"I am so fucked! So completely and utterly fucked!"

I was in a bit of a meltdown combined with an anxiety attack. My Core had been found! The thing I had spent these last few years avoiding had happened.

"What the hell am I going to do now?"

The man Doltum had said they would not tell anyone of his location, but by his reaction and the others, they were not expecting me!

They had all viewed my Core and then departed the Dungeon in utter silence. That was a far cry from the bickering on the way down. My Dungeon was resetting and that gave me no comfort. Doltum had walked right through each floor with a casual attitude that was almost insulting if he could not back it up.

Hell, he could and that scared me even more!

"He destroyed everything I could throw against him."

I needed… Everything! Better minions, traps and a fortified Core room!

"I am so, Fucked!"

## ## ## ## ##

Elian had returned to her Guild and was sitting in her office.

People had tried to speak to her, but she had ignored them all. Walking like she was under a mind hex, she went to her office. She had not even bothered changing from her Dungeon gear.

The Adventurer Guild message scroll was on her desk before her. She used it to communicate with her superior, Albrot and the rest of the Guild leadership.

It was open and she knew that the magic crystal was lit, linking to the one Albrot had would tell him she wanted to talk. He was expecting a report. There was a great deal of interest in the Core of This Dungeon. He had told her to agree to what even Doltum's terms were to get a look at the Core.

Well, she had.

By all the Gods and Goddesses, she wished she had not!

She had no idea what would happen when she made her report.

You're sooner than I expected.

The words formed on the magically infused vellum. She picked up her quill and began to write.

Doltum faced no significant opposition in the Dungeon. He is as impressive as you said.

As expected. Is there nothing to report on the Dungeon's layout, then?

It has added Blue Moss to all of its floors, giving some lightning.

That is good news. Anything else?

Several bodies now decorate the fourth-floor boss's room in cocoons.

I am not sure what to make of that. But then again, it is a giant spider, after all. Have you seen the Core?

Yes.

….

….

Well, then, speak.

Elian was unsure of what to say. She was suddenly very paranoid. It was believed that the Guild message scrolls were safe from everything outside of divine intervention, but she was now not sure. There were rumours that the Elders spied on each other as well as monitored conversations of lesser members. What she could write here could destroy the Dungeon and town. Not a single soul she knew of could explain that Core. That would make it valuable beyond its Dungeon and could trigger another Folly if she was not careful.

She could not leave Albrot without an answer.

I believe it would be a good idea for you to visit the town and see what we have accomplished here in a short time. Then, we can speak of the Core.

….

If you think that is a good idea.

Yes, maybe a visit is in order. It's been a few years since I've been to that part of Kyber.

I will be there soon.

Then we will talk.

The connection crystal embedded within the scroll went dark.

She was committed.

## ## ## ## ##

Doltum and Seela sat in a room he rented in the tavern Shadows Rest. Seela used her pack as a chair/bed and he sat on the bed. The bed dominated the room by its sheer size in such a small space. Her hood was down and her long white hair was upbraided.

"Ya been quiet."

Doltum had been thinking about the Core and had not risen to her barbs as he would normally. What he had seen had not shaken him but caused him to think of the implications.

"We will not speak of it. The Core will cause many issues if it becomes public knowledge. It is unique and that will attract the power-hungry here. They are stupid and will cause no end of problems. To think I thought it was hiding due to some form of shyness not required paranoia."

"Ya fearing another Folly."

"Don't you. We were both there. We survived when so many did not. I have errored here with revealing the Core."

It was centuries ago when they were both younger and had just started to become established. The memories of that time never faded for either of them: the desperate fighting, the tragic losses, the heroic stands and the desperate race to stop Adrills before he destroyed more dungeons. Three hundred years later, they had not dulled the memories one bit.

"Bad days, worse nights. We lost so many."

"It gutted the upper leadership of the Guilds and Empire here on Kyber. The human race may never recover its former power. It has left them open to abuse by some of the other races."

The snort from Seela was loud.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Abuse! Mistreatment at best, then slavery, then even worse." Seela was bitter.

Doltum looked at his old friend and knew why she was like this. She was from the lands of the Skaald people and they had suffered worse than most. They had, on occasion, taken action against both men and others who had preyed on the weak and innocent.

But it was not enough. It was never enough.

"What ya thinking."

"It has to be protected."

"We can't hang around, too much to do."

"We need to strengthen this Core. It's smart, that's clear. But it's young and lacking knowledge and resources. We can remedy this."

"With what?"

"Look in the pack. If my memory is correct, you should have…."

## ## ## ## ##

I had calmed down.

It had taken two days, but I had until Doltum came into my Dungeon again a few hours past dark.

Now I was back to freaking out as he stood in front of my Cores hiding place.

"Dungeon, hear me. I have not spoken to any of your form or location. I suspect you are not happy with my actions and now I understand why you are hiding yourself away. I seek to make amends."

He reached into a satchel at his side. He began pulling things from it and placing them on the ground.

All right, I am interested! Still freaking out but not as much.

He placed several books, bottles and other items on the floor. What is he up to?

"These offerings will hopefully address the wrong I have done. They are a small thing but should aid you well into the future. For now, I bid you farewell."

With that, he turned and went back up the stairs. I watched him until he left, closing the door behind him.

"Well, that was not what I expected."

I focused on what he left behind.

"Right books first and I will need to take this slowly."

Each item was absorbed and with each book, I received an information dump and a mental kick in the head. Pushing it all aside, I waited until everything was gone before opening the insistence alert in the corner of my vision.

Alert!

The following items have been gained.

A basic guide to Spell Craft.

A basic guide to Alchemy.

A basic guide to Enchanting.

