Epic of Caterpillar

"An artificial pillar?" Wondered Black. "What do you even mean with that?"

"I have no idea either." White said. "Care to explain dear?"

"Well, the Ego here is like the Labyrinth\'s Pillar… It what maintains everything together." Said Silva. "So… I make an artificial one by condensing tons and tons of Mana! And then we put it, so the Labyrinth doesn\'t collapse… It won\'t be as strong as the original pillar though."

"I see… So that\'s what Dungeon Cores truly are, so all the Dungeons back in Genesis are like just fake artificial ones?" I wondered.

"Dunno… Never seen those before." Silva said. "But if they have no Ego Fragment, they probably were fake artificial things."

"I suppose it makes sense, seeing how all the Gods back in Genesis created Dungeon Cores to produce resources for mortals and at the same time give them back Divine Power. It is still rather unclear who truly made them though." Shadrach added.

"However there were some Great Gods with names such as "Great God of Dungeons" that I can recall…" I said while thinking. "More importantly, let\'s make that Dungeon Core, Silva."

I\'ve been mostly not trying it out because I was not really interested, and it would be a big waste of power to make one anyways, but now that I thought about it, making a dungeon core shouldn\'t be so hard, and it would be ideal to maintain this dungeon.

Maybe if I had enough mana back then, I could had done the same with the Labyrinth from the Elven Country where Elfina\'s auntie lives. Well, in this world Labyrinths are mostly treated as nuisances than anything, except this one, which seems loved by the city due to its plentiful resources.

"Alright then, I think I kind of remember how to make one, but can you help me out, Silva?" I asked Silva, the floating knife moved around me and then sat down over the palms of my hands.

"I was planning to do it myself but I don\'t want to waste MP for it, so sure mama!" Silva happily agreed, as we channeled MP with one another through the Wielder and Ego Connection.

FLAAAASH!

A flash of bright golden light and then gray light emerged from my hands, as Silva channeled her powerful Primordial Essence of Dungeons, a power that surged from her very core, the Primordial Fragment of Reality of Dungeons, which is said to be a piece of the true dungeons that existed in the Primordial Reality, or Primordial World, where all dimensions seem to have branched from.

FLUOSH!

A ball began to shape, condensed from the energy and then crystallizing rapidly, resembling a gray, metallic-colored ball of metal, shining brightly with a mysterious and magical hue. I ended spending around 250k MP, I don\'t know how much that would translate to Divine Energy, but quite a lot of it.

Certainly, this little dungeon core wasn\'t at all like the ones I could make in Genesis, in fact, it was hundreds of times stronger than that. This whole Labyrinth already felt way better than any other Dungeon I had visited back in my original world, so a powerful enough pillar to maintain it was needed.

"And now, let\'s place it here."

Silva quickly channeled her powers into two hands made of gray energy, grabbing the Dungeon Core and then slamming it into the crevice, at the same time as she grabbed the Ego forcefully and devoured it.

"Nom, nom, nom…"

​ RUMBLE!

The Dungeon trembled for a bit, but ultimately the rumbling stopped. The entire Labyrinth stabilized and everything continued as normal. We saw through the crevice as the Dungeon Core started rotating around. At the same time, I felt a natural connection with it…

FLAAASH!

Silva and I, at the same time, began to glow. Silva seemed to have gained higher stats and several of her skills leveled up after she devoured that fragment, she even gained some new Skills.

Meanwhile, I suddenly felt the connection with the dungeon strengthen, until I truly became the Dungeon Master… And yeah, I was the first ever Dungeon Master of this world. It seems the Genie has yet to even figure out the science behind creating a Dungeon Core, so he had just forcefully taken over a dungeon by infecting it with Miasma.

Ding!

[Silva] has absorbed a [Primordial Dungeon Fragment]!]

[Silva] Stats have increased greatly!]

[Silva] Skills have leveled up!]

[Silva] learned the [Dungeon Ecosystem: Lv1] Skill!]

[Silva] learned the [Summon Dungeon Boss: Lv1] Skill!]

[You have created a [Divine Dungeon Core]!]

[You have become the [Dungeon Master] of the [Seaside Treasury Labyrinth]!]

[You have attained a greater connection with the Labyrinth.]

[Your stats have increased by sharing the Labyrinth\'s powers.]

[You learned the [Dungeon Master: Lv1] Title Skill!]

[You learned the [Dungeon Authority: Lv1] Skill!]

Ooooh! I seem to have hit the jackpot right now! Not only I regained some old skills, but Silva really got stronger. And I seem to control this Labyrinth now, hehe…

Well, not like I\'ll do much for now with it, I might just leave it as it is, as I\'ll leaving this place pretty soon once we are done with the last wave of monsters.

But it still nice to have the Dungeon Connected with me, this way I can learn some pretty amazing Skills and even got a nice stat boost.

By just looking at her status, I can see she gained +10000 to all her stats, woah. And even more, her MP increased by +100000! This Dungeon Ego Fragment was certainly super powerful if she got so much out of it…

"Well, for now let\'s go back to the city. I\'ll check on the new Skills once we get there. Everyone, hold on tight!" I quickly grabbed everyone using my Phantasmal Aura and set off into the surface, splashing out of the sea and then walking out of the dungeon, where I was greeted with everyone else.

"Took you long enough." Luminous said. "Let\'s go, night\'s about to fall."

"Kireina-sama, what were you doing in there?" Ariant asked.

"The whole dungeon trembled!" Eriant said.

"Err… Nothing~" I shrugged.

Like that, we made our way back to the city, where Oro received us like heroes.