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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea
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Understandably, the Isid-Haythem-Cliche raid group didn't spend too long on the Eighth. It was entirely unknown territory, and they'd been expecting to fight a boss on the Seventh. They were unprepared for the new climate, and after a short time exploring the first Peak, they all decided to activate their teleport crystals and leave. I spent the next few days focusing on the Eleventh.
First things first: Though I wanted to continue working on the Islands, their stories, and quests, there was an important thing to deal with first. As a consequence of changing the 'difficulty' of my dungeon from 'Extreme' to 'Hard,' It was far more likely that the guilders would reach my core.
As much as I planned on making it possible for them to reach the Eleventh, I was still resolute on one thing; the guilders would never get to my core. To ensure this, I couldn't take the chance they'd manage to push past the accretion disk and touch me. I still didn't know what would actually happen if a human touched me, but given it was seemingly a requirement to claim a dungeon and become its master? It's not something I want even the possibility of happening.
I could have started a Twelfth floor, but there was still so much unused space on the Eleventh, and I only had vague ideas about the boss battle for the floor.
Thus, I wanted to stay on the Eleventh but make my Island inaccessible.
On a related note, thanks to Kata's explanation of what mana types existed, my scientists had managed to isolate two new types; the two second-tier mana types I was missing: Sound and Gravity.
According to the wheel of mana that I'd made using as a reference, Sound was the 'purer' form of Air. It made sense to me, as it was the vibration of particles through a medium. It may be closer to Vibration in concept, but wouldn't that be under fire and heat? Eh, these concepts give me headaches sometimes. Gravity was the 'purer' form of Earth. Again, something that made sense. Gravity is an emergent concept linked to a mass of sufficient, aka Earth.
We found Sound because the Hellbats of the Sixth were using it unconsciously. I'd noticed something going on with their sonic attacks ages ago, and now I could actually give them the affinity for Sound Mana. It made them much more dangerous; they could manipulate their screams to do more than hurt their enemies' ears.
We only found gravity because one of the drake-kin happened to look at the village's manastar. And duh, of course, something like that uses Gravity Mana of some kind! I felt stupid for not realizing it sooner.
But, with the discovery of Gravity Mana, I could do something I'd only ever thought about. I could utilize the skies of the Eleventh and the airless space near the roof of the enormously expanded cavern.
Of course, I didn't use my core island as the first test of this concept—that would be idiotic. I gathered a suitably large boulder of rock, one only a dozen yards wide. On its own, having gravity mana infused into the rock didn't do much. The mana didn't bind to the rock in the way I wanted. When introduced to a manacore, however, things got good.
First, I had an array of manacores tested. A substantial oval core was suffused with Gravity Mana, with an enchantment carved upon its smooth surface. The blue core gained a purple inner light. While It was able to levitate itself, even when embedded in the core of the boulder, it wasn't strong enough to actually lift it. The second was a smaller spherical core, which I grew solely with gravity mana. This crystal was entirely purple, a deep royal color.
Once it was a sufficient size, a yard or so in diameter, I embedded it in the core of the boulder and tested it. The Enchantment was relatively simple: It would seek to lift the rock to a certain height and then maintain that level. In this case, the height was one mile from the surface—nothing too outrageous.
It performed excellently.
Upon further tests, the efficiency of using gravity cores to power gravity-based effects was orders of magnitude greater. More enchantments added to a linked control stone would allow someone to raise and lower the Island around by changing the height requirement, and four smaller wind cores enchanted to provide thrust toward each cardinal direction gave the island mobility.
Why hadn't I made mana-specific manacores before!? They were incredibly useful and much more powerful than the general mix of mana, an ordinary one.
I worried about a manastar made of only gravity mana. It seemed too risky to me.
I triggered the enchantments after having five gravity cores and four wind cores embedded in the Core island.
