Leo picked a crystal up, and swung down, smashing the ball on the floor.
{Leo : (+1) 10 Str}
“What are these?” Throttle asked. She poked one, and it shattered.
{Throttle : (+1) 60 Str}
I held one of the cores in my own hands, inspecting the patterns across its wavy interior. They depicted monsters, and balls of energy, with a sun or moon nearby. I frowned. “These look kinda like stat orbs.”
“But they’re huge!” Cierin shouted, running his hands over a crystal the size of a basketball. “Not to mention that instead of a sphere, they're a jagged hexagonal.”
“They’re fakes,” Leo muttered. “Somebody here has been making fake cores.”
“Are you sure they’re fakes?” I asked. “For all we know, all Cores are made like this.”
Our resident magic expert, Eere, was poking through the supplies, occasionally wincing or huffing wherever she found confusing, which was most of the time.
Of the fifty cores, more than thirty were dull and gray, like the ones Leo and Throttle had broken. Other than those, there were fifteen cores with a dull glisten of color to them. These seemed stronger than the others, but looked noticeably less like a real Core, with some Crystals having additional materials planted inside attached to balls of wire and wooden supports.
And then were five artificial cores, each the size of a basketball, and each with flawless smooth hexagonal sides, radiating sulfuric energy in staggered waves, like a heartbeat.
I took a green one, and broke it. From it, rings were materialized, and several smaller orbs clattered to the floor, smashing into each other.
[Core (//Error202.notfound.ob1J//) deactivated]
~
{Grind}
[(+16) 252 Hp]
[(+5) 257 Hp]
[(+1) 258 Hp]
“These are cores,” I said. “There are five—four working cores in this workshop.”
As if the piles of cores weren't ominous enough, blackened corpses had been piled up in one corner, which Irion was checking.
He let out a groan, wiping soot from his glasses. “They’re goblins.” Irion stated. “Each with a silver tooth jabbed into it.”
Throttle grabbed a hammer from her inventory, then brought it down, crushing the entire pile, and, in a whiff of smoke, it disintegrated
Cierin gave her a look. “We might’ve gotten some clues from that.”
“They needed to be finished off,” Throttle grunted. “Besides,” she started, bending down to wipe dust from fistfuls of silver needles. “It’s pretty obvious what happened.”
“Yeah,” I said. “A dungeon core has been turning its minion’s exp into cores.”
Leo crashed a hand on the table, shattering it and all the cores ontop of it.
[Core (//Error202.notfound.ob2J//) deactivated]
[Core (//Error202.notfound.ob5J//) deactivated]
[Core (//Error202.notfound.ob4J//) deactivated]
[Core (//Error202.notfound.ob3J//) deactivated]
~
{Leo : (+3) 100 Hp} {Leo : (+1) 100 Hp} {Leo : (+1) 100 Hp}
{Leo : (+1) 100 Hp} {Leo : (+1) 100 Hp} {Leo : (+5) 100 Hp}
{Leo : (+2) 100 Hp} {Leo : (+6) 100 Hp} {Leo : (+1) 100 Hp}
{Leo : (+16) 100 Hp} {Leo : (+5) 100 Hp} {Leo : (+1) 100 Hp}
Dexten popped his head into the room, noticing the piles of shattered crystal. “Hey. You guys alright?”
“NO!” Leo shouted. “Nothing we have seen or are doing makes any sense whatsoever!”
He kicked a pile of the gray cores, triggering more notifications. “What are things?! How could anything, Dungeon Core or otherwise, make something this complicated?! ”
Dexten blinked. “Are you sure it’s okay to be this loud?”
Leo hesitated, before looking at all the broken crystal and taking a slow, deep breath. “Inside voices, people. Break everything you can, then we’re getting out of here. I still have to find Harva and Ardenidi.”
Cierin rolled his eyes. “If she’s alive—”
“She’s alive,” Leo snapped. He walked out of the room without another word.
The workshop was both concerning and interesting, but beyond a handful of stats and a basic understanding of the Core’s plans, we couldn’t get much more out of it. In the end, me and Cierin just destroyed the entire room, if only to annoy the Core.
Once the rubble settled, I joined the others in the hallway.
Mall and Bruce hadn’t wanted to enter the building, since they had weak stomachs. Dexten had left to accompany them, in case they ran into a monster, or worse, the Core.
Quin—
“Where’s Quin?” I asked, heart racing. Quin still had Serenity.
Mall glanced in my direction. “Him? He’s just a little further down the hall. Didn’t want Sern looking in the room—”
I rushed down the hallways, eventually hearing noise from around one corner.
Quin frowned, stroking Sern’s hair. He sat down in the hall, with Sern curled up in his lap. “What’s the issue this time?”
Sern had bunched up, her face buried in his woolen cape, sweating and shaking.
“Monsters?” He asked, forcing a smile.
Sern lifted a finger to the air, gesturing.
