The Core found the [Druid] in the same spot he had been left, sleeping away on a small hill of pillows. The ground had apparently been too hard for the man after a few days of getting used to it, a very rudimentary form of a bed being made instead. Not the Entity had ever seen such a thing, the Queen never having the need for such a thing. It was just another perk of memories slowly rooting their way into its head.

The slowly rapturing mind aside, however, the man was still very much asleep, able to remain unconscious through the Queen’s antics without issue. Even when a few hundred kilos worth of exoskeletons came crashing down, the Druid’s body barely moved a muscle. Had the man grown so accustomed to the chaos that was the Dungeon or had the work of the previous day tired him out to the point of lacking instincts? The Core spent a good moment before deciding on the latter being true.

‘Are you having trouble with your new machinations?’ the Core asked the Queen as it overlooked the still-sleeping figure. What way would be best to wake somebody up? A rock on the legs? Pain was quite the motivator to move around, after all. Yet the surge of adrenaline could also leave him unreasonably hyper-active for the next few hours which was something the Core wanted to avoid. The man was just meant to answer a few questions, after all, and then he could go back to sleep.

Maybe some form of heat would do. Not enough to cause tissue damage but just enough that it would be noticed as diverging from the average. Then again, would any person really notice heat changes if they weren’t exposed to an open flame? An unconscious mind wasn’t too awake, after all. The rock idea was seeming better with every second,though the Core supposed it could restrict itself to a smaller one from a greater height.

‘I am not, little rock. Instead, I am merely taking the pieces apart so I can rebuild them better than ever,’ the Queen responded calmly, her Mana-Tendrils grasping various pieces around the floor without issue. Even with such blunt endings, there seemed to be no issue in picking objects up. The Core wondered just how such a feat was accomplished.

‘That statement implies you build an imperfect model to start with,’ the Core pointed out, not understanding the concept of skirting around facts. ‘Perhaps think about it more before you set things together, lest you waste resources.’

‘I think I have plenty of that to spare,’ the Queen said. Before the Entity had a moment to point out the errors of such an mindset, another message was sent out. ‘Now, I believe you are meant to not waste your own time either. What exactly did you want?’

‘I was hoping you could assist me in waking up the half-elf,’ the Core sent. There was no real temporal distance between the Entity finishing that sentence and the Queen sending over a Mana-Tendril to give the man a hearty slap on the cheek. It certainly awoke something within him, a groan coming out of his throat. ‘... Thanks.’

‘You’re welcome,’ the Queen answered with a forced sweetness. ‘I suppose you want me to translate for you as well? Or would you prefer to create more fractures in the stone keeping the ceiling from falling down on me?’

… The Core felt like the Queen was still slightly annoyed with its previous communication method. It turned out that even when the Entity repaired every piece of damage inside the Dungeon itself, micro-fractures were still being formed just outside. With how many had been made in the last couple of days, it had turned into quite a serious situation.

If not Mother Carapace had not noted the slight shaking each time somebody walked on top of the hill which the cave was within, the place would have likely shattered before the Core could have done anything to fix it. And that meant rebuilding the entire room and all the Mana-Walls so it could extend its reach more than ten meters to each direction. It would have been a terrible position to be in when it was meant to be a so-called fully-fledged dungeon already. Honestly, how did other [Dungeon-Cores] do it? The Queen had told tales of kilometer wide Dungeons yet they were likewise meant to be without a single clear thought. How could such an stupid entity grow so big? The Core had trouble maintaining a few thousand cubic meters. How could something without a mind at all do a few million?

Like always, power was the answer. The [Dungeon-Cores] would normally spend years or even decades slowly killing the creatures around it and taking all their energy. If done for enough time, it would randomly learn something that could widen its reach. It could be a mindless dedication to keep Mana within a certain area or it could be pure luck that some skill was granted by the [System]. That is… if the blue screens were even included for the cores without minds. There was no chance they could complete the [Tutorial] after all.

There was little chance any of the current beasts the Core had met could accomplish such a feat, actually. Yet they all had access. Had the Entity been the odd one out in being granted such a thing or had the other creatures been given a simplified version? There was no way to truly know, other than asking the Queen And with the matter at hand, the Entity felt it a better idea to accept the current proposal.

‘That would be very nice of you,’ the Core answered, doing its best to appear polite. While brutishness was the most efficient way without other factors in play, those other factors were very much there. They even had a name.

‘Then I shall do it with my utmost precision,’ the Queen accepted. Looking over at the man, he looked to have stopped his groaning, blearily looking around the room. The liquid in front of his eyes seemed to be making it hard to see distances further away than a few meters. It was yet another evolution-trait that the Core wanted to fix if it could find out the reasoning behind it. ‘What is it we need to question the man about this time around?’

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

‘The intruders have finished their first round of mining ore inside here,’ the Core began, the Queen sending a small ‘of course’ back within the instant. She had been following along with the situation after all. ‘However, they explicitly forbid anybody from the group from trying to attack you or get anywhere near the boss-room, stating it was too dangerous for them.’

