What was a dungeon core anyways? A divisive question, and one guaranteed to cause a massive scholarly disruption when asked in the College of Eternal Life. Some claimed they were a higher life form, superior. Others claimed they were a lower life form, inferior. Some claimed they weren't lifeforms at all, just machines without real intellect.

Then, the Techno-Liches and the Magic-Liches would fall into a familiar and friendly pattern of debate that ultimately went nowhere. An argument between two groups of Liches could, due to their undead nature, last for weeks without interruption or break.

The question of what a dungeon core was, was difficult to answer. The question of what a dungeon core did, that was well documented, well studied, and well agreed upon.

Dungeon Cores were, in an extremely loose broad and in no way complete terms, a water filtration plant for mana. It was well documented that Dungeon Cores existed on multiple planes of existence at once, all the way to and including The Beyond, and that they pulled power straight into The World like big, multi-dimensional pumps. They were a bit of technology that predated even the legendary Primordial War, and their original craftsmen were long forgotten to history.

A world without dungeons was a world without magic, or worse, a world without clean magic.

Because, like water, raw magic was full of sediment, pollutants, and living creatures. Just like raw water, it could be used, and just like raw water, using it was just asking for trouble.

Unlike raw water, however, using raw magic was a surefire way to get completely infested with evil spirits, or mutate wildly, or just straight up summon some extremely unhappy monster from a different plane of existence.

Dungeon Cores pulled in raw mana through something like an enormous filter that blocked out anything too big or dangerous to be processed. The mana was then allowed to settle, allowing the pure magic to separate from all the gunk that had attached around it. The gunk was fashioned into physical matter, additional rooms and monsters for the dungeon, while the pure mana was then subjected to further processing. It was spun, twisted, shaken, vibrated, scrubbed, boiled, condensed, and finally frozen into pure mana gems which were consumed by the Dungeon Core. The core, after it had eaten, then gently released the wonderful and refreshing magic into its environment like the universe's most advanced humidifier.

It was, in many ways, a microcosm of what The System was doing with The World, and indeed it was the basic technology from which The System had derived his Magnum Opus, his great masterpiece.

The spider-human-centaur thing that was currently a half second away from landing on Short Bus and eviscerating him didn't know any of this. It, or she if we're being really fair to a murderous, evil, [Mutation Scientist] monster, had been born in the Citadel of Horrors without the burden of backstory, which generally only Gremlins were subjected to.

She was happier for it, and didn't question that she'd just popped into existence one day under the rule of a [Tyrant], the Citadel Fly, and that she would execute his will gleefully, even at the cost of her own life.

Still.

Despite her loyalty, she hadn't raised the alarm. She was upset she'd been told to remain and keep an eye on the Mutation Chambers, and so, when a group of tasty looking morsels stumbled into her web. . . well, she did what spiders did.

She attacked.

Chapter 37

Ben's scream of terror saved Short Bus's life. The shark reacted faster than thought, jumping backwards and suffering only a deep gash along his chest, rather than a full evisceration from the now hissing spider centaur. To call it a drider would be a misnomer of the highest order, because it would imply that the monster's human half looked human.

It did not, not even a little bit. It had a spider's face with a humanoid skull, and a humanoid torso, and arms. It was covered from top to bottom in thick, chitinous armor, and its hands looked like someone had used photoshop on a black widow's legs and configured them into digits. It raised a bloody hand to its spider mouth and licked the blood, and made a noise that was way too close to a purr. It opened its mouth like it was going to start talking, which was exactly where Ben drew the line.

Nope.

“Hold your tongue!” Ben shouted, raising his scepter, and waves of heat poured off of his body. They washed over his party, and Short Bus's wound visibly healed. Interestingly enough, waves of heat began to rise off of the now silenced spider, and it choked, unable to speak.

“Finally,” Short Bus said, and his bow appeared in his hand in a purple flash, equipped from a utility pocket Ben had attached to his wrist. He had in fact, equipped each member of his party with a small utility pocket that contained their weapons. Ben was very proud of the Utility Pocket work as well, which he had done entirely on his own. Ben would have described it like programming, and if he had, he would have been grossly misleading everyone he told that to.

