I took a few deep breaths, making a conscious effort to pull myself together. I was going to need a clear head for this. “There’s a lot to go through, Cax. Where do you suggest I start?”

“Leveling up,” he replied firmly. “As I told you, while you were sleeping, I looked over your stats to see what else was different from a regular adventurer. This one is quite special and is going to affect how you approach everything else.”

Curious, I called up my stats screen and looked at the relevant information. I was currently level 1, and I could see I needed 25 experience to reach the next level. How could I gain experience, though? Focusing on that section brought up a new screen.

Experience is the name given to a special kind of energy.

It is known by this name because it can only be obtained by doing.

The main ways to gain experience are killing, crafting, and questing.

Killing creatures will siphon off a large portion of their energy, which will be converted into experience and stored in your body.

Crafting will create energy fluctuations as matter changes form. Due to your proximity to the process, you are able to draw in some of the excess energy and convert it into experience.

Questing will often provide a certain amount of experience as a reward.

You are unique in that the experience you gain won’t be automatically used to increase your level.

You will have to choose between using your experience to level up and spending it to gain access to your knowledge core in order to learn new capabilities.

That was a lot to take in. I read over it again to make sure I got it all. Strangely, the thing that stuck in my head was that name. Knowledge core. I assumed that was referring to Cax’s body. I wasn’t a big fan of the name. I wanted something better for the new addition to my body.

I tried a few out to see how they sounded. Smart Heart? No, too casual for something so important. Central Intelligence? Already taken. Knowledge Center? Nah, too generic.

I thought an acronym might sound better. I played around with a few variations before I came to a conclusion. I sucked at naming things. Whatever improvements had been done to me hadn’t included a boost to my creativity.

Cax chimed in with his opinion. “I think it is a perfectly good name for my new vessel. It’s a mix of my new purpose and my old self.”

Knowledge core it is, I thought, giving up.

Turning my attention back to what was actually important, I put my mind to working out how to gain experience in order to level up. I assumed that would make me stronger, which would definitely help me handle any future problems.

I quickly ruled out killing and questing as ways to get experience. The first one was a definite no-go, and I didn’t think the second was even possible on this planet. That left crafting. I already…

My thinking was interrupted by Cax. He sounded more than a little excited. “You are missing the important part. A regular adventurer has their experience automatically assigned to leveling up, which is converted into attribute points they can use. You, on the other hand, must choose how to use your experience. To level up, or to pull out information from your knowledge core to gain new powers. It’s truly fascinating! And I must say, I’m very pleased there’s a way for you to access all the knowledge I have accumulated in my life.”

“OK…,” I told him, not really getting why he was so excited or why this was so special. After all, there was no regular way for me. Everything was new and strange. While it did sound interesting, I didn’t want to get ahead of myself so I went back to my original train of thought.

“Before we worry about how to use the experience, we need to get some,” I told him. “Now, I apparently already know a profession,” I said as I returned to my stats page.

“Where was it again…there we go. Dungeon Construction. Is that what I think it is?” I asked him, knowing he knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Yes. Another unique difference. And I must say, I can’t wait to see how it will work as a profession.” If he had a head, I was sure he’d be shaking it. “A human creating a dungeon. Amazing! I wonder if it will look like mine and how…”

I cut him off with a smile. “Focus, Cax. Now, I’m thinking it will probably be pretty hard to hide the fact I am building an underground facility, so it would be best to wait until Mum goes to work, right?”

“Agreed,” he replied. “You will most likely need contact with the ground for it to work and a fair amount of time. If you use the backyard like you are thinking of doing, she will probably be curious and ask questions.”

I thought for a second. “If I understood what I read correctly, using a profession to make something should give me experience, so that’s probably my best bet for getting enough to level up. Is there anything else I can do right now, though, to get some experience while we wait for her to leave?”

I could feel him considering the question. “Well, you do have two abilities that come from me and are unique to dungeon cores. Absorb and Create. I was able to get some experience when using them, so perhaps you can too.”

“Perfect. Let’s give it a go.”

I found the first ability he told me about and looked at its information.

Absorb

Use mana to break something down and learn how to reproduce it.

This is a unique ability.

Cost: 0

(A sufficient amount of mana is required to fully envelop the target, however all mana is returned upon completion.)

Range: Touch

The reference to breaking something down seemed like crafting in reverse, so I felt confident I could gain some experience from using the ability. Definitely worth a shot, I thought eagerly.

Leaving the other ability he told me about for later, I looked around my room for something I wouldn’t mind losing. I was a bit of a hoarder, so this wasn’t going to be easy. Spotting some textbooks from my university days in the bookcase, I went over and grabbed two. I knew I was never going to use them again, so they would be perfect test subjects.

