Ragnar’s soul floated in the void. He didn’t die in combat so the valkyries had no interest in him. He would be doomed to wander in Helheim but Fate had another plan for him.
Darkness stretched forever. Any notion of time and space was nonexistent. Yet he endured. Until he saw a serpent coming for him.
“Ragnar the dvergar!” It hissed. “Your fate lies not in the void.”
The soul recognized the serpent. “What business do you have with me, spawn of Jormungandr? Speak your piece, Loki’s grandson!”
“Know that I alone among my siblings escaped my sire’s madness. Though Ragnarok is over, the Nine Realms are still in peril. All of creation will perish if we do nothing but bicker!” The serpent scolded the drifting dvergar soul. “I inherited Midgard as others inherited the Realms even though some remain unclaimed. It is my wish to restore the world order and save the Nine Realms.”
Ragnar could sense sincerity and honor in the serpent’s words. “What would you have this dead dvergar do?”
“I offer you a covenant. I require sturdy and wise souls such as yours. What I offer you is the chance to leave this void and go back to the world of the living. I cannot offer you flesh, however. You will forevermore be changed. All I ask is that you live your new life to its fullest.”
The dvergar was skeptical. “And how shall that somehow restore balance to the Nine Realms?”
His suspicion angered the serpent.“That’s all I have to say, dvergar. Accept my offer or forever drift in this void. Know that your ward’s bloodline still lives in my realm. You may meet the dvergar princess heir if Fate wills.”
Ragnar knew there was a catch, one that would make him refuse the deal if he knew what it was. Otherwise, the serpent wouldn’t need such honeyed words. Two things were certain, however. This Lord of Midgard needed him. And he would give anything up to meet Helisheidr’s heir.
“I’ll accept your deal in the spirit it is offered, Lord of Midgard.”
The snake hissed with glee. “Excellent!”
<hr>
The Lord of Midgard collected many souls lingering around his Realm. Most of them were weak, although he did find one einherjar here and there. They had to be strong and stalwart if they were to fulfill the purpose he had for them. The dvergar showed promise, a rare find. Given the nature of the task he had for him, it was the best.
As the branches and leaves of Yggdrasil rained upon Midgard like meteors, seeds from the mighty ash tree also fell. These seeds were unlike any other plant seed. These crystalline shards needed a soul to bind onto, and to be planted deep underground to grow. Over centuries, they would sprout branches toward the upper Realms, and roots toward the inferior ones. That way the seeds would circulate both mana and miasma between the Nine Realms, rekindling the lifeforce of these stagnant dimensions.
His hope was that at least one of these seeds could grow into a new World Tree.
They would leak mana into Midgard, keeping the magic of the world alive. And also miasma, enticing and drawing monsters to live near their roots. This would have the added benefit of removing the monster population from the surface and trapping them underground.
These saplings eventually would dig deeper tunnels and breach the dimensions. For the Nine Realms, they were hope for the restoration of the universal order and balance. For the inhabitants of Midgard, a place of wonder and danger. And for the monsters, a prison.
These tunnels were called Dungeons. The seedlings’ origins remained behind a veil of mystery. They would be known as Dungeon Cores.
One of these, seeded next to Witch Hill, hosted Ragnar’s soul.
<hr>
“Wake up, sleepyhead! Wake up, wake up, WAKE UP!” A shrill and sharp voice roused Ragnar from his slumber.
He tried to open his eyes but he found he had no muscles to move. Yet he could perceive. He was in a dark and cozy place, deep underground. The feeling of hundreds of meters of stone all around him was very comfortable.
“Hello!” The tiny voice spoke again. “CAN YOU HEAR ME?!?!?!?”
He felt something tapping on him. Ragnar mused, how was he supposed to talk if he had not even a mouth?
As if reading his thoughts, the voice answered, “By the Lord’s grace! All you Cores are SO DUMB! You just need to think very hard and we can talk! With our minds! Or my beautiful mouth and your… not so beautiful mind.”
Ragnar groaned inside. What kind of critter was he stuck with? Worse, he couldn’t move. He loathed but probably communicating with this whiny-voiced pest was the best solution.
