When she woke up again, there was darkness all around her, but Claire was comforted by the fading sound of waves. Where am I? Did I fall asleep? The last thing she remembered was crashing through the windowpane with her head, although there was some vague memory after that of flowers. That explains it – I’m in hospital and it’s night. What good fortune someone noticed what happened to me and called an ambulance. I just hope I’m not too scarred… With that thought settled, she gingerly tried to touch her face with her hand, only to find that she couldn’t move. She tried again to no avail. Then she realised that she couldn’t actually feel anything of her body, beyond her own presence in her mind.
Wow, that’s some powerful sedation they’ve put me under. Reasoning that the sedation would wear off soon enough, Claire accepted her inability to move for the time being. Instead, she decided to try and see if she could get her eyes open and at least take a look at the room she was in. Then maybe if they see I’m awake, they can bring a mirror and I can see my face.
Unfortunately, she encountered the same difficulty with getting her eyes open. Claire fought and struggled for what seemed like an eternity before the world abruptly shifted into focus. Except she had a 360-degree view of darkness. Well, that wasn’t completely true. A slight pinkish glow was radiating from her location, which provided just enough light to softly illuminate what seemed like a small cave. The 360-degree view of everything, in all directions (including above and below) felt quite natural. Plus, it was as easy to focus on individual features of the cave wall, as it was to pull back to the full view of everything.
Interestingly, even though there was nothing else tangible in the cave, she could make out something in the air. It was hard to spot when she focused on it directly, but it was definitely there. Almost like something you would see out of the corner of your eye. It appeared to be fine, dust-like particles, lit with a golden glow, which saturated the space in every direction she could see.
Mystified, Claire just stared at everything for a while. Even though it felt so natural, it didn’t make sense. From her encompassing point of view, it almost appeared like she was floating in mid air. I sure would be freaking out if I wasn’t so heavily sedated, she thought to herself.
She still had no control over her body, but after a while she found that if she really concentrated on moving, she was able to float, very slowly, in whatever direction she was focusing on. The golden dust didn’t seem to be a problem, she could just glide through the particles. Using this ability, she floated to a random wall and slowly came to a stop right beside it.
The wall consisted of some kind of dark, gray rock. Reflexively she tried to touch it. This time it worked, only instead of touching it with her fingers, it was almost like a part of her awareness reached out to it and glided over the surface.
Congratulations! You have found raw matter. When absorbed, raw matter will add to your raw material and biomass reserves. Do you wish to absorb it? Yes/No
Claire pulled back in surprise as the notification lit up in her field of vision and just alternated between staring at it and staring at the rock wall of the cave. After a while the notification slowly faded. Hesitantly, she reached out with her consciousness and touched the rock again.
Congratulations! You have found raw matter. When absorbed, raw matter will add to your raw material and biomass reserves. Do you wish to absorb it? Yes/No
Did she want to absorb the rock? Curious she chose yes, intending to absorb just a little. And then, strangely a little bit of the rock dissolved into particles, which floated in the air and then streamed into her.
You have absorbed two units of raw matter.
Okay, so now what? Claire pondered to herself. She tried focusing on perceiving herself with the added raw matter, but couldn’t detect any noticeable differences. Next she wondered if there was something she could do with the absorbed matter, which resulted in another prompt:
No current applications for the use of raw matter are available.
So, that was pointless. If Claire could’ve sighed, she would’ve.
Then something else caught her attention. Although she was currently focused on the rock in front of her, she was still peripherally completely aware of her surroundings. Something odd was happening behind her. Curious, Claire switched her attention to focus on that spot.
<>
The disturbance looked like some kind of distortion developing in the air, about a metre from the cavern floor. It started as the barest noticeable pulsing pinprick, growing in size with each pulse.
Worried, Claire backed away from it. She felt an instinctive fear of the disturbance getting too close to whatever she currently was. She had the feeling that the result of her touching it would be disastrous.
Finally, when the disturbance reached a pulsing diameter of about fifteen centimetres, an aperture tore open in the middle of it and a glowing orange form started squeezing out of it. There were also snippets of a conversation.
“Yes master, yes. I am sure I am ready. Thank you for blessing me with my first core, we’ll build a wonderful dungeon. Yes, I know master. Yes thank you. Till we meet again. Burn bright!” The portal snapped close with a tiny thunderclap and suddenly everything was back to normal in her cavern. Except the red glowing thing was still floating in the air, in front of where the portal used to be.
Shrinking back further against the wall, as much as she could, Claire observed the red form. It rotated twice and then focused on her position.
