Yorick

I woke up after a long night's sleep, feeling really, really good. I had more energy than I was actually used to. It felt... really, really good. I checked on my dungeon, hesitating as I felt a few new spaces that hadn't been there before. I went to check on on Trital, looking at his room. He wasn't there like I'd thought he would be. Instead, there was a hole in the ground that lead further underground. I expanded my territory, the action taking more mana and effort than before, though the territory had a much thicker layer of magic than my territory used too, matching the changes that had occurred after I'd condensed my mana. 

It was almost unsettling as I followed the staircase down, exploring what my brownies had done. It was  weird, exploring an area that someone else had made... Though, as I explored the it, I saw it formed a spiral staircase going down. I followed that slowly down, my mana giving the air a faint glow. Not enough for most to see by, but enough that- unless you were using a specialized spell, no-one could use true dark vision. I'd heard of that ability in some games- this would be enough to blind such people. 

It went down deep into the earth, maybe a full forty feet before opening into a room. It was simple, but the brownies were all arrayed on the floor of the room, looking up at Trital. The demon was smiling and nodding to them as he spoke in his native, demonic tongue, but... with such a slight effort of will that I realized I had probably done this subconsciously with the adventurers, I mentally translated his words and understood what he was saying. 

"Do you understand? The master made us our home, I wish to make that home larger for him, and I'll need you for that. I and my demons will help carry out the stone, as long as you create the rooms like I described. Okay?" He smiled, looking ecstatic. I felt... touched, and conflicted. I was no god, but he wasn't treating me like one in that speech as far as I knew. Worse, though... I wasn't a father. I couldn't be, not really. Did my creations see me as their father?

That idea made me feel heavy, suddenly, and a considered telling them flat out that they weren't my children, but... some instinctive, deep, emotional side of me screamed at me in my head. 'I created them', it said, 'they are my responsibility. If I don't see them as children, why do I care for their needs even when I don't need to? I'd learned how to create clothing for them- not just armor and gear, but actual clothing.' It made me wonder if maybe I myself saw them as my children. 

For now, I waited to expand my dungeon territory, letting the excess stay where it was while expanding it into the wall of the dungeon and planning to dig there later- those plans dying when I saw crystals and various plants trying to grow there. I quickly rushed all over, expanding my territory into the walls of the dungeon, and I was not disappointed. While the growth was slower, it was way more spread out, and controllable. Plants naturally grew on the walls of my dungeon, and crystals were sometimes hidden by those plants- though, once exposed, other than the glowing moss, the crystals were the main source of light. 

I began to wonder how I had been seeing in such a dark place, then put it out of my mind. With this kind of plant growth, I was curious to see what happened. I checked the ocean and realized that it too had become more plentiful in it's plant life since I'd moved my dungeon territory there, though the growth was a bit slower and more natural. 

This was interesting... I wondered why and how this could've started. Perhaps... Perhaps it was my fae title. Did titles give you different, secret abilities based on which ones you got? That would make sense... even if it was very unsettling... I continued to thicken and strengthen my territory, happily making it denser and feeling the increased mana suffuse me. I paused in the forest above my home, though, realizing something. This was part of my dungeon... why couldn't I add creatures here too? 

The idea gave me a thrill of excitement, and I started creating more fairies, letting fifty of them form and sing magic to encourage the trees to grow small homes for them. The natural homes were little more than a single room, but that was all they were meant to be, for now. doing that drained my mana, but... it did give me my first notification since the adventurers had left. 

Congratulations: You have created fifty forest fairies. By allowing these creatures to populate your forest in such numbers, you have gained access to new, more powerful fae creatures. Be careful, for such beings have not been seen in this land in many, many years. you will attract more attention to yourself as you continue to bring these wondrous beings into the world. 

Monsters unlocked: drow, Drider, Ogre, hag. 

Resource/Quest monsters unlocked: dryads, sprites, pixies, high fairies. 

