//------------------------------// // A New Existence... // Story: Dungeon Core, Resistance. // by Zemez //------------------------------// In the world of Equis, many of its secrets had already been uncovered, such as the depths of the mare-iana trench, the heights of Mount Everhoof, and even the depths of the earth, to around a few miles. But no creature could figure out all the mysteries of magic. They had complex mathematics to explain it of course, but just when the researchers thought they reached a peak, Magic proved them wrong by unveiling a mountain range. One of these mountain ranges was dungeon cores, and Xaviar was obsessed. Equestria, the only land proven to never have any dungeon outbreaks, allowed their cores to be studied openly, if non-intrusively. And one summer's day in college, he took that opportunity. The marvels he learned opened up his eyes. Cores were obviously made from some gem-like composition, unlike the manite-infused bones and cartilage of the ponies, which allowed them greater mastery of magic. Gems had different mana tolerances, from the lowest 10 MC, or Mana Conveyance, to the highest known of 1500 MC. Cores had 0 MC, as they actively rejected mana, and took in a byproduct of magical events, or proto-magic. The MC of 10 meant that for every 10 points of mana put in, 1 point of mana would be lost. This was only the first thing that fascinated him, and the rest could be put on a list long enough to stretch across Griffonia, his home nation, or... What was left in any case. Each nation was much poorer than Equestria, and the reason for this was the Cores. Cores had the unbelievable effects of being masters at transmutation, using proto-magic to create objects, plants, and even creatures! The byproduct of these creations was mana, which every living creature required to continue living. Equestria contained forty-three of these cores, while each other nation only contained one. The reason for this was that Dungeons would randomly create a 'dungeon tide' in which it would continuously create creatures that would leave its influence and wreak havoc. Equestria should be a barren wasteland of death and monsters by now you'd think. Equestria would come and liberate a core when a new one was found, relocating it back to their land for the safety of everyone. Only, when the minotaurs refused once, their nation was destroyed. The dungeon had spawned some sort of metal-like creatures that quickly overran their forces. It was after this, and the scattering of the minotaurs, that the other nations banded together and demanded answers from Equestria, and thereby Celestia. She answered simply, that Alicorn levels of magic were required to subdue the cores, and she would not be spending her time subduing the cores for free, and thusly demanded concessions. Griffonia refused and spent more and more on the military to resist the dungeon. Most of the griffons now still in the nation live in Griffinstone, the capital, although that was still a generous term. The population was poor, and the Griffonstone currency, slates, was so undervalued, that many had to grow their own crops in the mana-poor soil. Many of the other nations on the other side of the sea from Equestria weren't so better off. The dragons raided other lands for meat and magic, the snakes spent most of their time lazing about to conserve energy, and the sheep were perhaps the best off. Their land still had grass, although they had very little infrastructure, and no national currency or exports to purchase materials to build infrastructure. Xaviar, at this moment, was climbing down a gorge outside of Griffinstone. The warm air rising up at tremendous speeds would have caught his wings if he hadn't tied them down. The climbing equipment he was using was rank B, which meant it could withstand a level fifty's attack, so he wasn't afraid of any problems with it. Eventually, he anchored his equipment to an outcropping, taking a short rest from the heated air in an alcove. As he wetted his beak with half a skin of water, he brought up his interface. He nodded, Every creature had this interface, except perhaps untamed animals, and he was happy to see that his endurance training had gone up by one on the climb down. Every creature could train each of their four attributes up to +10, which didn't count for their points, which was important after level 50, as each point required two AP to increase by one. His class was Explorer, class ranks started at D, going up until A became S rank. The only confirmed S ranks however were the princesses of Equestria. The reason training was important was that as a C rank class, he only gained 3 ATP per level. And as a C rank, he was among ten percent of those in Griffonia. In Equestria, C rank was the minimum class level, and each race got their class at different points, usually adulthood. Ponies gained a class when they gain their cutie mark, griffons gained it upon turning sixteen. Regardless, D ranks gained two ATP per level, while B ranks gained 4. A ranks gained 8, and while it was unconfirmed, there are rumors that S ranks