Dungeon World 4: A Dungeon Core Experience Read online

  Dungeon World 4

  A Dungeon Core Experience

  Dungeon World Series

  Written By: Jonathan Brooks

  Cover Design: Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

  Edited By: Celestian Rince

  Copyright ©2019 Jonathan Brooks

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  The following is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, businesses, corporations, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to any actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design Copyright ©2019 Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

  Dedication

  To my wife, who has stood by me through all of my writing endeavors, believing in me even when I didn’t believe in myself.

  In addition, I want to thank all of the beta-readers who looked over this book and gave me their all-important feedback!

  Aaron Wiley

  Alex Canavan

  Brian Flater

  Brian O’Neil

  Brian Oles

  Capten Rhys

  Dantas Neto

  Emma Baker

  Grant Harrell

  Jonathan Kröning

  Rickie Brown

  Shawn Stamper

  Steven Gene Mills

  Tom Davidson

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Quick Recap

  Part I – Higher Powers

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Part II – Territorial Warfare

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Part III – Dungeon Preparation

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Part IV – Dungeon Defense

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Part V – Rescue Mission

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Author’s Note

  Books by Jonathan Brooks

  Quick Recap

  Fredwynklemossering was born between the very unlikely – and thought impossible – pairing of opposing-element dungeon cores. Despite hiding out in the middle of nowhere, far north of the Craytion Kingdom, Fred’s parents were found and killed as “traitors” to their respective alliances by the Supreme Council, a ruling body made up of the most powerful dungeons on the planet.

  After journeying south on his own and finding a human settlement, he tried to Create clothing using his Mana-formed Object Creation skill so that he could blend in a little better; in the process, he accidentally created a sentient Dire Wolf that held the only two remnants of his parents’ cores. As a result of the creation process, Fred was knocked unconscious; he was later saved from freezing to death in the frozen northern wilderness when he was found by a human named Regnark from the nearby settlement.

  Regnark taught Fred a lot about the human world and about how humans interacted with each other in their short stint together, and the time he was there in Northend also allowed the blossoming Dungeon Core powers within him time to improve. However, after Fred pushed his new human friend for information about the Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate, Fred was kicked out of Regnark’s house and sent south. He met Deecy – the Dire Wolf he had inadvertently created – along the way to Gatecross, the nearest human town.

  In Gatecross, he acquired the ability to improve himself and gain a class, just as any other Dungeon Adventurer member of the Syndicate would be able to. Fred soon created the Core Power Guild – along with a woman named Eisa who seemed to be a friend of sorts – to delve through multiple dungeons every day, where he learned new spells and abilities along the way. And all the Guild members wanted in return was cold, hard currency – which he easily supplied by using his special Dungeon Core powers.

  Eventually, however, he needed some answers. Along with Eisa and three other members of the Guild, Fred was able to fight through a F-3rd-Rated Nature dungeon to confront the Dungeon Core at the end. Unfortunately, during the ensuing conversation, he inadvertently destroyed the small, green, floating, spherical gem-like core and absorbed its power into his body. Not only did he gain access to Nature Mana, but the absorption also unlocked his ability to create a dungeon.

  Faced with the need to protect everyone from the nearby Cores’ retribution from the destruction of the Nature Core (because Dungeon Cores tended to take something like that very personal), Fred went back to Gatecross with the intent to build a dungeon underneath the town for defensive purposes. Through trial and error, Fred was able to figure out how to establish a dungeon territory around the town. From that jumping-off point, he was further able to manipulate his innate Mana to create a dungeon entrance and a room underground. During that period, he also learned how to organize the Mana inside of him into a three-sided structure, with his Unconverted Mana (which turned out to be the Human portion of his existence) in a large Human Core in the middle, connecting his three Elemental Cores: Fire, Water, and Nature.

  When the main attack did come, the town of Gatecross was assaulted from both the north and south gates, though Fred’s traps managed to whittle down quite a few before they were able to reach the dungeon proper. While his human defenders did their best to fend off waves of giant insects, beasts, Treants, and Dryads, Fred fought his own battle with a massive Emerald Dragon.

  During the titanic battle between the Dragon and a massive Beetle Fred was able to make inside Gatecross, the town was practically leveled from the devastating attacks; in addition, Fred’s high-level Beetle didn’t fare too well against the strong attacks and deadly grace of the Emerald Dragon. Fred was forced to use every bit of Fire Mana he could get his hands on to ignite a cloud of poisonous breath the Dragon used to kill his Beetle and caused it to explode in a gigantic fireball, destroying everything above the ground – and “killing” himself in the process.

