Ups and Downs (1/2)

With an explosive motion, Fisher bashed his powerful pincer against the cave wall, causing it to crumble. Debris and powdered rock flew in every direction. I covered my mouth and nose with a piece of cloth as I passed through a cloud of dust, inspecting the newly created opening. I held up a Sunstone, casting light into a spacious new cave area. Its walls were lined with glistening mineral formations of varying colors. "Bingo.. metals and minerals!" I exclaimed with satisfaction before entering.

Expanding your domain as a Core, meant ranking up and becoming able to claim a bigger area of effect. That means more rooms, greater spawning grounds for monsters and more space you can freely control with Mana. No one said however, I couldn't just dig out new caves and explore. Some of my monsters, such as Fisher, could even accompany me now that they had cores of their own. The large arachnid had proven more that useful with his new ability, digging deep into the earth with forceful blows, delivered by a Mana infused pincer. I had decided that I would expand my domain upwards and into the Great Plateau, once I had the ability to create more than the 3 rooms I had now. So I kept this endeavour separate from my main Dungeon, digging a new entrance about a hundred meters away from my original. Here I decided to go deep into the earth instead, searching for minerals, cave systems and whatever secrets the latter may hold.

"Should I order my kin to begin extraction Master?" asked Fisher with his deep telepathic voice. I nodded as I walked closer, checking to see if I recognized any of the minerals. "Copper, Iron.. there is even terracotta here.. This is a good find Fisher.".

"I am pleased you are satisfied Master. Are we to delve deeper? My Mana could allow me to perform a few more strikes.".

"Yes! Let's go down just one more level and call it a day".

"As you wish Master!" the great beast replied and raised a clenched pincer. It glowed with Mana for just a brief moment and then became slick, almost metallic in appearance. Fisher brought it down and hit the stone beneath our feet, causing it to crack. I stepped back and my monster secured itself with a thick strand of silk. He continued striking the ground with tremendous force, causing a big crater to form, blow after blow. My little arachnid had come a long way! He had his weaknesses but was still a force to be reckoned with. His main issues were that he was slow and exposed all over. His carapace had really hardened but surely not enough to stop direct blows. And his back as well as his legs were exposed to attackers. Despite his size and appearance he still remained more of an ambush predator. After a while and almost a dozen strikes, the floor crumbled inward, creating a hole about 2,5 meters in diameter. When the dust finally settled I could finally make out Fisher hanging from his silk over the now exposed opening. The hole seemed to lead into a tunnel. Fisher extended a leg for me to grab on to. Once he had me secured, he lowered us both into the dark tunnel.

Dire Cave Fishers began pouring into the cave above us, chipping away at anything that looked different than common stone and carrying back the pieces. They could now survive for about 1 hour and 30 minutes outside the influence of my domain. I had also produced additional monsters over the course of a week since the Raiders attacked. Sadly I found out that, with my rank, I was only able to summon 25 monsters of rank 1 or higher. I now had 6 Dire Cave Fishers, 12 Slimes, 4 Dire Coyotes, Fiona and Fisher. We were really coming along as a fighting force. The only thing still holding us back was me! I had to break through to Rank 2, in all my basic Dungeon skills in order to advance to the next rank. This would allow me to expand my rooms more, create 1 additional room and of course control more monsters. I had however reached the third Rank of Mana Cultivation, after having spent almost entire days in meditation. I could now also collect raw aether and turn it into Aether points!

Leaving the smaller critters to excavate, Fisher and I delved deeper into the tunnel. It was completely dark and branched out to smaller tunnels every dozen meters. Fisher used his tentacle-like feelers to scout ahead, searching for prey, water or anything out of the ordinary. After about 30 minutes we were suddenly called to a glimmer, deep within a cave's darkness. I entered the plain looking cavity and gazed upon the only thing that was out of place. A fist sized crystalline formation of crimson red that pulsed faintly with similarly colored light. There also smaller reddish shards of crystal all around it but they did not glow as the main body did. "What is that Master?" asked Fisher in my mind. "I think it's Mana. Crystallized Mana.. is that even possible? How much raw magical power would it take to form into actual matter?!" I exclaimed excitedly. I had no previous knowledge of this from what Trishda had imparted on to me but I could feel it through my Mana Cultivation.

"In fact.." I said and extended an open palm to it. If it was Mana in solid form, could it still be absorbed? I reached out with my power and felt a massive amount of condensed Mana before me. Like a small pulsing star of crimson light. I forced the Mana into me but it did not respond, at least not completely. I felt small threads of power being assimilated but the rest refused to budge. It then came to me. "Of course, I can't do this! I'm outside my domain right now.. I need to be within my Core's influence in order to cultivate energy that surpasses my Avatar's ability to store!". With that, I drew my scimitar and dislodged the jagged crystal formation, placing it in a spacious satchel I had acquired from the store. I also took as many of the red crystal shards as I could extract intact. "Master.. There is.." went Fisher suddenly and I could see his tentacles whirling about, nervously scanning the air for something. I squinted my eyes at the display, trying to understand what he was trying to find, when IT found me!

Something jumped me from behind! Small clawed fingers dug into my leather armor and scratched at my back, as a small humanoid clung itself around me. It was like being assaulted by a feral child! I panicked and jumped backwards, squashing the creature between my body and the wall with a powerful slam! Earth came lose and stone cracked on impact! I turned around to see the small creature falling to the ground. It had skin of pale grey, an almost bald head with the exception of a few strands of rotten hair. Skin tightly pulled against a skeletal frame, rows of black, broken teeth and misty white eyes. Its arms had only 4 clawed fingers that looked like the talons of a hawk! The thing couldn't have been taller than 1 meter! "Vorska!" I exclaimed with a panting voice as the creature tried to get up. I brought a leather boot to its face, crushing its skull against the cave wall. I felt a feeling of anguish in my head and turned to see Fisher fighting off three more!

The large arachnid tangled up one of the small humanoids with his tentacles and slammed it against the ground, hard enough to crack its spine. The second one he caught in his gnarly pincer and cleaved it in half. The third Vorska however remained glued to his back, out of his reach and clawed at him repeatedly! Fisher's armor held up for the first few strikes but then my monster started taking damage! I rushed by the two combatants with a spin, unsheathing at the beginning and then sheathing my blade once more at the end of the motion. The Vorska fell to the ground with a huge slash to its gut. A well practiced technique I finally got to use in actual combat. "Fisher are you ok?!".

"Yes Master! These are mere scratches.."

"Good. We need to move. Now! The only thing I know about these things is that wherever you find one, dozens more will follow!"

We darted through the tunnels, headed back the way we came and soon they were upon us. At least 5 more Vorska ran after us, screeching and producing gutteral roars! I cut down two of them as they tried to jump on to me while I was running. One managed to slice open my thigh, leaving a deep cut where its nasty claw parted my flesh. Fisher pounded it into the ground and caught one more in mid air with his tentacles, snapping its neck while he held it suspended! We finally reached the silken thread and I climbed unto Fisher as he scaled it with ease. The Vorska scaled the nearby walls with spider-like proficiency and tried to jump on the Deep Fisher as we escaped. I kicked one away and slashed another in twain as they met my scimitar mid jump. The moment we were outside the cave I ordered all my monsters out and back to the Dungeon. Fisher and I held back the advancing abominations with blade and pincer at the ready. When all monsters had evacuated the cave, I exited as well and Fisher sealed off the entrance by causing a cave in with a powerful blow to the opening's supports.