Resources

Gained by absorbing various non-living materials, used as currency for Dungeon Building.

Current Resource Count - 32

Wil slowly exhaled, even if the gesture was meaningless. It just seemed like the correct response to frustration. Add Resources onto the growing list of things he wished he knew about sooner. Thankfully they hadn't gotten very far into this Dungeon Building process before it became available.

"Okay Belle, what's the difference between Mana and Resources?"

Belle was spinning around in circles, happy to be able to show off her Guide knowledge, "Well Mana is used to directly upgrading your Dungeon. So adding Rooms and new Floors all take it, but the finer details all need Resources. It wouldn't make much sense if it cost Mana just to make a pretty rug or throw pillow. So that is what Dungeons use Resources for."

Belle took a deep breath and continued, "Resources can also be used to upgrade existing rooms if you want to go back and make the walls stronger, or add more lights." Wil was happy to hear this since he was worried he would be stuck waiting weeks for his Mana to come back for him to keep building.

There was one thing Wil did not hear her mention, and he had to know, "If Mana and Resources only upgrade the Dungeon. What do I use to buy Monsters?" He asked.

She shot him a glare, "Don't get ahead of yourself now Wil, there is a reason I haven't told you about those for now." The idea that she was hiding things from him hurt his ego more than he would care to admit.

Belle, sensing she may have made a mistake, followed up with, "Oh Wil don't be like that, I only kept it from you because I was worried if I showed you how to make Monsters you would want to rush into that and neglect the other areas of your Dungeon."

Wil knew she was right, but it still hurt to not be trusted. "I promise I won't neglect any of my Dungeon duties if you promise not to hide anything from me again?" He offered.

Belle's smile was so radiant it made the entire Core Room shine, "Deal! The way you buy Monsters is with Monster Points, you get 100 MP for your first floor. 200 MP for your second, and so on and so on. The stronger a Monster is the more MP it is going to cost." Wil was glad he didn't know this earlier, he wouldn't have been able to restrain himself.

With great difficulty he swallowed his curiosity and soldiered forward, he would save Monsters for later.

"Okay. Can you tell me what the best way for me to get more resources is?" He asked.

Belle smiled at his restraint, "The quickest way, aside from digging out Rooms and Tunnels and absorbing what you displace, would be consuming non-living things. So basically anything that isn't a living and breathing creature or Sapient that comes into your dungeon can be absorbed by you and turned into Resources. Not to mention that whatever you absorb, you can then recreate whenever you want. For a price of resources that is." That sounded ridiculously convenient. Now whenever Wil wants, as long as he had previously absorbed something, he could make it again?

"So...what did I absorb when I made that Tunnel?" Wil asked Belle. Her eyes took on a glassy stare as she looked at an unseen menu.

"There's a full rundown on what you absorbed but that's a whole bunch of numbers neither of us wants to deal with. Just know you got a whole bunch of Stone, Moss and a little bit of...Ohh! You got a little Silver Ore. Lucky you!"

"Yay! What's Silver?" Wil asked with as much bravado as he could.

"Haha, it's one of the common forms of currencies among the Sapients, it's a great way for us to attract some Two-legs into our Dungeon when we are ready. They love the stuff, and since we can just keep making it then they will keep coming back to mine it. All you have to do is put a little in a part of the Dungeon and people will come in just to get a piece of it." Belle said with a small smile.

Apparently having a way to keep the Sapients sticking around my Dungeon is a good thing. Duly noted.

"Now hurry up Wil, I can tell that the Sun is going to be rising soon and when it does your Mana is going to refill." How the hell does she know the Sun is rising? Aren't we both stuck in a cave?

"Well, I've only got 5/10 Mana left. So what can I even do with it? It costs 10 Mana just to buy a room!" Wil complained aloud.

Belle flew over and smacked the top of his Core, "You stop that right now, no Core of mine is going to be a whiner."

Wil grumbled to himself, "I'm not a whiner..."

She continued as if not hearing his sad attempts at an argument, "Did you forget that all you have in way of a Core Room is a little hole in the wall? Why don't you work on expanding this room out until you use up the last of your 5 mana? Then when the sun rises you can start on a new Room." Wil was impressed, mainly because until now he wasn't sure his Guide knew how to count. Good for her.

"Why am I getting an urge to smack you again?" Wil froze.

"Aaa-nyways, I'll go ahead and work on the Core Room as my brilliant Guide suggested." Belle blushed at the blatant pandering and Wil internally sighed in relief.

