The Great Core's Paradox

Doran leaned over, keeping watch on the monster from the corner of his eyes. It acted innocent, and the others - especially Valera - had quickly become complacent. Not him, though. However cute it might be, Doran knew that a monster was a monster.

Sure, tamed monsters existed. Orken itself possessed a colony of Webweavers, used to produce the silk that they required for their clothing and more. And yet, those had been carefully tamed by experts in the far-off city of Talia. There, people were stronger. Tougher. They had to be, with how much closer to the center of the World Dungeon they were. They knew how to deal with monsters.

In comparison, the people of Orken...didn't.

Doran had always known that, growing up. It was hard to ignore, when hearing stories from Erik's father about his adventures.

The world was a dangerous place, filled with unimaginable monsters. Some were just weaker than others. For a time.

As his hands grasped the glowing loop of skin, he felt his muscles tense. It wasn't fear, not of the snake. He knew that, as it was, it would be simple to defend himself.

No, it was Valera that he worried about. She had taken a liking to the thing - if Doran killed it, she would not be happy. Fortunately, the beast ignored him. He pocketed the glowing skin, hiding it away. It would be interesting to see if it had any use. The glow, at least, made him feel it was a bet worth taking.

Valera said something behind him, still speaking in that soft voice that she used when she spoke to the little monster. He almost scoffed at the sound, but he knew that would only make her annoyed again.

Instead, he chose to say something else.

When he turned, the words he had prepared died on his lips. He reached for his axe. Just as his hands closed on the haft, the vision disappeared.

"Tell me that I'm not the only one who just saw that," Kala said.

She wasn't. Everyone else had seen it, given the way that their eyes looked as if they were ready to pop from their sockets.

Now that he had a moment to think, having broken away from his panic and surprise, he could remember the flaws. He could imagine the way that the monsters that had crawled across Erik’s armor hadn’t been quite right, the way that they had flickered and jerked about on unnatural limbs.

Still, they were a close enough approximation that he was sure what he saw.

Doran eyed the little monster, watching the way that it hissed and bobbed its head. It looked...happy. Proud, even.

"Flame Formicans." The words slipped past his lips, and Kala nodded grimly. She had recognized them, too.

Erik's expression hardened. They all knew what something like that meant - he more than most. Doran was sure that Erik's father had drilled the same lessons into him that he had everyone else.

Never fight a Formican swarm in their own territory.

If you must fight, prepare the field.

If you cannot prepare, run.

But where was the field - and where could they run? They hadn’t seen signs of any of the beasts in the area, and the way back had been blocked, covered in lava that felt as if it seared the skin just by being somewhat nearby.

No, even those were the wrong questions.

“What does this mean?”

Erik voiced it before he could.

Unfortunately, the little beast wasn’t around to answer. It had already slithered away, stopping as it came closer to the lava furthest away from their group. The air around it dimmed for a moment, and a curtain of light covered it a moment later. All the while, little gouts and licks of flame ripped themselves from its scales.

He pulled his gaze away slightly when Erik continued, though he made sure to keep watch on the thing from the corner of his eye.

A monster could never be trusted, after all.

“...think that this is connected to his time aspect, or just an advancement? We still don’t know what ability it gained,” the other man questioned, Doran catching the tail end of it.

Soon enough they all agreed that there was no way to be sure, even Doran - whichever it was, they had to carry on carefully. Still, that led to even more questions - some more daunting than others.

What could it do?

It didn’t take long for them to recognize the source of the vision itself; they had all seen the way that the lava had been hidden by the floating flames. They had all seen the way that the monster had transformed after swallowing them, subsuming their power. That wasn’t the problem.

The question that harried all of their minds was this: had the vision of Erik’s wounds and the Flame Formicans that clambered over him been a warning? Or had it been a simple promise?

They all had their own ideas on the matter. Valera was convinced that the monster was trying to help them, warning them about an enemy that lay ahead.

“The little guy attacked the flames earlier-”

“Flame Wisps,” Erik interrupted quietly.

“Right, Flame Wisps. Anyway, if he hadn’t known to go after them, we might not have noticed the lava that they were hiding,” Valera continued.

Doran spoke up at that. “It’s a monster. Of course it’s going to attack other monsters that get close to him. It’s what they do - doesn’t mean it actually knew about the lava. And it definitely doesn’t mean that it was trying to warn us.”

She glared at Doran, causing him to feel a hint of regret in the face of her anger. Despite that, he didn’t retract his statement. A monster was a monster, in the end. Valera needed to remember that.

“He also warned me about the Flame Salamander that attacked us while you guys were off getting yourselves stuck in the crawlspace earlier. Even flashed a light directly at it before it could jump at me from behind.”

“And what were you doing at the time that it managed to sneak up on you like that, Valera?”

She bit her lip at that, refusing to answer. As annoyed as he was, Doran had to admit that it was kind of cute.

