《Progenitor Core》
Core formation
It''s dark¡. Cold and empty¡ The last thing she could remember is a conversation she had with her mother even now in this deafeningly silent void of black. For the life of her she can¡¯t quite place the details of said conversation but she knew it was important. Thinking of what they talked about though is giving her a massive headache so it is hard to fully care.
{Congratulations! You have descended!}
[You have gained merit.]
Wha?
Confusion bloomed in her apathetic mind as she stared at the odd non tangible screen that refused to leave her vision no matter what direction she faced in this black void. Eventually she had to give up escaping the strangely bright screen and face it head on but she couldn''t help but think¡ What in the abyss is merit?
A question that nothing answered as she metaphorically sat in this dark empty void for what felt like hours when it really was just three minutes. Three minutes that she impatiently waited for something to happen but to her disappointment nothing did. Boredom she understood was the true killer of life so with a sigh she started fiddling with the screen but it seemed to only be affected by her mind. With nothing to do in this space to entertain herself she started to make the rectangular box into strange shapes that would make any artist cry. It was only when she started messing with its boring tan color that she remembered everything.
What have I been doing?! The weight of her guilt almost made her want to cry but she couldn¡¯t or rather she wouldn''t because she made a promise. She wanted to help her parents work and here she was messing around in a void. With a breath and a sniffle she recentered herself and fixed the screen back into its rectangular shape. She decided to keep the sky blue color though as she personally liked it better than the boring tan. Once she was done with the basic set up she prodded the screen to share her records.
|
Name:
|
Caelum
|
|
Race:
|
Deity
|
|
Class:
|
Dungeon core
|
|
Divinity:
|
150/150
|
She could not help but sigh at the neat little rows. Her mother always loved things neat and tidy, all orderly and perfect. I can understand wanting order but it feels depressing to be summed up in four rows.
Shaking off the dark feelings that thought brang she got to work and with a mental flex added tabs to the side of the screen for ease of use. She needed a few to hold her other information such as titles and the like. She couldn¡¯t help thinking a lot of it was useless in her current occupation but you never know.
Her promise to mom comes first in this job; she has to be an example to the mortals for the next big system update so she needs to fulfill a few conditions if she recalls correctly. The first being: A place to advance in power. Simple in the sense it needs to hold creatures to fight and fuel adversity. The second of course is loot! Dad always says that mortal greed is terrifying. She never understood what that meant so she wants to see it first hand! Giggling at that thought she draws upon her divinity and condenses it towards her center just like mom told her to. Its silver light tinged in prismatic hues lighting up the black space as she condenses it further and further. The black void is trembling; she can feel the space contorting as reality is being reshaped. Further! As she draws upon every single strand of reality''s fabric all thought is erased as her focus becomes sharper and more refined in her task.
Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
Straining as hard as she could, something had to give be it her will or the void so with an earth shattering clap of sound the energy solidified into an orb about the size of a human head proof that she was up to the task. The black void was not the space she thought it was as it has drastically changed after the core was formed. It left a spherical room about three meters wide and tall with the glowing orb at its utmost center. The walls are made out of perfectly smooth brownish gray stone¡ very hard stone as it turns out. As once the orb finished forming in the center of the room her physical body she remembered having was ejected out onto the ground just below it. With great nausea and a very unladylike yelp she fell into the bowl below.
[Core Formed!]
[Unlocked dungeon interface.]
She felt sick having two different perspectives so alien from each other; one being her normal sight and the other a panorama view surrounding the orb. It was only when she closed her eyes that the feeling of nausea abated. With deep breaths she slowly got used to the sensation from the orbs point of view and opened her eyes once more. Ugh that is not working the way I want¡ The feeling of nausea came back with a vengeance. It was still too much for her so she rested once more and started experimenting a few minutes later when she felt better. After an hour or two she once more opened her eyes and to her great relief felt much better.
It took a while but I think I figured out how to shut out the core¡¯s information. Now that I look around it turns out that ¡®Void¡¯ was just a completely underground space¡
She did not know how to feel about practically being buried alive but it did not feel great by any means. All she could do about it now though was to bottle that feeling with the others and move on for she only has so much time before that update and she has a dungeon to build.
