Chapter 1: Awakening

Darkness.

This is where it was born from, and where it was born into.

Through the darkness, it saw hazy glimpses of cities filled with towers that pierced the clouds.

Innumerable vehicles flying on skylanes like worker bees.

Lights and screens shimmering strange writing and images flickering on the sides of the cloud piercing towers and also in the air.

The images were like smoke in the darkness, a heat mirage in the desert.

They were completely alien.

Yet they held a strange sense of familiarity.

~~~~~

[Initializing…]

It woke up in a small cave, barely six feet in diameter and twenty deep. It opened its eyes, or whatever it was which constituted to its sight, to find everything in darkness, yet it could still faintly see.

The entrance of the cave alluded to the outside world, a faint glimmer of moonlight shining into the cave.

It wasn't alone in this cave, there was also large brown bear along with a small pile of bones, a mixture between those of animals and human.

'Human? A human is… me, right? No, I am not, but it feels… familiar…' It thought to itself as its thoughts gradually became more coherent.

[

System initialization complete… 7 errors detected.

Errors within acceptable range.

Global Status initializing…

]

'System? Global Status? Initialization?' It began to question the strange window in its head which was running what appeared to be an installation.

[

Glabal Status initialization complete

Calibrating body…

…

Calibration complete.

Start-up complete.

]

Just as suddenly as everything began, the screen in its mind vanished as if it was never there. It also began to feel its body for the first time, instead of just an uncanny 360 degree field of view.

Its body was a crude rhombus shaped crystal approximately 2 feet tall. It didn't have any physical appendages, but it has tentacle like mana feelers which could feel the surrounding area and even drag itself through the air. They were also what kept it mysteriously floating in the air.

There was also an additional panel in its mind which it could focus on.

[

Species: Dungeon Core (Dungeon Master: None)

Name: unnamed

Mana: 100/100

Exp: 0

Level: 1

Abilities:

Dungeon Creation <Lv. MAX>

Mana Control <Lv. 1>

]

The window reminded it of a status screen in an old role-playing game, a thought which made it question where such knowledge came from, but said question soon fled its mind as it had more pressing issues at hand, such as the bear which just woke up and was now staring at the strange, glowing blue prismatic crystal floating in its cave.

The bear felt no threat from the crystal, and it didn't look or smell like food. It also didn't make any sound, yet gave off a strange presence which felt slightly intimidating.

The bear curiously stepped closer to the crystal, which instinctively swing its intangible mana feelers at the bear while slightly drifting backwards.

The mana feelers couldn't touch the physical body of the bear, simply passing right through it. But the did cause the bear to feel a pain like electricity passed through its snout. Now feeling threatened, the bear roared at the crystal, only for it to strike its snout again when it got closer, causing the bear to flinch back once again.

The bear, just like any other creature, was afraid of the unknown. It quickly learned that moving close to the crystal caused it to hurt, and it seemed to be inedible. Wary of the crystal, it moved away from it and lied down while watching it.

The crystal waved its feelers at the bear threateningly, unaware that the latter could not perceive them. Once it was satisfied and a strange stalemate seemed to be established, it explored the landscape around it curiously.

As its feelers reached into the ground, they seemed to merge and become one with it as a new window appeared in its mind.

[

Connection established.

Do you wish to establish a new dungeon?

Yes / No

]

Half driven by instinct, it selected [Yes] in its mind and its perception of the world immediately began to spin as it felt itself merging with the cave around it.

[

New dungeon <Unnamed Dungeon> has been established.

+ 100 exp

+ New skill: Dungeon Control <Lv. 1>

+ New skill: Dungeon Facility Construction <Lv. 1>

+ New skill: Basic Dungeon Construction <Lv. 1>

+ New skill: Trap Construction <Lv. 1>

+ New skill: Internal Resource Storage <Lv. 1>

+ New skill: Mining <Lv. 1>

]

