Dungeon core acquisition

“So you not only want us to lie to the organization, you also want us to take something that could endanger a whole nation?” Reprimands Samantha. Not seeing things with the same eye as me.

“Wait Sam, you know Kuni, he’s not that dumb. Let him finish his explanations.” Said Sarsaw, harsh in his tone while glaring at me. He has always been in the center of our group, without him we would have already disbanded long ago.

“Thank you Sarsaw.” I tried. “Don’t thank me, finish your piece, because I am not convinced either.” But he rebutted me. I can only finish to explain. “ It all happened more than 2000 years ago, at the time the dungeon dwellers were not what it is today. There was no real control over who got a dungeon, and how they made it do.”

“Do you remember how I was when we departed from Zlavawl?” I ask the group, or rather, my friends. “You mean how you didn’t talk for a whole month and did the minimum in the first delve we had?”

“Yes Pàll, that.” I am really happy with how he described it, but I guess it felt like that to him. “So what? What does it have to do with all that?” Samantha is getting impatient, the frustration in her voice hinting at it.

“Before we left, I got my hands on a book of registry about the incident. I not only learnt what kind of human trash the dungeon’s owners were, I also learnt that dungeons can develop a consciousness.” Just the second part of my sentence had rattled me, and my friends seem to be doubting me right now.

“We all know that every single dungeon is different from one another, their mana type may all be similar, but ultimately they make their territory orientated towards one mana-type. There are outliers which present a second mana-type in deeper levels. Some of them even have combinations of 2 or 3 mana-types.”

“But in Zentroa, the dungeon has enormous levels, even the first one is larger than what other dungeons would have at the 50th. And the mana-type diversity in it is absurd, it has no focus, you can find more than 10 different mana-types at each level.”

I wanted to continue, but Samantha had enough of my monologue. “ And where is that registry? You surely don’t think we will follow you like that without any proof, right?” It is evident that she is angered. And she is quite dangerous when in this state of mind.

“I hid it, I can show you when we get back.” I confirmed, and Sarsaw took the chance to talk. “Just to make sure we are all on the same page. Dungeons can gain consciousness, you mean having awareness of themselves and all that kind of thing?”

“From what I read, it takes time for them to get to it, but they can get to a human level of intellect.” I answer, my voice somber. “And if I deduced that right, since the incident that resulted in the wastelands, dungeons that show signs of possibly evolving into conscious ones are to be destroyed?”

Sarsaw has always been quick witted, and now he shows this trait again. “You’re right, yes.” I tell him. “the organization found that a sentient dungeon can be a cornerstone of a whole nation, but it can also lead to the destruction of multiples as well.”

“Then why the fuck do you want us to keep such a liability?!” Samantha urged, screaming. Sarsaw ignored her, and asked instead. “What did its owners do? What kind of people were they?”

I hesitated to speak, but after a few seconds where Sarsaw and Esteban restrained Samantha, I finally decided to tell them about it. “They were the lowest of the low, the kind of trash everyone would want tortured and then executed.” I affirmed.

“ Before even getting the dungeon, they were found to to have been parts of an organization that kidnapped young childrens to be sold as slaves. As well as being parts of-” Samantha interrupted me. “Get to the important parts, you can tell the details later!”

“They developed a way to get the dungeon to be able to feel pain. They then tortured it to get it to do whatever they wanted, generating gold, mithril, whatever riches. It drained the dungeon so much, it needed to disintegrate parts of itself to keep up with their absurdity. They even made it produce a better version of their torture device to be able to torture it better.”

“Then, somehow, the dungeon found a way to free itself. It produced monsters more ravenous than was ever seen before. And instead of directly killing its owners, he captured them, inflicting horrendous treatments on them. Changing their bodies, perceptions, taking control over their body.”

I didn’t say anything else, the core of the matter having been said. It was Sarsaw that talked next. “And how do you know it is not fake? And how could they get this kind of information? That seems way too accurate to be true.”

“I would have the same opinion, but there are the crests of 7 nations on the seal of secret, one of them being the empire’s. As for the accuracy of it all, they engaged a necromancer to get answers out of what was the corpses of the owners. From what was written, they couldn’t be considered humans by any right.”

A heavy silence established itself over us. Eyes looking sometimes at me, sometimes at the dungeon core we just subdued. Samantha hesitated, not knowing if she should talk or not. It was Esteban who broke the silence.

“So… we have to choose if we want to keep it, or destroy it, then.” His sentence is more a question than an affirmation, the uncertainty too present to misunderstand. Sarsaw explained the dilemma in clearer terms.

“To be exact, we need to choose between monitoring the dungeon, making sure the organization does not suspect it is sentient for at least decades, the time we would need to influence it enough to get it to do what it can probably already do. All the while making sure it does not become some horror spewing dungeon.”

“Or the more simple solution. We do like we don’t know anything about the sentient dungeons law, bring it back to Narmis, where it is likely that it will be destroyed. We would get some form of compensation, but we would not have our own dungeon before a long time that way. Those are our 2 actual choices.”