Focusing his remaining Mana onto the Core Room, he felt his Mana spread out across the room as it devoured any stone in its way. It was an odd sensation, but not unwelcome, as it scratched that primal itch of needing to expand that he had been feeling ever since becoming a Dungeon Core. He didn't have much to work with since he only had 5 Mana, so he settled on widening the room until it was 8ft by 8ft. He also added a large stone podium into the center of the room that his Core would rest on. He spent an unnecessary amount of time and Mana decorating the stone.

When he was done there was a 5ft tall stone pillar in the center of his Core Room with crudely drawn trees and even cruder looking Deer etched into the sides. Until Wil got to actually see a Deer in the flesh, he was just going to take some artistic liberties and assume they had large fangs and spiked tails. Why wouldn't they?

Belle was eyeing his new Core podium with wonder-filled eyes, "Excellent! Now while we wait for your Mana to come back, let's think about how you want the layout of your Dungeon to be. All Dungeons need to have their Core connected in some way or another to the rest of their Dungeon. It's a common tradition that you leave the Core Room as the final room, even after the Boss Room." Belle lectured.

This made Wil extremely nervous, "What if somebody tries to take my Core though?! I can't just leave it defenseless can I?" Wil was scrambling through his thoughts, trying to find a way out of this new fear of being taken from his Dungeon." Belle put a steady hand on his Core to calm him down.

"Don't you worry, have you taken a good look at yourself? You're a nearly indestructible Gem, nothing but the Great Beasts and a few exceptions could ever hope to hurt you, and most Dungeons enjoy letting the ones that complete their trials into their Core Room as a way of congratulations. Besides, it's not like they can take you from the Dungeon, they would have to brave the entire Dungeon attacking them all at once, it's the Core's last defense mechanism should an Adventurer be dumb enough to try to steal a Core."

"Not to mention, when we open ourselves to the world the Sapients will almost definitely build a city around our Dungeon. So if we are hurt or taken they would be in just as much trouble as us, it's nothing to be worried about." Wil stopped listening after he heard 'build a city'.

Wil was backpedaling hard, "I'm sorry, did you say, "Build a city."?" He asked hesitantly. Belle nodded.

Oh no, that can't be good. I picked this Forest in part so I wouldn't have to worry about people! Before his thoughts could spiral down even further, Belle chimed in like his golden savior, "Almost all Sapient cities are built on Dungeons, but the larger cities are built on some of the oldest, so we don't need to worry about an army of the Sapients coming here. We should expect to see a few houses, maybe an Inn, and a visit from the Adventuring Guild come up though. That's just to be expected though." Belle shrugged noncommittally.

So many new things, the Core was starting to feel slightly overwhelmed. It may as well start with what it was worried about the most though, "Adventuring Guild...?"

Belle sighed, "Yes, a coalition created by all of the Sapient Races, it is a group that has the vast majority of Belia's 'Heroes'. Not to mention Adventurers seeking Fame, Glory, Wealth, or any other base desire. Dungeons have a love/hate relationship with the Adventuring Guild."

Heroes.

"What is a Hero?" Wil tried to contain the anger seeping into his voice. Though he wasn't sure why he felt it in the first place.

The little Dungeon Guide let out another sigh and settled down on top of his Core, it put him in a better mood almost immediately. "Heroes are, for lack of better phrasing, the reason Dungeons are the way they are." She was taking on a very disconcerting look, and it was starting to dampen his new good mood.

"Before the Sapient Races petitioned Belia to become recognized as intelligent life forms, Dungeons existed in a much smaller capacity than they do now. Dungeons were as part of nature as the trees were. They took in the Mana of Belia and refined and processed it until it was released back into the world. It was a pure cycle that would have continued till the end of days if not for the 'Two-legs'." Belle spat out that last part.

"When the first Two-legs crawled their way from the mud and began advancing in power and technology, they realized that if they hoarded the Mana in their bodies, they could accomplish feats of wonder. They did wonderful, terrible things with it. They could move Heaven and Earth with a wave of their hands, and for a time they dominated Belia. These were the beings that came before the Heroes."

"By hoarding the Mana within their bodies they were permanently taking from the resources available to nature, and as such, imbalances and imperfections spread across the land that would have consumed the world if a compromise wasn't found."

"It was then that Mr.Blue came into being, although nobody knows his real name. What we do know is that he irrevocably changed the way Mana was used throughout Belia. Instead of being able to keep Mana within themselves permanently, it would fade over time if the Two-legs tried to hoard it within themselves." Wil was blinking his light slowly at this, he was starting to see the bigger picture.

"So because the Mana couldn't be kept in their bodies anymore, they had to go out and search for more right?" He ventured a guess.

"Exactly," she sighed at what the conversation had turned to. "In searching for more they found the Dungeons. While they couldn't harm the Dungeon Cores, they could still siphon off their Mana, effectively rendering it useless." Wil shuddered at the thought of this.

