The Arcade Series

After I calmed down from the shock of the tiny orb of light being made by me, I watched the orb carefully and thought of the way it acted. “The mana particle is being used up and destroyed to make the orb glow and so that means that mana will probably be a limited resource for me, unless I get something that can generate mana like the natives do…” I realized with a frown.

“Other than that though, I think my elemental mana theory was right.” I concluded to myself, smiling in satisfaction. “I could do some experimenting… But I think there is something more important to do for now…” I said slowly, grinning with anticipation to myself and looking at the dungeon core on the counter.

“Surround me in your embrace.” I said out loud and reached out for the dungeon core and placed it into my hands, holding it to my chest firmly. “Connect to my mind.” I continued, sitting down on my chair once more and meditating to project my mind once more into the mind scape to form a connection to the dungeon core.

After a few seconds, I could feel the mind scape reaching out to me and I let my mind project out of my body and into the whirl of weird colors and I could see the pulses of the energy coming from the dungeon core that seemed to be all over the mind scape. Only it was weird. The waves seemed to be almost contained by something around the dungeon core… ‘My hands? How does that work…’ I thought confused. The last time I was here my body had no impact on the energies whatsoever but now it was like some sort of invisible barrier was around my body…

Well, that just makes the next part easier. I sent out a tendril of thought through where my body’s new barrier was and it passed easily through, reaching out to the dungeon core. The dungeon core reached back, pulling the tendril of thought around it like a layer of a barrier it surrounded the dungeon core in a bubble. ‘That step is complete.’ I thought, growing worried if this was going to work.

“The energy of the body must become yours through the soul.” I said out loud, coming to a semi physically aware state, keeping the mental link strong in the mind scape while I worked on drawing in some more mana from throughout the room to my body and into my soul, gaining more mana for me to use for the next stage.

“And forge the connection into physicality and we shall be linked.” I concluded solemnly, knowing what must be done. I sent all the mana I had into the air, flowing out of my soul and to the dungeon core, forming a path of particles that I willed into the invisible mental connection between it and me in the mind scape.

With the monocle I could see the mana stop in the air for a second as I willed it to forge the mental link in the mind scape, then they started dissolving. Smaller particles of mana appeared in my mind's eye in the mind scape, appearing as the mana dissolved in the physical world, the mana breaking down and forming somewhere new.

Once the mana got into this other dimension of reality, it started joining with the string of thought, joining the mental link between me and the core and I watched with bated breath as they mixed, the color shifting slowly into a glowing yellow, the connection sharpening and I watched as finally all the mana entered and mixed into this connection.

Then it started glowing. The strand of thought and mana emitted light and I saw with widened eyes as the link solidified into solid being in the mind scape, but most concerningly in the physical world. The string of thought was visible to my eyes as I looked at the dungeon core in my hand, the golden yellow glow of the link shining in the arcade with a brightness I could have used it as a light instead of the normal magic lighting of the arcade.

Then with a Pop! a system screen appeared in front of me in the physical world, almost at the same time that the light started to fade in the real world, and appear more contained in the mind scape, as if some sort of barrier was created to contain the light and mental connection.

“And we shall be linked.” I repeated, concluding what felt more like a ritual then I thought it would be and exited the mind scape.

As soon as my mind had completely left the mind scape, I looked around myself in surprise at what I could see. “Well… I guess this means it worked then?” I said to myself, seeing every tiny detail of just over half the arcade through what seemed like the air itself. I recalled all the books I have read from a dungeon core’s point of view and what I was seeing and feeling was actually very close to what several of the books described. I was the room. Or more accurately, the dungeon core was the room but my mind was linked to the dungeon core.

It was a weird feeling, one that is very hard to describe in words unless you have experienced it yourself. It's sort of like having over a billion eyes throughout a room and you can see everything through them at the same time. It probably would have been too much to handle for most human minds and would drive them insane, but for me it seemed almost second nature. My mind had no trouble at all handling my new dungeon senses, though I really didn't know how. Maybe it's the system?

