Year 1453 Of The Third Age,

Somewhere In The Arav Desert,

Arava Peninsula.

The Arav desert, a vast spanse of dry, hot tropical semi-arid desert that covers the entirety of the Arava Peninsula was one of the most dangerous and unexplored wilderness in the known world of Terra. The Arav Desert was tainted with a corruption called miasma everywhere, giving rise to many undeads and corrupted creatures. Even it's normal creatures were not to be trifle with for Arava was hell on earth and even the smallest inhabitants of hell was a demon in their own right.

In a particular region of central Arava, a creature was breathing it's last. It was a corrupted beast, a mongoose to be exact. It was daytime, so it had hidden itself in an abandoned den underneath a big boulder. The corrupted mongoose was twice larger than its base, with black fur and furious red eyes. It's stomach was bulging and glowing green, every now and then.

The corrupted mongoose had been driven out from its pack after it got corrupted and killed several of its kind. It had been roaming for several day and it was at its last leg for unlike undeads, most corrupted beast dies shortly after they get corrupted. However, it's death was being brought on by mana poisoning not miasma.

In Terra, there were three different type of energy. Prana also called life force, which was the base energy, found everywhere and in everything. Mana, which were refined prana used by living creatures to create magic or strengthen their body. Miasma were corrupted prana or mana, which rot and corrupt everything.

Mana and Miasma couldn't coexists. They were poisons to one another. In a battle between mana and miasma, quality not quantity wins most of the times.

The source of the mana in the mongoose was a dove egg size crystal gem inside it's stomach pouch. The crystal gem came from a snake the mongoose had eaten two days prior. At that time, it was just a small crystal with little prana. In just two days, the gem had grown that much, eating the miasma and what little prana the mongoose had.

Crystal gem like this are formed underground but this one was above the ground. Chance and fate brought it above the ground. The Story of the crystal gem journey began with a little burrowing mouse. The mouse had unknowingly eaten a small gem that was not bigger than a grain of sand. The gem remain in the mouse stomach for several days as the mouse could neither digest nor excrete it. In it's stomach, the gem grew.

One particular night, the mouse decided to venture above ground to search for food but instead of finding food, it became the sustenance for a desert viper.

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The viper ate the mouse whole, this the gem, which has grown a little bigger was ingested as well. The gem, like before did not get spat out along with the mouse remain and instead remain in the viper's stomach.

As fate will have it, two days later the snake was killed and eaten by a corrupted mongoose, who in its hunger and madness did not think of chewing it's food but instead wolf down the viper. Thus it ended inside the mongoose stomach.

The miasma in the mongoose was weak and sparsely distributed. However, the mana that was poisoning it was concentrated in a crystal gem inside it's stomach with a qualitative superiority over the miasma in its body. Thus, mana had become a poison for the miasma and hence the mongoose.

With a plop, the mongoose belly exploded, guys, flesh and blood spewing everywhere inside the single chambered den. The crystal gem shoot out along with the guts, hit the wall above the entrance and then fell to the ground. As the gem touch the floor, a wave of mana got released, dispersing into the chamber. The released mana burned the miasma in the chamber, cleansing the area.

It roll towards a corner and stayed there.

The crystal gem was colourless and oval in shape. Dots of tiny milky white flakes with a dim glow were floating inside, moving towards the centre of the orb seemingly attracted by a unknown force of compulsion. These were prana.

The orb was no ordinary gem. It was a dungeon core, a special and valuable object, especially in the mortal realm.Some regards them as demonic and some regards them as holy. However, many agrees that a dungeon core was a precious treasure for it creates dungeon from where prana can be turned to mana more easily and also contains lots of treasures.

No one knows how they come into existence or who wills them to, considering that the existence of deities were not a secret affairs in the mortal plane. Maybe even the deities does not know as no deities has ever claimed oneself to be patrons of dungeon. This, dungeon core was a really special and mysterious existence.

The mana in the dungeon core was weak and such, the core was still asleep. If it had not taken such a long journey and the mana inside it had not fought with the miasma of the now deceased corrupted mongoose then it would have already awakened. Yet fate did not let the little dungeon core to have an easy life. It had stored a pocket amount of mana for the last few days but that was all spent in its struggle with the corrupted mongoose. All that remained was a few hundreds unit of prana.

In order to awake, the prana had to condense in its centre, get refined into mana and form a mana ring as a dungeon core was an existence that was purely maintain by mana. Until then, it will remain as a sleeping dungeon core or more like a fetus, still not having been birthed out yet.

The prana in the dungeon core moved towards the centre in a rapid speed. The dungeon core unconsciously took it prana from the surrounding. The den was filled with prana as the last mana surged had purified and broken down the miasma of the corrupted mongoose into prana.

By dawn, a small, greenish ring formed in the centre of the orb. The first mana circle had been created in the dungeon core.

A few flies and insects had entered the den, lured in by the scent of the mongoose flesh. The flies laid their eggs in the flesh. A few beetles and wasp were doing the same as well.

By noon, the den had turned into a battlefield as predatory insects got attracted by the huge traffic of flies, wasps and bettles. Spiders had woven webs in the entrance, scorpions dug trap in the sand and ants were scavenging from the flesh. Soon, bigger creatures will be attracted into the den.

Unbeknownst to the insects, something was stirring in the little dungeon core. The rich supply of prana had led to the mana circle to develop faster at an unprecedented speed. The dungeon core began to glow green and then a flash of light colored the dark cave in green for a second before it subsided. In the corner, the dungeon core was glowing bright green.

The Dungeon Core had awaken.