Dakota Krout - Dungeon Born (The Divine Dungeon Book 1)

“You guys ok? Dale uttered around a swelling lip.

“My legs feel tenderized, but I’m fine otherwise.” Grouched the burly man carrying the massive shield near the front.

“Pretty good for such a low ranked place.” Commented a man who was wielding daggers. “Did you see that necklace? I wonder if it is legitimately inscribed...”

“Let’s bring it to a cleric when we are done here, could be worth something. We need to move on to the next stage though.” Craig abruptly cut off the conversation.

“What would that be?” Dale voice wavered apprehensively, as the other men turned to look at him with varying degrees of either pity or excitement.

Craig exhaled through his nose, and turned toward Dale, “Remember how we said we were going to get rid of that corruption?”

“Well, yeah. That was the whole point of this right? That’s why we had to be near that Silverwood tree... right?” Dale looked at the men nervously while pointing at the small sapling.

The men had surrounded him now, and Craig continued in an eerily calm voice, “Not quite, for one thing that tree is too immature still, but mainly that is a higher level technique. It helps people break into the B ranks, and convert their Essence to Mana. No, we are going to actually remove all the Essence from your center... by force.”

Dale started looking around a bit wildly. “Um.”

“It isn’t like we are going to beat you, kid. Relax.” The dagger wielding man tried to calm him down. “Still, it isn’t exactly a fun process. Here, start drinking.” He handed Dale a water skin. “Drink until you think you are going to hurl, then drink more.”

“Ok…” Removing his helmet with hidden relief, Dale took the water and drank. Every time he stopped or slowed the other men told him to keep going. When he was looking queasy, and obviously holding back his bile, Craig motioned for him to stop.

“This next part is dangerous for you. You are going to swallow this.” He handed Dale the small package the Guild Master had given him. “It is a Beast Core. What happens when a Beast Core is swallowed is very, hmm, interesting. If done willingly, all of the Essence in your Core will flow into the gem, taking the corruption with it.”

“Then, it will continue pulling Essence from your body, until there is nothing in you but your personal life force, which it will also take if possible. Unwillingly ingesting one leads to a different fate, but we’ll not have that issue, right ?” Craig eyed Dale with a threat lingering in his voice.

Ensuring Dale was paying attention, Craig looked him in the eyes and enunciated, “When I tell you to, and not before, you need to begin cultivating as fast as you can. You now know how to, that technique is a permanent part of your memories. Draw the Essence in this cavern into yourself as fast and cleanly as you can with your new technique. We’ll start your Chi spiral before we leave. Make sure you follow my directions exactly, the timing of this can be tricky. If you start too early, you are going to leave corruption in you. Too late, and you die. Get it? Listen to me through the pain.”

“The pain?!” Dale challenged, his head swimming.

“Forceful removal of what allows you to live tends to hurt a bit. The job of your fine squad members is to get that Core out of you when it is time, hence drinking all that water. You’re going to get punched in the stomach a bit. Which reminds me, armor off the top half.” Craig directed, as if he had not just told Dale he was going to be attacked by the shield holding mans’ ham sized fists.

Dale complied, forcing himself to stay calm, though the whites of his eyes were showing and he was starting to breathe heavily. After reducing the weight on himself, he grabbed the water skin drank more. He was nearly sick, but he told himself that anything to reduce the following stomach blows would help in the long run. Bracing himself, Dale waited for Craig to give the signal to start. It didn’t take long.

“Go.”

A bit more water helped the small gem slither down his throat, and Dale focused his mind on the filthy energy within him. There seemed to be no effect, and he wondered if this were just an excuse to terrify him or beat him up. Then, he ‘saw’ a tendril of light leave the gem and reach for his center, twisting and turning through channels that Dale couldn’t understand. The light connected, Dale then saw a gentle brown light pull away from his center back to the Core. It was a nice, tingly feeling; until the murky brown Essence touched the surface of the Core.

The energy ripped at his Core suddenly, taking in the Essence like a starving man eating cake. The pain came then, feeling like acid washing through his blood, destroying the tissue and knitting it together by grasping his flayed flesh and nailing it back down with salt covered spikes. Darker Essence flowed like blood from a ruptured artery into the Core, which was also growing muddy. Dale was gasping, on his knees as he watched this unfold inside himself. Eyes wild, he saw the last few wisps of Essence leave his center, emptying it completely. For a moment the pain subsided, Dale thinking it was over somehow.

The pain erupted again, in new and torturous ways. Like a hollow needle had entered his veins, sharp pain penetrated dozens of points on his body and pulled with a strong vacuuming force. Every bit of the corruption inside of him was being pulled to the Core, which was not being gentle. Dale’s nose began to bleed as his head shook violently, looking for any escape from the pain.

Craig grabbed his head to help control the seizure, “Almost time now, Dale. Focus! If you don’t cultivate, and we get the Core out of you, your life energy will attempt to fill the void, which will assuredly kill you. Feel the energy around you, and get ready to pull! Let nothing else matter!”

Dale’s mind shook. The world was wavy around him, his head spinning. He opened his eyes, revealing burst blood vessels and reached out for the energy of the heavens and the earth, preparing to pull it in as soon as Craig said…

“Now! Do it now!” Craig shouted. For a brief, shining moment, the pain abated again, as the gem looked for a new source of Essence to fill itself. Dale knew this relief was a lie, and began cultivating. Having never done it intentionally before, but knowing how, the energy stalled a bit but started to flow into him. The Core, which had almost latched onto its host's life energy, found a new and easily accessible meal. Returning the pull back to Dale’s center, where the Essence was beginning to accumulate, it was nearly drinking this fresh source when Dale’s body began to shudder from well-placed blows.

“Bleaeghght!” The huge amount of water ingested previously happily made a reappearance, cheerfully splattering across anyone who didn't move fast enough. Some well-digested jerky found a new home, and after a few waves finally a small gem appeared.

To those present, it was obvious that energy was trying to reach back into Dale from the gem, trying to re-establish the connection it had momentarily lost. Using the steel-shod end of a staff, one of the men crushed the gem, releasing a flash of brown light. Turning to look at Dale, the group waited as he scrambled to absorb Essence properly. Craig watched him carefully, nodding at the tiny spiral that was forming. He corrected Dale gently a few times, allowing the energy to be as pure as Dale could make it.

“This is as easy as it is going to get, Dale.” Craig promised him. “For some reason, the Essence in here has no affinity. You can pull the Essence from all around you, and it is nearly free of any taint. Personally I love it here, Mobs and all.” The other men nodded agreement, all settling in to cultivate. “We can only stay so long though, eventually the Essence in the air will lessen and we will need to leave in order for it to replenish. Once out of here, your spiral will be pure, but you will need to continue to cultivate. Make the threads as small as possible, and remember to purify it as much as possible before you absorb it.”