Dungeon World 3: A Dungeon Core Experience

by Jonathan Brooks

  Dungeon World 3

  A Dungeon Core Experience

  Dungeon World Series

  Written By: Jonathan Brooks

  Cover Design: Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

  Edited By: Celestian Rince

  Copyright ©2019 Jonathan Brooks

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  The following is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, businesses, corporations, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to any actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design Copyright ©2019 Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

  Dedication

  To my wife, Melody, who encourages me to write better every day. And to my daughter, who just started Kindergarten – and can already read at a 1st grade level!

  Additionally, I want to thank everyone who beta-read this book – your input and help has made this book phenomenal!

  Aaron Wiley

  Ben Howitt

  Brian O’Neil

  Gary A Jr Paull

  Grant Harrell

  Sean Hall

  Steven Genskay

  Zack Devney

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Quick Recap

  Part I – Recovery

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Part II – Westbound

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Part III – The Deadlands

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Part IV – Allroads

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Author’s Note

  Books by Jonathan Brooks

  Quick Recap

  Fredwynklemossering was born between the very unlikely – and thought impossible – pairing of opposing-element dungeon cores. Despite hiding out in the middle of nowhere, far north of the Craytion Kingdom, Fred’s parents were found and killed as “traitors” to their respective alliances by the Supreme Council, a ruling body made up of the most powerful dungeons on the planet.

  Left alone without supplies and just the burning need for answers, the young human-dungeon-core hybrid left the only home he ever knew and set out in a long year-and-a-half journey towards the south. His health and survival were maintained through the brand-new powers he had discovered, which allowed him to use the absorbed mana he obtained from various wild animals he killed along the way.

  Fred knew that the only way he could succeed in finding his parents’ murderers was to enlist the help of some sort of allies. After finding a human settlement, he tried to Create clothing using his Mana-formed Object Creation skill so that he could blend in a little better; in the process, he accidentally created a sentient Dire Wolf that held the only two remnants of his parents’ cores. As a result, he was knocked unconscious, but was saved by a human named Regnark from the settlement he had found.

  Regnark taught Fred a lot about the human world and how they interacted with each other in his short time with him, and it also allowed the blossoming dungeon core powers within him time to improve. However, after Fred pushed his new human friend for information about the Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate, Fred was kicked out of Regnark’s house and was sent south. He met Deecy – the Dire Wolf he had inadvertently created – along the way to Gatecross, the nearest human town.

  In Gatecross, he acquired the ability to improve himself and gain a class, just as any other Dungeon Adventurer member of the Syndicate would be able to – though not without some temporary pain and suffering from an incompatible implanted Artifact. After meeting Eisa, a woman with an unfairly-assigned bad reputation – who was a Necro-healer – they delved through an “easy” dungeon together. Along the way, she learned that it was very difficult for her new “friend” to die, and also that he had the miraculous ability to conjure gold pieces out of thin air.

  Fred soon created the Core Power Guild to journey through multiple dungeons every day, learning new spells and abilities along the way. And all the Guild members wanted in return was cold, hard currency – which he easily supplied as part of his special Dungeon Core powers.

  Eventually, however, he needed some answers. Along with Eisa and three other members of the Guild, Fred was able to fight through a F-3rd-Rated Nature dungeon to confront the Dungeon Core at the end. Unfortunately, during the ensuing conversation where he learned why his parents were considered “traitors” – and found out who had most likely arranged their assassination – the small Nature Core’s personal attacks toward his mother prompted Fred to physically grab the other dungeon core.

  After mistakenly taking too long to decide on whether he wanted to absorb the Nature Core, he inadvertently destroyed the small, green, floating, spherical gem-like core and absorbed its power into his body. Not only did he gain access to Nature Mana, but the absorption also unlocked his ability to create a dungeon.

  Faced with the need to protect everyone from the nearby Cores’ retribution, Fred went back to Gatecross with the intent to build a dungeon underneath the town for defensive purposes. After Eisa explained to the rest of the town and Guild about his origins with half-truths, they were on board with protecting themselves after all of the children departed south for safety.

  Through trial and error, Fred was able to figure out how to establish a dungeon territory around Gatecross. From that jumping-off point, he was further able to manipulate his innate Mana to create a dungeon entrance and a room underground. During that period, he also learned how to organize the Mana inside of him into a three-sided structure, with his Unconverted Mana (which turned out to be the Human portion of his existence) in a large Human Core in the middle, connecting his three Elemental Cores: Fire, Water, and Nature.

