Yesterday had been the first day that I’d had my little friend working for me, and it was already starting to pay off. Not in money just yet, but in knowledge—and in turn, inspiration.

It was her legs that carried us out of that pit and into the world beyond, her eyes that finally saw past this small grove that I was entombed beneath. Across the mossy forest floor, she weaved between the trees, across the rocky, jutting hills so finally see what laid just out of my sight.

The result, unfortunately, was even more goddamn trees!

I could only trust her occasional reports to me as she flitted about the forest floor, filling my ear with every little thing she saw from the blue-feathered birds loitering in large families in the branches of the aspens to the vibrant, great flowers she tried to describe in vivid detail.

For now, I could live vicariously through her while she scouted the nearby area, sticking within a few hundred feet of ‘home’ for now. So far, she’d spotted the sea in the distance—no beach, just a steep, jagged cliff dropping right down into it—as well as a river leading out to it, along with the waterfall emanating from it cascading down the rock wall, shrouding the area in a cool mist.

Fresh water? Check.

As far as practicality went, magical, otherworldly crystals didn’t need to drink. However, I could certainly still find uses for it to clean up or sustain crops potentially. Plus, the thought of having some interesting water features in my dungeon just felt enticing. A fountain, maybe.

Hell, I could even make a bath and drinking fountain for the mouse once I figured out how to make some functional plumbing.

For now, we mostly kept to our own individual work. I was focused on expanding the base—in my downtime before this point, I had expanded the hallway a bit further, adding in some skylights and some structural elements, like drains on the floor in case it rained. For now, they simply emptied into a makeshift cistern I’d carved beneath the hall. Once I got wind of the location of the river, I switched my goal to try and find a way to tap into it, aqueduct style.

I’d simply construct a branch in the river that slipped underground and into my domain, where I could use it as needed. Then, I’d have it flow right back out and rejoin with the river downstream, near the cliff.

This plan was far more ambitious than anything I’d attempted so far where distance was concerned, and the mites actively struggled to stay coherent the further they got from my constructions. Large additions to myself, like the hallway, worked great at providing an anchor for them to attach themselves to. Small things, like an 8-inch diameter pipe? The mites weren’t fans of it. I got it about thirty feet out, with the last few feet of pipe looking frayed and porous like pumice.

It counted for something at least, but the further I tried to build the pipe out, the more they started to flicker and fade. The further they got from my core’s guiding light, the more they needed the presence of my walls as firmament instead.

So for now, hallways it was, even if the result took far longer to achieve. For simplicity’s sake, I borrowed the design from my other hallway and formed a junction, branching off of it. With this new path, I began the slow, mind-numbing task of watching the wall dissolve away as I tried to head in the same direction my helper had left in.

We spoke while we performed our tasks. Not always about much—in truth, aside from our initial negotiations, we didn’t share much common ground. Her perspective was far different from mine.

I’d learned that the hard way when she’d spotted a cricket moving around inside the vault and had lunged for it, grabbing it between her tiny paws as her fangs tore into it.

According to her, they’re delicious. Good for her.

I hate it.

My brain begged me to find a way to throw up after watching her feast on it, hearing the tiny pops and snaps of the insect’s body before she finally discarded what was left of its carapace.

I made certain to have the mites throw its remains out into the woods, wanting to rid myself of that memory.

On the bright side, I had come to appreciate her work even more, as it meant I didn’t have to witness things like that. I even got a small amount of experience leeched off of her from that kill—a full one percent.

We eventually settled into something of a rhythm though, even if we didn’t entirely understand one another. She scouted the land and relayed things back to me, and in turn I stockpiled my mana as hard as I could and made damn sure she had a comfy bed to lay her head down in when she got tired.

On the third day, I flushed a portion of my mana-bank to level her up again—it had taken a little longer than usual, as I was trying to keep a bit on-hand in case I needed to trigger [Core Bond] at some point. If I had no mana, the skill would be borderline useless if she actually got into trouble.

For the skills I went with, I ended up choosing from a different set of sections this time: [Enhanced Vitality I] and [Enhanced Strength I].

Enhanced Vitality I: Gives +1 to Vitality. In addition, provides a multiplier to base vitality values, increasing physical stamina, constitution, disease resistance, poison resistance, and resistance to physical enfeeblement by a small amount each. Enhanced Strength I: Gives +1 to Strength. In addition, provides a multiplier to base strength values, increasing upper and lower body capability, maximum carrying capacity, combat and labor ability, and athletic aptitude by a small amount each.

Vitality was for her; Strength was for me, and also maybe a little bit for her.