He focused on the source of the voice and perceived a creature with two arms, two legs, one head, and a set of four butterfly wings. A fairy.
He concentrated on the fay and sent a thought.
“Why are you here, fairy?” Ragnar tried to hide his annoyance. Winged fairies were mischievous creatures up to no good. Dvergar usually banished them on sight.
“Because it’s my job! You see, the Lord of Midgard hired us fairies to guide you Dungeon Cores. That’s how the humans on the surface call you seedlings, anyway.”
He barely recalled his deal with Jormungadr’s spawn. Something about agreeing to a second life… Wait, “Dungeon Core”? Worse, “Seedling?”
Exasperated, Ragnar quickly inquired, “What do you mean by seedling?”
“Oh, yes! Your new life is as a Seed of Yggdrasil! You’ll grow big and fruitful, reaching with your branches and roots all the way through the realms! IT WILL BE GLORIOUS!” The fairy exulted.
Ragnar felt a vein popping in the head he no longer had. A TREE? A SAPPING TREE? NO FREAKING WAY!
He still didn’t want to antagonize the fairy. Ragnar carefully kept his outrage bottled in. “Are you sure you are not mistaken, fairy?”
“No! Not at all. You can check for yourself if you think ‘Status!’, like a spell chant. You were a dvergar, you know how to do it. Lucky me, I hate when I get a human core. They are so dumb and clueless!”
Ragnar would bash something if he had hands. He pulled his status. He noticed the menu was written in the language of Midgard.
<blockquote>
Name: Ragnar
Core Type: Tetrahedron (regular).
Core Rank: 0
Facets: 4 Tiny Triangular
Free facets: 4 Tiny Triangular
Inscribed Facets: None.
Crystallized Facets: None
Current/Maximum Mana: 10 / 100
Mana Absorption: 1 / day.
Current/Maximum Miasma: 10 / 100If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Miasma Absorption: 1 / day.
Current/Maximum Materials: 0 / 100
Mana to next rank: 100
Miasma to next rank: 100
<ul>
<li>[Inscribe Facet]</li>
<li>[Erase Facet]</li>
<li>[Rank Up]</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
The phrases in brackets at the end appeared to be interactive. The two at the bottom, however, were grayed out. He wouldn’t mess with any commands before knowing what they did.
“Could you please explain to me what this ‘Status’ thing means?”
He asked politely. If he was a seed it meant he was basically sessile now. Fairies were fickle and fast. If he angered the critter, it would fly away and leave him alone. To avoid the worst outcome, Ragnar decided to be diplomatic.
“Of course! I like you already, Ragnar! I can see your Status as well because I’m your bonded fairy. So, here it goes. First is your name, then the current shape of your crystal seed, your being. You are a Core now, keep it in mind. You are a regular tetrahedron, the smallest kind of seed there is. You must sprout! Well, I don’t know if you studied geometry--”
Her cheeky behavior grated Ragnar past his threshold. “I’ll let you know I was the Lorekeeper of Nidavellir in the court of king Hreidmar! I know my mathematics better than most mathematicians! I have four facets, and by the looks of it, they can be either free, inscribed, or crystallized. What does each classification mean?”
She mocked him by bowing like a jester. “Of course, milord. I wasn’t aware I was dealing with former dvergar royalty! A free facet is available for inscribing. There are several runes you can inscribe on your facets, each of them has a specific effect. A free facet does nothing, it is the most boring of them all. Once you inscribe, it becomes inscribed, doh,” she giggled, “Silly me, of course, it is inscribed once it is inscribed! The name says it all!”
Ragnar knew that if he didn’t direct the fairy, she would go on a tangent forever. The little bugs could talk on their own for ages. “What can I do with an inscribed facet?”
“You can do nothing and enjoy the effects of the inscription, or you can erase it if you change your mind. Inscribed facets are awesome like that!”
“Okay. So I can inscribe and erase however many times I want, right?”
