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The Dungeon, Medea Island, Kalenic Sea

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Soooo....

What the hell was that?!

Hell. All I did was shove some mana into the fruit. I'd noticed after these last few days that the general mana levels of my captives was much reduced. I think it's because I made the cells mana-repellent, leaving them no atmospheric mana to passively absorb.

In any case, to rectify their deficiency and as another test I supercharged a few mandarins with mana and fed them to my prisoners. They both reacted extremely... weirdly. At first I thought it was a bodily reaction to the influx of mana to their slightly mana-starved bodies, and that kinda makes sense, but the sheer... euphoria on their faces after eating the fruit was very, very disconcerting.

Both of them had spaced out for hours, only broken by the next meal arriving.

I wasn't dumb. I had no idea what was going on, so I drastically lowered the amount of mana in the fruit I was giving them.

Their reactions were telling.

Incredible disappointment, followed by desperation for more of the mana-charged fruit, then realization and fear.

I wont be giving them another fruit charged with that much mana, that's for sure. I'll start at half that amount and lower it slightly with every meal, hopefully that will wean them off this... addictiveness the fruit suddenly possesses.

The question is; why. Why did the fruit cause them to react this way?

Obviously I don't know what they feel or think directly, but I can judge well enough from their expressions. From that, I theorize it was the taste. They acted relatively normal up until that first bite.

When I filled the fruit with mana, did I do more than just put the mana in it? Mana is very sensitive to intent, and I must have had the intent to make the fruit better when I put the mana in it. So, the mana enhanced it's size, vibrancy, and everything else about it. Including the taste.

Hopefully I haven't ruined their tastebuds for any other food. You know what? I should diversify their diet a bit, add some meat. Maybe fish, that seems safest. Don't want them getting some other deficiency from eating only one kind of fruit.

I'm just gonna leave them alone for now. Yeah.

Back to mana-core experimentation!

I've messed with these cores before. Both types; those collected from my fallen monsters and from unlucky guilders. The number of monster cores vastly outnumbers the human cores, but that's beside the point. I've learnt quite a few things.

Mana cores are mostly inert without some animating force provided by a living organism. That animating force, I assume, is either the soul or consciousness of a being. The force is stronger the more intelligent the being. I'm still not sure what causes the difference between human cores and monster cores, but my theories mostly involve sapience and self-awareness.

My most recent attempts to mess with them focus on re-creating that animating force.

In one of my experimentation rooms I gathered three skeletons of silver guilders and three skeletons of fallen Kobold Hunters, as well as some 'golem' bodies I created of various materials. Those materials being clay, stone and iron, mithril, silver and moon silver.

Of the human skeletons, I would put all three kinds of cores I have inside the ribcage, where the heart would normally be. I will do similarly for the kobold skeletons.

I only have the two kobold cores, so the golems get a mixed selection of human and monster cores.

I began my first experiment; the human skeleton with a human core. The skeleton was placed on a raised stone table, with indentations in the stone keeping the tendon-less bones in placed.

To start I placed the core inside the ribcage and guided mana to flood the skeleton, then once I'd reached a saturation point I wrapped the core in strings of mana from the skeleton. I focused hard on my intent to provide life to this skeleton, to have the core animate the bones and for it to follow instructions.

For a few minutes, nothing happened. The pointed oval core sucked in mana, slowly gaining brightness. The whole skeleton was bright to my mana-sight, saturated as it was, and the core was more so. To an observing Kobold Shaman the skeleton held no light, even as the core grew brighter.

Nothing, even when the core stopped taking in mana.

I looked at the inanimate, mana-saturated skeleton and slowly my gaze shifted to the kobold poking the pile of cores. A thought had me glance at the humans in the cells, then back at the kobold and the skeleton.

Between the skeleton and living creatures, there were significant differences. Both my monsters and the humans had an entire vein-like series of ethereal channels that distributed the mana through the body.

Inspired, I started manipulating the mana pooled in the bones. Instead of merely filling the bones I created a flow, out from the core to the extremities and then back into the core. While doing that I remembered that these bones were ultimately unconnected, with no way to move them.

Even if I created a living skeleton it wouldn't be able to move. To fix that, I stuck strips of mana in a facsimile of tendons, connecting the bones so they hopefully move how they would naturally.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Now, there was a mana-vein system and a way for the bones to move.

Okay let's try... this.

I forced the core to 'beat' like a heart, the mana pushing through it's ethereal veins in time with the beat.

That seemed to be the trigger.

Soon it was beating without my input. It made no noise, but I could imagine a thumping sound. The mana within the core, with no input from me, stretched a tendril up into the skull. Once inside, the mana tendril split in two and each one reached through the orbital canal. Two points of blue fire blinked into existence at the tips of those tendrils.

Idly, I realized this core must have come from a mage. A fire mage.

The mana-veins formed small off-shoots everywhere, which then connected to the mana-tendons. The index finger twitched.

Mentally, I reached out to the skeleton.

Can you hear me? I began, gently. I didn't want to spook the guy.

Nothing.

Looking a little deeper, there wasn't much of a mind there. Which makes sense; while the core was formed inside a human all the mana that was 'theirs' was directly absorbed by both their killer and I. All of this mana was mine.

Actually...