[Enhanced Vitality III] seemed to come with a rather impressive bonus of ten years added to lifespan, though I’d need to get her to level fifteen somehow to get access to it. That would help uphold my end of the bargain.

[Enhanced Strength] was mostly a selfish choice to allow her to start carrying things back home for me to work with.

The biggest thing about these though? That little ‘+1’ increase tacked on. Let me explain.

CORE-TOUCHED MOUSE RUNT LVL: 2 CATEGORY: Monster Employee SKILLS:

[Scavenge], [Festering Bite]

[Core Link I], [Core Bond I], [Enhanced Vitality I], [Enhanced Strength I]

TRAITS: [Forged Sapience] A small, juvenile field rodent under the auric influence of a dungeon core. Force Level-Up Cost: 15 MP

Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

Level: 3

Cost: 30 MP

That was the 'simple' tooltip. Pulling it up was a bit like sizing someone up, glancing over their entire body really quick without much attention to the details. There wasn't anything stopping me from squinting harder, though--except mental strain, of course.

CORE-TOUCHED MOUSE (RUNT) LVL: 2 NAME: undefined

Traits:

[Forged Sapience]

Skills:

[Scavenge]

[Festering Bite]

[Core Link I]

[Core Bond I]

[Enhanced Vitality I]

[Enhanced Strength I]

HP: 6 / 6 CATEGORY: Monster

Employee MP: 0 / 0 SPECIES: Field Mouse SP: 5 / 5 SIZE: Minuscule XP: 45% GENDER: ♀ STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 2 3 5 5 3 6

A small, juvenile field rodent under the auric influence of a dungeon core. Possesses enhanced mental acuity and judgement. Force Level-Up Cost: 15 MP Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

Level: 3

Cost: 30 MP

Hm. Honestly, it had felt like someone had taken a hammer to my gray matter the last time I'd tried this, but that had been ages ago at this point. It barely even registered this time; maybe I'd gotten better at handling myself, or that time I'd ascended had made it easier on me somehow.

Anyways, she’d had a strength of one before from what I could tell, so this should work out to doubling her effectiveness, assuming the stats worked in a linear way.

Neither of these skills was a miracle cure in her current state though. Any remaining improvements gained from them would be based off of her natural strength and constitution, meaning the gains were small for now. Ideally as she grew stronger on her own, this would increase the value we were getting from these skills.

“That ought to come in handy when you’re out and about,” I explained, satisfied with the choice, “Do you feel any different? Like you could powerlift a boulder or anything like that?”

“I do not think so, though the pads of my paws feel less sore,” she replied, slowly starting to doze off in her bed, “Let me sleep; we can check tomorrow.”

Well, no issues with that. We weren't in much of a huge rush at the moment.

“…What is this?”, she asked, glancing around nervously, standing at the far edge of the room, eyes wide with a mixture of confusion and curiosity.

I’d have been grinning from ear to ear if I still had the anatomy to support it.

While she slept, I’d kept myself busy working on the aqueduct, now approaching a fairly impressive length of fifty feet long or so. That was until I’d been struck by inspiration and moved to a different project. A new room, attached to the vault via a doorway as well as by a smooth stone tube connected directly to her room.

“It’s a gym,” I replied, barely able to hold back my mirth, “Or at least something close to one. Not many moving parts—the manamites don’t like constructing things that aren’t directly attached to other things.”

In truth, it had also been a chance for me to exercise my creativity and have some fun a bit. Hallways weren’t fun, they were work. But this? This was purely the joy of creating something.

The room was circular, something I’d struggled to get right for quite a while without any reference to use, and about fifteen feet wide. Cramped for a human, but I didn’t have one of those.

I had a mouse, so this room might as well have been a stripped-down department store in scale.

The stonework floor of the room dropped down into a neatly-cut pit several feet deep at the very center, with compacted dirt as the floor down there.

“A ‘gym’? I don’t understand,” she replied, scurrying along the perimeter of the room as she inspected my handiwork ,”What is its purpose?”

“It’s a place to train the body—to get stronger. Human gyms, the kind that I’m actually used to, they’re a lot different than this, but I think in our case different isn’t really all that bad.”

Her little legs carried her from one creation to the next, inspecting them as one might gaze at an art exhibit but never stopping to interact with them. “Do you think I need to? ”

“Couldn’t hurt, right? You getting stronger is good for both of us. Besides, it’s not just going to be physical strength. I have a plan.”

She sat at the edge of the small pit, tilting her head to the side.

The showcase of it all. The arena.

While the perimeter of the room was lined with a shoddily-constructed obstacle course consisting of some jumps, climbs, and other such things, the center of the room was the arena.

