Graverra Graeme, Bride of the Dungeon Core
200/400
Graverra bounced off of silk and down, not the packed floor of the crypt, but she still took the fall damage for it. She didn’t bother sitting up. It was her bed. Hecrux had rerouted the trapdoor for her to be sent back to her chambers. He hadn’t wanted her to die. He’d saved her.
“Oh! There you- Oof.” Capo called from the table, further grounding Graverra in the fact that she was for sure back in her own room. But she still wasn’t in any mood to pay him further attention.
“Was the fall damage really necessary? Ow.” Graverra yelled up at the draperies of her four-poster bed, no lingering trapdoor, then grimaced. If Hecrux had wanted to keep hurting her, he could have just left her down there. But he didn’t want her dead, clearly, and she really hadn’t wanted to die, by homunculus or otherwise.
“I didn’t have any say in that.” Hecrux said flatly, but it was a small relief to hear his voice again. Just not enough to feel done being angry with him.
“Oh, no, just the rest of the entire dungeon attacking one of its cores.” Graverra was happy to have been saved; she really was. She was just going to be a lot happier when she knew why Hecrux had done what he did and what they both planned to do moving forward.
“What did you expect to happen when walking through a dungeon alone?”
“Well, when it’s one’s own dungeon-” Graverra started, but at the same time, Capo felt the need to include his thoughts on the matter.
“Literally walked into that one, didn’t she?”
“Oh, shut up! You stupid, useless-” Graverra reaches out with magic, wanting to move Capo to somewhere else, anywhere else, in the dungeon, but a message from the system flashes in her mind’s eye. And it hurt.
You Cannot Manage Your Domain While Enemies Are Nearby
That wasn’t supposed to happen. There weren’t supposed to be enemies nearby. As angry as she was at the both of them, she wouldn’t want to physically fight them. And Hecrux didn’t want her dead. He’d saved her.
“Hecrux! You give me back control of this dungeon right now!”
“I haven’t taken it away from you.”
“You said it would only do that if you felt threatened.” Was it really just because he was still upset with her? If that was the case, then what was she supposed to do? What if this happened again? Or maybe it wouldn’t. Graverra had no plans to go soloing her own dungeon from this point on; she’d learned her lesson, but what if she couldn’t fix her stat sheet?
“You were going to leave me.” Hecrux growled in a way that made the entire room shake around her.
“You did say that, mistress.” Capo added, as if she might have forgotten.
Graverra glared at the skull. Whose side was he on, anyway? If Hecurx wanted to get technical about it, which of course he did, then she guessed she could see how that might feel like a threat, but even then, “So the fix for that was killing me?”
“No.” He snarled immediately but then added, more reserved, “But it was a threat to me.”
Graverra rolled her eyes in spite of how clearly—oddly— emotionally charged this had become for him. “Please.”
“It was a threat to my happiness.”
Graverra’s stamina must not have regenerated enough yet; tears sprang to her eyes. That would have been nice. That might have been all she needed to hear, but, “I don’t make you happy.”
“Your mana-”
There it was. That was why he didn’t kill her the first time and this and probably the next time after this. If there was one. “Isn’t me, Hecrux.”
The dungeon core didn’t seem to have a response for that. Graverra wasn’t sure she wanted to hear one anyway. It wasn’t like any of this was real; she still knew that. He didn’t really love her; he never had. They weren’t really married. It had just been easy to get confused after the gifts and being told it was all in an effort to take care of her. That she didn’t need to worry anymore. Even the fighting felt familiar; how many times had she, Branimir, and Valerae all threatened to leave the party just to be convinced otherwise?
“Were you reading my mind the whole time?” Graverra could see it, in hindsight. It certainly put a new color on some of Hecrux’s decisions and confused her more about some others. If he really had been in her head for any amount of time, then why hadn’t he noticed how badly she wanted to help?
“Since you became a dungeon core.”
“And that’s why you think I should just know everything you already know.” That more than anything finally made sense. But why hadn’t it happened for her before? And where was that in the brief bit about primary and secondary cores that she had been allowed to read?