First she did a once over with herself to make sure she was well¡ herself. Looking at her hands and arms she still has her tanned skin that has a honey like hue, a trait she inherited from her father that her mother adored when she was a child. Trailing her hands through her hair tells that its long length to her mid back is still the same along with its black-blue color. It is safe to assume my eyes are still the same golden color as they were¡ I should be happy I am the same as I was but¡
With a deep sigh she looks down at the two things that make her both deeply embarrassed and extremely worried. With a slight blush she grabs the hem of her long sleeve shirt, its pale pink color only broken up with cute bunny rabbit designs polka dotted around its soft fabric. At least it matches her pants but she feels like she will lose something if some stranger sees her like this. She could only mumble a Into the bottle it goes¡ before she turned her attention to the thing that is worrying her greatly. The fact that she is transparent like some sort of ghost.
Come on mom I agreed to help you out but the pajamas and whatever this ghost stuff is was not explained in the slightest!
She could only huff indignation and embarrassment so long before it was time to do something more productive she was on a time limit after all as she did not want to disappoint her mother. So she pulled up several tabs worth of information, mostly lists of creatures and themes she could do per room or floor.
Of course most of these are expensive¡ but who doesn''t want a unicorn? or ooooh a dragon could be amazing! She had to be realistic though as she was on a budget and she wanted more than anything to do this right! Most of these are kind of lame though¡ who wants to fight a stinky goblin? Browsing through the many options page by page she decided to just pick a letter by random and just look at that list to save some time. Oh by the abyss they have otters! A few of them even have fluffy in the name! The urge to just pick cute animals to fill her halls was overwhelming and it clashed viciously with her task at hand so she decided to compromise. Bandit marine otter sounds like the cutest thing in the world!
With a flick she decided to create one in the room making sure to do it at the bottom of the bowl so it would not get hurt sliding down. The divinity pooled out of her and formed a rough shape of an otter about a meter or so long; approximately she knew monster creation like this would make them non sapient and the size varied a bit each time. Where did she get that knowledge? She had no idea but it fazed out of her mind the moment a fluffy brown otter poofed into existence with a dull red bandana over its head. With a squeal she dashed and slid forward and hugged the creature. Its size was a concern in the back of her mind nagging her as she fluffed up the creature but she ignored it along with the slight annoyance in its eyes she was sure she was imagining.
¡°I will name you something cute! And build us a nice home! I bet mom is proud already!¡±
It was the first time she spoke aloud since she woke up in the darkness, her words ending in a delighted giggle trailed by a giant otter''s annoyed huff.
A castle and a fool
A few hours after she created the otter that was now peacefully sleeping at the bottom of the bowl she felt her divinity tick up once more. So it costs around ten divinity to make a monster cycle huh? A monster that returns to life after it dies needed a name she decided and no one was around to stop her so she felt that just calling it a monster cycle since it felt the most¡ descriptive of the process was a fair thing to do.
Ten for the otter and I am assuming fifty for the core? She could only really guess as she had no way to know for sure at the moment and that fact truly hammered in the task she was given. Since I am the original in this case I don¡¯t have a guide do I? Sitting down as best as she could in the sphere room she inadvertently created she pondered what to do with her task.
If I am the base template for the overall project I need to be careful right? She felt sick at that thought alone and could only rub her arms to try and control her nerves. What was she supposed to do? How would the mortals react to something like this? Many many questions and worries flowed through unabated leaving only a very faint sense of dread in their wake. Breathing in and out slowly barely held her together long enough to cram the sick away like everything else, her breaths echoing in the cold silence of the room. She could feel a slight cold within herself once she stored away the dark feelings but no matter how hard she tried to push it away it never left her so all she could do was move on one shaky step at a time.
¡°Hey otter, do you think the mortals would appreciate a cave floor?¡±
She asked quietly hoping for some validation from her only company. After a few minutes though of complete dead quiet her face scrunched up before returning neutral after a breath.
¡°Yeah you''re right! Mom needs something more grand than just a cave to bring the mortals around to the new changes.¡±
With a slight smile and a nod to herself she hopped onto her feet and funneled some of her divinity to her hands and started shaping the stone before her. The silver glow worked in tandem with her mind to make rectangular halls five meters wide and eight tall. She walked forward slowly and carefully to make sure everything was level and not a hassle to walk over; she did not want people to think it was shoddy. The bare stone walls left behind she would have to go back to later and do some finer details then add decoration and to add rooms.
The idea in her head was simple but hard to picture since she has never seen a castle before. Trying to remember what castles were from her fathers stories did not help as much as she thought and could only chuckle at the inane idea that it was just a bunch of halls and rooms. She figured that most structures were just rooms and halls for the most part but that felt incomplete and most importantly lazy. She understood that the essence of a castle was grand and she wanted to replicate that feeling in her halls since her cave idea fell flat in her mind. Pillars, fine stonework, and statues were probably needed she concluded but will that help with the vision she has in mind? Was that all a castle was? She felt that she was missing something as her walk continued absentmindedly carving stone halls that went straight, turned left and right sharply sometimes crossing each other. In the end many many halls were made as she continued making a labyrinth in her daze.
