> Kor, [Dungeon Core] Lvl. 1

> Title: None

>

> HP: 10/10

> MP: 68/70

>

> Size: 12.92 M

> Points: 12

>

> Mobs:

> Kobold 2/5

>

> Skills:

> [Appraisal] Lvl. 2 [Tunneling] Lvl. 3 [Room Building] Lvl. 2

> [Mana Absorption] [Door Building] Lvl.1 [Primal Communication]

I was really proud of myself! I had done so much growing today, and I planned on doing even more of it! Though most of it had been done against my will at the start thanks to eating too much, I was really feeling the improvement. More mana storage meant I could do more all at once, and even though I still didn’t know what the size really correlated to it felt like I could somehow move more easily. It was easier to direct my body to do what I wanted it to do, easier to focus on the smaller details of dungeon maintenance.

I had no idea what the M stood for, but it did feel like I had more tendrils to work with and manipulate things… Huh. That was a thought. Maybe the M stood for manipulation? As in, how much of myself I had to work with and manipulate? But if that were the case then why were the numbers broken up the way they were?

If I concentrated hard enough on the invisible, intangible, tendrils of myself that came off of my core then I was sure there were more than thirteen. After all, those parts of myself existed in all parts of the walls, plus the extras that I had for digging. I was the dungeon itself, after all, not some separate entity from it.

It was a mystery, and one I didn’t actually care that much about, really. It didn’t matter what the M stood for, after all, only that it was benefitting me somehow. The only reason I was even bothering with it was because I was lonely and bored. The badgers and the kobolds were both asleep, so it was just me alone with my thoughts and what felt like an endless supply of mana to put towards digging.

Thanks to the small red stones I had uncovered I wouldn’t need to worry too much about running out of mana for a while. If I got too low I could just pluck another one out of the wall, crunch into it for extra fuel, and just like that, I would be instantly back to full digging form.

There was a part of me that knew that I should feel bad about eating them, they were basically baby Dungeon Cores after all, but there was also a part of me that just couldn’t be bothered to care. I had to protect myself somehow, after all. Besides, I was sure that if one of them had reached a big enough size to gain consciousness before I had then they would have gladly eaten me.

It was eat or be eaten as far as I was concerned. Dungeon Cores were born just to eat and nothing else. It was better to take them out and make use of them before they got big enough to know what was happening, big enough to potentially become my enemy. Something inside told me that there was no way two Dungeon Cores could co-exist inside the same dungeon, and so far I had learned better than to argue with that sort of instinct.

There was no time to feel bad about doing what I was born for. In fact, I didn’t feel bad at all! I didn’t even feel bad that I didn’t feel bad. I absolutely didn’t feel guilty. I absolutely wasn’t trying to justify it to myself. I was a born devourer, and I was doing what I was meant to do. That was all there was to it. Nothing more.

With my mana basically full once more and nothing else to distract me I could put my full attention into expanding myself further. Thanks to talking to and distracting Mama Badger, or rather Sunflower, I had been able to keep her from completing her own room, which meant I now had the time to complete all five of my own rooms. Sure, I had lost the first one to the badger family to begin with, but it wasn’t that big of a loss.

Thanks to the stone wall and my first entrance I had a vague idea of how far I could dig outwards before potentially leaving the earth and exposing myself to the sun, which would be just enough space to make a small room. It was a bit of a bonus room in its own way, given that my plans had previously accounted for Sunflower taking it from me.

In my original plan, I had decided that the current main room, which was certainly something like a central hub, would remain where my kobolds would spend most of their time. Once I moved my core to the room that was currently occupied by the red stones it would be the perfect place for them to guard me, after all. They would be between me and anything that came in from the outside.

However, that was assuming I only kept things at just the two kobolds that I had. Once I had five total surely they would want some time to themselves, right? Plus it would make it easier for them to guard me in shifts. I wasn’t sure about the math, to be fair, because it would be better if I had six instead of five so two could be asleep, two could be hunting, and two could be protecting me, but that was a problem for future me to work out. Whenever I managed to solve the Bonus Room problem I would also solve that problem, too.