gained a whole 16 points per level! He could only imagine how powerful the princesses were. Skills could be trained up to 20. but it was rare for someone to go beyond 10 in their lifetime, the only way was if they put everything into one skill. Skills could be increased with SP, in which every creature, of every rank, gained 1 every five levels. They could also be trained normally, through acquisition of knowledge, training, etc. His class, explorer, actually gave him a 20% bonus to learning skills. On the other side was Abilities. These could also be trained, but at a much slower pace than skills, and each had a mana cost, whether it was upkeep or amount upon use. Certain races were born with abilities. All griffons gained Flight I when they grew enough to be able to fly. the other two skills were acquired by him through study and training. As ABP was only gained every 10 levels. He was saving his last point for if he really needed it, as his first point had gone into Flight so that he could pass his primary school gym class. Creatures could also gain titles, however, these were rare, and would show up separately, these were also the only parts of the interface others could see without permission. He once saw Celestia in person, and the amount of titles she had was staggering. a whole 15 of them! the most prominent one was Embodiment of Day. He could only dream about the benefits that singular title probably brought her, as each title usually had some benefit attached to it. Shaking off the envy, he brought up his own class. | Explorer(Rank C) | | An adventurer of the unknown past, seek | | glory, adventure, and secrets unknown! | | Increase skill gain by 20%, earn levels | | by uncovering the unknown. | As it came and went, he was actually pretty proud of his class, which he gained during his mandatory year in the Griffonstone army, which spent most of its time running through Griffonia's only dungeon to suppress it. Each griffon, upon the year they turned 16, was to join the army. It was less that Griffonia had many enemies, but that resources were in short supply, so it was to teach discipline and ways to survive on less. Most C rank classes gained a 10% increase to an aspect, and they usually only gained 20% to a certain type of skill or ability, not to all of them. It was this aspect that allowed him to go to Canterlot University on a scholarship. It wasn't as glamorous as say getting into Celestia's school for gifted scholars, but it allowed him to study overseas in Equestria for four years! His thoughts ran out of control as he reminisced, he soon realized an hour had passed as his HP had gone up. He Shook off the dirt from his feathers as he got up and continued climbing in the heat. For a creature with less than 50 Endurance, it would have soon become unbearable. But mana reinforcement increased his strength and endurance by 5% for a point of mana a minute, which allowed him to barely endure it. his singular point of mana from training was in part due to using this skill for the past four hours. Abilities didn't only take mana, however, as they required focused effort to use them, he was already getting mentally exhausted, despite it only being noon, as he could see the sun through the gorge's open ceiling. He wasn't willing to continue resting though. The reason he was here was that there were records of this area once being a dungeon hundreds of years ago, before the unification of Griffonia against dragon raiders. The core was shattered to prevent the dragons from stealing it. shattered cores were useless, as they lost all their ability to process Protomagic. And using them as common gems proved worthless as well, as they were worse than common gems, still having an MC of 0, and any mana put in them never came out. This meant that shattered cores were usually left where they were. Since they were useless, nobody owned a shattered core, and he felt that if he could get his hands on one, not only would his Theoretical Thaumaturgy become rank V, he might be able to uncover some secrets those less dedicated to knowledge of dungeons wouldn't uncover. It was two hours later that he finally reached the bottom. He had expected it to be extremely hot, but as he descended, it had actually become cooler, which meant that the thermal vents in the gorge were along the walls, not the floor. He kept mana reinforcement on however. The dungeon entrance was supposedly in the only cave alongside the floor of the gorge. It took him another few minutes to find it, as the sun was beginning to set from its highest point, it was getting dark, and he only brought a few torches. He didn't have amazing night vision, so he had to squint several times to notice the entrance. When he entered, the atmosphere changed. The gorge had been fairly quiet, now? he heard the sound of creatures skittering. He wasn't too afraid, while the dungeon was said to have been a high level, something he was still confused about, the party that had shattered it would have taken care of all of the monsters except the weakest stragglers. He lit a torch as the cave descended