Walking back to the camp with Bella was an odd experience. Neither of us said a word, instead just staring ahead blankly. At one point I did have to glare at Freako until it ran off, but other than that nothing interesting happened.
Once at camp Bella walks right up to the glowing warmth of the crystal, joining the group of people without hesitation. Once she’s seated a few others come up to her and say something. For a moment I pause.
Why… am I here? Not in a why am I alive way, but as in why am I in this camp? A few hours ago I killed friends and comrades of these people. For what possible reason could I want to be here? To gloat, mock these people for losing to me? My conscience pushes down on the part of me that knows why. Eventually that small part makes itself known. I want to be around people. I’ve always been a loner, but not really by choice. I’d always get left out at school and stuff so I just… got used to it? And even if it’s only felt like a day or two to me, I haven’t talked to any people besides Bella for over six months. Longer, if you include before I died. A lot… A lot longer.
A sudden thwack on my back knocks me out of my emotional spiral. A crow person has their hand on my shoulder, their scarred beak close to my face. They chuckle at something and look me in the eye.
“So, you’re the dungeon, then?” Their voice sounds like steel, and their grip strength matches.
I nod at the black-feathered person. My layered voices come out needlessly sardonic. “Yeah, you can kill me if you want revenge or whatever, but I don’t think I’ll actually die.” My gaze locks onto them as I tap the center of my chest with a finger. They look down to where I’m tapping before locking eyes with me again.
They snort, and then start cackling. What’d I say? I just watch in shock as the bird laughs themselves silly. Eventually their laughter settles, and they look at me again.
“No, no, none of that for me. The reports said there were only spiders here, yeah?” They wait for an answer.
I shrug. “More or less, there’s one other guy but he only got one person so far.”
The crow nods. “If there’s only spiders, like ya say, then those fools shouldn’t be dead right now. But they are, assumingly.” They look at me again, and I nod. “Then they must’ve fucked up, can’t blame you for their mistakes.” Feathers rustle as they shrug. “And most of the folks here have killed people before, too, so what’s the difference, really?”
Their beak makes it hard to understand their facial expressions, but it really looks like they’re smiling at me. “Th-thanks, and yeah, the larger group didn’t stay on guard on the way back. The guy who got grabbed in the other group just walked into the dark alone.” I shrug. “I was surprised they let their guards down that much.” My gaze flickers to the crow, who is rubbing his beak with a talon-tipped finger, tracing one of the long scars.
“Hmmm… If you’re to be believed, sounds like they got what was coming to ‘em. Poor miners, though.” I find myself nodding at his words, even though their deaths benefitted me. My gaze drifts to the raven’s body. They look human besides the bird-like claws they have for hands and feet. And the bird head. Also they’re covered in feathers. Actually they’re only humanoid, not like a human at all, really. On their back is a pair of wings, attached like an angel’s. The wings are draped around them like a cloak.
They notice my gaze, somehow, and chuckle. “Never seen an Ave before?” Their eyes sparkle with amusement.
I shake my head. “No, there were only humans wher-” I cut off my words. The bird’s eyes go wide, they clearly heard me. An awkward silence hangs between the two of us for a while before they finally break it.
“So, I’m Taven, I’m from the Irenben kingdom, technically, but I’m not really from anywhere, like most Aves.” They click their beak in thought. “So, what’s your name, dungeon?”
My head droops instantly. “I, uh… I don’t have one.” My voice is quiet, only one or two of the layers making it out of me.
Taven nods. “Makes sense, don’t see why a dungeon would have a name.” Something hard hides behind their eyes. “So, you a dude or a chick or something else?”
Guy, man, male, boy, any of these things will work, but I can’t get any of them to leave my mouth. “A dungeon? I’m not really sure.” Why’d I lie about that?
Taven is unfazed. “Well, I’m not sure if you could tell, but I am a guy. Other races tend to not be able to tell with Aves, feathers cover everything up.” He gestures at his body dramatically. “So I’ll just call you Dungeon until you get yourself a name, that good?” He side-eyes me. I nod slowly.
His clawed hand clamps around my oven-mitt one and he drags me along behind him. He quickly leads me to the outer edge of the gem’s warm light. We both sit in the makeshift chairs and look at the pulsing crystal.
“So, Dungeon, how old are ya?” Taven doesn’t turn his head, instead looking at me with his sideward facing eye.
“Um… around six months.” I lightly kick some debris with my foot.
He laughs. “Nah, I mean before that.” My body tenses, immediately giving away more information than I’d like. Taven keeps looking at me, clearly expecting an answer.
I let out a long sigh. “I was… seventeen? When I was taken, anyways. Then I was in an underground prison for years. I have no idea how long I was there.” I shrug. “Being isolated makes you lose sense of time, especially with no windows.”
The raven’s beak hangs open slightly, clearly not expecting that answer. Eventually it snaps shut as he goes to speak. “Dungeon, you said seventeen?” I nod, unsure what he’s getting at. He runs his claws through his headfeathers. “Eight above, you were just a child!” His voice is upset. Seventeen is barely a child, though, what is he getting at?
