There were more system messages, and I was afraid to even read them after seeing the patch notes. I took a moment to wallow in self pity - I felt like I deserved it by now. A lot of the notes didn’t make much sense to me - I had no clue what a Euclid core was, and why did crows have better arcana now? but the important parts were clear. The System, or whatever wrote the patch notes, was pissed at me and by consuming the core I’d seemingly shunted Esiliur off on its own, isolated from the rest of the System.

Clearly, godcores and dungeon cores weren’t meant to mix. I was going to have strong words for Cixilo when I recovered enough to consider extending myself out of my core. Had he known this would happen? It seemed unlikely. In fact, it seemed like I was the first one to ever attempt that stupid stunt. But he was the expert, so he could take some of the blame too!

I didn’t even want to think about what the Mountain Who Eats was or why it had just got a boon called tyrannicide. The murder of tyrants. Tyrants were bad, so it must be a good thing it was killing them … right?

I dismissed the patch notes with a curse. Not dealing with that. That was someone else’s problem.

Swallowing my dread, I read the next System message.

Congratulations! You have reached level 2!

New boon gained

Dungeon Architecture: Structures created by you are unusually resilient and far stronger than a mundane structure made of the same material would be.

New boon gained

Liminal Core: Your core chamber exists in a pocket dimension. Entities with hostile intentions cannot access this dimension without first defeating your dungeon.

New skills available! Pick now? Y/N

One (1) new minion unlocked

Congratulations! You have reached level 3!

New features available: Skill leveling, boon leveling

New boon gained

Photosynthesis: Daily mana growth is increased by [10 * core level]% while the majority of your dungeon area is above ground.

New boon gained

Mark of the Dungeon: By placing a magical mark upon a being, you may claim them as a living extension of your dungeon. Marked creatures can communicate with High Cores telepathically, and can teleport and resurrect for free within your area of influence. You may mark [(core level/4)+1] creatures at a time.

Aberrant boon gained

Absorbing a shard of the core of Endoria, Goddess of Magic, has granted you an aberrant boon.

Thaumaturgy: Your minions may be spellcasters, even if normally not capable of using magic. You share a mana pool with your minions.

New skills available! Pick now? Y/N

One (1) new minion unlocked.

This… was good. I didn’t know if it was good enough to make up for the shit show I’d seemingly unleashed by consuming the godcore shard, but this was very good. Level three already. This would’ve taken me weeks of grinding level one adventurers to achieve. Even the aberrant boon seemed useful, if perhaps a bit underpowered for all the strife it had taken to gain it.

Boon leveling and skill leveling were interesting. My boons and skills now had the option to spend SP to improve them. Some of them didn’t seem to be upgradable, but a lot were. Including my new Thaumaturgy boon, so maybe it got better at higher levels. However, it meant I’d need even more SP and given that my total SP gain so far had been five, from a quest, I wasn’t hopeful.

I decided to talk to Cixilo before deciding on skills. Which meant it was time to extend my consciousness beyond my core.

***

I want to be sick, I whined to myself for the thirtieth or so time. Every time I tried to push my consciousness out of my core, I was overwhelmed with an intense feeling of nausea, like a human with a disease. Except I was a crystal, which meant I couldn’t even get the satisfaction of relieving the nausea by expelling the odious substance like a human would be. And my nausea wasn’t caused by food poisoning… more like core poisoning.

I settled back in my core and consulted the menus for any ideas.

Name:

Mizar

Species:

Dungeon Core

Subspecies:

Starseed

Class:

Faerie Garden

Level:

3

Core Integrity:

???

Mana:

130

Mana Growth (daily):

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

41.6

Soul Power:

5

Next Level Cost:

385

Stats:

Arcana

4

Fortitude

3

Luck

3

Skills:

Uncreate, Overgrowth, Shape Matter

Spells:

Boons:

Green Thumbs, Hearthkeeper, Dungeon Architecture, Liminal Core, Photosynthesis, Mark of the Dungeon, Thaumaturgy

Artifacts:

The ??? that had replaced my core integrity was alarming. What did mortals do when frustrated? Rub their temples? Punch something? I wished I could do either right now.

Cixilo?

You’re awake! Finally! I thought you might’ve died, but there was no horrible explosion, so I figured you’d survived. He sounded more excited than concerned.

I survived, but did you see the patch notes?

Yes. They’re fascinating. Why give crows more arcana?

That isn’t the important thing right now. I can’t push my consciousness out of my core. I’m stuck, and my core stability is a question mark.

Oh. Cixilo went quiet for a moment.

I almost thought he’d left. It was very frustrating that I couldn’t peek beyond my core chamber to see what he was doing.