Quin groaned, rubbing his face with his hands. “The Dark? You’re seriously scared of the dark?”
Sern gave a little nod.
“You’re a monster, aren’t you? Just beat up whatever comes out of it.”
Sern sat up, squinting in indignation.
“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Quin muttered. “I just know you’ve been hiding some sort of ridiculously overpowered abilities that could make skid marks out of my whole team. If you’re so worried about something just beat it up until there’s nothing to be afraid of. Players, monsters, anything. It’s basic adventurer logic.”
Sern made a bunch of complicated gestures, and Quin rolled his eyes.
“So what if they’re alive? An animal that wants to hurt you and a sentient person that wants to hurt you has one difference. A person who hurts you does so because that’s their choice, which means if a person is making an active choice to hurt you, then you can make the instinctive choice to protect yourself. In your case that’s by kicking their rear up their nose and breaking every bone in their body.”
Sern huffed, rolling her eyes, curling back into a ball.
I smiled, leaning back against the wall.
Quin clasped his hands together, settling down into the hallway. He took a deep breath, relaxing.
Sern grabbed his hands and set them onto her hair. Then she settled back into a ball, smiling.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Children,” Quin grumbled, brushing her hair with his hands, careful to smooth the knots in her hair. Soon, Sern drifted down into sleep.
“You know I’m not a mean guy,” Quin muttered. “I’m just a little intense, that’s all. Maybe a little stupid every now and then, but that’s all, really.”
I’d been waiting around the corner for an uncomfortable amount of time, so I cleared my throat and walked over.
Immediately, Quin shot to his feet.
“Ah! Grind!—” he jumped, launching Sern toward me. “All yours!”
She woke up halfway through the throw, latching onto his arm and threw him on the ground.
Quin wheezed, bug-eyed.
Sern giggled, climbing up onto his stomach and embracing him in a hug.
“How’re you two doing?” I asked, hiding a smile .
Quin took gulping breaths of air, wheezing. “How do you put up with her? She’s been ordering me around left and right! I’ve been Sern’s nanny for less than an hour, and I don’t think I can take much more.”
Sern grabbed his hand and placed it on her hair.
“Now that you mention it,” I said, “She’s not usually this commandeering.”
Quin whimpered, grabbing my leg. “Grind, buddy. Save me. I’ll give you anything.”
Sern glared in my direction, and I stepped back, hands in surrender. “Sorry Quin. There’s nothing I can do.”
“Grind?” Quin asked. “You’re not going to leave me with her, are you? Grind?”
I wandered off, content.
The two seemed to be getting along very nicely.
“GRIND!” Quin burst into the hallway, holding Sern.
I rolled my eyes, smiling. “Quin, she’s the boss—”
“No not that,” Quin snapped, shaking her in front of me. “She’s doing the thing again!”
I looked at Sern, narrowing my eyes.
She was tensed up again, latched onto Quin’s shirt, and refused to move, despite his pleading. This was different than just being scared.
“Eere?” I called. “Do you sense anything?”
She nodded, making a series of complicated gestures, several of which pointed to the candles, which Quin immediately recognized.
“The Core’s moving again,” Quin whispered. “Get the others.”
We gathered in the hallway and decided what to do. Or rather, Leo stated what he was going to do, and everyone complained about it.
“I’m going?” Leo said. “Alone.”
“I’m sorry?” Quin asked. “Going where?”
Leo pointed to the end of the hall, where we’d broken through. “It’ll find us sooner or later. I’d prefer sooner, and on my own terms. Also you’ll just get in my way.”
He promptly left.
“This is ridiculous!” Quin shouted, throwing his hands in the air.
Bruce patted Quin on the shoulder. “Hey. It’s okay. Leo’s got a point. We’ll provide backup if he needs it.”
I patted Quin on the shoulder. “Can you stay here? I need Sern safe.”
Sern gave Quin a look.
Quin whimpered.
She reached up and ruffled his hair, smiling to herself. Then she gave him a hug around the neck.
“I hate this game…so…so much,” he whined. “Why can’t I ever be the jacked and attractive shirtless man running to save the day?”
Sern squeezed his muscles, then shook her head.
“Oh, you be quiet.”
With discussion out of the way, the rest of us started down the tunnel, weaving between long passages of hallways. There were a couple interesting rooms, large blocks of stone jutting out from the rest, but we didn’t have time to explore.
Throttle chuckled, juggling daggers between her hands as she ran backwards. “What are we so scared of, anyway? There’s how many of us—fourteen?”
“It was thirteen, now it’s nine,” I said. “Excluding Ardenidi, Harva, Quin, and Sern.”
“Still, nine on one?” She smirked. “I like those odds.”
“You like any odds,” Cierin grumbled. He tried juggling the daggers, but wound up dropping several.
Throttle chuckled.
Once we reached Leo, Mall suddenly drew her bow, shushing our party.
