Dungeon World 5: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 3

  For some reason, the thought of losing Eisa for a second time made his chest hurt; regardless of the fact that he would be dead in that scenario, her potential death because of his actions – again – was something he didn’t want to consider.

  Fortunately for everyone involved – including the Supreme of Air, he grudgingly thought – he had managed to contain and condense all of the Mana without dying, before returning it down the connection Air’s destroyed construct had with her real Core. He did end up collapsing afterwards, and all he could do was stare blankly at the notification he had received as a result.

  Element Integration successful!

  You have acquired access to the Air element!

  Current Air Mana: 100/100

  You have absorbed knowledge of (8) Blueprints!

  Defense Blueprints absorbed:

  Invisible Floor (Base Cost: 5 Air Mana)

  Whirlwind (Base Cost: 15 Air Mana)

  Forceful Push (Base Cost: 30 Air Mana)

  Sharpened Air Blade (Base Cost: 50 Air Mana)

  Defender Blueprints absorbed:

  Screeching Hawk (Base Cost: 4 Air Mana)

  Haggard Harpy (Base Cost: 20 Air Mana)

  Scaled Wyvern (Base Cost: 100 Air Mana)

  Devastating Wind Elemental (Base Cost: 500 Air Mana)

  It was quite an impressive collection of additional Blueprints that he had received, especially when he added it to the six he received from the Light Core previously.

  Defense Blueprints absorbed:

  Blinding Flash (Base Cost: 10 Light Mana)

  Prism Spike (Base Cost: 15 Light Mana)

  Focused Beam (Base Cost: 60 Light Mana)

  Defender Blueprints absorbed:

  Glow Sprite (Base Cost: 4 Light Mana)

  Bright Lynx (Base Cost: 10 Light Mana)

  Winged Pegasus (Base Cost: 50 Light Mana)

  To use any of them, however, Fred would need to get back to his territory – which was unlikely to happen on his own, directly after his confrontation with the Supreme of Air. He literally could not move anything after he collapsed, and it took almost five minutes before he could even speak, as his Mana went to work fixing his exhausted and strained body. His “bodyguards” didn’t wait for him to recover, fortunately, as Roady picked him up and ran with him until he stirred, where he then was able to walk and stumble along on his own.

  It probably would have been faster if the big S-4th-Rated Knight Commander had carried him; but with Fred ambulating on his own, it was easier for Roady to defend himself if they were attacked. Luckily, they hadn’t had the need for that, as they had been largely ignored, so far; if their luck held, then they wouldn’t have to fight anything as they made it across to his territory, either.

  As they raced across the grass of the valley, heading towards the break in the Light Core’s defenses, the fog of exhaustion that had been plaguing Fred since his recent collapse started to lift. Something doesn’t seem right…why aren’t there any Defenders here? The trampled grass leading towards the border was evidence enough that the Elder, her husband Mikel, and the former captives had gone that way and killed whatever got in their way – but they weren’t anywhere in sight. The detour had taken quite a while, and with the proper motivation – such as the thought of being behind the safe walls of Allroads again – the other group had probably torn up the distance between the border and the city in no time at all.

  The closer they got to that same territory border, with the nearest Defenders – who were, admittedly, at least a 1,000 feet or more away – not paying them the slightest attention, Fred began to suspect that something was wrong. Even if they had been killed previously, there’s no reason the Light Core couldn’t use the Mana from destroyed Defenders to create some more right away. Of course, creating a Blueprint and filling it with Mana took a little bit of time, especially with some of the larger, more powerful Defenders…though it usually didn’t take nearly as long as his massive Shield Net Limb Giant Vine Spider had taken.

  In most cases, as far as he could tell, it only took between 5 and 30 seconds, depending on how much Mana was placed in the Blueprint; with Cores that had a better Defender Creation Skill, that time could be reduced even further. So, the fact that nothing had refilled the gaps, when it was obvious that enough time had passed to create more, was confusing. He could understand why nothing had accosted them while they were running there, as it would be hard to predict where they were going – if they could even be located in the first place; since Fred didn’t have a large Mana signature, and the others had none, then being found by the new Light Core wasn’t a guarantee. Despite that, his Mana Sight showed no large quantities of Light Mana floating around where the previous Defenders were destroyed by the Elder and the former captives, so the Mana had most likely been reabsorbed by the Core. But where is it and what is it all being used for?

  Either it had been funneled away for some other purpose, or—

  Throughout his entire existence, including in his parents’ dungeon, he couldn’t remember ever seeing a Defender being created by another Core – only by his own. Replacing Defenders was very rare for his parents to need to do, and it was usually done when he wasn’t around; then, when he was in a foreign Core’s dungeon, they weren’t actually able to create any while he or any other “invaders” were there. Any other Defenders that he had seen outside of a dungeon were sent from somewhere else, so he hadn’t seen them being formed.

  That being said, as they approached within 300 feet of his territory, he immediately identified the hazy distortions he could see in the air lining the border on the Light side. Whereas – to his Sight at least – his blueprints looked like wire grids that quickly filled up with whatever color of Mana was present, what he was seeing looked like blurry shapes that were rapidly firming up to create something that was much clearer and less distorted.

