FINAL CORE - Chapter 38 (Patreon)

Day of the bite:

My fever takes me as I lay here on my bedroll, spread out over the stone floor of the dungeon.

It has been a day since I was bitten by the creature. I killed it. But my body is too hurt to walk with. I am drained. I am stuck down in the very dungeon that I have spent my entire childhood in.

Venom courses through my blood.

So, instead, I lay here and I scribble in my notes. It is all that I have.

I am tired.

___________________________________________________

One day later. I think:

It is as much my home as the city is, as my own four walls are — the dungeon.

For nearly sixteen years, I have come to this place almost daily to earn my bread and my keep.

I found my first sword in this dungeon. I had the best memories of my life here. When I earned my first money to buy a present for the first girl I ever loved, it was in this dungeon. When she left me a week later and I spent days crying, thinking I would never recover from my broken heart, I was howling down in this dungeon.

I didn’t just ‘work’ here. I lived here. Even if the core might disagree, this dungeon is my only home. I love it. I tell it as much as I lay here, feeling my eyes go dark.

It might just be the fever talking.

___________________________________________________

Something is here.

___________________________________________________

Ten days after the bite:

I have returned to pick up my journal that was left behind.

I am well again. I am alive.

Something came to me and nursed me back to health. A being.

— I can not explain it. It made me promise never to speak of what happened.

So I will not.

~Burnt pages found in a diary that had been tossed into a campfire

___________________________________________________

- [Sanctuary] -

Mercy {Toggle} – While active: Any intruders inside of the tower who reach 0 HP, or who fall off of it, will be spared and teleported back outside to the dungeon-gate. A severe, unremovable debuff penalty will be applied to them for 24 hours.

Any living, mortal-race denizens of the tower will be returned to their quarters.

Experience points are still gained as normal.

- [Sanctuary] -

Instancing – Creates an instance portal inside of the dungeon-gate. Every party which enters the dungeon will enter into their own, individual instance and be unable to interact with other parties.

Extra large raid parties will still be able to share the same instance. 

- [Holy] -

Divine Will – Wild, HOLY monsters will begin to make their way from across the world to live, nest and thrive in and around the grounds of the tower

- [Holy] -

Ascension – Upon activation: The landscape encompassing the dungeon’s territorial radius separates itself from the sinful world, causing the tower and all of its lands to float up into the air.

[Instancing has been activated for the dungeon!]

Isaiah sits atop of its tree, staring out into the night.

It has chosen its four new abilities.

‘Mercy’, because it does not wish to cause more suffering than there needs to be in the world. The world is often sad enough as it is, no? Letting people survive their attempts will do a lot of work for their image and also for Isaiah’s conscience. More importantly, it will keep Rorate and the others safe.

‘Instancing’, in order to avoid problems, like the one that had arisen during the attack of the latest inspection party. Too many people at once, especially if the tower is growing in popularity, will quickly become unmanageable. If they can separate attackers into small groups, it will make dire situations much more containable.

‘Divine Will’. An array of wild holy-monsters from all around the world could be very useful. Isaiah has lived three lives and in these three existences, it has seen and known many different concepts. But the world is a large place. What kinds of creatures are there that it knows nothing of? Surely there are many.

It could be a very interesting investment.

Finally, it has taken the ‘Ascension’ ability, to let the tower’s grounds rip free from the world.

It isn’t an issue just yet. But the tower could be vulnerable to weapons of siege. They need a way to counteract that eventually. It will wait a little, before activating this spell. Given its highly destructive nature, it would be wise to make preparations beforehand.

“You’re up late,” says a voice. Red.

Isaiah turns to look at the uthra and then back out over the night-washed world. “I could not sleep.”

Red flies in, placing a hand on Isaiah’s shoulder. “Don’t sweat it, chief,” says Red. She points off to the side. “At least you can still see them regularly, right?” she asks. “I mean, they’re right there,” consoles Red, referring to Isaiah’s bird family.

“I suppose,” replies Isaiah. It stares up towards the vivid night-sky canvas, looming heavily above their heads like a crushing blanket over the world. “Tell me, Red. What now?”

“Huh?”

“What now?” repeats Isaiah. “What do you do when you get to where we are now?”

Red shrugs. “Fuck if I know,” she says. “Look. I don’t know what the humans are up to, but I can promise you that you can’t trust them for as far as you can throw them off of a thirty floor high tower.” She shakes her head.

[New Area Added]

Floor {31}

The thirty-first floor of the tower dungeon. It is currently empty.