A new screen replaced the old one with new skills it acquired by forming a dungeon. Its vision also stabilized, but now, instead of being an all-round panoramic viewpoint from the crystal, it now had an omnipresent sight of everything in the dungeon.

Unfortunately, it still couldn't see outside beyond the small window to the outside world.

It quickly opened its status and inspected the updated information.

[

Species: Dungeon Core (Dungeon Master: None)

Name: unnamed

Mana: 100/100

Exp: 100

Level: 1(+)

Abilities:

Dungeon Creation <Lv. MAX>

Mana Control <Lv. 1>

Dungeon Control <Lv. 1>

Dungeon Facility Construction <Lv. 1>

• Biomass Converter – 100 mana

• Breeder – 50 mana, 20 biomass

Basic Dungeon Construction <Lv. 1>

• Scan – 10 mana/m3

• Blueprint Creation – 0 blueprints

• Blueprint Manufacturing – 0 blueprints

Trap Construction <Lv. 1>

• Bait – 5 mana, 5 biomass

• Spike Trap – 20 mana, 10 stone

• Pitfall Trap – 10 mana, none

Internal Resource Storage <Lv. 1> (0/50)

• Physical Material – none

• Liquid Material – none

Mining <Lv. 1>

• Basic Material Identification

Resources:

None

Monsters:

None

]

The status panel had a massive change from how it was moments before. It took a long time inspecting each item, trying to understand them, but nothing was properly explained. It was able to however, rely on knowledge that it didn't know the origin of to speculate.

'So I'm a dungeon core, and by establishing a dungeon, I became the dungeon itself. Kind of like becoming the town hall in a RTS kingdom building game, except I'm the entire kingdom. I can feel myself, my blood flowing through the walls… or whatever passes as my lifeforce.'

'I can control everything, but it's sluggish, and I will need to find ways to speed up my progress. Build some villagers or something.'

'It appears I have enough experience to level up, but let me get familiar with everything first. Using mana, I can do detailing and finer control of parts of me, but it can't touch anything that's not "me", such as that damned bear. How dare it enter my home!'

'Aside from that, everything else is basically straightforward and just needs some experimenting, but how am I supposed to get monsters? I don't appear to be able to summon them. Is this one of those games where you need to lure them in to take up residence in the dungeon? Like I would let that happen!! Filthy things!'

'I suspect I need to make them. The Breeder seems oddly suspicious of helping with this, but… that name is too ambiguous! Is it a breeder the male or female side of breeding?'

It had the image of a group of horny humans, goblins, and beasts impregnating the dungeon's walls and floors and was so aghast it wanted to throw up, although the only actual change was its mana becoming chaotic.

'I am male! 100 percent, definitely male! I. AM. MALE!'

As trying to convince itself, no, himself, he religiously chanted to himself over and over again until he felt better. There was still the option he was wrong, but he refused to even consider it, for fear of admitting to the possibility.

He still had no resources to build anything so he extended his tendrils and began eating at the wall at the rear of the cave. The process was slow, and consumed about 10 mana per cubic meter.

Thankfully, it wasn't too slow, digging through a cubic meter of stone and dirt wall in about a minute, but he would be out of mana in ten minutes and have to wait for it to recover.

One cubic meter of digging gave him 8.904 stone and 2.096 units of dirt, which he directly stored internally within his core. Not only did he establish that 10 units was 1 cubic meter, but he also got to stop and inspect his mana regeneration speed, which was a steady 1 point/minute.

'This is just pitiful,' He grievously said in his core.

The bear was highly alert and ready to attack as it saw the rear of its cave suddenly being dug deeper. The dungeon core didn't miss this, and maintained vigilance against it the entire time. He was actually extremely nervous the entire time, as now he had merged with the dungeon, he no longer had the mana feelers coming out of his core to whip the bear.

Unwilling to remain so vulnerable, he quickly dug a pitfall trap between the bear and himself. At least, as quickly as a newbie dungeon could dungeon.

The surface didn't look any different from before, but there was now a hollow beneath the ground with a hinged lid. Anything that stepped on it, would quickly find themselves falling down into the cavity below, unable to climb back up the polished stone walls.

