Chapter 177 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Pov Rafe

"I am so sorry, my dear. Here, take this." I took the small pack of food the kindly old woman was giving me. "Thank you, Lorana, but I must be going."

She looked at me with tears running down her cheeks, but like many other times, I headed towards the forest, away from civilization. People like her helped me feel connected to my beginnings, but in all honesty, I’ve always felt more comfortable in the wild.

As soon as I was a little bit further into the forest, I shifted my nose, mostly the inside part, to something that would be more effective than a human nose. I let my eyes be the best they could and shifted my ears a bit closer to the top of my head, changing them into a mixture of owl and wolf ears for the best combination to hear everything around me.

I missed the sensory input. Being fully human was so limiting, and I couldn’t really understand how they could function, being so blind to everything around them.

So many times, I have had to save them from predators that I could smell kilometers away. Yet, I couldn’t just let them die just because I wanted to keep who I am secret. I think it’s the fault of my childhood, as the wolves always protected each other, even if it meant you got hurt.

Things back then were so much simpler. Yet, I couldn’t stay there forever. While they made me a part of their pack, and I will be forever grateful, even if they took my real mother from me, it was not a place where I could live forever, as I wasn’t like them, not entirely.

It also seems like I’m not human enough to live with them. At least the humans who are born are a bit more accepting than the ones made by father.

Speaking of him, I now know that I have a stronger connection to him than others. But I have ignored that connection as it didn't seem like he wasn’t in need of me. Even now, there wasn't real urgency, but I wanted a change of scenery. I could accept the offer to go to a more dangerous, what did he call it, playroom, but there seems to be another path available to me, and perhaps it's time to follow it.

It should take me about a month or so to make it to this location. If only I could change myself fully into an animal and make myself a bird right now, I would be able to get there in a few days.

Unfortunately, my gold-rank talent didn’t help me there and just reinforced what I already had since my birth. Whenever I consumed a part of a creature, I could then incorporate it into my own body, making it even better.

Fortunately, my talent expanded my capabilities a bit, giving me a better system to store all the different features I’ve collected, as before I sometimes forgot all the stuff I actually had.

I changed my body and the muscles inside to the more powerful version. When I was younger, I always used the best muscles I had access to, but I have come to learn that they require a lot more sustenance, so most of the time it's better to have weaker ones.

The scenery blurred as I started to move at my fastest speed. Even now, I was still almost silent as I stepped past every small branch and crunching leaf while dodging the many trees. There would be a need to hunt quite soon, as I didn’t want to use up my fat stores I have for emergencies. Yet, this area is quite easy, so I shouldn’t have any problems with that.

It took me four weeks and three days to finally look upon this curious structure made out of rock. Inside it was something that hummed with mana. My connection to the father was leading me through this structure.

This seemed to be the edge of the world as I was on a large cliff overlooking a huge body of water. I stayed there enjoying the wind for more than an hour before I stepped into the structure and felt it come alive. The next moment, everything blurred and darkness surrounded me.

My eyes quickly adjusted, and while it was still somewhat dark, I turned around to see a truly white light illuminating beyond the tunnel I was in. My connection was pulling me towards that light, so I followed it.

When I made it to the end of the tunnel, I stepped into a huge room with a huge ball floating inside a cage that was giving off this white light. Was that the core? But no, my connection didn’t think anything of this ball. My connection was pointing towards the pillar underneath the ball.

“Climb it,” came the softest voice. It felt so warm, so accepting, that I started to climb. It was incredibly hard to do so as the rock was so smooth. I couldn’t even damage it with my strongest claws, but there were other ways of climbing.

Having changed my fingers into something that could grip even smooth surfaces, I started to climb upwards. When I made it to the cage, I needed to shift my body once again, but I was past the cage, and it didn’t take me long to see the huge hole that led downwards.

There I saw it, a huge crystal full of so much life. The white light it was giving off was almost blinding, but it felt so good to be in its presence. From the edges, I could see down below where it seemed another world was placed. I started to reach out my hand to touch it.

“Don’t reach for me just yet,” came the same voice, this time a bit stronger. Now I understood that it was Father, the very dungeon, speaking to me. Yet I was so disappointed that it didn't want me to touch it.

“Don’t look so distraught. I just want to make sure you understand what would happen if you touched my core. We would be bonded even stronger, and I believe you would become my guardian.” Those words made me happy. I would finally belong, fully belong, not like I have been before.

“But there are limitations that this bond would bring you,” Father continued. That confused me. What limitations could there possibly be?

"If you do this, you would never be able to leave my dungeon, and I know how you like to explore. While you would have so much to explore inside, there is still more that you could see and experience outside."

For the first time, I pulled my fingers back. We know about the outside world, but I didn’t know that I could go there. For a moment, I was excited to be able to see so much new, yet as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I remembered all the bad things that have happened.

"What’s the point? They would try to kill me or drive me off soon enough." "You do not have to worry about that. I would not let you go outside unprepared. You could join the Academy. There's so much for you to learn. But here, take this. I think you’ll find it useful."

I was excited about this Academy as it was a place of learning, and I knew that I knew so little. Yet the next moment, there was a wiggling appendage that was quite long and thin and white-looking.

I had never seen something like this, but the offer was obvious. I picked it up and ate it and then started to work through what this creature could give me. My eyes opened wide. "Is something like this really possible?"

What I received as an answer was amusement. This creature was somehow capable of reverting its aging, so it could choose to age backwards. Immediately, I tested it out and could feel the switch. Now, as time would pass, I would no longer grow older but younger. It was easy enough to switch it back.

"This is incredible. Thank you. And I think I would like to accept and go to this place called the Academy. But before that, could I ask you a question?" "Of course, ask me anything."

I took a moment to prepare myself, as this could ruin everything, but I needed to know. "Why did you create so much misery? There are so many who suffered in the place where I was born?"

There was a long moment of silence, but I didn’t hear anger in his voice; it was still so soft. "I am not going to deny that what I do creates misery, yet I do not seek it out intentionally. I make worlds. Sometimes they are harsh, but life has a way of living by itself and finding a way, no matter how unlikely.”

“So when you go outside my dungeon, you will see that no matter where there's life, there is what you call misery. The only way to end this would be to kill all life. Yet I ask you, what would be the point in that?"

Those words froze me as my mind ground to a halt, trying to come to terms with what he said. I could feel the truth in his voice. Yet, was it truly like that? Was it impossible to have a paradise?

I was still in a daze when I was slowly nudged towards another one of those structures that hummed with mana. "Go through the gateway. Someone will be waiting for you on the other side, ready to take you to your room inside the Academy." I did what the father told me to and stepped through to another world once again.