Core of Knowledge

“Is there a difference?” The dungeon core asked after a moment.

“Oh yes! An adventuring group will be here to challenge your dungeon, beat the floors to get the treasure. The exploration team is different. They will travel through your dungeon in order to learn about it. They will go through every nook and cannery, document every trap, detailed where every monster is, and then inform other adventurers on what they find.” The dungeon fairy nodded enthusiastically but Xu Han greeted his dungeon fairy’s explanation with stun silence.

“Why in the name of the Heavens would they want to do that?”

“They are getting paid for it.” Jemma said. “The Adventurer Guild pays exploration teams very well for the risk of first entry, and there is a certain prestige in it. Most adventurers like to be first to enter a dangerous area, and remember when I told you the first treasure you give out on a new floor must be the best? Well, this exploration team is first.”

“And they just tell other adventurers about what they found in the dungeon after that?”

“Sure, why not?” Jemma asked.

“Because they are giving the others an advantage!” A puzzled Xu Han said. “They are giving valuable information to their competitors, making it easier for them to beat the floors and get their share of the treasures. Why do they do that? That’s stupid!”

“Why?” The perplexed dungeon fairy asked. “Why should it matter if some other adventurers get some treasure? It’s not as if you will stop giving out treasures, right?”

That left Xu Han speechless, and he quickly understood that there was an error in his way of thinking. Although there were no dungeon cores in the Crimson Lands, the concept of a dungeon was not new to Xu Han. In the Crimson Lands, powerful cultivators in the Soul Emperor realm were expected to make a realm to store their knowledge and treasures for future generations, and most do.

These man-made Secret Realms are usually pocket dimensions and practically all Soul Emperors filled them with traps and monsters to prevent the unworthy from receiving their legacy. Xu Han never did this, even before he made his ill-fated attempt at Godhood, but he had been in several of them. In fact, his first floor was inspired by a secret realm he entered when he was just a fledgling cultivator.

This was one of the reasons why Xu Han had no problem picking up the way of a dungeon core, and why he took to being a dungeon core like a duck to water. He already had some experience in something similar. However, there was one big fundamental difference between a dungeon and a Secret Realm.

A realm is finite, a dungeon is not.

According to Jemma, adventurers could receive huge gains if they destroy a dungeon core, but a dead core can’t create more treasures, so it was in the adventurers’ interest to keep him alive. As long as Xu Han is alive, there will be a constant supply of treasures. That was also why this exploration team had no qualms in releasing information about his dungeon. It didn’t matter to them if other adventurers had information about the dungeon because the treasures inside would never run out.

This is vastly different from the practice in the Crimson Lands.

No matter how big of a realm a Soul Emperor left behind, the treasures inside would one day run out. So, most cultivators who entered a Secret Realm are not willing to release information of what’s inside unless they received some massive benefits in return.

Xu Han had to laugh at himself. He was still thinking like he was a cultivator in the Crimson Lands, when he was now a dungeon core in a new world.

Xu Han looked on at the exploration team and wondered if a dungeon core could survive in the Crimson Lands. Would cultivators and dungeon cores have the same symbiotic relationship the Classed and cores have in this world? Most probably not, but Xu Han could not help but wonder. As Xu Han looked on, the adventurer with the ghostly steed reached the end of the floor.

“Impressive. That adventurer is fast, maybe I should add some obstacles so that adventurers can’t reach the end point without stopping at any of the other lights.”

“That’s not a bad idea, just remember not to make big changes. If you do, you will need to shut down the entrance and that will prevent adventurers from entering. Better to make small changes over a period of time.” Jemma said.

“I’ll do it once they are off the floor.”

It was one of the stranger things about being a dungeon core. Jemma explained that because a dungeon is a core’s body, Xu Han could not change his body while there was a foreign presence in it. The adventurers are considered a foreign presence, so Xu Han could only change his floor when they leave or die. Xu Han did not like this rule, but he could understand it. You need to take out the arrow before you can heal the wound.

The adventurer with the riding Class surprised Xu Han when he dismissed his ghostly steed after reaching the end of the floor. Xu Han would not have done that in his shoe. The dungeon core wondered if there was some time limit to his skill.

The adventurer looked at the inviting chest but did not approach. In fact, he seems more interested in the fog, looking out into the fog on several occasions as he walked around the clearing. Xu Han believes the rider was measuring how big the clearing was.

Xu Han turned his attention to the other adventurers. All of them were slowly reaching the end of the floor. The dwarf and the [Knight] were in the lead, running from orb to orb like you were supposed to, though the [Knight] looks to be measuring how big each area was. The [Mage] was doing the same, but she was still writing things down as she went from orb to orb and that was slowing her down considerably.

Xu Han couldn’t help but wonder what kind of impression his dungeon was giving.

The old [Priest] did not run from orb to orb but continued his slow walk to the end of the floor. He occasionally cast a prayer to his god, and Xu Han could see he was casting different prayers for different effects. There was one that expels the poison from his body, one that regained his health, one that forms a shield around his body to repel the poison, and one that increased his body’s toughness and resistance. After a while, Xu Han understood that the [Priest] was trying to see how effective his various prayers were against the poison of the fog.

The elvish woman was also testing the poison of the fog. At first, Xu Han did not understand what she was doing. She was jumping in and out of the area of influence of an orb, before repeating the same process at another orb, but Jemma enlightened him. The dungeon fairy informed Xu Han the elf was most probably trying to see if the poison was equal throughout the floor, or if the fog was more poisonous the nearer you are to the end of the floor.

It was not a bad point, and Xu Han mentally kicked himself for not thinking of it. He should had made the poison more potent in certain areas, creating hazard areas for the adventurers to avoid. Then, he could leave some small signs to help adventurers avoid these areas, but also leave treasures in these hazard areas to dare adventurers to enter them. It would fit with how the Systems are supposed to work.

The dungeon core resolved to do that later. In fact, he should draw up a list of improvements he could make in the future.

The dwarf was the first to arrive at the end of the floor after the rider. Xu Han was expecting the rider to be surprised when the dwarf popped out, but he wasn’t. The rider barely raised his brow when the dwarf appeared to walk out of the fog into the clearing. Xu Han decided to listen in to their conversation.

“Well, was there any changes from the first time you were in here?” the rider asked.

“Not really. Everything looks about the same, though that’s not saying much with the fog.” The dwarf replied as he was trying to get his breath back.

“Well, I’ll take that as a ‘No’ then. Big changes are unlikely this early in the development of a dungeon anyway. Besides, the dungeon was probably happy enough with how the floor works the first time around.”

“Yeah, killing two out three isn’t bad.” The dwarf scoffed.