I’ve lived enough days to know that it’s not normal to wake up in a mine. I also know that it’s not normal to be seeing screens not unlike what you’d see in one of those AR or VR games floating around in front of me, especially without the needed equipment. But if I had to pick the least normal thing about my current circumstances, it’s waking up as a thinking rock.
I pushed away a joke about shoving electricity into a rock and tricking it to think, and turn my attention to the aforementioned floating screen. Not that I have much choice in the matter. It’s the only thing I can see right now. The screen is a shiny greenish-black, like polished obsidian, while the letters look to be inlaid gold. The whole thing emits a weird glow that makes it impossible to see anything else.
Divine Message
Greetings Marc,
After careful review of your previous life, and given your extensive experience in your previous position of Dungeon Master, you have been selected for the position of Dungeon Core.
To better facilitate your effectiveness and growth in your new position, you have been allowed to keep previous memories from your past position of Dungeon Master. As per normal policy, all other memories not related to your past position of Dungeon Master or your new position of Dungeon Core have been removed or redacted. You will also receive the Basic starter package to aid in your new position.
Regards, Lower Officer Amnecan
Lower God, Office of Soul Affairs, Department of Reincarnation
The message from the divine bureaucrat disappeared the instant I finished reading it, leaving the weird glow remained behind, but I remembered what it said perfectly. There was a lot to unpack, and I really didn’t want to do it. Thankfully, one thing the gods so graciously allowed me to remember was a lesson I had to learn the hard way multiple times: Avoiding or delaying the bad shit isn’t gonna make it any better. The first, and most important, I’m dead. Or rather, I died. My life as…as... fuck. Those gods damn bastards took my fucking name!
Seething, I dove into my memories to figure out what else the gods had taken from me. I found a lot few than I was expecting. What I found was, as the message had said, all related to my “previous position” as a DM. I remembered all the adventures I’ve even run. I remembered when the orc Cognac of the Drunken Fist had sampled a cask of truly foul smelling thousand year old beer. Thankfully, the party was of a high enough level that they cured the poison the beer had turned into or the rest of the adventure would have been rough. Not that Congac got away scot free. His breath was on the wrong side of rancid for weeks afterwards.
I couldn’t remember who played the orc, though. Or who played the rest of the party. There were no names. No faces. Not even a vague silhouette or a hint of my connection to them. I couldn’t remember the table talk, what snacks were at the table, or what the mini’s looked like. Only the story that’d been told. Along with trying to figure out what was missing, I found a clump of new information that’d been shoved into my head. The new stuff shone in my mind. There was not a lot of it.
I guess that’s all I get from the “basic package.”
The best thing to do would be to go through all the new info and go from there, but I’d never been one to sit down with a new rulebook and read it cover to cover. I still poked through it for anything interesting, though. Things like I’ll be alive for eons, if I’m not destroyed first. There weren’t any specific warnings or dangers mention, however. It was just a passing mention that it was possible for people to destroy me. Good thing I had an imagination, and I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the stories. The various works of fiction I’d read that had Dungeons in them thankfully survived the purge the of my memories.
Of what little information there was, most of it was about how to be a proper dungeon. I put all of that on the back burner. I would go back and read it all eventually, even in the worst written rulebooks there was always useful information to dig out, but I’d been the type of DM to just pick up a system and run it, learning the rules as I used them. Also, I didn’t care what some godly desk jockey thought was the proper way to do things.
On the topic of systems, the only other interesting thing I found during my flip through of what I’m now calling “Dungeons for Dummies” was that I had access to some kind of system. Like from all the stories. The instructions on it were pretty bare-bones, but I suppose there are only so many ways to say “just think about it”. So, with a single thought and the barest twitch of a mental muscle I no longer had, another screen appeared before me.
Dungeon Management System
Unnamed Dungeon
Floors: 0
Bosses: 0
Essence: 100 (0/hour)
Traits: 1 (0)
Milestones: 0
Achievements: 0
That’s a lot of zeros. And not in the fun, very large number way. Especially the one next to Essence.
“Dungeon for Dummies” had little to say on the topic of Essence. Only that I need it to do stuff, that more was better, and not gaining any was not good. Very helpful information. Not that it takes a genius to understand that spending money when you don’t have an income quickly results in having nothing left to spend.