It was more like having a non-verbal conversation with each Utility Pocket and convincing it to listen to the person he'd attached it to, and to use their mana for all operations. Then, he told it what he wanted it to do, which in this case was equipping and unequipping weapons. He was sure he'd be able to get the Utility Pocket to do more for other people, but at the moment, Ben didn't have the time to explore this new aspect of his Plus Perk.

“Lunch,” Short Bus finished, taking aim and firing in a moment. The arrow was a bright, neon red that illuminated nothing around it, and streaked across the room like a tracer round. Red had caught the spider in her paralyzing gaze, and Anna was running across the room, her carp knuckles equipped via Utility Pocket. Vivi's Canid Abominations ran around the Sunlet, ready to assist her. Ghost Ears was flying around with Thirty-One, who had gone to secure the exit closest to the monster and cut off her escape route.

Dryst didn't have much of a chance to do anything except watch the massive overreaction to a single, non-combat monster.

The red arrow shattered the chitin armor of the centaur-esque fiend, and pierced her chest. Anna and the dogs were fast, and piled onto the large creature and pulverized it, even though it had already suffered a fatal injury from the arrow.

Ben had been preparing a [Kinetic Leap], but had stopped when he realized how wholly unnecessary it would be. Instead, he intently watched the scene, wiping the rest of his non-water tears from his eyes and face. He even had the presence of mind to look around and up, to see if there were any more threats around, something nobody else had managed to think to do. The ceiling was clear, fortunately, at least to Ben's eyes. His nope sense was at a comfortable, ‘you shouldn’t be here, but you’re in the shit now bucko, so keep an eye out. Nothing dangerous at the moment’.

He looked over at the over-enthusiastic goring of the giant spider, grimaced, and then discretely asked Ghost Ears to put a stop to it by staring at the fairy, then looking over at Anna and the dogs, then looking back at the fairy till he got it.

To his credit, he got it immediately. Ben didn't know it, but Ghost Ears was an expert in getting groups to stop beating on a corpse. His time as a village chief was serving him wellin his new role. Fairies man, you did not want to fuck with fairies.

Short Bus was acting squirrely too, he kept eyeing the corpse and edging his way closer, his mouth slightly open and his sharp teeth exposed. Ben, at this point, could basically see the fucking future, and covertly called Red over.

“Does your [System Looting] ability have a way to turn corpses into food?” Red thought about it for a few moments, then said she needed a body so she could check, and without preamble, Ben produced the now proportionally tiny 'body' of a fairy skeleton he'd defeated in Vivi's dungeon.

Red took it and moments later she was holding what looked like a single hot-wing, like something you'd get at a restaurant on earth. Ben's mouth immediately started salivating, and he noted with pleasure that the food had the same hyper-vivid, [Magical] quality as his own body. He was about to take it and start eating, but then he thought of Short Bus, his best friend, and how little food the enormous predator had gotten. Had he even eaten anything besides the tuna in the last three or so days?

“Short Bus!” Ben called, and it was clear that the Man-Shark was hangry from the way his head snapped away from looking at the 'food' to give his attention to Ben. The hangry irritation transformed into glee when his powerful nose caught a whiff of the [Magical] chicken wing from all the way across the room, and he sprinted towards Red.

For a second, just a second, Ben thought he might bite her arm off. Red hadn't seemed bothered by it, indeed, she smirked and tossed the food high into the air, and Short Bus jumped higher than he ought to be able to, and caught it in his jaws before it could start to fall back to the ground.

“More,” he said, and it was on.

Rather than immediately go for the obvious solution of looting the spider, Ben started pacing around the room with a now ravenously restless shark, looking into each of the mutation chambers one by one, until he found one with a mostly harmless looking flesh abomination. He, via Short Bus's telepathy, silently gathered the group around the chamber, and conveyed his desires.

Was this alive, or dead? Ben opened a utility pocket inside the chamber, near the floating still body, and poked it with a sharp stick. No reaction, so then, Ben stabbed it with the sharp stick. Short Bus and Red then told Ben that they both had perception powers that allowed them to see if something was alive or dead. Ben, deciding that bullshit was the best solution, told them that on Earth poking a body with a stick to see if it was alive or not was a well respected cultural institution.

They believed him without argument.

