Ricky paused, sensing that John was seeing far beneath his skin.

"I’m feeling stronger. Much stronger," Ricky admitted, clenching his fist. "Yet, I need a significant amount of time to truly digest the souls I’ve absorbed. I’d say I need a month, perhaps two, before I can fully integrate their power into my own."

"I see," John murmured. This explained the gulf between Ricky and Zockair. Power of that magnitude couldn’t just be swallowed easily; it had to be conquered. "And what about this place? Is this dungeon going to vanish soon?"

John was thinking of the Bug Dungeon Ricky used to create at the academy. The Bug Dungeon John crashed into had dissolved once he had completely killed the monsters.

Ricky’s expression darkened, his tone turned serious. "This dungeon is... Different, it’s special. It is what we call an Instant Dungeon, created by activating a high-grade item.

It’s made by a strong Paragon and can’t be easily obtained by normal means. To even activate it requires an immense amount of power, a level of energy I’ll only be able to obtain once I’ve finished absorbing those soul fragments."

"Is that so?" John asked, his interest piqued. He scanned the horizon, but to his naked eye, it still looked like a standard, albeit massive, green land.

Ricky saw the look of curiosity and elaborated, his eyes shining with a mixture of awe and caution.

"This isn’t like those half-assed dungeons I created to train back at the academy. This is a high-grade, permanent spatial anomaly. It won’t just go away once it’s been activated, not even when the owner has been killed or left it, as in our situation. Better yet, the owner can control who enters and who leaves. It’s a perfect pocket dimension. And yet..."

He trailed off, noticing the way John’s eyes were beginning to sparkle with greed. Ricky quickly added a sobering caveat.

"Yet, to take control of it, we have to find the core of the dungeon first. It’s the item that Zockair activated to create this dungeon in the first place. Normally, only the owner, Zockair, knows where it’s hidden. Yet something is certain; it must be within the Instant Dungeon, can’t be moved outside."

"Leave that task to me," John interrupted his friend with a confident wave of his hand.

What seemed like an impossible needle-in-a-haystack search for anyone else was a simple matter for John. He didn’t need to aimlessly wander around; he just needed to look for the core using his abilities.

He would scour every inch of this dungeon until he found that core, then he would hack it, and claim it as his own. To Ricky, it was an insurmountable feat of luck; to John, it was a piece of cake.

Ricky opened his mouth to warn John about the inevitable disappointment of searching such a vast area, but he stopped himself. He recalled the miracles John had already performed.

He swallowed his words and simply watched in silence as John began to move across the dungeon, his head tilting as if he could locate the core using his ears or so.

The dungeon was far larger than John had initially estimated. He spent hours exploring the green terrain. He kept checking the code structure of the dungeon, looking for any abnormal cluster of codes, until he finally found it!

"That bastard," John spat, standing before a low-slung hill.

Ricky caught up to him, shaking his head in disbelief. "What is it?"

"He didn’t pick this spot randomly," John said, pointing to the crest of the hill. "Zockair was sitting right here during the fight. He wasn’t just being arrogant; he was guarding the core of the dungeon. He wanted to safeguard the core of the dungeon from any greedy brother."

Through his vision, John saw it clearly now. Deep beneath the hill, buried under layers of earth and stone, was a concentrated cluster of red codes. It pulsated like a trapped heart, and John was sure this was the core Ricky mentioned.

"Step aside," John warned, his face turning dead serious.

Ricky didn’t hesitate, retreating several dozen paces. John used his most destructive ability, the Logic Bomb. He layered dozens of destructive Logic Bombs around the hill, timed them to detonate in succession, giving him and Ricky enough time to retreat.

Once he had laid enough bombs, John retreated. He quickly pulled a scrap of metal, sucked it dry to replenish his exhausted reserves.

Then, he snapped his fingers.

BOOM! BOOM! CRASH!

The massive hill, which only moments ago had stood as a solid monument to Zockair’s arrogance, gave way with a sickening, grinding roar. It didn’t just crumble; it collapsed into a large pile of rocks.

John didn’t stop there. The hill was levelled, but the core wasn’t unearthed yet. So, John continued to lay down more of his Logic Bombs, digging deeper into the ground. He unleashed several more rounds of fierce explosions, the concussive force rattling the very air.

When his last wave of bombs exploded, and the dust settled, a massive crater yawned open where the hill had once been. At the very bottom, nestled within the smoking rubble, sat a small, intensely shining red object.

"That’s it?" John muttered, his voice echoing in the hollow space.

He leapt down into the pit, his boots crunching on scorched stone. He reached out and retrieved a crystal ball, no larger than a grapefruit, but it felt heavy. He climbed back to the surface, holding the ball up to the light as he approached Ricky.

Unlike every other valuable item he had acquired, the system remained eerily silent about this one. There was no notification, no description, just a cold, crimson glow that seemed to swallow the light around it.

"I can’t tell what it is just by looking," Ricky said, his brow furrowed as he studied the gem. He leaned in closer, closely examining the crystal ball for clues.

"I only heard about these cores, but never saw one by myself. Yet it looks special, if not the core, then it can be something of immense value, no doubt."