Dungeon Core Chat Room.

Innearth spent the time following his win of the varied event cleaning up the results of it.

All 96 of the surviving greater snakes were collected and distributed about the kilometers of his crystal cavern.

An army melted away to nothing when spread over distance, but it wasn’t insignificant.

Of the snakes that had fought for him, three had ascended in the chaotic pressure of both the event and the final battle. One of the ascended monsters was the unique one with the slippery skin, while the other two were “nameless”.

They were given the same job as the original snake scout – to explore and continue to grow in the outside of his dungeon – as well as the names of scout siblings 1-3. Innearth realized naming ascended monsters with numbers was disappointing but he hadn’t been paying specific attention to them until after the event and needed more time to figure out their personalities.

The dancing dragon was given the position of the “optional mini boss” of the crystal cavern – replacing the ascended illusion wurm who was no longer someone Innearth wanted to risk for adventurers.

Wandering about, the dragon finally stopped at a position near the top of the zone – finding himself in the room with an unstable liquid pool. Seeming annoyed by some part of pool snek, the dragon took up a position in this room periodically bullying the lazy snake.

While Innearth was putting the swatter golem into the magma halls – and void turtle into the deprivation floor – the next event was released.

The final event.

Rules: The Mysterious Island (round robin reward)

The top 111 Cores from all 4 rings (along with some of the previous winners for those that did not participate) will be given a varying sized spot of land on the mysterious island. Adventurers will be lured to the island with a quest that’s issued to anyone with the means and potential desire to find the mysterious island. You will be given 8 days to design your section of the island and the island itself will run for the same amount of time. During this time the system will adjust Core’s scores based on a myriad of factors and how well they performed across the entire games.

As a bonus, at the end of the 8 days most of the Cores that performed well will be given a [Customization] title and skill. This skill lets winners apply their own status customization to system messages that others can see. You can make your name – or an event – appear in a box with the color and font of your choice overriding the defaults display of whoever reads it. It’s a worthy reward to end the games and your [customization] status will stay with you forever (as long as the system doesn’t deem its being abused).

Final Description and sign-up.

This event is somewhat different. It’s actually set up slightly as a reward for all the previous events as well as being graded for a light reward from the system.

This event is the one with the most help from the system.

111 slots are offered to the top 111 scoring cores from all 4 Tiers. If any reject the offer, lower cores will be given a chance instead.

Good luck.

Enter? Y/N? [57 minutes 12 seconds] till auto reject.

Innearth read over the event slightly confused. This is…a reward? I mean I was wondering what winning the royal was going get me considering it’s the only event that didn’t state its reward…but how is the reward another event?

Fated Eternal Design: I NEED THAT REWARD. It doesn’t say what number I am or how high I scored…but I made the list! I’m in!

Innearth: Yeah I mean it sounds like it could be fun I’m joining as well.

Abe: something to do. I’m down.

Amy: I made it too!

ZeMadDoctor: I made the list.

Amy: It’s telling me to wait for the people in front of me to choose their area?

Abe: Same. If we get to pick areas, let's try and get close together.

…

Innearth was given a simple map of an island. 5 kilometers tall and 8 kilometers wide. Various different shaped “territories” were laid out across the map. Each felt similar to a check box in that by focusing on them he could select which one he wanted to choose.

Already a dozen plots of land were chosen and Innearth could see small names of the Cores that had claimed areas before him.

Making sure none of his friends had already picked a spot Innearth saw he had free reign of the island.

What do I want? More space? A good position?

Innearth looked over the map trying to figure out where to claim. Some territories were as small as 25x25m squares while others were as high as 100x100m. Most all of them were weird lumpy shapes and while for the most part it didn’t matter, Innearth didn’t want 2500 m2 of territory in a thin path winding path that was only a meter or two wide at its thickest. No, as fun as making a “road that adventurers would travel along to other areas” was, Innearth wanted enough space to make a destination. He wanted enough room to make an actual area that adventurers would seek out and talk about.

