Dungeon World 5: A Dungeon Core Experience Read online

  The downside of the changes in her Core, however, was that she now had very little Mana. It was almost as if all of the Mana that went into her avatar, as well as a good portion of her reserve, had been immediately converted into increases in her Core Crystallization – even though that seemed impossible. Normally, all that would mean was that she would have to wait until the ambient Mana around her territory helped to refill her Mana; unfortunately, she didn’t have the time to wait decades or even a century to gain all of that back. She needed to attend the meeting with the rest of the Supreme Council now, or else they might start to suspect something.

  Without a vast quantity of Mana available to create a new avatar, which was usually not really an issue, she was at a loss of how to accomplish that. Looking around her territory, she didn’t see any powerful Humans around – as had been usual as of late – so she wasn’t going to get any Mana from that source anytime soon. In fact, there weren’t any Humans around; there was just her and her dungeon—

  Wait…

  It was something that she never would consider, usually; but she was out of options at that point. Over thousands of years, she had spent vast quantities of her Mana stocking her dungeon with the best Defenses and Defenders that were available; so much so that she was sitting on a literal mountain of Mana. Some quick calculations told her that if she absorbed almost every one of them, she would have enough to create an avatar.

  There were two problems with that, though. First, her dungeon would be largely undefended, if an Adventurer came along; she didn’t see too much to worry about there, as she hadn’t had an invader in a long time. Second, and most importantly, if this avatar were to be destroyed, it would take her thousands of years to recover her lost Mana with just what she would get from her territory. If some Humans came along to invade her dungeon, naturally, that would help speed that recovery up, but that didn’t seem likely at the moment. And if that Dualborn doesn’t fix things soon, that may never happen.

  So, going against everything she knew to be proper for the defense of her dungeon, the Supreme of Air absorbed all but a few dozen of her weakest Defenders near the entrance; she figured that it would be better to keep the beginning of her dungeon stocked, delaying whoever decided to come pay a visit – if anyone ever did again. All but the few Defenses set up in those rooms had to go as well, and by the time she was done, she was starting to feel almost back to normal, with the amount of Mana she now had at her disposal.

  Then again, it required most of her Mana, at that point, to create an avatar and send it to the Council’s hidden meeting place. As her consciousness arrived and inserted itself inside her construct, she saw that she was the last to arrive…and that she had popped in during the middle of a heated argument.

  “—not my fault! How were we supposed to know that Cursedborn could somehow leave its territory? I agree that it could’ve been handled better, but Cryllaxinata did the best that she could!”

  The Supreme of Air recognized the name of the Light Core whence Fredwynklemossering had stolen the Light element, before shoving that same element back into her and changing her from a B-2nd to a A-6th Rating; while Air, herself, had only gone up two Ratings, with (she assumed) the same procedure, the fact that she was S-Rated already was a massive factor. Based on the quantity of Mana that had been changed and shoved back into her own Core, the amount probably would’ve boosted the other Light Core up to an S-1st-Rating – at least – if she had been the recipient of that much.

  “Light, it seems that you’re missing the point here. The Cursedborn now has access to another element, which makes them all that much more dangerous,” Dark said to the room. Suddenly, she could feel his attention swing in her direction. “Nice of you to join us, Air – especially as your faction is the only one he doesn’t have yet.”

  Good; he doesn’t know.

  He went on. “Make sure your nearby Core is ready; if they see any Humans around, kill the Humans immediately. It should go without saying that we can’t afford this Cursedborn to gain access to every element, but there is something that you probably aren’t aware of. I know that we all remember what it was like when the last vile Cursedborn almost destroyed every Dungeon Core; however, what you don’t know was why.”

  Air was confused. Of course I know why; the Dualborn at that time had destroyed hundreds of Cores to gain their Mana so that he was as powerful as any one of us in this room. She didn’t voice that, though, because she would rather not call attention to herself at this point by speaking up.

  Light wasn’t averse to showing her ignorance, though. “What do you mean? That Cursedborn had absorbed the Mana from—”

  “Yes, yes – that’s true. But there was something that happened when it had finally gained all of our elements; whereas it had been dangerous enough before, there was a significant jump in the power it could wield afterwards. None of you were quite aware of that change, mainly because you weren’t even near the Cursedborn when they first became a major threat – but I saw it. The difference was…frightening, to say the least.”

  The room was silent, and Air felt the curious urge to disappear. Earth finally spoke after a few moments. “What was it that changed, exactly?”

  “None of us really knew. The eldest and most powerful of us at the time tried to figure out how the Cursedborn had gone from barely being able to defeat – what we would classify as today – an F-Rated dungeon by themselves, to being able to utterly destroy an A-Rated dungeon in the timespan of a few months. There was no explanation of exactly what had happened, but the results of the change were devastating, nonetheless. One-on-one, none of the Cores – even the most powerful – could withstand the might of the Cursedborn when it came after them. It was only through a joint effort by all of the surviving Dungeon Cores that the vile creature was overwhelmed and defeated.”

