Rock’s P.O.V:-

She went sleeping and because I had nothing better to do I started meditating.

Cycling mana inside my body, emptying my reserves and filling them again, this is one hard, long and boring process. Mana regeneration is great and all, but to increase my limits, I need to complete the whole process on my own, without using any abilities and the like. I need to feel the mana in my surroundings, absorb it and slowly, but surely increase its quantity and quality inside my body.

So, instead of depending on automatic recovery I have to meditate. After talking with Minie, I found out that I need to increase my mana to large amounts, because mana is what I’ll be using to control everything in my dungeon.

I know that my knowledge and intelligence need work too, but I can increase them if I start studying now.

Nah… No need to be so hard on myself. After all, I’m still only three days old. A toddler who needs to watch out for invaders, who need to get stronger because there is no one to protect him and don’t forget about that…

Yeah, nothing good will come out by imagining things, which I don’t have any answers to.

It takes a long time to meditate and it’s already the fourth day now. I think we really need to start increasing our defenses, but Minie is still sleeping.

Is there anything that I can do without her? Well, I can open my status window or meditate (that is what I am currently doing) or… nothing! Really nothing else?

*Sigh*

This is bad very bad, but I should at least think about what I need to do to make my dungeon dangerous, but worth the risk. Well, humans won’t find any value in keeping me alive just to kill some monsters and get stronger. There should be something else to.

I remember Minie told me that, they are very greedy. They could even kill their partners (Friends) if the reward is hefty. So, a reward, I need a reward to excite their hunger. Something which is only available in our dungeon, our specialty. I’ll talk with Minie about it, but for now let’s continue to meditate.

And like that another Half of the day passed by and evening came.

I have been meditating for half a day now, but Minie is still sleeping. Nothing much happened, but my maximum mana increased by 2.

Is this a large increase or small one, I don’t know? But at least my continuous practice is making me stronger, even though the amount is almost miniscule. Well, little drops of water can make a mighty ocean.

I was just thinking about this when Minie woke up and ran towards me. She scared the heck out of me. She looked perplexed and under the weather. Her clothes were drenched in sweat, but without caring about that she ran towards me, but instead of covering the gap between us, she stopped some distance away. I don’t know what she is thinking.

The way she is looking at me I don’t know why, but I find her a little lonely. She is not smiling like she always does and neither are there any other emotions on her face. At this moment to me she like looked someone who had lost something which she treasured more than her life.

Is she scared, scared of me. Why? Did something happen while she was sleeping? I think I need to say something to her.

“If something happened then let me tell you, it wasn’t me. I have been meditating here for the past half day” I voiced my thoughts into her head, but she gave me no reaction.

‘Oh, maybe she’s blocking my connection. Yeah, it’s something she does. What now?’

I was thinking so, when water started dropping from her eyes.

‘Is she leaking?’ I thought to myself. ‘Is something wrong with her?’ such questions littered my mind, but my limited knowledge and zero life experience were of no help. I could only wait for her to drop her mental guard and then ask her.

Then after some time when her tears stopped, she walked towards me and placed her hand on my crystal body. I felt warmth being emitted from her palms. Not like the heat from a fire, but warmth one feels when they finally finds their other half. I felt at peace. All of my thoughts stopped in that moment and for the first time after my birth, I experienced peace.

“Rocky, you’ll never abandon me right?”

“Never” was the only word that I could utter because the peace I was feeling turned into a warm cozy coat of never ending happiness and love that covered me completely. Time stopped, my thoughts also stopped and I experienced ‘Moksh’.

Why I felt so? I don’t know. The only thing that I do know is that at that moment the gap between us diminished a little and I felt something budding in my soul. Well, It is hard to explain.

What happened to her while she was sleeping? Only she could tell. It is not my place to ask her about thing that she don’t want anyone to know. So, I’ll wait. Wait until she gets ready to open her heart to me.

“Ok then, firstly let me tell you what it means to be a dungeon.” (Minie)

“Can’t we skip this part and move onto the more important stuff; like really building ourselves a dungeon instead of living in a cave.”

Yes! I know, no more distances between us etc, etc. But these topics are too boring. She doesn’t know how difficult it is for me to keep myself awake, while she talks about this useless information’s.

Ah, how I wish I could just skip them to the more important parts like… ah, forget it.

“No! Rocky, this is important and don’t worry it will only take an hour at most. Okay.”

“Yeah, fine I guess. Alright, let’s do this.”

“Firstly let me tell you about your mana core.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“You know, there are veins of mana flowing deep underground. These veins are a source of pure energy. But the thing is it is not easy to notice them. Forget about noticing them, only a few people in this world even know about their existence. Now, the place where these veins pass through turns into a hotspot of mana activity, but because all of this happens deep underground, no one notices.”

“But what will happen if these veins of natural energy somehow ended up entering surface from the ground?”

“Nothing, It’s mana after all. It will increase mana concentration in the surrounding area and that would only lead to growth of strong monsters.”

“Oh, so monsters roaming in the world are also made up of mana?”

