I feel so stupid as I walk away from the white mockery of a person. Why did I do it, why’d I believe it? How many years? How many classes? How many times was I told and warned to not trust monsters? That they don’t have morals like people do? And what do I do? I trust one. And people died because of it. The blood of all those people is on my hands just as much as the monster’s.
As I walk away, I hear it making noises. Ones that I hadn’t expected it to make. Ones I didn’t think it could make. It’s crying - sobbing, really. I have no idea why, it’s the one that attacked us, no matter what it claimed… But why would it claim that? It’s obvious it attacked us, so why li-
My thoughts are cut off by a massive pressure that surges up behind me. Memories flash into my head, from my first battle. The war with the Vennek Legion. One of our kingdom’s famous mages joined our troop into battle. He killed thousands with one spell, almost instantly. That’s the last time I had felt a pressure like the one now behind me.
I spin around, my hand rushing to my blade. Where the dungeon’s avatar had been stands a massive blue elemental. The beast’s head nearly touches the damn ceiling, and its two glowing blue eyes are locked onto me. It lets out an earth shattering wail. Not a roar, specifically a pitiful wail. Pure sadness and despair fill the sound that escapes it.
The creature’s sadness invades my mind, worming its way into me. Foreign memories flood my mind, and I do my best to block them out. My efforts are futile in the end, and the images flash past my eyes. Isolation, abandonment, longing, feelings that aren’t mine assault me. The emotions almost force me to my knees, but I manage to keep myself aware of my surroundings. Barely.
Behind me I hear people crying out in the town. Sobbing and wails of anguish echo throughout the cavern, giving everything a hellish atmosphere. Part of me begins to question if this is even reality anymore. That part of me is quickly crushed by my rational half as it wrests control in order to dodge the massive fist flying at me. I roll to the side just in time to get out of the way of the giant’s limb. Swirling blue mist pulverizes the spot I’d just been.
Eight damn this! What kind of elemental assaults the mind like this? I can hardly keep myself standing. I jump to the side to dodge a downward swing from the thing. Wood splinters as the boards making up the ground are crushed by the attack. How the hell am I going to fell this thing? I can’t even lift my fucking sword!
After I dodge another swing, I notice something out of the corner of my eye. The dungeon’s avatar is still on the floor, quietly sobbing. Maybe if I can calm it, this thing will- I dodge another overhead crushing attack from the elemental. As I roll aside I angle myself to head towards the avatar. As soon as I exit the roll with a stagger, I start to drag myself towards the dungeon’s self.
The elemental’s blue eyes flicker towards its master and then back to me. Anger flares in its eyes and it redoubles its efforts to kill me. Each time I dodge I keep trying to angle myself closer and closer to the avatar. Eventually I get within reach, and after dodging one last blow, I jump for it.
As soon as I get near the dungeon’s form, the elemental stops attacking. Its eyes turn red in anger as I draw closer to it. The small white body is still on its knees, staring at the floor crying. What do I do? How do I calm a monster? My mind flashes to the feelings that the elemental pushed into my mind.
My arms wrap around the being, my armor clinking against its hard exterior. “Hey, I’m here. It’s alright.” I try to soothe the alien being. “You’re not alone right now, I’m right here.” Slowly its sobs slow, my words reaching the mind inside the white shell. Eventually the crying stops completely, and its head rises to look at me.
“Bella?”
────────────
Someone is touching me. Why is someone touching me? Everyone is gone, I’m alone, no one can be touching me. I must be wrong… But I hear someone, too. Each time something hits me gently, my surroundings become clearer and clearer. Eventually I can see the hunched over form of a knight. One with branches for hair.
“Bella?” Why is she here? She left.
The tree woman looks up at me. “Haaa… Yeah, it’s me. Welcome back.” Her deep and melodic voice sounds exhausted.
I tilt my head. “Where did I go?” My gaze drifts to something moving behind her. A large swirling form of blue smoke rages on the other side of the knight. “Blue?”
The two furious eyes of the elemental snap to me and instantly soften. He waves down at me, a comforting energy surging through his glowing stare. After a moment of looking at me, his gaze shifts back to Bella. His aura becomes angry and menacing again in a flash.
“Blue, go back, okay? I’m alright now,” I try to reassure the protective elemental. He glances at me while keeping his focus on Bella. Eventually he makes a grunting sound and starts to vanish. In less than a minute the massive form sinks into the ground. As soon as his energy completely dissipates Bella falls onto her back.
My eyes wander over the tired knight. Her armor is a kind of steel that has the smallest hint of a glow to it, making it seem a bit ethereal. Brown and green twigs reach out from her head, searching for the non-existent sun. She doesn’t have any sweat on her, but her skin is a bit dried out. Her eyes flit open and shift to look up at me.
“Thanks. It really gave me a workout,” she laughs. “Damn thing did not want me near you.” She lets out a long sigh. “I’m lucky it was me out here, anyone else would’ve fallen to that thing.”
