I contained to walk forward into the earth, crumbling the dirt in front of me. I doubted it would be hard to find the core, given the penchant it had for long hallways are pointing in the same direction. Sure enough, after a minute or so of shifting through the dirt I felt a difference in the thickness of the soil to my left, and I lashed in that direction.

  I stepped out of the wall into a concealed room off to the side. Hiding its core room of to the side perhaps wasn’t as smart of a trick as it thought, and anybody moving through the soil to find it was sure to notice the difference in its composition as they passed this rooms location in a straight line. The core would have been much better for hidden as far away into is domain as it could from the last room, not ten feet to the left and a minute walk away from it. It don’t matter that such a walk was done through dense soil, it was still by my account a very lazy move.

  I looked down at the blue core and had no doubt that the thing was soiling itself inside its shell. I scanned the room until I found its guardian. It looked like it had at least not smiled that step, for it was surprising how many dungeons didn’t build a dedicated guardian. Simply filling their core rooms with super strong mob variants or having emergency tunnels for troop re-routment.

  Such measures were never sufficient, and most invaders would just be annoyed at having to deal with the same old enemies again. The core guardians were made available to a dungeon for a reason, because almost nothing should be able to get past them, nothing that would be looking for a dungeon core anyways.

  Unfortunately for the core its guardian was still very much in the process of awakening. This meant I was able to walk up and smash the core in its chest before it was moving, killing the construct before it had a chance to do anything. The stone exploded underneath my ministrations before I withdrew my hand, my eyes staring down at the dungeon core the whole time.

  ”This is why we don’t try and unfairly murder kind adventurers.” My rough voice rang out in the room menacingly, my words not at all fitting the glowering man they came from. My tone remained deadpan as I came towards where the dungeon lay on the floor. I rested my blade on its unmarked surface without a smidgen of resistance. This was why dungeon protocols existed, to stop juvenile cores like this from meeting a swift ending. But when young dungeon cores like this wanted to send empowered finishing blows at enemies all fill their dungeon to the brim with more monsters they didn’t have enough mana left to properly activate their guardian. Which meant men like me could very easily sell core shards on the black market or employ a core for over nefarious needs.

  ”You should not have done that.” My sword scraped a thin line in its surface, and turning to the mana dense portion of soil in its walls a raked a larger line through the dark blueish dirt there. I didn’t kill the moss growing there, but I did damage it enough that it would take a while to heal. These effects compounded to leave the core with a much reduced regeneration.

  I took a moment to pause, as if parsing my next words to it. “You should not do that again. Or else there won’t be a next time for you. I’m sure you’re a smart core, although what you’ve done today certainly point to otherwise… it might be good then if you would try and actually hide your core room, so that any such idiot can’t simply waltz into it and put anything into your head, like a sword or a spear. You might also be good to remember your purpose, one that doesn’t include slaughtering innocents while they are unawares. You might then be so smart to go a step further, and remember your protocol, so you don’t have a much different sort of adventurer coming down here to deal with you, one who take jobs directing from the inquisition. You might then realize that in order to enjoy your life you should be providing adventures with more of what they love, that addictive boosting revitalizing energy. That way you might actually attract some adventurers to this dung heap. And take away that bloody dampness, there’s no reason to make this hole so damp and dingy unless you were going to ruin it further with a forsaken swamp level. Don't even get me started on the lack of interesting terrain or lighting features." I put my palm upon the core and poured into it a small amount of my reserve of mana. "Put that to work on restocking your dungeon, and while you do ponder how you can make it more interesting. But before you bloody do anything else, hide and reinforce your core room! Honestly, absolutely pitiful self awareness on display. You'd think being reborn into an easily destructible gem but being otherwise gifted with immortality core would make a spirit more cautious about where they put this thing." I gestured behind me to the core as I turned and left, creating another parallel tunnel to the one i walked in with. I expelled the rest of the mana in my system to collapse the wall fully behind me.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Normally dungeons would provide some manner of exit portal to the adventure on their way out. to encourage their leaving, but i ignored the spatial distortion as it started to form and the core quickly abandoned it, saving every scrap of manna I'd given it. It was gonna take them a while to regenerate it as it was with the low traffic in the area, no point wasting it on frivolity. Although being frugal was certainly not something this dungeon struggled with I dwelled on as I walked out of its dank halls. Although I suppose a lack of motivation was an equally likely explanation, this dungeon core perhaps more focused on impaling unaware adventures in their spines. I bristled with anger as I thought about its shady attempt on my life once again. I wasn't exactly old enough to pull of a good scolding and I was afraid my reprimands weren't as stern as they perhaps should of been. The unrestrained killing intent that poured off me however was surely an effect enough message of its own. It will have felt that in the last burst of mana I used to collapse my paths behind me and got an idea of my scorn through what I fed it. It probably thought i was gonna kill it for a second their as I filled it up. Serves it right.

