The main hall of the Astralis Requiem headquarters was pleasantly quiet; with official business already settled, Lohan and Lisa no longer had any major burdens weighing on their minds to worry them as they had in recent days.
The sun of Elysium, filtered through the colossal leaves of the ancient tree, bathed the wooden floor in shades of amber and emerald.
The guild was practically empty at that moment; most of the guild’s players had followed Lisa and Lohan’s advice, logging off to enjoy their loot and rest their real bodies after the Herculean effort of the recent dungeon run.
At that point, although there were a few others still logged into the game, only three members remained in the lower lobby, chatting animatedly as they sorted through some low-level gear, while outside, Elle and Pip could be seen through the slits of light, diligently tending to the fairy garden and keeping watch over the perimeter.
Lisa, as excited as a child facing a Christmas present, ran to the corner of the room where the Astral Chest rested.
The Astral Chest, with its silver details gleaming like constellations, seemed to pulse in recognition of its owner’s presence. She opened the dimensional interface and, with a careful movement of her front paws, removed the new Level 15 Dungeon Core that Dylan had found in the ruins of the Tree Sovereign.
Theoretically, this wasn’t necessary, since they could access the chest’s contents from anywhere, but the ritual of opening the chest and physically removing the gem from it was like unwrapping a Christmas present, far more satisfying than simply having it appear ready-made in front of her.
The gem was magnificent. It was of a higher quality than any Mana Stone Lohan had ever seen, emitting a deep crimson glow that seemed to contain a beating heart within it.
The moment Lisa’s fingers, or rather, the fox’s paws, enveloped the gem, she froze. An expression of utter surprise crossed her canine face, and her two white tails wagged erratically.
"Halon, can you feel this?" Lisa asked through the mental link, her voice laden with genuine astonishment. "The moment I touched this thing, I felt a physical pull. It’s not just Mana... it’s as if the energy from this core is being magnetically pulled toward the current core of our tree."
Lohan, who had been watching the scene with a mix of pride and curiosity, rolled closer.
As he drew nearer, he realized it was as if a very faint, thin line had appeared in the air, pointing precisely toward the core of their dungeon!
"I feel it, Lisa. It’s as if they recognize the same origin, but obviously with different scales of power, calling out to be together." Lohan replied, forming a small bluish hand that emerged from the side of his body. "Let me hold this for a second. I want to test the density of this energy."
Lisa didn’t mind and let go of the core, allowing Lohan to envelop it with his biomass. She sat back on her hind legs, tilting her head playfully as she watched the Slime hold the precious gem.
"To be honest, if you wanted to eat that core right now, I wouldn’t mind," Lisa remarked with an amused tone and a mischievous twinkle in her golden eyes. "I’m genuinely curious about what a glutton like you would gain from digesting the heart of a Level 15 dungeon. Would you turn into a walking dungeon? Or perhaps gain total control over the geography of Mythlorien?"
Upon hearing her words, Lohan was stunned and froze in place, his slime suddenly stiffening as he processed that idea.
Until that very millisecond, the possibility of digesting the Dungeon Core had never crossed his mind.
The Devourer, after all, was a class that had so far allowed him to devour, digest, and absorb the positive attributes of everything he ate, from grass and common insects to players and elite monsters. Biomass was the bare minimum he could receive as a consolation prize, while evolutions were the real prize.
Lohan looked uncertainly at the valuable second core in his possession.
The temptation was immediate and visceral. Digesting it could, theoretically, catapult his level or grant him authority over the world of Elysium that no other Player possessed. However, Lohan’s rational and cynical side soon regained control.
"The offer is tempting, little fox, I won’t lie... Lohan admitted, letting out a mental sigh that made his membrane vibrate. "But setting aside all the danger factors I might face by trying to digest something like this right now, while I’m still as weak as I am, since I haven’t even had the courage to digest the Level 15 Boss Core yet... this is only our second core. Astralis hasn’t stopped searching for information on other dungeons, but so far, no other member has brought back news of anything similar."
