The dungeon wasn’t really in a state for guests at the moment. The floors hadn’t been swept in ages and the walls could use a good scrubbing, but I guess it didn’t matter all that much.

Our surprise visitor was very dead, after all.

Fishing the goblin out from the river took a little bit of effort—Ephi couldn’t exactly just drag him out, so I had to shift my attention downstream and construct a makeshift dam to stop him from drifting away. The stream wasn’t too large, so I managed to construct a hasty wooden barricade across where I thought the goblin would drift through.

Once the body came to a stop, thumping lightly against this makeshift wall, I had the manamites do their best to haul it to the side and onto the shore so we could take a proper look.

CORE-TOUCHED GOBLIN PATHFINDER LVL: 6 NAME: undefined

Skills:

[Core Egocide I]

[Enhanced Dexterity II]

[Enhanced Strength II]

[Stealth II]

[Tracking II]

[Poisoncraft I]

HP: 0 / 20 CATEGORY: Monster MP: 0 / 2 SPECIES: Goblin SP: 0 / 20 SIZE: Medium XP: ?? GENDER: ♂ STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 11 8 12 4 4 9

A goblin under the auric influence of a dungeon's core. A self-taught expert at a primitive form of exploration and espionage. Not alive.

That was about what I’d expected, but it confirmed my suspicions. It was definitely from the other core, and if it had a title like ‘Pathfinder’ then it was almost certainly trying to investigate this area. Maybe as a result of seeing those previous adventurers head this way, or due to that missing insect minion, assuming it even cared about that.

Ephi seemed hesitant to come closer at first, circling around the sopping wet remains as she inspected it on her own.

“I’m assuming you already could guess as much, but it’s definitely from that other core we heard about,” I explained to her, “Some kind of scout. It didn’t have core link at least, not that it matters much now.”

She nodded, her nose and whiskers twitching slightly as she sniffed about. “I don’t think it drowned. I can smell a hint of blood.”

Huh. I couldn’t see any wounds from where it was, but that wasn’t saying much: even after however long it had spent in the water, it still looked filthy, covered in oily grime and its tattered shreds of primitive clothing. I hadn’t seen blood in the water.

Curious, I mustered a brigade of manamites to grab at the goblin’s body from one side, slowly trying to flip it over and onto its back while Ephi took several steps away. Its arm flopped over and down onto the ground as I finished rotating it, and the cause of its demise was pretty clearly evident.

Something had hit it hard square in the center of its chest. There were no signs of slashing or external piercing via a weapon from what I could tell, but that didn’t make it any less grisly to look at. Putting it simply, whatever had bashed this goblin had, in a single strike, managed to transform the front of its ribcage into calcium confetti.

Its fur armor, unsurprisingly, had done little to cushion the blow.

“Yep, definitely not drowning,” I confirmed, trying to think of what this meant for us. This river valley extended quite a way inland, snaking past Cheshire’s shrine and into the mountains beyond. Unless there were some other threats around here capable of causing damage like this, it seemed to be either from an adventurer, or maybe Cheshire himself.

I’d have to ask him when next we met.

“I’m probably going to, er… disassemble it, I think. Better than leaving evidence around—once he hits that waterfall, there’s no telling where he’ll end up,” I added, grimacing as I realized that this corpse might have just tainted our water supply, “You can head back inside if you’d like, no point sitting out here in the cold.”

“Hang on,” she shot back, cautiously slinking closer to the body, specifically towards its right hand. Curious, I took a look through her eyes to see what might have caught her attention and caught a glimpse of glittering metal.

🞚 Moonlit Silver Opal Ring 🞚

Category: Equipment A simple ring crafted for humanoid hands from silver. Inlaid with a rough opal gemstone. Provides a bonus to maximum mana and intellect.

So this was what the starfont could do, then. I wanted it, that much was for certain.

Ephi took a few moments to try and weasel the ring off of the goblin’s swollen finger, finding little success at doing anything at all with how waterlogged it was. Even worse, the snow covering the ground was gradually spreading to the creature’s body, the moisture clinging to its pallid skin crystallizing into frost.

“One moment,” I said, already regretting what was going to come next, “I can fix this.”

After we liberated the finger from the goblin and the ring from the finger, I had Ephi carry our prize back into the tunnels—if I was to be this monster’s Charon fetching him from the Styx, then it was only fitting that I take some form of payment.

There was little else on its body of use to us. An iron knife, chipped and rusted, was tucked into its belt. Biological matter and a bit of extra iron for the reserves; even with my limited amount of practice, I was certain I could do better that that.