There was one other thing that wasn’t a zero, and that was Traits. I had one of those. I focused on Traits and, following the principle of “just think about it”, thought about learning more. A new, smaller screen popped up next to the first one.
Dungeon Management System
Trait: Dungeon Basics
Rank: MAX
Contains everything a dungeon needs to function
Very Descriptive.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Prompting for more information was a fruitless endeavor, so I shelved it for the time being. With another thought, my stats and the trait window disappeared. I would explore them more later, when I felt I needed to. Right now, I needed to figure out where the hell I was. The brilliant light blocking my vision cleared as I turned my attention outwards. That was a mistake. A big mistake. An absolutely colossal mistake. If I had had a stomach, I would have puked.
Not from the environment, mind you. The environment was fine. I wasn’t in some charnel pit or anything. But going from a singular view point to being able to see in every direction all at once, including inwards and outwards, was more than a little disorienting. Focusing on something specific, like a rock wall, helped. Everything that wasn’t the object of my focus on just faded into the background.
I gave myself a few minutes to stare at the rock wall to gather myself and start getting used to my expanded ocular ability before looking around. One rather slow three-hundred-and-sixty-degree scan later and the tour was complete. The results? I was in a mine. More specifically, I was in a caved-in section of a mine. Rough-hewn grey stone made up the floor, roof, and the two walls I could see. A thin film of water darkened the walls while a wet mixture of fine dust and grit covered the floor. Partially rotted thick wooden supports held up the roof. The far wall was a floor-to-ceiling pile of rubble.
A rusty metal enclosure blocked a good chunk of my vision, so I couldn’t see what was behind or around me. But I could see that I was not completely alone. A pair of bony legs just barely poked into the bottom edge of my vision. The dirty remains of a second miner lay in a heap on the floor nearby. A heavily corroded helmet, pickaxe, and lantern lay scattered around them. The partial remains of a third skeleton peaked out from under the rubble.
I could also see myself. Can’t say my new appearance as a crystal was a surprise. I wasn’t some perfect sphere or super symmetrical shape though. My appearance was more like an inverted white geode, an irregular shape with small crystals of varying sizes poking out at varying angles. The crystal, me, lit up the chamber with a soft glow.
Alright Marc, first step. In the stories they dig out their first room usually. I already have a room so, unless I want to expand it or add a second, I need something else. The problem is that I need essence to do stuff, but I’m not gaining any at the moment. What happens if I dig a room further back and run out?
I absently looked around the room as I thought.
I could dig through that cave-in. Unfortunately, unless there are other cave-ins, I’d be opening myself up to the outside world and I have nothing in place to defend myself. That could be to solution to my essence problem though. Dungeon cores commonly need a clear path to the outside. I think that’s the plan.
I did a quick search through “Dungeons for Dummies” for anything about digging out my dungeon. The guide insisted that proper dungeon layout was room - corridor - room, where the corridors were for traps and the rooms for puzzles and fights. If your only goal was defense, I suppose that works. But it was also boring and predictable and I just never cared for that design.
I also did a quick search for monsters and traps. Monsters are what you’d expect. Undead, giant animals, elemental, demons, etc.. I should be able to just summon them, but there were any instructions on how to do that. Same with traps, really. Minor or major obstacles designed to hinder, maim, or kill invaders. Nothing on how to make or summon them. No instructions beyond that I should just put them down where they make sense.
Great. Well, if I die maybe I’ll have time to give what-his-face a big ol’ fuck you before heading to my next life. Hope doing this doesn’t send some weird signal that tells the entire world I’m open for business.
I cleared my mind and focused on the cave-in. I imagined a digging out a chunk close to the ceiling and pushed that thought at the rubble. Nothing happened. So I tried again. Nada. Once more. This time with effort. The Third time was not the charm. Either I was doing something wrong or I was missing a step.
I went back to “Dungeons for Dummies” and had to search for a good few minutes before finding the answer. What I was looking for was not under digging out my dungeon or anything about constructing the dungeon. It was under a section about my Domain, my area of influence. Specifically, I could only affect things that were within my Domain. There was no other information on what it was or how to expand it.
Guess the only thing to do is to just try it and see what happens. The guide didn’t mention the cost. Hopefully, doing this isn’t too expensive.