"If there are other cores out there, the big corporations might already be on their trail. Digesting this now would be a selfish gain in exchange for a strategic vulnerability for our guild."
Lohan realized that now that Astralis Requiem was on the verge of qualitative growth, even while still focused on its own development, he shouldn’t ignore the advantages the guild could gain at times like this.
Not to mention that, thinking along those lines, Lohan realized he had many contacts, but hadn’t developed strong relationships with almost any of them.
He recalled his contacts among the elves, such as Aeliana, Yrneha, and Archmage Joseph. Having a base that was not just a "revitalized dead tree," but a high-level fortress, would be an immense diplomatic advantage. The people of this world respected the power manifested in infrastructure.
If he could demonstrate this at some point in the future, in addition to the power and practicality brought by the new members, Lohan was confident he could easily obtain more information about dungeons, thus no longer needing to worry about dungeon cores.
"With a slight twinge in my heart, Lisa... I’m going to pass on snacking on this gem," Lohan joked, though there was a note of seriousness in his decision. "Instead, let’s carry out the fusion. Our current core is Level 10, and this one is Level 15. I’m excited to see how the tree’s structure will react to receiving such a superior energy charge."
Lisa nodded, pleased with her partner’s maturity. "You made the right choice, Halon. I wouldn’t let you risk digesting something like that recklessly, that would be far too dangerous."
The dungeon’s current core was embedded and secured within the wood at the center of the ancient tree, a method they’d devised early on to protect the guild’s heart from invaders or theft. Lohan approached the wall of fossilized wood, activating the flow of his Holy Light, which had evolved from Natural Energy.
With delicate control, Lohan extended tentacles that penetrated the tree’s bark as if they were roots searching for water.
He felt the Level 10 Core pulsing there, emitting a calm bluish light. Using the malleability of his biomass, Lohan very gently removed the ancient core.
The moment Lohan placed the two Cores face to face, the energy connecting them became incredibly powerful, but something extraordinary happened.
Lohan and Lisa had expected the Level 15 Core to dominate the process, easily devouring the lower-level Core, but reality in Elysium once again proved different from what they had anticipated.
The Level 10 Core, which had been constantly nourished by Lohan’s Sacred Light powers, in addition to the nourishment it received simply from the players’ presence in the tree, acted like a predator and began to digest the Level 15 Core!
The scene was mesmerizing.
Small filaments of blue light emerged from the older core and enveloped the crimson gem.
The energy from the upper core was being sucked in and transferred to the lower core in a rhythmic, voracious flow. Lohan, who was still in physical contact with the tree’s wood, felt the impact instantly.
An overwhelming vitality began to course through the fibers of the wood beneath him.
It was as if the tree’s sap, which had previously been sparse and weak, had transformed into a river of liquid gold.
The wood, which had been parched and lifeless, bearing deep cracks that Lohan had been unable to heal on his own, began to transform before Lisa’s eyes.
The cracks closed on their own, the sound of the wood reorganizing itself echoing through the hall like the snapping of gigantic fingers.
The gray, fossilized bark fell away in pieces, revealing beneath it white, polished wood full of luminous grains that seemed to shine with the color of the stars!
"Halon... look at how the walls are glowing!" Lisa exclaimed, feeling the Mana in the air grow denser than usual, with the air even seeming to have a sweet taste.
Lohan vibrated his gelatin, feeling a deep connection with his surroundings.
"I didn’t expect the upgrade to be so visually striking. Feel this, Bella. The Mana and Stamina recovery from the headquarters has been amplified to an even higher level than before... I’ll just need a moment to calculate exactly how much greater it is now..."
The energy continued to expand, flowing down through the roots and up to the highest branches where the fairies resided.
Lohan then realized that, surprisingly, the Guild Aura’s range had increased by 50%!
And not only that, opening the Guild Skills list, Lohan was surprised to find that with this fusion, all the guild’s skills had also evolved!!
’Wait a minute, is this something unique to our guild, or can all the other guilds do this too? After all, human guilds don’t have cores, right?!’