My Island ripped itself from its base, leaving behind a crater that promptly flooded. It would end up as a lagoon later, no doubt. As my core rose into the air, my accretion disk did likewise. I quickly moved my Island above the perpetual storm above half the Elemental Isles. There, I would remain out of sight.
While the lowest portion of the storm clouds were black and cast a perpetual night upon the islands in their center, the clouds were white and puffy near the top.
I named my new location Olympus. It was only fitting for a future network of islands sitting atop clouds.
With my safety assured, I could move on to my next task. I'd promised Instincts a body.
I intended to deliver.
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The Guildmistress's Office, The Guild, Atlantis
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Layla Losat let herself sink into her chair as her aunt and uncle left the room, the door closing behind them. She pressed a glowing symbol on what seemed like a paperweight, and the thick mana barrier around the room was absorbed into it. Once again able to see through the room's walls, Layla looked out her window at the dungeon's entrance.
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Felin began massaging her shoulders, and Layla groaned, leaning into the touch. "If I ever see Grandfather again, I'm going to punch him in the face. I sometimes wish I was a normal guilder, delving into the dungeon and climbing the ranks. He denied me that," Layla complained. Felin chuckled, and Layla leaned her head back to glare at him. The contours of his face glowed as mana flowed through and across his skin.
"Someone had to do it," her frustratingly correct boyfriend reasoned. "Might as well be someone your grandfather could trust. And... I can't say I'm not thankful. We would have died in that dungeon, Layla. Herna did, and Teak swore he'd never step foot on this Island again. Just the two of us..." Felin trailed off leadingly.
She sighed.
"I know. I'm just complaining for the sake of it," Layla admitted. She turned to look at the mouse in the roof. It twitched in her direction, then scampered off down the inside of a wall. "It wouldn't be so bad if this were a normal dungeon."
"So! What do we know," Layla said, sitting up suddenly and pulling together the notes she'd written and the descriptions provided by Isid's group.
"The dungeon has changed physically across multiple floors and lowered the number of monsters across its entirety," Felin answered, pulling up his notes. "A couple of Golds who recently made it into the Fifth are reporting much lower numbers of the rats than we have on record."
"The main question is why, but I think I know the answer," Layla reasoned. "He wants our guilders to make it further in the dungeon. The previous changes made previously underutilized areas practically required to pass. I feel the Seventh will be like the Second; ever-changing labyrinths must be explored anew each time. The other floors are expansive and straightforward or require an item or key to pass through to the next area or floor. The Third and Fifth require trials and smaller bosses to be defeated to continue. The First, Fourth and the Sixth are more straight forward; reach the exit while fighting enemies. I'm sure a key or requirement will be added to the Sixth soon," Layla theorized. "As it is, guilders can walk right to the exit, even with the lava tide acting to slow their passage."
"... He's acted to make the dungeon more difficult and time-consuming to traverse at every opportunity," Felin summarized, rubbing his chin. "But lowering the number of enemies is the first time we've seen it become easier."
"Thus, encouraging and allowing Golds to make it deeper," Layla finished. "If we didn't know the dungeon as well as we do, I would assume it a trap. I don't think that's something the dungeon would do, though. He wants the guilders to go deeper." Layla repeated, tone wondering.
"What kind of dungeon doesn't do its utmost to keep guilders away from its core?" Felin asked, continuing before Layla could answer. "We already knew this dungeon was different. We've known that since we first discovered it. Everything it's done has shown how different it is. It claimed the surface and then let us stay, for the god's sake. Despite being able to kick us out and ban delves, it lets our guilders do so, even selling its own Teleport Crystals! We can't assume anything. It wants Guilders to reach deeper, and I feel like The Voice would answer us if we asked."
Layla sighed again. "She probably would. The dungeon has been forthcoming about his intentions. He's invested in expanding the ports, the quarry, the farmsteads, and every crafter on the Island. His ships patrol our waters, and His Children have lived amongst us for weeks."