  Of course, being a Dungeon Core as well, his fragile human shell was rebuilt over time and he “came back to life” – only to emerge from the dungeon as a party of high-Rated DAS members arrived to see what was going on. Shortly after he recovered from being burned to death, Fred was killed – again, temporarily – during the interrogation when he had his head chopped off; in addition, the Guild and townspeople were marked with a highly visible yellow X above their heads – which told everyone that saw them that they were outlawed for destroying a Dungeon Core.

  Later, when Fred found that he could absorb blueprints for his dungeon from Cores without destroying them in the process, teams of Guild members went out to the surrounding dungeons and brought back weakened Dungeon Cores to Fred. But then Eisa and her group decided to bring back an Earth Core, which Fred unexpectedly took from her inside a safe room located in his dunge
on. While he tried to figure out what to do about absorbing the Earth Dungeon Core, the brown-colored, gem-like Core initiated its Mana Combustion skill, which was the same thing his parents had used when they were killed inside their own dungeon.

  The process of absorbing the Earth Core started, but before it could finish, the small gem exploded with violent force, releasing all of the Mana inside of it and shattering to pieces. Fred “died” – again – but there was enough of him left after the explosion for his Core to put him back together again. When he revived, he found the desiccated corpse of Eisa nearby, half-buried underneath a collapsed wall and with a shard from the exploded Earth Core inside her heart.

  With Eisa dead and Fred at a loss for what to do, he had an inspiration when he remembered how Deecy had been created. Using the Earth Core shard in her heart as a primary focus, he used his Novice Sentient Mana-formed Object Creation skill and imagined Eisa as she used to be, pumping thousands of Unconverted Mana into the process. After a blindingly bright flash of light, Eisa was alive.

  Shortly after her revival, Regnark – who was apparently a B-Rated Adventurer – stumbled upon Fred, Deecy, and the recently “reborn” Eisa after fleeing from the destroyed village of Northend. During a fight to escape the destroyed town of Gatecross from Dungeon Defenders sent from ticked-off Earth Cores nearby, they discovered that Eisa had essentially been sent back to a G-1st-Rating, without access to her previous classes or Essence. However, she also acquired some interesting abilities, along with a new status.

  Eisa was now a Shard.

  Using the Earth-based powers inherent in the shard of Earth that was absorbed into her during the resurrection process, she was able to use the same Earth Mana that Fred could use to turn her body into a sort of Earth Elemental. Later on, she also found that she could heal using that same Mana, as well as create Earth-based Dungeon Defenders. In short, she was now a bit less human than she used to be, but that didn’t seem to bother her too much. Deecy also soon found that she was very similar, with the ability to create Fire and Water-based defenses, as well as her normal ability to change her size.

  Running to the west – to find his Guild and the Gatecross townspeople that had fled – Fred and his friends were forced to dodge more Earth Defenders looking for them, as well as survive a harrowing night along the Plains of Grass. Void creatures that were extremely hard to kill and tended to suck all of the Mana – or Essence – out of their victims roamed it at night, and only through the lucky intervention of their pursuers were they able to survive.

  Eventually, they arrived at the Deadlands, which was full of Dark dungeons and their Dark Cores. After having very little success with finding the Guild members and being chased out of a local town, Fred met up with a group of Adventurers that were delving through a local Dark dungeon. With their assistance, they were able to infiltrate the dungeon to the Core, where Fred was able to absorb just the ability to use Dark Mana and some blueprints from the Core. However, due to unforeseen stupidity on behalf of the Core, it exploded and destroyed a good portion of the dungeon and collapsed its territory.

  Regnark also lost his life during the assault on the dungeon, and Fred, Deecy, and Eisa were forced to flee southwest with his body. When they arrived at Allroads – where the Core Power Guild and the Gatecross townspeople were reported to be – Fred used a sliver of the Dark Core that exploded to “resurrect” Regnark. His large friend had been reset back down to G-10th-Rating, just as Eisa had been, but he had also acquired the “Shard” status.

  After asking too many questions and calling attention to themselves inside the tightly controlled city of Allroads – which sat in the middle of an element-rich environment that Dungeon Cores reportedly called a Convergence – they were captured and questioned. While in the prison, the Guild and the others were found, and Fred was able to break everyone out by creating a very basic dungeon underneath the city.

  Just as he and the others were about to be recaptured by a scary-strong Inquisitor that wanted to get to the bottom of who he was and what he was doing there, the city was attacked by Dungeon Defenders. Ironically saved by the vengeance of the nearby Cores because of his establishment of a territory inside the forbidden Convergence, Fred had to figure out what to do next…

  Part I – Higher Powers

  Chapter 1

  The Supreme Core of Air experienced the normal displacement of her awareness as the replica of her own S-10th-Rated Dungeon Core coalesced into existence far from her own dungeon. She looked around at the empty, naturally formed room she found herself in – one that she knew so well; it was where the Supreme Council did their business, after all. It was a relatively small space located almost a mile underground in an out-of-the-way place, where it would never be discovered unless one knew exactly where to look.

