《Sky Island Core》 Chapter 1: Waking Up In a New World – What Now? Day 1 ¡°Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways¡± -- Sigmund Freud I awoke with a start. Though a purely intellectual one. There was no movement, no gasping for breath, only a sudden awareness of self and an instant panic. I couldn¡¯t move, couldn¡¯t breathe, couldn¡¯t see, couldn¡¯t even feel my heart beating inside my chest. ¡°No. NO! NOT AGAIN! I¡¯m already dead, no more suffocating!¡± The panic slowly subsided, though I¡¯ll admit it wasn¡¯t a rapid thing. The lack of active suffering and the relative clarity of thought began to register. I lacked sensory input, but I wasn¡¯t still buried alive. I hadn¡¯t forgotten how that felt; possibly I never would. This wasn¡¯t that. There¡¯s no feeling of compression, no straining labor to breathe, no flush of adrenaline through the system, no sense of impending doom. Only quiet, absolute darkness and a sense that nothing was really going wrong. After a minute or two of calming down, with my mind settling from its initial racing, I began to take stock. ¡°What the actual fuck just happened.¡± Okay, so maybe not calm just yet. ***************** Recent events were a bit hazy, but some details were starting to come back. I¡¯d been at work, on site at our project¡¯s excavation site in northern Guatemala. I¡¯d climbed down the simple ladder cobbled together from branches and vines to inspect the smooth plaster surface of a Late Preclassic floor and examine the remains of a smashed vessel (a Sierra Red chocolate pot with its characteristic waxy slip -- there¡¯s information I¡¯ll never use again...). 2000 years of additional construction and pedogenesis meant the unit was a pit, in the traditional sense, almost five meters deep through layers of cobble, midden, and earth, along with later floors and walls. The last thing I remembered was the annoyance and alarm of looking up to see some idiot tourists crowding the unstable edges of our neatly squared unit. The largest stone on the edge broke free from the earth under their feet, dropping quickly towards me. In a 1X1 test pit of this depth, there was nowhere to run. I raised my arm to protect my head and leaned away as best I could, but there was no escaping the blow. A sudden pain shot through my arm and shoulder, but that was survivable; the ensuing landslide of muddy soil and stone as the wall of the unit collapsed, rather less so. It¡¯s an admitted occupational hazard for an archaeologist, and one I¡¯d pondered before. Sand is the worst matrix for that sort of thing, but, given the early afternoon downpour that is a feature of the rainy season here, mud was a real concern and the tarps we¡¯d erected only did so much. I had just enough time to think ¡°well, this will make for a more dramatic obituary than a heart attack at the farmer¡¯s market, at least¡±, and then it was all straining to stand or find a pocket of air, with no success. Unfortunately, it took several, deeply unpleasant, minutes before anoxia drove me unconscious and death claimed me. **************************** Well, not death, I don¡¯t think. I didn¡¯t actually get her name, and she didn¡¯t seem open to answering questions. Not sure if all deities are like that, or just the one who snagged me. For that matter, I had the sense that any real awareness of the deity had been deliberately removed, leaving me with just a solid conviction that I¡¯d been removed to a new world and given a task, and that there was no going back. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯d agreed to it, but it¡¯s not like I had a contract or any clear instructions. The overall impression was of a warm, feminine presence, a sense of infinite patience, but transient attention, and an aura of divine authority, and that¡¯s more than an agnostic like me had ever expected. I knew, without knowing how, that I¡¯d been brought to a world of magic, in a universe similar to, but distinct from, my own. I knew I¡¯d been given a specific mission, but not one with any immediate urgency. To be clear, I was explicitly NOT trying to take over the world or make it over in my image; rather, I got the impression that it was hoped I would provide guidance or advice to correct an issue I was particularly appropriate to address. What exactly that might be, I was left to discover on my own. