Chapter Three: The Power of Death

He kept time by the turning of the numbers; a one became a two and a two a three. His mana and his life force both continued to steadily climb as he lay in the dark drawing the mana haze down into his core. He had learned to be patient of nothing else.

He'd tried a dozen times to turn the grey carpet of moss resting beneath his core into a monster but it really hadn't done him much good. Once his life force had climbed back up to two, he had drawn out as much of the energy as possible and shoved it straight into the moss, this time there was no playing games. His attempt at annimating the moss had resulted in the little pathc of vegetation expanding an inch or two but that was all; no new monsters bound to his unerring will. So, Gimble had started to wait once more letting his life force tick up to three before trying again, and then four and then five, and so on and so forth. Each time he failed in turning the lump of moss into a monster the greasy grey carpet of lichen just expanded; at this point it was beginning to climb the walls and had gone so far as to start consuming the nearby patches of blue and red moss by absorbing them into its’ body directly. The good news however was that the increased size of the moss meant it was generating more mana and more life force for him to siphon off.

Of course even then the mild increase in output was nowhere near enough for him to offset his expenditure placing him firmly in the red, but overtime he believed his most recent investment would pay dividends.

However his time messing around witht he fundamental forces of his new world were not a complete waste, he had finally managed to notice it, around the edge of every spiral of mana which coated living beings was a thin film of green; this was life force, unlike mana this energy was not jettisoned into the air but rather seemed to cloak every animals, plants, insects and any other form of life like a barrier. Even Gimble himself had a thin layer of life force covering his crystalline surface proving he was more than a simple rock left lying alone in a cave...

Haa... Yup, he was not a simple rock left lying alone in a cave; he was a magic rock left lying alone in a cave - what fun!

Quite frankly the endless hours of waiting had begun to take their tole, he missed humans, or to be more precise he missed conversation, the silence ate at him, it gnawed at him from the inside, the pure and simple desire for companionship.

Everything in the cave was blind bar himself and Origin he supposed, there was no light, no wind, no warm touch of sun, it was cold and damp and depressing. Gimble sighed, a steady pressure slowly beginning to grow beneath his surface, rising in discomfort, his core flashing with apoplectic bursts of light.

Suddenly he felt his mind jerk forwards, the dreary patience of an unchanging existence waiting for his life force to reach fifteen points drawing to a halt. His attention turned, swivelling towards his various resource gauges only to find that the mana he had neglected for so long was finally full.

Dungeon Core - Gimble DURABILITY - [97%]

MANA - [30/30]

LIFE FORCE - [13/???]

He was at maximum capacity for mana and he could feel it, his was core thrumming with volatile energy, each new drop of mana he was abosrbing seeming to push up above and beyond his limits and something deem down inside of the dungeon core, his heart or whatever counterpart his current anatomy suported was telling that thism this would be good!

He let out a small laugh his surface sparking with bright white light, now he just needed to figure out how he was supposed to use his mana.

It was at this point that a sensible person would have paused, they would have stopped to consider the ramifications of their actions, the untold consequences they would bring about. They would have laid out a plan, a guide, a method to prevent things from exploding in their face in the most spectacular manner possible. Of course Gimble was not a normal person, he wasn't really a person to begin with, and while he was patient that did not mean he had the foresight not to do something incredibly stupid.

Gimble did not consider his actions, instead he did what he knew best, he used the only skill at his disposale; he drew the entirety of his mana out of his body, the energy leaving him in the form of a slimy black haze quickly ballooning outwards like a storm cloud released from a battle. The dense miasma that rolled out of him began forming a dark vortex of energy upon contacting with the air. The spiral drew in ambient mana, it’s depths expanding outwards. The spiny-hoppers freezing where they sat hunched on the carpet of grey moss, and while the creatures couldn’t see the swirling mass of energy growing above their heads, they seemed to sense what was to come, which was more than can be said for the young dungeon core. Gimble let out a long 'oooh' inside his head, watching as the vortex grew, sparks of pure white light bursting from within, like synapses firing generating flashes of light bringing true illumination to the dark world outshinning origin's green flow.

Then the vortex collapsed.

The ball of dark energy exploded outwards over the corse of an instant, a wave of sound and light, sending a rippling through the air. The cave froze, every inhabitant of the dank recess hidden deep beneath the earth, turned to face Gimble; the duneon core sat atop his princely throne of moss. Then there was a sharp pop! Followed by two small blue windows bursting into existence and for one single shinning moment the cave was calm.

CONGRATULATIONS! - [You Have Discovered a New Skill]

[Mental Magic – Insanity]

The mind is a funny thing, when placed under extreme pressure it can turn and twist into any shape, wild and wonderful; horrifying to behold. Some of the greatest feats in existence were born from this madness, the willingness to push the bounds of what is possible. But for every blessing there is a curse, it is up to you to decide which your magic shall become.