“It just happens for me.” Hecrux clarified as much as he ever seemed able to. “Your mind works very quickly.”
“Oh.” That was almost a compliment. At least, Graverra would have thought Hecrux would call her slow or ditzy before quick. Plenty of others had. “Well. I haven’t been able to read yours.”
And she doubted very much she could even make a concentrated effort about it now. She couldn’t even feel her own stats the way she used to; she was still at half health, but no specific number came to mind.
“So… So am I not a dungeon core anymore?”
Hecrux hummed as he thought it over. “I’m not sure the system knows what you are anymore.”
“Great.” Graverra huffed.
“No, it isn’t.” Graverra could practically hear Hecrux’s scowl. “Your mana pool has shrunk back down to what it was before…”
Graverra rolled her eyes and spoke through another huff, “So I guess you can just get rid of me.”
Of course that was the first thing he worried about.
“Killing you would not fix this.” Hecrux still sounded like he was scowling. Chiding her. And she deserved it, Graverra knew so. She was being pathetic. She felt pathetic.
“It does still consider you my wife.” Hecrux added with a lilt that he meant it as a good thing.
“So?” Graverra couldn’t keep herself from sniffling. He only said it like that because he knew she wanted to hear it. Not because he really meant it. She just knew so. “People murder their wives all the time and for a lot less than mana.”
“Don’t tell him that!” Capo hissed, and Graverra supposed he was only trying to help, but she sat up enough to glare at him all the same.
“I have nothing to gain from murdering you, Graverra.”
“Well,” Graverra’s lip quivered. Was her stamina even regenerating at all? It didn’t feel like it if she was going to be all weepy about this. What about her health? What if she was just stuck like this forever—not a dungeon core, not a regular mortal human… And for what? Hecrux hadn’t changed at all. “What do I have to gain from living like this?”
“Yikes.” Was all the skull had to say to that. Hecrux said nothing, or maybe he didn’t get a chance before Capo thought of something more. “Maybe it’s for the best you stay off the heavy mana usage for a bit.”
All Graverra could manage was a strangled little cry. How dare he! That wasn’t Capo’s call to make at all. And Hecrux still had nothing to say. She rolled out of bed and, none too gracefully, scooped up the skull from his place on the table.
“Hang on, Mistress, I didn’t mean-” Capo began to try and bargain with her. At least someone’s existence still relied on her good humor, rather than Hecrux’s, but she still doesn’t listen to the rest of the skull’s begging.
Flinging open the door between her chambers and the lair, Graverra hurled the skull into the core’s room with all her might. Which had never been much, especially using her old stat sheet, but the skull still collided with the core’s singular eye with a comically loud squelch and unhappy shouts from both parties. Satisfied, Graverra slammed the door shut.
With her health halved, Graverra still felt the effects on her stamina. There wasn’t quite as much to be angry about in an empty bedroom. Nothing to distract her from the fact that maybe storming across the room and throwing skulls and slamming doors all required a bit of effort… Effort that wasn’t being recouped as quickly as it used to.
She considered slumping down right there against the door; a secret small part of her still hoped that maybe Hecrux would have kept arguing with her. But he didn’t. Sitting and waiting was useless.
Graverra slunk back to bed, cocooning herself in a blanket before summoning her grimoire to be propped up against the footboard. The nagging little notion that she should be able to hold more in her head, know the exact number of her health, stamina, and mana, reemerged then, staring at the blank page. But that was how she’d always had to do it before…
Core 66.5 (SECONDARY)
Core Avatar
‘Graverra Greame,’ Bride of the Dungeon Core
Appearance: Drethiaq Necromancer
Level - 7̵͍̻͎̻̃͗̓ | EXP. - ♾️
Health: 200/400 | Stamina: 40/400 | Mana: 700/7̵͍̻͎̻̃͗̓0̷̻̇̔̔̚0̶͕͖̀̐0̶̬̭̒͝
Mana Reserves: 7̵͍̻͎̻̃͗̓0̷̻̇̔̔̚0̶͕͖̀̐ / 3,000 (7.5%/1 hr)
Skills Slotted
Withering Blast | Death Shroud | Bone Fiend | Good Shepherd | [empty]
Equipment Slotted
[empty] | [empty] | [empty] | [empty]
Cryptmother’s Scythe (Necrotic)
[You Cannot Manage Your Domain While Enemies Are Nearby]
!Warning - Core Combat Inadvisable At This Tier!