I ignored the little voice in my head that told me I should keep them just in case and took them back to my bed. I knew that was my hoarding demon talking and not Cax. I sat down cross-legged and got comfortable.

“Any suggestions before I try this?”

“Contact with a surface in my dungeon was required for me to absorb something, so I recommend maintaining contact with the book throughout the process.”

Taking his advice, I held one of the books in my left hand and placed my right hand on top of it. Staring intently at the book, I thought about the ability and said, “Absorb.”

I could feel the energy leaving my center and flowing along my arms. It felt slightly warm as it moved through me, but nowhere near the level of the Life energy the Heal spell had used. When it reached my hands, it kept going and went into the book, filling it up. Just like with the spells, the ability had taken control and was directing the mana without any help from me. Which was a good thing because I would have no idea what to do otherwise.

“And there is the true value of the interface the enchantments provide,” Cax said in appreciation. “The need for years of study completely bypassed, allowing anyone to perform amazing feats.”

I barely heard him as my attention remained on what was happening. Even though the mana left my body, I could still feel it within the book. It somehow remained connected to me. It was like I had a new sense, almost as if my mana were a body part and I was able to feel what it was touching.

My hands were slightly warm where the mana was flowing out, but apart from that, there was no outward indication that anything was happening. If anyone were watching, they would have no clue that something was going on.

Just as I got the feeling that the book was filled with my energy, it shimmered for half a second and then disappeared completely. In learning its structure, the mana had completely destroyed it. Instead of dispersing, I could feel all the energy that had gone into the book start to flow back into my body. It traveled to my chest, where I got the sense of it covering something. My knowledge core!

I could feel the new addition to my body as it took in the information contained within my mana, learning the pattern for the book. I could tell that it was about half as big as my clenched fist, and it had many smooth sides. It seemed to be a miniature version of the dungeon core, just like Cax had said.

The last of my mana reentered my body and reached the core in my chest, depositing the information it contained. Then I felt all of the energy return to my center. Not a single point of mana had been lost in the process. I was reminded of a fisherman casting out his net and reeling in his catch. Suddenly, the sense of my energy and knowledge core disappeared from my mind.

I was surprised to realize that only about 10 seconds had passed. It had seemed like much longer as I got caught up following the energy. I excitedly checked my status. My experience was now at 1/25.

1 experience point for a whole book?! I thought incredulously. Leveling up this way would be expensive! At least it had worked, though.

“Well done. The pattern for the book has been successfully added to your knowledge core.”

I got a bit worried. “You’re not going to get bigger, are you? I mean, if I add more patterns to the core?” I had an image of him breaking through my chest, sci-fi style.

I swear he almost laughed. “No, it’s fine. A core’s structure is extremely efficient. I am able to contain an almost infinite amount of information. Also, since you are the one who will be leveling up, not me, my size will always remain constant.”

“Good to know,” I said. Picking up the second book, I focused on using the Absorb ability again. After several seconds of everything appearing normal, the book shimmered and then it was gone. A few seconds after that, I felt the process within me finish.

A look at my experience total showed me I now had 2 experience points. I was happy with the smooth use of the ability, but it definitely wasn’t an ideal way to gain experience. I wanted to have a look at the other ability Cax had mentioned. Create. It seemed like it could be a complement to Absorb. Maybe making something would provide more experience than destroying something?

I pulled up the information on it.

Create

Make something you know the pattern for out of mana. No materials are required.

This is a unique ability.

Cost: 25 mana per item rank

Range: Touch

When I concentrated on using the ability, a huge list suddenly appeared. There were all manner of things on there. Weapons, accessories, food, gems, and so many more. I guess it was showing me everything Cax had ever absorbed too. Although I wanted to go through and see what amazing possibilities there were, I managed to control myself and focus on my immediate goal.

With a thought, I was able to narrow the list down to what I had personally absorbed. I was left with just the two books. I selected one.

You do not meet the requirements to use [Create] on this item.

Required Profession missing: [Scribe]

Well, that was a letdown.

“It seems your hybrid status has tied the Create ability to professions.”

“You don’t say?” I replied sarcastically.

Ignoring my tone, he continued. “The fact it doesn’t require materials is consistent with a core’s ability, and something you should be extremely grateful for. That will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” I told him, again not having a reference point to appreciate whether it truly was a good thing or not.

“Now that you have your first experience points and a reliable way of gaining more,” he said, “You should find out how many points are required to unlock the knowledge in your core. I hold information on many things, including every profession, thanks to the fallen adventurers I absorbed. You may be able to learn a new profession to use Create with.”

