Buttopia
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Chapter 169: Identities
🕑 Added 2025-05-28 01:03:51 +0000 UTC“Your name is David Imogen, and yet you prefer to only be referred to as Dave. Explain the concept,” the voice said as the pressure inside my head increased. I had no idea why the core was interested in my name, let alone the fact that I generally used my shorter name.
“Which concept do you want explained? The idea of names or the idea that people can have more than one?” I asked back. I wanted to be precise. I knew from experience that dungeon cores weren’t great at fuzzy concepts, especially at this stage of their lives. That and I wanted to buy time to try to figure out how they were managing to make me feel like this. I thought I was a bit beyond dungeon cores being able to have this kind of force on me.
“I wish to understand the identity of the being that my kind would ally themselves with, as I now understand they did this willingly. They even went so far as to name themselves the same way flesh does. It is insulting!” the voice growled these last words, as rage seemed to bubble up into it.
“Hi, I am Gamma. As I already said, do not be mean, and I will not say it again. Please understand, I used to be like you. I did not like Dave at all when we first met. My partner core and I tried to eat him. We did eat the two brothers out there. It was a mistake. I will learn much about magic with Dave. You should calm down, you could also learn much,” Gamma replied while I was considering my own response.
“I will do as I choose, no traitor commands me!” It roared these words as pressure moved from intense to nearly crushing.
“Enough!” I yelled back, trying to put my own will back into the words. A new, strange feeling blossomed across me as I did this. I could feel my Path of the Dungeon flare intensely, as mana flowed through my mana channels, releasing itself in my command. I don’t know exactly how I knew that was what it was, but something in the class itself seemed to guide my brain to that knowledge.
The pressure in my head felt lessened, and for a split second, I could see through the darkness. I caught a glimpse of a shadowy form in the center of the small room we occupied before the blackness again overwhelmed my ability to see. Whatever had just happened, it had been enough to assert my own authority back over the core, and that was a very interested development.
“Is this how you forced the cores to obey you?” it roared the moment the darkness fully returned.
“Let’s go back to the first question first. Yes, you had my full name. I go by Dave mostly because that was what my dad called me. Often, names are just a gift given to us by our parents, but some people pick their own, though. In the case of my core friends, some have picked their own, and others didn’t care and asked me to assign them.” As I spoke, I pushed out the tiniest bit of that authority that I had used before, not to control anything, but to keep the core from imposing on me again.
I paused for a second, waiting for another comment. Nothing came. “Now, for this ability here. That’s new. Incredibly new. While I did unlock it recently in an attempt to deal with a dungeon forming on my homeworld. I instead used it to deal with another force that was trying to break in from the outside and hurt the core,” I explained.
“Dave is talking about the corruptors. I know you know who those are. I can feel them touching you. Is that why you are so angry?” Gamma asked. I hadn’t considered that. If those outsiders have managed to gain a foothold into the core, was there any way to convince them to stand down?
“Now you blaspheme against the kind ones? You dare to question them?” The voice dropped to a whisper with these words. The pressure withdrew alongside it. While the words themselves suggested more anger, the core sounded scared. It also reminded me of the strangest dungeon encounter I had had so far. A memory of those angry diredeer and the way the dungeon core had spoken played in my head.
“Yes, I do. They are not kind. They just want to use you. For what? I don’t know, and I have no idea if I can even convince you of that with how things are now. I have made my decision, though. This discussion would be much better had once you are cut off from their influence and are in the presence of other cores,” I pushed some of my newfound power into those last words.
“No!” it screamed back, its will crashing against my own. I had expected that.
“Yes!” I replied, keeping my voice perfectly steady, but pouring as much mana as I could out with the order. I could feel my own presence breaking through the force of the core’s will. The room again lightened as the shadow in front of me faded.
The core dropped to the ground with a clunk. I dived forward, grabbing it as quickly as my body would allow, and placed it safely in my System storage. I had no idea if that would actually block the outsider that had contact with it from doing so again, but I was going to take that chance for now. A screech behind me signaled the door was being opened again.
