Dungeon Core

Dungeon Cores are cores that are usually generated by an animal reaching a high enough level of sentience and having their sentience stuffed in a core. They then are forced to fend for themselves until they become G rank 1, at which time they tend to become as sentient and sapient as an average 9-year-old. At sometime around this point, they get a wisp through some yet unknown way. The wisp then teaches them how to be a dungeon and do dungeon-y things, at which point they tend to wait until they have enough power to set traps and make mobs, then they open themselves to the world for F ranked adventurers to explore in hopes of riches.

Each Core often follows a set affinity for an element, defined by their color and structure, usually based upon their previous form. Cal, for example, is a blue crystal 🔮 and is assumed to be a water-type Dungeon Core by Kantor and Dani. Other colors indicate their affinities, such as red ruby for fire, golden topaz for celestial, obsidian black for infernal, etc. Celestial and Infernal dungeons are often fought over, and tend to be better off destroyed than allowed to flourish and becoming a problem later. With Cal being an entirely pure core, able to control all forms of essence, he could be considered such a problem.

Cores, being sentient beings, are able to learn from things they absorb, such as creatures killed inside their influence or gear dropped by foolish dungeon delvers. Malicious cores like Cal enjoyed giving somewhat strange or useless gear, such as only dropping left boots. They tend to specialize after some time, and develop their own styles, based on items they absorb, and their personality. This could make them calmly passive or exceedingly gluttonous or a mysterious trap or puzzle house.

However, if something happens to a Core's wisp, terrible things tend to occur around their Dungeon, such as violence and madness, as seen in Dungeon Calamity. It usually leads to the Core's downfall, as their savagery attracted the attention of other powerful forces, seeing them as dangerous. This was the unfortunate result of Kantor, after a shady collective stole his Wisp. The cause tends to be a warping of their aura, as the Wisp's bond causes a stretching and tearing. They are, after all, without their soulmate.