Samantha could not keep herself from giving a piece of her mind. “That idiotic! We all know the kind of horrors present in the wastelands! If this thing-” She said, pointing at the dungeon core.”-has any chance of unleashing those kinds of absurd monstrosity, we should just destroy it. There is no choice!”

“We need to vote.” Sarsaw spewed out. “WHAT?!” Samantha began, but Sarsaw explained himself before she could begin an argument. “There are pros and cons, and all of us are not in accord about the significance of each of them. So we just vote, can we all agree to follow the majority's opinion?” “That’s insane!” Samantha rebuked.

“Samantha, it is not the question if it is insane or not. We are a group, we always worked that way, and it has never backfired so far. So, are you agreeing to follow the majority’s lead?” Sarsaw made his expression and voice as serious as could be possible.

We all agreed to follow the majority, Samantha hesitating for a moment. “So, who are those for keeping the dungeon with us, this includes making sure it does not become the second wasteland producing dungeon?”

At this, I, Sarsaw, Mariane and Esteban raised their hands. “Fuck!” Said Samantha and Nebile at the same time. Pàll was giving side looks to everyone, knowing him, he would not have raised his hand for either of the choices.

We then began returning to the village, Samantha mouthing every fool word she knows. Being the one that kept the DC (Dungeon Core), I approached Samantha when we saw the village through the forest’s foliage. “Here, you should reinforce the array as soon as possible.” I told her. As neutral as I could.

“Fuck you! Fuck you all!” Was her answer, but she still took the core I was presenting her. She might not like or want to do it, but she always abides by her responsibilities. Or as well as she can anyway. That is probably one of the principal reasons she did not want to keep the core in the first place.

We took our time to leave the village, the residents were happy to know their monsters problem was resolved so quickly. We left the next day at the first lights, the sun not yet showing on the horizon.

Samantha finished her work during the night, and now the core looked like normal, no mana entering it, and it stopped spewing mana too. I kept my mind occupied with things about the core. Could it already be sentient? Or is it on its way to be so? Will our stratagem work, or will Niloofar see through our plan?

We prepared our report, we would say the core was nearly finished with its first graft when we arrived. It's monsters being giant spiders preying on the local fauna. The major issue would be when the mana gathering restraints would be deactivated. Samantha tried tempering with it, now the formation would let the core gather a normal amount of mana. If it worked perfectly, it would not be an issue, no. The issue came from the fact that the formation would work that way for a little less than a minute, after that the formation would loosen enough to get completely shut down.

We obviously never assisted with such a test, so we don’t know how much time it takes, or if other tests are performed. It is stressful to think of it, but I don’t think the organization would immediately jump to conclusions. At most they would deem the core as special and keep a close track of it.

We soon arrived at Narmis, soon for me at least, my mind was occupied on searching for a way to either explain the mana gathering, or prevent it. But alas, I found none, and by the look on Samantha’s face, she did not either. The night is just beginning, but we will probably all be going to sleep or rest. Tomorrow promises to change our lives one way or another.

POV: Will

‘Are they torturing me with frustration?’ I don’t know what to do. For a moment I could take mana in, but after what I think were hours, even that stopped working. No matter how much I tried, I could not get any mana in. That is already frustrating on its own, but now I feel like they are taunting me.

Not long after my mana intake was blocked, I felt some kind of switch, and suddenly I could get mana again. But it was a reduced quantity, about what I get when I let the mana come by itself. It is way less than what I get from consciously breathing it in, but as soon as I get to take that much in, about a minute after I get mana in, they shut it down.

It happened 4 times, and now I think they want to limit my mana intake. I was stressed when they captured me, but they don’t seem to want to kill me.They could have done so for a long time now. So my best guess is they want something from me. I hope I don't die again.

I can’t sense anything without my mana around me, so I can’t be sure of anything. I will have to go with my gut feelings I guess, even if I don’t have guts anymore. Talking about the change from my previous life to this one, it seems odd how I just don’t care anymore. While I think about my previous body, my human body, not the spider, it was not really entirely mine I think.

All I can feel when thinking about my human body is weakness, as if it was natural to think of my previous life as something weak. There is obviously something that is affecting or had an effect on my mind, I would have been afraid if I wasn’t in the state I am at this moment. It is like the anti-depressors, you are still yourself, but you care about things less. You are more prone to relativize in a feelingless way.

I think about what could have happened to me, how I could have awakened as a crystal that is conscious, control a magic energy I call mana, and can do all the things I did. My most probable explanation ends up being: I am hallucinating hard, REALLY hard. Because there's too many details, and I am too clear headed.

I don’t know how much time passes just like that, I reminisce about my life, what I did, how I did things and all the crap I did with my life. I was thinking about my work on the universe's fabric when I felt mana coming in again.

I felt myself wanting to take in as much mana as possible, the more the better. ‘Another influence over my mind?’ I thought, not entirely clear of why I want mana so much. But instead of following my spontaneous desire, I let the mana enter me all by itself.

After a minute I felt the seal lose pressure, meaning I could take in much more mana from here if I want to. But each time I did that before, they would just shut the seal close again. I counted the seconds passing, waiting to see for how long they would let me take mana in. It lasted a bit more than 5 minutes, the seal was closed. ‘What do they want then? They are beginning to become very annoying!’