The great cores paradox.., p.1
The Great Cores Paradox 2: Book 2, page 1
THE GREAT CORES PARADOX 2
©2023 ZENDRAN
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Contents
Also by Zendran
1. Fire?
2. Fire!
3. Flammable-Winged Bad-Things
4. Legs Are Horrible
5. Ash and Blood
6. The Second Blood
7. Ascended Threat
8. A Recognizable Story
9. A New Taste
10. The Grove
11. The Children of the Mist
12. Lost in the Maze
13. Twitch and Twinge
14. Veins of Green and Black
15. Artisan
16. Moving In
17. The Guildhall
18. The Pillars of Victory
19. Exploring the Guildhall
20. Try and Try Again
21. Preparing to Walk the Mist
22. Walking the Mist
23. Breaths of Green
24. Little Puppeteer
25. The Broken Puppet
26. Spore Puppeteer
27. Taking Root
28. The Once-Corrupted’s Troubles
29. Finding Control
30. A Well-Adjusted Puppet
31. Over the Edge
32. Testing the Mists
33. The Great, Useless Moving-Wall
34. A Long Stick
35. Veins of Gold and Blue
36. A Web of Vines
37. Rot and Redemption
38. Taking Flight
39. Winged Flight, Winged Fight
40. Filling the Senses
41. A Proper Reward
42. The Strength of a Stare
43. Bridging the Distance
44. Moving Down
45. The Fall
46. Healing and Enhancement
47. Strength and Spores
48. The Stolen Spear
49. An Imperfect World
50. Clearing the Air
51. Broken and Healed
52. Starting the Path
53. A Shield in the Snow
54. The Shield and the Snake
55. A Body, Broken
56. In Need of Defense
57. Answering Silence
58. A Show of Faith
59. The Lesser Core’s Lair
60. Sharp as an Arrow Can Be
61. Kill Them All
62. A Duel of Idiots
63. The Long Way ’Round
64. The Snake and the Shadow Gem
65. Those Who Came Before
66. Retribution
67. The Golem
68. Verdure Parasite
69. The Great Darkwood
70. True Victory
71. Coming Down
72. Root of a Miracle
73. A Golem and its Mother
74. A Roar Like Rumbling Stone
75. Followers of Plant-Flesh
76. Sharpened Fangs and Inevitable Bites
77. The Forest, The Dragon, and The Snake
78. Bit by Bit
79. The Golem’s Fading Heart
80. A Snake’s Rewards
81. The Best of Many Choices
82. Summon
83. The Echo and the Bad-Things
84. Echo-Focus
85. Accusation
86. The Seekers of Virtun
87. Epilogue
Thank you for reading The Great Cores Paradox 2
Also by Zendran
The Great Cores Paradox 1
The Great Cores Paradox 2
The Great Cores Paradox 3
Chapter 1
Fire?
Reared back, jaws open wide, I struck. My fangs buried into flesh and liquid gold dripped from their channels. A few seconds later, I pulled back. The tiny holes my fangs left behind knit themselves closed.
“Fuck, that really woke me up,” a voice cried out, the noises rapidly jumbling together. In a habitual sweep of the nearby Totems, something I’d been doing to get a better grasp on what my Coreless were thinking and talking about, I caught a general taste of [amusement]. It was quickly followed by raucous laughter. That chortling series of repeated noises that once confused me so much.
“Deal with it, Rowan,” Needle grunted. “Maybe you won’t be such a baby next time you manage to cut yourself and you can avoid the Little Guardian here trying to fix you up.” Her voice was flat, but there was a twinkling in her eyes and [amusement] continued to run through the connection to the [Little Guardian’s Totem] hidden beneath her skin of ore-flesh.
“Hey, now,” the newest addition to our group replied. “I have sensitive skin. Besides, we can’t all be scar-covered monstrosities like Doran and Erik. Some of us like to have more class.”
“Hey!” Will objected. The tone he used sounded like the times my Coreless radiated [hurt], but I didn’t taste any. There was only [amusement], and his teeth were bared the same as before. My Coreless were confusing.
“Oh, fuck off.” The Unrepentant One was even harder to read. Unlike the others, he wore his [Little Guardian’s Totem] on the outside of his ore-flesh. I was only able to sense his emotions in the brief instances the darkwood carving swung and brushed against his arms or hands.