  Air remembered that quite vividly. Every Core had practically emptied out all of their dungeons – hmm, sounds familiar – and sent every speck of Mana in the form of powerful Defenders to swarm and overwhelm the Dualborn. While she had memories of watching as hundreds of thousands of Defenders flooded around the area in which the dangerous individual was located, she couldn’t actually picture what they looked like. She couldn’t even say whether it was a male or a female – not that it would’ve made much difference at the time. All she remembered was that even the massive horde of Defenders hadn’t actually been the reason for its downfall; the thought at the time was that it had absorbed too much Mana from all of the Defenders it had destroyed.

  What she didn’t remember, like Dark had indicated, was any massive rise in the power and destructiveness in the Dualborn. It’s probably because I only became aware of the situation when they were already a danger to us all; that was the problem back then – poor Mana Communication among all of us Cores.

  “So, as you can imagine, it would be imperative to ensure that doesn’t happen. Fire, Light – I need to make sure your Cores are willing to send their Defenders into the nearby Air territory to help defend the border if there is another attack.”

  Fire and Light were a little hesitant, Air could tell, but they agreed. Air herself made sure to pass that on to Whislycenedray, the B-7th-Rated Core who was currently nearest the Convergence, so that she would be aware and not to overreact. None of her faction knew what she had done, so it was essential to maintain her normal Communication with her fellow Cores. She was sure that it would be known eventually; but hopefully, by that time the Dualborn will have figured out some sort of solution. Or…I’ve doomed us all by giving him my element.

  “Good; with that settled, how are we coming along underground?”

  “We’ll be through in approximately 30 hours,” Nature chimed in.

  Water was next on the list of nearby factions. “We’ll be there in approximately 48 hours,” she offered, with a bit of disappointment directed towards Nature. The others were days behind them, and Light was at a stand-still as the nearest Core who had taken over the territo
ry recovered. Her own faction was the furthest behind by far, and she barely even updated the others before Dark continued.

  “Ok; based on the recent unfortunate circumstances—” he said, directing his attention briefly towards Light— “I think we need to…alter…some of our plans. Nature, have your Core speed up their progress by throwing everything they can send down there; there’s no reason to take it slowly anymore, since this Cursedborn is probably already expecting another attack. Once they get to within an hour of breaking through, however, have them stop and wait for Water to catch up – which needs to speed up as well.” The two named seemed to want to argue, but Dark overrode their protests. “You’re the closest ones, and I think your Cores will have a better chance of succeeding if you work together. If that isn’t enough to kill the Cursedborn, Fire and my own faction will be there within a couple of days to finish the job.”

  Any hesitation was immediately gone in Nature and Water’s demeanor at the mention of Dark and Fire teaming up to “finish the job”. While Alliances didn’t really matter too much to the Supreme Council, they were ingrained so much in the rest of their faction that some of the pride they associated with their multi-faction relationships tended to leak through. With Earth – the third member of their Alliance – basically defeated for the moment, it was up to Nature and Water to save their pride; letting the Dark and Fire Alliance come in and succeed if they were to fail would probably be embarrassing.

  Air was tempted to suggest that they should all just send their Defenders through the already-completed Earth faction tunnel – which would be the smartest move – but she didn’t really want Fredwynklemossering to die, especially when he finally had the tools to enact their salvation. Or destruction. After hearing Dark talk about the former Dualborn, she wasn’t so sure anymore.

  Regardless, she withheld her suggestion, though it most likely wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Pride was still at stake, but instead of just a single faction succeeding, it was the Alliances that were now in the spotlight. Not that Air cared overly much at the moment, because her own Alliance near the Convergence was so far behind the others that they weren’t even really considered.

  “Before you all go to get everything set up for that, there’s one last thing that I need all of you to do,” Dark said seriously, his voice deeper than usual. Uh oh. “Have every Core within two thousand miles of the Convergence that hasn’t sent any Mana yet send most of their reserve to the second-closest Core.”

  “Why? Why wouldn’t they send it to the closest one?”

  Dark answered Water’s question, though Air was curious, herself. “Because I want them to start creating another force…a force of Defenders that can and will carry out Plan B, if it comes to it.”

  That wasn’t what Air wanted to hear, nor did any of the others; however, it was now a distinct possibility that they would have to carry out their last option. Destroying the entire Human City inside, and potentially harming the Convergence, itself, was a drastic measure; she could see the sense of it, though – or at least she had seen the sense of it, before she met the Dualborn via her avatar. If Fredwynklemossering had been the psychopathic destroyer of Dungeon Cores that the last Dualborn had been, then she would’ve agreed wholly with the Plan; they couldn’t allow someone like that to grow even more powerful when they had the chance and opportunity to kill them.

  They all reluctantly agreed with Dark, though, because they knew it might be necessary. I just hope he figures something out before that happens. It was inevitable that they would find it necessary, especially when they discovered that he already had the Air element as part of his repertoire now.

  She left soon after, bringing her avatar back to her dungeon and dispersing it, before starting the process of repopulating her Defenses and Defenders. As she had thought, no Humans had tried to invade her, but she felt extremely vulnerable when her dungeon was so empty. While she did that, she Communicated with a half-dozen Regional Leaders and sent them orders to pass down to those closest to the Convergence. They weren’t happy about it, but an order from the Supreme Council wasn’t something they could ignore.

