Welcome to Rhamiel, A Civilization Core LitRPG

When the Core regained consciousness, it was annoyingly slow and infuriating. It could not use its powers, it could not speak, it could only wait in agonizing boredom. Over the course of a half hour, it felt like it was falling from the sky again, only in reverse.

When it did get control over itself again, the first thing it did was look at its adjusted Status Sheet.

Name: None ( ! )

Species: Spirit Core (Civilization)

Age: 2 days old

Level: 2 ( 59.486% to level 3)

Core Durability

10

Core Mana

10

Statistics - 3 Statistic points to spend

Core Strength

001

Core Structure

001

Core Presence

001

Core Mana Supply

001

Core Mana Recovery

001

Core Karma

002

Skills:

Domain

Level 1 (09.9850%)

Absorb Essence

Level 1 (05.1548%)

Mana Processing

Level 1 (00.0000%)

Structured Mindset

Level 1 (00.0000%)

Perks:

Blueprint Manipulation

Summon Drone

After reviewing this, the Core audibly shouted, "Great, just great! Now I am two days old and I have little to show for it! If I had been able to stay awake, I could have absorbed that thing underneath me! I could have progressed my Domain! I could-!"

"What's going on?" Joselin mumbled, her voice cutting through the Core’s rant. “Who are- *yawn* who’re you yelling at?”

Grumbling, the Core told her, “Whoever it is that sends these prompts. I just lost several hours of progress with my new powers since I, apparently, had to lose consciousness to get them.”

“What?!” the Elf girl said, eyes going wide as she looked about the empty air again. “You became a Dungeon Core?”

“No, I didn’t,” the Core stated, definitely incensed at her complete focus on Dungeon Cores and it being one. “I became a Civilization Core, the only one in the world,” the Core told her. “It’s a big deal.”

Her pause quickly brought the Core down from its bragging, “What?”

“What is a Civilization Core?” she asked, disappointment clear in her tone.

“Let me think… would you like the full explanation or the short one?” the Core asked, deciding to save time and start putting a little mana into the Crystalline thing underneath it. Whatever that was, it would belong to it. Eventually.

“Short, please,” she said, sitting up and undoing the stuff she’d wrapped around her wounds yesterday.

“I can make a city,” the Core told her, that vision of the sprawling mass of buildings keeping it excited.

Her response was quick and not what the Dungeon wanted, a pattern that seemed to arise. “Why would you want to do that?”

Now annoyed, the Core ignored her question and instead told her, “Fine, if you are going to be like that. When I build it, you cannot live in it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have stuff to do.” The Core told her, hoping that she’d leave it alone for a little while to try and figure out how to fill up that thing.

“Like what?” she asked curiously.

“Like trying to get at the thing a few feet beneath me, then I will try out my powers. Now, leave me alone,” the Core told her.

"What sort of thing?" She asked, ignoring its statement to leave it alone. She was still pulling off the white thing that was covering the wounds it had received before it had saved her.

"I don't know, so I am trying to absorb it. So I can learn about it," the Core explained, definitely getting annoyed. "Why do you keep bothering me? Don't you have anything better to do, l don't know, like sulk in a corner out of my Domain about how I am not a Dungeon Core?”

"But…" she paused, stopping whatever she was doing momentarily to think. "I am still tired and hurt, see?" Joselin said, quickly finishing her task and removing the thing covering her wound.

The claw wound had stopped leaking but still looked unpleasant, as evidenced by the small hiss she released. The tanned skin around the injury was red and puffy compared to the surrounding area. The Core watched as the Elf prodded and rubbed at the area around the wound carefully.

"I see it, and?" The Core asked. "What do you expect to gain by staying here?"

The Elf paused, seeming to be unsure what to say next. "Well, umm. Maybe… keep me safe until I feel better?" She said, unsure of the answer herself.

"You do realize that the only reason I could save you from that Werejackal thing was because it was trying to enjoy itself. If it had been trying to kill you quickly there would have been nothing I could do," it explained.

"N-no, I didn't," she answered, a strange tone in her voice that was something… fear adjacent. She took in a single shuddering breath as she thought about it for a long moment before shaking her head. An action that revealed tapered and pointed ears that were normally hidden by her pale yellow hair.

The Core stored that information away, mainly because it had never seen any ears before, and got back to focusing on the thing below it again. It had gotten another point of mana and was putting it into the crystal when something had an interesting effect on its senses.