"I've heard some rumors of how the Children in Blackwater are doing," Felin revealed. "It seems they've been allowed to establish a temple in the city. Many humans call it heresy and decry them as mere monsters. Still, the more days that go by without any hostile movements, the more those shouts turn to whispers. They're not out of the woods yet, but they're making progress."
"I'm still unsure about what He expects from that, but maybe that's another thing we can ask the Voice," Layla pursed her lips. "Set up a meeting, Felin, ASAP. Huh, that's kind of fun to say."
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The Heroes' Quarters, The High Temple, The Holy City
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Tamesou Akio sat with his legs crossed, his new shield on his lap with its inside facing upwards. The dungeon core was on the side closest to him, and he had his hands resting on the core itself. He'd had a few pointers and lessons on dungeon-core equipment from Guard-Captain Heliat and felt now was an excellent time to commune with the core's spirit.
"Hi there, Um, Dungeon Core," Akio thought, trying his best to 'send' the thoughts at the core.
He received a feeling of curiosity and a greeting back.
"I wanted to talk, I guess. You're in my shield now, and I thought we should get to know each other a bit."
The feeling of acceptance, then prompting.
"You want to know about me? Alright. My name is Tamesou Akio. I was born in a land known as Japan in 2008. Japan is very different from this place; an entirely different world. We don't have magic, or dungeons, or gods or anything. Well, we might have gods, but there isn't any proof. I'm an only child, and I was often alone because my parents are very busy. They work most of the day, and when they get home, they are too busy to spend time with me.
"Or they were, I guess," Akio said, pausing. "It's been hard adjusting to this world, but not as hard as I expected. I have skilled trainers, and the Temples are pouring many resources into me and my friends. Our armor, weapons... Even our trainers. They're very powerful, and I'm sure if they weren't training us, they'd have a dozen other things to do that would be far more worth their time."
He got the sense the dungeon core didn't really understand his problems. It was too different from the dungeon's own experience. "What about you? What was being a dungeon like before I turned up?"
Curiosity and the mental image of the gem, smaller than it was now, digging down into the earth. Excitement and the image of a fox. Contentment, two more foxes. Worry, as a bear entered the cave. The feeling of strength. The dungeon was unassailable, and the Bear's strength was added to its own. Fear, as the humans entered the dungeon. Mourning as they killed its foxes. Fear again, as they fought its Bear. A brief feeling of existential Terror as Akio's hand reached for the core.
Akio opened his eyes, blinking rapidly. He was breathing heavily, his clothes drenched in sweat.
"That was... Intense," he thought at the gemstone. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. Are all dungeons like you?"
He got... the impression of himself shrugging. It didn't know.
"If you can think and reason like this, experience emotions like anyone else, aren't you a living being, too?"
The impression of a tilted head. It didn't understand the question. It was what it was.
"I suppose it doesn't matter. You need a name, though. If you're a person, I won't just call you 'dungeon core.'"
Akio sunk into a thoughtful mood, occasionally sending names to the core. He was interrupted when Sophie entered their quarters. She'd had training with her mentor, Jinasa, today. She didn't even look sweaty. Akio waved, and Sophie began to wave back but stopped halfway through, turned away from him, and entered her room.
Akio could only look at her door, bewildered. He shook his head. He would never understand girls. He hadn't back in Japan, and it seemed American girls weren't any different.
"How about Amaterasu? Ama, for short. It's the name of an old Sun Goddess from my people's history. She was very important to us, so much so that we named our land after her, 'The Land of the Rising Sun.'"
Akio felt interest and acceptance. It made sense; that glowing fox had used beams of light to attack, and the shield the core was in was enchanted with the same light-based spell as his previous one.
"I name you Amaterasu, the Rising Sun," Akio declared, holding his shield in both hands.
"Cool, man," Bruce interrupted! Akio fell over from surprise. "You done being in your own little world there? It's time for dinner."
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