Ben [Whap'd!] the body, and then deposited it in range of Red's [System Looting]. She put her hand over it, and the body transmuted in a rather beautiful, easy to watch way, into a pile of [Magical] roast turkey legs. The smell! They looked juicy, and delicious, steam was rising from them like they were fresh from a fire, and there was a smell like spices!

Ben and Short Bus shared a look, a look that said 'look how far we've come. We made it, things are going to be alright,' and both of them grabbed an enormous turkey leg. Short Bus took a bite and grunted in pleasure, crunching the entire thing, bones and all, in his enormous jaw.

Ben's food got smacked out of his hand by Anna, and were Ben any less of a reasonable person, Anna would have died for her crime.

“Don't do it,” she said, clearly unafraid of Ben's wrath, “you're [Magical].”

Ben looked at her with uncomprehending hungry eyes.

“I don't know how or why you can do it, but [Magical] is a Sunlet racial ability. It's not rare, but it's not common either,” she explained, “but you can't eat [Magical] food, or you'll never regenerate your physical body.”

Ben looked at her, a mere flesh puppet for the desires of his stomach, his brain gagged and tied up in a corner somewhere.

“You'll lose the ability to get your normal body back?” Anna said, clearly not understanding that she wasn't making a compelling argument, “you'll lose your ability to regenerate after death?” She might as well be going 'wah wah wah wah' like the adults in Charlie Brown, “you'll be stuck like this,” she said, indicating his glowing body, “forever.”

Ben looked at the now much diminished pile of turkey legs, then looked over to Short Bus and Ghost Ears, who were both unashamedly chowing down. They looked so happy, they were laughing and clapping each other on the backs, despite their extreme size differences, and neither one of them was looking at Ben.

Ben wanted friendly food back slaps. He wanted to be happy and eating food right now. His stomach burbled at him, and he skuffed the ground with a bare foot.

“Fucking bullshit,” he mumbled, then began looting each and every mutation chamber. The next body, he had Red transform into [Magical] cabbages, which Vivi ate with great delight. The one after that was transformed into a pile of almost gelatinous sapphires, which were consumed by Anna's entire party with great enthusiasm. Even the jello gemstones smelled and looked amazing.

Ben was about ready to start punching people just based on how happy and refreshed they looked after eating. He contented himself with stealing every floating corpse in the room while they were eating, extremely pleased to find that his [Utility Pouch] was more than up to the task. Being [Magical] had its advantages he guessed. He also took the body of the spider, even though it was badly damaged.

Red had suggested looting all the corpses right there, but Ben had reminded everyone that they were on a time crunch, that their plan depended on having the Pocket of Sanctuary, and that they had less than forty minutes left before it was gone.

Had Ben sounded snappy and irritable when he said all that? I won't say, but imagine how you would feel if you were starving, and surrounded by people happily eating and saying how good the food was, and being unable to do anything but smell it.

Red was the only one, the only one, who didn't eat anything in solidarity with Ben, and he was pretty sure that was because she hadn't quite grasped the concept of eating yet, and that she didn't know she needed to do it more than once. She had spent their short break scouting ahead with her eyes, taking extra time now to see if there were any hidden enemies.

They were in a hurry, but not so much of a hurry that they were going to rush ahead without Red's say so.

“How did you guys miss that thing anyways,” Ben asked, “that spider? Red's got her amazing eyes,” he said, and Red frowned, “and Short Bus, you're psychic. Between the two of you, nothing should be able to sneak up on us.” Much to Ben's surprise, it wasn't Vivi who started talking, or Ghost Ears. It was Dryst, and he actually sounded a little pissed.

“I'm glad we're bringing this up,” he said, his body lighting up in time with his words, “because it's clear none of you have any idea how much trouble we're in right now.”

In response, Ben snorted up a booger that had been bothering him. Dryst didn't scare him.

“You saw all those bodies, all the ones they stitched and mutated together? There were grays in there, your majesty,” Dryst said with sarcasm, “and when they came through, they were very likely able to detect every monster in this Dungeon with their psychic senses. But, you know what? This is a Citadel, not a Dungeon, and Citadels learn. They adapt to every tactic that's been used against them.”

Anna whispered 'oh fuck', and Thirty-One made a little mechanical sound of distress.

“They know,” Dryst continued, “at least, now they're thinking about it. What we're doing in here? We had better succeed, or die trying, because if we fail and live, the Adventurer's Guild is going to tear us apart. Thirty-One, how deep in are we right now? Please read off our crimes.”

