Arbur had somehow managed to fall asleep after giving into his exhaustion, though his dreams were filled with the echoes of his misery and fear. His thoughts were full of images of his bones turning to dust in an endless dungeon, and the object of his vendetta living on. He lamented that he would never fulfill his duty to avenge his sect as he opened his eyes to greet the dungeon's brightening sky.

“Oh, nice one!” Micro's cheerful voice shook his mind like a punch in the face.

Arbur sat up quickly and doubted his eyes.

The mountain he'd fallen a fair distance from was about the same height it had been the previous day, but Micro was not yet joined by the blue pixie he always kept at his side. He appeared to be playing fetch with the ghost of a dog.

“Here!” Micro shouted as he threw a rust-coloured rock over the hill, and the dog gracefully dashed after it, seeming to fly across the ground rather than run. The dog easily caught the stone before it hit the ground, then returned it to Micro at once.

Micro noticed Arbur sitting up, and waved to him.

“Hey, can you throw this rock around for a while?” Micro asked him.

“I can't get any work done like this!”

“What?” Arbur blurted out, dumbfounded.

“He helped me move some dirt for a while, but he's been in the mood to play for a while now!” Micro called out.

“Here! Catch!”

Micro threw the rock to Arbur, who stood up and managed to catch it in both hands.

“Yes, of course...” Arbur was having trouble processing the request, but it was a simple task to be assigned by his sect leader, and he instinctively proceeded to throw the rock away from the hill.

WOOF

The dog barked and howled with joy as the rock flew, and soon the rock had been returned to the place where Arbur stood.

Micro was pleased to see Arbur able to dedicate himself to the task, repeatedly throwing the rock as far as he could and then waiting patiently for the ethereal dog to return it.

~

Soon after Micro returned to the task of moving dirt, Blue awoke and joined him. However, little of the day had passed before she suddenly threw a shield-full of dirt in the air and sighed.

“What's wrong?” Micro asked as he dumped another load.

“There has to be a more interesting way of doing this.” Blue sighed again.

“I can't just let you collect all those Core Cards for yourself. Otherwise I'd just have a nap until you're done.”

“Well, we can race to the top when the mountain is done, but it'll be a while before it's ready...” Micro replied.

“But there's only one mountain... Ah!”

“I think I know what you're thinking!” Blue replied excitedly.

“We'll make-” Micro continued.

“Two mountains!” Blue interrupted, snapping her fingers confidently.

“Good idea!” Micro nodded.

“You build yours over there. I'll start over there.” Blue said, pointing toward the horizon.

“The mountains shouldn't meet at the bottom, and we'll just see who gets to the height of the exit first.”

“We can just push them together when we're done.” Micro agreed with a thumbs up.

“Something like that. Well then.” Blue began to float away, looking at Micro with renewed energy.

“I'll wait for you at the top.”

Blue immediately set out to build her own mountain, load by load. Micro walked slowly over to his assigned location and began constructing his own. The two were fairly far from each other, but he was still able to see her clearly even at a distance with his Spirit Vision Skill. Arbur seemed to be enjoying his time with the spectral dog, and his ability to move freely despite the intense pressure of the dungeon was improving as he played.

Night seemed to come more quickly after the three had spent a day enjoying their respective tasks. Blue and Micro had already made two hills large enough to tower over Arbur as he played with the ghostly dog. Arbur lay down to rest, feeling some satisfaction in his fatigue. Dark thoughts did begin to manifest as he closed his eyes, but he was surprised when Micro's dog lay down with its head on his chest. Arbur looked uncomfortable at first, but after placing a hand on the dog's head, the two fell asleep quickly.

Blue paused her work while standing atop her hill and looked over to Micro, who was stretching his arms over his head.

“So you really aren't going to sleep?!” Blue called out to him.

“I don't need to, no!” He called back.

“Well that's not fair.” Blue frowned.

“I could keep going, but what a waste of a nice night...”

