Year 1453 of the Third age,

Somewhere in the Arava Desert,

Continent of Terea.

Deep underneath a rocky region in the Arav Desert, a vein of mana burst through, faint and weak but still higher than the mana possessed by things, both living and non-living around the region. Many weak creatures who are sensitive to mana fled the area while the ones who couldn't did not flee as other than the mana burst, no other physical phenomenon occured except for one.

Less than five meter deeps, a small domed depression had been formed without any outlet to the outside world, devoid of any life. The dome was dusty due to it being formed through a mana burst recently and illuminated by a bright white light coming from the centre.

The source of the light was a bright crystal orb, only a little bigger than a desert dove egg, which was one-hundredth the size of the dome. Tiny dots of shining snowy flakes was floating inside the orb.

The shining flakes were prana, the raw form of mana, found in every living things and some rare non-living elements in Arava. The presence of prana in the crystal orb made it special. However, it was no prana crystal as prana crystal often ranged from yellow to red in its tinge of colour and opaque while the orb was completely colourless and transparent except for its visible dots of prana. This was a special existence, a thing that can be called a being and at the same time, not. This was known as a dungeon core in the mortal realm and it was a juvenile dungeon core without any sentience, yet.

Dungeon cores are a special existence in the mortal plane. 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 prana in the orb floating around, heading towards the centre of the orb, seemingly attracted by a unknown force of compulsion. However, it took days for a dot of prana to reach the centre. On the seventh day, the prana began to merged together, making a foundation of a swirling formation of white cloud.

On the twelfth day, scratching sounds came from the top of the dome and small crack suddenly appeared up from the top of the dome. A tiny claw paw appeared and disappeared through the small crack. Suddenly, the roof near the crack collapse, forming an oculus like hole and something furry came tumbling down, landing on top of the orb, which went scurrying towards the wall. Then another, then another and another until a larger furry creature fell, which sent the first four to scurry away. Not noticing the orb, the larger, furry creature started to head towards it but not at it. It began scratching and gnawing the wall, seemingly scared while the other smaller four began to gathered around it, their tiny whiskers clearly twitching from fear and nervousness.

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The large creature was slender and small, with a pointed nose, large ears, and a nearly hairless tail. It had a four inches long body and a tail that is two inches long with brownish fur on the upperside and white hair on the belly. It was a mouse, particularly an Arav Mouse. It was ten time six times the size of the orb and the smaller mice were one-third of its size, most possibly it's juvenile youngs due to their resemblance.

Screeches and squeaks were coming from the hole from where the mice came from. The large mouse became more erratic and anxious in its attack on the wall as the sound reach closer.

Before the large mouse could even make an escape route for it and it's children, two larger mouselike creature came tumbling down. One of the two was in tatters, wounds running through its entire body and a eye pop out, resembling the larger mouse scratching at the wall but one-third larger and the other was nearly twice its size with black fur and glowing red eyes. The latter was not a mouse but a rat, one that had been maddened by miasma.

The two were locked in combat, each of them biting and clawing one another. If the mouse was not a Arav Mouse, it will already had been killed by the maddened rat but an Arav Mouse was not built like other mouse. Unlike other mouse, an Arav Mouse was more of a predator than a prey, often preying on insects and other small creatures, including other mice. Male especially were experienced in battles due to their constant encounter with other males as Arav Mouse were territorial and had a lifelong mate. Sometimes they could even killed larger creatures like rats and mice of both mates locked in the fight together.

This time, the female was busy with evacuation of their litter while the male was fighting off the intruder, hence making it impossible for the male to fight the mad rat on equal footing.

The mad rat tore at the male Arav mouse throat, ripping it open. The mouse squeal and went down. Without finishing the male off, the mad rat turned to the others, its red eyes glowing with madness.

A cornered mouse will bite when threatened and so that's what the female did. It lunged at the rat with every part of its body ready to fight to protect its brood until its end. But instead of fighting back, the mad rat squeal in pain and tumbled over, foams frothing from its mouth, twitching in pain until it went still and stiff.

The female mouse did not knew that the mad rat was dead and went for its throat, tearing it down until the head deattach from its body. Then with her front paws on the rat head, it gave out a howl like squeal, proclaiming her victory over the mad rat, which was greeted back by her litter and her injured mate.

Unbeknownst to them, it was not her that killed the rat. It was another surge of mana, this time stronger than before. Arav mouse couldn't sense mana but the mad rat could since it had miasma corruption. The mad rat had died from mana poisoning as mana and miasma did not mixed well.

The culprit of the mana surged was the orb, now with a whirling green cloud in its centre. It's prana had turned to mana.

The Dungeon Core had awakened.