Core of Knowledge

“You ready?” The dungeon fairy asked.

“Yes, let’s start.”

On her dungeon core’s confirmation, colourless tendrils of mana came out of the dungeon fairy’s body. Jemma directed her mana towards to the black gemstone that was the body of the dungeon core, and the tendrils slowly moved toward the gem. Jemma sensed the dungeon core doing the same. As their mana made contact, Jemma cast the spell.

As dungeon fairies, fairies like Jemma needed to live with their dungeon cores. This was their duty, and one that most dungeon fairies were glad to undertake. However, living with their dungeon cores meant fairies were often alone, leagues away from any fairy settlement. In the early days, this was a big problem. Fairies lived in big communities, and many young fairies faced issues like loneliness, isolation and homesickness when on assignment.

There was a reason why most people considered the fairy folks to be less than sane.

The elders of the fairies knew something had to be done and tried various solutions. One of the proposed solutions was a spell. A spell that would allow dungeon fairies to keep in contact with other fairies within their region. The fairies would not be able to see each other but the elders believed that being able to speak to each other would help the young fairies with their loneliness. The elders also hoped the spell could allow young fairies to see that they were not alone in their struggles, and even asked each other for advice if they faced a crisis.

The elders called it [The Chat Spell].

[The Chat Spell] was relatively successful, and before long a young fairy decided to teach her dungeon core the spell. Jemma was doing the same now. She cast the spell and her connection with Xu Han allows the dungeon core to quickly follow the intricacies of the spell. The dungeon core was able to see how the spell works, how it allowed many people leagues away from each other to be connected, and how they could stay connected as long as they had the mana to maintain the spell. No one knew who discovered this method of teaching, but their connection was a time saving way to learn spells between dungeon cores and their fairies.

“Amazing. This is like the ‘Message Across a Thousand Li’ technique, only better!” Xu Han could not help but marveled.

Jemma frowned at her dungeon core. “I do not know what that means, and I’m not sure if I want to know. You got the spell yet?”

It usually takes some time for dungeon cores to learn new spells even with connections with their dungeon fairies but Xu Han was different. Jemma thought it would not be an issue for him to learn the spell. She was right.

“I got it. Thank you, Jemma.”

“Not a problem but remember that you are still a young core, so be respectful to the other cores when you enter the chat. Some of the cores has been around for centuries.” Jemma warned as she cut off her spell.

“Do not worry. I was a cultivator who lived for ten thousand years, and cultivators without courtesy do not live long in the Crimson Lands.” Xu Han assured her dungeon core as he began to cast his own version of [The Chat Spell].

In moments, darkness overcame him. Xu Han, the dungeon core of the Tomb of Ten Thousand Techniques, let the spell washed over him. Then, his vision brightened, and he felt a connection.

It was bright and shining and called to Xu Han like water to a thirsty man. It was to the east of his dungeon and flowed from the east to the south. Xu Han reached out to it by instinct, and his mana latched on to the connection like a tributary that connect to a flowing river.

As some of his mana drift into the flow of the spell, Xu Han felt that it was appropriate to call the connection a river. Xu Han knew that this river of mana was the chat group, a chat spell filled with other dungeon cores, and that all the dungeon cores needed to share a little of their mana to connect to it.

Xu Han felt that [The Chat Spell] was amazing!

“So, this is the Dungeon Core Chat Group?”

A voice was heard over the chat group, filled with shock and awe. It was Xu Han's own voice, the same voice that he had heard through his mouth when he still had a physical body. It sounded so different from his current voice that the dungeon core needed a moment to remember that it was how he sounded like.

Rather, it wasn't his voice. It was his thoughts. The chat group was magical, and dungeon cores speak through it via their thoughts. The spell that connected them to the collective river of mana also change their thoughts to verbal speech, and it looked like the spell had chosen Xu Han’s old voice as a template. Xu Han was amazed by that and wondered how the spell knows how he sounded in his old life.

Jemma had warned Xu Han that the chat group could be a chaotic place at times, with many dungeon cores speaking at once. However, the chat was currently silent. The dungeon cores within the chat had all felt the new connection, and they waited. As the newcomer, Xu Han knew they were waiting for him.

“Xu Han, the dungeon core of the Tomb of Ten Thousand Techniques, greet his seniors.”