  As I walked out of the dungeon my posture remained aggressive, and my muscle would not unbunch until I was good ways away to town. Even then, it would probably take most part of the walk to the nearest city for me to blow off the rest of this righteous indignation.

  ---------

  A party of adventures walked up the road/ overgrown dirt path that led up to the dingy cave of the beginner dungeon. White uniforms and golden trim betraying their position in the crowded woods. "Just a little bit further princess, the dungeon should be just up ahead." The woman addressed did her best not to glare at the guard too harshly. Their journey to one of the most obscure beginner dungeons in the kingdom was not the fault of anyone but those that had ordered them to go there. So while the quite frankly pointless venture was not dreamt up by any of the exceptionally gifted guards who had led her here, they still often found themselves the recipients of a certain princess' misplaced scorn. The princess would be far from the first person to declare herself perfect, but she had to say these well know 'attendants' of hers were kind of asking for it when they signed up to drag her all over the kingdom, and so in her opinion her moderated glaring and whining was a much fitting punishment, if not an all together magnanimous one.

  One of her guards drew his blade quietly from his sheath and seemed to sink into the sound dampening enchantments in his armor, in response all other guards did the same, alarmed looks on their faces. All traces of joviality were gone, and even the princess had tensed up and reached down to her side, ready to join the battle if needed. Her face quickly moved from false scowls to real concern. Magnus, the guard who had first sensed the danger, whispered silently, slowly articulating words with his lips. Her captain of the guard watched what he said, eyes blazing fiercely, his pupils often flickering to scan their surrounding in split second burst, already half dilalated from adrenaline. In the two seconds or so it took for the defensive formation to form and the message to communicate the woods had seemed to grow quieter, routine sounds of nature both being hyper analyzed and ignored as the troop searched for any sound anomalies. As the captain processed Magnus message he let a small probe of mana-a percent of a percent of his total- seep out into the air, already attuned perfectly to the mana of the surroundings. He kept only the loosest hold on it as it spread outwards, searching for what Magnus was sensing. Before the faint traces of his blended mana could ping back to him he saw and heard the sounds of a mans passage. The tensed muscles and discontent in his face displaying his dangerous intent to anyone that would seek to discern it. A fraction of a nod sent Magnus rushing off like a silent blur, The white of his cloth blending seamlessly through dappled sunlight as he made a silent approach. His Captain followed behind him, a step and a half away in a much straighter path, ready to peel of and lunge back to either side of the formation that had tightened behind him-in order to obliterate whatever accomplices of the lone figure appeared.

  While the captain dragged his feet Magnus quickly reached the target. His white form silently slipping from the bushes into the center of the path, his body poised to make tremendous impact with the mans side. The gold of his robe had shifted to a much darker green in order to better blend in with the heavy colorings of the forest. The man about to be rammed jumped back in response, the edges of magnus cloth brushing against him as he passed. Shocked and with a wary anger overtaking his feature the man danced back a few more feet and drew his sword. Magnus had drawn his own weapon in response and was repositioning for another charge. The mans eyes quikly flickered after avoiding being smashed into and he spotted another moving blur much faster then the first heading straight down the middle of the path towards him. The figures sudden explosive attack was too fast and close to evade and the lone assailant was forced to the sidestep into a brace postion, carefully angling his sword to the side