The ring worked exactly as it seemed to suggest, though. Even just hauling it around in her mouth was enough for Ephilia’s mana capacity to increase on her sheet, though the moment she placed it down this effect faded away. This seemed to suggest some amount of looseness to the definition of ‘equipped’.

Regardless, it wasn’t long before everyone else began to turn in for the night, with the fox curling up on her bed and Ephi tossing herself into her hammock.

I, on the other hand, found myself transfixed by my starfont for the first time in a long while.

Its doors had remained sealed shut since that first night I’d tried using it. A survival mechanism for the most part, especially nowadays given that activity in the area seemed to be increasing. For all of my attempts to stay hidden, the fallout from that time I’d used it and lit the area up was still coming back to cause issues. A chain reaction of complications.

On one hand, if it could make things like that ring, I could entirely understand taking the risk; if there wasn’t already a mercenary outpost within a day’s hike from my home, I likely wouldn’t have thought twice about giving it another shot sometime. Still, the fact remained that I needed to keep my head down. The ideal situation in my head would be for that group to successfully cull the other core, then wipe their hands and go back to performing menial jobs in their city to the south.

There was no telling if that would happen though, and trying to guess a timeframe with what little information I had was a losing game.

I didn’t get much done over the course of the night, unfortunately. That starfont sat in my head the entire time. There had to be some solution to this, some sneaky way to give me access to this without sticking my neck onto the chopping block.

Maybe if I could earn the trust of one of the adventurers, somehow? If I could get one to vouch for me enough, I just might be able to pitch some kind of mutually-beneficial arrangement.

At the same time, doing so would certainly lead to my location being uncovered, and at that point I might end up killed, or potentially even subjugated under threat of death.

If I had access to mirrors, maybe I could find some way to carefully redirect moonlight deep enough underground where the pool wouldn’t be visible at night—assuming something like that actually worked, that might solve the problem.

Or maybe I could reroute the liquid itself.

I found myself pondering this path for a little while longer than the others. There seemed to be two attributes to this ‘liquid moonlight’ that went into the starfont.

Quantity, based entirely on the size of the font and the amount of liquid within, and quality, which seemed to increase directly with continued exposure to the night sky. The higher the quality, the brighter it shined—and too much of that would mean broadcasting my location to the entire countryside.

But maybe, just maybe… two starfonts. If I were to put one on the surface, never actually bothering to cover it, but rather siphoning its contents down into a second one in a secure place below the earth at the end of each night, I just might be able to gather some low-quality moonlight each night.

It warranted testing, at least.

What little remained of the night was spent creating a stairwell adjacent to the storeroom that descended deeper into the earth. I took it down two flights: I was certain I’d find a use for the spaces in time. Officially designating our ‘top’ floor as ‘B1’, I left ‘B2’ undeveloped for now and focused entirely on ‘B3’. This area was far deeper beneath the earth, probably a solid fifty feet below the surface, a place that light was only just meeting for the very first time.

For now, I simply created a junction directly outside of the stairwell, with one fork heading to a circular chamber that would serve as the location for our moon cistern. I built the pool wide and shallow, not focusing much on detailed stonework or aesthetics for now given that this was just an experiment.

Using my experience with plumbing, I created a long pipe that extended up to the surface, connecting it to the bottom of my current starfont. Slightly-luminescent liquid began to drizzle down through the connection almost immediately, the leftovers from when I had last attempted this, barely even forming a puddle at the bottom of the cistern below. Once it was empty, I deconstructed the doors over the top of the pool, adding a sealable drainage valve to the bottom.

With that, I allowed the aqueducts to refill the pool—by tomorrow, we’d know for certain if this would work, or if transferring this magical fluid was simply not allowed by any means.

It wouldn’t be of fantastic quality, but maybe a consistent quantity of one-night moonlight would count for something.

Ephilia was the first to wake up, and barely even gave the moonpool a second look as she walked past it, chiming, “So much for all that fussing about staying hidden, huh?”

“I think I have a solution. Gonna try it out tonight,” I explained, “It shouldn’t get too bright if I only leave it out for a single night, so we shouldn’t be in any danger. That ring we found, the magic one—I think that’s from the other dungeon’s starfont.”

“So you’re going to try to make your own magical stuff? I’m guessing you have something in mind,” she continued, trotting her way around the perimeter of the garden towards the tea plant.

“Not exactly,” I admitted sheepishly, “But a bit of experimenting wouldn’t hurt. I mean, that ring actually let you have mana, you know. Anything that opens up some new options to us should be carefully considered.”

“Well, just be careful, okay?”

“Oh, so suddenly you’re the voice of caution, huh?”, I snickered, examining our progenitor tea plant, “I think today’s the day. We actually managed to do it—I’m honestly impressed.”