“She might have a point,” Kala interjected. “We know that it ascended from a time aspect Core, and we haven’t seen it use any abilities that are powerful enough for that.”

“What about the healing that it seems to do?” Erik asked, though it felt more like he was mentioning it for the sake of being thorough than anything else.

“It feels too weak for that, doesn’t it? We may not have run into many Ascended beasts ourselves, but every story that I’ve heard has made the ability that they gain from a Core sound far more powerful than it has shown. I think it’s more likely that the healing came from eating some other creature, rather than the Core itself.”

Erik nodded at that. “I agree. It’s strong, but not strong enough.”

“Exactly!” Valera said. “I think that the ability it gained from Ascending is the ability to see future danger. I mean, there’s the Flame Wisps and the lava, the Salamander that almost ambushed me, and now possibly Flame Formicans. Plus, it fits as a time-related ability.”

“Like some kind of Snake Seer?” Kala asked, the corners of her lips quirking upwards.

“Maybe?”

As much as he wanted to argue, Doran had to admit that it was at least possible. At least, he couldn’t think of why it couldn’t be. Unfortunately, that meant that there might be a Formican swarm somewhere nearby.

It would be much easier if the snake was just trying to threaten them somehow.

Looking at the little beast now, Doran had a hard time imagining that it was plotting their deaths. Not right now anyway, despite his personal distrust. It was acting far too docile towards them for that, focusing instead on the floating flames that drifted towards its curtain of light. One by one, they approached the place where the snake waited. One by one, they were consumed.

The room dimmed slightly with their absence, though the lava that surrounded them managed to keep it well-lit.

“For now, we’ll just have to move carefully while we wait and see what all this means. Either way, we’re going to need to look for an exit. That hasn’t changed. Might as well see where the snake goes while we’re at it, and hope that it takes us to the Core or we find a way out.” Erik’s face twisted in a grimace as he said the words, which was hardly surprising: it was his life that was most clearly on the line if the snake really did have some sort of future sight, after all. Most obviously, at least.

Then again, if there was a swarm like they suspected, things could go very poorly for all of them.

Despite that, they didn’t move. Instead, they watched the little snake, waiting to see what it would do.

Doran felt a bead of sweat trickle down his brow, dripping down onto his open eye.

He didn’t blink.

They didn’t have to wait long. After slithering over towards a nearby lava flow and doing something that caused the light around it to dim, the snake looked at them and hissed. A moment later, it began to make its way out of the cavern.

Nervous about doing otherwise after what the creature had shown them, they simply followed.

The monster seemed to know where it was going, despite the winding tunnel that they found themselves in - whether that was due to catching the scent of the Dungeon Core or something else, Doran wasn’t sure. Whichever it was, they soon found themselves entering a new cavern.

Like the last, this one featured the same floating balls of flame; Doran wasn’t sure what the proper name for them was, though Erik probably would have been able to tell him if he had bothered to ask.

He didn’t. He was too distracted by something else.

Just as they entered the cavern, the snake stopped and let out a quiet hiss before a brief flash of light pressed itself against the floor. It was strange in a way that was almost entirely expected, after what they had seen earlier.

The stone was covered in sections of overturned, melted stone. Here and there, bits of it looked as if it had been pulverized and reheated into a molten liquid, only to cool and settle back down again. He might have just chalked it up to an effect caused by the heat of the nearby Dungeon Core’s field, if it weren’t for what they had seen earlier; when a Dungeon Core can cause lava to form within its range, what was a little bit of molten stone?

Instead, he felt his muscles go tense at the sight. Worse, he had begun to notice something just at the edge of his hearing. Something quiet. Something distant - and yet, it seemed like it was slowly coming closer.

Click-clack.

Click-clack.

“Shit, they’re really here,” he heard Erik whisper, having heard them as well. “Maybe Valera was right, after all. Shit.”

He couldn’t help but agree.

“What do we do?” Valera whispered back, remembering the same lessons that they all did. “Prepare or run?”

“Nothing to prepare. Not with the gear we have on hand and the time that’s left. We’ll just have to hope that your snake seer saw a way out.” Erik flashed Valera a sardonic smile at that, likely replaying the image of his Formican-covered body in the depths of his mind. Doran winced.

The snake ignored it all, continuing to flash beams of light - against the walls this time, rather than the floor.

Its light gleamed against the walls, the thin beam reflecting off the glossy surface of the stone around them.

It turned and hissed again, flashing an image at them for a brief instant before slithering onwards and disappearing into a tunnel that had been hidden in the shadows.

The flickering image in the general shape of a Dungeon Core, glowing with power.

Again, they simply followed, keeping quiet and hoping that the Flame Formicans wouldn’t detect any signs of their passage.

At this point, what else could they do?

They would just have to hope that the little monster had found a way out. Worse, they had to hope that it would be willing to show it to them.

Beads of sweat trickled down his brow, burning his eyes. Still, he didn’t blink.

The snake slithered onwards.