He could feel a slight itching sensation, like little feet crawling over his body upon waking up, what… where am I? And then he noticed the sounds of voices of two people walking in his direction. Hello! I’m afraid I’m a bit disoriented, I could use some help. He Turned his attention around him, noticing the stone of the walls, with a faintly glowing plant in the cracks. I can’t feel my arms or legs, can you hear me? I think I’m in some kind of trouble. The voices continued their calm chatter. Drawing closer to his room. Alarm raced into his… body, not that he could feel it. He Tried stretching his arms, wiggling a toe, or moving an eyelid. Nothing moved. Trying to flail anything around, he felt something extend from his body and got the sensation of slapping the cave wall with his hand, scattering some rocks across the room.
“Did you hear that? Sounds like something’s in the room up ahead”
“I did. Didn’t sound human though, be ready just in case.”
You can’t hear me, can you? I’m right here in the middle of the room. Watching the exit of the room, two men walked in. They were wearing dirty, homespun clothes. The one in front had a torch in his hands and a pickaxe in the other. The smaller one, just behind the first, held a shovel in both hands.
“Look! There's something glowing in the center,” pickaxe said, running towards his perspective. His voice gravelly, grating on his ears.
As they approached shovel said, “It’s a core, we’ve found a core,” his face lighting up with a huge smile. He’s missing several teeth.
I can see you staring at me. Core? You’re looking at me!
“So we’ve got two choices now,” the gravelly voice of pickax said, “we can be kings of our own town”
“-I’d love to be a king of my own town, Grek!”
“Don’t interrupt me!” Pickax reprimanded him, holding his pickaxe in the air. “I don’t know how to make it serve us though.”
“Bonding a core makes it work. But this one is so small, Grek,” shovel setting his shovel into the ground, holding it like a staff. He began wiggling his other hand near him.
Keep those filthy hands away from me, I insist. To his relief, Grek slapped shovel’s hand away.
“Careful now, Jib. You don’t want to activate it now. I think it’s sleeping.”
“Is that why there’s no traps and monsters, Grek?”
“Yes,” Grek was nodding. Probably more to convince himself. “Second option is we crack it open.”
“-Then we’d be special class , Grek! We’d be strong and popular and rich. We’d be wanted everywhere.” Shovel was dancing in place.
“I like that too. A town is good and all, but we’d be stuck here. I’ll make it quick,” Grek handed the torch over to Jib.
Grek, Jib, don’t be hasty now, Grek took the pickaxe in both hands, raising it over his head, please! Stop. There’s no need to hurt me.
Grek grunted, freezing in place, “Jib, what…” Grek’s eyes followed Jib’s body fall to the ground, an arrow in the back of his skull. Grek soon followed his friend, screaming as blood began to pour from slashes across his arms and legs.
A small form stepped forward, piercing Grek through the neck with a slender sword, “I hate when they start screaming. They died as soon as they crossed me,” the figure stepped towards him, his voice booming. His relief was quickly forgotten, seeing the toothy smile of the shortest person yet, “Little jewel, you have the privilege of being in the presence of the great Jaws. I came to help you when I heard all the screaming you did.” Jaws stood a little more than halfway as tall as the men. He was covered in overlapping plates of metal, some kind of scale mail. And his skin was a light gray. The face under the plumed helmet had sharp angles, with large yellow eyes and a giant smile, full of pointed teeth.
You can hear me?! Thank the gods. What is wrong with me? Why can’t I move? ‘He’s a scary fellow, but I’ll take any help right now.’
“Wrong with you?” Jaws’s face looked very confused. “Even newborn jewels should be aware of their godhood.” Jaws sheathed his blade at his waist and lifted his hands into the air. “Their grand providence over the land! Of course a newborn like yourself can be forgiven for not recognizing the greatness of a greater servant like myself.” Jaws pointed his thumb at himself, with a wide smile. ‘He’s a happy guy.’
Greater Servant?
“Tut tut, just a second. My great master has left my forgetful self the answer to probably all of your questions ever.” Jaws reached into a bag at his hip and thrust the now glowing hand towards him.
Jaws’s hand froze in midair, *I’m sorry about my servant. This message is in place inside a memory crystal I created to help lengthen the process of absorption to ease the burden on your mind as the crystal was probably forced on you. Jaws is strong and dependable, just not the brightest. Welcome to Terra, young core. My gift of knowledge and awareness should speed your growth along.* The speech finished and time resumed. Jaws pulled his hand back and waited.
As if someone just lit up the dark room, I’m a dungeon core.
“Yes, I have seen that, young jewel. But what is your name? I am to guard you until you can guard yourself. Another gift from my benevolent and grand master,” Jaws scratched at his chin, still smiling.
My Name?... I don’t remember my name.
“Jewel, you are a great power over the realms now. If you don’t have a name, just honor yourself with one.”
He thought for only a moment, I like Eldren
“Lord Eldren, I would advise you to absorb this mess and put some defenses up. I’d prefer not to have to clean up any more fools that would dare consider harming one so far above their station.”