The dungeon wasn't limited to the size of the trap either, it could enlarge, shrink, change, or alter it in any way it preferred. It could also lock the trapdoor lid, or manually release it upon desire. Of course, all these things cost mana to make happen, and would also use materials if he was changing the composition.

The bear was considerably large, and the basic pitfall trap was only two meters good – only good enough for trapping goblins. The He-Dungeon spent almost 30 mana, triple the base cost, expanding it to be 2 meters wide and long, and 4 meters deep. There was no way the bastard-trespasser bear was escaping from this.

He discovered that his force of mind can be exerted on others if he tried. However, it didn't seem to cause them any harm or make them feel pressure, just feel… him.

He exerted his presence on the bear who stood up with a low grown and began walking toward the dungeon core. What it did not expect was the ground to suddenly drop out from under it and cause it to fall into a pitfall trap.

This was the bear's cave, it wasn't a particularly smart bear, but it knew that there shouldn't have been such a thing here.

'Success!' He-dungeon called out and did a mental victory spin.

He watched as the bear struggled to get out but was completely unable to, giving him much relief. He closed the lid and trapped the bear in darkness, ignoring the beast doing its best to scratch at him, or at his walls to be precise.

Now in safety, he began digging out the back of the cave, gradually producing a room like enclosure. He very quickly filled up his Internal Resource Storage, a mere 50 units. He emptied it out in the corner of the room, which appeared out of thin air as 50 giant brick like blocks. He was annoyed that they took up a large amount of room, rendering the area dug basically moot.

He spread them out throughout his dungeon to give himself room for more digging, when he came up with the idea that he could just use a pitfall trap to store them. Making a pitfall trap didn't mine the stone and dirt, but ate it instead. He quickly used all of his mana to dig a large pitfall trap near the back of the cave and store all of the spare stone and dirt bricks inside of it.

Now that he had nothing to do for the next hour and 40 minutes while his mana recovered, he went back to where the bear was and opened the trap door.

The bear was terrified in the hole, while the dungeon gave it a glare of gloating condensation, not that the bear knew this.

'Now do you know who's boss?' The dungeon exerted his presence over the bear.

The bear was unwilling to give up. Now that the trapdoor was open again, it began clawing at the walls again and roaring in anger.

The dungeon now had plenty of materials and after a ten-minute standoff with the bear, invested his newly regenerated mana into making a spike trap on the inside wall of the pitfall trap. It only took a minute to complete and the he-dungeon immediate used it against the bear.

Approximitely 20 stone spears shot out from the wall and impaled the bear, which only let out several whimpers before falling limp on the spears.

[

Forest Bear killed!

+ 20 exp

]

Whilst elated to have killed what he perceived as an intruder inside of himself, he was irritated that reloading a spike trap cost 5 mana, as mana was the spring used to launch the spikes.

Considering he had nothing else to do for the time being, he decided it was time to use experience points to increase his level.

[

100 exp used to level up.

Lv. 1 -> Lv. 2

Accumulated skill experience bonus:

Mining <Lv. 1> -> <Lv. 2>

Internal Resource Storage <Lv. 1> -> <Lv. 2>

Mana Control <Lv. 1> -> <Lv. 2>

]

[

Species: Dungeon Core (Dungeon Master: None)

Name: unnamed

Mana: 4/200

Exp: 20

Level: 2

Abilities:

Dungeon Creation <Lv. MAX>

Mana Control <Lv. 2>

Dungeon Control <Lv. 1>

Dungeon Facility Construction <Lv. 1>

• Biomass Converter – 100 mana

• Breeder – 50 mana, 20 biomass

Basic Dungeon Construction <Lv. 1>

• Scan – 10 mana/m3

• Blueprint Creation – 0 blueprints

• Blueprint Manufacturing – 0 blueprints

Trap Construction <Lv. 1>

• Bait – 5 mana, 5 biomass

• Spike Trap – 20 mana, 10 stone

• Pitfall Trap – 10 mana, none

Internal Resource Storage <Lv. 2> (32.510/100)

• Physical Material – Stone (24.420), Dirt (8.090)

• Liquid Material – none

Mining <Lv. 2>

• Basic Material Identification

Resources:

Stone – 176.224

Dirt – 28.902

Biomass – 10.014

Monsters:

None

]