Monday, April 29th, 2069

Fascinated, I watched as the wound in my chest and shoulder appeared to literally knit itself closed. It had actually not been bleeding when I felt the intense itch there. Still, I had bled—and profusely enough to stain most of my undershirt a ruddy red.

Now, though, I watched as my wound seemed to come alive. Small tendrils of what I assumed must be blood reaching across and bridging the gap. Once there were too many to count they contracted, pulling taut and forcing the wound to close by millimeters. This started deep in the gash. The area ‘closed’ and then grew red and healthy looking even as more tendrils sprang up from the next spot—this one closer to the surface of the wound.

It repeated itself, and I began to count. The wound had indeed been deep enough that I could see ribs—and if I estimated, a few minutes of fighting occurred after the spear cut me—then it was going to take about five minutes to heal two wounds that were at least an inch deep and several long.

“Are you done staring at yourself?” Smegma asked. I lost track of my count, and slowly turned my head to glare at the Demon. “What? It isn’t like you’re in the center of a Goblin village, where you just killed four Guards. I’m sure that was all of them…”

His condescension made me wince. I stood up, and moved toward the center of the stone hut. Where I could see a central pillar. The hut itself was far darker than the cave outside—lit by mesh sacks filled with Mana Crystals hung from the ceiling. Since they were likely F-rank Crystals, they were a terrible source of light.

That was probably why it took me getting to the support pillar to realize it wasn’t the altar I was looking for. Not to mention that strange light orb that fled the first two Goblin Guards. Was it an alarm or something?

“Yes. It was an Alarm Skill, but it only notified the other two Guards. Normally, it would have brought all the fighters in the village down on your head, but the rest might be in that Snake’s belly. Now, this isn’t the Altar, moron,” Smegma said, but only because he got there before I did and had time to check it out. I shook my head and spun in a half circle, assessing the room. It was pretty sparsely furnished.

There was a stack of rags, or dust or something along one curving wall, which I assumed was a bed. There was the tiny chair, which was decorated to look ostentatious but failed miserably. Lastly, there was a small stack of stones that reached to my knees.

Shrugging, I went to the stack of stones, only to find a wider, recessed stone attempting to be a washbasin on the top. My nose scrunched at the smell of the water inside, and the color. Good thing the leader kept himself ‘clean’.

Now on the other side of the central pillar I scanned again and found a few stacks of dried herbs hanging from the walls, but nothing else. I raised both of my hands helplessly and finally responded to Smegma. “Okay, genius. Where is this altar then?”

“Right, ask the guy who can’t even interact with the world…”

“Oh come on, you stupid husker. That’s a horrible excuse and you know it. You can literally fly through walls.”

“Whatever, maybe it’s not in here,” Smegma responded. “I’ll go scout around; you watch yourself heal or something.”

Smegma promptly flew off, and I got the distinct impression that he was either embarrassed or as frustrated with the lack of an ‘altar’ as I was. Despite the derogatory nature of his words, I did go back to watching the skin of my wounds slowly knit itself back together. It was interesting, but didn’t last long.

Just in case, I took another scan of the room. Nothing new. Figured, but you never know. I guess I could collect the White Goblin Cores, and probably take down the Mana Crystal mesh bags. I looked from one to the other before deciding to start with the Mesh Bags. First, I needed something to cut the rope.

Each Goblin had a spear, and my Pick was also still on the ground. I moved from body to body and actually found two stone daggers in waistbands for two of the Goblins. Not that a dagger would help me cut down the Mesh Bags. They were too high for me to reach, but I did figure they might help me cut open the Monsters for the Cores later.

Yet, the first thing was to get those Crystals down, for a mobile light source—if nothing else. Using the spear, I sawed at the rope which was somehow wedged between two rocks in the ceiling. The bag, and rope jumped and skipped moving about, spinning and being generally uncooperative with the attempt.

My arms began to tire by the time I heard a snick and watched the fraying rope part. It didn’t drop the bag, though, since it was essentially many ropes woven together and then braided into the supporting one at the top. Instead, the bag fell open, and the Crystals spilled out. I jumped back to avoid them falling on me, but still felt one collide with my chest. It made an odd sound, followed by the somewhat heart-wrenching noise of something breaking even more. Remembering what that was, and finally understanding what that crunch earlier had been—had me close my eyes before slowly looking down..