Inhabitant races: satyrs, nixies, Ents.

Monsters currently unavailable: Unicorn, elf, Siren, centaur- You lack the needed prerequisites to unlock these creatures. Encourage the growth of your lands, and you will one day become a mightier core than those that made the fae wilds as wild as they are.

I stared, confused. Yet another pop-up I didn't understand... What prerequisites were I missing? was I unlocking such seemingly powerful creatures so early on. Unicorns and Centaurs and Sirens were supposed to be decently powerful, and Ogre's, hags... those were all powerful monsters, weren't they?

How different were this worlds standards than my own? Could I even handle this new world? I prayed that I'd find a way to survive. It was terrifying to live here... at least I was 'subjugated'... it was enough that I probably wouldn't be attacked anytime soon... I hoped. Still, the chance scared me. I needed to protect myself... and my home. I didn't know what I thought of the beings living in my dungeon, but I was certain that I wanted to keep people on their best behavior. 

Maybe if I tried to make a place that was valuable, but not dangerous, I'd be left alone... I could even make a real dungeon... something meant to help people grow and become stronger. Then I'd be too valuable to kill. A real adventurer raining ground. Maybe I'd be allowed to live... just maybe...

My decision made, I began to focus, looking for the perfect spot. I reached the edge of the forest, and used mana to expand my territory enough to make an area perfect for a grove. I focused on oak trees, making a grove of them with a clearing in the middle where a single, much bigger oak tree would stand. I focused, growing them all, and focusing on the biggest and centermost last. I wanted it to be different... special. If I was a fae core, surely I could control my trees this much. I imagined what I wanted, an oak with celestial and fae magic in it. 

It didn't want to grow, seeming to resist. So I thought for a moment, trying to figure it out. The powers weren't opposite, the way celestial and demonic magic was, so... what was causing the struggle? Maybe... something about the magic itself? Since I was the source of magic in this area, the source of what I needed, I tried to focus on myself, trying to feel the essence of it all inside of me. I couldn't understand why I was being refused... until it clicked. I was carefully balancing the two, mainly because of his fae magic. If I made one, I had to make another or I'd inevitably become unbalanced. 

So... where could I put a demonic oak tree? I considered, then looked through my magic again, wondering if I had some way to fix this, when a memory occurred to me. An ancient greek story about a pair of lovers that the gods turned into a pair of trees that shared the same trunk and roots when they died. What if I did that?

I smiled, growing two trees and carefully pushing demonic energy into one, and celestial energy into the other. As I did so, I shaped them, wrapping them around each other and growing their roots together so completely that they were literally the same tree. Then I created a dryad, pouring some celestial energy into her as I did so. 

She formed, an elven beauty with an aura I couldn't quite place. She looked young, like a child... much younger than I'd expected, but perfect for what I wanted. I then looked at the Ent, wanting to know what I needed to do to make one. 

Species: Ent 

Class: guardian

Description: These spirits inhabit trees and become one with them so completely that you can't tell the difference between tree and ent. With a body, the ent can manifest wooden bodies separate from it's home tree, and tend to seek a pairing with other creatures. They often form the central tree for many Fae cities, and often host countless tribes of sprites, pixies, elves, and other such Fae, and they're tree will grow. In the past, many ents seemed fond of dryads, and would invite them to share their tree with them. This pairing usually led to incredible things happening, but has not happened in many millennia due to a broken oath that most believe cannot be fixed. 

To summon, one must choose a tree and create the Ent-soul inside of it with mana. (Option: you may do this subconsciously due to your blessings from entering this world)

I had never really looked at the specifics of my monsters before... It was interesting. Especially that fact about Dryads and Ents. Neither of these two knew the problems with oaths, so they could probably work together. I hoped so, anyways. 

