Not that that was necessary. Even after Dad had asked Rhamiel to speak with the Party, a small green humanoid that scrambled around on all fours leaped at him with a feral howl. In a few quick moves, Dad fired an arrow, drew another after it flinched with the blow, and fired another through its eye. It did not die immediately, but was then executed by one of the Party Members with a heavy Dagger.
Yeah, they should be fine until they hit the wall.
The Core was not sure what to say to the Party; he just needed them to help him get more of his Settlement going further. So he moved his presence next to Dad, connected to Dad’s Communication Crystal, and waited for him to answer it as it vibrated and dinged.
“Ah, that would be the Core,” Dad said with a nod. He tapped the Crystal on a green-glowing spot on the purple slate.
Rhamiel could have just spoken through it, but he figured the Party would be more comfortable if he followed some kind of rules. “Hello, uh, I’m Rhamiel. I know you’re not there yet, but welcome inside my Domain and my Settlement.”
The group looked at each other, and the largest stepped forward to walk beside Dad, who kept walking. “Uh, Hello, are you the Core that Corinth was telling us about? The one building a city?”
“Yup, that’s me!” Rhamiel proclaimed. “I hope we can come to an understanding and that you want to stay in my Settlement.”
“That depends,” he grumbled. “We need to hash out a few details before any of us can say yes. Uh, let’s start with introductions. I am Marko Schrafe, the Blacksmith.”
Rhamiel looked at the large man. He wasn’t large in height, but he was built with larger muscles than anyone else he had met. His forearms were bare to the morning air, and the large dagger was held casually to his side, looking small in his hand. His brown hair and beard were cut short to his skin, and his dark, burn-scarred skin extended up and down his arms, making him look harsh and hardy compared to the others. A thick cotton shirt and dark pants covered him while he carried a small pack on his back.
“Hello Marko, I have been looking forward to meeting you!” Rhamiel told him excitedly.
“Good, good,” he nodded severely. “Now, how do I know you are who you say you are? How do we know that you aren’t doing some long-term scheme to get hundreds of enlightened within your Domain, maybe even get a breeding and dependent population before you are eating us for your power?”
“Wow, another one? That is almost exactly what the Hero said after he broke in here and thought everybody was either under some kind of mind control or were just impersonating the people he knew, like Dad.”
“Dad?” Marko asked.
“Yes, he calls me Dad. The Core is kind of quirky, but tolerable, for the most part. It’s just kind of childish and child-like.” Dad said with a smile.
“And the Hero is alive?” asked the woman closest to Marko.
She had long brown-red hair and an oddly pale complexion. Marko pointed a thumb at her. “This is Calia, our Alchemist. She is wicked, using monster parts to enhance potions.” The woman wore an oddly fine blue dress with floral details, a midnight leather jacket, and glass vials with a rainbow of colored fluids hanging from sewn-in loops. Her sharp features, from her cheeks and eyes to her fingernails, gave her an aggressive look.
“Is the Hero Alive?” Calia repeated, more steel in her voice.
Dad nodded, “he is. We have been working to try and convince him that we are all us, but it’s hard when we broke tradition to, uh, work with a Spirit Core to survive.”
“Yeah, we just have him tied up in a house for now. Maybe you guys can convince him to behave!” Rhamiel suggested happily. “I would love to let him free, you know, if we knew he wouldn’t start cutting people apart.”
All five of the party members shared a suffering grimace with each other before nodding in acknowledgement.
“I expect to see him as soon as we enter your walls!” Calia practically demanded. “We need to see that he is okay.”
“That will not be an issue,” Dad nodded. “Right, Rhamiel?”
“Nope, no issue.”
Calia nodded, “Good.”
“Seriously? How did it get away with not answering the question?!” One of the other women asked. “How do you expect us to trust that you won’t eat us?”
“Core, this is Lalita. Our Enchanter-”
“Paper Enchanter,” Lalita corrected.
Lalita wore thin, ink-stained purple-white robes over dusky tan skin, belts cinching the robes tight around her waist and biceps. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a tail, without which Rhamiel would not have been able to see her bright green eyes. She folded her arms, drawing the Core’s attention to her hands, both covered in multi-colored stains. Lastly, a leather satchel hung from one shoulder and across her body.