I found the expensive three-sixty degree camera I had forgotten I was wearing, with its lens and protective case broken. I ran a hand through my hair, and clenched my teeth in frustration. While I knew my donations on CashMe could cover the repairs—it was still a needless expense.

I put the Camera in my Necklace where it should have been at least a day ago. Since it only had a forty-eight hour battery anyway. Then I asked Smegma a rather important question that I probably should have thought of much earlier. [Is recording in Dungeons really a good idea with you floating about?]

[You think a piece of mechanical equipment is sensitive enough to pick up frequencies and images from another dimension?] Smegma mentally asked.

[Well you’re making yourself visible aren’t you?] I asked, confused as to what he was getting at.

[I mean maybe it can? I don’t know how sophisticated these ‘cameras’ and ‘computers’ are.] Smegma floated back through a wall of the hut, startling me.

Once I recovered, Smegma pointed at my eyes. “However, after some of our research into the System—Mana, Force and Martial Power revealed that living creatures are hypersensitive to things that are created by those forces. Like they have a extraordinary sense that is somehow tuned to them—”

“—Oh we call that our sixth sense,” I interjected.

“That’s not really the right word for it, though. You definitely have a sense for Mana already, which would likely be your sixth sense, no? This is something beyond just Mana. While other planes of existence have Mana, they aren’t created by it. If that makes sense? It’s a bit too complicated to explain to an idiot like you—” Smegma responded, still hovering just inside the wall with a devious smirk. I gave him a playful finger in response, only making his smile grow.

“In any case, that video is much more likely to be showing the whole group going insane, and talking to a figment of their imagination. So, I wouldn’t worry overly much about it. Especially with Geneva and Kristen being in on the secret. They’ll cut anything too odd out—even if that thing can capture different planes.”

“Yeah, I guess. There’s just been a lot going on in here, with the…” Brodie gestured vaguely in the direction of the grotto and lake.

“Naga Complex?” Smegma offered, clearly reading my confusion.

“Naga Complex is as good a term as any, I suppose. But you know what I mean—the huge husking Snake—and my ‘stealing’ of Crystals. None of that is including me picking up Skills like others pick up quarters, or massive frying pans and fishing poles appearing out of thin air. I guess I just don’t like having video evidence that could be used against me in the trial,” I responded, trying once more to get my point across.

“Then don’t give the camera to them?” Smegma asked, sounding unsure what my hang up was.

“I can’t do that. We need footage for reels and promotions of our company.”

“Tell them to delete any footage that is suspicious? Better yet, you can delete whatever footage you want before you even give it to them.” Smegma tried again. I went silent and his smile returned with a vengeance. “That was a simple solution—moron. Now, can we get back to searching for the husking Altar?”

My silence must have been an answer because Smegma flew back through the wall. After that I shook my head and continued my search sheepishly. I did find a very worn small backpack which was clearly one of the Mirage Hunters. A quick mental prod told me it was a small Bag of Holding too. That might be helpful later, I supposed and kept looking.

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With the Bag of Holding I moved around to collect the scattered Crystals. I really didn’t love that Smegma, who wasn’t even from our world, came up with a simple solution before I did. Still, the fact that I hadn’t worried about it till now likely meant I trusted Geneva and Kristen quite a bit. Maybe they were already deleting stuff like that…

It was then that I noticed the grooved tiles of the floor, and just as I went to dismiss that little fact and return to examining my trust of Sparkle Legion—discovered they weren’t tiles. My brain questioned the rather stupid Goblin’s ability to tile anything, making me perform a double-take. Then and only then did I realize that the ‘tiles’ were carvings in the cave floor.

Following one of the grooves with a Crystal held inches above it, I discovered a half-sphere depression. The depression was far too perfect for it to have been carved by the stone tools of the Goblins.

[I think I found the Altar,] I mentally sent to Smegma, even as I pulled out a Monster Core and held it above the half sphere. This Core would be too small—but it was definitely the right shape…

Did that mean I needed the bigger Cores? Or that the depression was just made big to support any Core?

