- Chapter 6 -

Six Feet Under

Finally, something fun. I left Parallel Me in the dust as I raced to collect any discarded items. Traveling through the cavern I bent to pick up the first one I came across, a dagger. It was heavy. Ridiculously heavy. What the hell? What is this thing made out of? I hastily dropped the dagger. It doesn’t look heavy, I thought. Pondering, Is it the dagger?... or me? I reached out to a nearby pebble to test it out, with similar results. This time, however, I had to sit down- exhausted. That used up mana, didn’t it? Looking at a massive, truly massive, heavy sword further away I knew that me personally collecting everything was a lost cause. “What a pain. Ah, whatever. I’ll just get monsters to collect the items. They’ll have to clean this place up anyway, it looks like a warzone.”

I stopped and looked over my new ‘home’, letting my circumstances sink in. The light cast by the crystals in the ceiling made the scars of battle plainly obvious. There was another source of light however. My Core. It threw out a blood red glow. And shadows, somehow, making the centre of the cavern darker than the rest. Or maybe it just enhanced the natural shadows around it. The surface of my Core would occasionally catch the light, reflecting a sinister twinkle. The notion drew a small chuckle out of me. It was then that I saw Parallel Me. Weird, it kinda’ looks like Parallel Me is throttling the menu. I laughed at the thought. Didn’t he JUST scold me for that? He’s not that stupid. He’s me after all… I headed toward him. “Hay… what… What are you…?”

Quickly noticing me, Parallel Me’s hands fell away from the menu, suddenly sullen. “It’s bad,” He said.

His words confirming the worst, my reply came a beat late, “What’s happened?”

“In summary; there is a bounty on our heads!”

Stunned I shouted, “What!”

“How? Our Core has been acknowledged by The System. It has included it in a recipe. What more is its rating is ‘Godlike’. The highest possible one.” Parallel Me stated.

“A recipe? In the system…” I paled, “That means everyone can see it!”

”Actually, you have to have a special status, such as being a Hero or a Dungeon Core, to view and interact with the system like we do. But still, it’s bad. Now, sooooo many dangerous things will be actively looking for ‘The Original Chimera’s Heart’.”

“Please tell me they don’t know where we are.”

The split second it took to Parallel Me to reply was the longest split second in my life. “They don’t.”

“Thank God!”

“It gets better...”

“Was that a sarcastic ‘it gets better’ or...”

“It gets better. The description is vague. They have the items name and the effect of the recipe it’s used in. That’s it. They might not even know it’s a Dungeon Core. Really all they know is that a Godlike item called ‘The Original Chimera’s Heart’ now exists. Given its Godlike rank everyone will assume that some ancient monster’s level up is the cause. I hope. But that does introduce its own problems. Best case scenario they give up and assume it happened on some other continent.”

“Great! But how are we an item?”

“Dungeon Cores and Monsters are just living ‘drops of loot’ waiting to happen in The Systems eyes. And don’t get me wrong. We can’t relax because there will undoubtedly be a treasure hunt of massive proportions…” Parallel Me’s voice took on a more sombre tone. “If they, or anyone for that matter, ever see what our Core is, we’re dead. This recipe guarantees that.”

“...” I stared at Parallel Me. He knew this world better than I did. But I wasn’t surprised- Earth had a criminal underworld and it wasn’t run like a game. A ‘game’ with some seriously tempting rewards. There was surely a ruthless undercurrent in this one. So, the decision was simple, “...Then whoever steps foot into our Core room DIES!”

Parallel Me responded, “To be cruel to one’s enemies is to be cruel to oneself. It’s US or THEM!”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself… except for the one’s and oneselves’, they would just make me sound like a douche.”

Parallel Me sighed. “There isn’t much we can do about it other than make sure that there is no chance for anyone to make it to our core room. Anyway, changing topics to one that's not about our depressing odds- having trouble with collecting our spoils?”