“Our current list of Major Citadel Crimes are as follows,” Thirty-One said, “We have utilized the following restricted tactics; Surprise Attack: One Week Public Torment; Utilizing Non-Citadel Silver Keys: Ten Years Indentured Servitude; Lock Picking: Five Years Indentured Servitude; Patrol Blind Spots: Twenty Years Forced Mana Extraction, Ten Years Indentured Servitude; Wall Transparency: Twenty Years Forced Mana Extraction, Ten Years Indentured Servitude, One Month Public Torment; Summoning: One Century Forced Mana Extraction, One Century Indentured Servitude, One Year Public Torment, Execution,” he paused as though reading something, “Oh, this is a new one,” he said, “Resource Awareness, Humanity: One Millennia Forced Mana Extraction, One Millennia Indentured Servitude, One Century Public Torment, Public Execution.”

“How is any of what we did illegal?” Ben asked, outraged, “how the fuck are we supposed to survive in here without doing any of that?”

“It's illegal,” Dryst said, “because if we fail, none of it will work the next time someone assaults this Citadel,” the higher music elemental hissed, which sounded a bit like a high note on a flute, “it means that if we fail, this place is going to be significantly more dangerous and hard to deal with. As for how we are supposed to survive, there are laws and regulations for attacking Citadel's. There's an entire branch of the Adventurer's Guild that specializes solely in dealing with these things, because otherwise, amateurs like us are going to create Fortress's left and right!” At Ben's blank expression, Anna explained.

“A Citadel Fortress,” she said quietly, her voice subdued, “it's the next step up from a Citadel. Clearing one is considered a fool’s errand. The best anyone is able to do is just learn to live with them, and manage them as best we can. Entire regions of The World are uninhabitable because of them. Shit, we're in really deep. This thing is way, way too close to Solas,” she started to look close to a panic now, “burning fucking stars,” she said, “what if Solas falls because of us?”

In response Dryst just floated there, somehow looking super pissed off.

“Doesn't matter,” Ben said, even though he didn't believe it, “the plan hasn't changed. We're in it to win it, got it?” he said, and every member of his group nodded their heads.

“I'm already a criminal, so this doesn't scare me at all,” Vivi said, nodding his eye-stalks.

“I don't even think it's possible for me to lose,” Short Bus said, nodding his head with unearned confidence.

“Nothing's changed,” Ghost Ears said, “it's as [Prince] Ben has said.”

“I'd rather die than be responsible for the creation of a Fortress of Chaos,” Red said, her determination kind of clashing a bit with the otherwise unified front of indifference of the party, “and I know my party feels the same.”

“Citadel Fortress,” Vivi corrected, “you aren't in The Beyond anymore, and you aren't fighting the forces of Chaos.”

“So says you,” Red countered, “but you can't see what's under their physical forms like I can. I know what I'm fighting.” In response to that, Ben stood up from the impromptu group huddle, God they were having a lot of group huddles, and started to walk to the exit.

“You have a safe path for us?” Ben asked, and Red nodded, “Good. Keep quiet, and let's head out,” he said in a whisper. The eight of them got into formation, and Red's second eye took its place over their heads, granting them all vastly expanded awareness of their surroundings.

They moved quickly, and in impressive silence, each one of them having been affected more than they let on by Dryst's comments. They would occasionally stop, halted by a hand gesture from Red, and backtrack around a corner before continuing forward. Her second eye would occasionally move away from them and backtrack, ensuring that nothing could sneak up on them from behind.

It was tense and slow going, but they hadn't seen a single monster the entire trip. It was a powerful testament to Red's path-finding abilities. They were stopped around a corner of another hallway, the room that contained the Citadel Core just a short dash away.

“It's guarded,” she whispered, “two-”

“Roach Knights,” Ben supplied.

“Roach Knights,” she continued, using the name Ben had come up with on the spot. “They're blocking the doorway. If I use both eyes, I should be able to lock them both down,” she said, “but don't count on it. Their minds feel extremely weak,” she said, “and I have doubts my abilities will be able to latch onto them.”

“Ok,” Ben said, ignoring how freaky everything Red just said was, “Ghost Ears, how confident are you at CC'ing at least one of them?”

