Bon woke up bright and early the next day. He examined the dungeon core after finishing his morning routine, gazing at the blue crystal which seemed to have arcs of blue light flashing through it. He had got some ideas while resting in bed. He made some coffee and drank a cup.

“Errel,” he said to the half-elf who was watching the morning news, “I’m going out for a while. There’s cereal if you’re hungry, and coffee on the table.”

“Where are you going?” asked Errel.

“Somewhere isolated. I should be back for lunch.”

“Alright.”

Bon walked to his balcony and then took off into the sky. With his qi sense, magnified by mana, he soon found a place without any people. It was a woody area, far away from the city. He didn’t want to risk damaging anyone or anything while he experimented with the dungeon core.

He landed near a copse of pines and immediately infused the dungeon core with a huge quantity of mana. The core began to levitate off the ground. He could sense a pattern within it with his Mana Sense, like the insides of a lock. He shaped his mana to fit into the pattern. He increased the flow of mana and the dungeon core turned a shade darker. When it had almost turned black, Bon saw a sword of light lunging at him.

The sword tip pierced his chest and then dissipated into particles of light. His HP had come down to one. If the HP shield had been even slightly weaker, then he would have died.

A human figure dressed in an ancient purple robe appeared out of the dungeon core and glared at him. The human figure was translucent, and was floating in the air, but Bon could tell that it was no ghost.

“Who are you?”

“Be honored,” the figure said, “For you shall die by the hand of the Duke of Qultar.”

“Can we talk about it?” Bon asked, as he equipped his sword. “Why are you trying to kill someone you’ve just met?”

He did not expect an answer, but the figure surprised him by giving him one. “You should know why you are dying. It is because you dare covet the belongings of the Twin Serpents. Now, give my regards to the Lord of Hell.”

His HP was regenerating quickly, but it wasn’t fast enough. He activated all his auras, and different colored lights suddenly shone around his body. The Duke of Qultar was fast, but Bon was faster now that he was prepared for combat. He sidestepped and dodged when Qultar’s sword was an inch away from his throat, and drove his sword through Qultar’s heart. His sword was blazing with fire which he had fueled to absurd proportions with his mana. Qultar’s body began to fade.

“I shall remember you,” Qultar growled, and then he was gone.

This must have been a Projection. Tian Bu Ru had mentioned them to Bon during their time together. Bon turned off his auras and sat cross-legged on the ground, waiting for his health and mana bars to fill up. He was good to go in about half an hour, and supplied the last bit of mana that was needed to activate the dungeon core.

The dungeon core moved towards him and a portal appeared a few feet away. He grabbed the dungeon core and walked through the portal. After he entered, red and green lights started swirling around the dungeon and a menu appeared in front of him. It was written in an alien language, but the Tower system translated all the words. He had the ability to spawn hobgoblins within the dungeon and to open and close the portal. There was also a clock.

Bon spawned the hobgoblin chief. The big, green, hulking monster appeared before him and looked at him warily.

“My compulsion to kill you is gone,” the chief said. “Does this mean that you have wrested control of the dungeon away from my Master?”

“You will answer my questions, not the other way around,” Bon said, imitating Du Feng’s qi aura to frighten the chief. He used much more qi than he had done with Steve. The hobgoblin was much tougher after all.

“This feeling,” the chief gasped. “Are you a god?”

“Do you know what a god can do to your body, mind and soul?” Bon asked. The chief shuddered a little when Bon said ‘soul.’

“Ask your questions.”

“Why are you invading the Earth?”

“That is something I do not know. You will have to ask the higher ups.”

“Where are you from? What are your orders? What is this compulsion you talked about?”

“I am from the planet Aureil in the dukedom of Qultar. Our orders are to eliminate all warriors that do not belong to the Twin Serpents Faction. The dungeon core compels us to lose our minds, so that we carry out our orders without doubt and fear.”

“Who are the Twin Serpents?”

The chief looked at Bon like he was looking at a fool. He suddenly remembered something and shivered. “They are a faction containing gods and demons. My master is one of its lower members. The faction’s two leaders are the Star Crow and the Abyssal Wanderer, a god and a demon lord. It is the fourth strongest faction in the universe, according to the Neutral Faction’s reports.”

“Which is the strongest faction?” The chief’s answers were just leaving Bon with more questions to ask.

“The Neutral Faction of course.”

“The Neutral Faction trained us to fight you off. If they’re so strong then why didn’t they just tell you Twin Serpents to back off?”

The chief sighed, “They play their own game. These affairs are too complicated for me to understand. They claim to help the natives of battlefield worlds but I suspect that there’s much more to it than just that.”

“This dungeon core seems like Tower technology,” Bon mused. “It’s able to revive you.”

“We can be revived as long as there is mana in the core. As the mana spreads from the core to the outside world, more and more of us can exit this place.” The Neutral Faction might indeed be playing a double game. They seemed to be selling their technology to these other factions and siphoning off life force from the kills of Players. Their little towers were doing something to the world as well, for better or for worse. What else were they up to?

“So, you monsters are just like Players and these dungeon cores are like miniature Towers?”

“It’s more complicated than that,” the chief sat on the ground, looking very tired. There was gloom in his eyes that spoke of centuries of suffering. “When we were alive we were forced to take part in a ritual that separated our bodies from our souls. You are a god. You must have done this to people yourself on occasion. You know the pain and suffering we have undergone.”

“What happened next?” Bon asked. “How do you have bodies in the dungeon then?”

“Our souls were then entrapped in the dungeon core. The core uses mana to give us our physical bodies. They are a far cry from our original bodies, good enough only to fight and to build the Forts of Confluence.”

