It had been fair of Hecrux to assume that - up until somewhat recently - Graverra had maintained a rather flippant attitude about mana. She knew that… But he still didn’t have to say it.

If anything, becoming a dungeon core had highlighted exactly why she’d refused to consider any other mana based class. Necromancy was simple, in her mind anyway. You bundled up some dead stuff with some mana and things started working again - albeit in some fairly grotesque looking ways, but they worked and they did so because she asked them to. No formulas, no soul searching or contests of will. Absolutely no bargaining with a patron. And maybe not getting caught up in all the details of it all robbed her of some mana preserving insight that might have made her more efficient… But that was what being friends with a budding alchemist had been for.

Graverra grumbles to herself at the thought of Valerea, who would probably just turn this into an I told you so anyway. There was probably something in there about the types of people, or cores, she attracted, but that wasn’t the point right now. The point was skimming through what the system had pulled for her on the subject of mana.

What is mana? For our purposes, mana is the unit for measuring magical energy. One ‘point’ of mana is, to grossly oversimplify, the amount of magical energy it takes to effect the minutest bit of change upon the fabric of reality.

— A Beginner’s Primer on the Fundamentals of Magic, Keena Knotwise

“Yeah, yeah… threads and needles.” Graverra huffs at the excerpts. That one she had read as a real actual book, years ago, before she had even become a necromancer.

The rest of the excerpts complied followed a similar pattern; being predominantly from the dungeon system itself, further ahead in the initial training, or the types of things one read when deciding on a class or newly inducted into one.

As far as Graverra could tell, mana was mana, whether you were a core or a caster. Visualizing it as a fabric worked for most, that spells were sort of like thread, poking holes with the caster’s conduit, bunching and gathering and binding together. Necromancers though - at least the handful she had access to in her seven levels of practice - tended more towards the metaphor of a puppet master, or on a more basic level, the way tendons tensed or relaxed to make groupings of bone and muscle move. There was some theory floating around in the wider world of magic users that that was what made a necromancer - the ability to revive spent mana, not spent bodies, that necrotic energy was a sort of anti-mana - but Graverra hadn’t felt much like questioning her new found abilities back then. She was lucky to have learned what she did.

Still, it wasn’t as if she was completely stupid. She had managed to get herself all the way to level seven without the aid of a desperate dungeon core. Something she maybe should have tried reminding her darling Hecrux, though given the results of her last attempt… Graverra growls again and continues reading.

Due to the all encompassing nature of a dungeon core’s mana use, the numbers used to gauge a core’s mana reserves are best read as an estimation or a rounding upwards. The Coalition of Core Keepers understands that mana being quite literally the very lifeblood of a core can make it’s expenditure and subsequent regeneration a touchy subject for a core. By choosing not to put too definite a number on it, the Coalition of Core Keepers seeks to keep their charges from being too caught up in the minutia of their every action. Obsession does not lead to optimal dungeon performance.

— Initial Dungeon Training

Graverra frowns. That seemed a bit… off. Granted she wasn’t any keeper of cores, although now that she thought about it maybe that should become an option to her in the future. The here and now though, she guessed that explained some irritability… But what did he expect her to do about the fact they were literally being told not to worry about it?

Unlike the average mana user, a dungeon core is responsible for the ‘fabric’ of their reality as well as the ‘thread’ tying it all together. A dungeon core’s only limitations appear to be a core’s rate of mana regeneration. While most mana users find their ability to store such powers capped to match their skill level, there is tell of a core’s ability to overcome such things through sheer force of will backed by an overwhelming desire to obtain as much as available to them.

It is unclear if dungeon cores succumb to an over abundance of mana the way a mortal caster will. Unlike dragons, their nature is not to hoard resources as building up a sort of symbiotic relationship with delvers and treasure seekers appears to only aid in their expansion.

— Malfunctions of Magic and Other Curious Things, Aelrindel Daeydark

The attribution is what stands out to Graverra first; the fact that the system had pulled something that wasn’t strictly core, class, or even guild literature. Something seemingly written by someone who wasn’t a dungeon core or tasked with their keeping. Maybe that’s what she needed… A more mortal understanding of dungeon cores.

Acquire Malfunctions of Magic and Other Curious Things, Aelrindel Daeydark (Rare Book)?

Cost: 750 Mana

“Oh, that’s just…” Graverra ends her sentence in a growl. The system had to have a sense of humor. A mean one. That it probably got from Estremon. She worries her bottom lip as she tries to consider all the ways this was about to backfire. Hecrux was the one who told her to do the reading to begin with and it wasn’t her fault the system had gone dangling forbidden knowledge in front of her face. That’s more or less how she got here in the first place. He should have known this might happen. “I gave you the chance to supervise…”

Acquired: Malfunctions of Magic and Other Curious Things, Aelrindel Daeydark (Rare Book)

Place ‘Malfunctions of Magic and Other Curious Things, Aelrindel Daeydark (Rare Book)’ in Study?