Right now the plan was to build a place where the kobolds could go to rest and worry about things other than protecting me, and to that effect, I wanted to make sure the room would be big enough so it wasn’t like I was just stuffing them away into some tiny compartment whenever I didn’t need them.

Judging by Cobble and Cobalt it seemed like kobolds liked to sleep piled together, but they were also the only two I had ever met. What if they were an exception and not the rule? I needed to be prepared for everything! So the bigger I could make the room the better it would be.

[Tunneling] leveling up like it did made everything come so easily it was almost ridiculous. If this was what the skill was like at level three then I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if it got it any stronger. Rocks almost felt like nothing to me now, disappearing with hardly any resistance. I even had to be careful of what I did, because if I moved too fast I stripped the skin from the roots that hung down from the ceiling and completely took out the smaller ones. I certainly didn’t want to destroy the forest above me, not when the trees were acting as a barrier and protection.

Mana was being consumed at a slower rate now as well, so while it still took quite a bit to get anywhere it was no longer at the point where I felt like I needed to sit and wait for it to rebuild so I could keep digging. Well, I didn’t need to do that right now anyway because of the red stones at my disposal, but it was an important thing to know for the future whenever I ran out of them.

My mana hit below ten just as I felt like I was at a good place to dig out a room, and so I all too happily plucked out the smallest of the red stones and devoured it, not feeling the least bit guilty at doing so. I took a brief moment to survey my domain before deciding on a room structure that would work for what I wanted

Something more rectangular, wider than it was deep, going out further on the sides of the tunnel than away from it, sounded like a good idea. If someone managed to get past the kobolds that were awake they would find themselves stepping into a room that would initially hide the kobolds on either side of them, giving them a chance to attack.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

To that end, it would probably be a good idea to angle the walls a bit more once the room was established, just enough to bend them away from the tunnel and give the kobolds some concealment.

My plan was perfect, and with my previous lesson finally learned, I put [Room Building] to use in small chunks. A bite here, a gulp there, a nibble along one wall as the soil started to become more like gravel. My room was taking shape, and with the skill I was using it was already being counted as a room by Inner Voice.

I had done it, my first five rooms were completely done, with only one of them lost to the badger family.

[Room Building] sliced into the side of the hill, and my core nearly rattled off of its alcove as sunlight streamed in. If I had a mouth to hiss with I would have done so. As it stood it was all I could do to make sure I didn’t accidentally project my ire along my connection to my kobolds. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally wake them up, especially not with the venom I was spewing things to having my tendrils seared.

Yes, I had a problem on my metaphorical hands, but surely I could solve this on my own without bothering them. Right? Maybe? I didn’t need to wake them up for this, I totally had this under control!

I could always put a door over it? But then that was a third entrance, and the last thing I wanted was even more of those. Plus, this was the room that the kobolds were supposed to be able to hang out in so giving it an exit to the outside world would just be bad all around. How could they relax if someone could come in at any moment? How could they sleep knowing they were so vulnerable?

No, I needed to fix it somehow.

What was the opposite of digging? Building? I needed to fill in the hole somehow, right? It didn’t make any sense that I could [Tunnel] but I couldn’t do the opposite of that. What was I supposed to do in the event I accidentally dug something I hated? What if I wanted to move things around? There had to be something I could do to fix the situation.

Purchase [Fill In]?

You have got to be kidding me now. There’s a skill called [Fill In]?! Why didn’t I come equipped with it from the beginning, huh? It seems like a pretty standard skill to have, to me! What is a Dungeon Core supposed to do if they can only dig, huh, Inner Voice? Tell me!

…

I could feel the silence from Inner Voice, not a lack of statement but an almost poignant pause as if Inner Voice were purposefully remaining silent. It would be less disturbing if it were coming from someone else, but since it was coming from myself it made me feel bristly all over like when Sunflower went on the defensive.