“Forts of Confluence?” What was this now? Phase two of the invasion plan?

“The second form of the dungeon core. It enlarges the area where we can revive. It also acts as a mana pump to allow higher creatures to enter this world. Dungeon cores can swallow other dungeon cores, increasing this effect. Our real fight is not against the natives, but against the other factions’ dungeons and forts.”

“So, you just kill all the natives for fun? Why can’t you choose some uninhabited areas to fight?”

“The forts need constant sacrifices to function. The natives who survive the battle are enslaved, which is a fate far worse than death if they are captured by the Twin Serpents.” The hobgoblin chief looked at the clock on the dungeon core, “Finally,” he laughed. “We shall soon be free. Thank you for showing us mercy, great one.”

“What do you mean by ‘free?’” Bon had been planning to make these monsters his slaves. They would make a great addition to Earth’s defense. He just needed to know how the dungeon core controlled them.

“The self destruct,” the chief laughed with so much vigor that tears fell from his eyes. “Didn’t you know?”

“Fuck!” Bon flew out of the portal and made a hole in the ground with an Explosion spell. He put the dungeon core into the crater and then covered it up by using the Landslide spell. He flew far up into the sky and examined the underground dungeon core with his senses. Had the chief really told him the truth about the self destruct? Was the clock on the menu really a timer? It had been counting up, not down. He soon had his answer. Sand and mud exploded from the ground. He activated many barriers, trying to contain the explosion as best as he could. When all became calm once more he used Telekinesis to scoop up the mud and then collected the broken pieces of the dungeon core. Even the broken bits of it were probably useful, since it contained mana stones.

Bon returned to his flat, and noticed that Errel was gaping at him. “What happened to you?” Errel asked. “Do you want me to heal you?”

It was only then that Bon realized he must have looked a sight. His clothes were stained with blood and mud.

“Just had a little trouble with the dungeon core. I ended up breaking it. I’m all healed up, so don’t bother.”

“You broke it?” Errel asked incredulously. “Why?”

“I didn’t plan on breaking it. There was a self destruct mechanism. I nearly died at the hands of some duke’s projection too.”

“It seems like a lot happened during your morning jaunt,” Errel shook his head. “I should have come with you.”

“Let’s meet up with the others for lunch. I’ll tell you all about it then.”

A few text messages later, Bon and Errel met up with the others at a bar not too far away. They nursed their bottles of beer until the others arrived. Once everyone had sat down at the table, Bon began to tell them of his recent experience in the dungeon.

“So we’re in the middle of some sort of interstellar war?” Phil asked.

“Seems that way,” sighed Bon.

“Why can’t they go fight somewhere else?” asked Bojana.

“The chief didn’t know much, or he wouldn’t say,” Bon thought back to his interrogation of the hobgoblin chief. He was sure that the chief wasn’t lying, but he may have been holding back a lot of information.

“Well,” said Phil, “Whatever this is about, all we can do is fight. I doubt if any of the factions will see us as potential allies until we prove ourselves in battle. After that, there might be some chance of diplomacy working. We know too little. If we could find out how they’re sending these dungeon cores into our world, perhaps we could stop them from coming at all. If we could find a way of stopping them from filling this world with mana, then we could prevent their more powerful monsters from joining us. Unfortunately, that’s impossible with our world’s present capabilities.”

“We should share this information with the other Players and the government,” said Toby.

“Nobody would believe us,” said Phil. “My uncle has a pal in the White House. I can ask him to set up a meeting for us.”

“Your uncle has pals everywhere,” Bojana said. “What happened about the investment? Did he agree?”

“Yup,” Phil grinned. “He’ll give us a starting capital of five million dollars. He’s looking at it as though he’s giving it to a charity. He’s not expecting any return on his investment. We aren’t exactly the Ascended, who can go around the world capturing terrorist and criminal Players. I’ve found us a good office space. We can take a look at it later. I also have a friend who said he’ll help us with the accounts. We have enough to recruit a few Players. Government contracts should come in soon.”

They said their goodbyes about an hour later and returned to their homes. Sarah was off early today, so Bon spent the evening with her. After she gave notice, her company had drastically reduced her workload.

“Let’s get married soon,” Bon said to her, as they drank coffee in her flat.

“We can’t,” Sarah laughed. “There’s just too much to do before we can settle down together. You’re way too impatient. Du Feng has almost got all the permits we need.”

“Already?” Bon was flabbergasted.

“He moves quickly. We’ll be all set up soon. He said he’d get my company to let me go early too. I don’t know how he’s managing all of this. He hinted that there was a powerful secret organization that his leader was a member of. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.”

“Conspiracy theories,” Bon waved his hand. “You really think some secret society is actually ruling the world?”

“Anything is possible,” Sarah said. “Don’t pooh-pooh it.” She could use some strange words sometimes. “Who would have believed in mana before you Players appeared?”

“That’s different,” Bon said stubbornly.

Sarah shrugged. “Well, whatever it is, Du Feng’s the man for getting things done.”

“How’s your Cultivation going?”

“It’s progressing, slowly but steadily,” Sarah smiled. “I’ll have a breakthrough to the next level soon.”

“Get to Foundation Building as soon as you can. Don’t neglect it,” said Bon. Her longevity would increase by around two hundred years if she reached that stage.

“I won’t,” she patted his hand.

They spent most of the night together. It was late when Bon returned to his flat. Just as he was about to go to bed he got a news alert he had set up on his phone. Some citizen journalists in Oakland had posted pictures of a portal. Oakland was not very far from the city. Another portal meant another dungeon core. Maybe this time he would find a way to stop it from blowing up.