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

Was she being condescending again?

“Remember those spikes poking out of you? Can you do that without being really mad?” Yup, definitely being condescending.

I tried, but couldn’t make anything happen.

I looked at the reflective quartz poking out of the stone.

“You made it with your Essence. If you have absorbed it in the past, you can make it with your Essence. Another ability unique to dungeons.” She showed off her knowledge once again.

I wheedled her.

“Upgrade first.” She was firm on that point.

Well, poo. I thought flattery would do it.

She seemed appreciative of my work ethic. “Get as full of energy as you can, then I’ll guide you through the process.”

Following her instructions, I cultivated and ate - no, I refined! - the plant's energy until I was shaking dangerously again.

I began worriedly.

“It’s ok Cal, focus on your crystal. Do you feel the flaws in the gem? There are a few perfect parts where your facets are smooth and sharp, without cracks or discoloration.” Dani quickly and calmly coached me, “Feel those, find how it is that they bind perfectly whereas the other spots are rough or malformed. Now smooth those bad patches so that they are correctly formed. Try to make your Core as flawless as possible. Focus now, but don’t rush it.”

It was amazing. As she guided me I could feel exactly what she meant, and suddenly perfectly understood the body I was now in. Why had I never tried to understand myself before? I guess it was just not something a normal mind would do. The basic structure of my Core consisted of carbon, but was reinforced by the Essence that I had refined to its most pure form. Only the center of my Core was truly perfect and I could see that my mind resided within in that perfect structure. From this perfect facet I got the blueprints of how my Core needed to be restructured and started applying pressure to the poorly formed outer carbon bonds.

“Careful now, not all at once or you may shatter yourself.” Dani murmured, trying not to break my focus.

*Click*

A small patch of perfectly bonded carbon molecules formed.

*Click* *Click*

As I became used to the process, I was able to accomplish the task faster, letting me make more connections, faster and faster, until with a jolt I found there were no more poorly formed areas. A good thing too, as my light had dimmed enough to nearly extinguish. My mind, losing the single track intensity that had propelled me to this stage, nearly broke under the exhaustion I now felt.

“Cal! Are you awake yet? Cal!” Dani desperately begged, voice hoarse and weak.

I grouched sleepily. That was new. Can I sleep?

“You need to absorb...Essence. Please, hurry...” She pleaded, her light dimming as well.

Her words barely registered in my mind, my thoughts moving at a glacial speed. I was hungry. I reached for the moss, and as per usual it eagerly flowed toward me as well. I started eating, and as I did I only got hungrier, the input of Essence awakening my unquenchable gluttony. Greedily reaching for more moss, I pulled more and more energy from the entire patch of moss, until dying moss started to emit blasts of energy, which shot into me. I stopped pulling Essence, and looked nervously at where it came from.

As I suspected, a small patch of moss withered away, crumbling to dust as I watched. I finished refining what I had, and realized that while this amount of energy would have killed me before I fixed my facets, now it was barely satiating my hunger. I turned my attention to Dani, who was beginning to glow again.

I prodded her. That was a bad idea, she woke up angry.

“You nearly killed us both is what happened!!” Her glow flashing to a deep crimson with fury. “You altered your basic structure until completion - without even stopping to recover! I had to close our connection just to stop from draining the last bits of Essence from you and nearly starved to death myself before you gained enough energy for me to safely take some! Do you have any idea how horrible of a death dying from lack of Essence is?!”

I tried to defend my actions,

“I told you not to rush!” Her anger fading, her body slowly returned to her regular coloration. “Are you ok? Did you hurt yourself?”

I cautiously stated. I amended.

“Good.” She blew out a breath. “Cal, you really need to have some self-preservation skills.”

I was ashamed.

“Don’t be sorry, be smart! If you die, so do I! We need you to be the smartest dungeon that exists, because we need each other!” She exploded, obviously still mad for some reason.

I promised her vigorously.

“Good. You’d better. Well, let’s take a look at you.” She flew closer to me examining me for any flaw or defect. After a short time, she pronounced her assessment, “Cal you are the most perfect diamond I have ever seen.”

I reminded her. Was she still groggy from sleep?

“Well, you look like a flawless diamond. When you get full of energy, it’ll be nearly impossible to break you I bet.” Her abrupt reversal of attitude threw me off, but her words were really nice. A pink glow joined my normal blue as I “blushed” from her praise. Interesting, it seemed my emotions can alter my coloration for a moment or two.

I tried for another compliment.

She granted my desire, “A very good job.” Then my new favorite thing to hear, “Well, let’s get some food shall we?”

I felt a bit embarrassed about killing off my only good source of food.

She examined the withered moss and nodded, “True, but why didn’t you finish the rest of it off?”

She never ceased to surprise me. I explained carefully.

“Well! I thought you were just a glutton, but you keep throwing me for a loop!” She flew to me and tested the energy flows I was emitting. “I think I was wrong earlier, you must have been a G-rank three Core, just with so many flaws your energy came out scattered and weak. You have the cultivation base of a G-rank four now, and this allows you to have forethought. It’s ok Cal, try and finish off the moss there and take in its life energy. It is the remaining cultivation base of the moss, the densest concentration, so it will give slightly more energy than it does normally.”

I forlornly reminded her.

“We will grow more, just eat it already.” Yikes! I didn’t want to make her angry again.

I waited a moment. I grumbled at Dani, then I started pulling in the Essence, this time watching what happened to the moss. As I took more energy, it started wilting and becoming desiccated, like it had gone too long without water. I could tell the moment each strand died, as I was assaulted with a burst of condensed Essence each time it happened. As each strand died I grew more satiated, but when the last bit had crumbled I was still not even a quarter full, and this was before I purified it and got rid of the waste, which was usually a sizable portion of the energy. When I finished cultivating and refining, removing the waste, I was about one eighth full.

I felt incredible, strong, and powerful. That is not how I responded to her next question though.

“How do you feel?” She was testing the waters, looking at my cultivation.

I responded as honestly as possible.

“Why am I not surprised, ya hog.” She admonished flatly. “I think it is time for you to try and use your Essence, I want you to move the entire stalagmite you are on as far toward that cave as you can go. You are too exposed here, your Core should be insanely difficult to get to. Right now anything could swoop in and grab you.”