“I can stop working until you wake up.” Micro replied with a thumbs up.

“I'll meditate for a while. My core is still a little messy.”

“Oh, okay then.” Blue nodded.

“I'll know if you cheated!”

She carefully analyzed the size of Micro's mountain, then lay down at the summit of her own mountain and immediately began to snore. Micro smiled as he observed his sleeping friends, then sat down to meditate.

“I guess I'll cultivate here...” Micro mumbled, then sat down with his legs crossed and closed his eyes.

~

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

While peering into his core, Micro felt a deep sense of security, knowing his soul was parked safely in a garage, which itself was surrounded by a spherical mass of energy. He opened the door and walked into the garage where his familiarly shaped soul remained parked, still comfortably bearing the weight of the Core Cards he'd mastered so far. Though he felt lonely for a moment without the dog there to greet him, he basked in the peace of the moment.

However, he looked around at the garage which he had replicated, exactly the same in its shape and contents to the place he'd lived, and sighed.

“The old man would never have let it get this dusty...” Micro spoke, rebuking himself.

“It’s been harder for him to keep up with cleaning recently though…”

Though the garage and its contents were simply a manifestation of his own energy, utilizing his core throughout the day seemed to stir up a number of impurities, and a dust-like material coated the surface of every shelf and box in the garage. He moved a trash can to the centre of the garage next to his soul, and picked up the broom and dustpan which stood near the open garage door.

While sweeping the dust off of every surface in the garage, he recalled the way his driver had always cleaned, and noticed the silence around him.

“I wonder...” Micro mumbled, then opened the door to the truck and climbed into the driver's seat.

“There it is...!”

He was happy to find the key in the ignition, and he quickly turned it half way. As the door light lit up and the dashboard beeped to alert him of the open door, he then reached out to the radio and turned up the volume. The radio had been stuck on one station for several years, but it was the old man's favourite.

As he had hoped, the sound of static mixed with music filled the garage. As one song ended and the radio announcer's voice, mostly obscured by white noise, led into the next, Micro smiled.

“I guess the reception could be worse.” He shrugged, then returned to his cleaning, entranced by the nostalgic songs which persisted through the white noise.

~

Micro's cleaning concluded shortly before Blue awoke from a pleasant dream, and he felt refreshed. With a deep breath, he circulated his energy, and was surprised by the strong currents that filled his body.

“Good morning, Blue!” Micro called out, his smile literally glowing as he flexed his energy.

“Huh...” Blue mumbled as she stretched, looking at him with squinted eyes.

“You seem more... boring.”

“Boring?” Micro tilted his head.

“Your energy is so… calm.” Blue frowned.

“Like some smelly old hermit or something.”

“I just tidied up my core for a while.” Micro shrugged.

“You should try it too. It feels refreshing.”

“Whatever.” Blue waved her hand, turning her attention to the mountain beneath Micro.

“Seems like you didn't cheat. Alright. Let's go.”

Without another word, Blue ran down her hill to continue her task, gathering large clumps of dirt which hovered in front of her as she carried them to the summit. Micro continued to use a simple manifestation of the Spirit Shield to carry small loads of dirt beside him. He tried carrying larger loads at first, but it frequently drained his energy faster than he could replenish it.

The two mountain builders largely ignored Arbur as he single mindedly dedicated himself to the task of entertaining the soul of Micro's canine friend, and Arbur seemed content as another day of simple games passed them by. When night came again and he lay down to rest, he almost didn't notice the comfort he found in waking up to continue his own task.

A week passed by, the mountains slowly growing in size. A month passed by, and the mountains' base began to force arbur to relocate his indefinite game of catch with the dog.

One particular day, he realized he was able to throw the dog's favourite chunk of rock much farther than before, and he wandered farther from the mountains as he continued his task. The mountains grew small enough behind him that he stopped noticing them altogether. The madness he felt creeping into his mind at times was never allowed to settle in before his four-legged companion could distract him.