“Yes and no! You can but both actions cost mana. Inscribing a facet costs 2 mana and miasma. Erasing a facet costs 5 mana and miasma. Mana is precious and you need lots of it for everything! Not to mention miasma, it is important to lure in monsters!” She seemed to reach the apex of her speech because she assumed a lecturing posture. “So, to gain mana--”
“Wait. I beseech you, milady fairy. What is a crystallized facet?”
“Oh, I forgot that! Silly me! When you rank up, your new shape crystallizes over the previous. The inscribed facets… this is VERY IMPORTANT! Never rank up with free facets! You gotta inscribe all of them before doing so!”
“I’ll be sure to remember that. What is the deal with Crystallized facets?”
“You see, they can’t be erased because they are inside you! So once a facet is crystallized, it is game over for that one. But when you rank up you get new facets to play with. That’s very cool. You have to be careful about what facets you want to inscribe and plan your build. Speaking of which, you should open your inscribe menu now. Pick two branch glyphs and two root glyphs to get you started.”
Ragnar didn’t answer. Instead, he contemplated the fae creature and his predicament.
He was a seed.
Not even a fucking sapling from Yggdrasil. Yet.
No. That wasn’t going to happen. Ragnar would rather die again than become a bleeding tree.
“I’ll browse the inscription menu. Is there any problem with that?”
The fairy smiled and said with a spring on her voice. “No. The options you must pick are the first two. Two of each and we’ll get started. You’ll rank up really soon as each inscription will give you two mana or miasma per facet.”
“I’m right on it,” Ragnar replied noncommittally.
<blockquote>
[Inscribe Facet]: Tiny facets cost 2 mana and 2 miasma to inscribe. The following glyphs are available for any facet:
<ul>
<li>Dimensional Branch: Grow a branch that pierces into the Celestial Realm. Gain +2 Mana per day. Growing branches fixes you in place. Branch glyphs crystallize after inscription and cannot be erased.</li>
<li>Dimensional Root: Grow a root that pierces into the Infernal Realm. Gain +2 Miasma per day. Growing roots fix you in place. Root glyphs crystallize after inscription and cannot be erased.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
And there was it, the dilemma of every stupid tree. Get rooted in one place and wish for the best. No. Ragnar would never pick one of these two.
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Mana Release Glyph: You can release mana into the ambient to cast spells and create effects.</li>
<li>Miasma Release Glyph: You can release miasma into the ambient to taint the atmosphere and claim the area as your domain. Each glyph reduces your miasma recovery by 1 per day.</li>
<li>Excavation Glyph: Excavate the rock next to the atmosphere tainted by your miasma. Collects 2 units of raw materials per hour.</li>
<li>Matter to Mana Conversion: Increases your rate of conversion of raw materials into mana by 1%.</li>
<li>Mana Corruption: Increases your rate of conversion of mana into miasma by 1%.</li>
<li>Purification Glyph: Increases your rate of conversion of miasma into mana by 1%.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
He could see the appeal of the branches and roots. If he added one excavation glyph and two mana conversion ones, he would gain roughly one mana per day, a sixth of the mana the same three facets grown into branches would give passively. Worse, he needed to release miasma into the air to excavate, his fourth facet. That would leave him without a way to acquire miasma and forever lock him from ranking up.
He would live an eternity as a stupid seed rather than become a tree.
There was only one path forward. Compromising was never an option. He would take the hardcore path. The Dungeon Core would take the hardcore path, he thought with a chuckle.
<blockquote>
Inscribing Facets.
<ul>
<li>1 Miasma Release Glyph (tiny)</li>
<li>1 Excavation Glyph (tiny)</li>
<li>1 Matter to Mana Conversion (tiny)</li>
<li>1 Mana Corruption (tiny)</li>
</ul>
For 8 Mana and 8 Miasma.
Confirm? [Yes] / [No]
</blockquote>
He confirmed. His reserves plummeted. Worse, he felt his miasma slowly leaking out. Ragnar checked his Status again.
<blockquote>
Name: Ragnar
Core Type: Tetrahedron (regular).
Core Rank: 0
Facets: 4 Tiny Triangular
Free facets: None
Inscribed Facets: 4 Tiny Triangular (MRG, EG, MMC, MC [Expand] ).