The more he looked at the map the more he saw.

Four doors lay at the far corners of the island. The areas directly around the doors were the smallest, while the sections bordering the “edge of the island” and the very middle were the largest. Picking a nice solid chunk that was just under 6000m2 and shaped into an oval, Innearth made his decision.

One of the bigger ones. Empty slots around so my friends can border my area. Chance that adventurers will be passing between those doors for some reason. Seems like as good a place as any.

A moment later without much fanfare, Innearth was given a shared design area similar to the base of the ring event to work in.

Well. Time to get to work.

…

Innearth wanted to make his section of the island different.

From the various tests so far Innearth had seen that many Cores used Rank 1 mana. Most of those used rank 2 mana. And, for some reason – despite it being the last option this rank – less than half the Cores used rank 3 mana. The ones that did, didn't seem to use any of the mixing effects and were…decidedly worse in it than him.

Sure, it’s slightly harder to work with but not excessively.

Anyways what that means is that if I play around with void combinations, I can probably make some materials to make me stand out.

…At least I hope. I haven’t been watching many of the higher-tier Cores, I shouldn’t just assume I’ll be unique if I do so.

Let's see – ignore Air. I heard you can make suffocation mana materials with Air and Void, but I really don't care enough for that.

Fire – I know the void Fire and Ice combinations. Add in darkness from the Light combination as well…

I haven't actually tried Earth or Water yet?

Let's see.

With a minor amount of effort, Innearth spent some time making both a void liquid and a void solid...void liquid was a flowing liquid that melted through everything including itself...it was essentially an acid mana that was nearly impossible to store and disappeared even quicker than void fire burned through its fuel…remembering the healing liquid that life and water mana made vs the healing liquid with mercury, Innearth tried using void mana on mercury.

...after burning through a large amount of it in typical void fashion, the result was a liquid that melted downwards endlessly without consuming itself.

It was slower acting...but also hard to deal with. It was harder for Innearth to lift up than regular void materials for one. For another, while void mercury would not eat regular mercury (or itself)…it was a liquid and would rapidly disperse through regular mercury before eating the surroundings.

Innearth felt like if he made a pool of it he could dig a hole to the center of the earth...but honestly he could do the same thing with regular void materials in a more controlled manner. Also in a way, his burrowers were doing this already in a manner even more controlled than random pools of acid.

Earth and Void was somewhat disappointing initially. It made a dark matte black block of material that surprisingly didn't eat through anything. Tossing it around and trying a few tests Innearth found it was brittle but also soft...it burned easily, dissolved slowly in water like salt and was weak to magic.

Finally, almost by accident, Innearth found the solid void was almost immune to other void damage. That was incredibly useful going forwards even if it was weak in other ways. As a proof of concept Innearth made a thin pool of mercury void liquid in the center of his assigned area. The bottom was lined with an insulating layer of thick solid void to prevent it from digging a hole to the center of the earth.

Trying a few combinations of crystal and void, Innearth hit the X void combo that was activated by mana to act stronger. It made for a far safer material in many ways… but void materials already cut through stuff like butter and adding in a mana requirement to make it cut easier seemed like a downgrade. The one point it was better was in terms of completely destroying something. While a void blade could cut through a stone with very little pressure, it would take a while for a flat piece of void material to melt through the whole stone for example. A plate of void crystal could make a quick way to dispose of something safely.

Next he tried stone mana which made something roughly halfway between the solid void and regular void materials. It was slightly stronger than the soft void material bit also ate through anything that wasn’t void flavoured slowly. It was immune from all but the strongest void damage while also not damaging other void materials.

...so the best way of insulating something is to make a layer of solid void, then void stone, then whatever combined void material you want. Got it.

Of course using the same material as the void was the best for most void materials. Void iron with a hilt of normal iron made a better void sword than a convoluted mess of void iron then stone/solid.