Capacity: {64} Monster-Points

3 TRAPS

(The next sub-boss/challenge room will be available in {04} floors!)

(The next boss arena will be available in {09} floors.)

“— Thirty-one floor high tower,” says Red, correcting herself. “If you really want to keep everyone here safe, then we need to keep going.”

“To the gods?” asks Isaiah.

Red nods. “Yeah. I have a bone to pick with those fucks anyways.” Isaiah lifts an eyebrow “Besides. I like the whole tower thing. I don’t really want to work in an underground hole again for the rest of my life, you know?”

Isaiah thinks about this particular statement for a time.

It rises to its feet. “Red,” says Isaiah, looking at the uthra. It holds a hand out, pressing a talon against her.

(Isaiah) Upgraded: [Summoned Worker {2}] to [Summoned Worker {3}]

Cost: {200} EXP

857/2350

HP: 20/20

Soul: 20/20

New Ability - [Mental Charge]

• Allows the worker minion to take direct control of a dungeon monster’s body.

New Ability - [Protective Shield]

Cost: {10} SOUL

• Shields a selected creature with a magical shell for ten seconds or for an amount of damage equal to its MAX-HP 

Red glows with a vibrant, crimson aura as the magic flows through Isaiah’s hand and into her. The uthra grows larger still than she was before, coming up to the size of a human child. “— Move everyone from the tunnels to up here, on the roost.”

Red stretches herself out, shaking her now very long arms and popping her back. “Oh man, flying is kind of awkward like this,” she says, looking back towards her fairy-wings.”

“Apologies,” says Isaiah. “But I have a lot of work for you.”

“It’s fine,” says Red. She cracks her neck. “I’m going to push Crystal around a bit though,” she says. “Now that I have some size on him.”

Isaiah shakes its head. “Please do not.” It points at the roost, looking at it. It’s a big, flat, barren area. Crystal and Green had done a lot of work to decorate it with grass and rocks and with the very-big-tree, but… that’s it.

It’s just an empty meadow atop the tower.

Perhaps it’s because Isaiah feels rather lonely tonight, because of the events of the day before. Or perhaps it’s because of the nightly glow, making it moonsick. Or perhaps it’s even just because it no longer feels that separation between itself and the others who live here too. “Set up domiciles here. The underground is no place to live.”

“Sure thing, chief. What about the kitchen?”

Isaiah shrugs. “Move what you can. Or is it possible to make a short-cut from up here?”

“I’ll ask Crystal when I’m done shaking him out,” says Red.

Isaiah sighs, but then finds itself smiling. It appreciates Red’s lively energy.

“Thank you, Red.”

It lifts up into the air, flying off to let her work.

_____________________________________________________

Isaiah hovers above the tower, looking down towards it from high up in the sky.

(Isaiah) has activated [Mercy]

While active: Any intruders inside of the tower who reach 0 HP, or who fall off of it, will be spared and teleported back outside to the dungeon-gate. A severe, unremovable debuff penalty will be applied to them for 24 hours.

Any living, mortal-race denizens of the tower will be returned to their quarters.

Experience points are still gained as normal.

There.

Now it should be safe in the tower for Rorate and the others, but also for any adventurers. A non-lethal dungeon is apparently a real oddity in this world. But, should the time arise that such a thing as lethality is needed once again, the ability can simply be toggled off.

As for the graveyard, Isaiah assumes that if the ability still grants experience-points, then the count of people ‘killed’ will still count towards the graveyard’s summons. But this remains to be seen.

Now.

There is finally a moment of quiet and it is late at night, yes.

But perhaps now is simply a good time to get some work done.

There are two boss arenas that need to be designed, floors twenty and thirty.

There are a mass of floors in between that need some attention as well.

The grounds need some upgrading, to handle increased foot-traffic.

Isaiah looks over its shoulder, towards the human city. Towards all of the regions around the tower.

Five kilometers is the current territory it has control over. There are a lot of places here to explore too. The rest of the forest. The hills to the north. The villages around the immediate area. Perhaps some of these things are wise to do as well?

Isaiah nods, lifting its gaze towards the sky one last time for the night.

Its goal of being there, being returned to its old body is now over with. For better or for worse, that life is at an end; just like the life of the man, the paladin, Isaiah. Now, the life of Isaiah the dungeon-core has come to a start and it decides that it will live in this state of being so that, should the day come that it must leave this body too, it will not regret and yearn for something of the past like it had done this time around.

It flies off towards the tower, eager to work.