I pushed a little harder, mentally forcing an infinitesimal piece of myself into the skeleton's core.

It was a disorienting, suddenly having two viewpoints. One was the "oversoul" view, a function of my nature as a dungeon. The second was the skeleton's. It's vision was also based completely on mana, which was disappointing but understandable. Movement was... jerky at first. Awkward. I willed the arm to move, but had to think about every tendon that needed moving. As I practiced, it became easier.

I sat up, looking up at the point where my dungeon vision was viewing my skeleton body from. The skeleton's vision couldn't see anything, which matches up with both Neo and Isid being unable to see it.

I swing the skeleton body's legs off the side of the stone slab and stand. My first steps are similarly awkward.

Unintentional avatar get? This wasn't the goal, though. The goal was golems, or skeleton monsters. I don't want mindless bodies.

I turn back to my experiments. I did something wrong, somewhere. The eyes of my skeletal body flare brighter in response to my drive.

Let's find out where.

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The Guild Hall, Medea Island, Kalenic Sea

The Next Day

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Layla sipped from her mug, the pleasantly hot liquid soothing as it ran down her throat. She sighed in satisfaction. It was so hard to find good coffee, especially out here. Some enterprising merchant had set up a stall selling the beans in the market and she couldn't be happier.

She had finished all her paperwork for the day. The tension between Phenoc and Bahrain Guilders had yet to boil over, despite clear distrust. The Gorge twins still refused to report on their last delve, and were barred entrance to the dungeon until they did.

She took another sip and closed her eyes behind her blindfold, luxuriating in the rich, smooth brew.

Not that closing her eyes had any effect whatsoever, but it made her feel better.

She watched as Felin ascended the stairs and began to stride down the hallway toward her office. She sighed, this time in disappointment. Looks like she won't be going to bed early today after all.

By the time he knocked on the door she had finished her cup and set it to the side. Her hands were clasped on the desk before her.

"Come in, Felin." She answered. He entered, closing the door behind him. He sat in the chair across from her and placed a sheet of paper on the table.

"Notice from your grandfather." He started, clearing his throat. "The bounty placed on the shattering of the Medea Island Dungeon has been increased to twenty thousand gold coins. This news has spread throughout the continent and will likely draw every gold and platinum guilder that find themselves without work. Do your best, Layla."

Layla felt the bottom of her stomach fall away into the abyss. Frustration welled up inside her, with tears building up at the corners of her eyes. She had tried so hard to keep this colony going. The only reason this colony existed was the dungeon. While Lord Medean the younger had declared the dungeon's core off limits, he did not have the clout to go against a grand duke.

Yes, this dungeon was proving remarkably resistant, but even it would fall before the combined might of most of the guilders in Theona. The majority of these guilders would likely be Gold, with a significant portion of Platinums.

"What do we do, Felin?" She despaired. "Medea island can barely support the current guilder population. Adding more... And when they do eventually shatter the dungeon, what then? What will become of this place? The river exists because of the dungeon! There isn't another source of fresh, drinkable water on the island!" She let her head fall on her arms.

Felin stood from his chair and walked around the desk. He knelt beside her and placed an arm over her shoulders.

"We do what we can." He rasped. "As we always have." The moment stretched on.

"Thank you, Felin." She said, pushing him off and sitting up. Looking back at the door she froze. Her aunt Isid and uncle Jerrad were standing in the doorway.

Shit. She was going to be teased about this for years.

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Port Medea, Medea Island, Kalenic Sea

At the same time.

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"HOW DARE HE!?" Matha screamed, her burning gaze focused on the letter he had handed her. Litan was furious too. This was their job. Their opportunity to pull their family out of debt. That Plaised would not just refuse to support them further, but to hire parties from the two families that had most opposed the ennoblement of their family was an insult.

"Peace, Sister." He started, not flinching as she turned her furious gaze on him. "We have the advantage."

"Advantage?! Oh, yes. Some small bit of knowledge on the third's floor guardian. Which is worthless if we can't act on it! Or must I remind you that the albino whore of a guildmistress has barred us from the dungeon!" Matha's shoulders heaved with every breath. "Never mind that we've lost the healer and dedicated ranged members of our parties!"

Litan raised a hand. "Peace. It shouldn't matter too much. While the loss of Kataren and Polit does impact our strategy, it isn't as bad as you seem to believe." He reached into a pouch and pulled out a bottle containing a glowing, red liquid. "We are still flush with potions, and other than those firebirds on the third there aren't any monsters that fight from an extreme range. And being barred from the dungeon isn't as absolute as they would like it to be." Litan leaned forwards.

"We move in the night, at the changing of the guard. The guilders that stand at the entrance are only Gold, they'll prove no trouble. If we time our entrance right, by the time we get to the third floor it will be day. We can rush through the combat trials and face the boss before anyone else makes it to the third." He stated confidently.

"And then what?" Matha challenged. "We've broken the guild's rules and when we teleport out we'll be arrested. That's what. We'll be stripped of our ranks and thrown in the deepest pit they can find!" All her anger seemed to drain out her feet. She sat down on the edge of the bed, bringing her right hand up to massage her temple.

"We need a different plan. Something that won't end in our imprisonment and/or deaths." She said.

When the sun dawned the next day, no miracle solution had presented itself.

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© Max Porteous, 2022