What it did mean however, was that Innearth could make a monster that regenerated void fire to fit his "unique" aspect. Ever since he had found that material and had realized it burnt itself up but could be regenerated if it was a monster part he had wanted to use it. This setup was what would let him do that.

Seems like the best thing I can do to try and stand out.

Innearth tried out something relatively simple. He made a mass of void stone and sunk it into the corrosive pool. Working upwards, Innearth made a bendable stalk full of a single stem of “regenerating life mercury” – surrounded by 5 streams of healing liquid – then wrapped in an easy thin layer of crystal flesh.

This root spiralled upwards and then held up to a half-sphere with several artistically placed void petals. The middle of the sphere had an insulated bowl with a solid chunk of void fire embedded in it. The whole plant was given a bunch of life materials "just because it was a plant” and then given life.

Slowly unfolding the plant moved its stalk around – a black inverted fire rising up from its top.

It was strangely beautiful despite not being as dangerous as the mass of void materials would suggest.

At the end of the day, while it looked cooler, void fire was slightly less effective than most void materials and harder to control.

Sure, if the head of the void rose hit someone it would do a lot of damage, but the void petals did almost as much damage as the inner fire.

That being said Innearth was experimenting and he still had some options to work towards. A second void rose was made to complement the first – this one fully embracing the rose theme.

All the way up its stalk, void barbs were made and at the very top Innearth added some kinetic materials to shove it around...it was at this point that Innearth decided to try and combine void with rank 2 mana.

He had already tried mental mana so he moved on to life and void and then death and void.

The “Unlife or Undeath” materials made were...strange. Inverted death was adjacent to life, but the exact properties seemed to be close to simply blocking certain kinds of damage. A guide later and it was discovered that Undeath materials could prevent (most) age-related damage from affecting life aspect creatures along with making a shield or charm that blocked death magic...and the same directed in the opposite way for unlife. The materials also blocked the beneficial healing effects when used in the opposite manner. Unlife cuffs could be made that prevented life magic from healing someone and Undeath cuffs could cripple an undead into not regenerating all their decaying body parts.

Useful and Innearth made quite a few loot items out of both of those – then shoved a few undeath shards into the plant schematic.

Moving on to kinetic materials. Innearth set to work slowly laboriously trying out different combinations – testing results and finding several combinations that: either acted like they had insane levels of friction, would sap movement from stuff around it similar to time mana, or simply blocked most movement or force in one direction. The "blocking most movement" –combined with kinetic materials for stability – could make the equivalent of feather falling boots. Items that let someone fall at a slow controlled speed.

This result was subtlety different than decreasing the effect of gravity on someone using gravity materials. That would result in someone taking longer to accelerate but ultimately reach something close to terminal velocity. In comparison, this material would let someone accelerate up to a lower max speed as long as it was facing the correct direction.

Other versions could also be used to make shields that resisted a large amount of force when hit on one side...but Innearth could tell the way of transferring kinetic energy completely that Doc had was much stronger and scalable. This was just a 50% reduction on average as opposed to a 100% transference that could block and cage demons even with their mana vore.

The most useful discovery for this design was discovered once he flipped the kinetic mana to gravity mana. Kinetic internal acting mana to gravity external acting made a sucking black hole type mana that pulled anything and everything towards it in one or more directions.

With this new material in hand the 3rd through 10th stalks of the void rose bush were given a way to pull adventurers towards them.

...this rose bush is basically a boss monster...a boss plant? Well either way if anyone beats this, they are getting a good reward…Is it strong enough that I have to hide weapons to counter it nearby? I could make a void shield and boots to give adventurers a chance. Hide them really well and reward those that can find them?

Innearth: so how is everyone else doing?

Amy: I've spent the past 3 days planting vines and flowing stalks and coral grass...I haven't decided the monsters yet but it's important to set up the environment for them you know?