“Ah, there you are. Interesting. I’ve never seen a pink dungeon core before. Well, let’s get started.”
The red form quickly zipped all around the cavern, pausing in front of the bite she took out of the cavern wall.
“You absorbed some raw matter?” it puzzled. “Why in the name of the creator would you do that? Until you reach your functional capacity, it is useless to you.” In the blink of an eye it zipped right up to Claire and stared at her in a way that made her most uncomfortable. Since she was already backed up against the wall, Claire started a slow sideways drift trying to gain some personal space. The red creature, however, simply copied her movement and drifted along.
“Your life-force saturation also seems a little low,” the being continued. “How are you doing on absorption?”
Absorption? I wonder what it means by that?
“You don’t know what I mean by absorption?”
Wait, you can hear my thoughts?
“Well yes, of course I can, when you’re projecting it like that.”
Oh, I didn’t know. Sorry, I guess? My name is Claire, by the way, what’s yours?
A look of surprise flickered through the being. “You think you have a name?”
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Of course I have a name, don’t you?
But instead of answering, it just started nervously zipping from wall to wall in her cavern. It almost looked like the being was pacing.
“It thinks it has a name,” it muttered to itself. “It consumed raw matter, but didn’t absorb any life force… Could it be … anomalous? Oh no…”
Is something wrong? Clare thought at it. You look worried.
“Oh, no reason for concern, none at all!” the being said in an unconvincingly cheerful tone. “You just wait right here – I’ll be back shortly.” And with that it snapped open another portal and zipped right out of her cavern.
“What? Back already?” A surprised voice echoed through the connection.
As the portal popped shut with another small thunderclap, Claire focused down on the floor.
So, I guess I’ll just hang around then…
<>
Simply floating through her cavern did get boring after a while though. The frustrating part for Claire was that she had no idea what she was supposed to be doing in her new core-form. Thinking of which, she still felt astonishingly calm about this sudden change in her nature. Is it because I am a core now, instead of a human? I wish that being would come back…
Then, she recalled it’s remark about the life-force. From its statement, it sounded like she should have absorbed some life-force already. Ergo, it must (1) be something I presently have access to, and (2) I am able to absorb.
Puzzled Claire looked around her, but saw nothing but the rocky cavern walls (which by all accounts were useless to her at this stage). The tiny golden motes were still all over the place too. Is that it?
Focusing on the golden motes surrounding her, Claire mentally tried to repeat what she did with the raw matter.
Success! You have absorbed 2 units of life-force.
You are currently at 733 of a functional capacity of 1,000 units.
Reach your full functional capacity in order to activate continuous passive absorption.
Claire mentally blinked at the new notification. The life-force was also quite tasty. Almost like a glass of homemade lemonade on a hot summer day. Plus, she now had an achievable goal. She was just about to start absorbing more of the life-force when a small thunderclap alerted her to the dungeon elemental’s return.
<>
Before shifting her focus to the returning elemental, Claire quickly gobbled up another 5 units of life-force. It simply just tasted that good.
Success! You have absorbed 5 units of life-force.
You are currently at 738 of a functional capacity of 1,000 units.
Reach your full functional capacity in order to activate continuous passive absorption.
The being looked a little more … flickery … than she remembered. If it was a human, she would have described it as pale in comparison to when it left.
Are you okay? she mentally questioned.
“Oh, yes, of course I am. Now, as your dungeon elemental ...”
Oh, so that’s what you are! Claire interrupted, which earned her yet another strange look from the being. And caused it to flicker even more.
“You couldn’t tell what I was?”
It’s not like I’ve ever seen a dungeon elemental before. Is there something you want to tell me? She was getting worried about whatever had this elemental in such a state.
“Nothing!” it squeaked out. “I mean, nothing,” it corrected in a more normal tone. “Like I said, everything is perfect. Now, let’s get this started.”
Claire silently shrugged to herself, which manifested in her core making a slight twist from side to side. If it doesn’t want to talk about it, it doesn’t want to talk about it. That’s fine, maybe it’ll answer some of her other questions.
She took another quick munch of the surrounding life-force.
Success! You have absorbed 5 units of life-force.
You are currently at 743 of a functional capacity of 1,000 units.
Reach your functional capacity in order to activate continuous passive absorption.
“Oh, you’ve started absorbing life-force instead of raw material now. Good good, keep it up!”
Claire paused for a moment at that remark, as an idea formed inside her core. I don’t know, the raw matter just tastes so much better… It was the furthest thing from the truth – in her opinion life-force beat ice-cream, chocolate, pizza and sushi all hands down. But the being didn’t have to know it.