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. That was a relief in some ways; I¡¯d never been a fan of stories that followed a predetermined path ¨C Joseph Campbell''s hero¡¯s journey being a bit too proscriptive for my tastes. While not a fan of all the uncertainty, I at least appreciated the implicit freedom to set my own path. Fate and predestination are deeply unsettling since they remove any significant choices or personal responsibility. As a college professor, a social scientist, and an observer of humanity, I had been all too aware of my limitations. Advice, I could do, if asked, but I long ago learned to keep most of my opinions to myself. I¡¯d be grappling with the notion that gods are real for the foreseeable future and what that means for how religion functions in this new world. Magic, similarly, was going to take some mental readjustments, and I was curious about what that meant for social structures in my new world. That said, I got the impression my task was more technical than social, with social interactions mostly needed to organize efforts by those affected. ********************* That¡¯s a concern for another time, though! Where have I been dropped? And why am I in a state of sensory deprivation? And why isn¡¯t that bothering me more? It slowly began to register on me that I wasn¡¯t actually devoid of sensory input, it just wasn¡¯t taking the form of traditional sight, sound, taste, touch and the like. There was still a sense of kinesthesia, but rather than an aging human male of middling fitness, I was a crystalline stone embedded in an earthen matrix. Truly, an odd feeling, and not one I can readily describe. Beyond that, I had a solid sense of everything around me in a spherical, but quite limited range. It wasn¡¯t part of me, but everything in that range beyond the crystalline core was clearly ¡°mine¡±. I knew which way was up and I could also feel the local magnetic field pointing towards the presumed poles. Oddly, there was a general sense of movement as well, roughly perpendicular to the magnetic field, but no obvious evidence of that. I could even feel the planet rotating and the ambient radiation that could penetrate to whatever depth I was at (or was given off by the decay of isotopes nearby). No sense of heat or cold, but just the passage of stray particles through my zone of control. I still possessed the same personality and the same emotional responses, but they were a bit muted by the lack of adrenaline triggered by the stresses involved. The matrix was uniform ¨C a dark, loamy soil with granitic inclusions (I¡¯ll spare you the Munsell evaluation). That suggests that either I''m not that far below the surface or there was a truly deep topsoil here. I could also, oddly enough, register the life within my spherical range ¨C rootlets, seeds and spores, invertebrates of a few varieties, and even an array of microscopic organisms. Nothing exciting, and nothing I recognized from my earlier life, but fascinating, nonetheless. With little else to do, I spent a few moments watching the movement of life as it swirled through my zone of control. Assuming these creatures were of similar size to their analogues on Earth, I guessed my range to be about 50 cm radially in all directions from my crystalline form. Mostly I felt a vague hunger arise, and a desire to absorb the life around me. So, I¡¯m a tiny stone? There¡¯s clearly something I¡¯m missing here. I know gods have a reputation for being inscrutable, but what kind of mission can I perform as a conscious but immobile object? I could really use an explanation or some form of guidance. Hint, hint? Divine guidance apparently not being forthcoming, all I could do was to examine my sphere of control. Losing interest in watching worms (or their otherworldly analogues) burrow through the soil, eventually I slipped into a generally meditative state, aware of the pulsing of life in my area, but without a focus on anything in particular. After a while, flickers of movement, like motion in the corner of my nonexistent eye, drew my attention. Frustratingly, any attempt to focus on them caused them to disappear; deliberately defocusing my attention, the motions became clearer, and I could feel something change within me. The flows of energy, though distinct from electromagnetic or nuclear forces, came into focus ¨C mostly moving without much direction, drifting slowly like food coloring through water. Some, though, seemed more directed, apparently being pulled into my central core and recirculating. That was interesting, and potentially concerning, so I attempted to focus on that movement. Slowly, I could feel that circulation, like a constant tug on my being, albeit a slow and gentle one. With a distinct mental effort, I tried to speed the flow to see what would happen. Like a sudden burst of adrenaline, energy coursed through me, and it seemed as though I experienced some incremental growth in my core. If only I had some way to track what was happening to me, some way to track my current status! [Status] With a noticeable, if entirely inaudible, *ding*, a blue screen appeared within my sphere of control, intangibly within the soil yet clearly apparent. Chapter 2 - Discovering the Status Interface – Day 1 [Status] [Primary Stats] [Skills] [Traits/Titles] [Active