“Yes, but… sinister twinkle?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

I reached out to its source. No, not my Core but something buried amongst the rubble on the top of the altar. It can’t be what I think it is. I didn’t bother trying to pick it up, just examining it on the ground. I exclaimed in surprise as I read the results. Surely this can’t be right. I gestured to Parallel Me and said, “Go on, examine it.”

Parallel Me crouched down and complied, saying “Examine.” Looking over results, he too exclaimed. “Holy Shit! A Dungeon Core? Wait, a LEGENDARY one?!”

“It is? I thought I might have been wrong. I mean why the hell would someone put their Core in the middle of a battlefield? Even if this was the last room in their dungeon, which it isn’t, it should be at the very least at the back where it’s safer. And surrounded by a fortress to boot. It’s just here, out in the open. Hell, the altar just puts it on display. Was that the intention? Did they use their own Core as bait?” I mumbled, “I bet it feels stupid now.”

Dazed, Parallel Me tore his attention away from the screen and replied, “Um... no… no. I’m just as confused as you because, yes, this is a terrible location for a Dungeon Core. Even if this was a backup...”

“Oh, yeah, didn’t you say that Dungeon’s can have multiple Dungeon Cores? Maybe this was their extra?”

“Err...” Parallel Me seemed to stop and collect himself. “Yes, a Dungeon can have multiple Cores. In the store you outright buy things like dummy Cores and booby-trapped Cores. But they can only have one true Core per Dungeon.”

“Oh, so it’s a Dummy Core?”

“No, the examination confirms that it is an actual Core. Plus, false Cores can’t serve as a substitute for a real Core. If the Dungeon doesn’t have an actual Core, no Dungeon- no matter how many Dummy Cores or the like they have. And you can’t buy actual Cores from the store, you can only turn other dead Dungeon Cores into your own through the store.”

“So that is an actual Core? Maybe it was their secondary one? They might have used that as a decoy for some super trap. There were a lot of corpses.”

“You don’t understand, to obtain an extra, proper, Core you have to get a Dungeons, intact, Core.” Parallel looked at me pointedly.

“...Oh. I get it. I would self-destruct too out of spite if I was going to lose.”

“It doesn’t even have to come to that, reducing a Core’s health to zero without breaking it isn’t easy. If a Dungeon wants another Core, the only reliable way to get one is to set them as the stakes for a duel.”

“A duel? How does that stop a Core self-destructing?”

“If it’s a duel, agreed upon by both parties, made through The System, The System enforces the rules they made. It’s how a lot of conflicts between Dungeon’s are fought. It allows a Core to guarantee its winnings or limit its losses.”

“I see. So, no sane Dungeon Core would use an actual Core as bait.... But what if the Dungeon is, like, the 1%. Super Rich.”

“There are penalties for one of your actual Cores dying, one of which is a loss of 40% of your stored DP. So, if anything, they would have more to lose.”

“Then what the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know… this altar is not a Core’s Cradle. I don’t know what it is.”

“Cradle what-now?”

“I’ll explain latter.”

“OK, so about this mystery. How do we solve it?”

“We don’t. Ignoring the fact that all we would end up with is a list of speculations with no way to prove or disprove any of them, time is of the essence.”

“I suppose you're right.” I sighed. “Are damaged Core’s valuable?”

Parallel Me’s crooked laugh told me yes. Yes, it was. “We can absorb it.”

“Like put it into our Mental Landscape?”

“No. We can absorb other Cores. We have a chance to inherit some of its abilities or affinities. With a chunk this size we should definitely get something good.”

“Size matters?”

“Yes, the more we have of the Core the better.”

After a brief moment of hesitation, we both immediately discarded any sense of dignity and started sifting through the rubble desperately. Soon we had found all there was to find. Given that faint traces of mana that lingered around it I could tell that one of its attributes was Death but more importantly it looked like it was all here, not a piece missing.

