The iron Coyote king's hide & Core upgrades

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:

[You have made 'Hide of the Iron Coyote king'

Congratulations, you have made a unique item!]

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:

[You have created a unique item, 'Coyote iron Coyote king's hide'

NOTE: This item has been upgraded by your unique dungeon ability

Lore: In ages long past, there once lived a small Coyote cub. Many of his fellow cubs and even his family rebuked him, and called him the runt of the litter, and that he'd never be able to grow up to be a strong Coyote warrior, for he was too small.

So one day, after another round of ferocious mocking, and bullying, the Coyote king had enough, and ran away.

He ran so far into the woods, that he didn't recognise anything, and he had lost his way back. Hours soon turned to days, as he had been wandering around in that forest for so long. He was about to lay down and accept that he'd die of thirst and hunger.

When he saw it...

a piece of paper, laying unfittingly in the middle of the grass covered forest floor. Thinking nothing of it, he decided to keep walking, but as he started to leave, the parchment began to call out to him.

It was like something in his soul longed for the parchment. So, he walked nearer, and when he saw the parchment, he was surprised.

He could read what it said...

It was a cultivation technique, called 'The way of Iron'.

Upon a single glance, the Coyote felt enlightened. He immediately began cultivating the technique.

He found that in this state, he didn't need food, water, or even sleep. He just needed to be connected with the ground.

After just a week of cultivating, he could destroy a tree with a mere swing of his paw. After a month, He could crush a boulder with his fangs, and after several years of mastering this technique, he could create a crater, the size of a small village, with just a slight turn of his head.

He was truly destruction incarnate.

He returned to his clan, and slayed every member of it. No one was spared from his wrath.

After dealing with his past, he went on to rule over all Coyote kinds, and brang great fortune to his race. The race began to thrive, and eventually became an apex predator of this planet.

He eventually went on to challenge the heavens, leaving this planet to travel to the divine plain. No one knew if he was successful or not.

Well, no one until now... The parchment that he found so long ago was formed from his exceedingly high spirit stat, coalescing, and eventually forming the parchment.

Upon the Coyote king's absence, Coyote populations were hunted back down by the sentient races, as well as the monsters of this world, once again, becoming a lesser race among the inhabitants of this world...

Name: The Iron Coyote kings hide

Mana Cost: 200 - 1,000,000 (Note: the more mana used, the stronger the hide will become. This can be added after creation.

Item Rarity: Unique

Item Type: Armour/Crafting Recipe

Description: "You know, it is said that this Coyote ruled with an 'Iron' fist" - Iron Coyote king was one of the strongest creatures to come from this planet, Using the way of Iron cultivation ability to easily grow stronger than any living being on the planet. +10 strength, Endurance, and spirit for every 200 mana put into this item (max 50,000). User gains two skills of the iron Coyote king, Iron skin - 2x endurance (includes additional stats added by armour, potions, etc.) for 30 minutes x skill level, Dexterity and movement speed is halved. Lesser Iron manipulation (upgradable) - the ability to somewhat shape, and control Iron, skill can be upgraded when skill level reaches 10.]

I was in awe...

This piece of hide had the ability to add a bonus 50,000 stat points to strength, endurance, and spirit, at its highest level. That was so overpowered.

Although I don't know how high the stats of high level people were, I'm almost sure there isn't much gear like this in the world. If I gave this to the rock goblin, it would probably be able to destroy the walls of the goblin settlement with a single punch.

I was about to spawn in the item, when I heard the familiar sound of rock scraping on rock.

It was the stone goblin.

"MAASSTER..!" The goblin said.

"Yes, Rocky?", I replied. Deciding to assign a name to the creature.

For a moment, the creature seemed confused, before deciding to ignore my words and continued, "THEE FIRST 5 ROOOMSS HAVE BEEEN MINED OUT, AS YOU INSTRUCTED!"

Hearing this, I immediately checked, and true to his words, 5 perfectly rectangular rooms, all with the same dimensions I had stated, sat in a line right in front of my core.

After seeing this, I chose to not create the hide, but rather start on...

Room creation!

I had been looking forward to this, for so long now, and now I could finally start creating my dungeon.

"Good job Rocky, now, go to the last room you made, and start building a staircase, and keep going until you reach the surface." I instructed.

"YESS, MAASTTER! ALLSO I PLAACED A PILE OF STUFFF I FOUNND WHILLE MININGG IN THE CORNERR NEXTT TO THE ENTRANCE TO THEE ROOOMSS" The Goblin said as he left to complete his new task. Next to the entrance, as the goblin said, I found 2 new materials.

I checked the first object, a thin, white mushroom, with an extremely pointy cone top.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:

[Name: ManaShroom

Mana Cost: 5/per troop

Item Rarity: Uncommon

Item type: Alchemical Ingredient

Description: A manashroom is a plant that everybody loves, these unique looking mushrooms suck ambient mana from the space around them, purify it, and then distribute it back into the air. These mushrooms usually grow in troops of 20. Due to your unique dungeon ability, these manashrooms now absorb and produce 10x as much mana, as well as removing 100% of impurities from the mana, making pure quintessence, the most perfect form of mana.]