I turn my head to the system message to read it. I could have read it without looking with my eyes, but the dungeon senses were weird. “You have connected your mind to an artifact and have gained a permanent link to said artifact through a ritual act. New ability classification ‘Artifact gained abilities’ has been unlocked and several new abilities have been gained. To see a description of your abilities, open the Current Abilities menu.” The system read out to me, leaving me confused as I read over a particular section of the text again.

“New ability classification? That's interesting…” I wondered and brought up the abilities menu on instinct, looking at the whole thing to see if anything else has changed.

Abilities

Managers brain:

You have the brain of the manager, this gives a boost to your ability to accurately judge others and removes your need for sleep or mental rest. This also automatically translates the words you speak into the native language and what you hear will also be translated, including translating different payments to money from your native dimension.

Managers body:

You have the manager's body, you have an increased physical abilities when in a store location, your lifespan increases drastically and you no longer have a physical need for sleep, sustenance or lengthy rest.

Mental enlightenment:

You have gained the ability to see through The Mind Space and have seen the energy through this realm and they have seen you. Through the interaction with this energy you have gained mental enlightenment and have increased mental ability by sixty percent along with an increased connection with The Mind Space.

Mana connection:

Your soul has been influenced by an energy foreign to your native universe and it has undergone a change, expanding your soul to take up the entirety of your physical body and has gained the passive ability to form a spiritual and mental link to any mana it encounters along with being able to store almost limitless amounts of said mana, like the natural ability of natives of Oridon.

Artifact gained abilities

Tier two artifacts

Monocle of Mana Sight abilities:

Mana sight: User is given the ability to see mana

Mana shaping: User is given the ability to control the positioning of mana

Tier four artifacts

Dungeon core abilities:

Primitive consciousness: This dungeon core has an artificial mind designed to obey verbal and mental directions from a linked user

Dungeon domain: This dungeon has a domain, size relative to that of the core

Link: This dungeon has the ability to form links to those that undergo a ritual that gives the linked person the ability to use all dungeon core abilities and has full control over dungeon core functions unless the consciousness is given direction to do something

Mater manipulation: Within the domain of the dungeon core it has the ability to shape physical materials with an expenditure of mana

Mana control: The dungeon core has the ability to control the positioning of mana along with the ability to impose its intent on it to make various effects

Mana storage: The dungeon core has the capability to store mana inside its core

Mana growth: This dungeon core has the ability to expand in size with the intake of mana over time and with that expansion it can gain new abilities at certain points in its growth

Dungeon domain senses: Within the boundary of the dungeon domain, the dungeon core is omnipresent through being capable of seeing everything that is happening in its domain at the same time

Dungeon mind: This ability gives any linked users a mental capability increase to prevent mental injuries from ability dungeon doman senses and lets the user comprehend any amount of information provided through the ability link

“Wow…” I whispered, eyes wide as I looked at the screen, taking it all in with amazement. The new section of the system wasn't that amazing, it's just basically telling me the effects of any artifacts that I happen to be using or connected to as far as I can tell, but that dungeon core has a lot of abilities…

But, really I was expecting most of them. I mean, I wasn't very knowledgeable on the dungeon core genre, but I have read a couple of the more popular ones. Most of these were common abilities of dungeon cores, dungeon domain was basically just the limits of the dungeon the core was in control of, matter manipulation was very common ability used to make floors and design things, mana control was practically a given because they were supposed to be mainly made from mana, same with mana storage and mana growth.

Really the only things that surprised me were the details of link and all of dungeon mind, with the consciousness not included because I read it in the system message before.

For link, it was mainly because I actually thought I would have to try to explain what I wanted the dungeon core to do when I wanted to use it for something, but it turns out I can basically just… become the dungeon core! I can have full control over everything and when I am busy, or bored, I can instruct the dungeon core to do it passively without my help! It's like an AI really, there to take over when the human stops. I had plenty of experience with that in the army and even somewhat before that with the commercial models.

I have a feeling that things are going to get easier really soon. Funner too!

There are hundreds of things I could use a dungeon core for, and that's not including all the little projects that have been floating in my mind since I was a child that were just not feasible without magic or some weird new tech. Well, I have magic now. “Things are going to be getting better around here real soon!” I chuckled to myself, mentally going over my new to-do list, forming a lot of new additions. “I need to write this down…” I chuckled to myself before heading into the back.