“This is great.” Parallel Me’s uttered. “Since it’s all here, instead of absorbing it, we can give it to the system for a free monster one rating below the Core’s, of its main attribute.”

My head swayed from side to side as I considered what Parallel Me said. I soon replied, ”We are already rather formidable profile wise, so a monster could be better. But if the monsters rating is one below the Cores- is that even worth it?”

“I know you didn’t give the Dungeon’s Legendary rating a second glance, but I suspect that the three overlords of this continent are around Rare or Superior. Legendary max. So a Superior rated monster is a force to be reckoned with.”

“Ok then. I suppose since it’s going to have to be Death attributed it will have to say in the Core room?

“Yes, but we need a secret trump card in here anyway.” We traded the Core into The System.

Congratulations. You have turned in a broken Legendary Dungeon Core. +One free level 1 monster of Superior grade, Death Attributed

Not long after we started browsing the options Parallel Me soon offered a suggestion, “What about an Elder Lich.”

“Feel free to elaborate.”

“Even the lowest class of Liches are powerful magic casters. An Elder Lich is no exception.”

“Getting better.”

“While they may not be nearly as physically imposing as some other Undead-”

“Getting worse.”

“Their individual magical prowess aside, their abilities and skill relating to the undead allow them to build formidable armies; turning them into walking calamities. They can overwhelm a strong opponent with numbers. If an enemy tries to use numbers to overwhelm it all they are really doing is providing it with soon-to-be troops.”

“Getting much better.”

“What do we have a Core full of?”

“... This is too good to be true. What's the catch?”

“In most places the public opinion of Death Dungeons would be public enemy number 1 if not for Demons. But since we don’t intend on parading the fact around…”

“It’s already a moot point since there is no difference in seeing a Lich or our Core at this point. We can’t get rid of the Core so let’s get an Elder Lich.”

“Are you ready?”

“Let’s do it.” I said as I purchased an Elder Lich. I wonder how- My thought was cut short as a robed figure sprung up from the shadows in front of us. Death tinted mana swirled in the air, proliferating outwards. I felt some notifications buzzing around me but I shooed them away.

“Greetings my Lord.” The figure rasped as he bowed deeply in my direction.

“Err, hello to you too. Do you have a name?”

“I apologize my Lord, for I do not.”

“…Do you want one?”

“I want what my Lord wants for me. If it is your wish, I would be most humbled to accept your gift.”

“Damn, I’ll take that as a yes- I not really good at picking names. If you can think of one you like, that can be your name”

“My Lord, I’m afraid a lowly one such as myself cannot name myself.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Is he serious or is he just pulling my leg? And how is he long winded and curt at the same time? “Let me think.” I pondered what a good name for a dead thing would be. A no nonsense dead thing. Looking for inspiration I observed him, intently. His face didn’t look rotten, just withered and taunt. Like his ‘skin’ had been stretched out over his skull. He had no eyes, just bottomless black pits. I noticed the feeling he projected, the promise of death and destruction. He reminded me of something. Gravel. “OK then... let your name be... ‘Gravis’.” More notifications came into existence. Can’t you leave me alone? I’m busy.

Gravis bowed even more deeply than before. “My gratitude knows no bounds.” The pressure he excluded seemed to sizably increase.

“Do you know your purpose?”

“I live to serve, my Lord.”

“You are my personal Guard. You will protect the Core Room and my Core. Do you understand?”

“Of course. Shall I deal with the invaders?”

“...” Both Parallel Me and I froze. “What?” I said.

“Can’t you feel it? Their resentment? Their rage? Their sorrow?” Gravis rasped, savouring his words. Gravis tone became one of rage and fury as he spat, “Their feeble attempts to harm my Master. I will annihilate all those who dare!” He turned to the entrance of the cavern.

I could hear it now, the chorus of muffled thuds as something tried to make its way through our blockade. The sounds were getting louder and louder. Oh no. We’re under attack.