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

Dale was still pale, bruises showing and his body shaking. Never before had he been this tired, and he wanted to collapse. As he pulled more Essence into himself, he remembered how foul his center had been before, and vowed to have the purest Essence of any of his fellows.

Time passed as it always does, and the room's ambient Essence began to wane. Dale still pulled in more, until Craig gently made him stand and don his armor. “Remember to keep that spiral going. Soon it’ll continue even in your sleep, and become natural to you. Grab your weapon, we don’t know how many Mobs we are going to have to fight to get out of here.”

I was stunned at the actions of these men. Was this a normal occurrence? When they crushed the Beast Core, it released all of the man's accumulated Essence into me. I greedily took the gift, shunting the corruption into the stone around the room, making it stronger. Though the young man, who I now recognized as the one who had first escaped me, had taken off his armor, it never moved far enough away from the group to allow me to absorb it. Too bad, but what can you do?

The real shock came when the group sat and began to cultivate. I was carefully watching for any chance to attack them, when their auras allowed me to pass through for the first time ever! While they refined their Essence, I was able to direct some of it to myself. Not having to refine it on my own allowed me to add it directly to my own spiral. I was still considering the implications when the group stood and made their way to the entrance. In the last few hours, my spiral had significantly increased in size, which allowed it to spin much faster. When it spun faster, the fine threads also attached to my Chi spiral more rapidly. The stronger I became, the easier it was to gain Essence more quickly.

Also, as an added bonus there was a small pool of acid that I was able to study. It seemed like very strong acid, and as I absorbed it, it became apparent that the sulphuric acid could become a potent weapon if used properly. I also studied the broken Beast Core, and realized that it had a similar makeup to my own gem.

I seemed to catch her off guard, and she scrambled for an answer.

“Mm, kind of. Sorry, I thought we went over this earlier. You were originally a soul gem, which is a Beast Core that has undergone strong refinement. It is pretty rare because it takes at a minimum a Mage with infernal capabilities to produce, and I’ve never heard of them using it for human souls, before you.” Dani expressed thoughtfully. “Most infernal users have to go into hiding if they want to get stronger, as most places frown upon demon summoning and Necromancy.”

I dryly stated.

She perked up at this statement, “Seriously? Yeah that could come in really handy. You could use them to store excess Essence in, like really weak Mana accumulators, which could help you if you are getting too much at once to absorb.”

She gleefully continued, “Also, you could try and attach them to your Mobs. A Beast Core in a creature allows them to jump to the first level of sentience when they accumulate enough Essence, and have a Chi spiral. Then, your Mobs could become stronger than you, while you retain control of them. Since you gave it life, even if the Mob died, you would be able to re-absorb the energy contained in the Core, and re-make the Beast with the exact same ranking and spiral!”

I started trying to attach the pattern of the Core to my creatures. Sadly, no matter how much I tried, I couldn't merge them. Disappointed, I told Dani the news.

“Well, we will just need to make stronger monsters then, won’t we?” She pronounced, full of determination.

I’m becoming better at subtle puns.

“That’s a great idea! How are you doing on energy right now?” Dani queried, I am fairly certain she didn’t catch the ‘dead end’ pun or I’m sure she would be laughing right now.

lot more Essence than I’ve had at one time before. Oh, and something odd happened earlier. When those guys started cultivating, I was able to take a bit of the loose energy for myself, is that normal?> I wanted her to say ‘no, you are super amazing and special’ but...

“I… think so? That is one of the reasons you let the air get dense with the extra unrefined Essence, instead of focusing it all on a task, I believe. We are approaching the end of my knowledge of dungeon habits though. It should have taken you near fifty years to get to this point!” She stated almost accusingly.

I replied haughtily.

“Ha! He called my bluff.” Dani chortled ruefully, “What do you want to do first? Make the Beast Cores, or should I say Essence accumulators? Or, would you like to rearrange first?”

“Hm. When you put it like that, it does seem like the obvious choice.” She mused. “I think that may be a good idea.”

I decided with her where to put them, luckily they were small enough that it didn’t take a lot of space. I made three to start with, equidistant from me and each other, in a triangle around me, but below the stone of the hill I had made. I didn’t want people getting greedy, after all - that was my job. I settled in for the quickly approaching night, respawning my Mobs and increasing my influence. I decided that I would not make the changes incrementally, I would do them in one quick event when I was ready. Soon, people would get complacent with my setup, and I hoped the transition would deliver some much needed power to me.

Dale took off his armor, carefully placing it in order, so he could figure out how to put it on in the morning. The men had been far more genial toward him, fighting together tended to form bonds. He continued to spiral his Chi as he had been taught, and when he was finished undressing, he looked at his battered body. Covered in welts and bruises, his poor body had hardly any skin on it that was the normal coloration. He began to shake, the trauma of the day finally finding a hold in his mind. Focusing on his Chi spiral to take his mind off the terror, he noticed that it was far harder to pull Essence from the earth than it was from the air in the dungeon. Working hard to keep the Essence as pure and fine as possible, he quickly fell asleep.

*Splash!*

“ What the hell?! ” Dale shouted, flailing his arms as he tried to fight off his unknown assailant.

“Good morning sunshine!” A grinning menace, Hans was the group member who had been wielding daggers the day before. He loomed above Dale, holding an empty bucket.

Dale wanted to fight back, but his body suddenly reminded him of the torture it had just gone through, and instead he groaned piteously. Hans pulled him to his feet, and made him put on his armor.

“Keepin’ that spiral goin’?” Hans’ grin got wider the more Dale grunted. “You’re a lucky one aren’t ya?”

“How so?” Dale muttered, pulling his chainmail over his head.

“You get to start that spiral pretty young. What are ye’, twenty-one?” Hans inquired.

“So? You’re in your thirties, is ten years that big of a difference?” He grumbled, annoyed at the now damp armor he had to put on.

“Hmm.” Hans chuckled. “Well, yes, it is. Also to join the Guild you have to go through the process you just had, or come in with a fairly pure spiral already goin’. Plus, this here be the first non-attribute dungeon I’ve ever heard-a. Usually you gotta travel a lot to get to one that has your element type, or risk stripping your center in the open, with no ready Essence, if you are desperate.”