“Don’t worry, Doran. I’m sure that Valera loves scars.”
“I actually do. They’re pretty hot,” the-female-who-was-not-Needle chirped happily.
For some reason, her words made the Unrepentant One’s face turn blood-red before he hid the change behind giant, meaty hands. I was really wishing he would wear his [Little Guardian’s Totem] properly. I hadn’t seen that reaction before and was curious to know what it meant.
Whatever it was, it must have been something funny, because the sense of [amusement] from the other Coreless spiked again and they erupted into laughter. Eventually, though, they calmed down. I took the opportunity to climb back up the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s arm, choosing to take my spot at the top of her head. We weren’t moving, so it wasn’t hard to stay there. Plus, it allowed me to look down on my Coreless—made me feel larger.
Something about that was always satisfying.
We’d been traveling through the large-tunnels of the World Dungeon for a day or so already, confirming my suspicions that we were leaving the many-nest behind for a while. My Coreless were laden with a number of skin-mouths. Each carried useful items, though many weren’t necessary for me. Still, I knew my Coreless could not live purely off of mana like I could, so the bits of mana-water and meats they carried would allow them to assist me more effectively.
Sometimes they offered bits and pieces to me. I didn’t need them, but I typically chose to accept them. It was important to encourage the habit of providing offerings. They tasted okay, generally. A few of the pieces tasted a bit like Aridae, and I enjoyed those ones greatly. They tasted of victory.
Suddenly, the world began to slowly move around me as not-Needle pulled herself to her feet, leaving with a few unintelligible words. Caught off guard, I didn’t catch the emotion behind them in time to help interpret. She reached a hand toward my head-scales as we moved out of the tiny alcove my Coreless had sequestered themselves within while they rested.
I noticed they tried to find small, hidden places when they needed to sleep. I approved. It was like searching for wall-cracks, areas of the World Dungeon where bad-things would have a harder time attacking them.
Except, well, not nearly as good. Their hidden places were still pretty huge. Then again, so were the Coreless.
The cavern housing the alcove was vast, at least in my perspective. While it wasn’t anywhere near the size of the cavern of the many-nest, it still seemed to stretch on and on. I could just barely make out the light of glow-caps at the other end, the light-providing forests they created, sprawling across the outside edges of the cavern. A few dotted the center here and there, but not nearly as many. Most seemed to be dead. The ones that remained had b een damaged and near-crushed by a vast horde. Probably a portion of my own Coreless, running from whatever many-nest they’d lived in before I saved them from the Shrieking Bats and Tiamat’s disgusting creatures.
The-female-who-was-not-Needle hummed as she walked about the cavern, examining roots and other growths that spilled from the cavern walls, occasionally cutting pieces off with her fangs of ore-flesh. Some went into one of the skin-mouths at her side, while she kept another small pile bundled within the crook of her arm.
Her task completed, she returned to the alcove where the others had begun to participate in some sort of bizarre activity. They’d gathered around each other and were tossing a set of many-sided stones. For some reason, they were alternately very excited and very dejected upon seeing which sides they landed on.
Coreless were strange.
They looked up at our arrival, and the Unrepentant One reached to take the bundle of roots and growths from under the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s arm. After a few brief moments, they were placed near the alcove’s center in an overlapping formation. He turned around and kneeled, beginning to rummage through one of the larger skin-mouths the Coreless carried, now set aside. Before he could find whatever he searched for, the-female-who-was-not-Needle interrupted him.
“Wait, I want to try something first. If it works, we may not have to deal with the smoke of a real fire. It looks like there’s a few channels for airflow up there somewhere, but it’s best to avoid it if we can, and well…”
A hand plucked me from my spot at the top of her head, and I found myself staring into a set of eyes. They looked far more serious than I would have expected. Nothing was really happening that would require the level of focus that her eyes and Totem link were displaying.
I brushed it off. Coreless really were strange.
She pointed at me and then at the pile. I turned with it, looking back immediately. She pointed again.
“Fire?” the-female-who-was-not-Needle questioned, her [Little Guardian’s Totem] link tasting of tentative [anticipation]. “Fire?”