CONGRATULATIONS! - [You Have Discovered a New Spell]

[Mania Bomb] - [mental magic – Insanity]

This spell induces hysteria in its’ targets leading to sudden bouts of aggression, fear or depression depending on the target's predispositons. Once cast the spell will spread over an area with a radius of ten feet afflicting all those within.

Mana Cost: 12

Area: 10.sq ft

Duration: 60.sec (+10 sec for additional mana)

Then the moment passed.

Gimble had read through his messages and had finally come to understanf what he had just done, but there was no way to turn back the clock all he could do was watch as the cave descended into a living hell.

All of the surroundings insect, the snakes, the rats and the mudfish began to tremble, a shiver passing through his little corner of the cave as one by one each beast seemed to freeze up, breathing in the dark mist eyes popping in their head, swelling a dark black. Then a gentle wail began to shake the earth, first one then another, the monsters began to hiss, screech and roar however they were able to, some did so in anger, others fear, and a few simply collapsed down to the ground in silence. Then with their battle cry rung, the horde of creatures washed outwards to assault the rest of the cave. Some of the innocent cave goers fled in terror, some roared and screamed slashing stabbing and firing what limited magic they could muster. Meanwhile others simply collapsed trampled beneath the wave of bodies washing towards them. There was a clear divide between the area effected by his newfound spell and that which was not, but it made little difference as the storm blew outwards engulfing the cave in the tide of battle. One of the adult mudfish had lumbered out of its’ puddle sluggishly charging over the stones inhaling anything in its’ path including other mudfish, blind eyes swivelling atop it's head gills fanning out about its neck as it unleashed a roar of challenge bowling through the rioting crowd. There was a flash of white, as one of the snakes launched itself forwards slender fangs biting down into the mudfish sinking into saggy grey flesh to little effect as a small black circle of frostbite expanding across the fishes skin.

The fish gurgled rolling over and crushing the snake under its’ mass along with maybe a dozen spiny-hoppers before engulfing the debris in its’ cavernous maw. That was when a mass of fire rats decided to rush the creature blasting it with plumes of flame before sinking their teeth down into the mudfish's hide. The fish let out a howl slowly drowning it in a sea of bodies as even some of the non-affected animals rushed forwards in the hopes of grabbing a piece of the beast.

Gimble watched in horror, it was almost reminded him of watching the newsfootage after a riot, or the aftermath of a black friday sail, except instead of angry drunk people and crazed parents swinging toddlers like a yard stick this riot was made up of hairless rats, giant fish, magical snakes and thousands of angry black grasshoppers He shivered watching as the scene unfolded. But the rampant slaughter wasn’t even the most usual thing about the situation (at least for him). The thing that was currently holding his attention was the veritable flood of ambient mana that had just been vomited into the air tinged with streams of bright green life force. The death of each creature was like a miniature supernova of mana, and all of that energy was being drawn straight towards him. Gimble let loose a luagh cranking up his mana suction as high as he could hold it as the wave struck home.

Huh...

That was strange, he could feel the mana flowing into his body but his mana gauge wasn't going up. His life force had been steadily rising point by a point with each new death but his mana remained fixed at zero. Gimble watched as his life force climbed upwards before drawing to an abrupt halt as he hit twenty points revealing his maximum capacity for life force. Then there was another sharp pop! Gimble flinching inwardly as a new message appeared.

CONGRATULATIONS! - [You Have Levelled Up]

[Level 1]

INTELLIGENCE +1 [+]

CONCENTRATION +1 [+]

WILL +1 [+]

+2 free points

As the screen burst into his head his capacity for mana and life force each jumped ten points allowing Gimble’s life force to begin ticking upwards once again. The dungeon core paused turning his attention away from the ongoing massacre to the glowing blue window floating before him as he pushed his other notifications into the background, discovering a new type of magic could wait. It seemed like the increase in his stats from levelling up affected his ability to store energy - still he couldnt be sure of the specifics.

Gimble proceeded to use his two free points to experiment with adding points to his various mental stats watching his different gauges rise and fall and In the end he cracked the code. It seemed that his intelligence correlated to his mana while his concentration was related to his life force, it was a pretty simple one to one relationship too, well it was one to ten if he were being specific. He didn’t have a clue why this was or what exactly 'Will' was for yet but that was just a matter of time. In the end Gimble placed his two free points into concentration, and watched his life force counter nearly double in size and continue to fill, though his progress was slowly beginning to ebb, the last fires of the riot dying low.

Gimble bided his time soon enough he would have enough life force to bring his first monster to life and stake his dominance over this cave system!