“Along with the question of what a Core is, what else will my position entail?” John directed his question at the entity who looked an awful lot like Tom Holland in front of him.

“A Core is a gemstone or crystal of some kind that can manipulate mana for many purposes. The main duty of a Core is to filter the ambient mana around them into a form more suitable for sentient life. Your duty will be slightly different at first because you will essentially be acting as a conduit for the System and mana to travel through you and into your world at large. As the world becomes saturated with mana, you will then return to the filtering of ambient mana around them. Besides that, you are pretty much free to do what you want. However, many Cores choose to set up a Dungeon of some kind to protect themselves from outside threats. There shouldn’t be more direct hostility against you at first, but that may change due to being the epicentre of the change that is about to occur on your world.”

John had always been a bit of nerd, so he could understand what the general idea of being a Core would entail. He had read a decent amount of LitRPGs and speculative fantasy in his time, so he had a reasonably good idea of what would happen. However, that didn’t mean he didn’t have a few questions he wanted to ask while he got the chance.

“So how will the system affect what I am doing?” John said.

“The System will not have any mind control if that is what you are asking. It may give you slight nudges here and there but no overt direction, unless what you are attempting is impossible.” Mahaytar replied with a smile. “It will also keep track of your skills, abilities, titles, and achievements. As a Core, you will have some distinct differences from other sentients with the System, the main one being that you will not have a Character or Class level, and will have fewer stats to define you overall. Your main stats will be Mana and Health, Mana covering your current capacity to hold onto it, and your Health is a general indicator of your current well being. You may also unlock some other Resource statistics depending on what decisions you make in the future.”

That answered a couple of other questions that John had in mind. “Are there any other differences between a Core and others with the System?” John asked.

“The other main difference is that you will start with or earn skills and abilities that others may not have access to, or only have access to a much weaker version of what you have. There are also some rules that you will have to follow that others do not have. We are running low on time in this space, so further questions on these specifics should be addressed to the guide if you accept this position.”

“Is it possible to gain a body to use at some point, or will I be stuck as a Core forever?”

“Through specialized skills and abilities, it will be possible to possess any non-sentient minions you create or to make an Avatar for yourself. You will also always have access to a mental space similar to this intradimensional space that you will add features to, including manifesting a body.”

“Before I make a final decision, can I request a boon if I accept this position?”

A ‘DING!’ suddenly appeared in John’s mind, followed by a notification box.

Achievement Unlocked:

Inquisitive Mind

When you have the opportunity to ask those with power and knowledge a question, it is essential to ask the right questions, so as not to offend their sensibilities, and come away with more knowledge and opportunities.

Rewards: The Inquisitive Title and the System will help by offering slight subliminal cues to ask the right questions.

Mahaytar noticed John’s distraction and waited until John’s focus returned before answering. “As long as it is reasonable and within my power to grant, I will give strong consideration to it. Just know that anything that results from it will likely become available to other beings on your world, especially other Cores. If the System likes it, it will also be available to beings in other realms and dimensions.”

John took a couple of minutes to ponder the situation. There was an appeal in moving on to the afterlife, especially one run by what seemed to be a benevolent entity. In his heart, though, living out one of his daydreams and becoming a Dungeon Core of sorts was too appealing. It would also give him a chance to watch his world change and help those he cared about through the transition. And as disconcerting as losing his body would be, his ability to gain one back helped push his decision towards becoming a Core.

“I am going to accept the position of Core,” John said.

“Good to hear. What is the boon you would ask?”

“I’m going to request a kind of Research ability,” John said. “I assume that levelling skills will involve a decent amount of experimentation. Since I will be the first entity to use this System in my world, I would like some kind of tech tree to help me gain new abilities and improve myself. I am also hoping that if I come up with some kind of reasonable idea, that the System could unlock a Research branch that helps guide me in how to achieve it.”

Mahaytar’s smile grew as he listened to John’s request. “A pragmatic request. I see how the System decided you and I would be a good match. I’ll see what I can do for you, though there may be some limited functionality to it at first.”

“Thanks, I figured it was a more reasonable request than just asking for all knowledge available to Dungeons. I’m assuming there is some knowledge that has to be earned, and this ability will help provide me with a way to earn it.”

“Unless you have another question you need answering right away, I will begin summoning your guide. After the guide arrives, you will have some time to get acquainted in this space before you are sent back to your world to begin your time as a Core. You may also want to check out your Status while I am doing the summoning.”

“Okay,” John said as he thought the word Status. A box appeared in front of him.

Name: John MacIntire

Race: Core

Title: The Inquisitive

Health: 100/100

Mana: 100/100

Skills: N/A

Abilities: Absorb 1, Research 1, Creation 0

Titles: The Inquisitive

Achievements: Inquisitive Mind

John recognized the Inquisitive Mind Achievement, so he quickly focused on it, which brought up the previous notification for the achievement. He then concentrated on Absorb, which brought up the following screen:

Absorb, Level 1, Beginner

Description: Allows Dungeons to Absorb Items/Materials. Doing so will unlock patterns for items and materials for use in creating objects using your mana. Levels increase absorption speed.

Prerequisites: None

Subskills: None

John quickly closed this notification and brought up his notification for Research.

Research, Level 1, Beginner

Description: Allows the Dungeon to gain new abilities through Research and gives a base of one research point per day. Each level increases research efficiency.

Prerequisites: None

Subskills: None

As John closed the notification for Research, he felt his status update.

Name: John MacIntire

Race: Core

Title: The Inquisitive

Health: 100/100

Mana: 100/100

Research: 1 RP (+1 RP/Day)

Skills: N/A

Abilities: Absorb 1, Research 1, Creation 0

Titles: The Inquisitive

Achievements: Inquisitive Mind

Before looking at the new resource, he decided to check the Creation ability, bringing up its notification quickly.

Creation, Level 0, Beginner

Description: ???

Prerequisites: None

Subskills: ???

Research Points Needed: 1

The first thing that came to John’s attention is that the description for the ability was currently unavailable. The subskills section also being marked with question marks, rather than N/A like the other abilities made John think this ability would hold even more promise than he initially thought. Finally, the research cost of one point and him currently having one point of Research available seemed more than coincidental to John. John then went back to his Status, and when he concentrated on Research, this seemed to open in a new tab in his Status.

Research

Completed Research: N/A

Available Research: Creation Ability (1 RP), Mana - General (2 RP)

The Creation Ability Research seemed relatively self-explanatory, but before he placed his research point into it, he wanted to look at the Mana - General Research.

Mana - General

Description: Gain a general understanding of an unaspected mana and what its potential uses are.

Research Cost: 2 RP

Benefit Of Research: Unlocks further Research into uses and types of mana. Mana collection becomes more efficient.

Parent Research: None

Research Unlocked: ???, ???

He could see the use of this Research and figured the Research Unlocked would become available after he completed it. He thought he should use his research point to unlock his creation ability, as he mentally willed the research point to be applied to Creation Ability. As he did so, a feminine voice cried out with a bit of confusion, “What’s a human doing here?”