“I’ve got some ideas for this I have to finish, but I’m going to close off the top of it with a grate like the ones on the roof. Then, I’m gonna make some bug-bait with those berries we’ve got, and we’ll be in business.”

"But I thought you didn't like bugs?", she questioned.

"Okay, let me correct that thought for you then. Bugs are weird, but they're not that bad on their own. It's the fact that you're eating them like a poor college student horking down a gas station chili dog. It's nasty!"

"They're not that bad. Besides, I can't simply survive eating berries and pine nuts."

"I guarantee we could find some other stuff for you to eat with a few minutes worth of effort. Food where I don't have to discover what color insides grasshoppers have," I sent back, which seemed to actually get some amusement from her. Hard to call it a laugh--just a general feeling of mirth.

"Well, if it's not for me to feast upon them, then why do you need them in the first place?", the mouse asked, gingerly grooming her fur with her paws.

"Simple. You're gonna kill them so we can level-up."

"...Kill them but not eat them. That seems wasteful."

"I--urgh. I mean, you can eat them, just... I dunno, can you do it somewhere that I don't have to see it or clean it up? Anyways, we kinda need to, I think. I can level you up by just tossing mana at you, but I don't really see any way to do the same for myself. I'll need your help with that, I think."

"I see. Well, I can try. I'll try and find a place outside to store them, then. Does that make you happy?"

"Yes, very much so. Thanks," I sighed in relief. No more of that awful crunching sound grating at the back of my mind while I was trying to work.

Still, with nothing trapped inside of it for her to fight, there wasn't much of a point in sticking around. We said our goodbyes as she scurried up the periscope and out into the woods as always, even if we continued chatting after our goodbyes. Perks of linked-up consciousnesses.

Given that she had found the coast to our west, blocking any further progress that way, our next direction of search was eastward, further inland. The ground was far more steep there. Even unable to see it, I could picture it from her words.

"The earth rises upwards, and the trees have broad leaves of green and gold and orange. I can hear streams and the call of the birds. The wind echoes here, and the grass and moss grow sparse the further I continue on."

She stopped occasionally to stalk the occasional critter she found, her fangs quickly dispatching any insect not wise enough to give her a wide berth. It was unfair, really--with her newfound intellect, her small size and quick reflexes actually made her a nasty surprise when she finally darted forward and took them out.

To the bugs of this forest, she was the angel of death. To her, they were an all-you-can-eat buffet.

One of her traits had mentioned before that her newfound intelligence would come at the cost of increased energy requirements; it hadn't been lying. She ate at every opportunity she could, whatever she could get her paws on, yet never seemed to increase in size like some of the other rats I'd seen in the old days.

With each one, her experience pool increased--as did mine. While the portion I was recieving was small, I was still technically of a lower level than her. As such, we increased at a similar rate, and it only took the rest of the day's exploration for her to finally nab one final, lost caterpillar and push me over the edge.

Experience Requirements Met.

SHARD OF COALESCED WILL has increased to LVL 1.

SHARD OF COALESCED WILL has gained 2 skill points.

SHARD OF COALESCED WILL has gained the skill [Creator's Insight].

It was second nature for me at this point: I saw a mention to a skill I didn't recognize, I activated it.

⬘ Creator's Insight ⬘ Attuned to the foundation of reality, Dungeon Cores possess supernatural prowess at construction. A minor, continuous flow of XP is granted while performing actions related to excavation, building, laying traps, and reinforcing defenses. In addition, base manamite control range is doubled.

TYPE:

Passive

CATEGORY:

Core

Hot damn, now that seemed useful. I'd been halfway worried I might get something extremely situational like my mouse had gotten for her first level-up, but this was about as perfect as I could hope for.

"If you need my attention for the next hour or two, just keep jabbing at me until I answer. I've got something I have to work on," I explained, pulling up my skill menu and preparing for the arduous process of deciding what to invest in.

"Got it, Boss," she chimed back, "You're not very good at multitasking, are you?"

"I'm a building. It's a miracle I can do even one thing at a time, much less several. It's a big choice anyways, so I want to make sure I'm focused on it. Stay safe, scream for me if any scary forest monsters show up."

"Wh--", was about as far as I got before I tuned out, turning my full attention to my investments.

This was a big one for me--I'd already confirmed that XP costs seemed to raise with each additional level, and that meant I couldn't afford to waste my skill points on things that couldn't bring me serious value--wealth, experience, and maybe additional ways to defend myself. Right now, my core was guarded by a weaponized rat and the ability to drop sharp objects from the ceiling--not an ironclad defense in any way.