Okay, Inner Voice. I know you’re me but I need you to be a bit less of… Less of… Of an asshole. That’s right, I said it! I need you to stop being an asshole! We’re each other, we should be working together! You holding out on me is just annoying at this point! There’s no reason for it, is there? You’re just making things harder on yourself by making them harder on me. So work with me here, will you?

…

…

Okay. I give in. We’ll play by your rules, for now. [Appraisal], please go ahead and tell me that [Fill In] does exactly what I think it does.

[Fill In]. A skill that replaces the material that has been previously removed from an area.

Fantastic. It does exactly what I thought it would, which is definitely useful for me and really annoying at the same time. I’m not even kidding, Inner Voice, the fact I didn’t have this skill from the start should seriously be a crime. If I find out you were somehow in charge of what we started out with skill-wise I will personally make it my mission to spend the rest of my life figuring out how to kick my own ass.

Would the Dungeon Core like to know how much [Fill In] costs?

I… I would… I would actually really like that… Inner Voice? Did you just volunteer information all on your own? Without me bothering you for it first? Is this because I threatened to fight you?

[Fill In] costs five points.

And you’re back to mostly ignoring me, I guess, but at least you answered the important one.

After a few worms and grubs my points had ticked up to fifteen, so at least I wasn’t really losing too much in the long run. [Fill In] was pretty cheap, actually. Probably because it was supposed to be a skill I had from the beginning.

…

Your silence says it all, Inner Voice. I’ll forgive you this time, but if I find out there’s another skill I was supposed to have that I don’t I really will devote myself to finding a way to take you down. Anyway, yes, I do want to purchase [Fill In].

[Fill In] purchased. Points remaining: 10.

Hopefully whenever I needed to get around to actually making things the skill to do that wouldn’t cost too much. It felt like I kept wiping my points out to nearly nothing. How was I supposed to make more kobolds at this rate? Not only that, but I still hadn’t purchased other monster mobs. Surely just five monsters wouldn’t be enough for the first level of my dungeon!

As much as I wanted to fret over things now I had other things to worry about, first and foremost being to put my new skill to use.

Given that I would be putting material back I was already dreading the idea of using [Fill In]. Would it be like when I had eaten in reverse the first time I used [Room Building]? If so then I wanted to make sure it was a skill I used as minimally as possible.

There was only so long I could put off doing it, so even though I was reluctant I focused my nearest tendrils on the hole in the dungeon wall and also on my new skill.

[Fill In] surged forth all at once, dirt and grass quickly returning to where they had been as if nothing had happened. It was a strange sensation but it was a lot less like eating in reverse than I thought. The material was leaving me, but it didn’t feel the same way somehow. It was more like I had opened up some hidden room and picked the dirt back out, putting it back into the place where it had been before.

All in all? A very strange sensation, but not one that I disliked enough to actively avoid using it. In fact, the skill would probably come in a lot of handy when it came to shaping up my tunnels. I could use it to add dirt to the walls in places to help obscure turns and give my kobolds places to hide.

[Fill In] was actually pretty useful, in that case!

Before I could really focus on using it again, however, I became aware of a sound coming in from the ruins entrance. It was a sound I had come to recognize as laughter, but from voices I didn’t recognize.

Even though I knew no one had moved I found myself quickly counting to make sure everyone was where they should be.

Basil and Sunflower were in their room, Sunflower’s nose buried against Basil’s back as she slept curled against him. They were out cold with no signs of waking, and even if they had been up the sounds they made were nothing like the sounds of laughter that was echoing down to me.

Cobble and Cobalt were also still deeply asleep, with Cobble having rolled to her side. Her arms were wrapped tightly around Cobalt, his face pressed against her stomach. His wings twitched slightly in his sleep, possible signs he couldn’t breathe well, but I trusted that he would move on his own if he was uncomfortable.

So if everyone was still asleep, then who was outside? More importantly, how many of them were there?