Either way, if this altar would award a Skill—

“Wait, the Altar was the whole floor—building?” Smegma asked, angrily as he floated back into the room. I jerked back and spun to see why he had added ‘building.’ Sure enough, Smegma was studying a wall.

It looked like dark stone to me, so I brought a Crystal over for a closer look. He was right. There were carvings on the walls as well. Smegma looked at me, and I looked back to him. We both shrugged in near unison.

“Okay, so—let’s go through the Snake’s pile of Cores,” Smegma said out loud. Then he made some strange hand gestures which were not something I could interpret.

I realized with a start what was going on. The Snake could probably hear us. [I have no idea what you’re trying to say with those hand gestures. Plus you can use mental communications…]

Smegma looked at me like I was a puppy that had just peed on the floor. Then after a world-weary sigh, said, “Dump out all the Cores, we’ll go through them.”

Licking my teeth at another tone shift, which again I didn’t understand, I reluctantly emptied out the Necklace of Holding. It had taken me a while to get them all in there—and I didn’t really want to do it again. Smegma hovered to the pile and made a gesture from a small salt block-like sphere with almost no illumination, and then very pointedly motioned at a huge nearly perfect specimen with a fierce inner light.

Oh! I slapped my forehead and nodded to the Demon. I had been thinking the same thing before he arrived—just from a different angle. Surely, higher ranked Cores would mean a higher rank Skill…

We sorted through them, and were left with some decisions to make. There were probably twenty-five huge spheres that would perfectly fit into the depression. Each one of these spheres was double the size of a basketball and quite clear.

[So, we just pick the biggest ones?] I asked, even as I looked to the next larger pile. Some of these crystals seemed to be brighter and more clear of imperfections.

Smegma shook his head and pointed to one of the Crystals I was just looking at. I pulled it out and then moved to one of the largest ones that looked just as clear. Smegma shook his head emphatically. Then he tapped talon to tooth, looked down and away toward where the Snake might be in this huge Cavern, before shrugging.

[Why don’t you just make it so only I can see you?] I asked. Smegma rolled his eyes, and pointed down before mouthing, ‘Universal Power.’ [I’ll take that to mean he might still be able to hear you?]

[Even though I doubt it, he might even be able to intercept mental communications,] Smegma mentally sent while nodding but eventually shrugged before clearly deciding that he might be being a bit overly paranoid.Sighing, he pointed out some Crystals in differing piles. “My thought is that we should try to pick similar colors of Cores. Usually, that’s what we did with Card Shards. It increased the chances of getting a powerful Skill—well, it never could really be proven, since it could have been luck…”

[Okay? So, we want the clearest Cores with similar coloring?] I still was confused by the coloring of the Cores on display. Sure there was almost every color of the rainbow—but there were just too many, Greens, Blues, Yellows and Purples. It didn’t look like the Monster Cores I was used to seeing, but I shrugged that off for now.

Smegma nodded and we sorted the Cores once again. This time by colors. No two were ‘identical’ in color. Not really, but there were several that were blue in varying shades, or green, yellow, red, and so on.

A pattern did begin to emerge, and by the time we were finished I was looking down at only two red cores. Nine orange, twenty purple, a hundred plus blues, several hundred yellow, and uncountable greens. The second pattern was that the ones with less all seemed to be of better quality.

Then we had other grouped piles of colors that were all only containing one Core. Pink, black, brown, white and so on. These colors gave me a strange feeling even holding them—but varied in clarity and size. I raised both palms to indicate my confusion.

Smegma, who couldn’t help in my physical categorizing, had been studying the groups while tapping a tooth for a while now. At my gesture he glanced toward the direction of the Snake. It was a presence that defied walls and cavernous passageways and clearly he was still a bit worried about it taking some sort of offense and leveling the entire Mine to kill us all. After another sigh he shrugged and answered, “My guess is that these piles are something like Card Rarity. So, Godly, Legendary, Epic, Rare, Uncommon, and Common.” He pointed at the red, orange, purple, blue, yellow and green in turn. After a moment he pointed around us and back toward the Lake, before adding, “They must not be the same types of Cores that are found on Earth.