‘I just need to absorb the bodies for points. Freshly killed humans should yield a moderate amount of points, which I can use to improve my dungeon.’ Focusing inward, Eldren could feel the extent of his dungeon, the entire room he was in. The bodies of the two men were already being passively absorbed. But with focus, Elren was able to pull them into the ground rapidly with all of their possessions.
As the men were absorbed, Elrend could feel the knowledge of the structure of their tools and miscellaneous items enter his mind.
*Creation List updated*
Who's there?
“Just me, Jaws, Lord Eldren.” Jaws only looked confused. “I have excellent detection abilities. Your life is assured with me here.”
‘Clearly he didn’t hear that voice. All the information I just got is hard to separate… spike traps can be easily jammed so they’re not much use beyond beginning floors. Too much fire can make a dungeon avoided in the lower levels. The Herald Executor of Regality, or HER, is the common reference to the voice heard only by dungeon cores. The identity or source of the voice is completely unknown by the Core Alliance. The Regality is a divinity believed to create dungeon cores, as passed down in oral tradition among cores.’
Eldren reached out with Core Force, the ability that had struck the wall alerting the two men earlier, and cradled his core. I feel like I’m already forgetting so much. At least it’s better than the trial and error I would have been forced to go through to learn. The first two visitors almost killed me. Time to get started. Divine Request, Blessing of Dungeon Framework.
*Blessing Granted*
A transparent parchment appeared in Eldren’s view with a list of items:
* Status
* Map
* Servants
* Creation
* ?????
What is this? I think there’s something I can do... Divine Request, Sage Advice.
*Blessing Granted* The pleasant voice of HER responded. ‘I wonder if I can just ask for anything?’
*Greetings, Elran. Focus on what you need and I will answer as I can. You can also just think the question to me. I’m not picky, as long as I understand your intent.* a mellow male voice continued. Elran took a look at Jaws to see if he could hear it too.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“I am in awe! There are no explosions or anything. Truly a jewel worthy of my fantastic aid,” Jaws was nodding to himself, while watching me.
What do you mean by that, Jaws, explosions?
Rotating one of his hands in the air, “You just made two requests.,” stopping to laugh, “no one understands them, but even one request can be rejected and met with punishment. As great divinities of the land the divinities of the heavens will aid you Jewels. It’s just not a common thing from what I know.”
Elran focused on Divine Requests in his mind, *Divine Requests, as described by your friend, are entreaties to the heavens above for aid. The gods of the heavens that choose to listen may grant your request or punish you for bothering them. Their whims vary greatly from personality to personality.*
Jaws, what do you know about the gods?
“I’m a Greater Servant of Ric’art, leader of the Core Alliance. I serve him faithfully and to the best of my amazing abilities that he created me with. As a proud warrior, that is what I know,” Jaws said, looking proud as puffed out his chest.
‘So this guy doesn’t know much of anything, Elran sighed inwardly. Better to worry about what I should be doing now.’
Elran focused back on the transparent parchment, focusing on it, *The Dungeon Framework provides visual aids for managing a dungeon. A great choice for newborn cores to quickly begin their work. Simply focus on any option to do more.”
Elran focused on the word Status in the parchment and the words faded. New words appeared on the parchment:
Dungeon Core Elran
Complexity: Simple
Passive Point Income (PPI): 1 point per hour
Current Points: 205
Dungeon Costs: increased
Elran recognized his name on the parchment. ‘I guess this is about me. Not much here.’ Elran focused on Complexity next, and a parchment letter appeared over the original with the message, ‘Do you wish to increase complexity for 10 points?’ With the options to pick yes or no. Elran tried focusing on the various parts of this message, but nothing happened. Might as well try it, 10 points doesn’t seem like a lot, and Elran focused to choose the yes. Eldran felt a small rumble in his core.
Was that it?
Jaws jogged back to Elran from where he was inspecting the room, “Oh! You are much shinier now. Less of an unpolished rock, closer to the glory you will one day show.”
Thank you, Jaws. What do I look like, precisely?
“You were like a pebble before, with silvery traces showing. But now you have smoothened out and the veneer of rock is gone. You have a silver… or opal color, Lord Elran. Your size seems to have increased a few bits in size as well.”
*Upgrade complete. PPI increased. Point costs adjusted. Framework updated. Favor Increased. Dungeon Sense Improved.*
Elran could feel a new energy inside himself. Upgrading feels good. Elran switched over to the Map section. Time to make my dungeon. Better dungeon means more points and more upgrades.
The map showed all of a single room. Focusing on the room, Elran saw a silvery dot for himself and a little gray circle with a blue outline that followed Jaws’s movement around the room. Focusing on Jaws’s dot more details came up on the right side of the map: Allied Greater Servant, 0.1 PPI. ‘Sage, how does PPI work?’
*Your point income is increased by having living things in your territory. The 200 point bonus you have was from the deaths of those two humans. Stronger lifeforms generate more points over time, while deaths can be an exponential increase of points gained over the passive draw. Jaws over there,* the sage sounded amused saying Jaws’s name, *would generate around one point a minute if he was here to invade your territory. But since he is here to protect you, the income is greatly reduced. Various factors influence your gains. Experiment to figure it all out.