Those were what I needed.

With that, I started filtering out skills that didn't immediately fit the bill, tossing them to the wayside. [Commander of Monsters] looked like it could be useful some day, but not today; into the bin it went. [Illusion Magic Proficiency I] caught my interest, but there was no way to profit off of it for now; trashed. On and on this went as I picked out ones that looked particularly useful and set them to the side in their own mental heap, until finally I felt ready to work towards a decision.

Wealth would be the tough one; there simply wasn't a skill to simply generate it out of thin air. [Counterfeit II] didn't count--it conjured a coin out of thin air, but the descriptive text specifically mentioned it having a wealth of zero: pass. I'd need to get my money the old fashioned way: getting lucky and finding the occasional lost coin, that or stealing it or actually finding a way for people to part with it willingly.

..Once I found people, which I still hadn't. Even then, I couldn't exactly talk, and neither could my mouse ambassador. That would make it difficult to do any kind of business.

[Mechanical Engineering I] was a shoe-in for one of my skill points, probably the easiest decision I'd ever made in my entire life.

⬘ Mechanical Engineering I ⬘ Grants expanded knowledge of physical laws of matter and motion, and how to use them in an applied manner. Expands manamite construction capabilities to allow for mechanisms with moving parts such as axles, pulleys, hinges, pistons, and gears. Allows direct core control via toggle of up to ten mechanisms.

TYPE:

Passive

CATEGORY:

Proficiency

It really didn't need much explaining as to why. One of the main weaknesses the manamites had was their refusal to make anything more than shapes connected to other shapes; with this, I could really start to stretch my imagination a bit. The options were almost limitless; I could make mechanical traps, blast doors, gates to control water flow, and so much more.

The other one... well, it was more of a struggle. There were some enticing options in the Core subsection to enhance my monsters employees. [Core Aura of Perseverence] provided health regeneration at a slow rate to employees within ten feet of my core, which had potential--but the mouse, my only employee, already had [Core Bond I] which would allow me to emergency heal her if needed. I needed a way to profit.

Maybe a craft of some kind? Something that would sell itself without much effort and was lightweight enough for the mouse to heft around, that I could produce consistently.

...No, even then, we still ran the risk of people just stealing from her and leaving us empty-handed. Even then, without any information on the economic state of this world, much less this small area we occupied, trying to sell any kind of finished specialty goods could be a one-way ticket to riches or a complete waste of time. I needed a commodity--a bulk good that I could produce in mass quantities, ideally one I could get some use out of as well while we scouted for more information.

...Maybe rope? That was supposed to be fairly labor-intensive to make, and I'd spotted a mention of it a few skills back.

⬘ Textiles I ⬘ Professional knowledge and experience with clothwork, weaving, thread-spinning, and rope making. Increases speed and quality of work. Allows harvesting of raw material from any source of plant fiber and adds a compartment in the virtual hoard for its storage. Plant fiber can now be used as a construction material for your manamites.

TYPE:

Passive

CATEGORY:

Proficiency

Yeah. That would do it for now. Not my first choice by any means, but I could make it work. There certainly wasn't a shortage of grass to work with, so I wouldn't want for material.

SHARD OF COALESCED WILL LVL: 1 NAME: undefined

Traits:

Skills:

[Botany I]

[Biology I]

[Creator's Insight]

[Mech. Engineering I]

[Textiles I]

Features:

[Manamite Creation]

[Self-Synthesis]

HP: 10 / 10 CATEGORY: Elemental MP: 24 / 50 SPECIES: Dungeon Core WEALTH: 1 SIZE: Tiny XP: 0% MANAMITES: 68 / 200 STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 0 5 0 9 6 7

Nascent heart of a world-born entity, crystallized from soul energy. Exerts control over a localized area. Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

Level: 2

Wealth: 5

Cost: 50 MP Virtual Hoard:

➤415.2 Raw Stone

➤216.0 Loose Soil

➤38.2 Biological Material

➤45.9 Raw Lumber

Not too shabby. At the very least, I was starting to fill it out quite a bit more, and--

"Boss? Boss, you there? Hello?", I heard her calling at the edge of my senses, stirring myself back to attention to listen.

"Yeah, what's going on? Did you find something?"

"Yes. It's just like you described it, boss. A road. It's the kind made of rocks you were telling me about, not the dust and dirt kind."

An actually constructed road, not just a path cutting through the woods? That was great news! "Fantastic! That means there's people around somewhere close, especially if it's being upkept. What direction is it in?"

"That's the thing, boss. It's not just that. There's people here right now."