What? To Blue? Is she kidding? “What do you mean?” I tilt my head slightly.
Her gaze locks with mine. “That thing’s mental attack would’ve completely disabled all but a few of my people. I could hardly keep standing.” She smirks. “But stand I did, and got to you, too.” She closes her eyes. “Why’s that surprise you, dungeon?”
This time I laugh. Discordant tones layer over each other, causing my chuckling to sound demonic. “When I made him he spent several hours curled up on the floor, sobbing.”
Her eyes shoot open. “Are you serious?” I nod at her. “Well… that makes sense.” What? I tilt my head the other way. “It was forcing waves of sadness into my head, and from the crying I heard from town it wasn’t a small area affected.” He can do that?! I guess he was worth the coin.
“I… had no idea. I just got a new monster and made one to see what it was like.” I shrug. “I’m not sure why an elemental can do that. Or how he got up here, actually.”
For some reason Bella’s eyes narrow at me. “You… got a new monster?” Ah, shit. “What does that mean?” I avert my eyes from her piercing stare. After a few minutes of me avoiding answering she lets me go. “Fine, if you won’t tell me that, tell me what the hell happened with the cave-in.”
Dammit! This woman is only asking hard questions! Why doesn’t she ask anything easy, like ‘if you could wear a dress, would you?’ Easy stuff!
I sigh. “Alright. I’ll tell you.” I rub my lack of face with both hands. “I had a goddamn nightmare. There, happy?” I glance at the tree person.
Her eyes are wide in shock. “A… nightmare? Like, a bad dream. A bad dream caused the cave-in, cost several people their lives?”
I flinch. “Yeah, a bad dream.” I nod at the floor, avoiding her looks.
She laughs in disbelief. “What could a dungeon possibly have a nightmare about?” I feel her gaze on me without looking up.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
I’ll tell her. Why not? What’s she gonna do with that information? Blackmail me? What do I care?
“My parents. It was about my parents.” My head whips up, and I meet her eyes. “Is that good enough?”
If she had been standing, she would’ve fallen. “What do you mean parents? How does a dungeon have parents?” Her eyes narrow to slits. “Are you fucking with me?”
I shake my head. “Wasn’t always a dungeon. Had parents back before all this.” I shrug.
Her hand presses against her forehead. “It all makes sense… Why you can talk, why you have a body, all of it. If you were something else before.” She pauses. “When you said you ‘got a new monster’. You meant the system gave you a new one?”
I nod. “Yeah, the system gave me one.”
She stares at the ceiling. Silence hangs over the two of us for a while. After a couple dozen minutes Bella pulls herself to her feet.
“Can you make chairs?” I nod and will two office chairs into being. She sits down in one and I follow suit. After another few minutes she speaks up. “Sorry. If all that is true, I’m sorry that I asked all that.” She runs her hands through her branches.
With a shrug I say, “It’s alright, you were just figuring out the situation. I’m the main threat here, after all.”
Another awkward pause ensues. “So, what kind of dream about your parents? You miss ‘em, or…?” This question is much gentler, missing the force from earlier.
“No, it was them arguing.” I rub my shoulders, to keep the bad feelings away.
Bella nods at me. “I can understand that.” She pauses, but seems like she wants to say more. Eventually she decides to. “Listen, dungeon, don’t — gods, I can’t believe I’m saying this — don’t blame yourself.” My head snaps up, and I stare her in the eyes. “The town shoulda put up supports in case of something like that. Even a natural earthquake would’ve done that much damage. We were complacent,” she sighs.
Relief washes over me. I don’t agree with her reasoning, but her telling me that makes the guilt wash away. Not completely, but it’s no longer smothering me.
I choke up a bit. “Th-thanks, Bella.” She lets out a grunt along with a nod but doesn’t look at me.
She stands up suddenly. “Well, I should go back.” Her eyes flicker down at me, nervously? “If you… ever need someone to talk to, I’d be willing.” Before I can respond the tall woman turns and walks back to town.
As I watch her leave, an unfamiliar feeling starts to burn in my chest.
────────────
The first thing I do after returning to my true form is check my lifeforce.
Lifeforce: 11324
…Quite a few people died in the cave-ins, then. Burbling melancholy floods my metaphorical chest. Using their life energy to protect others is the best memorial I can give them. At least at this moment. With a plan in mind I flick the research tab open. With a short search through the categories I find the building section and quickly locate the abilities I want.
Support, Reinforce, Faux Sky, and Minor Custom Structure have been purchased. Your current Lifeforce is now 3324.
I cringe at that. So expensive, for mostly decorative things. …Whatever, if it helps ease my conscience, it's worth it. My mind zooms out so that the entire town cavern is in view. Most of the collapsed ceiling is still on the ground, covering crushed buildings… and probably bodies. First things first, clean the rubble!
Being in my main body, I don’t have to imagine what I want. Instead I just will it to happen, and it does. There is the strange sensation of flexing my muscles, but I suppose that’s what I’m technically doing. Probably. As I mull over my strange anatomy the massive boulders start to evaporate, turning to sparkling dust that blows away on a non-existent wind. At the same time, the gaps in the ceiling smooth over with new material that manifests from nothing. With that chore taken care of, I move to my next task.