A line of mana was flowing into its Domain and was flowing toward Joselin, who was fumbling with her clothes. She reached into a pocket near her waist and withdrew a piece of purple crystal. It was flat, cut rectangular, and fit snugly into her hand. And most importantly, it was where that whisper of mana was going.

"What's that?" The Core asked curiously. It had a few points of mana and was tempted to see if it could absorb whatever that thing was. It only took a moment of hesitation on the Elf girl's part to decide to try and put a point into it, to no avail. While Joselin and the crystal thing were still within its Domain, it could not get any magic to it. The sensation was like nothing it had felt yet, but the mana could not get any closer.

Luckily, the mana was not spent in the attempt, so the Core put it away inside itself and waited for her.

Instead of answering the Core's question, Joselin brought the crystal up to her face and took in a sharp breath. She then tapped the crystal with her right forefinger and smiled widely when she said, "Dad?"

The Core listened with amazement as another voice was reproduced through the crystal. It wasn't sure how the thing worked, but that string of mana was somehow creating that voice. That seemed obvious, given how the string arched, spiked, and swerved in the air. The Core wasn't sure how it knew that, but it wasn't sure about many things; what was one more?

"Joselin? Thank Love, how are you? Where are you? We were so worried after that monster attack, we thought they had taken you back to their lair," the person, who was apparently her Father, said in a hurry.

The Elf Girl seemed unsure what to say for the moment; water welled up at the corners of her eyes as she struggled for a moment. "I'm alright, just a little cut up from those things. What happened to the Village? How’s Mom?”

“Forget your Mother for a moment, Joselin,” Father said, the way he intoned that statement implying that he would continue. Instead, the man let out a pained yelp, “What? I know you’re alright. I want to know about our daughter,” the man told someone that the Core couldn’t hear. Unless he was talking to his Daughter, but that didn’t sound right to it.

After a brief pause, one that Joselin did not hurry to break, the man continued. “Fine, your Mother is fine and dandy. So is her swinging arm and Arcanus, apparently. Now tell us where you are; the tracking partition of your Crystal Plate must have broken since we can’t find you.”

“Uhm,” Joselin said, seeming unwilling to answer. For a long moment, she didn’t, and the other end of the line seemed quiet as well. It was a solid minute later when she answered with her own question, “Dad, what’s the range difference between the communication partition on this Plate and the tracking partition?”

“About fifty miles for tracking and a hundred for communication; why?” he asked, his tone going low and slow.

Joselin swallowed, a sound that the Core wasn’t sure why she was making, and waited to hear her answer. She spoke into the item called a Crystal Plate, bringing it closer to her face, “Well, I don’t think my tracker is broken. I might be out of range…”

“What?” her Father asked. “How, it’s only been… what, a day?”

“I was running from three of those beasts for most of it. Killed two of them though, that’s something,” she told him.

The man, known as Father or Dad, took a moment to answer before he hummed, “Nicely done!” he shouted happily. “What about the third? Did it get away, or did you get away? You would not have answered this call if it was still hunting you, right?” he asked, tone stern as if he expected only one answer.

“No, no no,” she said quickly, her tone suddenly frantic. “It’s not still hunting me. It’s dead now.”

“How?” he asked, his stern voice. “You said you were running from three and killed two. That is very specific numbering, Joselin Henna Setalla, and you know that I hate it when you try to outwit me. You are about three hundred years too young for that, young lady,” he said, his words not seeming scathing as much as they were authoritative.

She paused, looked around the room, then turned her gaze to the crystal again. She took in one deep breath before the Core spoke up, “Can I speak to Dad?”

“No!” she immediately shot out before dropping the crystal to cover her mouth with both hands.

“No?!” Father asked, his tone both confused and annoyed. “No, what?”

“Nothing!” Joselin replied, quickly picking back up the Crystal Plate. “I think my Plate is a little broken. I took a fall into a cave with that last monster. It died inside.”

“Then where are you?” Father asked again. “We’ll come to you if you’re hurt. The Village where we were posted was wiped off the map. the Hunters are searching the woods around here trying to find survivors, but we don’t know how many actually did. We decided to hole up in the iron mine for the moment but we’ll need to make the journey to Tessal within the next few days, or we’ll run out of supplies before we get there. So, Joselin, I’ll ask you one last time,” the voice asked, going very serious. “Where are you?”

