"So what's the new emergency that has you all fired up? I was hoping for a few more days of downtime," Timon said, as he took his usual driver's seat at the front of the bus. I waited until everyone was on board and the doors were safely sealed before I was willing to say anything further.

"Get the bus in the air, we need to head to Antarctica, aim for near that dungeon we detected. Pryte do you know if the government has done anything there yet?" I ordered Timon before questioning Pryte. I knew we had informed them of the dungeon, but had it been enough time for them to really do anything yet? Hopefully not.

"No idea, I know Grant informed them, but as to their capabilities there, you likely know better than I do," Pryte answered. That was a problem, I also didn't bring the phone, but that was solved easy enough. I opened the chat window.

>Dave: Maud, I need you to talk to Grant. Tell him we are heading to Antarctica and that we need the government to stand down if there are any defenses in place. Do not mention why, and keep that name you read completely silent.

>Maud: Understood.

I closed the window, not remotely ignorant of the fact that Karlinovo hadn't responded at all again yet. "Alright, Maud is talking to Grant. Not that it really matters, we are doing this whether they are set up there or not. I'd just rather ruffle fewer feathers than needed at the moment," I said as the bus took to the air.

"Alright, I think we've all been extremely patient here, but what new calamity is happening?" Rabyn asked calmly from his seat.

"Karlinovo is here on Earth. For those that don't know, there's been an extra voice in my soul chat that we could only connect to while sleeping. It's been there since my first soul separation back in the archives. For most of the time, he had no idea who he was, but the dungeon somehow drew his non-corporeal form into itself and created a new body for him, triggering all of his memories," I explained, to the silent stares of several people. I honestly couldn't remember which of them I had told about the other figure or not at this point. I also had no idea how quiet Maud had kept on the topic.

"I'm surprised I didn't consider that possibility originally, though I suppose I'm not overly familiar with the exact details of Karlinovo's death. If his body died in a soul separation, his consciousness latching on to you when given the chance explains a lot," Elody replied, mirroring Pryte's thoughts on the topic.

"I know a bit, and considering how involved Gastronil was with him, I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was something he had a hand in. That man is a menace," Connie added.

"Wait, wait, wait, the Karlinovo has been in your head for months? Dave, do you know how much we are going to be able to learn from him? Timon, get us there as fast as possible, we've gotta find that man!" Elicec said, at that moment sounding more like his brother than he would ever admit.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard the name, I get it," Timon said, as a chat window popped back into my head.

>Maud: Grant says he told them during his last check-in, but doubts anything beyond a reconnaissance has been started, if even that. There are a lot more problems to handle right now, and functional naval vessels are limited. Apparently, large ships were a big target.

>Dave: Thanks.

>Maud: Oh, and Mel's been swearing for the last five minutes straight about being left behind.

>Dave: Tell him I didn't bring everyone for a reason. Just in case this was a distraction.

>Maud: Will do :)

I closed the window, considering the idea that this was a trap. I didn't really think it was, but unless we absolutely needed to, like with the last Arena floor, I no longer ever wanted to leave the house entirely unguarded. We were starting to collect too many useful resources for that to be a good idea. One hungry moose was enough of a problem.

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"Grant says we should be fine," I announced, finally taking a seat. "Let's all try our best not to destroy the dungeon core. I actually think I've got some abilities now that should let me talk it down, and the more resources we can get there, the better," I said, looking at everyone on the bus. I knew Corey would understand if it had to be destroyed, but I wasn't sure about the other three, and honestly, if we had to destroy such a young core, that would be a giant failure to control our own power.

Since no one voiced any dissent, I pulled up my Core Architect class menu and checked through Path of the Dungeon, thinking I had something there I hadn't touched yet that would help. I found it under Dungeon Authority,

-Authority\Dungeon Authority {0/100 Levels} Dungeon Authority allows the host to use their presence to directly influence their interactions with dungeon cores.