into total darkness only a few hooves away from the entrance. He had already untied his wings, stretching them to get the blood flowing back into them. He was probably going to lose a few feathers from this trip, but it would be worth it. The layout of the dungeon was fairly straightforward, different from Griffonia's dungeon, which had twisting pathways that could lead back towards each other. The caves were filled with ash, undisturbed for hundreds of years. while he was in a hurry, Xaviar couldn't help but take his time to admire the rooms. Claw marks, sword slashes, and even melted stone! It told him of the battles that took place to keep control over the dungeon. the Griffon warriors did everything in their power to hold the dragons at bay, but with superior power, as dragons had higher stats, and a lot longer than griffons to level up, in which most dragons took decade-long naps to wait for the ambient magic to level them up, the griffon's lost. However, what confused him was the fact that every corpse, or at least what was left, of the griffon's side was killed by a dragon. and at one point, upon reaching a boss room, in which it seemed to be a large animated piece of armor, or at least he guessed from the slag left behind, that the griffons fought alongside the dungeon? His confusion was so great that he nearly missed the scuttling behind him. However, he rolled out of the way at the last moment, dropping his torch. with the torch illuminating the figure, he swallowed heavily. It was a rat nearly half his size, it was nearly hairless, with several boils along its body. Its tail was torn at the end, with half of it missing. Its claws were sharp, leaving scratches on the stone floor. He squared his shoulders and relaxed them. He had to hope that its level wasn't too close to his, while he wasn't weak by griffon standards, he wasn't a combat class, so he had no abilities related to combat. This was one of the few times he wished he was a pony. Even if he was the same class, he'd probably have much higher stats due to being a higher level. The rat shot at him, he rolled underneath its lunge as he lightly raked its underbelly. His army training paid off, as the Griffonstone Army Technique I was mainly focused on avoiding blows in 1v1 combat. This also told him that the Rat wasn't nearly as high a level as him, as its underbelly was slightly bleeding. If it was truly near his level, his light attack would have done nothing but irritated it. The rat was hesitant about attacking again, and Xaviar took advantage of this, he grabbed the torch he was now beside, and used it as a club against the rat. Several of the boils popped, creating a sizzling sound as the fluid inside was burned. The rat was singed, but it rolled away in time to avoid being lit on fire. He didn't let it have a chance to escape, maybe bring back some friends. He advanced, swinging again, and with a crack, which came from the rat instead of his torch, the rat flew through the air limply. twitching slightly at the area of its rest. He poked it a few times before becoming assured it wouldn't get up again before hurrying. He no longer took time to take in the history of this place. He already had to replace his torch soon after the fight, and he only brought three. While he was undisturbed by any other rats, it did take him another torch, as he had to descend three levels, and each of the boss's remains filled him with awe of the power of dungeons. This dungeon seems to have focused on metal-like constructs, with the animated armor on the first floor, the second-floor boss's slag was at least twice the size. with the third floor having telltale marks of combat spells, and considering griffons were unable to gain classes associated with spellcasting, it meant that the boss had the ability to cast magic! This required an insanely high level of Runecarving! Unicorns could cast spells because of their horn spirals, which were insanely complicated when seen microscopically. There were other creatures with these same patterns, but not as highly complex. For instance, Dragons had an organ with natural runes for fire. His excitement only grew stronger as he passed the slag of the third-floor boss, the wall behind it was knocked down. Most dungeons left a hole in which air could enter where their core was, the reason why was never exactly explored, but parallel tests showed that proto-magic had no trouble going through stone and dirt, unlike normal magic, which only had an MC of 3 with dirt, and 1 of stone. It was among the knocked-down wall that he found it. its shape was that of a double trapeze, the surface had several cracks upon it, and despite the cores he saw in Equestria having brilliant colors, the broken core was nothing but an opaque black. When he picked it up, Xaviar was surprised when his interface popped up. | Artifact Broken Core found, synergy with class: S rank | | +3 Levels, would you like to activate Artifact: Broken Core? | He was surprised. Certain classes had connections to certain items. An archmage, an A rank class, would have at least a B rank