“CC'ing?” he said, then quickly continued, “right, we talked about that. I'm not super confident about it, the target has to be able to sleep for my [Sweet Dreams] skill to take hold.”

“I'll lock them down,” Dryst said, surprising Ben. He hadn't been sure Dryst was even capable of being useful.

“You'll do it?” Ben asked, not even trying to keep the skepticism from his tone.

“I'll do it,” Dryst said. Ben looked at Anna, who much to his surprise, nodded like she thought Dryst could do it. Ben looked at Thirty-One, who also indicated the affirmative.

“O. . . k. . .” Ben said, drawing the syllables out, “Red, Ghost Ears, and Dryst, get out there and see if you can paralyze those guards. The rest of us will be right behind you, ready to attack. Our priority is on keeping either of them from running off and alerting the rest of the Citadel. Got it?”

Nods of affirmation all around. Dryst hummed a little bit, and the sick-ass musical instruments he'd partially copied from the Mongolian war music video appeared next to him. They looked alive.

“Follow behind me,” the higher music elemental said, sounding a little pissed. Red and Ghost Ears shared a look, then looked to Ben for guidance. Ben shrugged and nodded his head, which was a surprisingly hard set of gestures to do together.

Dryst started moving, and as he did so, music like the buzzing of insects filled the hallway. The large, magical [Instrument Familiars] surged ahead, their bow arms powerfully sawing across their strings, producing the unpleasant sounds.

The Roach Knights flinched, and their bodies locked up, occasionally shivering. Red and Ghost Ears charged forward, both of them using their abilities as well.

Ben's eyebrows rose as he watched a Roach Knight start to leak neon green blood from its joints, and he somehow just knew it was from Dryst's ability.

“Mop 'em up,” Ben said, and the group charged. It wasn't much of a fight, more of an execution. The Roach Knights were able to break out of their paralysis once attacked, but by that point, they'd already taken so much damage it was too late.

Ben gave Dryst an appraising look, then a nod of new-found respect. In response, the Higher Music Elemental harrumphed.

“I'm not going to bring shame on my entire circle,” he said huffily, “by being the Music Elemental that created a Fortress. We pull this off, or die trying.”

In response, Ben [Whap'd] the two Roach Knights, complete with the hand gesture and sound effect, with a shit-eating grin on his face when he did so. He didn't know why, but he just liked messing with Dryst. Then, things got serious again, and Ben examined the door.

“It's behind here?” he asked, and Red nodded. “Everybody ready?” he asked, and nobody said they weren't. “This isn't a heist,” he said, “this is strong-arm robbery. Smash and Grab, got it? Once we're in there, no more sneaking around. The entire Citadel is going to be moving, and they're going to be pissed.

“I've given Frankie the alert. When I get the gems, he's going to transfer them to the Pocket of Sanctuary, immediately. I told him to do whatever he needs to do, spend whatever he needs to, and teleport the Pocket to our location. That's our way out.”

“You're sure he's going to be able to teleport it immediately?” Anna asked, a look of concern on her face.

“Absolutely,” Ben said, “it'll be instant.”

“We aren't going to have to run through the Citadel and fight our way through hundreds of powerful elite monsters?”

“Absolutely not,” Ben said, “Now listen.” Ben said, looking at his group, “I know we wanted that Map of Wish,” when he said 'Map of Wish', Anna's entire group practically got exclamation marks over their heads from shock, “but that might not be in the cards. If we can bring this place down and get out alive, that's enough for me. Greed kills,” he said, and nobody disagreed with him.

It hurt, but he was willing to let treasure go if it meant nobody got killed.

“This is just like that time with those treasure chests in my Lair,” Vivi said, chuckling. Ben shot him a death glare, and pulled it off so well he almost got the [Death Glare] skill.

“I told you,” Ben said, “we are never to talk about that again. When you opened that first chest it was funny, but all three? Come on Vivi. My heart still hurts from that memory,” Ben said, clutching his chest, where his heart really did feel sore from the memory of the empty treasure chests.

“Not the time,” Short Bus said softly, which really sobered them all up. Ben took a deep breath, made eye contact with everybody one last time, and then put his hand on the door of the Citadel Core, and pushed.

It opened without a sound and brilliant, thick crimson light poured out and pigmented the very space around them. The large party rushed in and began their assault.