That was exactly what we needed at the moment and would make it much easier to handle any sort of negotiations. I wasn't entirely sure how this would work in reality, but it seemed like the right idea. The interactive attributes continued to baffle me on just how they worked, but I guessed they probably made me seem more reasonable or likable. I hadn't exactly put them to the test very much yet.

"Coming in for a landing, next to, uh, whatever those things are!" Timon called, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked out the window and saw a colony of penguins huddled together near a large ice outcropping. As Timon landed the bus, I watched as slowly one penguin after another left the group and disappeared under the ice formation alone. I assumed that meant it was the entrance to the dungeon that had formed.

"Looks like the penguins are heading into the dungeon. Any guess how many creatures a new dungeon core can control?" I asked.

Corey manifested near me and started answering. "Very few, and it is generally easier to start small. The number of penguins entering that cave is unusual. I suspect something else is going on, but I do not know what."

The landing of the bus and opening of the doors signified that we didn't need to wait for any other speculation. Answers were about to be at hand. "I'll be here, try not to die," Timon said as we stepped off the bus into the frozen desert. The chill wind was enough to cut into my temperature regulation, but not enough that I felt in any danger; it had just been a while since I actually felt the bitter cold.

"So are we just heading in?" Cecile asked, his voice barely carrying over the howl of the wind.

"Yes, the sooner we find the man, the better!" I said as I started toward the cave. The moment I stepped in front of the collection of birds, they all suddenly started trumpeting loudly, moving toward me with angry looks on their faces. I placed a large shield around myself, not from any real fear of danger, but to stop them from hurting themselves. I suspected there was some odd influence happening from the dungeon, and I really didn't want to slaughter a bunch of innocent penguins.

"Come on inside, quick!" I yelled over the wind as penguins began bouncing off my shield. Why were they so determined to get inside, or stop us, for that matter? Once everyone was inside the cave, I fished around in my pocket and found a random bolt. Tossed it on the ground in front of the cave and put a large shield over it, blocking the entrance entirely. I made a note to get a bunch of pebbles for my System storage in case I needed to do something like this again.

"Good thinking," Rabyn said, having spotted what I had done with the entrance.

"Yeah, figured it was best to keep them out until we figure out just what's happening down here," I said as I took a step forward, and felt what I could only describe as the opposite of how I had felt the first time I entered a dungeon wash over me.

Suddenly, I could feel different aspects of this ice cave. There was a mana flow from the central chamber, drawing in the penguins. There was also a man, and a dungeon core inhabiting another penguin there. It was as though I had just taken partial control over the dungeon itself. It felt like if I tried I could start redirecting the mana flows. I had thought the class ability would just let me reason with the dungeon core, not usurp it.

"So, yeah, interesting news, I think I have control of the dungeon now," I said nervously to the others.

"We do. Apparently, Dave's class ability lets him directly contend with the will of a dungeon core for authority over a dungeon, and in this case, the core was either very weak, or not overly tied to the dungeon, possibly both," Corey explained, appearing in front of me.

"You continue to be a very strange man," Rabyn said, as the others nodded their agreement.

"Yeah, well, let's go find Karlinovo before something decides to make me regret my newfound power," I replied, fully expecting some sort of negative repercussion to be coming.

"Dave, we will need to test this ability after we secure the man. I can see several potentially valuable uses for this. We may even be able to use it to grow our mana flow faster," Elody whispered to me as we moved on. I appreciated that she kept any potential uses between us for now.

"Yeah, we can do that, let's just get through here first," I replied, wondering why the dungeon core didn't seem to be fighting back at all.

Dungeons, as a concept, are somehow both under and overstudied. The problem is that the focus is always on the wrong area. People wish to know how a mana orb becomes a dungeon core, assuming that it even does. There is no real proof of that. That evolution has never actually been observed, so it's all an assumption. What we do know is that dungeons connect somewhere else, and through those connections, they are able to draw in their own mana flow. Now, in theory, this could lead to a universe without a mana flow gaining one, and I speculate that was how the first mana flows started. But the problem there is a chicken-and-egg situation. How does a dungeon form in a world without mana?

A Dive Into Dungeons by Jerold Helmer

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