I focused on the tree, letting myself create the ent subconsciously while pouring demonic and Fae energy into it. The tree began to smoke as the Ent took hold, and I could tell he was in agony. So I sent the child Dryad to bond to the tree, hoping that the balance would help. It did... thankfully... though they both seemed uncomfortable. They were part of a balance where they were connected to the opposite of their nature... I wondered what that must be like...

I grew closer, summoning them from their tree. They appeared before me, as I'd mentally requested, and both of them being out of the tree at once seemed to be a relief to them. I hoped I hadn't just consigned them to an existence of suffering... 

"Hello, do you know who you are?" I figured asking them questions might be a good idea... hopefully I could understand them better. 

They nodded, looking at each other, then back at me. "I am Ellanor, and he is Gornstoc. I'm a dryad, and he is my Ent. We... fit together, but we aren't able to truly be one... it's a pain I was not expecting to suffer upon my birth..." She seemed alone, and sad. 

Looking them over, Ellanor seemed a lot like an elf, only with lightly tanned skin that had an oddly greenish hue, with golden-bronze hair that seemed to have vines, flowers, and berries growing in it. She was dressed in a way that implied she was celestial, yet... in a more demonic style. It was an odd mixture of innocent beauty and minimalistic seduction. 

The Ent, Gornstoc, was different from her in a multitude of ways. His skin was a marbled mixture of the celestial and demonic wood the oaks shared, and his hair- what hair he had- was either moss, leaves, or fungus- or a mixture of the three. He was built like a roman statue, mostly, but seemed less stony and more alive, with surprisingly flexible wood. He was dressed in a surprising mixture of holy and unholy as well- wearing only a loincloth and various kinds of jewelry- he looked like the priest of some ancient god.

If I'd been the kind to believe in gods, I'd have assumed I was being influenced by one- and not in a direction I was liking. Still... this struck a cord in me. I looked at the tree they'd been born from, and smiled as my eyes grew wide- well, it felt like that happened. I still didn't have a body, and I was beginning to think dungeon cores never got real bodies- which would be incredibly annoying...

Still, I looked at them. "Grow your tree tall and large, with roots down deep in the earth- make her hollow inside, with places for celestial fae to live. You will be another dungeon- a grander one than what I'm making. Your roots will grow down deep to the home of the dark celestials, and your branches will pierce the heavens to the home of the light celestials- your tree will be the middle ground between these two places, and then I'll open the portal to the fae wilds inside you- you'll be together, then, as you cannot be now." 

I made it a quest, offering it to them. I'd know more by the time it was done, and... I could help them. Why had I talked like that? I considered what I'd said, pondering over the words I'd spoken as the dryad and Ent looked at each other with hope in their eyes and accepted the quest. It wasn't like me to speak so... poetically? Fancily? It was weird...

He left them to their work, absently filling the grove of oaks with fairies and pixies. Both produced a kind of dust that was extremely magically potent. It was less obvious in fairies, and came in smaller quantities, but it was still one reason they were even killed in dungeons- they provided light, magic dust, and warded off monsters if they weren't trapped. Why kill that unless you were after the resources they provided?

Pixies were slightly different- they were smaller and faster, and they created a ton of the magical dust. Every move they made produced some. Plants absorbed it instantly to fuel their growth and keep them in a state of spring/summer bloom all year. If captured, they provided enough to fill whole jars in minutes- usually drowning themselves in the process on accident. They didn't deter monsters, but were far more valuable in the long run than fairies. 

Having so many in one place, and creating them all drained my mana severely, and it didn't even recover as quickly- the pixies seemed to rely on his own ambient mana to fuel themselves, meaning he recovered his mana less quickly. Which was frustrating, but... he wanted to do it, to make his forest special. It was instinct he couldn't deny...

As he continued to push more mana into the territory he called his own, his mana returned more quickly again, and he felt the pixies moving faster. Which was interesting to him. Still, he wanted to strengthen his hold over his territory as much as he could before the next adventurers came- they'd find a far different dungeon than they expected, if he was lucky. 

