Chapter 15: Chapter 15: The Dungeon
Ignoring his feelings he put his hand on it and ripped it straight out.
[Compadibal energy source found!]
[Recomend extracting energy source!]
The system notified him again but this time Oberon pulled the energy into his core.
As soon as the core emptied, he could feel the energy change his core and body.
[Soldiers under your command have increased by 1.]
[Golem #11077 is now able to have a secondary core!]
[Produced sand by #11077 can now use energy to emit heat!]
[Core durability of #11077 increased by 10%]
Oberon felt wobbly as his sand body almost dispersed. The influx of energy and the changes in his core made him feel strange. It made him feel invincible. It was addictive. He wanted to feel it again. Ah, how Oberon wanted to kill something again and absorb new energy signatures. Remembering that the small thayra was a different energy source he turned his head toward the direction of the den and wanted to go back.
[Emotionally unstable, recommend a system checkup!]
The notification was like a bucket of cold water on glowing coal. Taking an equivalent of a deep breath he calmed his system and cursed his new emotions.
Looking down on the now empty husk of the core he pulled it out and held it in his hand.
[Sentinel Core is able to be converted!]
[Sentinel Core is suitable as a secondary core!]
Tilting his head he pocketed it for now and checked up on his interface.
[Golem #11077
Type: Uncommon General
Learned typed: Common Scout/ Common Shieldberear/ Elite Spear Thrower/ Common Footsoldier/
System Rank: 6-->7
Energy: 100%
Core endurance: 100%
Vital Sand Capacity: 100%
Core Sand Capacity: 100%
Under Command: 2/3
Claimed Territory: 1/1
Secondary Core: error]
The changes from absorbing the new energy source are massive!
But the biggest one was the capability of having secondary cores. It will allow Oberon to equip any core and depending on the quality type it will grant him different abilities, like perks, on top of functioning like a backup core in case of the main core's destruction.
Secondary Cores were used by the Sakata empire to give golems a suitable perk before sending them into combat. And the best part is, they can be switched out whenever they needed them to be. The range of perks is vast. Need more armor? Equip a core that increases durability. Need protection against the cold? Equip one that gives you the ability to create an ice armor... and the list goes on.
But there are drawbacks. And it is that suitable cores are extremely rare and energy-consuming, so only the most advanced and elite sand golems are able to have them.
Oberon was over the moon as he noticed that he too could have a secondary core, like the Centurions.
Pushing down the giddy feeling that slowly crept up, no... exploded, he decided to use the sentinel's core as a secondary core.
Energy rushed into it and the pale blue core slowly lit up bright blue again. The core shrunk down as it condensed till it was slightly larger than a marble.
Pushing the blue marble into his left hand the core connected with it.
[Secondary Core: Metal Sand capacity: 0%]
Feeling a slight energy drain he substituted the energy from the cube and filled his secondary core.
His body, normally light yellow-brownish colored, now had specs of glistening grey and black. The metal sand was far more useful in forming weapons or shielding against stabbing and slashing attacks. It rounded his defense and attack up. The core sand was still more durable, but the weapons formed could never be as sharp as the metal sand ones. Plus with the ability to heat up the metal sand, which is far more thermally conductive than core sand, could potentially deal nasty injuries to living enemies.
Testing it out he formed a familiar short sword with the grip being out of core sand and the bade out of metal.
Channeling energy into it, it slowly began to heat up.
After only 4 seconds it began to steam, and after 10 seconds it began to glow bright white, and orange. After 15 seconds the molten metal chunks began to liquidize and drip down.
The energy conversion was not too bad, but with the cube, he had almost unlimited energy to use. It still held so much energy that he could reform his body from scratch more than a thousand times and probably produce so much vital sand to create another Oberon desert. But it wasn't an excuse to just burn energy for no reason. Thinking back, he was quite careless about how he behaved when he first acquired the origin cube... Well, no better time to start than now.
But enough of lamenting about the past for now.
Already putting the metal sand to use he formed a buckler shield and a short sword.
