Gareth spent his first night in the cave praying to a variety of different Gods. Weird custom, but to each their own.
After his sleepless night spent in his tent praying, he immediately began breaking camp.
<---------Gareth's POV--------->
'After a night of praying to every God and Goddess known to man, I managed to hold that demon spirit off for the night.
"It's watching my every move! A possessed cave? Made it through the night, I just need to get as far away from it as possible today. But where do I go? What if it follows me? How can I es-'
"Why are you putting your tent away, Gareth? You're due back in 11 hours. No point carrying it with you all that time just to carry it back, is there?" I jumped a good foot in the air as the demon's voice rang out.
"I-ah- yeah... I guess you're right. I'll just, leave it here then?" Shit. No gear. Three days back to town. You've survived worse, Gareth, you got this.
"And you don't need your pack, either. Though if you don't collect some firewood, this boar meat is going to go bad soon. You should bring some in, cook it up nice." No pack? that means no water, or food. Three days without? That's risky. I'll get the weakened status, and exhausted by the second day.
"Haha, yeah, I mean, good... point..." my voice grew steadily weaker. "I should, do that today. Might take awhile though. No need to come looking if I'm not back soon." There. Hopefully this thing is trapped in the cave. As soon as I'm outside, I am home free!
I cautiously made my way to the entrance, eyeing the stone every few steps as I prayed silently to every deity I could name.
Outside! Free! I am free! No voice, nothing watching me! Safe!
"Oh and Gareth?" I froze like a rabbit, hearing the voice outside the cave. "Back before sundown, remember?"
<----------Orion's PoV---------->
Well, that was weird. He spent the night praying, and was acting all weird this morning. Maybe he's a religious nut. Or is this how human's normally behave?
I came to the conclusion that I did not have enough data to understand why Gareth behaved the way he did. Maybe it was a normal interaction for humans? Who knows. In any case, it was time to spend my new energy!
After a night in the dungeon, I was at 15/21 energy! I could expand rapidly. But the question was, do I expand into the cave, or onto the surface?
The surface offered me instant biomass, and the ability to grow more varieties of plants. plus, random energy whenever living creatures came nearby.
But expanding inwards, I received five times the space, and a free material if I expanded into the rock!
Hmmmm, decisions decisions.
I needed to expand outside. The biomass should be my main priority, plus it's easier to lure in animals from above ground. More animals, more energy!
"System expand above ground with all available energy!"
Huh. Well, I'll leave them be until I can respawn them using their own biomass. One more night should do it.
-
Gareth returned with bundles of firewood under his arms. As soon as he entered my space, I immediately felt a strange euphoria overtake me.
"Welcome back, Gareth!" As I spoke, Gareth jumped a good foot in the air.
"Stop doing that! Gods, you'll give a man a heart attack, randomly speaking out of nowhere like that!"
"Can I have your firewood for a minute?" I mean, I could just make new sticks for him immediately afterwards, and then I wouldn't lose the materials.
"Like the water thing before? Wait, you need me to bring you things to make them?"
"Yeah. The more materials and biomass I get, the more I can make. Why, can't you do that?"
"Make things out of... wait, then that means," Gareth muttered to himself. "Orion, are you a Dungeon Core?"
"What did you think I was?"
...
<----------Gareth's PoV---------->
'Oh my gods I'm rich! I can take his core and sell it for millions! Not to mention, I can harvest his resources until the bidding ends and make money of that! I'm rich! I'm rich!'
"Oh no! I never realized. I couldn't tell without seeing the core for myself. Plenty of demons and trickster spirits like to pretend to be Dungeon Cores. The only way to be sure is to see it for yourself!" 'With any luck, it'll reveal itself, and as soon as I get my hands on the core, it'll be powerless to stop me!'
"Oh really? Ok. My core's in the rock table. Come on over and I'll show you it."
'So close. In hand, I'm it's master. It'll have to obey me! Just a few more steps...'
An opening appeared in the side of the table. A brightly shining core was revealed, the size of a child's marble.
'Oh and it's undeveloped! No specialization! Even more valuable. The owner can make it whatever they want! I just have to grab it!' Gareth reached his hand out rapidly to touch the glowing gem -
<*CLANK*>
<----------Orion's PoV---------->
Well, he's unconscious in the cave at least. So I get my energy for the night, right?
SONOFABITCH
I relocated a portion of water onto his face.
Gareth woke, spluttering and coughing.
"Try to steal my core again, and I'll drop a lot bigger rocks on your head, jackass. And don't bother looking for it in the table. I've already relocated it."
Moaning softly, Gareth held both sides of his head. "I was so close to being rich. So close. Why?"
"Gareth, let me make something clear. I am not your slave. You do not get to sell me. I belong to myself. Nobody else. The only reason you are even welcome in my cave is to help me gain enough energy to keep everyone else out.
"I don't sleep. I don't rest. I don't need to eat. If you try to touch me again, I'll dump an entire caves worth of rock onto you and harvest your corpse for Biomass."
'But I am providing training, System! In manners, if nothing else. Buy a guy a drink first, geez'
Wait, guy. I am a guy. Or was a guy. Do dead people still have genders? Dungeon cores? I'll file that one away for future questioning.
"Your firewood's in the corner, Gareth." It would be so much easier if I could point at things.