***

One week later 

Val sighed, looking at the tavern they were approaching. It was the front business of the adventurer's guild- a tavern on the ground floor, and the guild itself on the second floor, with rooms on the third and fourth. They'd reached the nearest town a mere day after leaving the dungeon, which was unsettling news. After all, now that they knew what the dungeon was like... 

If the dungeon ever figured out how to send monsters out of itself, then the nearest town was only a day's ride away, and that was if the dungeon didn't keep expanding. The forest had seemed to grow overnight, and was big enough to be called a small forest. If it grew... but the worst part was that It seemed both old and young- the core itself having little in the way of actual dungeon behavior, and the dungeon it operated seeming ancient and worn. 

The god's face had been entirely worn away, and a celestial claiming to be a goddess had appeared. If that was the avatar of a forgotten goddess, then the implications were terrifying. The goddess must've been forgotten before the elves arrived, and that was several thousand years ago...

If she'd resurfaced now, then what was her goal? Her plan? What could she hope to gain with only a dungeon core under her control? And not even that, as Alcor still owned the core... no, things were bad, and there were so many unknowns... too many options for Val to work things out. So she shut it off into the back of her mind and focused on her friends as they entered the tavern, and everyone looked at them. Worn, exhausted, sweaty, and worse-for wear, they were shockingly healthy and had new magic items. Which immediately got adventurers and commoners alike talking excitedly. 

Val ignored them and led her group up the stairs. Yes they smelled awful, but baths could come later. They had to give their report to the guild-leader. And that conversation was not going to be a fun one... at least she had hope. Alcor had overheard her talking to Stephen about her situation the right they'd left, and he'd listened to her. Then he'd asked her to explain all of the options she'd thought of. She'd tried, and explained over five hundred different scenarios over five days. 

After that, he'd thought it over and an hour ago had told her to simply send an unmarked letter to the human king with a detailed explanation inside of what she'd found and a description of the potential for peaceful reconciliation with the others races. That simple idea had not once occurred to her, and she was left feeling like an idiot. 

But... it made her wonder why he had been able to come up with the perfect solution to her problem when she'd not even been able to handle all of the possibilities she'd seen. With his permission, she'd compared their stat screens, and found something interesting. Even though his intelligence was far lower than hers- almost enough that she felt bad for him- his wisdom was higher than hers by a long shot. 

Wisdom increased one's mana recovery, but... Alcor rarely used mana. Most Orcs didn't, but they gained wisdom with every level up. They were often called the wisest race in the land, and the stupidest. But it made her wonder. After all, she'd come up with countless options to look at and make use of, but she'd been overwhelmed. Alcor hadn't thought very fast or been overly helpful until the end, but... he'd chosen the best solution for her from the options he'd thought up and heard her give him. 

It made her wonder about the relationship between intelligence and wisdom. Perhaps she'd need to start investing more heavily in it... after all, if it did what she thought it did, and let her find the best solution more easily, she might be able to make use of her intelligence more than she currently was. Which intrigued her.

After all, perhaps Sherlock Holmes hadn't necessarily been the smartest human alive... maybe he'd been smarter than most, but wise enough to use his intelligence better than anyone else alive. That could explain a lot... including his apparently natural ability to notice and remember everything, and then use it without even seeming to think whenever he needed too. 

She walked up the stairs to her uncomfortably long explanation, and smiled, eager to see what the future held- she'd been given a way out, after all... and now her future was both bright, and her own. She planned to make full use of it as soon as possible. Though why Alcor was giving orations of poetry every night left her confused- though he seemed to have some kind of screen up as he recited the poems. 

It wasn't important, she decided- if it was, he'd have told her. For now, she didn't care- after all, even if he was messing with his new dungeon core, what would poems do to a dungeon core? it wasn't exactly important, so why bother interfering? She shrugged it off and stepped into the office of her superior. And thus began a long and boring meeting about the complexity of politics in this world...