In the distance, there was a stringed sound, like strumming a guitar, followed by a deep clicking. Pressure flooded the hallway, dampening our senses, following the extinguishing of distant candles.
The walls felt distant, and the air thickened
Leo braced himself to go, before I clamped a hand onto his arm, shaking my head.
“Tone your strength down,” I whispered.
He bristled. “Why?”
“We need to be smart and stealthy about this,” I stated, turning to the others in our party. “You fight the Core, with me, Cierin and Throttle as backup. Bruce will provide support to our archers, Dexten, Irion, and Mall. Quin’s keeping Sern safe.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Leo grunted, shrugging my arm off his shoulder. “The rest of you do as you please. I’m not your leader.”
Thankfully, he waited until turning a corner before flaring his strength and health.
Cierin frowned. “He can be a bit of a handful, sometimes.”
“At least he’s on our team,” I said, with a nod.
Me, Cierin, and Throttle—trailed behind Leo, using his ridiculous amount of power to hide our own stats.
Throttle gritted her teeth. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?” I asked.
“Your stats are tiny,” Throttle muttered.
{GRIND}
[ 1 Hp 0 Str]
“I thought you just concentrated,” I whispered back.
“I am,” she hissed, glancing above her head.
{Throttle}
[ 17 Hp 30 Str]
~
{Throttle : // 16 Hp //}
~
{Throttle : // 17 Hp//}
Throttle huffed. “All this thinking is detracting from my fighting.”
“Everyone else has the same issue,” Cierin stated, reading my stats again. “Grind, you’re usually good at suppressing your stats, considering how high they are. Only the guys from the union are better.”
{Cierin}
[ 5 Hp 2 Str]
“Interesting,” I muttered. “I know that if you break concentration, your stats snap back to normal, so maybe it's related to focus?”
Ahead of us, Leo snorted, waving behind a pillar. He’d been flaring his stats in a wide circle, before cutting them off within a massive stone room, where he now hid.
It was a pretty decent plan, all things considered.
Leo pointed, gesturing toward the other side of the room we now sat in. “There’s only two exits. One behind, one in front. Watch both for me.”
There was another strum, a rising pressure of energy, and a clicking.
Then a voice.
“Hellllloooo!”
Leo jolted, sweat trickling down his forehead. His lips parted in a whisper. “That was Harva.”
“She’s alive?” Throttle scoffed. “I oughta give the girl more credit.”
“Harva is a woman, not some ‘girl.’”
“Sure, whatever Leo, where’s she at?”
The room began to stink of rotten mana, swelling until it was burning my eyes.
“What’s she doing?” Leo muttered. “She’s being so loud?”
“There’s nothing here!” Harva called, with a tinge of exasperation. “Guys? Where are you?!”
“We need to go in. Now.” Leo swallowed.
Cierin shook his head. “But there’s the Core prowling—”
“Yes, and Harva’s all alone!” He hissed. “Don’t try to stop me.”
Leo burst out from the pillar, smashing the flat of a broad sword against rock, producing a shrill ringing through the chambers.
Cierin signed, popping out from behind the pillar. “If it is Harva, she’ll be needing immediate medical assistance. Regen won’t heal shattered bone or serious organ damage, which I’m sure Harva had.”
“Then get her some,” Leo ordered, shoving Cierin out of the room, through the exit from where we’d entered. “Contact your party’s healer.”
“Guys?” Harva called.
She slipped into the light, scanning the room. “I swear if this is another—Oh!” She squealed, popping up on the balls of her feet. “You! I was so worried!”
“Yeah, me too,” Leo said, with a nervous laugh. “Hey, are you feeling alright?”
“I’m feeling great,” Harva laughed, grabbing Leo in a hug. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, uh,” Leo glanced up to her head, stained blood red down one side, where’d she'd been hit, and at her throat, which was bruised black. Other, smaller scratches and bleeding covered her body, but those were insignificant in comparison.
Leo cleared his throat. “It’s nothing.”
Throttle nudged me in the side, and I nodded.
Something was off about all of this. If I was being honest, I’d expected an illusion of some sort, but she seemed real enough, and I doubted this core could make a physical replica good enough to fool her closest friends.
It wasn’t impossible, but it was rather unlikely.
But then were the other issues.
I hadn’t seen Harva enter, for one, and I couldn't see her stats either. Additionally, for whatever reason, Regen didn’t seem to be working, or she’d have healed.
For now, the backup would remain hidden.
Leo could clearly tell something was off, but he struggled to put it into words. “You...your…what happened?”
“Hmh?” Harva asked, still hugging.
“You worried me sick,” Leo whispered.
“Don’t worry about me, silly.” Harva giggled. “I’m fine. Never better, really. I haven’t had a body like this in a while,” she said, kissing him on the cheek as she stabbed a needle into his chest.
{Leo : (-1) 10 Hp}
[Neurotoxin III inflicted]