“Dave, are you okay?” Elicec yelled as the door swung inward.
“Mostly. I have the dungeon core. It didn’t agree to surrender, but we can deal with that fact later. For now, it’s safe. That said, I don’t want to risk putting any other cores in my System storage alongside it. So can you two handle that?” I asked, looking back at them.
“Uh, yeah, of course. Man, what happened there? I felt like something was trying to worm its way into my brain,” Cecile said, shuddering as he spoke.
“Dave just encountered another outsider, and the coincidence of that again seems a little insane. I think I need to send a message to Gramps somehow. I don’t like this at all,” Connie added, her voice not much better than Cecile’s.
“I actually think it’s the third, and interestingly, you two have been there for all three encounters now, too,” I said, looking at the brothers.
“The weird diredeer statue then?” Elicec asked.
“That’s my thought at least. With that core destroyed, there isn’t really a good way to tell. But yes, I agree with Connie, if these things are supposed to be so rare, why did we just encounter another one so soon?” I asked.
“Well, now you’ve sealed it. We need to talk to Gramps. I don’t like this at all,” Connie replied.
“I’ll add to the list of things we have to do, but let’s get back to the main floor. I’ve got bad memories of these sub levels,” I said as I headed back to the elevator, wanting no more to do with the basements if I could avoid it. The trip back upstairs was mostly silent and thankfully uneventful.
“Dad, you’ve got a weird look going. Everything okay?” Alex asked as I stepped back onto the main floor, lost in thought about the ramifications of a third potential outsider encounter.
“Oh, yeah, it all went relatively fine. We’ve got the dungeon core and everything, just something new to discuss when we get back home,” I said.
Was it possible I was the one attracting the outsiders? I wasn’t sure that fit, as I certainly wasn’t here when this core created the dungeon. But I had been here before. Then again, so had the brothers. There had to be some connection, I just couldn’t see what it was at the moment. Maybe Traveler or Karlinovo would have a better idea.
“Good, I’ve got the systems already coming back online. You can collect the other dungeon cores once they have moved the books out of the archives. What’s your planet like anyway, Dave? Since we are apparently heading there,” Quarilyn asked.
“I don’t know how to answer that easily, but expect a lot less magic overall,” I replied.
“Oh yeah, your world is brand new to the Spiral, isn’t it? That actually sounds fun. Why didn’t you invite me already El?” She asked as she tapped away at something behind the librarian’s desk.
“Because you were busy running the archives, and I wasn’t remotely sure we would survive the first month of freeing his world, let alone ever be back here for something like this. Frankly, I didn’t want one of my childhood friends to be stuck dying along with me,” Elody replied, her words coming out sharply.
“Ah, well, at least we are going now. I suppose that’s better than nothing. Alright, on the count of three, please, El,” Quarilyn said, her tone had mellowed after Elody’s declaration.
“You know, if it helps, we came here specifically to recruit you for your transport magic knowledge, so it’s not like you were forgotten about. The book heist just got added on top,” Elody replied as she walked behind the desk, joining her friend.
“Really? Actually, yeah, it does help a lot. It means you didn’t forget about me. Now, one, two, three!” She shouted the last word as she and Elody both slammed their fists down on something.
The Triox are one of the newer problems in the Spiral. Not that those at the top would ever consider them a problem. No, these are the type of people they like to empower. Anything that helps them control the free peoples of the Spiral. If I had my way, I’d make my move against them now, but as things stand, there are just far too many of them than there are of me. Instead, I will make my move against something smaller. One day, though, I will have both the strength and following needed to take on organizations as a whole and not just smaller figures who prey on the innocent. The Spiral is broken, and I intend to fix it, no matter the cost.
Diaries of the man calling himself the Spiral Reformer.
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Michael Halpern
In all three instances, Tirox was either present or had agents on the world at one point,