Alright, I need to shore up this cave, make sure another night terror won’t destabilize the whole thing. I look through the town, mentally noting where there are large gaps between buildings. Once I find about twelve decently spaced-out places, I act. Huge twisted columns of… something burst from the ground at each of the designated spots. The columns push their way out of the ground and grow towards the ceiling. Their sharp points quickly reach the underside of the cave roof and punch through. Surprisingly I feel small pricks of pain. I guess I can hurt myself?
After a good twenty minutes the massive pillars have finished moving, solidly embedded from floor to ceiling. I move closer to one of them, zooming in on the twisted material it’s made up of. It’s metal, a coppery bronze, and occasionally there are small glass gems placed inside the twisted metal. Why does it look so… oh. It’s the necklace. A cheap necklace I stole from my mother at a young age to try on late one night. My mother was furious when she caught me. Why the hell did that get used?
Whatever, onto the next task. Which is reinforcing the ceiling. My will causes the columns to start to branch out, their metal arms digging into the drywall that makes up the surface of the cave roof. The metal limbs twist together, creating a large central ‘spine’ that connects between each of the columns. Splitting off of that are smaller ‘ribs’ that reach all the way across the cavern, eventually meeting the floor. It quickly looks like the town is inside a metallic beast’s stomach.
Well, I guess it’s time to bust out the olive branch. One of the abilities I chose was picked specifically to calm the residents in case the new constructions were eerie. I’d say that this qualifies. I begin to create the sky above the town. Instead of feeling like stretching or flexing, this ability feels like I’m painting my fingernails. Not that I’ve ever… done that. This ability works much faster than the other two, and within a few minutes the cavern is bathed in sunlight. With the metal ribs and columns it looks like the buildings are inside a massive greenhouse now. I guess it’s better than inside some monster skeleton.
With all the real work done I move to where the town hall is. The building is mostly undamaged, but it won’t stay that way for long. I zoom in even further, checking that the inside of the wooden hut is empty. Once I’ve made sure I won’t hurt anyone with my construction, I test out something I’ve been curious about.
I will the long meeting hall to be gone. Like I would with one of the buildings I’ve made. There’s a resistance, not a strong one, but much more than usual. I push against it, and I see the building beginning to evaporate like the boulders from earlier. While the building disappears a crowd of townspeople begins to form around it. These guys are gonna give me stage fright. I mentally chuckle. I’m also the stage in this case, technically.
As soon as the building finishes vanishing, I begin my work. I don’t want anyone to get in the way, so I start with the foundation. A large flat slab of obsidian appears, what is to be the base of the building. Then I work on the walls, stone painted a similar green to my own insides. Then I place a flat roof, with a staircase up on either side of the building. In the very center of the rooftop patio, I create a large marble monolith, with the words ‘The Lost’ written at the top, in English.
I let out a sigh of relief. That much construction so quickly is exhausting. My mental and or possibly literal muscles are sore. The memorial is self indulgent, I know, but I did it anyway. Fuck it, I’m alone here, I’ll get comfort how I please.
With my emotions finally stable, I begin to move my view towards my core. I was never this emotional on Earth. And certainly not after I was abducted. Maybe it's the dungeon body? But why would a dungeon have heightened emotions? I’ll have to think it over more later.
When I refocus myself, I’m shocked by the state of my core room. I hadn’t paid attention after waking up earlier, I was too worried about the town. But now that I see it clearly, I’m amazed I managed to miss it.
A large half circle of stone buildings have been erected, with the center being my glowing core. What can only be described as a temple has been built around my heart equivalent. Its construction is purposefully made to not obstruct the view of the crystal from within the village, instead clinging to the sides of it. Inside the town are at least a hundred kobolds, many of them children.
What… How? I couldn’t have been asleep that long… Actually, the humanoid town was also quite a bit larger than I remember it being. Maybe it has been that long. After checking my play time stat I figure I slept for almost a month. This is still insane growth for that amount of time. I only made ten kobolds!
One section of the kobold village has a large open space left free of buildings. Sitting inside that space is none other than Blue, who is playing with a large group of kobold children. Outside the almost perfect half circle’s wall is a wide, fenced-off area. Inside that is a group of translucent spiders munching on food scraps. Several kobolds are tending to them, pulling silk from their tail ends.
They learned animal husbandry, in a month. They built a town, in a month. They had ten times their original numbers in children, in a month! Are you kidding me? What are these things? Why are creatures based off of a children’s toy so… functional? Well, it was an educational toy, but the batteries ran out and were never replaced so I don’t really know what it did. I doubt it taught kids about civil planning, though!
Whatever, now that I’ve seen how much they’ve expanded here, I need to reinforce this cave, too. Maybe the spider nest as well. A sigh escapes my mental lips.
I have so much work to do.