Fated Eternal Design: I've made...well I'm completely out of room to make what I originally wanted. I'm at 3/7 on my questline but there's just not enough space to do what I want. I'm going have to cut it short at 4 parts but that means I have to rewrite the storyline to condense it :/

Abe: there was just enough room to set up a mysterious vault. Placing bombs now.

Amy: you are not blowing up anything in our shared area. I do not want gross flaming shrapnel burning my plants.

Innearth: Hey FED...do you want help with your questline? I've never had much interest in going the full plunge and making my own questline but I have plenty of space if you want to move small things to my area?

Fated Eternal Design: ...what does your place look like so far?

Abe: Amy what is the point in designing a mini dungeon if I can't blow it up? I'll dial back the flowing fire and secondary bombs and that's the most I'm willing to compromise.

Innearth: here. come see my void rose bush.

Amy: you WERE GOING USE SECONDARY BOMBS LIKE YOU SHOWED OFF IN YOUR TOUR! absolutely not. Not even dialled back you have to cut those.

Innearth showed FED his bush and got a surprising enthusiastic result.

Fated Eternal Design: I LOVE IT. Please. I'm going to make one of the ingredients needed to slay the witch king be a clipping from this bush...can you make some smaller branches? Those stalks look amazing but I'm thinking something that can be held easily… not a 3-meter long tree trunk they have to drag over to the cauldron.

Innearth: done. Want to integrate in items that can help weaken this? Some void clippers that can cut through it?

Fated Eternal Design: Of course! Send me any ideas you have there’s a lot we can do with this. I’ll send you a few other quest items to hide when I solidify them okay? What do you think of hiding an insulated treasure chest just underneath that pool of liquid?

…

After brainstorming, Innearth made several thin tendrils that ran between the thicker roots to fulfil FED’s request. He then returned to the rest of the group.

Innearth: we have this chance to work together and we'll...it seems almost disappointing to all be working on our own separate plots of land. I feel like...I feel like that's not the goal of this event. I feel like that’s wasting the opportunity we are being given right here.

Innearth: sorry let me start again. I just added myself to FED's questline - you guys should too! We can all be a stop in the quest!

Amy: Okay. That's fine. What should I add?

Fated Eternal Design: oh! Some sort of harvestable item would be the best. It doesn't actually really matter what It is… I can make up its importance later. Something that “seems important” is better than something that doesn't. The visuals are important.

Amy: ...well I guess just can buy some light blooms? They are incredibly fragile flowers that sort of...well they appear like they convert darkness to light but they just shine brighter in dark places. In direct light that's not their own they melt away and disappear within seconds but as long as I can protect the roots they will grow back.

Fated Eternal Design: That's perfect. A fragile source of light to pierce the gloom...add to that a twisted bloom of the anthema to all…and I'm already well on my way to finishing this.

Abe: ...well not to be left out but all you need is something renewable? It's not a plant but I can make unstable rods and place them in my vault. They explode with too much...of anything really. Too much movement, too much light, too much sound. Sometimes they even blow up on their own! But that's rare.

Abe: If it's better if I don't make them, I could set them into a monster or plant and have them regrow when plucked? anyone know how much traffic this mysterious island will get?

Abe: Oh! Our host's rhinos were making me think of making a large thick monster like that. We got that schematic in the adventurer delve – I'm going to alter it to one that charges much much faster and has growing explosive rods on its back! His moved much too slow for my tastes.

Fated Eternal Design: That works yep. A rod of energy a spark to ignite the life…now I just have to set up the witch kings spawn and tweak some of my own materials.

Innearth: I'm going make a rhino monster as well!

Innearth: Want to name them similar? Want to collaborate on both?

Abe: name sure! collaborate...I think I'm good for now, but if you want, I can send you what I have when I'm done, and we can tweak them to look similar.

Innearth: Done!

Innearth set to work designing the rest of his area. Expecting many cores to use simple traps and monster, Innearth wanted to make a puzzle to really stand out...and he roughly had an idea of what to do for that…

…

Before he knew it, time was up. Before he knew it, the adventurers arrived.