Finally, his voice came back. Sorry, I was checking my tome. Did you level up?

Yes.

And have you resolved all the level up prompts?

I checked the System messages again. I still need to pick skills. Do I need to do that first?

No, that shouldn’t be a problem, Cixilo said absently, like he was reading as he talked. Hmm… I recall reading about question mark core integrities before. They sometimes occur in cases of possession gone awry. The Mesmer specialisation Skinthief, in particular, is prone to these sorts of accidents because they can rapidly swap between host bodies and if integration isn’t completed successfully, the core becomes unstable. Obviously, I don’t know if dungeon cores work the same way but your core is probably in flux, unable to settle on a final state.

I had always liked learning, and yet Cixilo tried to teach me at the worst possible times. Would it kill him to give a concise answer? How do I fix it? A simple explanation, please.

Imagine your core is a house. Normally, only one person - you - lives in it, but when you absorbed the shard, you invited in a new roommate, but there is only one bedroom, so you’re having to share and it's not ideal.

So I need to give the roommate their own room? I could do that!

Kind of but it isn’t -

Cixilo’s words receded into the background as I focussed on my core and imagined collecting all the darkness that had gathered inside me and forcing it into one corner. Slowly, it began to follow my command, gathering into a dense little ball in the corner. The sensation made my core shudder, but it was also kind of cathartic. Like I was emptying out the feeling of wrongness.

Finally, when I’d collected every bit of darkness I could find, I considered the corner of my core and -

Mizar? Are you listening? Cixilo shouted into my mind.

Not really. I’m solving this problem before my core explodes again.

What? How?

One new room coming right up, I said. I bent all my will onto that one tiny sphere of darkness inside my core and shoved.

There was a spark of blinding pain and my vision whited out for a second. But when it returned, it was bliss. The nausea had vanished, and so had the darkness.

I checked my menu just to be sure. Core integrity: 100%. Yes! I fixed it, I told Cixilo happily.

Champion created: Endizar, the Forest Sorcerer

What?

I pushed my point of view out of my core, just as easily as it had once been, and quickly did a full turn in the middle of my core chamber.

There was a creature sitting at the foot of my core. It was humanoid… ish. Shaped like a humanoid, but not resembling any of the mortal races. It had green barkish skin, a deep verdant forest green. Two huge antlers, shaped from tree branches, curved up above the head, and when it stood up, I imagined it would be much taller than any human. The lower half was vaguely bipedal, but the legs were closer to two thick roots with patches of moss clinging to it.

Hello?

I’m still here, Cixilo said.

Not you.

There’s nobody else here.

I accidentally made a champion.

Oh. Somehow, Cixilo managed to give the impression of a weary sigh through a telepathic link. Alright, I’m coming in.

I vaguely willed the door to open and continued to inspect my creation.

Cixilo, followed by his trusty tome, stepped into my core chamber, and then stopped. He looked from Endizar to my core, and back again, and then ran his hand down his face with a sigh. “When I said to make room for the other piece of you, I didn’t mean this.”

It wasn’t intentional. But I kind of like it.

“I suppose you needed a champion eventually.”

Sssh, it’s waking up! I did a loop around my champion again.

Endizar’s eyes had fluttered. It took a moment, but finally they opened. Two brilliant purple eyes, with dark slits like a deer, looked at the world for the first time.

I wished my new creation could have a more auspicious first sight in the world. A blank stone chamber, an old man and a magical book, and a red crystal weren’t beautiful, or exciting. But they were what I had to work with for now, alas.

Hello!

Endizar looked around with visible confusion. Bark wasn’t as expressive as a human face, but the expressions weren’t too dissimilar. “Hello?”

I’m Mizar, and this is Cixilo. I’m your creator!

Endizar tested out each of its new limbs with slow, uncertain movements. Shaking out arms and roots, bending fingers and stretching its neck. When he was seemingly happy with his tests, he slowly pushed himself upright. He stumbled, and caught himself against the wall with one hand. “Where are you?”

I’m that glowing rock behind you. I’m Mizar, and I’m a star. Well, I was a star. Now I’m a dungeon, reluctantly.

“I knew that.” Endizar cocked his head and frowned. “I seem to know a lot of things I don’t remember learning.”

Cixilo nodded eagerly. He glanced sideways at his tome, his fingers curling like he wanted to grab a quill and take notes right away. “Fascinating! You may have retained a few of Mizar’s memories, since you are technically a piece of him given physical form.”

I wished I could grin, because I wanted to show how happy I was with my accident. I’d created life. Not just minions, but life-life. A thinking being! We’ll catch you up on everything you need to know. Don’t worry.