[Z]

A powerful bond forms between me and the flame nymph. Her essence shoots into me, not her red one for that is not my affinity. I am given the ambient essence that has no affinity, which is still way to much.

I’m filled to the brim and more with essence with much more coming in. I need a somewhere to put this or I’ll shatter.

I begin to drain the essence into the ground around me expanding my territory. It cost twenty five percent for each grain, but its still not enough.

“Stop sending me essence!” I scream at the nymph.

“Heal me.” She orders.

“I can’t heal anything in this state slow down your essence or I’ll die.”

Seconds tick by as the essence continues to pour into me, subjugating has double in value to forty percent essence for one grain and I’m still getting way to much.

Finally the essence is dimmed.

A wave of relief washes over. I’m now receiving approximately one percent essence every ten seconds. Who is this nymph she must be a very powerful being in order for her to have this much essence. She may even be a match for the goddess.

“Now heal me dungeon core Z. We have a deal.”

I look up at the mountain of essence above me thinking of a way to respond. I go with the truth.

“What is healing and how am I supposed to do it?” I have a very broad vocabulary but I don’t know all words.

“You liar! You said you would heal me! I’ll die if you don’t.”

Dying. Oh no is she dies the amount of essence she would give me would shatter my core in milliseconds. I need to find a way to postpone her death.

Uh. DUNGIAN PLEASE COME HERE! I mentally shout outward hoping for her to answer.

“The gods won’t save you now liar you shall pay for deceiving me.”

I see her essence begin to move.

Oh sh-

“I am here Z. My I never thought you would be so forceful,” I hear her malevolent voice echo through my mind,” what's the problem. Oh a dying flame nymph. Z I didn’t know you had such taste and at a young age no doubt. You turning into me.”

I can’t listen to her perverted fantasies at a time like this.

“How can I make her not die?” I ask simply, getting to the point.

“Well,” she says. I hear vibrations from above,”you can’t heal her with your current power, but you could put her in your storage or dimensional room if we are getting specific. Though you won’t be able to store anything else in there. For your size you can only store her body.”

Again something I don’t know about. I will talk to her later about this.

“How do I store her?” I ask quickly.

“Well you connect to her essence and say ‘Store Object.’ And it will store her.”

I reach out through are recently made bond yelling.

“Store Object!”

A vacuum like force attaches to the red essence and pulls it into my core. Like fitting a watermelon through a pin sized hole.

I can feel the warmth of the essence inside me.

It’s fire essence, probably why she is called a flame nymph.

“Thank you goddess I would have died if you hadn’t come here.”

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“Don’t think me yet you have to deal with a scorned woman,” I hear her giggle.”And nymphs in particular have a temper good luck Z.”

I feel her leaving my mind.

“Wait I want you to tell me more about dungeons! I keep on finding things out on the fly and barely getting by.”

She is silent for a few moments.”Z I’m glad you are taking objective into learning about yourself, but I don’t think I can tell right now. Forces like Magian are keeping a close eye on you and will not hesitate to erase you from existent if they think you are acting to much like your predecessors.”

“But who are my predecessors!?” I scream.”I was just told by a flame nymph that I am the only dungeon and all the others were killed five years ago.”

“Z, I promise you that I will give you a full explanation on dungeons,” Dungian says invoking her godly voice,”but right now is not the right. You must prove to the gods that you are trustworthy.”

“But!”

“This is the end of this discussion,” she says her godly powers blasting me with her voice.

I want to press the argument more. I want to find out more of who I am.

But I stay quiet. Her voice gives away no weakness so I will wait and hold her to her promise.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good.”

Awkward silence fills the tunnel. Like what happens after a mother scolds her child which I guess is what just happened.

“Well I am leaving. I must report to Scribios about this new development and Z, talk with the flame nymph she will be able to tell you more things than I am aloud.”

She leaves. The place her presence took up in my mind goes still like being in a whirlpool and now in stagnant water.

I make a mental note to myself so that I will remember. Then I go to look at the flame nymph now resting in my storage I just learned about.

She is a very complicated organism. She has a basic humanoid shape with hard skin surrounding her body, she is very skinny with a tiny waist with natural armor coating her muscles that protrude out of her skin on her shoulders, arms and back.

I pretty interesting specimen. I wonder if I …. no can’t make more of her. I think something has to die in my subjugated area in order for me to make more of it.

“Is she gone?”

A voice ask me quietly. The voice is the flame nymph. She is now in my core talking directly to my mind.

I don’t know how I feel about this. I wanted a friend yes, but not one this …. Close.

“I can feel you thinking.” She says whispering into my mental ear.

I gulp. I can already tell this is going to be a fun relationship.

“How are you doing?” I ask genuinely concerned.

I’m not receiving anymore essence from her so that leads me to believe that anything in storage can’t interact with the outside world not even me. I’m just the gatekeeper.

“Great.”

“That’s good I thought you would be uncomfortable being-”

“Other than the fact MY BODY IS IN A FUCKING ROCK AND I’M STUCK WITH A FUCKING TODDLER!”

The whole core vibrates from her sudden shouting.

“You said heal you-.”

“THIS IS NOT HEALING YOU IGNORAMUS.”

“It was the only thing I could think of doing. I’m sorry.” Even though I was basically forced into the agreement.

“First of all,” she says the sound of a gun cocking goes off in the background,”you didn’t think of anything your goddess had to come and save your ass, and yes you are sorry for putting me in this…. Where even are we?”

I sit there taking the verbal abuse thinking of a way to get rid of her.

“We are in a ant colony cavern.” I say nicely”In a hallway to be more specific.”

She is silent for a few moments as she looks around my place.

"Ants make their walls square?" She ask looking around. Note that I can't physically see her move around, but that is what I picture her doing.

"No this was me," sense the chaos I haven't gotten a moment to look at my expansion. I expanded further along the hallway basically getting more space to look at ant eggs. Speaking of ant eggs. I focus on mine I was sending it essence as I was getting flooded.

My jaw drops. It has over two hundred percent essence concentrating on it.

I can see a few new ants wandering into my vision to check out the essence concentration.

“Hay idiot quit spacing out!” The flame nymph tells startling me slightly.

“Yes what?” I ask. I take back what I said earlier being alone is just fine.

“I have more questions.” She says.”First of all what is your essence storage and essence regeneration rate? Second how big are the ants you have at your disposal?”

I stay quiet for a few seconds thinking of a way to respond. Last time I told her the truth she got really mad and threatened to kill me. But, I look around my hallway, I don’t really think that I can lie my way out of this one.

And isn’t the truth always the best way.

“What is essence storage, and essence regeneration rate?”

“Oh you have got to be kidding me.” She moans.”Please tell me you know what cultivating means.”

“Yes actually I do.” Hah see I’m not an idiot.

“Then how big is your dungeon one floor or two? I figure that the ants that you grow here are about the size of of dogs or have you just started growing them?”

Oh lord she is really not going to like this answer.