Hurrik is a simple man with simple needs¡ Yet for some ungodly reason he was trudging through the filth under the city streets. What went wrong? Was his only thought as he stumbled around the corner that made the sewers under the city. His faded blue cloak stained in colors he very much did not want to think about along with his simple made leather tunic and pants. He would need new boots after this mission of his that much he figured was fact the moment he stepped down here. The man could only sigh as he took in his location and his unkempt brown hair and beard he felt just as disgusting as the slimy stone brick walls that made up this place. A glance at the slow churning river of filth made the man shudder as he could only mumble to himself as he looked around the corner.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
¡°Three days in and I have not found the source¡ Should I head up now?¡±
It was a simple job but one he did not originally take himself. No Cloe took the job only to learn that she had to trudge through grime for who knows how long to find some anomaly that shook the city days prior. The guards did not want to come down here for days on end and the nobles couldn¡¯t give a damn even if they tried. Cloe though? A young girl who just reached adulthood by her temple''s norms? There was no way she would be caught dead down here. Healers are always in demand though so when she walked up to him when they had their normal group meetings to discuss what happened during their down time he could feel some unexplained pressure in her eyes.
Am I just an idiot? Or perhaps a fool¡ All he could really do was lament his own past self as he trudged along making note of anything that was noteworthy to the guild. When offered the job he couldn¡¯t help but think that the mental image of Cloe covered in filth possibly contracted some unknown disease down here to be a tragedy. Maybe he was a fool in other people''s eyes but he could not bring himself to force the poor girl down here. They will laugh at him once he goes topside and give him a wide berth to avoid the stench he figured. NO! He was adamant that is what they will do.
Should I just be petty and show up to the guild like this and force the issue?
He had to admit the idea of the grimaces on their faces made him smile. It was a sweet feeling that lasted only a moment before an image popped up in his head. Guilt. Quite simply if he showed himself at the guild and was laughed at he was sure Cloe would wear a guilty expression for who knows how long. It was not a look he wanted to see again, not after last time. His smile crumbled and his steps quickened echoing around like a hammer to his ears.
A few hours later as the sewers slowly became colder heralding evening aboveground he finished his route finally. With another sigh he followed a path closest to the river. It will be cold¡ that was the thing that he was not looking forward to but washing himself before heading to the guild was something he needed to do to avoid that guilty expression. A bath house was an option if he did not look like some beggar who stinks to high heavens. He highly doubted he could make it to the merchant district gates let alone fifteen feet before getting stopped by some guard with a superiority complex.
As he rounded the corner to the metal door leading towards the river he saw the light of a magic lantern. It was easy to tell the difference even from where he stood as the light was uniform and not swaying with crackling orange hues. He had a sinking feeling he knew who owned that lantern and the fact he felt like he wanted to rush forth and greet them was definitely unwanted along with the creeping depression of his current appearance. With a mental punch to the face he pushed those thoughts and feelings aside and marched forward to the metal door.
It did not take long to see through the gaps of the door towards the owner of the lantern. The woman wore a blue cloak much like his except hers was well kept and had a silver lining. A nice cream blouse with a leather belt tied to her waist holding pouches and a sheath for a dagger and pants made out of some deep green material that looked soft to the touch. Her ensemble was not really enough for someone who works part time in the guild but she refused to neglect comfort for most jobs. His squelching steps and creaking of the rusted door opening made the woman jump slightly before turning his way. Her auburn hair, deep green eyes, and soft brown skin could be found in the kingdom so it was not out of place necessarily. Her pointed elongated ears and soft glow to her skin however marked her as something else entirely.
¡°Alissandra why- *cough* I mean Lis, why are you here exactly?¡±
Hurrik asked, cutting himself off abruptly at the slight frown that graced her face before rephrasing the question. That frown ran a cold shiver down his spine he still could not explain well to others a fact he knows Lis enjoys immensely. As the door closed behind Hurrik she looked at him like he was some brand new form of idiot.
¡°What do you mean by why? It was obvious this was the exit you were going to use when Cloe begged you to take the job in her place.¡±
Her soft tone held something close to exasperation but before he could open his mouth to ask how she continued in a questioning tone while raising a brow in his direction.
¡°You were going to throw yourself in the river weren''t you?¡±
Hurrik could only look away as he passed by her at a slightly faster pace. He did not fail to hear her final remark and soft chuckle no matter how hard he tried.
¡°What an idiot¡¡±