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

I called with no small relief.

“I did.” She surprised me by apologizing, “I’m sorry I left in such a huff, sometimes I forget that you don’t have the same social norms as flesh and blood creatures. You literally need to focus on yourself, and I was jealous because I’ve been kinda bored.”

I was genuinely curious.

“I don’t have anything to do! I give you advice like, I dunno, once a month?” Dani spoke sadly, “You don’t really need me, I just take up your time and energy.”

I proclaimed indignantly,

“I don’t know,” She dramatically sighed, “I can’t affect anything in here without your help, and I can’t go too far away without dying of starvation.”

I was puzzled,

“No, it’s impossible. I can’t store Essence, and I’m made of energy so I am only as strong as the amount you can loan me.” She seemed a bit blue.

I noticed sadly,

“No, it’s too dangerous to try to alter me like that.”

I created a ‘seed’ with the pattern I had gained from her when we first bonded, creating an exact replica of her body.

“ Ahhh ! That’s horrible! Did you just make me into a Mob ?” She shrieked, horrified.

I stammered. The new wisp floated around mindlessly, each motion watched by Dani.

“It… It’s not intelligent?” She stammered.

I carefully informed her,

Reversing her admonishment abruptly, “I look so pretty! Ok, Cal, let’s try to hook her up to a Beast core…”

It turned out to be a very good idea that we tried on mindless wisps. The first one collapsed into the Beast Core faster than a rock sinks under water. Dani looked sick when it happened, I felt terrible of course. We continued trying until late in the night, and Dani kept looking sicker the whole time.

I gently prodded.

She shook a bit, “Not really. I’ve just seen myself die hundreds of times, Cal. Can we… move on to something else for a while? I’m sorry I was so hard on you earlier.”

I cringed, feeling like a jerk for not considering her mental well-being. This is what got me into trouble the first time, throwing myself single-mindedly into a task without asking her thoughts on the matter. Which reminded me…

She shivered. “Bleh. Anything to get away from this for a while! Let’s take a look.” She zipped over to the room it was in, though she could have seen it through my mind instead. I guess she wanted actual physical distance from where hundreds of wisps had just died.

“It looks fine.” She studied the Rune, “Nothing has been happening? It’s been active for a while?” With my affirmative answer, she continued, “So it is stable, just having no effect. That's odd.” She moved closer to inspect it, landing at the outer edge.

She suddenly moved, following the lines and movements of the Rune, screaming the whole time. “Ahhh! It’s got me, Cal!”

Indeed, her whole body was being pulled along the lines, condensing down from her previous size, until she reached the output pattern near the center and stopped, nearly half her original size but glowing intensely. As she remained in the center, stunned, her body once again began growing, and her fear stopped, shock taking its place.

“Cal! The Rune freaking refined me. Like I was loose Essence! Now it’s dumping Essence into me, like I’m a Chi spiral!” Her amazed sounding voice broke my panic.

I exclaimed in a burst of inspiration.

“Mmm… most likely.” She groaned happily, “This feels soooo good.”

I questioned her, worried again.

“Nah, wisps just get larger. The ambient Essence in this room is already draining out though, now I’m barely getting a trickle. Ah well.” She murmured contentedly, “I bet you could charge Cores like this though, just put one in here.”

I thought a moment. really big ?> I questioned casually, an idea sprouting.

“I think it would just pull Essence from a larger area.” She thoughtfully replied. “But it wouldn’t refine as well. I suppose a big Rune like that could help increase the Essence in the air but…”

I waited for her to comply, then made a larger version of the same Rune, placing the input activation sequence of a second Rune at the output of the first. I then created a Beast Core at the final output and activated only the first large Rune. I watched the Essence flow along its pattern, then, reaching the second Rune, the Essence automatically activated that too!

With no Essence to draw beyond that given to it from the first Rune, the second Rune refined the Essence into fine threads, which poured into the Beast core! Success! I had so many plans for this now. I could use it to speed my passive cultivation, create areas that would be powered by Essence without me sacrificing my cultivation, and maybe I could even find a way to use this method to create my Mobs more efficiently.

“My only concern for this is that larger runes take more Essence to activate, so if you make a really large one, there is a chance you would not be able to, or you would die trying when it drained you.” Dani interrupted my beautiful daydream.

“I think it will depend on how big you want the Rune to be.” Dani stated, looking at me in a way that made me feel slightly guilty.

really big.> My daydream was back.

Dale woke up just before dawn, as per usual. He got up and started putting on his armor before he remembered that he had the morning off. Not knowing what to do with himself, he started inspecting his armor. He knew it was enchanted, but was unsure what those enchantments did. He thought for a moment, remembering that enchantments were effects that were always on when activated, until they ran out of the stockpile of Essence they were originally imbued with. He found the activation sequences, but decided to check with his group before activating them for the first time. It may last for years, but an enchantment was temporary, unlike an inscribed Rune.

He equipped all of his armor, putting his Morningstar into the loop on his belt bandolier, and went for a walk. No real destination in mind, he just enjoyed the pre-dawn morning, the quiet that was never present during the day. He sat down on a boulder and watched the sun rise over the Phantom mountain range, and felt that today would be a good day. A soft sound made him turn, where he found a few people standing near him.

His initial reaction was to scream, but as he gasped they held out their hands in a peaceful gesture. He blew out the breath, not really reassured as he had seen unarmed people release enough energy to kill a city; not holding a weapon meant nothing to him anymore. Weapons aren’t the dangerous portion of someone with the intent to kill, the person doing the killing can find oh-so-many creative ways to make sure you die.

“Good morning,” one of the robed figures carefully articulated with an unknown, androgynous accent. “We apologize for startling you, but we needed to speak.”

“Ah… what, ah, what can I do for you?” Dale’s eyes were darting around for an escape route. People always thought that just because someone didn’t kill you instantly, they weren’t going to. Faulty logic, really. People may want information or services, then want to silence you as well.

“We are a delegation from the Elven city of Tal en' Ohta , of the Huine nation. We were told that you are the human landowner of this area, that if we did not want to start a war, we would need to deal with you for access to the Silverwood tree. My name,” She – the androgynous form turned out to be a she - pronounced, “is IL- Anwa Essa.”