Quests] [Creation Blueprints] Name: Unassigned. Please choose a name for this existence. Race: Dungeon Core Subtype: Divinely placed, sapient, transmigrator Level: 0 Create a core room and connect to the surface to advance to level 1. Size: 1 cm (radius), with 50 cm (radius) sphere of control Color: Pale blue with gold and black elements Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Chapter 3 - Some Basic Mechanics (part 1 – Stats) Day 1 ¡°Systems do what they''re designed to do, it''s people who are more complicated¡± ¨D Nick Lake [Primary Stats] Intelligence: 94 Wisdom: 81 Creativity: 62 ------------------------------------------------------------ Local Lore: 1 Regional Lore: 0 Global Lore: 0 Durability: 15 ------------------------------------------------------------- Mana: 125/125 Mana Regen: 125/day (5/hr) Stored Energy: 0/200 Hunger: 4% Well, there¡¯s some overlap from D&D here, but not a lot, really. Clearly not using 3D6, though. Looks more like 0-100, but possibly going higher. Mana may well be different; the line above it suggests it is, anyways. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. We have intelligence and wisdom ¨C those track. Let¡¯s assume for the time being that intelligence focuses on the ability to learn new things and wisdom involves knowing what to do and what not to do with the things we learn. The lack of things like strength and dexterity make sense given that I¡¯m a stone and ¡°durability¡± might be a stand in for constitution. No sign of charisma, either ¨C that doesn¡¯t bode well for my immediate chances of personal interactions. I suppose it¡¯s a good thing I¡¯ve always been a bit of a loner. Creativity would tend to suggest this is an assessment of my ability to come up with new and interesting ideas, or possibly addressing my stylistic and aesthetic sensibilities. A score of 62 seems low, and kind of rude, but again, there¡¯s no way to judge without something to compare it to. I wonder if lumping those three together suggests something specific? If nothing else, they seem like maybe they¡¯d be more constant than the others. Lore, though, that¡¯s a new one for me. By dividing it up according to scale, I¡¯d have to assume it speaks to specific knowledge of the area. That would explain why my scores are so low, at least, and offers hope for improvement. Durability. The fact that this is even a category is concerning. I¡¯m going to guess this speaks directly to how hard it would be to destroy me, and hope that A) it goes up as I level, and B) that 15 is more durable than it sounds! Mana and Mana regen presumably refer to the use of magic, a variety of games and fantasy novels suggest, though again that¡¯s likely translated into concepts I¡¯m familiar with. At least, I¡¯m assuming I wasn¡¯t brought to a world based on M¨¡ori folkloric concepts of personal power. Eh, I guess I¡¯ll find out eventually. I wonder what the units of measurement are for that... In any event, just like for durability, I¡¯d guess it¡¯s more important to know whether that¡¯s a lot or a little, and I have no way to tell. Likewise, with no units, there¡¯s no way to tell what kind of energy we¡¯re talking about or how much 200 is. I paused for a moment to check my surroundings. I don¡¯t want to get in the habit of living too much in my own metaphorical head, anyways. There doesn¡¯t seem to be much going on though ¨C a certain amount of moisture is creeping into my zone of control, so maybe I¡¯m close enough to the surface to be affected by rain. I clearly don¡¯t need to breathe, so at least drowning doesn¡¯t seem to be a concern! Hunger, though? That¡¯s moderately concerning, given that I have no obvious way to eat. What exactly do I have to do to relieve hunger? At least 4% suggests I have some time to work it out. To be honest, I didn¡¯t feel hungry in any traditional sense, but I did have a quick flashback to watching the microscopic life forms living and dying in my domain. I remembered the passing desire to absorb them, and I suspected that whatever the mechanic was going to be, I was going to need to consume living things to survive. I wasn¡¯t a vegan in my past life, I didn¡¯t think, but this felt a bit more primal. I shook off any darker thoughts with a mental shrug as another problem for later. Back to work, I guess. Let¡¯s move to the next tab. Chapter 4 - Basic Mechanics (part 2 – Skills) Day 1 [Skills] ************************************ Perception ¨C Lvl 1 Mana Sense ¨C Lvl 1 Life Sense ¨C Lvl 1 ------------------------------------------------------- Mana Circulation ¨C Lvl 1 Mana Storage ¨C Lvl 1 Mana Manipulation ¨C Lvl 0 ------------------------------------------------------- Matter Conversion ¨C Lvl 0 Energy Conversion ¨C Lvl 0 Create Life ¨C Lvl 0 Assimilate ¨C Lvl 1 ************************************ Learn Languages - Lvl 10 