“Then these may be Unique?” He pointed to the assortment of colors that had no pairings. Then shrugged to further indicate his uncertainty. “Maybe, not Unique, though. At least, not in the way that you’re thinking of. Perhaps they’d be considered Unique on Earth. Back during this civilization's heyday, this was just how things worked. Obsolete might be a better term. They could be something like ingredients. So, that Brown one would add an Earth Element to a Skill—or something?”

My hand scratched my temple as I looked at the collection from that perspective. The Cores on Earth were said to all contain an element already. However here, if Smegma was right, these Cores were sorted by rarity and the element came from outside? So if I combined one of the Unique stones with eight Legendary—I should get a—

My brain instantly put a stop to the rabbit hole I felt myself exploring. Smegma, who had likely heard my tangent and subsequent halt, shrugged at me. “There’s no telling. Just give it a try?”

[Okay—so Godly, and Legendary first?] I asked, pointing at the two small piles. Smegma shrugged, and I got to work moving about the Hut. Each depression had long been marked by one of the Mana Crystals, and so it didn’t take me long to locate and place nine crystals.

Low Rank Skill Altar Activated.

Cores Offered.

Ex: Eborisk Dragon Core

Ex: Faneral Dragon Core

S+: Drake Portal Core

S-: Treant Core

S-: Ultralisk Core

S: Ego Portal Core

S+: Morenquai Core

S: Halo Portal Core

S-: Lich Core

Would you like to add an elemental Core?

| No

Proceed with Skill Acquisition?

Yes |

I stared at the blue screen, clearly shocked that the screen was so similar to the Demonic Vault ones but also shocked at the Cores currently slotted—and the fact that it told me what they were.

“So—“ Smegma cut me off with a vigorous waving of his arms in front of my face. Then he floated in front of me and shook his head to join the clear hand signal to stop. [Sorry, I was just thinking we can probably do this differently. First, I’m guessing those are Elemental Cores.]

Of course I was pointing at the Cores currently slotted. Then I motioned back to the rest of the abundant Cores. [I’m thinking we should try to get Cores that have a theme in terms of what Monster types they came from?]

Smegma’s eyes widened even as he began to nod to himself at my suggestion. I could tell that he was about to go off into researcher mode and so I just shook my head, and began by swapping the two remaining orange Cores in.

They both weren’t Draconic—but one of the ones I removed was. I placed a Mana Crystal there to mark it as correct—and then began swapping in purple Cores. Only one of the twenty purple Cores were ‘Draconic’—being an A +: Wyvern Portal Core.

I looked to the blues, now a little worried that my earlier ‘brilliant’ idea might not be the right choice.

[No, keep going. I think the Cores are glowing brighter,] Smegma mentally sent, clearly deciding that our mental communications weren’t being overheard, at least.

Smegma motioned at the two red cores, and I narrowed my eyes trying to see what the Demon meant. They looked the same to me. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to keep going—I supposed.

The blue cores took a while but by the end I had all but one of the indentations filled with Draconic or at least what I thought were Draconic cores. Kind of like the Wyvern which I believed was Draconic—but may not be.

It also was clear that the red cores were growing brighter. The problem was that I was now moving onto the yellow cores—which seemed like a waste. Surely the larger rarer cores would be better at this point. Smegma shook his head and pointed to the two red godly cores.

[The increased brightness is telling us something. Keep going.]

The last spot was filled, and the red cores did once again visibly brighten an octave. While that was a triumph it also made me reassess the Wyvern Core again. It hadn’t made the red Core brighten noticeably like this D+: Dragonkin Core had.

Husk!

I started shifting it and a few other Cores in and out, until the red light was bathing the entire hut in its extremely bright halo. I looked longingly at the big, expensive cores—then shrugged and clicked the yes to adding an Element. I moved to the pile of Cores that didn’t fit with the rarity coloring scheme and picked up the one I’d been eyeing from the start.

Then I practically leaped back in shock when the first one I slotted in was Space. The color of the Core was black with white dots floating in it—and I had honestly been drawn to it because of its similarities to my Mental Universe—but it actually being a Space Element Core threw me.

[Okay, I hear your internal dreams of power, but it still might not be the best choice. Slot them all!] Smegma stated.

My nose crinkled as my mouth fell into a frown. Sure, the Demon was right, but Space—

“Dumb-dumb.” Smegma interrupted my thoughts and I sighed before doing as instructed.