“Yeah, like I told you before, everything is made up of mana. While things like monsters, plants and almost everything evolved to better move about in their surroundings. Some still retained their original makeover like the remaining remnants of our civilizations past. ‘Overlord’ is what people call them.”

“So, you mean to say everything was born from mana and like my core they gained power and evolved into what they are now?”

“Yes, correct. Everything, No, sorry, almost everything is the result of millions upon millions of times of evolution from their first state which was dirt holding mana.” (Minie)

“So, all the plants, humans and monster are brothers and sisters.”

“Ah, now this is getting out of hand. Don’t end up straining your head thinking about useless matters and tell me, Where was I?”

“You were telling me how everything evolved and…”

“Not that, about the cores. Oh yes, stone can’t hold mana for longer duration of time, but after getting bombarded with natural energy for a long time, they start to change and starts absorbing that natural energy. The change is slow, but it happens. As those rocks evolves and turns from something invaluable to something very rare and unaffordable by most people a ‘Mana Stone’.” (Minie)

“A mana stone! Why do I feel like I have heard about it before?”

“Well, a mana stone is stone with the capacity to store mana. They have many uses like powering spells, utilities etc.”

“But why are they so valuable, after all a mana stone is still just a stone that can hold mana. Moreover, I don’t think that a vein of energy, which could turn a whole area into monster infested lands, can only produce a handful of these mana stones.”

“Intelligent, you are way too intelligent. You are right, but listen to this. When a stones turn into mana stone its makeup changes. It keeps on absorbing mana from the vein and keeps on growing; not in size but quality. After some time when the vain dries up and there is no more mana to absorb most of those mana stones stops absorbing energy.”

“Huh, So what?”

“I said, most of them, not all of them.”

Oh! Yeah, looks like the formation of these mana stones in not as easy as I think of them to be.

“So, some of them keep on absorbing mana, but the vein dries and their source of mana dwindle, they change their target and start absorbing mana from the stones near them.” (Minie)

“What! Is such a thing even possible?”

“Keep on listening and don’t disturb me because there is much more to come.

Now after absorbing all the energy from every source around them most of these rocks turn into high quality mana stones or pure mana crystals and stop their absorption, but sometime and only sometimes one of such pure crystal does not stop its behavior to absorb, and that behavior slowly turns into a will. A will to eat and absorb everything.” (Minie)

“Damm. So, a stone not only needs luck, but also has to go through such a lengthy process before turning into a Mana crystal. But stealing from an open source is not enough and when their source dries up they need to steal from its brothers and sisters to keep growing! And this is still not enough because they also need to gain a will, will to devour everything. Only then do they turn into a core. Man this is really unreasonable. Everything is associated with luck.”

“Yes, this is also the reason why mana stones are very valuable and expensive. I mean they are formed after thousands of years of mana absorption, but most are never found or are killed as a dungeon core.”

“But this is ridiculous. I mean, long would a stone take to convert into a fully fledged core, if there is not enough mana in its surroundings? ”

“Heehe, which is why I said, only a very lucky stone can turn into a core in thousand years, but others, don’t even ask.”

Fuck, how lucky am I? Not only did I become a dungeon core from a stone, but I also gained knowledge and wisdom. If this is not luck then what is!

Damm…

“Minie so where do these mana or energy veins originates from? I mean, they must also have a starting point somewhere, right?”

“About this there are only myths and no information. Even those myths vary from each other.”

“Tell me please I’m begging you. Don’t stop now that you have made me excited.” She blushed when she heard that. Why? I don’t know. She coughed once and after shaking her head once she started explaining the myths.

“Ahem, Some say there is a very strong, no formidable being who has been living from the ancient times and the mana that leaks out of him is where all the mana originates from and some says that it’s the work of gods, while other says that there are springs of highly concentrated mana under the surface and sometimes the springs evaporates and turns into these mana veins.” (Minie)

“Really there are such Myths, Formidable and ancient giants and springs of mana! What is wrong with this world? How can something like a creature whose single breath could change the whole world even exist?”

“Oh, I forgot about one, the least popular one actually. It’s a myth that no one believe in.” (Minie)

“Tell me; tell me. What is it? It doesn’t matter what other say, isn’t it best to know about everything?”

“Although no one believes in this one, but it is the oldest ongoing myth that survived the passage of time and basic methods of sharing information. According to It this world that we live in is not just an empty shell of rocks, sand and dirt, but is a living being that has a soul.

According to it, this world is monster which also has a core and we are just pests who are infesting him. The Monsters which roam around in the world are its defense mechanism, while humans and the like are foreign beings.”

“What?!” I couldn’t believe her. If the myths before were the epitome of madness, then this one is their father. I mean, who was that great person who wrote and passed such information from the ancient times. But what Minie said after that left me numb, it was too supernatural to be true.

“Listen there is more to it, something even more absurd. They say that deep underground, deeper than even our wildest imaginations, there is a palace. A palace where its heart, a core is kept. A core, so big that even moon pales in front of it. And the veins of energy are its veins, which provide nutrients to its body and sustain this world.”