Y / [N]

“Yeah, right.” Graverra scoffs at the idea. If the mere acquisition of the book had just cost her 750 mana, then there was no telling how much XP a regular old adventurer might gain from reading it. That would be staying with her. If she could help it.

You cannot manage your domain during Initial Dungeon Training

Please complete Initial Dungeon Training

“I am trying!” She snaps back at the system. Though that did seem to be a step up from being unable to manage her domain because she was still angry with Hecrux. The book would just sit somewhere in their inventory, the way Capo had been stored. Once she finished this, and assuming Hecrux didn’t have something to say about it, she could get back to it.

She doubts it would let her check her inventory at the moment, but she pulls what she can at the moment, just to check.

Dungeon - Name Undecided, Will Be Placed In [155:02:17]

Primary Core Status: Inactive

Graverra Graeme, Bride of the Dungeon Core

210 / 400

The ticking down of the timer wrings an anxious whine out of Graverra once again. This was a waste of her time, even if Hecrux had suggested it. For all she knew he wanted her wasting her time like this, at least then she wouldn’t be fussing with the dungeon or spending his mana… But then she’d gone and spent mana on the book anyway. The thought gets her nervously twirling a lock of white hair again.

“I don’t suppose you know what specifically he meant?” She calls over to Capo. If she could just find whatever it was and move on, she stood far less chance for these kinds of distractions.

It takes a moment for the skull to respond, coming back from inactive or where ever it was his consciousness went when no one paid attention to him. “What specifically about what?”

“ ‘You’re an idiot, Graverra, and you don’t know how mana works.’ “ Graverra attempts to lower her voice to mimic the dungeon core’s. “ ‘I was humoring you before, but enough is enough and I’m going to leave you locked up in your chambers with half your health forever.’ “

“I don’t think that’s what got said.”

Graverra crosses her arms and gives a small ‘hrmph’. “It was implied.”

Maybe just the part about her not knowing how mana worked was really implied, but she still worried about the rest of it. Less so when they had fallen into rhythm of working together,

The skull sighs. “You finish that training thing yet? Can’t say you don’t know how to run a dungeon after that, right?”

“I spent seven hundred and fifty mana on a book about some guy’s thoughts about magic.” Graverra says with a rapidly hollowing expression. When she says it out loud, it sounds bad.

“That’s a bit excessive.”

“I know!” She hoped he was also thinking of the cost and not the fact that she’d done it at all. Eventually she could make it worth it, probably. Hecrux probably didn’t even know half the trouble some nerds went to for rare books. It was just the ‘eventually’ part that kept tripping her up with these things. Eventually she would be worth all the trouble he had gone to. Eventually all the trouble she had caused would be worth it. She hoped so, at least.

“I know.” She repeats herself in a much more remorseful tone. “I’m really not that smart, am I?”

“You cant go asking me stuff like that. Technically speaking, I don’t even have a brain.”

“Yes I can.” Graverra scowls, too ready to be back on the defensive. “I don’t think you were ever meant to be a mob or defender or whatever I’m supposed to call it. You’re too articulate to be set dressing. I think you were his core companion before he realized what making you meant. I mean, I think I might actually love him, but we both know he’s not the kind of anything that likes talking about feelings. And I’m not allowed to have a companion because what do secondary cores need companions for?” But she wasn’t going to waste time being bitter about that again. Graverra takes a resetting breath. “You can tell me if you think I’m being ridiculous, I can handle it.”

She can’t be sure, but Graverra thinks she sees the skull’s eye sockets try and narrow ever so slightly into a squint. “You are being a bit ridiculous, mistress.”

A disgruntled, “Hmm.” Is all Graverra allows herself. She said she could handle it.

“You finish the training, you get your permissions back.” The skull wobbles as if to shrug. “You just said you love him, I don’t think the system can confuse that with combat anymore, so long as you don’t go biting and ripping each other in half again…”

She had just said that, hadn’t she? Suddenly, getting on with the rest of Initial Dungeon Training didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Without much more acknowledgement to Capo, Graverra pulls back up where she had left off - the last little bit of Dungeon Core Advancement. Given her extra curricular reading, she feels entitled to skipping over the end of it. And besides, reading while the only other sentient thing in the vicinity gave commentary about how one showed affection to an ominously hovering over sized anatomically correct heart with a singular eye stuck in the middle of it was a bit much to parse.