"Mr.Blue saw this, and in his kindness granted Dungeons three gifts. One gift was the ability to protect itself, through the use of Mana and Resources to produce the most fearsome Monsters Belia has ever seen. The second was a Guide to help shepherd them from the dangers of the world who wanted only to use them." At this Belle smiled faintly and lightly patted the top of his Core.

"What was the third gift though? That's only two?" Wil asked.

Belle's expression darkened considerably, "The Sapients that try to steal Mana from a Core are poisoned, Mr.Blue made it so that the Mana residing within the Core itself was no longer the pure form that normally comes off, but the raw and unrefined Mana that Dungeons were originally made to consume."

"A compromise was made, the compromise being that the Mana the Two-legs so desperately want can be achieved by staying within close proximity to a Dungeon. Say in a Town or City located above its entrance, and in return, the Sapients would venture into the Dungeon to test themselves against the Core. Should they die within the Dungeon their mana becomes yours..." Belle's words trailed off at this as if relaying some heavy secret to the infant Core.

Considering what the situation was, and could be. This doesn't seem too bad, as long as we aren't destroyed anyways. Wait...

"Belle?"

"Hm? Yeah, Sweety?" Wil turned a bright shade of green at the unexpected nickname.

"Didn't you say that I was almost impossible to destroy?"

"I did, why?"

"Well, when we were picking locations I noticed that Mr.Blue said that some of the races would destroy me on sight if they found my Dungeon. How could they do that if I am a nearly indestructible gem?"

"Heroes"

Oh fuck.

"I don't want you worrying about that though, almost every Hero today is too full of themselves to care about a new Dungeon Core. Although I guess it's important you know. Heroes are the only beings, aside from the Great Beasts, that are capable of destroying a Dungeon Core. Just as Mr.Blue altered the Dungeons so too did he alter the Sapients." Belle inhaled for yet another history lesson.

"He granted each member of the Sapients a chance to become more than what they were born as. Many tried, and many failed, but a few did succeed and gained power beyond what a normal Sapient could ever hope to possess. That being said, not every Hero is strong enough to destroy a Core. Some Heroes though, are closer to Monsters than Sapients at this point." Belle's face took on a grave expression at that last statement. These Heroes must be some scary people.

"At the moment, there are exactly 603 Heroes." Oddly specific.

"And now, as of this very moment, there are exactly 603 Dungeons." Oh no.

"Every Sapient race has some amount of Heroes in their ranks, some more than others. The Elves have 103 if I recall correctly, and the Gnomes somewhere around 65." Both of the Races surrounding us have so many, we are so doomed.

Belle could probably see the dejected aura coming off of the Core, so she hastily added, "Don't worry about it Wil! Most of these Heroes are way too busy helping wrangle Cats out of trees to worry about a new Dungeon Core. We should expect a visit from a few Heroes sometime after we open our Dungeon up to the world though."

"How do they become Heroes? Can we stop them from creating more?" Wil didn't like the idea of a bunch of arrogant jerks coming to his dungeon and taking his Mana, even if he was just giving it out for free.

Belle's face perked up at this line of questioning and started, "They become Heroes by completing their 'Life-long Quest'. Nobody but them knows what the Quest is, and even then they only have a vague idea of what they need to do. Each Quest is different for each person, although some of them share similarities. It's extremely difficult to even unlock a 'Life-long Quest' as they have to experience something extraordinary to qualify for it. Then having to actually COMPLETE the thing is a whole other issue. That's why there are so few Heroes, it's ridiculously hard for them to become one."

"What is a Life-long Quest?" Wil inquired.

"A culmination of a Sapient's life up until that point, they either slay the greatest foe they've ever known or overcome the greatest obstacle they have ever faced. I think you get it, they do something Heroic. A lot of Heroes actually complete their quests in Dungeons."

"Now we can't stop them exactly, but we can lure them into our Dungeon. If we lure them into our Dungeon and defeat them, a portion of their power becomes your own. " Wil felt a primal response at the idea of consuming and defeating a Hero. I want them, I want all of them.

"Calm down there Wil, we aren't even close to being ready to tackle a Hero yet. For now, let's just see if your Mana is back up to full. We've chatted the night away." Belle giggled at all the fun she was having, she had waited so long to have a Core to teach and now she finally had one.

Name - Wilcox Chosen Monster - Beasts Mana - 10/10 Species - Dungeon Core (Lv.1) Chosen Location - Ilvan Forest Mana Regen - 10/d Number of Floors - 1 Number of Monsters - 0 Resources - 32