Museum Core Chapter 37: Epilog

Ewart Jones had been in the service of his country in one way or another since he’d graduated college, though most of that had been spent as a part of MI5.

The world might have changed, his loyalty would not.

And here and now, he had something that would catapult this great nation to reach its old heights once more.

Breaking the sigils sealing the top of the buried ziggurat had been difficult and time-consuming but essentially boiled down to shooting the sigils and dodging the following explosion of energy.

The ancient corridors extended all around him, each gleaming with possibility.

“Really?”

The voice was soft, feminine, but nevertheless deadly serious.

He whirled around. He was no “James Bond Superspy”, but he was no slouch either. No one should have been able to sneak up on him, especially not on a stone floor like this.

There, a young woman stood, arms crossed across her chest, glaring at him through strange eyes. Were they … slitted?

“It’s not enough to rip this place from its ancient building ground, dump it in the middle of a filthy city and build on top of this ziggurat, you also had to somehow merge me with one of you fucking humans!”

Was she not human herself?

“And then you come down here and steal all my hard work, all my supplies, everything I prepared for when I finally regenerated from what that bitch did to me? You and that insolent whelp of yours! And you keep coming down here!”

Jones had already drawn his gun and when venomous green light manifested around her hand as she raised it to point at him, he opened fire.

He’d known that people with powers were tough, but seeing all those bullets just bounce off scale-like energy manifestations … it was enough to shatter one’s worldview.

But he’d never be able to come to terms with any of that.

Pain wracked his chest and he glanced down, only to see a phantasmal dragon’s head withdrawing from a ragged hole in his ribcage, his heart, several shattered ribs, and strands of ragged flesh clutched in its translucent jaws.

Even as he tried to comprehend what had just happened, he was falling backwards, vision going black. And yet, he still managed to hear a few more words, reaching his dying brain and sending cold sweat down his spine.

“Oh, the things I’m going to do to your species once I’m ready to rise once more ...”

***

“So, you found a healing potion?” Elias asked. “Those are really useful, you’ll be able to get a lot more people in here to get them and keep them in if there’s a chance for them to be healed.”

“Do you have any idea how expensive that thing is? I need half my energy supply for that!” Thomas growled.

“Wait, seriously? That thing has to be insanely strong, have you tried watering it down? Some of the good ones turn toxic when anything is added, but we do have an endless supply of test subjects.”

Mean as that sounded, it seemed worth it, so Thomas started to combine water and potion in a freshly produced bucket.

Except that, suddenly, a screen popped up in front of his eyes.

Abysmall Heal¨⁄†π⁄©¨ P©ø¨Ωon (B-Rank, common)

A ø¨ƒΩtion weakened by the addition of pure water, it will nevertheless be effective at healing injuries in lower-ranked beings.

Holy shit.

“Check your Status!” Elias barked when Thomas informed him of the situation.

Name: Thomas Stettin

Species: [unknown Entity]

E-Rank (97% progression to D-Rank)

Mana: 330/500

Creature Patterns: 24 (1,127 unused, see list?)

Command Limit: 457/500

Material Patterns: 1,742 - 100,000, depending on definition (see list?)

Champions: 2/2 (Cheshire, Dexter)

Huh, that thing was free from glitches. Nice!

And now, he finally had a nice numerical definition for every- … what the fuck was going on with his material patterns?

“It’s telling you can replicate any individual structure in your absorbed materials,” Elias explained. “For example, you have a pattern for marble and sand made from marble.”

“And the ‘unknown entity’?” Thomas asked. He was much more freaked out about that part.

“With the System as glitchy as it’s been, maybe it doesn’t remember what a Dungeon Core is?” Elias suggested.

“Wouldn’t ‘Museum Core’ be more appropriate?” Thomas snarked.

“Maybe,” Elias shrugged, only for another System window to appear, one which,  judging by the fairy’s reaction, he could see too.

Template “Dungeon Core” found.

Template “Museum Core” not found.

Redesignating as “Dungeon Core, Museum Subtype”.

Clarifying innate abiltieºç©©ç†¨Ωƒƒ†¨ΩΩ@‚©øœæœ‚©⁄∑«Ω⁄©ø«•∂€]®†}®|]{€¢|[‚∂¨®ºª⁄©⁄øƒç

And the System promptly crashed again.

Well, that just happened.

“So, I guess in another week, you might finally find out what you’re capable of doing?” Elias asked.

“Maybe?” Thomas shrugged. Honestly, as useful as that would have been, he’d handled himself fairly well so far.

And his current project involved leveling up his velociraptor pattern, applying both the “Cute and Harmless” power his “enforcer” jaguars already had, and the Dungeon Avatar power to create adorable and unique message carriers, well, he couldn’t wait to finish it.

Gotta have priorities in life, right?