CORE-TOUCHED MOONDROP TEA SHRUB LVL: 0 NAME: undefined

Traits:

[Optimized Growth]

[Climate Acclimation]

[Enhanced Production]

Skills:

HP: 6 / 6 CATEGORY: Plant

Employee MP: 0 / 0 SPECIES: Tea Shrub SP: 0 / 0 SIZE: Small XP: 0% GENDER: --- STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 0 3 0 0 0 0

A nearly-mature Moondrop Tea Shrub, imported from Arrol. Infused with auric power emanating from a core. Ready to harvest. Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

Cost: 30 MP

“So what do we do now? Just… pluck all the leaves off or something?”, Ephi asked, sitting down and awaiting my guidance.

“Not all of them,” I replied, letting an urgent tone slip into my voice, “Just a few, the younger leaves on it are the ones we want to take. They’re the ones that’ll have the best flavor, and we can leave the old ones so the plant can still gather sunlight.”

For now, we only had a single plant ready—but the other plants would all be ready one after another over the next few days from the looks of it, thanks to the staggered method we took to planting them. This could actually work in our favor in some ways, by giving us a steady ‘income’ of tea leaves provided we stayed on top of harvesting them.

Ephi didn’t really know how to tell the newer leaves from the older ones, so she sat things out after a few misplaced snips—I couldn’t really blame her since she lacked any kind of botanical skills. Still, I tried to offer her some tips, and let her watch while my manamites gathered a small but respectable pile of leaves on a stone plate nearby.

Next up, all we had to do was let them dry, which was easier said than done. Outside was bitterly-cold, and the inside of the greenhouse was fairly humid even if the temperature was far more comfortable. The best I could do for that was to lay the stone plate in the general vicinity of the boiler room, allowing them to bask in the indirect heat radiating off of the fire.

The fox continued to study her magic, alternating between her living quarters, the common room, and the greenhouse occasionally as she tried her best to meditate her way into a magical epiphany. She took some mild interest in the process behind us harvesting and preparing the tea, though she seemed to catch on to Ephi’s discomfort at her presence and watched from a distance.

I tried to assuage or at least get a measure of the mouse’s concerns, but I felt that I came up short.

“You don’t have to be afraid of her, you know,” I nudged over [Core Link], “She’s generally been very well-behaved. Besides, between the two of us even if she did try something, she wouldn’t be able to hurt you.”

“I’m not afraid of her at all,” Ephi scoffed, though I really wasn’t buying it, “I just don’t know how you can trust her so quickly, that’s all.”

Sure, I was placing quite a bit of faith in her, but so far she hadn’t done anything to betray that.

“I think she’s harmless, Ephi. Really. If you’re really worried about that then we can both keep an eye on her to make sure she’s not up to anything, but I don’t think it’s fair to not even give her a chance,” I replied.

“I was already planning on watching her anyways, but you’re welcome to help, sure.”

“Alright. Also, I think I’m going to let her use that ring we found while she studies—the sooner we get access to that sunlight spell, the safer we’ll be in the long run.”

“I don’t need it anyways, so sure. Do what you think is best. Just don’t let her run off with it or anything.”

Well, that wasn’t exactly something I was planning on, and it wasn’t as if the fox could just vanish into thin air. If she tried to leave, I’d know about it.

Given that neither of them had fingers, I ended up attaching the ring to a twine necklace instead, which the fox worked up and onto her neck with some difficulty. It worked, at least—her intellect stat improved too, which was an added bonus. More important was the addition of mana: with that, she wouldn’t have to rely on casting entirely from her stamina and tiring herself out quickly.

She gave me a polite “Thank you,” before retiring to her room to continue studying, while Ephi went to her own room as well. At first I thought it was just to take a brief rest, but then I noticed that her eyes were open.

Spell Name: RANK: XP: DESCRIPTION: Force Rank Up: Mend 0 4% Basic healing spell to bind wounds shut. Cannot restore lost blood or fix broken bones. 15 MP Rapid Bloom 1 15% Fill a single plant with life energy, providing a burst of growth. 25 MP Thornskin 0 0% Create sharp thorns across an area of the caster's body. 15 MP Immunize 0 0% Provide a short-duration buff to disease and poison resistance to a single target. 15 MP Sense Vitality 0 0% Gain an extrasensory perception towards any nearby sources of life within 200ft. 15 MP Camouflage 0 0% Temporarily increases the stealth of a single target by hiding their life signs. 15 MP

Learning a new spell, huh?

At this point, I was starting to wonder whether this was the natural, instinctual fear of a predator, or just some kind of jealousy or loneliness from me suddenly having to split my attention between the two. Not wanting to just leave the situation as it was, I prodded at her over our link one last time.