He must’ve felt my confusion, because he explains himself, “At seventeen an Ave child would still not be able to fly on their own for long.” He puts his hands together, fiddling with his thumbs. “That’s barely older than a baby for us, and that happened to you?” He glances at me, hints of sadness in his gaze. “How long do you think you were in that prison, if you had to guess?”
I mull it over. Without daylight it was hard to judge the passage of time, and without people my mind wandered a lot. I could use the experiments as a way to tell time, but I really don’t want to count those memories. It had to be at least five years, though.
“At least five years?” I look at the raven.
Taven says nothing, so I don’t either. We sit together in silence and watch the other people in the camp interact. They all seem friendly enough, even if a few are drunk. Without that gem in the center protecting them Freako would’ve gotten one or two of them for sure. Part of me is glad about that, another part feels like it’s a missed opportunity. Everything is so confusing.
The empty seat on my left loudly becomes filled. The newcomer is Bella, who is still in her armor aside from her helmet.
“So, what are you whispering about over here? You gonna stab us in the back, Taven?” Her voice is serious, but a small sliver of humor gives her away.
“Sure would, but we both know that wouldn’t do much to you, now, don’t we?” Taven’s eyes glitter with amusement as he teases the captain.
Bella coughs. “So, Taven, you still leaving tomorrow?”
The birdman shakes his head. “Nah, I was, until I talked to Dungeon here. I want to keep an eye on them, and make sure that the people heading in aren’t morons like the group that we lost today.” He smacks me on the back affectionately.
Bella raises an eyebrow and looks at me. “What do you mean, Taven?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He shakes his head at her. “I’ll tell you later.” His claw taps against the orange gem in my forehead. “I’m heading to sleep, don’t send any ghouls after me while I sleep, alright?”
For the second time since I woke up as a dungeon, I laugh hard. “Yeah, yeah, not that I could even if I wanted to.” I point at the purple crystal.
Taven freezes for a moment, before nodding. “Right… Night, kiddo.” He moves away, melting into the dark. That would’ve looked a lot less impressive with my dungeon sight.
Without the snarky birdman, Bella and I are left alone. Neither of us say anything, so we sit in silence for what feels like hours. Eventually I speak up.
“Uh… Bella?” She grunts at me. “If you all ever need some changes to the cavern here, I’d be willing to consider it.” I stare at the floor, unsure of what I’m saying.
“Really?” She sounds shocked.
I nod at the floor. “Yeah, if it’s not anything crazy I don’t see why I wouldn’t. In a morbid way you all paid for it anyways.” My voice gets quiet towards the end of my sentence. Yeah, I can help these people, at least in this area. They deserve that much.
Bella eventually speaks up again. “Y’know, you’re making things awfully complicated. This was supposed to be an easy extraction mission, and now I’m thinking about right and wrong and shit like that.” I hear her branches crackle as she rubs them.
“I… I think I’ll leave.” I suddenly stand up. Some weird feeling is squirming through me, making me want to be anywhere else. I don’t wait for a response, and just let my body dissolve on the spot.
All I know is I’m not good.
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I spend the next few weeks avoiding the growing town. And I mean two weeks, not what feels like two weeks. Ever since the door opened again, time's been moving mostly normally. Maybe a little faster than in my previous body, but not anywhere as fast as it was for the last few months. Means having a relationship isn’t off the table completely, I guess. Who am I kidding, I’m a living dungeon. I feed off people’s souls or whatever, probably a red flag for any potential takers. I’ve dealt with isolation before, I’ll just do it again.
Lifeforce: 21857
What a number. So much more than the scraps I’ve been working with since waking up. What to do with it, though? I have miles of empty tunnels going unused, so not expansion. The spiders don’t need any help from me. There’s a stable population of rats and dusties. Kobolds are an option, I guess, but I want to make sure I’m not missing anything.
Going through the tabs in my menus I notice two new ones. One is labeled ‘Research’ while the other is labeled ‘Monster Lab.’ Those were certainly not there a few days ago. Both of them sound really neat, but I’ll start with research. The new tab opens in my mind.
A massive tree styled menu pops up. Multiple categories branch off a central node labeled ‘unnamed dungeon 01’. The categories are all vague and basic, like buffs, debuffs, traps, and the like. Most are filled with basic magic of their types, with a few structures that automate said spells. All this seems very useful and all, but my mind is way too stressed and tired to parse most of it. So I go to the next tab.
Monster Lab pops into my head with a loud trumpet sound, making me jump. Then, instead of a menu of any kind, a giant piece of furniture floats before my mental self. A familiar piece of furniture.
Floating before me is a massive stone gumball machine, with a replica of my core instead of the large plastic sphere on top. A sticky note is stuck to the dispensing chute on the front of the device. After a few minutes of figuring out how to, I grab the yellow paper. Scrawled on it, in horrifically messy handwriting, are the words ‘Sorry about the wait. I forgot to make this earlier, have a free go on me.’