  It had been this way for thousands of years, ever since she could remember. Because conversations through Mana Communication could theoretically be intercepted, the Supreme Dungeon Cores on the Council had been meeting “Core-to-Core” like this ever since they discovered they could project their consciousness into what they deemed to be an avatar of sorts. She could insert her consciousness inside of the avatar, with a – very safe – link back to her actual Core; nothing could actually harm her, though the avatar could be destroyed, taking the large chunk of Mana used in its creation with it.

  In reality, it was just a Mana-based construct not unlike a Dungeon Defender, though it was a little bit more complex and dangerous for those unprepared; for that reason, it wasn’t really available or accessible to any Dungeon Cores until they reached S-3rd-Rating and beyond. Since it had been thousands of years since she achieved that Rating, it was second nature to her.

  As a 10th-Rated Supreme, her “avatar” reflected her actual size; as much as the others despised the comparison, her size – and any Core the same as her own Rating – was comparable to the height of an average mature human, though with her width being the same as her height it was unlike all but a very few of the humans she had seen before. Despite the large size, she always felt a little dwarfed by the intense personalities of her fellow Supreme Council members.

  Not that she disliked them, necessarily; their relationship was a working one, and not one based on friendship or anything like that. Being the strongest, most powerful, and largest Dungeon Cores in the world tended to bring inflated egos, however. She’d be the first to admit that she fell into that same trap, but she also thought she was a bit more open-minded than the others. Whether it was because she liked to spend a lot of her time up in the clouds above, looking down on the world from up high, or because her general nature was a little more…buoyant…than the others, the Supreme of Air saw things a bit differently.

  Take this new crisis, for instance—

  She was interrupted in her thoughts as the others appeared, one after another. First, the Supreme of Fire popped into existence, then Light, Dark, and so on, until the room felt a bit more crowded. Technically, they all still had names, but they had all been on the Council so long that very few of them actually remembered their own, let alone anyone else’s. That included the Supreme of Air, who could vaguely remember that her actual name started with a “C”…but that was about it. It didn’t really matter, of course, since no other Core would dare try to call them by their names, so they had been lost to time.

  “I demand retribution! They destroyed my grandson, and they deserve to PAY!” shouted the Supreme of Earth (or, as they just called themselves, Earth). Earth was righteously incensed; there hadn’t been any Cores that had been stolen or damaged by humans in decades, and the last time one was actually destroyed was centuries ago. For him to be a bit mad at the situation was understandable.

  “I think you mean your great-great-great-great—whatever, but since you’re pretty much related to nearly every Earth Core out there, don’t make this about family. And you’re not the only one who lost a youngster, so stop making this all about you,” the smooth and distinctly feminine voi
ce of Nature snidely retorted. The green-glowing avatar floated over to Earth’s Core and almost touched him, as if inviting him to debate her; it was a common enough occurrence between the two – even if it was usually just posturing – so Air and the others paid it no mind.

  Dark spoke up to break up the tension, though his gravelly voice was grating as usual. “I lost one as well, and it wasn’t no juvenile; this is becoming a serious problem, and your silly antics aren’t helping the situation.” He paused while Nature and Earth separated, the glow in their avatars dimming in what Air could only surmise was embarrassment.

  While there technically wasn’t a leader of the Council, Dark was older than every other Core there – by just over 1,000 years. He was also the only one that had progressed past the S-10th-Rating, though since they had created the Rating system to mirror the humans’ one, they hadn’t designed anything new after her own Rating. He said that he was just S-11th-Rating, but it was possible that the secretive Dark Core had access to something none of them had ever seen before.

  But that wasn’t important right then; what was important was that Dark had a point – which he expanded on when the others were quiet. “Now, I’m not disparaging the deaths of those Cores – my faction included – but there is a more serious problem. Earth and Nature, know that you are already informed of this, but for the others this might be news.” Hmm…that’s cryptic – what is he talking about?

  Fire, Water, and Light seemed to be out of the loop just as much as she was, so she wondered what had happened. She had heard about the destruction of the three Cores as a rumor, and the confirmation of those rumors was bad enough; if there was some human that had learned to destroy Dungeon Cores – which was very difficult, but not entirely impossible – then it was entirely possible that it could share that knowledge with others, putting them all in danger. What could possibly be worse than that?