Joselin sighed, and the Core decided to give her a moment; it had things to say to Father but decided to let her speak. It wanted to know what she’d say, too.

“I’m at the Core’s resting place,” she answered solemnly.

“What?!” Father asked, suddenly very concerned. “Why are you there?”

“Because I had three of those monsters chasing me, no idea where you and Mom were, and no one who could give me the time needed to kill them. So I needed something to help me kill the monsters coming after me, and I thought of the Dungeon Core,” she admitted.

“You do realize that the Core will kill you if given the opportunity, right? Dungeons are vicious, bloodthirsty, brutal places where death could lurk around every corner. You’re very lucky it didn’t kill you, young lady!” he spat.

"I am not a Dungeon Core," it told Joselin. "I'm not a vicious, bloodthirsty, brutal thing that only wants to kill you. I am a Civilization Core."

She ignored the Core and continued, "Well when the things that attacked-"

"Werejackals," the Core injected helpfully.

Joselin quickly set the Crystal Plate down and asked, "How in Wisdom's dusty robes do you know what that was?" She hissed to the cavern.

"It was the Prompt that said I got experience. It called it a Werejackal," the Core explained.

"Wait, you get Prompts?! Without having to go through trials, go to a temple, gain a unique class item… nothing?" She asked incredulously.

"Yes," the Core told her.

Joselin picked back up the Crystal Plate and continued, trying to ignore whatever that information could mean. "When they attacked us, I managed to kill two of them before they started swarming me. So I used my [Fleet of Foot] skill and ran. I didn't mean to run towards the Core at first, but I eventually thought that I might be able to use it to kill them. I did manage to kill two of them on the way, but the third almost killed me when it knocked me into a cavern. That was where it killed the Werejackal and where I still am."

There was a pause when she finished; neither side of the conversation spoke for long moments. It got to the point where even the Core started to get confused by the silence.

"How did you know it was a Werejackal, Joselin?" Father asked, his tone implying confusion. "You have no skills or perks that identify things or monsters. You would've told me."

"No!" She spat out before he could continue to be suspicious over nothing. "The Core told me.”

Again, Father went silent as he processed the information. “The Core told you that those things were Werejackals? Did it say why?”

“No,” she admitted. “It just corrected me when I called them monsters.”

“No, forget it. We’ll save this talk for when we find you,” Father said, seemingly done with the conversation. “You said you are in a cave, correct?”

“Yes,” Joselin answered.

“Alright, then. What we need you to do is make your way back to the surface if you can. We will be there as soon as we can; the Tracking Partition only gives us a flat direction to go. Left, right, forward, backward, not up or down,” he explained. “So get to the surface; we will be there as soon as we can get a horse.”

“Okay, Dad,” Joselin told him.

“And Joselin?” Father continued.

“Yes?”

“We love you. Be safe,” he said softly before the call ended with a clear and audible click.

The string of mana going to the crystal faded away a second later, and Joselin let out a soft sigh as she put the crystal away.

"Core?" Joselin asked the room.

"Yes?" It asked back.

"Looks like I am leaving, so… good luck?" She said, awkwardness coming through her words.

"Wait, are you going to the surface?" The Core asked, feeling stupid for asking the question. It was what Father told her to do so he could find her.

She nodded, groaning as she stood up and held her injury.

The Core decided to be blunt. “Can you take me up to the surface?”

“Why…” Jocelin said, drawing out the word.

“I need a place to sit down before my time runs out,” it explained, then its thoughts tracked back to the crystal beneath it. It felt a sudden dread that it would be unable to complete its project. It wanted that thing beneath it. “Can you also take something else with us?”

“Why would I do that?” she asked, tone not angry or indignant, just curious.

“So that I can get up to the surface,” it stated. “Then I can get to work, and I want to take my things with me.”

“You have things?” Jocelin asked.

“Not yet, but it will be,” the Core stated, looking at the crystalline thing beneath it with righteous anger. “But if we leave it, something else may take it.”

The Elf paused, her face looking around the space that was lit by the sun coming through the entrance. “What is it?”

“A crystal beneath me,” the Core responded. It put another point of its mana into the crystal and got an impression of the amount of mana he’d put in it and how much more it needed to finish filling the thing so it could consume it. And it still had a ways to go and it did not wish to leave it behind. “It is in the earth beneath me.”

“Can you just... You know, do something Core-ish with it?” Jocelin asked, attempting to be helpful.