I start laughing. Really laughing. Whole body laugh kinda laughing. Which, for a dungeon, is basically an earthquake. I can feel my entire body of caves and tunnels shaking violently, computers dropping from the ceiling, but I can’t get myself to care. I’m going to laugh, god dammit!
Once I settle down enough to think, I stare down at the note. Who made this? It’s talking about the system, but in first person. The system isn’t alive, though, at least I don’t think it is. I’ll ask Taven when… Actually, I’ll just think on it.
Doing as I did with the note, I reach the large silver knob on the front of the machine and twist. It makes a loud grinding sound and the core on top flashes twice. Then the front flap pops open and a plastic orb falls out. The orb is two solid colors, with a seam running between them. I crack the faux egg open to get to my prize. Instead of having something inside, like maybe a statue or plushie, instead a menu box pops out.
Basic Dungeon Elemental Acquired! Pull again? 500LF
Geeze! Five hundred for a random monster? I bet stuff like rats and dusties are in there, too. No way am I spending that much life force to maybe get a hamster or something. Wait… the fake me on top of the thing did flash twice, does that mean a dungeon elemental is two stars or something?
Whatever, let's look at this elemental.
Dungeon Elemental:
The basic elemental type for a dungeon summoner. Once pulled into the material world, the elemental takes on a trait of the dungeon for its main attribute. Ex: A glacier dungeon would summon ice and water elementals.
Huh, that’s kinda neat. Is it gonna summon a shitty bedroom elemental then? No, an abusive home elemental is more likely. No reason to wait to find out, I guess. After floating down to my core room I scan the outer edge of the cave. Eventually I find a good spot for my new laboratory.
Experimentally, I try to push the wall of the cavern back. This time I hold back, pushing like the wall is made of glass. Despite my restraint the painted surface warps backwards quickly, morphing into a hallway. After it gets thirty feet in or so I stop its growth with a bit of effort. Again I try to expand the space, this time outwards instead of one direction. Once the space opens into a decently sized cave I stop.
Laboratory created! I’d giggle if I hadn’t already put everyone inside me through a laughing fit today. With my new research menu open I start browsing what seems like thousands of upgrades. Most of them need prerequisites, and the more advanced the upgrade the more lifeforce they cost. Typical game progression logic.
Most of the upgrades either are useless to me, or I just had no idea what they do. Like essence ripper, it has a description but it's not helpful. ‘Lets you tear an advanced essence into two simpler ones.’ Wow, that sounds great and useful. What’s an essence? Why are there advanced ones? I have no idea, because the menu won’t give me any details on those things.
The other group is way more obnoxious, simple things that have no purpose. Like ‘Ability to Sneeze’ or ‘Farsight’. Now, at first, farsight sounds great. I could look outside my body? At the wider world? No, I can’t. It doesn’t let you see outside your current structure or into another. I’d put my money on it counting my body as a structure. I’m not going to give the thing ten thousand lifeforce to find out, either.
So I continue to browse, occasionally finding some interesting or useful upgrades. Most are too expensive or have a ton of things I need to get first, but I find a few that I can get now.
The first one I find is ‘Inter-Dungeon Communication’. It says I can communicate with any living thing directly, from my dungeon form. The target can’t talk back to me, but there is an upgrade that allows that, I can get it later.
Second is a basic one. ‘Lifeforce Fueled Water-Source’. It allows me to create a point in the dungeon that generates water at a steady rate. I can also adjust it manually, of course. The downside is that it takes lifeforce to create the water. The rate is listed, which is a thousand liters per unit. Unfortunately my American ass has only a vague idea of how much that is. Shoulda memorized conversions like my science teacher said. Whatever…
Lastly are a bunch of smaller abilities, ‘Doors’, ‘Basic Light’, ‘Basic Chest’, ‘Low Tier Loot’, ‘Basic Trap Components’. Just things that allow me to build more complicated things. I quickly do the math of adding all the costs together, and cringe.
Before adding the water and communications abilities, the total is twelve thousand two hundred and four. After adding the two more expensive unlocks it rises all the way to eighteen thousand. Big cost for such basic things, I guess I was right that there were hidden costs I hadn’t seen yet.
I go ahead and purchase them all, I’ll need them sooner or later. I don’t need any new monsters right now, either. A strange fuzzy feeling spreads through me before quickly vanishing. Weird. Immediately I make a steel door on the passage into my laboratory. After that I check my lifeforce total, time to see the damage.
Lifeforce: 3842
Oof, so much for having a lot. Regardless, I haven’t had any fun yet, so let's mess around a bit. Looking at the grimy wooden boards that make up the floor, I imagine an elemental forming. I don’t really know what an elemental looks like, so I just imagine a cloud with eyes.
The air in the chamber begins to spin, slowly condensing into a dark mist. The mist spins itself together, slowly thickening into a basic human shape. After the legless humanoid body is made, two blue glowing spheres appear in the cloud’s head. Its entire body is shades of blue, but mostly of a darker hue.
The entity slowly looks around, its large glowing eyes drinking in the room. Once it does a one eighty it stops in place. It then drops to the floor, pulls its knees to its chest, and hugs them.
And then it starts crying.