Lost in Transit

29

^^ Bulette Creatures ^^

"Remind me again why I'm here? In the snow? Away from my warm bed and warm studio?" Rhea sighed at us, tugging her fur jacket tighter around her.

"You used Ice Magic when you were pissed at the Arch-Mage. Luna thinks you can be a mage, and I think you need battle Experience, just like Medea. Stop bitching." I frowned at her, and commanded the golem to stop digging, pulling out a thick piece of crystal capped with metal out of my pocket.

We'd circled around to the other side of the mountain before beginning our circuitous route towards the Dungeon, to prevent anything inside from escaping towards our village. That is, if it got past the four small stone golems, six wood golems, and two Hugo's that were posted at the exit as security.

The item in my hand was James' invention; a piece of magic crystal as big as my palm, perfectly clear, surrounded by a ring and cap of Adamantite; it echolocated with the main map, and gave me my exact position, exactly like a GPS, only it was 3D, it worked underground, it showed me any other tunnels and structural points, as well as my enemies' positions, all because their magic stones and Auras were tracked by the item if they were within 500 feet. Auras were also carried by living things, not just slimes, so it actually showed me every living thing within 500 feet.

I turned it on with a thought, and hummed at our path, almost perfect. "A deviation of 2 degrees east and 4 degrees astral... Correct 2 degrees west and 4 degrees Core."

The Adamantite golem turned almost imperceptibly, towards my declared destination, and Luna shook her head. "This is ridiculous... what exactly is the plan?"

"We tunnel under the Core, the Crystal Heart. We take the heart. We fight the monsters. We take the heart home and break it into little pieces, and feed it to our other, bigger heart. Then we farm the little horns of crystal that grow from the HoneyPot Heart, and continue our business. Also we mine the Iron that this Core is trying to steal, because we need it more than the Dungeon does." I nodded and laid out our plan simply.

"How do you plan on taking it? It's probably the size of that golem, and wrapped in stone!!!" She shook her head.

"He can carry about 150 tons; I'm sure it'll be fine. Why do you think we made the tunnel so big? Claustrophobia?" I asked wryly.

She hummed, and then shook her head again. "Okay, say you do get it out; feeding it to another heart will just make the other heart so much bigger and stronger... it might even evolve!"

I paused, looking her dead in the eye. "Explain."

"A Crystal Heart ceases to be called a Core when it reaches a certain size; when it gets there, it evolves, and becomes capable of simply moving itself; it no longer needs monster servants. It forms a Golem of sorts, made of Magic Crystals, which is entirely immune to magic! Just like an arch-mage, it cancels out spells before they're even cast! The only way to beat it is to smash it to pieces, before it grows even bigger, and eventually grows skin and muscles, attracting Lightning and absorbing it, becoming a Storm Giant... I don't even want to think about that happening." She shivered.

I blinked slowly, shocked by the new information. "So... crystal hearts are just Cores attempting to gain a humanoid form? They're sentient?"

"No, not even cloud giants, -their final evolution that we know of,- are sentient. They follow basic animalistic desires, based on growth and nothing more. No procreation, no mating, no seeking out others that we've seen; when two see each other, they resort to cannibalism without a second thought. They don't have thoughts about anything other than eating. They're beyond terrifying." She shivered.