A basic guide to the Paths of Ascension.

Basic Health tonic.

Basic Stamina tonic.

Basic Mana tonic.

Cythian Empire platinum coin.

Alchemy bonding gel.

Skills gained!

Spell Casting (++ ERROR! ++)

"Right, that is a lot to take in with another bloody error! Open status screen. Bhaldor."

Name

Bhaldor

Essence

93%

Race

Dungeon Core

CP

62(450) 4.5 phr

Level

4

Corruption

0%

Floors

4

Health

100%

Skills:

Mana Manipulation: 2 - 70%

Core Refining – 5%

Mana Sight: 7 – 91%

Aura Manipulation: 8 - 5%

Herb Lore: 1 – 0%

Spell Casting: 1 – 0%

Alchemy: 1 – 0%

Enchanting:1 – 0%

Perks/Restrictions:

Godless

Affintyless (++ ERROR! ++)

Companionless

Limitless Monsters/Traps

Core Refinement max – 95%

Spell Casting (++ ERROR! ++)

Mana Stored

Illusion – 80(80) / 0.01 phr.

Shadow – 80(80) / 1.1 phr.

Light – 80(80)/ 0.1 phr.

Earth – 80(80)/ 0.5 phr.

"Whoa! That's some big changes! Let's start at the top."

The book on Spell Casting was informative. It broke down the basic requirements to cast one of four spells. They are firebolt, light, earth shield and sense water. They are not incredible spells, but they are good to have. For beginners, the way to cast a spell was to focus their mana on the image of it in their mind. Then, transfer the mana to a wand or other magical sensitive item or body part, such as a hand, that can be used to release the energy. Speaking the name of the spell helps with this. More experienced casters can do away with that. Absorbing the book gave me all the knowledge I needed to do it. But that is where the error came in.

The error was caused by the fact I had no hands to cast the spell through!

"Damn it! I will need to find a workaround if I can!"

Oh, and you can use non-aligned mana to cast spells, but it is far less efficient. The things you learn. I was going to have to experiment with creating this non-aligned mana as soon as I could.

On to alchemy. This infused me with the knowledge of how to make several alchemical tonics. Tonics are basic versions, moving on to potions and elixirs. There were additional grades within these, but that was the general rating for them. I had some ingredients and needed to check my plant list to see if I had any others. The bonding gel was the stuff that brought it all together. The stuff was developed by a Gnome alchemist around seven hundred years ago, and this led to the "modern" age of alchemy.

Well, I now know that Gnomes are a thing in this world. The second was that I had no way to create new potions; again, I had no hands! I would have to figure out a way to grind and mix the compounds.

"Body hands! At least I can start working on this. I can create tonics without experimentation if I have the ingredients."

Looking through my plant list, I found that Herb Lore had given me information on the fundamental properties of my common plants. I only had more because the first herb book I absorbed was more detailed.

Enchanting was actually the easiest of them all. You weave a spell into an object you are enchanting. As I reviewed this procedure, it dawned on me that it was similar to how I enhanced a minion through my creation screen.

"Theoretically, it should be easy as long as I know the spell."

As I explored all the new things I had learned, new menu options opened. I opened and reviewed each one as I went through everything.

The last book was not as important, but it covered many things about adventurers and levelling in this world. I knew most of it already from the first book I acquired, but this one added a few small facts that I did not know.

The biggest takeaway was that Adventurers had ten tiers: tin, iron, copper, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, adamantium, and mithril.

"Well, I can add to more metals to look out for. As I now have access to platinum through the coin."

It had been an interesting night. When Doltum reappeared, I thought it was my end, but it seems now was not to be. Looking over my stats, I noted that level five was within reach but that I had been neglecting my other skills.

"CP limitations are the main reason for that. Also, not much has been happening to make me use them."

I knew I should try to use them more often, but I kept getting distracted by the new shiny things that were in front of me. Case in point: I pulled up my menus with the enchanted items I already had and checked them out again.

Alert!

Items cannot be copied as your Enchanting and Spell Crafting levels are not high enough.

Items cannot be copied as you do not know the spells involved in their creation.

"Seriously!"

This was annoying but strangely expected. I was going to have no quick wins with anything at the moment. The fifth floor was going to be an important one. I would be introducing new traps to the floor and needed to reflect this. The wasps were pencilled in as the minion, and the layout was going to be different. I had to remember not to raise the danger level too much again as I had on the other floors.

"Too much to keep track of at times!"

It was still a few hours before dawn. What to do?

Something about Enchanting was rolling around my mind. I did not know what it was, but it was an itch I could not scratch. My mind was trying to make a connection, but I was not fully grasping it.

"What am I not seeing?"

I went back into the enchantment menu options. I was looking at them again.

"Really looks like my minion creation screen."

Nothing came to me.

I was not getting anywhere, so I closed them and "walked" my Dungeon. Everything was fine and in order. The Dungeon was ready for the dawn and the adventurers that would come. Soon from the time I think it is.

My mind would not let it go.

"Spells and enchanting. Spells and enchanting. Sure, I now know four basic spells. As for my minions, they do not. That's not right…."

Suddenly, it hit me.

"…Queen and Puck know spells."

I quickly navigated my menus to both their character sheets. Yes, there it was. Shadow Arms for Queen was the easiest to find. Her signature spell was there in her design. Opening her creation options, I saw the spell was there in her design.

This made me excited.

"Could I use the enchanting principle and add desired magic to my minions?"

Comparing the two showed it was possible and could open a whole new avenue of minion development for me! I was getting giddy with excitement!

"All new options! But there will have to be much experimenting to get it right!"

Just not right now. Dawn had come.