Micro was relieved to see Arbur had ceased his anxious pacing near the mountains, and he could see far enough that there was no risk of losing sight of Arbur, so he continued in his task without distraction.

“This is nice...” Micro mumbled once, and time passed.

~

“Hah!” The shrill cry of a pixie echoed across the endless horizon one morning as Arbur wound back to throw his rock.

The dog in front of him tilted his head, and the pair looked back to notice two giant hills had come to dominate the view behind him.

“Seems like you win!” Micro called happily from the summit of the mountain on the left to the pixie floating above the mountain on the right.

“I'll buy you some meat!”

“You'll buy me a lot of it!” Blue called back.

“Okay, Blue!” Micro replied.

Blue's triumphant declaration reminded Arbur of their initial plan, and his eyes widened.

“They really plan to merge the two mountains...” Arbur mumbled as Blue and Micro immediately began the task. He looked down at the rock in his hand, which was barely half the size it had once been. It was also perfectly rounded, polished by countless thousands of days spent being thrown and caught repeatedly.

ARF!

The dog barked, wagging its tail in anticipation.

“Understood.” Arbur replied, and threw the spherical stone once again.

~

“Arbur can throw that really far now, eh?” Blue chuckled as she sat beside Micro at the top of the single mountain they had made, a shimmering portal at their backs. Their respective metaphors for moving the dirt had gradually become similar, forming larger and larger walls of energy to push each load like a bulldozer.

“I hope he didn't get bored.” Micro replied.

“He did a bit better than Kel, to be honest.”

“Anyways, it looks like there are three of each card.” Blue said, having collected every card which once floated high above the ground. After completing their mountain, it was a simple matter to walk around the mountainside and collect them one by one.

Laid out before them were four Earth type Jade Cored Cards. Micro easily recognized the Mountain Art card, and another card looked familiar, but the other two were new to him. Blue scratched her head while looking down at the cards, then spoke up.

“That's the Spirit Sword Skill, in case you hadn't guessed.” Blue explained.

“This one here is the Appraisal Skill that your turtle friend liked. The last is actually a fun one!”

“Oh?” Micro picked up the card and looked more closely. The symbol in the centre of the card was so simple that it was difficult to understand.

“What does it do?”

“It can make you heavier or lighter.” Blue replied.

“Most pixies can already do that, but I saw a cultivator end a fight with this skill once. It was hilarious.”

“How did they use this in a fight...?” Micro raised an eyebrow.

“She tackled the guy, then made herself so heavy that she pushed him right into the ground!” Blue laughed.

“Sounds useful, I guess.” Micro nodded.

“Being lighter would be more efficient though.”

“Save it for your disciples.” Blue rolled her eyes, then collected her set of Core Cards. They suddenly vanished, to Micro's suprise, but she declared proudly.

“That's right! Who needs a silly skill just to store things in a space pocket?!”

“That's great! Are you full charged now?” Micro replied, collecting his own set in one hand, and the remaining set in the other.

“Not even close, but the core is helping.” Blue sighed.

“You’ll be an amber core in no time.” Micro reassured her.

“Anyways…”

He waved to Arbur, who then made his way up the hill with the dog beside him. After Arbur had caught his breath, Micro handed him the four Core Cards with a smile.

“I couldn't accept...” Arbur gasped.

“I didn't even... you both-”

“We have ours already.” Micro interjected.

“They're yours. Take them.”

Seeing Micro's genuine smile, Arbur reluctantly reached out to accept the cards, falling to his knees as Micro released them. The cards were no heavier than any other Core Card he'd seen, but they felt unimaginably heavy in his hands.

Before Arbur could articulate a word of gratitude, Micro grabbed his shoulder and lifted him to his feet.

“Let's go.” Micro said.

“This was a nice break, but there's more dungeons!”

The green light of the dungeon's exit blinded Arbur as he was dragged through it, accompanied by Blue and Micro. He noticed the ethereal dog transform into a swirling mass of energy before pouring into Micro's chest and disappearing.