Adelina flittered quickly through the air dodging tree branches, birds and other flying folk as she raced to the university central square. It seemed to her that every living organism was racing to the same place. Of course she saw the wise races, the humans, elves, beastfolk and even a couple of dragons. It was the other species that surprised her. The dogs that hung out behind the kitchen begging for scraps and ear scratches. The song birds that lived in the trees outside the dorms, their songs waking the students up in a pleasing way every morning. The Queen Bees that ensure that every flower was properly pollinated and made the most delicious honey. Those are the ones that surprised her.

Not as much as the World Message she had received just a couple of minutes earlier. Or the flurry of continental, national, regional, city or local area messages that had been spammed, constantly activating her system HUD and making it difficult to see where she was flying as people paid the ever increasing price to advertise their family or group.

It was not every day that their planet got a CORE. The last one was almost 300 years ago was a Class 1. The weakest they make, and it landed on the Western Coast and was picked up by an old fisherman. He now owns the largest ocean going vessel on the planet. Sure it is used for fishing but who is going to get in the way of a 50km long ship capable of capturing the most dangerous of sea creatures and turning them into food.

The one before that was the Class 2 CORE that powers the largest city on their world. The best CORE in their star system is a Class 3 and is the system capitol. They did not even have records of CORES more powerful than that.

She shuddered involuntary as she glanced at the bright red timer in the dead center of her HUD.

GUARDIAN SELECTION: 12:32

She watched as the timer clicked downward. The timer breaking everything they knew about CORES. They were suppose to teleport in, hidden somewhere in the world. A simple world message alerting them to its arrival snd then setting off a planetary game of hide and seek, the winner becoming the guardian and the rest trying to defeat and then becoming the new guardian.

Not this. Not some selection for a guardian. She glanced at the increasingly vitriolic messages that were being broadcast in the planetary chat. The largest organizations promising revenge and total destruction to anyone bonding with the CORE. She quickly found a branch to stand on and a large leaf to hide behind as she landed on one of the large maple trees surrounding the square. As a fairy that was not quite 15cm tall it was easy to be over looked.

She did not know why she had to be here. She touched the rapier she wore. Well it looked like a rapier. For a human sized person it would be the size of a sewing needle. But for her it was her lifeline. It allowed her to deal with bookworms and paper rats. Defending the books in the library allowed her to earn enough mana coins to pay for the university classes. Paying her was cheaper than powering the mana shields that protected the books. She looked out at the sea of people as the Dean took to the stage and began speaking. She tuned him out as he was just repeating what was being said in the chat. Do not become the Guardian blah blah blah. She touched her flat tummy that was complaining about being hungry. It was so hard to be a fairy. Work, sleep, study, sleep, eat, sleep. She could not even raid the bee hives for honey as they were all shielded against fairies.

She sighed again. Why was she not born a dragon. Everyone loved dragons. They just show up and everyone gives them all their gold and food. Just last week 2 black dragons showed up at the bank and they were given all the mana coins in the bank. The city guards even shot off fireworks to celebrate them coming to town. They had a huge party and she was told to stay in the library and clean. It was not fair. She could hear the bards playing music all the way from the elf quarter. When the head librarian came back after the party he had given everyone a piece of the most delicious meat ever. Of course she covered hers in honey and made it taste even better. The party went so well that the elves said after they were going to rebuild their quarter.

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"Remeber to check your friends list blah blah blah"

She opened her friends list and the only person on it was the nice elf lady from the library that would sneak her extra honey covered berries at the start of her shift. Her name had turned Grey sometime during the dragon party and everytime she tried to message her the system would respond with

'Person no longer connected to the System'.

For the umpteenth time she wondered how someone got disconnected from the system and how she needed to reconnect.

Adelina was so busy thinking that she missed the timer ending its count down. She also missed the tiny portal opening behind her. The portal sucked her through so fast that she did not even realize it until it had deposited her on the other end.

In front of her lay an orb many times her size. It brass banding and soft blue glow was mesmerizing. She could not stop herself from flying to it and hugging it. It was so warm and inviting. Like a hot bath and a massage at the same time. She moaned in contentment as she hugged the giant orb.

"Are you going to go through the setup or just hug me?" The voice asked.

"Hug you" Adelina replied.

"You can do both at the same time"

Adeline stiffened. Her eyes opening wide as she turned to face the glowing blue orb.

"You can talk??" She exclaimed loudly

"Of course"

"Are you the CORE that I am not suppose to bond with as they will kill me and everyone I know"

There was a pause and she felt like the orb was staring at her. She scrunched up a little as the weight of that gaze fell upon her.

"No little one. I am the CORE you are suppose to bond with as it will allow you to live your most fabulous dreams"

"For real?"

"For real little one"

"How does it work?"

"Say CORE setup"

"CORE setup"

A bright blue screen opened in front of her.

Do you agree to bond to the CORE known as ARC?.

Y/N

Terms and conditions apply*

Pushing the yes button and seeing that nothing happened she turned to stare at the softly glowing orb.

"You need to read the terms and conditions first"

She checked the box saying she had read the terms and conditions. Then pushed the yes button again.

What is your dream?

The question popped up on a new screen.

"Do not answer that" ARC quickly responded as the question came up.

She turned to him why was opened plastered on her face.

"It is a trap question. Let me ask you if your dream is to create the largest flower garden,what is a flower and what is the the largest? Is it the largest garden to you? Your city? Your planet? Or the galaxy. Or is it a garden to hold the largest flower. You could plow your entire world and just plant seeds and have it qualify as the largest flower garden without them sprouting as it is technically a flower garden. The SYSTEM will judge it based on other peoples opinions of it and not yours. With the majority opinion being what is a flower or what is a garden based on the knowledge of the entire galaxy.

"Now say you put in 'I want to create the best flower garden for me' now what is the best? Is it the size of what you need to make honey for you year round? What about honey flavor? What about being pleasing to look at? What about complementing smells? What about water features like? Guards to protect the flowers from pests. Do you need a tier 9 galaxy class dreadnought to protect you from bugs or goblins? What about space pirates?"

By the look of her wide eyes and open mouth it was pretty obvious to ARC that she had never thought of any of these.

He sighed. Well as much as an artificial construct could sigh.

"I will also only be able to help you as far as your own knowledge takes you. If you only have knowledge of dandelions then I can only make dandelions for your garden. But if you know about Black spotted lava flowers then I can make those as well as the environment for them to grow. But if you have no way to get that knowledge then you have to trade with other people. And when you trade for their knowledge is it correct? Is it missing details? How do you even check to see if it is complete? And more importantly how do you gain the knowledge to defend the CORE from all the threats out there?"

He could tell from her downcast looks and drooping wings that she was overwhelmed.

"Put in my dream is build a World. One that can be at the top of the rankings. One that bring meaning and enjoyment to my life. One that starts connected to the Akashic Records and will grow with me as my knowledge grows."

She quietly punched in word for word what ARC had told her.

Bonding complete. Welcome Guardian Adelina to the CORE system.

She moaned as energy rippled across her body somehow connecting her to ARC.

"What is first ARC? What do I do?"

She could feel ARC smiling at her through the bond. As a leather bound tome perfectly sized for a fairy appeared in front of her. A to Z Everything You Want To Know About Dungeon Stone emblazoned across the front in gold leaf.

"Read that first then we unlock Dungeon stone and start building"