“What? No, no, no, no, no. Why don’t you rather have some more life-force? I promise you, it’s really good for you.”
Channelling her inner fifth-grader, Claire responded with an Are you sure? The raw matter really is good. Have you ever tried it?
The elemental just gave her a horrified look. “Why would I want raw matter? I’m an elemental, not a dungeon core like you are.”
That did it for Claire and she started giggling, which just seemed to confuse the dungeon elemental more.
“Wait, why are you laughing? Are you okay?”
It felt good to be laughing, so Claire just laughed more, but then stopped as she saw the look on the elemental’s face. In fact, it had started a rocking motion, moaning “oh no, no, no, no…”
Mollified Claire quickly responded, Oh no, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to upset you, I was just trying to be strange so you’ll maybe tell me what you’re worried about.
The elemental hesitantly stopped and looked at her.
“Wait, what do you mean?”
I was simply pretending to like raw matter because it seemed to get under your skin. Life-force is actually much more delicious. To prove her point, Claire took a big bite of life-force.
Success! You have absorbed 10 units of life-force.
You are currently at 753 of a functional capacity of 1,000 units.
Reach your full functional capacity in order to activate continuous passive absorption.
It really did taste amazingly good. Like a cherry slush puppy and fried mushroom on a stick, walking through a carnival. The elemental was still looking at her, only its gaze had become more accusing now.
“You mean you wanted to make me worry on purpose?” it questioned. “There really is something wrong with you.”
The question caused a stab of fear to Claire’s metaphorical heart and she performed a quick mental check of her core. The action popped up another notification.
All core processes are functioning optimally within normal parameters.
Level: 1
Integrity: 100%
Processing speed: 100%
Functional capacity: 75%
Type: Undecided
No, there is nothing wrong with me. My notification says so, she added as additional proof. If only it were this easy to check your mental and physical status back on Earth. Such a capability would surely have saved her many hours of distress and significantly reduced her time on Doctor Google.
You, on the other hand, are obviously worried about something, she continued. Why don’t you just tell me what it is?
It did seem like a reasonable request, as it was still her life after all. Why should she be shielded from any pertinent knowledge? She had never been a feeble person, even if she hadn’t previously experienced life in the fullest way she really wanted to. Yet, it still seemed like the dungeon elemental was struggling with the knowledge. And also, referring to it as ‘the dungeon elemental’ was becoming tedious.
What is your name? Claire changed direction. She fully intended to circle back to whatever the dungeon elemental wasn’t divulging to her.
“My name? Like I already said, dungeon elementals don’t have names.”
Actually, you never did. When I introduced myself as Claire, you mumbled nonsense and rushed away.
“Aargh!,” the elemental cried out, “dungeon cores also don’t have names!”
You’re wrong, she told the dungeon elemental. I do have a name – my name is Claire.
This information caused the dungeon elemental to droop in dismay before replying, “Yes, of course you have a name. I keep forgetting…”
I know there is something you’re not telling me, and it does seem to be something important. We’ll get back to that. For now I need a name to call you by.
Claire paused, a little surprised by herself. In her previous life she never took charge like this. Yes, there were many times where she imagined herself acting like this, but she never really did. The elemental seemed a little surprised too. From what she could tell, the situation was unexpected for it as well. Surprisingly, her little speech appeared to rouse the elemental. It looked slightly brighter, as if its emotional flame was burning just a little bit stronger.
“But I don’t have a name. None of the dungeon elementals do. For us names serve no purpose as we can easily distinguish one another by type and vibration. And when we speak to each other, we simply add the feeling of whoever we’re referring to.”
Okay then, but it really will be easier for me if I have something to call you by. Would you mind if we picked a name for you?
“I wouldn’t know where to start. If you must call me something, just go ahead and pick one.”
Claire thought about it a little bit. The elemental did remind her of someone back in her previous life. Actually, one of the teachers-in-training that once observed her class. They turn up every few years or so, and even though Claire hated being observed, she just didn’t have the heart to turn them down. This particular one had a very serious demeanour, while also being both eager to please and deathly afraid of making a mistake. Kind of like this elemental.
How do you feel about ‘Rick’? she proposed.
The elemental briefly considered it, “Yes, yes, Rick will do.”
Good! Claire mentally encouraged, before punching straight to the heart of the matter. So, Rick, I insist that you tell me right now what this problem is that’s got your knickers in such a twist.
“Ye, what now?!”
Ahhh, I mean “worried”.
<><><>
Character sheet summary at the end of Chapter 1
Claire
Type: Undecided
Level: 1
Integrity: 100%
Processing speed: 100%
Functional capacity: 75%