‘Makes sense for now. Only that Warden of theirs could kill me alone for now. Perhaps somebody higher-ranking in the prison could have a chance but I am not too sure yet,’ the Queen responded. There was some new tone in that voice of hers but the Core had a hard time placing it. Ignoring the new development for now, it chose to continue.

‘However, the so-called adventures who will be here within a few more days are not of this variety. Since the best ore-veins are located inside here, they will likely attempt to kill you daily.’

‘That doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue,’ the Queen stated. ‘I severely doubt anybody close would have a legitimate chance. It would take a good fifty guards to take me down.’

‘You being able to take them or not is not the issue here,’ the Core said, rejecting the ant’s self-focused thoughts.

‘Yeah, I know. With them coming closer, I suppose we need a new place to keep him away from their sights,’ the Queen admitted, her tone finally going back to its normal, serious level. ‘Has there been any obvious signs about their building outside?’

‘Nothing has been confirmed since they’re too far away to check,’ the Core answered, not happy about the results. Too much energy had been wasted for that. ‘They have built a rudimentary bridge upstream, though it will not be able to hold more than a few hundreds kilos at a time. That level of workmanship implies they haven’t found any good builders yet.’

‘Or they haven’t acquired worthy materials yet,’ the Queen retorted. ‘Though, either answer means they haven’t set up a proper camp yet. There’s no real chance for him to blend in with the newcomers just yet.’

‘You would trust leaving him outside so soon?’ the Core asked, more than a little suprised at her words. ‘I thought you wanted to keep him here until the bond was fully formed.’

‘That was the plan, yes, but it’s taking more time than I anticipated. The double connection with me as an assistant anchor is making it slow down in development too long. It will be more than a year until we can trust it to never break,’ the Queen answered, clearly annoyed with the way things were ending up. ‘But, it should have already been developed enough to make him fulfill orders without question. We can just set up the basic commands to not leave the forest without explicit order to do so and there shouldn’t be anything short of an [Arch-Priest] that can ruin the bond.’

‘I see,’ the Core stated, not knowing what such a class actually meant. It must have been important if it was mentioned by name, at the very least. ‘But, since there’s no chance at putting him outside, could you start questioning him about how he would like his room to be accommodated? I would make it myself but it would perhaps be best if the man didn’t go crazy inside a small dark room before we needed him.’

‘You realize you could have just asked me, right?’ the Queen questioned.

‘... Ah,’ was the only thing the Core could respond in a shorter time frame. It had earnestly forgotten the ant knew more than just staking bones on top of eachother. ‘I apologize. Would you like to help with that instead?’

‘No, there’s no reason to now. We already ruined the little one’s beauty sleep,’ the Queen pointed out, sending a mental signal towards the slowly rising man whose back popped in the wrong ways. It sounded slightly painful. ‘Let me see what information I can get out of him.’

‘I appreciate it,’ the Core said to the dismissive ant. Watching her walk over, the Entity couldn’t help but wonder if it could perhaps stop the moments of the Druid being weakened mentall while not awake.

Sleep was a weakness in creatures. It was not required, the Core being a perfect example of such. While it had perhaps been without access to the outside, it had certainly never lost consciousness in the full sense of the word. It had almost always been able to think, even if the thoughts included at those times hadn't been entirely logical.

Removing the need to lie down in a single position for many hours of the day would prove quite bountiful in the long run. So much more time could be spent making the Druid practice. Any damage in the body could be repaired by the Core instead of making the body slowly regenerate. And perhaps the new amount of time available could make that bond grow more quickly. There were no real negatives.

“Did you sleep well? the Queen asked, Mana being spent to vocalize the question into the air. The sudden question certainly seemed to awaken the Druid more than he already was.

“I can’t remember lying down to do it so I assume so,” the half-elf called Buck answered. He rubbed his eyes, blinking a few times intermittently in an apparent effort to see better. “Did you need my help with something? Or are we training again?”

“I believe the first would fit well enough,” the Queen mumbled, though that action had to have been forced. There were no lips to make that sound, after all. She was ant. “Since we’re expecting company here within the next few days, I don’t suppose you have any desire to sit down in the darkroom as a constant?”

“I would rather hide in the corner and pretend to be a plant,” Buck answered, sarcasm detected. “I suppose you have something that can stop either from happening?”

“Indeed. Since we have enough space to expand, it would be a good idea for you to have a room where you can hide in. Perhaps even one that gets fresh air every now and then,” the Queen jokes, throwing the memory about the man nearly dying from having stone-dust in his lungs into the air. That had not been a fun time for the Core, repairing that damage requiring a lot of technique not known during that time. Learning as it went on had not been fun.

Actually… The idea of learning did make the Entity have one idea above anything else. Scrounging up a few mental details, it used [Physical Arcane] for the first time in a long while, creating what it thought looked rather dandy.

‘Little rock,’ the Queen began. ‘Should I ask why you just made a floating cube in front of my face?’