"I'm not here to hurt you guys!" Wilona shouted with the hopes that these zombies were smart enough to talk to. It's not every day that she could just go up to a walking corpse and start asking them stuff after all! "I'm gonna go near you, okay?!"

  Wilona sat in place, hoping for some kind of response, and after seeing the group of armed corpses look at each other and then shrug, she knew that they understood her and that it's possible to talk to them. Which was good; that meant she had a chance to be friends with a freaking zombie. Like, how cool would that be?

  Her patience turned into that of a saint's as she watched the corpses give each other repeating gestures. It all thankfully came to a stop when a crow perched itself on the head of her staff and cawed, "Hi there?"

  "Why are you invading my territory?"

  Wilona blinked. Did the crow just talk? She stared at the bird, dumbfounded. When she tried to poke its beak, it dodged and cawed at her again. She didn't know birds could glare, but this one did it—so maybe?

  "Hi there, little guy?" Wilona waved awkwardly. She snapped her fingers. Okay, so, topics— "I'm backtracking here, okay? You said that this is your territory?" Wilona's gaze moved over to the armed undead in the distance. "I didn't know that crows controlled zombies. Is that normal around here?"

  "Foolish question," the crow shook its head. It sounded disappointed for some reason? "Do you not know what you are?"

  "Uh, a human?" Wilona looked at herself. She jerkily moved her head upward when the crow sighed. "Crows can sigh?"

  "I am not a crow. Do you not notice anything weird with my features?" the bird asked again. The little guy was just full of questions, huh? Wilona found it cute. "What are you thinking of right now?"

  "Nothing," she shrugged. She then inspected the crow as per its request. There was nothing wrong with the little guy. It had black feathers, blue talons, and red eyes. "What makes you different from the other crows, my guy? I don't get it."

  The crow sighed, then it pecked on its leg. Now that it pointed it out, Wilona could see that it was missing a single claw on its talon, and that was it. "You're missing a claw?"

  "No! I'm—" the crow looked at itself again. "Oh." Right before Wilona's eyes, the bird's look changed. It went from a modest little corvid and became a rotting corpse. "Now do you notice?"

  "Oh, you're also a zombie!"

  "I am more than that," the crow shook its head. His attitude changed from frustration to resignation as he gave Wilona a strange look. "Let me re-introduce myself. I am a newly birthed dungeon core within a location known as Lower Reedham. I have no name, for I have no need for such. Refer to me by my title—Rot-Core. It is a pleasure to meet you, dear sister."

  "Okay, Rottie—" Wilona paused. Wait, what did this thing just call her? "Dear sister? Is that, like, a greeting for you guys or something?"

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  "Let's go with that, sure." Rottie sounded done, whether because of what Wilona called him or because she asked another question is unsure. "What's your name?"

  "Wilona? Do I have to give you my full name or?..." To start, she didn't exactly trust the thing in front of her to not use some kind of magic after it learns what her real name is. That's, like, a condition, right? For magic usage?

  "No, no you don't." The crow shook its head. "What brings you here, sister? I believe I didn't do anything so far to warrant a visit from another. I've been peacefully growing in this bog thus far. Is it something to do with the local humans on the outskirts? If so, rest assured, I'll kill them all soon enough. I am just building up my strength until I have enough to slaughter them all."

  "Yeah, that's exactly the problem there..." Wilona said in discomfort. Seriously? Why was this thing so apathetic towards killing humans? He mentioned massacring an entire town like they were talking about the weather or some shit. "Maybe don't? They're good people, and like, you don't have to kill them all."

  "Why?"

  Wait, seriously? The crow wanted to hear her out? Wilona looked at the bird in disbelief. "You're not gonna attack me for suggesting that?"

  "Do I look like I have no sense of dignity to you?" The crow sounded way too offended. Like somehow Wilona implying that he's a brute was a line she shouldn't have crossed. Which—okay—a sentient crow that, like, controls undead and has dignity. Neat. She's seen one now.

  "Eh, yeah? You are controlling a bunch of zombies."

  "Can you stop calling them that? My summons are not 'zombies' but bogmen. The word you're using to call them irks me for some reason! I have no idea why!" the crow complained loudly. It actually allowed Wilona to realize that even though she could understand the little bird, it was still cawing—so there's a good chance she looks insane if someone spots her right now.

  "Yep, of course. Bogmen." Wilona decided to give the guy some slack. "So the zombies, right—why are they the ones you control?"

  "A core has no choice when it comes to what they are able to summon," explained Rottie. "For most of us, we are often stuck with the areas we spawn in; thus, we can only summon things under the theme of said areas."

  Okay, so being born in a bog means Rottie can't summon anything else other than bog stuff. Neat. Wilona gave an affirmative nod to say that she understood. "Makes sense, but like, why zombies? I'm sure that the bog has other shit you can summon, right?"

  "Like what?" asked the core. The question forced Wilona to stop talking and consider what other options there could realistically be, but nothing came to mind. "Thought so. You can find no answer because there is no answer."

  "I guess?" Wilona scanned the bog with her eyes. Guess there's really nothing here save for a bunch of moss carpeting the earth and the occasional fern. "I'm guessing the only other option that you have is to, like, put a bunch of traps around here, right?"

  "Correct," nodded the crow. "Besides summoning useless insects and ground dwellers that are, quite frankly, nothing more than fodder, the best soldiers in my arsenal are undead."

  "Ah," Wilona nodded in understanding. "Okay, so we're moving on from that—can I ask you something?"

  "Of course," he agreed immediately? Guess the core was really taking a liking to her, huh? "Ask away."

  "You're the one causing trouble for the town nearby, right? You're summoning storms every night at their place, and then killing people who come here to check it out?" Wilona narrowed her eyes. She'd been curious as to why her quests didn't finish, but maybe that's because she never got the answer it was looking for properly? That, or there's another thing responsible for all those things and she has another problem on her hands.

  "Yes." Upon receiving the answer, a pair of boots fell down from the skies, and Wilona nabbed one—but the other was taken by the crow. He handed it to Wilona with a tilted head. "You had a quest to investigate me?"

  "Yep!" Wilona excitedly tried on the new pair. Finally! She'd been getting tired of wearing the same damn boots every single day! "Thanks for the catch, by the way. I wouldn't want these guys to, like, be wet after I get them, you know?"

  "Of course," the crow nodded. "I suppose this is all you need? To simply finish your quest?"

  "No?" Wilona thought it through. Is there something else that she needed to do? Ah, right. Save the town. "Listen, man, can't you just live parasitically with the town over there? I really don't think you need to kill them, you know? Like, there's a city out there that feeds their core souls because he turned his area into a gladiator arena. People love that shit apparently."

  "Oh?" The crow tilted his head. "I believe what you meant by that is 'symbiosis,' rather than 'parasitic' but regardless, I am quite interested in what you have to say. You're telling me that there's a place out there which is willingly feeding a core souls?"

  "Ya, dude? What are you, born yesterday or something?" Wilona shook her head. "I thought you turned that town decrepit? That takes a while, you know?"

  The crow laughed. "Correct. It takes a while to make a lively town into a group of ruined houses," cawed the rotting bird. "And quite frankly, I did not have to do with anything in that town. It is their mere incompetence which put them in such dire states."

  "Huh," Wilona looked towards the direction of the town. "Seriously?"