I couldn’t help shuddering a little at his casual mention of absorbing dead people. Once I got past that, I admitted his idea was good. I was now fairly confident in the use of my interface, so I wasn’t surprised when focusing on the experience points section of my stats and thinking about using them brought up a new screen.

Experience points available: 2

Please choose from the following options:

Level up (25xp)

Magical Affinities (25xp)

Spells (20xp)

Active Abilities (20xp)

Passive Abilities (25xp)

Skills (20xp)

Professions (25xp)

Cax spoke up. “Give me a second here…ok. I can tell that unlocking and learning affinities, professions, and passive abilities will always require the same amount as leveling up does. Spells, active abilities, and skills seem to have a flat cost of 20 experience.”

I considered that. “Will the cost of leveling up increase each time?”

“For regular adventurers, yes. It will most likely be the same for you.”

“Ok, so it will be cheaper to stay at level 1 and spend all the experience I get on learning affinities and professions. Sounds like we have a plan,” I said, happy to have a solid direction to go in.

“Not quite,” he said. “Pull up your stats again. Have a look at the bottom sections.”

I focused on just those parts.

“See the number next to your affinities and professions? That’s your limit. Your affinities are at three out of three. That means you can’t learn any more at your current level. This limit should increase as you level up and improvements are made to your body and mind. Unfortunately, that will also mean the cost to unlock and learn a new affinity will increase. You can still learn two professions at your current level, though, so you should do that before leveling up and increasing the cost.”

I noticed he didn’t mention the other one that seemed to have a limit. “What’s with the passive abilities? It says I can only have one. Why is the limit so low for that compared to the others?”

“Affinities and professions require a lot of knowledge. They basically fill your mind with an extreme amount of information that you are subconsciously able to call on when needed. Your brain is not as efficient as a core, but still, it is capable of holding quite a lot.

Passive abilities, on the other hand, actually change your physical structure. Things like enhancing the toughness of your skin to reduce damage or altering your eyes and receptors to allow vision in the dark. They are extremely taxing on your body, which is why the limit is much lower.”

I would have to do a lot of thinking before choosing something like that! Yes, my body had already been changed, but they were just improvements to my existing human traits. Those passive abilities sounded like they would turn me into something other than human.

Putting aside that dilemma for another day, I asked him a final question. “It looks like there are no limits on how many spells, abilities, and skills I can learn. Why’s that?”

“Well, a spell is simply a small application of an affinity. It basically just takes the knowledge you already have and manipulates the energy in one specific way, so it doesn’t require that much extra space in your mind. Active abilities work in much the same way. And for skills, well, they mainly require a bit of muscle memory and a fair amount of magic, which again doesn’t take up that much brain power.”

I felt I had a decent grasp of the restrictions I had to work within, so I moved on to thinking about what I should do and how I should spend my experience.

I was leaning towards maxing out my professions before leveling up. That would let me use my Create ability, which might be another method of gaining experience. However, to get enough experience to learn a single profession, I would have to absorb 23 more things.

Since I wouldn’t be able to replace anything I absorbed if I didn’t have a matching profession for it, I was hesitant to do that. I started to make a mental list of what I wouldn’t mind losing but came up well short of the required number. My hoarding tendencies were working against me.

A thought occurred to me. “Do you have any items I can make that don’t require professions?”

There was a pause. “I am unsure,” he answered slowly. “I will need time to look at all the patterns I hold to see which ones may have no requirements.”

I stroked my chin as I considered what to do. Should I go ahead and sacrifice a bunch of my belongings and then learn a new profession, or wait for Cax to go through his patterns and hope it was possible to make something without a profession?

Cax came to my rescue. “There’s no real reason you must decide now. I suggest you try out your Dungeon Construction profession before committing to a course of action. It will almost certainly provide you with a large amount of experience, and if so, you won’t need to use Absorb. Also, that will give me time to look at all the patterns.”

It didn’t take long for me to realize that was a pretty good idea. If making a dungeon gave a decent amount of experience like Cax said, I could focus on that as the main way to gain experience and not even have to worry about using Absorb and losing my things.

If it gave enough experience to learn even a single profession, I would be happy. Then I could definitely try out Create and we’d be able to adjust our plans once we saw if it gave experience.

Confident that we’d found the best way to proceed, I couldn’t wait to get started. I decided to head to the backyard immediately and have a go at making my very own dungeon. As long as I could avoid Mum on the way there, I should be able to hide in the corner and be undisturbed. This was going to be fun!