  “It’s a trap!” was all he got out, as he stumbled to a stop, just as the first Sleek Unicorn “popped” into existence as the Mana filling its Blueprint finished. Granted, it wasn’t that much of a threat, by itself; but four more identical Unicorns appeared right next to it, as they all charged horn-first towards Fred and his companions. Still, that wasn’t much of a hardship for Roady, who immediately stopped, planted his feet in a battle stance, pulled out his massive sword larger than Fred off his back, and used an Ability called Concussive Sweep.

  Concussive Sweep 8 – 0/2187000

  When used in conjunction with your melee weapon, Concussive Sweep sends out a powerful blast of force in a wide arc in front of you. Does non-elemental damage and creates a knockback effect that varies based on the weight of targets hit by the Concussive Sweep.

  Power cost of Concussive Sweep 8: 400

  Non-elemental attack: 80

  Knockback chance: 100%

  Knockback magnitude: 30 feet (-1 foot per 150 pounds)

  Knockback physical attack: 2 per foot of magnitude

  Maximum effective range: 10 feet

  Fred watched as an opaque wave shot out from the tip of Roady’s sword with a deep, chest-shaking thrum, before slamming into the Unicorns and sending them flying backwards. Three of them didn’t even hit the ground as they were killed from the concussive blast of force coming from the Knight-Commander; the fourth slammed down on the grass and dirt almost 20 feet away with a painful-looking impact, which finished that Unicorn off, as well.

  The stoppage of their progress towards the border was unfortunate, because it allowed more Defenders to finish their creation process. Two large and intimidating Crystal Golems popped up in their path, followed by a Distortion Behemoth, and then a Warp Dragon on either side.

  “We have to break through to the other side of the border; they can keep coming back as soon as you kill them on this side!” Fred shouted, as he watched the Light Mana from the slain Unicorns shoot to an open area near the four Adventurers and the wavy forms of more Defenders appeared.

  The others were already on it. Everyone kept adv
ancing forward as Ravenne pulled out her bow and shot deadly arrows towards the Golems, where the impacts shattered pieces of the fully crystalline constructs. The Assassin-Spy instinctively shot towards their legs, where they shattered and brought one and then another crashing down as they tried to walk forward; unfortunately, the large Light-based Defenders could “walk” on their hands as they dragged their bodies within range of Fred and the others.

  Roady immediately stepped up and crashed into the Golems with his sword, shattering even more of the hard crystal of which they were composed with powerful sweeps of his weapon. Within seconds, they were reduced to piles of unanimated crystal chunks, which rapidly disappeared…and the Mana was immediately sent to create some more wavy distortions to replace them.

  Agelstein contributed his own Necro-Wizard prowess by sending Power Blasts towards the Distortion Behemoth in rapid succession, while pulling a pile of bones out of his PIB at the same time. Only one out of every three of the neon-blue Blasts actually hit the Behemoth, however, because the creature seemed to distort the area around its body; two out of every three of Agelstein’s Blasts passed through the distorted area without harming the Behemoth. Damage to the massive Defender wasn’t necessarily the point, though, as every time it distorted, it stopped momentarily; this delay was apparently Agelstein’s main objective, because it allowed him to use the bones he had pulled out to create a weapon to combat the Behemoth.

  Weapons, actually; similar to Eisa’s old Necromancer-based Skeletal Swords spell that created a rotating circle of bone swords around her or another target, Agelstein took the bones he dropped out of his bag and used them to create a swirling storm of sharp bones.

  Bone Storm 7 – 0/729000

  Using your Power, create a whirling maelstrom of sharp bone shards that you can then direct towards a target or targets. Does not differentiate between friend and foe. Use of real bones increases damage and reduces upkeep cost; destroys bones in the process.

  Power cost of Bone Storm 7: 500

  Power upkeep cost (Power-formed): 30/sec

  Power upkeep cost (real bones): 5/sec

  Bone Storm diameter: 15 feet

  Base physical attack (Power-formed): 50/sec

  Base physical attack (real bones): 100/sec

  The swirling storm of sharp bones immediately drifted over to the Behemoth and surrounded it as it started to charge towards the beleaguered Adventurers. For the first few seconds, the Bone Storm didn’t do anything as the Defender distorted itself and managed to avoid being hit; however, when it was forced to come back to its “normal” state, the sharp bones were partially inside the Behemoth. The spell didn’t stop, of course, and it started to literally tear apart the beast for a second or two between distortions.

  While that was going on, Fred made his own contributions. Since he had a bit of Adventurer Power at his disposal, he hadn’t really had a chance to use it much lately; most of his development had been on the Dungeon Core side, and he had sort of been neglecting that side of his nature. Now, however, he didn’t have access to his territory, to create any Defenders: so, he might need to rely on it, now.

  Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate Interface

  Name: Fredwynklemossering

  Class: Instructor-Researcher

  Rating: E-7th

  Essence Needed to Rate-up: 20888

  Total Essence: 907112

  Available Essence to Distribute: 164425

  Unconverted Essence: 835400

  Body: 14 (0/81920)

  Brawn: 13 (0/40960)

  Mind: 16 (0/327680)

  Vitality: 180/180

  Stamina: 70/160

  Power: 5100/5100

  Base Physical Attack: 13

  Base Physical Defense: 14

  Power Regen Rate: 25/min

  Class Traits (Instructor)

  Your available Power is increased by your Mind stat

  Your Power Regen Rate is increased by your Mind stat

  You are able to pass along the knowledge of your spells and abilities to another (success is variable)

  Class Traits (Researcher)

  Your available Power is greatly increased by your Mind stat

  Your Power Regen Rate is greatly increased by your Mind stat

  You have a much-heightened ability to adapt known spells and abilities for use in other applications

  Class Abilities (Instructor)

  Teach 5 – 0/81000

  Class Abilities (Researcher)

  Experiment 0 – 0/100

  Adapted Abilities

  Shadow Strike 1 – 0/1000

  Fireblast 3 – 0/9000

  Vitality Transfer 3 – 0/9000

  Light Explosion 4 – 0/27000

  Shield of Darkness 1 – 0/1000

  Lifedrain 1 – 0/1000

  Repair Object 1 – 0/1000

  Conjure Object 4 – 0/27000

  Disarm Trap 3 – 0/9000

  Sudden Shock 1 – 0/1000

  Repair Animation 1 – 0/1000

  Flamestrike 1 – 0/1000

  Spike Arrows 1 – 0/1000

  (List truncated due to space – focus here for additional abilities…)

  Fred quickly upgraded his Shadow Strike 1 Adapted Ability to Shadow Strike 5 using 40,000 of his Essence, and then started tossing Strikes out towards the encroaching Warp Dragon that was swooping down on them from the air. He figured that using his “Dark-based” spell on the Light-based Defender would inflict the most damage – not that he expected to finish it off himself. Each time a Strike was about to hit, however, the Dragon would disappear and appear somewhere else a second later. After the fourth time, he began using his Mana Sight, to see a faint outline of where it was going to appear next. This helped his next spell hit the Defender right in the middle of its chest, doing a little bit of damage and knocking it backwards. That only seemed to infuriate the Dragon, though, and it swooped down even faster towards Fred.

  It took the next Strike he lobbed with just a little flinch, but then it started to disappear again; by that time it was nearly upon him, and he flung out another Strike where the Dragon was about to appear, only 10 feet away. His spell hit, and the Dragon was knocked out of the air – but not by his measly spell; an arrow shot by Ravenne impacted it just as it appeared and impaled it through the throat. As it crashed down hard and broke one of its wings and possibly one of its legs, Fred turned to the Assassin-Spy and asked, “How did you—?”

  “I saw that you could predict where it would warp to, so I just matched your aim,” she quickly responded. “We don’t have time for an explanation, let’s go!” she continued, grabbing his arm again and shoving him forward.

  The Golems, Behemoth, and Dragon were all dead, but Fred could see them re-forming rather quickly. The Sleek Unicorns, in fact, had already formed and were charging them; a quick use of Roady’s Concussive Sweep took care of them on the run, at least. Unfortunately, looking at the Knight-Commander’s Power, he wouldn’t be able to do more than four or five more of those before he was out and was relegated to using his normal – if still powerful – physical attacks.

  They were assaulted three more times by the collection of Golems, Behemoth, and Dragon on their way to the border in the matter of a couple of minutes. Every time they would fight their way forward, they would get pushed back a little; so, it took much longer than it should’ve. To top it off, the nearby Defenders along the border were starting to converge and join the fray, which caused even more delay, as they had to be killed to advance any farther. Fred quickly ran out of Adventurer Power and was forced to use his small store of Mana to keep going.

  Fire Mana: 0/540

  Water Mana: 0/540

  Nature Mana: 0/540

  Earth Mana: 0/540

  Dark Mana: 0/540

  Light Mana: 20/103

  Air Mana: 100/100

  Unconverted Mana: 81302 (647)

  He first used his Air Mana in small quantities – since he had more of it – to create some Mana Implosions
. While it looked like it might work if he used 5 units of Air Mana with 500 units of Unconverted Mana, the result was less than spectacular. As in, it did essentially nothing. I wonder if it only works on things that are of the same element…

  Seeing that, he switched up his technique and used relatively small Air Mana Explosions and a few Light Mana Implosions to kill one Defender after another on their way to his territory, but the toll it had on his body and mind – to create so many Implosions and Explosions in such a short time – was literally painful. He thought that, if he hadn’t just recovered from the traumatic experience with the Supreme of Air, he wouldn’t have been as affected – though there was no point in complaining about it. He had to force his way through the pain and push on.

  A cut-off scream from behind him caused Fred to turn around, where he saw Ravenne on the ground; a closer look showed what appeared to be a smoking hole burned through the back of her leather chestpiece and deep into her skin. She immediately picked herself up with a grimace of pain on her face, where she turned around and looked up to see what had attacked her.

  It was the largest Light Elemental Fred had ever seen.

  Chapter 3

  It wasn’t precisely a Light Elemental – it was something worse.