“Uh, I don’t have any way to prove that I-”
“He was able to give my daughter a subclass that connected them. You know how some Dungeon Cores are found with those weird pixie things? Yeah, like that, but with Joselin being his helper. If he was planning something like that, she would not stand for it.” Dad told them all. “I hope that at least starts the trust, but we won’t force you to follow me back. Feel free to go back into the wilds.”
“No!” the other man said immediately. “I mean, no, it’s fine. We can follow you for now.”
“Core, this is-”
The man immediately interrupted. “I am Daniel Kane, Scholar,” he stood proud and tall, showing Rhamiel that he was tall and thin, and took pride in his clean-shaven appearance. His short brown hair was brushed back, a pair of round pieces of glass surrounded by wire covered his clear amethyst eyes, and a slightly crooked nose made him look crazed. A long white coat hung from his shoulders, perfectly clean with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, showing off his hands and forearms. Limbs that were as black as the midnight sky and malformed as if they were melted wax.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Scholar? Why would the Party want a scholar?” Rhamiel asked.
“You never know what you’ll find in a world such as ours,” Daniel stated proudly. “Hidden tombs, lost books, otherworldly entities, and the identities of special bosses and Cores. Not to mention that you never know if you would need one of many languages, monster weaknesses pointed out, and obscure facts of the royal’s inheritance struggles. You never know what you might need when you are out fighting.”
“Oh, that’s helpful.” Rhamiel agreed. “Do you need to research to learn these things?”
“Well, yeah, but that is the fun part,” Daniel smiled.
And Rhamiel turned to the last member of the Party. Seng Mikone was dark-complected, wearing a single large cloth of varied soft and dark blues wrapped around her body, with a black fitted top and pants beneath. She wore gold bands around her wrists and ankles, a silver necklace with a series of configured lines and symbols that Rhamiel recognized as the Symbol of Wisdom.
“Does she speak?” Rhamiel asked Dad quietly. “Uh, Miss Mikone?”
Dad shrugged. “Yes, but not much.”
“So, did the Hero manage to defeat the Core before you?” Marko asked. “He was going after a Dungeon Core named Lucra when he disappeared.”
Dad stopped midstep. He looked at the Blacksmith, who paused next to Dad with a worried expression. “What, did you hear something?”
“Uh, Dad,” Rhamiel got his attention. “The Hero kept insisting I was a Dungeon Core. I thought he was just wrong about what I was, everyone is at first, but what if-”
“A problem for later,” Dad shut it down. “Let's just get you all inside the settlement.”
“I take it that was a no?” Calia smirked.
“How could we have known? That man was talking crazy the whole time,” Rhamiel explained. “Great, another guy we gotta defeat.”
“Another?” Dad asked.
“Oh, did I not tell you?”
---
“Why do you always get into trouble when I have a hard time being able to help?” Dad asked, rubbing his temples.
They stood in the Eldritch Cathedral, where the remains of Nils Golem’s body remained and waited to be dealt with. Calia was looking over the crafted body with interest, casting what she said were special analysis spells to learn what she could about it for the use of her spells. Intricate spell circles appeared in the air before her hand, flashing in and out, changing colors in quick moments before disappearing. A creepy smile spread over her expression with each spell she cast.
Daniel the Scholar and Seng the Priestess were looking around the Cathedral itself. Daniel smiled with a happy, almost manic expression as he pulled a notebook and pen from his coat and began taking notes. Seng was looking at the Plinths, seven of which were still empty, with only the Wisdom and Madness Plinths.
She even then focused primarily on the Holy Symbol of the House of Lyer, which hovered over the Wisdom Plinth.
“Divine Mana?” Seng asked the air, her voice soft and almost musical as she continued. “Of Wisdom?”
“Yeah. I can cast a few spells using this building and the Divine Mana.” Rhamiel answered. “
“Powerful,” she whispered as she bowed before the Wisdom Plinth and prayed.
“So, what are these?” Marko asked in awe as he found the WitchFire Sickles. He approached them as if hypnotized by the weapons, hands extended. The blades were free of the biological material that had formed after Nils had used them on the Apprentice. However, they did still look special, somehow.
“The Creature Core Nils used those. Supposedly, they belonged to a dead Goddess. The Sisterhood Hag.” Rhamiel described
“Morris Keane killed this?” Dad asked, thinking as he looked at the Scarecrow husk and then the Sickles. “That’s rather impressive, actually.”
“He had help from Karrow and me,” Rhamiel said proudly. “And we defeated it. Not killed.”