As soon as I told Celes about quintessence, her eyes shot up. "Carl, what. did. you. do..." she said very slowly.

I told her about the manashrooms, and their enhanced abilities. When I said that they produce quintessence, she started fluttering around, obviously excited. "You hear that Goaty, Carl now can produce quintessence." she squeaked, "Baaaaa" Goaty said in reply.

"What is it?" I asked, wondering why she was so excited.

Noticeably calming down, Celes said "First let me tell you about the different forms of mana, there is Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Dark, Light, Celestial, Abyssal, Time, and Void mana, when people level up, they can advance what kind of mana they use by combining elements that they already have, for example, when a fire and earth user reaches bronze rank, they can evolve to have a lava affinity, but in order to cultivate it, they need to find a source of lava mana, which is usually located near volcanoes.

As you might have guessed, it can be quite difficult to find a source of mana if you're cultivating something like Golem Mana, as you need to constantly be around 'golem cores', which are extremely hard to find.

So quintessence is a completely pure form of mana, that anyone can cultivate, no matter what their affinity is. Hence why it's so useful, and will definitely cause people to flock to your dungeon when they find out. Personally, I suggest you cover your whole dungeon with them, or combine them with your core."

I was thinking over what she said, when one thing in particular struck me.

"What do you mean combine them with my core?"

"Oh, sorry I must have forgotten. Whenever you gain a significant achievement, you can sometimes get a reward. If you will to see your achievements, a list of achievements will show up on your window. And even though it is rare, I know there is an achievement for having quintessence in your dungeon, even if it's brought in from other means, and that achievement allows you to combine something with your core."

I willed for the achievements tab to open, and it did.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

[-First kill: "Congratulations, you did your job" - You get nothing.

-Combiner: "Nice job, you turned a pathetic goblin into a good-looking piece of stone." - All creatures within your dungeon, yours or not, have an (optional) 100% fertility rate.

-Antique collector - "You have made a unique item that belonged to another being" - Summoning costs are halved.]

As soon as I read them, I could feel the difference, checking my summoning costs, everything was halved, I could summon a stone goblin for 75 mana.

I decided to plant a troop of manashrooms around my core, and as soon as I did, the terrible smell I had somewhat gotten used to, almost immediately disappeared. It turned out that the terrible smell was the impure mana that had been around me.

I checked my achievements, and sure enough, there was a new one.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

[-Quintessence Collector - "Well, I guess there's a germaphobe in every group of people." - You can combine something with your core.]

I was about to try absorbing the manashroom into my core, when I noticed something transparent floating around the mushrooms.

Not knowing what it was, I absorbed it.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:

Name: Quinessence

Mana cost: 1

Item Rarity: None

Item Type: All

Description: Building block of everything; The purest form of mana. Your dungeon core ability has caused this item to become infinitesimally dense, causing it to turn into a physical object.]

Confused at the lack of information, I asked Celes.

"Carl... COMBINE IT WITH YOUR CORE NOW!!" She screamed, "YOU HAVE KNOW IDEA HOW IMPORTANT WHAT YOU JUST DID IS."

"But the manashroom..?"

"WHO CARES ABOUT THAT STUPID MUSHROOM, THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY YOU CAN NOT AFFORD TO PASS UP. COMBINE IT WITH YOUR CORE, OR I WILL NEVER TALK TO YOU AGAIN."

Giving into her threat, I thought to combine it with my core, and this screen came up.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:

[You are trying to combine ERROR: QUINTESSENCE. With your core, this will have irreversible, and permanent effects, do you wish to continue:

YES/NO]

I thought yes.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:

[You have upgraded your core from a 'Lvl 2 unaligned core' -> 'Lvl 2 Quintessential core of creation']

Then, the world went dark.

...

After an unknown amount of time, I saw a glimpse of light.

I grogley started interpreting the area around me, I was still in the dungeon.

"Carl, I am so sorry, are you okay, what happened?" a familiar voice said from my left, it was Celes.

Beginning to sober, I replied, "I upgraded, I'm now something called a 'Quintessential core of creation'." she looked confused.

"I've never heard of that one before. What can you do? Check your stats."

"Wait, I have stats?"

"Yes, of course you do, everything has stats... Wait, have you not checked your stats before. Silly, just will to see your own statistics" She giggled.

I did as she said, my core turning a light shade of red as she said those words.

STATISTICS:

Name: CARL

Race: Quintessential core of creation

Lvl: 2

Mana: 5,800/400

Abilities:

Enhancer - enhance the abilities/traits of anything you absorb.

Quintessence producer - your core now turns ambient mana into quintessence.

Affinityless - You have no affinity. You can create any creatures, or items, regardless of their affinity.

Mana storage - unused mana can be stored for the next day.

Mana maker - your mana production has doubles, again, every time you level up.

Quintessential Asexual reproduction - Your creatures can single handedly reproduce, at expedited rate, newborn monsters will also grow at a much faster rate.

Quintessence manipulation - ERROR: ???

Quintessence - ERROR: ???

??? - ERROR: ???]

"Oh yeah, Carl, I forgot to tell you, you've been asleep for about 2 weeks now."

I began to look around, and what I saw shocked me.

15 Rocky's all surrounding my core, and a 16th still digging the staircase I had asked for.

...