Sense Lore ¨C Lvl 1 ------------------------------------------------------- Stratigraphic Assessment ¨C Lvl 1 3D- Cartography ¨C Lvl 0 Seriation ¨C Lvl 0 Epigraphy ¨C Lvl 0 Radiometric Dating ¨C Lvl 0 ------------------------------------------------------- Classify ¨C Lvl 0 Ecological Assessment ¨C Lvl 1 Biotic Synergy ¨C Lvl 1 This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Let''s keep going. I''m getting closer to the end, and then I can try to make it all make sense together. Chapter 5 – Basic Mechanics (part 3 – Traits and Titles) - Day 1 [Traits] Eidetic Memory Pattern Recognition Good with Kids [Titles] From Another World Sanctioned by the Gods General Scholar Xenoarchaeologist Naturalist [Details] From Another World ¨C Rare title given to those souls who have been transported from another world to Relnis, The Prime Lands Sanctioned by the Gods ¨C Rare title given to dungeons that have been specifically placed by a deity or deities to fulfill a specific function. General Scholar - Uncommon title given to beings that have devoted a substantial portion of their lifespan to the pursuit of a broad range of knowledge. Xenoarchaeologist - Unique title given to a scholar devoted to understanding the material culture and history of past societies wholly unrelated to their own. Naturalist ¨C Uncommon title given to beings with a particular interest in studying the biota of the world. [Active Quests] Divine Quest ***************************************** Discover Your Mission - Find a clue as to what the Gods expect from you. Rewards: Variable but significant ***************************************** Dungeon Quests ***************************************** Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Link to the Surface ¨C Use matter conversion and mana expenditure to establish a suitable pathway to the surface with minimum dimensions at least 1 m X 1 m at all points. Rewards: Continued existence. Time remaining until dungeon collapse ¨C 74.5 hrs. Create A Room - Use matter conversion to create an open space at least 3 m X 3 m X 3 m Rewards: Material Blueprint Create A Trap - Use matter conversion or energy conversion to create a trap to slow or kill invaders. Rewards: Trap Blueprint Create A Dungeon Creature - Use Create Life to generate a dungeon creature. Rewards: 1 Lifeform Blueprint Assimilate New Lifeform (Repeatable) - Use assimilate to secure information on 3 new mobile lifeforms. Reward: Lifeform Blueprint, Lore Protect the Core - Add defensive measures adjoining core ¨C traps, assigned defenders, decoys, etc. Note: Access to core may not be completely removed. Reward: Variable ************************************** Scholar Quests ************************************** Contact Another Scholar ¨C Reward: Communication skill Find a Library ¨C Discover at least 3 legible books ¨C Reward: Variable Transcribe Lore - Record 100 pages of non-fiction information in a tangible medium ¨C Reward: knowledge-based skill ------------------------------------------------------------------- Xenoarchaeology Quests Discover a Ruin - Identify the location of an archaeological site. Reward: Survey-based skill, Lore Identify Past Residents ¨C Determine nature and cultural affiliation of site. Reward: Variable, plus Lore ------------------------------------------------------------------- Naturalist Quests Spot a Bird (repeatable) - Identify 3 new (to you) species of avian creatures. Reward: Flying Lifeform Blueprint, Lore Spot a Terrestrial Animal (repeatable) ¨C Identify 3 new (to you) species of land-bound creatures. Reward: Terrestrial Lifeform Blueprint, Lore. Spot Aquatic Animal (repeatable)¨C Identify 3 new (to you) species of water-bound creatures. Reward: Aquatic Lifeform Blueprint, Lore. Spot Plant Species (repeatable) ¨C Identify 5 new (to you) species of plant. Reward: Plant Lifeform Blueprint, Lore. Spot Fungal Species (repeatable) ¨C Identify 3 new (to you) species of fungi. Reward: Fugus Lifeform Blueprint, Lore. [Creation Blueprints] ************************************ Inorganic --------------------------------------------------------- Water Granite Local Soil (select for list of mineral components) ************************************** Organic ---------------------------------------------------------- Fauna Local Microbiota (select for list of specific lifeforms) Local Invertebrata (select for list of specific lifeforms) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Flora Local Microbiota (select for list of specific lifeforms) Green Grass Club Oak --------------------------------------------------------------------- Fungi Local Microbiota (select for list of specific lifeforms) Oak Bracket Fungus Chapter 6 - Struggling with dungeon instincts. Damn, I want to kill something! - Day 1 This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.