All six of them looked at the Communication Crystal as if it were coordinated.
“Not killed,” Dad confirmed.
“No. I kept him.”
“How?” Dad asked darkly.
“I put him in a Core Generator. He can’t get out. I think he’s trying, but I don’t think he can latch onto Core Crystal and create a new body.”
The Scholar, Blacksmith, and Dad relaxed. Their stiff postures visibly relaxed while the others still looked unsure. Especially Calia, who walked up to Dad and glared at the Crystal in his hand with distrust.
“What do you mean by that? Did it try to latch onto something and fail? How do you know it can do that?!” she accused.
“Well…” Rhamiel trailed off.
“Dad stiffened back up. “Who?”
Rhamiel sighed for effect; he couldn’t actually breathe, “Yule. He came in to help heal the Apprentice and picked up the Core, which immediately tried to assume his form. But Karrow and I managed to stop it.”
Rhamiel briefly told them the story, and while none of them seemed happy about it, it did mollify them. Weirdly enough, especially Calia, who actually cracked a smile at the fact that Yule was okay. Maybe it was the fact that they were both Alchemists, but he had no idea if that was it. They were all from the same place before they left with the Hero; maybe she knew him.
While Rhamiel was translating that smile, he received a Prompt.
Rhamiel diverted his attention to the project, unsure what he expected. It was a simple elevated stone platform made of stone bricks, all the same dark basalt that made up the majority of his Eldritch Cathedral. It was currently a four-by-four-foot square of bricks that stood three feet tall. The blueprint actually called for a large mass of stone to be kept within 30 feet of the Pedestal or inside Rhamiel’s storage sheds, and some of his Drones were moving more of the stone into those sheds.
It was clear what the description had implied, and he found himself disappointed.
That only lasted a moment before he looked at the group in the Cathedral and honed in on Seng, the Wisdom’s Hand.
“Hey, Dad, can you move over to Seng?” Rhamiel urged him.
Dad complied with little fuss and approached the Priest. She was still on her knees in supplication to the Holy Symbol, her prayer generating Divine Mana at an increased rate. Probably a Priest thing, Rhamiel reasoned, moving on quickly.
“Oh, mighty personification of the Wisdom of ages, the perfect form, the reason that defies fragile logic, I ask for your patience as I decide whether these wretches deserve the help of a devotee of Wisdom. Please grant me the guidance of your high infinity to know these things,” she prayed. The words seemed to repeat themselves over and over. Rhamiel did not know how long she had been praying for this.
“Seng?” Dad interrupted.
With a sudden jerk, she turned to look Dad straight in the face; all color in her eyes was obscured in a haze of pearly smoke. “Corinth Setalla, why do you interrupt?”
“The Core wished to speak with you,” Dad told her with a sort of respect that Rhamiel had not heard… ever.
Her gaze snapped to the Communication Crystal, and she glared at the thing with suspicion. “What do you need from me?”
“A question… Can you cast Level 1 Destiny Rites?” Rhamiel asked, suddenly intimidated by her otherworldly eyes.
Eyes that cleared suddenly as she blinked, “Yes?” she said slowly, raising an eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”
Rhamiel told her about the Pedestal of the Few.
“Interesting,” she said, nodding. “That… that must be the sign.”
“No, it… " It does not have a sign,” Rhamiel corrected.
“No, young Core, that's not what I mean,” She smiled as her gaze turned back and focused in on the Holy Symbol. “Alright, I can help you. It's just a Consecration to Destiny, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good, good,” Seng nodded. “Then let us not dally. Consecrations do not take much, especially consecrations to Destiny.”
She turned and began to walk out of the Cathedral.
Calia paused in her inspection of Nils' body to turn her head and follow her, “Seng, what’s going on?”
“I think I’ll be staying here in the settlement, I think Wisdom wants me to,” Seng smiled softly. “Would you guys like to follow me? I will be blessing something for the Core to Destiny, and it should react splendidly.”
“Can I come?!” Daniel Kane called loudly, waving his arms energetically.
Seng nodded, “I did say you guys.”
“Good, good, just checking,” Daniel said with the biggest grin.
Seng’s smile now seemed a little forced, but she still led the way out of the Cathedral, Calia looking mournfully at the Scarecrow husk.
“Later,” she whispered to the body as she followed along with the others. “If the Hero is alive and I can keep getting interesting monsters like that, I think I will stay too.”