It still sent a spike of annoyance through the Core’s crystal. “I’m trying, but it refuses to cooperate.”

The Elf seemed unsure how to react to the Core’s words and looked around the space while thinking. “Uh, Where are you?”

“I am over here,” the Core said, attempting to be helpful. But the Elf simply looked confused as it tried to find it. “I am on the ground,” it continued. “I am clear, kind of dull, and a little buried in the dirt,” the Core said, then noticed Jocelin’s eyes run over or near it. “Can you see me, I am right there.”

It took several minutes of coercion and instructions, but Jocelin did eventually find the Core and it then realized how small it was. It was barely any bigger than the tip of her finger at the joint. It knew intellectually that size did not matter, but it still thought it was more impressive than this.

“Wow, you are smaller than I thought,” Jocelin commented looking over the cloudy gem in her fingers.

“I am not small, you are just big,” the Core said. “Can you please get my thing? We need to get somewhere else,” it stated impatiently.

Jocelin sighed and moved down to begin digging through the dirt. It wasn’t hard, the soil where it had been resting was loose and soft. It took the elf girl a minute to dig and pull away the dirt until the dirt got harder to pull away and the Core realized that the crystal was not as immediately underneath it as it had thought.

Then she froze and looked over where she last pulled away some dirt and ran her fingers over it again. “There is something here?” Jocelin said, more curious than actually questioning.

“See,” the Core said proudly. “Can you get it?”

Jocelin nodded and pulled out a small knife from her belt and began using the blade to help the Crystal out of the earth. The Core urged her to be careful and she said nothing, but the Core did register that she seemed to be a little annoyed, if that was the correct word. Her brows were furrowed and her jaw seemed to clench whenever it spoke to her while she worked.

Then, eventually, she finished and pulled out a blue gemstone that was several times bigger than the Cores’ whole body. She brushed it with her hands, trying to clear away a little of the earth that clung to it, but with her dirty hands, all she ended up doing was moving it a little.

“Wow, that is beautiful,” Jocelin said, staring at the gem that was not hers. “I think it is a Sapphire of some kind, but-”

“No!” the Core stated, cutting her off. “My thing. I want to absorb it, make it mine.”

Jocelin finched at the Core’s words but then nodded, “Okay okay, jeez. Can I put you and your gem into my pouch? I am going to have to climb up and I can’t hold you in my hands.”

The Core seemed to mull it over and found that, while it did not like the idea, it was a fair request. Jocelin needed hands to climb out of the hole they were in. But for reasons it could not fathom, it felt like there was something indignant about being put in her pocket.

But it agreed. “Fine, let's just get moving!” it told her, wanting to get to work.

So she pocketed the Sapphire and the Core Gem and she got to work. Her hands still hurt and even with the rest she had gotten already, it still felt like a daunting task. But she climbed up the wall, an effort that took over two hours of climbing with breaks whenever she found a reasonably decent ledge to pause and rest. She wanted to pause for longer, but the more she rested, the thirstier she got.

There were a few hairy moments in the climb. Several of the handholds she chose were fragile and pulled free when she put her weight on it. Another moment she had to scramble away from what looked like a large bat that flew out from an unseen hole in the wall.

She eventually made it to the top of the tunnel, daylight streamed in from above and illuminated the area around them. The hole she had just climbed out of was set into the side of a small hill surrounded by a forest of loose trees. This hill and cave was fairly well hidden and she likely would have missed it entirely if she hadn’t fallen into it while being chased.

The area was green and full of life, the sounds of birds and other creatures that Jocelin could not name by sound reaching her ears.

“Hey!” the Core called out. “Are we finally out!”

“Yeah,” Jocelin huffed, bending over and breathing heavily. “I finally got us out of there.”

‘Great! Now find me an open area to set up! I wanna start spreading out my Domain!” The Core ordered with a cheerful voice.

“No, I need a break,” she groaned, falling back onto her butt. “I just spent several hours climbing and now I need to rest!”

“Come on, I have work to do!” the Core complained. “I’m bored.”

“Then suffer for a few minutes,” she shot out, then went silent, lying all the way back onto the grass. It was cool, comfortable, and best of all, in the shade. It was a lethal combination that, combined with her exhaustion, led her to fall asleep.

And the Core let her, it understood that she must be tired again, she certainly acted like that climb had drained her. However, that did not remove the Core’s impatience.

“Fine,” the Core muttered. “I’ll give her a little while.”