  A pre-emptive attack by a small scouting force by the Nature Cores forced Fred into overdrive to build traps inside Gatecross and inside the dungeon itself, using his Fire Mana for flame-based traps, his Water Mana for deadly pools of water, and his Nature Mana for the two defensive blueprints he had access to. He also reworked a previous rush job he had made of the dungeon rooms earlier into a defensive-based formation that would use the Guild (and the citizens of Gatecross) as his defenders.

  To that end, Fred also changed one of his Classes from Researcher to Instructor, where he was able to “Teach” any of his adapted abilities to someone else, though the chance of success was determined by multiple factors. To help the townspeople of Gatecross get as strong as they could before the inevitable attack, they “trained�
� in the dungeon using Fred’s own Flower Tripper defenders to provide them with large amounts of Essence when they were killed.

  When the main attack did come, the town of Gatecross was assaulted from both the north and south gates, though Fred’s traps managed to whittle down quite a few before they were able to reach the dungeon proper. While his human defenders did their best to fend off waves of giant insects, beasts, Treants, and Dryads, Fred fought his own battle with a massive Emerald Dragon. By using every iota of Nature Mana that was dropped from the destroyed assaulting army of monsters (as well as most of his own Elemental Mana), he created a Level 1,800 Scorching Water Beetle that was just as large as the giant Emerald Dragon, though not necessarily as deadly.

  During the titanic battle inside Gatecross, the town was practically leveled from the devastating attacks; in addition, Fred’s high-level Beetle didn’t fare too well against the strong attacks and deadly grace of the Emerald Dragon. While it did some damage, the giant insect was literally on its last legs when the massive winged lizard used its Poison Breath attack to finish off Fred’s defender; unfortunately for the Dragon, Fred used every bit of Fire Mana he could get his hands on to ignite the cloud of poisonous breath and caused it to explode in a gigantic fireball which practically leveled the town.

  Unfortunately, Fred wasn’t able to hide from the intense flames of the explosion that reached even inside his dungeon, and his body was horribly burned to death. Of course, being a Dungeon Core as well, his fragile human shell was rebuilt over time and he “came back to life” – only to emerge from the dungeon as a party of high-Rated DAS members arrived to see what was going on. Shortly after he recovered from being burnt to death, Fred was killed – again – during the interrogation when he had his head chopped off, and the Guild and townspeople were marked with a highly visible yellow X above their heads – which told everyone they saw that they had destroyed a Dungeon Core.

  Fred regrew his head and Eisa was forced to tell everyone about his actual origins. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly, considering their circumstances), the Guild and even the townspeople were still on board with having Fred defend them and even helped in the rebuilding of defenses outside of the dungeon itself. When one of the hunting parties foraging for food in the forest came back with a Nature Core that they had stolen from a weakened dungeon nearby, Fred was able to figure out how to absorb only some Nature Mana and a blueprint from the Core instead of destroying it completely. He also returned the Mana that he had absorbed from the stolen Nature Core and was able to improve its Core Structure at the same time.

  With the knowledge that he could gain valuable blueprints without killing any more Cores – which he definitely didn’t want to do – teams of Guild members went out to the surrounding dungeons and brought back more stolen Cores to Fred, who stayed inside Gatecross to maintain his territory. But then Eisa and her group decided to bring back an Earth Core, which Fred took unexpectedly from her inside a safe room located in his dungeon. In the process, Fred couldn’t say no to absorbing the Core completely for some reason; while he tried to figure out what to do, the brown-colored Core initiated its Mana Combustion skill, which was the same thing his parents had used when they were killed inside their own dungeon.

  The process of absorbing the Earth Core started, but before it could finish, the small gem exploded with violent force, releasing all of the Mana inside of it and shattering to pieces. Fred’s head was blown off – again – and his body was mangled horribly, but there was enough of him left for his Core to put him back together again. When he revived, he found the desiccated corpse of Eisa nearby, half-buried underneath a collapsed wall and with a shard from the exploded Earth Core inside her heart.

  Emerging from the hole after manipulating the dirt around him with his Mana, Fred was able to drag Eisa’s body aboveground, where he met Deecy – who had stuck around, knowing that Fred was likely still alive. The rest of the Guild and townspeople ended up leaving after Fred’s dungeon collapsed – believing that he was dead – and headed far to the west, where they had heard there were Dark-based dungeons, which (remembering what Fred had told them) weren’t allied with the Nature Faction.

  With Eisa dead and Fred at a loss of what to do, he had an inspiration when he remembered how Deecy had been created. Using the Earth Core shard in her heart as a primary focus, he used his Novice Sentient Mana-formed Object Creation skill and imagined Eisa as she used to be, pumping thousands of Unconverted Mana into the process. After a blindingly bright light infused her corpse and caused Fred to shield his eyes, he looked back to see Eisa sitting up and looking confused – but also completely healthy and alive.