“You know he doesn’t understand you, Valera. It’d be easier to just light it ourselves,” Needle said, a mix of [admonishment] and [amusement] reflected by her [Little Guardian’s Totem].
“No, no. I’ve got this. He’ll figure it out,” not-Needle replied. She pointed at me and then the pile, repeating the same noise from before. Then she started furiously blowing on the pieces. Her face turned red from the exertion. When she looked back to me, she repeated the noise with an expectant look, [anticipation] in her Totem link.
“Fire?” she said, and the [amusement] from the other Coreless spiked. She glared at them, brows furrowed, and the [amusement] increased.
She did it again, face somehow turning even redder than before as she blew on the piled sticks and roots in her fury.
“Fire?” she asked hopefully.
I just stared at her blankly, having already figured out what she wanted earlier. It was obvious she was requesting that I use [Mana Fire] on the waiting pile. I wasn’t stupid. I’d seen my Coreless pile roots and sticks so they could make fires before. I could make the task much easier for them. Pointing at me and the pile before pantomiming the blowing air—or [Mana Fire], in this case—made her meaning pretty clear.
It was just entertaining to watch her try so hard to get me to do it.
Eh, I’d do it eventually. For the moment, I decided to join in on the others’ [amusement] as not-Needle’s face turned blood-red again.
It really was kind of funny.
Chapter 2
Fire!
As funny as it had been pretending to not understand what the-female-who-was-not-Needle wanted from me, it might have been even more entertaining to witness what happened once I actually did what she requested.
A stream of [Mana Fire] burst from my jaws, setting the pile alight. I suddenly found myself whirling through the air as the female Coreless erupted into a series of jumps and overenthusiastic laughter, absolutely radiating [excitement] and [pride].
It took a surprisingly long time for her to settle down. By the time she did, I’d begun to push past amusement and into dizziness. Fortunately, she put me down and the world slowly stopped spinning.
It was a dangerous thing, spinning at such high speeds. I’d have to remember that.
“Fire! Ha! I told you it would work!” she said, one hand on her hip while the other pointed at each of the other Coreless in turn. “And you all doubted. You don’t deserve this fire.”
“Really, Valera? Because we could have just—” Will tried to say, but was interrupted by the-female-who-was-not-Needle, her hand raised in the air, palm aimed toward him.
“Nope! You guys can go make your own, boring, normal fire with the flint and steel you love so much. Meanwhile, those of us who had a little faith can sit here and enjoy this much better one. Oh, looks like that’s just me and the little cutie. Too bad for you.” She plopped down next to the roaring blue flames, lifting me up with her free hand and putting me on her shoulder.
I drooped a little, my scale-flesh relaxing under the warmth of the [Mana Fire]. I hadn’t done much slithering of my own during the day, content to let my Coreless carry me, but it had still been a long day. I was feeling sleepy, and the fire was only making the sensation stronger.
With [amusement] still flowing through their [Little Guardian’s Totem] links, the other Coreless steadily scooted closer, ignoring the noises that the-female-who-was-not-Needle was making. Soon enough, everyone had taken positions near the fire, seeking the warmth it provided.
“You four don’t deserve our fire,” the-female-who-was-not-Needle proclaimed in a mangled hiss.
They didn’t bother to respond, acting as if they hadn’t noticed her hissing and warmed their hands. She hissed a few more times, casting furtive, almost wounded-looking glances at the others. Still, I could sense it was all for show, and the other Coreless probably could too. There was no [hurt] flashing through her [Little Guardian’s Totem], just a mix of [enjoyment], [amusement], and other various positive emotions.
I was thankful that my Coreless—minus the Unrepentant One—were properly wearing their Totems. If they hadn’t been, the strange use of facial expressions that were opposite from what was really being felt that the Coreless sometimes adopted, would have made me completely misunderstand the situation. I may have become a little better at interpreting the Coreless, even without constantly checking what I could find from their Totems, but it was difficult when they did things like that.
Though likely missing something in the exchange here, I was satisfied with my recent progress. It would be much easier to convert Coreless once I was better able to understand them and how they thought.
If only they could learn how to properly hiss. Things would be so much easier then.
I let out a little hiss of regret, adjusting my coils into a more comfortable position. Gradually, the quiet, mangled hisses of my Coreless and the warmth of the fire lulled me into a peaceful slumber.