Elran returned to looking at his little map. Focusing on the thick border he could move the frame that was placed around his room. Elran tried draggin the lines to encompass the hallway outside of his room and stopped.
A note popped up into the foreground. *Spend 3 points to expand your territory?* Elran selected yes. The little map expanded, showing the hallway he had taken over. The panded space felt good to Elran too. ‘My room is nice, but I have this strong desire to have much more.’ Elran expanded his border in a large circle all around his room. Except something stopped the expansion in the direction of the hallway. Elran stopped to see how many points it would cost him.
*Spend 50 points to expand territory?* Elran selected yes. All around his room was solid material. The space where his expansion was blocked seemed to be the exit to the cave though. Elran could see sunlight streaming in through the cave entrance. Elran tried to drag his border outside of the cave again, a not popped to the forefront but quickly faded *Buy skill Lord of the Land for 100,000 points?* ‘It’s going to be a while before I can afford that. Sage, what is the skill Lord of the Land?’
*Lord of the land lets you expand your territory onto the open surface*
Makes sense to me. Going back to his core room, Elran focused on the room again. That dungeon sense increase from the complexity upgrade seemed to make his attention catch on certain things.
Room setting… a list of items popped again at the thought:
Room Setting
Appearance
Furniture
Spawns
Themes
Elran focused on themes and browsed through the available options. They had point costs listed next to them. All the themes are expensive. But they have complete designs. At least it’s a good space for ideas. Going back to the appearance section Elran could see cheaper ways to make his room look nicer, such as buying individual pieces.
Browsing his map, the dungeon has only one room. Elran added an entrance room and another small room midway through the tunnel to his room, confirming the selection and spending the points. ‘Any more modifications would eat through my points too much. I need some creatures now.’
“Lord Elran, the bodies finished absorbing and they both left behind matrix shards. As you lack a servant,” Jaws said, smiling while picking something up off the floor, “I’ll bring them to you. This is truly auspicious, I am very lucky to have found you, Lord Elran, here in the Sticks. Absorb the smaller one from the skinny guy to learn their craft and use the bigger one to make your own servant.” Jaws shoved his clawed hand towards me once again, this time a clear stone, slightly yellow, was pinched in his fingers.
Inwardly sighing, ‘hand right in my personal space again,’ Elran mentally pulled at the crystal to absorb it. The small stone almostly instantly disappeared with a small pop.
*Creation Options updated*
Going through the lists back to the main menu was the creation option. Switching to that list brought up a smaller one. Small Matrix shard was there for 10,000 points. ‘They ARE prohibitively expensive. Sage, how do I create a servant?’
*Cleanse that shard unless you intend to resurrect the man named Grek. Then just focus on the shard. Next keep focusing, thinking about making a Servant Matrix, which should give you a blank slate for upgrading one of your creatures into a servant.*
‘I think I’m noticing a pattern here.’
*It is a kind of a science.*
‘Dungeonology?’ But the Sage didn’t reply that time. Cheeky.
Thank you, Jaws. Hold the other shard up now. Jaws held the slightly thicker shard up. It was slightly shaded brown. Thinking about clearing the color out, Eldran watched the brown fade and the crystal turn clear. Servant Matrix. The crystal faded from Jaws’s grip and Eldran could feel a slight change.
Navigating through the parchment to the first page, Elran remembered seeing the Servants. Opening that page displayed one line: 1 lesser matrix available for bestowal. A note popped onto the page, ‘Name lesser matrix?’ Yes, Cabryn. The note faded, leaving only the name Cabryn on the Servant’s page.
“I am excited to see what kind of creatures you can make. I had to guard a new core one time that refused to make any. I’m sure it was ashamed of anything it was capable of when compared to me,” Jaws had his chest puffed out, looking very pleased with himself. “Start with a few in here so we can have a guard up. It’s nice to have some backup.”
Elran could feel his dungeon sense pulling him towards the map page. Focusing on himself in the map, Elran had a thought, ‘The Framework provides a structured way to do things to guide how things work. It would probably be faster to just focus on myself. Some tests would help.’ Continuing to focus on the version of himself in the map while thinking about creating creatures, a new page displayed to Elran. It had the title Creatures, but the rest of the page was blank.
My creatures page is blank! ‘I said that out loud.’
Jaws’s mouth hung open, “I did not know a core could not have creatures available to make.Even one as great as I can still learn something new.” Jaws was laughing, very amused by the situation.
But how can I get creatures then to protect me and help make points?
Jaws took a second to catch his breath and calm down, “I like you Lord Elran. I feel some kinship between us. Here. I offer this tribute in the name of our friendship.” Jaws pulled a dagger from his belt and pricked his thumb. “Absorb this drop of blood and learn of some lesser cousin of mine. As great as I am, I am sure that they will be of some use. Whatever they may be.”
‘This is a good friend. If I had arms, I’d hug the guy.’ Elran focused on the one drop Jaws had squeezed from his thumb, and watched it dissolve into an effervescent light.
*Creature List Updated*
Elran was quick to return to the creature page. There was a new name on the list: Gobbo.