Crystallized Facets: None
Current/Maximum Mana: 2 / 100
Mana Absorption: 1 / day.
Matter to Mana Efficiency: 1.5%
Miasma to Mana Efficiency: N/A
Current/Maximum Miasma: 2 / 100
Miasma Absorption: 0 / day.
Mana to Miasma Efficiency: 1.5%.
Current/Maximum Materials: 0 / 100
Excavation rate: 3 / hour.
Mana to next rank: 100
Miasma to next rank: 100
<ul>
<li>[Inscribe Facet]</li>
<li>[Erase Facet]</li>
<li>[Rank Up]</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
He was resigned with his choices. He would take a year to rank up instead of just twenty-four and a half days, but that was the only way forward.
The fairy, however, was less than pleased. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!?! You stupid dwarf of a dungeon core! You tiny piece of malformed crystal!”
She picked Ragnar up and looked at the facets. “Dumbass! Now you don’t have any Mana or Miasma to erase what you did! It will take days, months to fix this! Dear Lord of Midgard, why? Why am I stuck with this moron?”
Ragnar had a good idea of how small he was. Fairies were about one and a half hands tall. They fit inside a mug of ale. Yet he was being held between the index and thumb of the insect-winged fae.
That meant he was smaller than a pea. Maybe his edge was as long as a grain of rice was wide. From a mighty dvergar lord to a tiny fairy-sized caltrop. A seed.
Yet he was resolved. Ragnar would not become a tree.
“Why does it say one and a half and not one percent?” He asked the flustered fairy.
She grunted and bemoaned him for quite some time before she answered. “Because your shape is a regular polyhedron. Regular polyhedrons are special, their facets are one and a half times as effective. Too bad there’s only six of them. You SHOULD’VE been careful with them, as they form the basis of your core functions. Grow a nice copse, a nice root system, will ya? Pretty please?. You can become other irregular polyhedrons later on, with hundreds of facets.”
Ragnar would’ve scratched his beard if he still had one. She only knew of six regular polyhedra? Too bad for her.
He felt as if he was touching the walls of the small underground chamber they were in. He started to process the raw materials. A unit of “raw material” was less than a tenth of an ounce. Ragnar watched for half an hour as a bit of stone wall flaked off the wall and floated into his tetrahedron, passing through his crystalline facet as if it was made of water.
<blockquote>
Raw materials: 1 / 100
</blockquote>
This would take a long time.
<hr>
The fairy just sat on a corner of the chamber and stared at Ragnar. The Dungeon Core was laying on the floor in the middle of the chamber.
“At least we don’t have to worry about any monsters reaching us. Your miasma production is so pitiful they wouldn’t sense it even if you were glued to their noses,” she whined.
“Aye, lass. But why attract monsters in the first place?:”
“Midgard is in ruins. The collision and merge of four realms changed the planet the humans called Earth. It’s bigger and wilder now. There’s so much suffering and anguish that monsters spawn everywhere!” She started her frantic lecture. Ragnar could tell she was deeply moved by the state of the world.
“Right. Monsters spawning everywhere. But not in here.”
“Yes! So the Lord of Midgard bargained with several souls to bind them to Yggdrasil’s seeds and make them create Dungeons. Once open to the world, the Dungeons emit miasma that attracts monsters and keeps them inside. Then the humans can enter the Dungeon and cull the monsters. Once the monsters are dead, you can attract more and repeat the process. You get lots of Miasma and Mana from the monster kills, the adventurers get stronger, everyone wins!”
“Is there a but in there?”
“But!” She raised a finger, “To be a good Dungeon, you need lots of mana and miasma. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands. The most successful cores have dozens of facets dedicated to branches and roots. They usually use their first crystallizations as only branches and roots, to get a head start. And you, my friend, screwed it up.”
Ragnar shook his metaphorical head. “I weep for the fool that thought becoming a tree was a smart move. We shall see who screwed up,” he said feigning determination.
He wasn’t happy with his predicament. Yet being a polyhedral trans-dimensional ash tree seed was better than the void or post-Ragnarok Helheim. He just had to make it work.