The stat sheets had combined. Graverra frowned and tilted her head either way as she studied her frankensheet. At least that didn’t mean she wasn’t still a dungeon core, right?
As if the system wanted to answer her itself, a series of notifications sounded off in her mind in rapid succession, mirrored on the pages of her grimoire.
Achievement - Moving Up
Achievement - Two of a Kind
Achievement - Horror-ticulture
Achievement - There Will Be Blood
Warning - Core Combat Inadvisable at This Tier
Achievement - First Blood
Achievement - T̴͈͕̄͊̑̿̑̊̀̀̋̋͝͠h̸̢̢͎̘̠͕̺̣͔̖̅̊̈͆̀̄̍̌̓́̊̾͘͘ͅę̷͎̰̗͚̗̥̙̟̘͙̗͎̮̀ŕ̴̨͚͍̘̤̱͚͚̣̞̜̻̘͆̍͛e̴̹͂̓̀̿̔̓͂͊̍̏̏̓͘͠ ̵̢̙̟͚͔͇̫̓̍̅̚C̸͔̙̪͔͍͚̻̥͚̮̰͎̻̆̓̇́̾̚͝ą̴̛͕͚̭̤̗̖͚̗̼̤̎͜n̷̬͎̭̫̪͙͆́̏̑ ̶̡̡̨̛͔̟̺̥̤͈̠͇̙̘̈́̿̈́͜O̶̡̦̯͐͗̈͒̒̈́̐͐̀̎͘n̸̘͙̱̤̪͇̹̈́͆͠ḽ̵̯̲̲̠̋͐̂͊͘̚y̴̨̢̥̻̰̞̫̗͔̙̞͖͕̐̈̎̽̓̈́̉͋̔̈̑̚͝ ̵̡͎̩͍̜̯̀́͛̍̀̂̔̉̅͑̎̀͐͝B̵͍̫̫̣͉̈́͗ȩ̶̻̣͕̞̻̼͙̫̠̭̌́͒̀̌̒͌̅̓̑̈́͑͠ ̶̢̜̳̝̺̆̀̅͛̑̍̃͑Ö̵̺͉̺̦͙́͒̀̌͑̈́͆̔͜͝ṅ̸̨̲̳̃̎̒͛́͊͘e̴̮̘̩͎̬̘͕͔͇̎̽̓̂͝
“Ow.” Graverra rubbed at her temples. That felt a lot more like when she had just become a dungeon core. And it had been a while since she’d seen any glitched-out notifications… That meant it was something unique to her, didn’t it? Had Hecrux made it? Cores couldn’t make achievements for themselves, though; that would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?
Custom achievements may be created for the purpose of rewarding an adventurer after a core has reached gold tier. Dungeon cores may earn their own achievements as set by the Coalition of Core Keepers.
Graverra drew her hand back in surprise as the page turned by itself. “Forgot you could do that…”
Maybe if she hadn’t tried to stop using her grimoire so soon, she might have gotten more answers that way.
“So, is that Estremon or what?” Even though Graverra phrased it as a question, she didn’t really expect an answer from the system beyond being told to do the dungeon tutorial. To the system’s credit, it did seem to try to give her more information.
Dungeon - Name Undecided (Pewter—7)
Location: Undetermined
Theme: Undecided | Specialization: Undecided
Dungeon Will Be Placed In... [296:56:44]
Dungeon Core Has Not Completed Initial Training
Initial Training Recommended To Be Completed Before Dungeon Placement For Optimal Performance
The dwindling timer got a nervous whine out of Graverra. She hadn’t meant to waste any time, really. At least, she hadn’t been thinking about it that way. And now she was just wasting more time waiting to heal…