“Hey, Ephi—I think I might have something I need help with tomorrow that only you can help with. I know you’ve been adamant about not wearing any goofy clothing, but what if we tried making you some armor instead? I figure we might be able to make something cool, and it seems like just the thing to use to test our new starfont, assuming it works. Sound like a plan?”

She sat still for a moment, and I could tell that she knew damn well what this was: a bribe. Still, it seemed as if she was interested in it, nodding her head after a bit of deliberation. “Sure, but I want to have some say in its design. Deal?”

“Absolutely. Tomorrow morning, first thing.”

With nothing else pressing to work on, I continued to refine and elaborate upon the subterranean starfont I’d built as well as the rest lower floor, making sure leave the walls sturdy enough to hold the upper floors without me having to worry about a collapse.

If this didn’t work out, I could use the area as a bath or something like that, even if having to travel down two flights of animal-sized stairs to get to it wouldn’t be ideal. Still, I really wanted to stay optimistic that this would pull through for me, even if only to earn a win to make Ephi feel a bit less neglected.

Morale was too important of a thing to ignore, after all. Maybe a human resources department to help manage the day-to-day aspects of life wouldn't hurt once we had some hands to spare, even if only to relieve some of that from my shoulders.

Hell, maybe they could handle the naming of our employees too. On second thought, maybe it would just be simpler to let employees pick their own names.

That would save me from accidentally giving someone a name they didn't like, at least.

CURRENT PROGRESS:

BOSS

FRAGMENT OF COALESCED WILL LVL: 3 NAME: "Boss"

Traits:

Skills:

[Horticulture I]

[Biology I]

[Creator's Insight]

[Mech. Engineering I]

[Textiles I]

[Transmutation I]

[Mining I]

[Core Metalworking]

Features:

[Manamite Creation]

[Self-Synthesis]

[Manamite Specialization I]

[Material Infusion]

HP: 18 / 18 CATEGORY: Elemental MP: 46 / 100 SPECIES: Dungeon Core MP Rate: +22 daily SIZE: Tiny WEALTH: 5 XP: 65% STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 0 6 0 9 8 8

Nascent heart of a world-born entity, crystallized from soul energy. Exerts control over a localized area.

Manamite Horde (149 / 180):

139 Manamites

1 Managermites (-3 MP/d)

Boiler Squad (5 / 20):

5 Manamites

Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

Level: 5

Wealth: 25

Employees: 3

Cost: 100 MP

Facility: Prison Virtual Hoard:

[COMMON MATERIALS]

➤615.4 Raw Stone

➤418.0 Loose Soil

➤65.4 Biological Material

➤326.1 Raw Lumber

➤28.1 Plant Fiber

➤0.2 Raw Crystal

➤12.4 Iron Ore

➤35.9 Copper Ore

[RARE MATERIALS]

➤6.1 Moonstone

➤0.5 Shimmerwood

EPHILIA

CORE-TOUCHED DIRE MOUSE (RUNT) LVL: 4 NAME: "Ephilia"

Traits:

[Forged Sapience]

[Gigantism]

Skills:

[Scavenge]

[Festering Bite]

[Core Link II]

[Core Bond I]

[Enhanced Vitality I]

[Enhanced Strength I]

[Athletics I]

[Self-Catalyzation]

[Life Magic I]

Spells:

[Rapid Bloom I]

HP: 12 / 12 CATEGORY: Employee MP: 0 / 0 SPECIES: Field Mouse SP: 5 / 5 SIZE: Small XP: 71% GENDER: ♀ STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 5 6 5 5 3 7

A field rodent of unusual size under the auric influence of a dungeon core. Possesses enhanced mental acuity and judgement. Force Level-Up Cost: 30 MP Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

PRIMAL ASCENSION

Cost: 100 MP

'FOX'

CORE-TOUCHED FOX KIT LVL: 3 NAME: undefined

Traits:

[Forged Sapience]

[Mana Processing]

Skills:

[Core Link I]

[Core Bond I]

[Stealth I]

[Evasion I]

[Self-Catalyzation]

[Light Magic I]

Equipped:

🞚 Moonlit Silver Opal Ring-Amulet

HP: 9 / 9 CATEGORY: Employee MP: 0 / 2 SPECIES: Fox SP: 5 / 5 SIZE: Small XP: 12% GENDER: ♀ STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 3 3 5 6 (+1) 4 7

A common red fox imbued with the auric touch of a dungeon core. A cunning and playful beast that's known for causing mischief. Force Level-Up Cost: 30 MP Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

PRIMAL ASCENSION

Cost: 100 MP