  Part I – Recovery

  Chapter 1

  “Fred…what’s going on?” Eisa asked, her head a little fuzzy from whatever just happened. Did I hit my head or something?

  “Uh…yeah, that’s what I’d like to know.”

  A voice she had never heard before echoed in her head, shocking her in its intensity and clarity; it was so clear that it sounded like whatever woman was talking was sitting right next to her. “Whoa – who was that?” she asked, even more confused after just seeing Fred and Deecy nearby.

  Fred looked shocked and happy simultaneously as he looked at Eisa; at the same time, though, his overall appearance looked bedraggled and his clothes were practically non-existent. It was actually worse than when he had been burned to near-death in his dungeon; at least then, the clothes were melted in patches to his skin. Here, however, what scraps that were left on his body made it appear as if he had just barely survived an explosion.

  It was dark even with a few flames floating in the center of what appeared to be some sort of camp in a cleared area, so she couldn’t see anything… inappropriate… from her position. Regardless, it was hard not to blush a little as she looked at his form sitting so near her.

  Silence descended over their campsite as Eisa still struggled to figure out what was going on. Fred looked at Deecy in confusion, before turning back to Eisa with a smile on his face – and then he got up and approached her.

  Whatever the darkness had hid was exposed as she got an inadvertent look at everything, before turning away for politeness’ sake. Fred crouched down next to Eisa and wrapped his arms around her; she froze there in surprise at his awkward display of affection as he said, “I’m so glad it worked! I was starting to miss you. Fortunately, my Sentient Mana-formed Object Creation skill was able to bring you back to life.”

  Eisa continued to sit immobilized in disbelief as Fred’s arms embraced her, his surprisingly hot skin warming her up on what she realized was a cold night. The disbelief she was experiencing wasn’t from the little nugget of knowledge the half-human/half-dungeon core dropped on her regarding her apparent death and miraculous resurrection; instead, she was trying to come to terms with the fact that – with a quick glance down at herself to confirm her suspicions – she was completely naked.

  “Wh-why don’t I have clothes on!?” she screamed out in shock, causing Fred to jump as she shouted, and he quickly let go of her. She was a little disappointed when he retreated a bit; one part of her enjoyed the embrace on an intimate level, while another part of her missed the heat he was giving off. She quickly tried to ineffectually cover herself up with her hands as Fred looked on with amusement. Infuriating man.

  “Please keep it down – there are still roaming patrols of Earth dungeon defenders out in the forest looking for anything alive to take out their frustration on. I’d rather not have to run again so quickly; I’ve only had a short time to recharge my energy.”

  There’s that voice again. She looked around in confusion another time, though there was still only Fred and Deecy near her; she was beginning to suspect that she was hearing the Dire Wolf Pup talking to her, but that seemed preposterous. Maybe I have some damage to my brain – which might be why I didn’t realize I was nude until now.

  “Sorry about your old clothes – they were destroyed in the explosion. Here,
let me Create you a new dress; I should probably get something for myself, as well,” Fred said, bringing Eisa back to her current undressed situation.

  Within seconds, a warm black dress materialized in front of her and floated down into her lap, where she immediately held it up to better cover her modesty. A pair of comfortable-looking black shoes followed quickly thereafter. “Turn away, Fred – you’ve already seen plenty, now be a gentleman and let me dress in peace,” Eisa said, after the man just stared at her without giving any indication of turning away.

  “Oh…sorry. I should probably finish with my own clothes anyway.” So saying, the hybrid human/dungeon core got up from his crouch and turned towards the darkness surrounding their little camp. Already, she could see the had brand-new clothes in his hands that were conjured up from nowhere, and he began to dress himself.

  Not wanting him to finish and then stare at her while she dressed, Eisa quickly stood up and swayed a little as dizziness hit her all of a sudden. Fortunately, it was short-lived, and she managed to maintain her balance before she slipped her new dress over her head and brought it down, covering her from head to just above her ankles. She slipped on her shoes and felt warmth suffuse her from the extra layer of protection against the cool night air.

  Surprisingly, the dress and shoes fit even better than her old accoutrements; they were comfortable and seemed to conform to her body in ways that was difficult to achieve unless she altered her clothes herself. It was slightly disturbing and at the same time endearing that Fred seemed to know her body well enough to custom-make her dress to fit so perfectly.

  Fred finished dressing around the same time and turned around with that smile again on his face; she wasn’t going to let that distract her, though, because now she needed some answers. Before she could ask anything, however, she was interrupted by that voice again.