1 For The Books

Opening her eyes, Achuta could see a crystal orb glowing brightly in the center of the stone room.

Spirit: Welcome to my home.

Achuta: Books?

Spirit: They are in the crystal.

Achuta: ?

Spirit: It's called a Dungeon Core. By collecting mana from external sources, it is able to access the akashic record to materialize or dematerialize anything within it's sphere of influence.

Achuta: How?

Spirit: Personally, I don't know. You'll have to access the akashic record to answer that question. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources to provide the answer without leaving myself vulnerable.

Hearing this, Achuta took a moment to organize her thoughts before speaking.

Achuta: How do we collect mana?

Spirit: There's three ways. One is to collect mana from the air. The larger our area of influence, the more mana I can accumulate. Another is through the absorption of genetic material. I decompose this matter into usable mana. Thanks to the complex structure of the material, it is able to contain more mana than the air providing more with much less effort. The third way is to inject mana into the core directly. This way, you can provide mana on your own. However, using your own mana means you'll exhaust yourself.

Achuta: How do we expand our influence?

Spirit: Our influence is dependent on the quality of the core which is improved with it's accumulation of mana. It can be further improved by creating special constructs through the core. The simplest constructs are known as floors and are the basics when trying to set up defenses. This is because these floors uses the mana in the air to maintain itself. While the excess mana is redirected to the core.

Achuta: How do I use mana?

Spirit: The akashic record contains all knowledge in the world and this include training methods for humans. You can use this. However, first we should set up the defenses so that invaders won't be able to interrupt your training. I recommend you get stronger fast for us both.

Achuta: How do I return home?

Spirit: … I don't have enough mana to return you home. By the time I collect enough you'll probably be able to do something about it yourself. Fortunately, Dimensional travel includes time in it's address so you can return close to the time you left.

Hearing this, Achuta was silent for a moment before asking another question.

Achuta: Can you make a copy of my memories?

Spirit: This I can do. One of the basic abilities of a Dungeon core is the collection and organization of information. Fortunately, it doesn't cost much to do so.

Achuta: Copy all my memories into a spot and title it Personal Memories.

Spirit: Understood.

Achuta: Make a separate copy to be used as a reference to create a user interface so I can access the controls more easily. Lock the original Copy to be inaccessible until I'm strong enough to return home.

Spirit: Done!

Achuta: Using an iron dagger as a reference for materialization cost, organize the prices for all objects in the akashic record into units of 100 MP. Organize the catalog into Weapons/Armor, Constructs, Traps, Creatures, techniques, and Miscellaneous. Place these under the shop tab.

Create a map of our domain of influence and the surrounding area. And lastly, create a counter to display the amount of mana we can use in the bottom right of the user interface.

Spirit: Anything else?

Achuta: Give me a list of techniques to improve my mana capacity.