connection with any magic staff, a warrior might have at least a D rank connection with a sword, and perhaps a C rank if it was their favorite weapon. These connections could also grow if the rare event of a class change happened, or if the creature attached incredible importance to the item. Synergies usually increased the effect of the item. If a weapon did up to 30 points of damage, then the weapon with a C rank synergy could do up to 40! Synergies weren't an exact number, a C rank synergy with the same item, but two different people could change different aspects of the item. Artifacts were part of a system, from items of rank D to S, and then there were artifacts above S rank. Artifacts broke the rules, If an S rank item had an MC of 1500, then an artifact could have an MC of 2000! They could bring back the dead without making them undead, they could even give a D rank class the power of an A rank class! The most prominent artifact was the Alicorn Amulet, which not only changed the person's class into Archmage while wearing it, but it also gave them several skills and hundreds of spells at rank 10! the downside was the corrupting nature of this artifact, which made the person both vain and narcissistic, along with these traits, the amulet could only be taken off by the wearer, which made it hard to subdue the owner. And +3 levels?! Not only was this nearly a quarter of his time spent In Equestria, but this also neatly leveled him up to 30! All his exhaustion was washed away by this. Even if he was ridiculed, and even if he died right now, he'd be happy. In addition, he could activate this Broken Core? Xaviar wondered what it would do, not only was it an artifact, he had an S rank synergy with it. Would he be shown the scenes preceding its destruction? Perhaps it would allow him to perform the impossible transmutation magic dungeons were known for! His mind raced with possibilities of what he could gain before he took a deep breath, calming himself down. He acquiesced, and soon he felt a pulling force from the dead gem. He waited with bated breath, watching as his MP dropped by 10/second. He wasn't afraid, if he didn't have enough mana, it simply wouldn't work. He could always start putting- The pain started as soon as his MP reached 0. He opened his interface only to see his HP dropping by the same amount! He began panicking, his first attempt was to let go of the Core, but his claw was stuck in its vice-like grip! Soon he began trying to beat it along the stone walls. this did nothing but tire him out more quickly than the Core was doing. When he reached 100 hp, he quickly allocated all of his points to endurance. with the nine points, his endurance broke the 50 threshold, and he gained the ability Enduring. which increased his HP by another hundred... it wasn't enough. in less than half a minute he was laying on the ground, his vision blackening at the edges, only when his hp reached zero, his vision didn't go dark like he thought it would. Instead, his sight was filled with scintillating colors, He questioned if this meant he was drugged. Perhaps the entire day-long adventure was merely a drug-induced hallucination. The question went unanswered, because after what felt like several hours, the colors cut out, leaving him in total darkness... And then the interface popped up. | You died! | | ... | | ... | | ... | | Error! | | restoring records... | | Records corrupted, body uninhabitable. | | Would you like to restore records in current form? | He used all of his will to shout yes... but no sound came, the system still reacted, however. | Records restored! Please check your new status! | His sight returned, although it was different. He felt that he should be feeling something, anything after what he went through... but nothing came, only the idea that he should be feeling something... And his vision, while he could focus on something to the occlusion of all else before... He never remembered being able to see in fully 360o. Despite the fact that half of it was being blocked by something dark. | Biomass detected. Would you like to absorb it? | He said yes mentally, It felt oddly normal. and as he did, the black mass that was blocking half of his vision began to clear, he realized the mass was him... or at least his body, with... him, clutched in his claw... now an emotion returned, fear. if that was his body... that meant he was inside the broken core! Another emotion, excitement, which fought for territory with fear. He quickly brought up his interface. | Biomass absorbed. Griffon template gained. | The perusal of his new stats was interrupted by a notification. So many thoughts ran through him at this, ideas on how to help his nation- no, the world, He could create food, water, even medical supplies! He could advance thaumaturgical science by leaps and bounds! He could also risk, did he need to create dungeon tides? Would he slowly go crazy until he did? Regardless, of all these thoughts, only one of them centered on the core of his being. really rooted in his thoughts that brought so much fear and joy... I'm a dungeon core...