Trotting through the destroyed flowerbed he reached the ruins. The place was barely holding up, only a very degraded mana generator was still running, humming quietly in a corner. It was pretty impressive how the sentinel could operate at such a high performance with only one generator. Touching it he absorbed as much energy from it as he could before it broke down from forcefully siphoning more mana than it could produce. The generator's humming died down as Oberon drained it from every last drop of energy. Taking a closer look it was similar to the generator that was in "The Castle of Rukia" but only far more primitive.
Walking along the walls, there were still some engravings that are readable. Taking a closer look his core shone in recognition.
It was a mixture of Sakatarian and an unknown language. The carvings seemed delicately made and preserved with some kind of dried-up fluid, keeping the wall barely from crumbling.
The words he did recognize are, "Dungeon, Staff of Zalka, I, Ramsus Mythrilite, No, God" and the number 555. The rest were unreadable.
Walking around the ruin of the church he noticed that on the floor was a large circular stone slab with something beneath it.
Making a large rod out of sand he nudged it between a small slit and pushed it open.
A gust of cool stale wind blew out of it, and the mana signature of the staff was now far stronger. Oberon could sense it coming from somewhere deep down the hole. The spiral staircase was so deep that Oberon couldn't even sense what was on the bottom.
Going full armor mode with metal sand forming around him like a heavy knight's armor, and core sound beneath him, he was ready to decent. Not needing any visual senses he could see perfectly in the dark. But he sends out energy pulses every few seconds, working like echolocation.
After walking for an hour or two, he saw large ashen branches with black leaves that seemingly have sucked up all the light. The branches and leaves obstructed his descent minimally. The further down he walked the larger the down-road spiral became. The trunk of the tree was massive and ominous veins ran through the tree. Looking closer one could see it slowly pumping.
Finally reaching the bottom after thousands of stairs he saw a large open space with the base of the nightshade tree. The tree formerly covered almost the whole room as it grew uncontrollably in the darkness for many many years.
Those trees were normally placed in large underground tunnels and sewers for filtering the air and absorbing toxins and other obnoxious gases, but they were highly regulated as letting them overgrow could lead to poisoning the groundwater.
At the end of the room was a single large metal door that was made out of Mythrilite, a crystal-like metal that was highly durable, incredibly dense, magic resistant, and somehow a perfect magic conductor.
Furthermore, weapons made out of them were considered national treasures as runes engraved in them made them more effective, more efficient, and empower the runes and weapon, creating some kind of synergy.
And for those reasons the metal was named after Ramsus Mythrilite, the god of wisdom, intelligence, and runecraft.
Because so few of them were made the weapons were known as Godrune weapons. There are only 24 of them each engraved with a primal rune and according to legends were gifted by the god to those he deemed worthy. But these were far from the only "god-made" weapons out there.
The Staff of Zelka was one of them. To be exact it was the 24th one, of the series, with the primal rune of "Restoration."
But before Oberon could claim, or even find the staff, he first has to somehow find a way to open the door.
Placing both hands on the door he pushed with all his might. The floor underneath his feet crumbled, but the door was unmoving.
Oberon kept trying to push the door for another few minutes, even throwing a few javelins at it but not even a scratch was made. And pouring mana into the door only made it flow into the nightshade tree.
Giving up on opening the door with brute force he looked around the room for any clue on getting this damn door opened.
Looking around he noticed a few signs on the walls. Walking closer he gently dusted it off and read what was engraved in it.
'The desert takes and grows, but we can't let it. It must be controlled. Stone to Sand, Sand to the Goddess.'
Reading it only made Oberon more confused. He doesn't understand the meaning behind it. If there is even a meaning behind those words. Taking a step back he noticed many other platings on the wall.
'Rukia hasn't abandoned us!'
'She will come back!'
'Her creations will safe us!'
'It is not too late!'
'It is too late-'
'When will the time come?'
'Salvation won't come.'
'Laton cursed us!'
'Our hope will come!'
'Salvation-'
'Pray-'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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