abby started walking.

“Yeah, but you were curious.” Owyn said.

“I really wasn’t. Not everybody cares about every little detail there is to know about dungeons. The cores start as one of a few shapes, they grow over time, and they can summon monsters. That’s all an adventurer needs to know.”

Owyn touched his chest, mocking a wound. “Abby! I am shocked that you don’t care about the very thing that supports your adventuring lifestyle! You need to learn respect for these sorts of things!”

“I have you to do that for me.” Abby raised her chin. “Besides, being an adventurer is all about fun. The thrill of putting your life on the line for something bigger than yourself! Discovering things that nobody's seen before!”

Owyn snorted. “That would involve some level of intellect.”

Abby went to punch him in the arm, but Owyn dodged it without effort. So Abby put in the effort, but Owyn dodged again. He smirked at her.

“So straightforward. C’mon, you got to put at least a little thought into your attacks!”

Abby couldn’t help but let a frustrated grin worm its way onto her face. She kicked Owyn in the shin.

“Ow!”

“And you could stand to exercise more!”

“Make me!”

Abby dove for Owyn. Owyn backed away quickly and took off.

“Get back here and take your beating like a man!”