  When that was done and she could concentrate again, she turned her Territorial Sight back to where everything was happening – for good or ill.

  * * *

  Dark watched all of the others leave the small Council room until he was all alone. It was only then that he felt safe to let the madness that was always at the back of his consciousness break free; his anger, fright, and worry combined in a visible form as the ground shook all around his Core. Theoretically, it wasn’t possible to shape and manipulate the ground away from his territory, but his S-11th-Rating came with a couple of quirks that he had just recently discovered – this being one of them. Another was the release of the madness that he had long thought buried, which at first wasn’t that big of a deal.

  However, at the discovery that there was a Cursedborn back in the world, the incessant ramblings at the back of his mind was a constant reminder of how scared he had been during the last incursion. In fact, contrary to every other Core in the world, he hadn’t fought the Cursedborn; his shame at collapsing his territory and hiding in the darkest and deepest depths of an ocean stayed with him to this day. His madness brought back the feelings of those days with stark clarity, and it was all he could do to keep it at bay.

  When he finally reigned in control of his mind, he brought his avatar back to his Core Room and dispersed it. For some reason, inhabiting his Mana construct seemed to amplify the madness, so he was relieved to get rid of it for the moment. When the Mana used in its creation flowed back into his Core, his concentration cleared even more – and that was when something occurred to him. Something about the meeting had been off, and it was only now that he pinpointed what it was.

  Obviously, Air being the last one to the meeting had been strange – she was usually the first, or one of the first, to arrive. That wasn’t what had caught his attention, though. Strange as it seemed, her avatar looked bigger than he remembered it being; in fact, it was as large or possibly even larger than his own. How did that happen? What is she hiding?

  There was no readily available answer to those questions, but he could sense that she was up to something. He didn’t have any idea what that something was, but he was going to get to the bottom of it before it became a problem. Before he did that, however, he turned his attention to his dungeon, where a couple of his demons up near the entrance were ripping some livestock apart with their sharp claws.

  He smiled. It’s the little things that make me happy…

  Chapter 2

  Fredwynklemossering, known affectionately to his friends, Shards, and the Core Power Guild as Fred, ran to catch up with the others as they raced for the border separating the new Light Core’s territory and his own in the Convergence. He stumbled and nearly fell over a slight change in the ground’s elevation, but he was fortunately caught by the arm by Ravenne – who seemed to appear out of nowhere to save him from eating dirt.

  “Thanks—”

  The S-2nd-Rated Assassin-Spy cut him off and practically pushed him forward. “Don’t thank me yet; we need to get moving before the way through is cut off.”

  She was right; the detour – as beneficial and unbelievable as it turned out to be – put them far behind Elder Hood and the rescued Adventurers. It was likely that they had busted through the line of Light Defenders without any problem; whether or not that would be the case for Fred, Ravenne, Agelstein, and Roady was still unknown.

  It wouldn’t be unknown for long, though.

  Fred was just glad that Defenders hadn’t been popping up to interrupt their journey back to Allroads and the Convergence. He could only guess that the Light Core that had taken over the territory was still unfamiliar enough with their new acquisition that they didn’t think to look for the Humans – and one Human/Dungeon Core hybrid – running through their territory. Or, what was more probable, they were concentrating on the larger group with Elder
Hood and the others. If that was, indeed, what was happening, then he wasn’t worried; the S-9th-Rated Arcanist and the S-Rated Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate and Allroads Governmental people were more than enough for whatever was thrown their way.

  Especially seeing as Fred had just wiped out a lot of the local Core’s Defenders and essentially stole the Mana from them in the form of a giant Light Mana crystal. That wasn’t entirely what he planned on doing, but the Mana Implosion technique he used on them had some beneficial side-effects. While it was more possible that the new Light Dungeon Core had been able to recover from that loss so quickly, Fred would bargain that the way was relatively clear for the moment.

  Another couple of minutes saw them climb to the top of a rise, where they saw the large valley of the ultra-concentrated elemental Convergence spread out in front of them. The small mountain range in the center of the valley that was hiding the city of Allroads looked near, but he knew they were a few miles away. In opposition to that, the relatively invisible border separating the two territories – the Light faction’s and his own – was much closer…and practically empty, towards the center. Fred could use his territorial sight to see exactly where they needed to get to, certainly; at the moment, he didn’t, because he was too exhausted to think straight enough for that.

  Fred had thought that the process of returning the Light element and Mana to the (originally B-2nd-Rated) Light Core had been difficult – but it couldn’t compare with doing the same to the Supreme of Air. While the near-mythical Air-faction Dungeon Core hadn’t actually been there, its strange physical construct it was using had enough of a connection that his element-acquiring technique didn’t care. He had almost passed out with the amount of Mana that was fed into him, which would have been disastrous; if he had lost concentration for even a brief moment, the sheer quantity of elemental force entering his Cores probably would have killed him – and possibly everyone else with him. Not to mention that his territory would have likely collapsed as a result of his death, and everyone in Allroads would have perished…including Eisa, his Shards, and all of the Core Power Guild.