Plan decided on, I mentally took a deep breath and focused on the cave-in, holding in my mind the intent to claiming it. Nothing happened for several long moments. Then nothing continued to happen several longer moments. In the end, nothing at all happened.
I tried again and again and again and again and again. Each time picking a different method from a different story or combination of stories. I have no idea how long it took or how many attempts I made, but...
Fucking finally!
I finally felt something around me shift. The method I’d picked involved imagine myself surrounded by a balloon. With each mental exhale, I imagined the balloon expanding in the direction I wanted. My Domain finally started to expand, if a bit slowly. It was an interesting feeling. My Domain flowed easily through the open air, but had to claw its way through more solid objects like the skeletons around me and even more so though all the surrounding rock.
Within my expanding Domain my senses sharpened. While I could already see, it was like it’d just gotten glasses. Everything within my Domain was so much sharper and clearer. I was careful to keep my vision restrained, though. Being able to see every object from every angle all at once was going to take some getting used to.
Enhanced Sight wasn’t the only thing I got. I could smell and taste the air, damp and stale and earthy. Feel the chill of the thin film of water on the walls and the rough edges of the grit and broken rocks on the floor.
I continued to expand, going several feet deep into the surrounding rock and further through the cave-in until I reach the other side.
As I expected, on the other side of the cave-in was more abandoned mine. The air was slightly less stale on this side, but just as damp and earthy and I could hear the sounds of dripping water and the very faint whistle of wind somewhere far away. Without my glow, the area beyond the cave-in was pitch black. Not that I had any more difficulty seeing in the darkness than I did the light.
I expanded a short way further down the shaft before turning my attention back towards the cave-in.
If I’m remembering things correctly, now that I’ve claimed it, It shouldn’t cave in further without me wanting it to. Before I get to digging, let’s just see what I have to work with.
Essence: 53 (0/hr)
So right now, expanding seems to be relatively pricy. I got all of... almost 6,000 cubic feet for fort-seven essence? Not the worst-case scenario, at least. I wonder if I’ll see this as cheap in the future? Hopefully, clearing some of this rock is cheaper.
I focused on the rubble, following the trend of just think it and it will happen, and imagined taking a big scoop off of it near the top. The stone I was focusing on didn’t melt away or atomize or anything like that. It just vanished.
Well, ain’t that something?
The divot wasn’t some supernaturally clean gouge in the rock. There were no sliced in half rocks or anything. Instead, it was more like I had taken a large handful out of the pile of rock and earth and just walked away with it.
I continued to excavate a hole through the pile. It didn’t take long once I got used to the process. A few minutes at most, I think. I likely could have done it all in one go, but I didn’t know if that would be too unnatural looking. If there was danger about, I’d rather not draw attention to myself.
Once the hole reached all the way through, I enlarged it to where someone the size of one of those skeletons could have squeezed through, if with a little difficulty. I mentally pushed some gravel around to make it seem like someone had managed to squeeze out through it to complete the look. No idea if it actually looked like that or if I needed to go that far, but it wouldn’t hurt to be careful.
With that all done, I check my stats again.
Dungeon Management System
Unnamed Dungeon
Floors: 1
Bosses: 0
Essence: 47 (+1/hour)
Traits: 1 (0)
Milestones: 2
Achievements: 1
Looks like an outside connection is necessary to gain essence after all.
Actually gaining Essence felt like an important milestone, even if I didn’t feel any different. Speaking of milestones, apparently I’ve achieved two of them and an achievement.
I bet one milestone is about opening up. I suppose the other could be about claiming some amount of space? The achievement is either gonna be for something basic or because I did something really stupid.
Dungeon Management System
Milestone: Get a Room I
Make your first room.
A room does not a Dungeon make, but it is an important first step.
Reward: 1 Schema
Dungeon Management System
Milestone: Outside Connection
Establish a traversable connection to the world outside your dungeon.
One of the most important step in Dungeon development is creating a traversable path between the core and the outside world. I hope you’re ready.
Reward: 1 Schema, 1 Trait Point
Dungeon Management System
Achievement: Impatient
Create a connection to the outside with nothing but obscurity to protect yourself.
While eagerness is appreciated, patience is a virtue and can prevent tragedy. Maybe some defenses should be next on the list?
Reward: 2 Schema, 3 Trait Points
At the edge of my influence, I felt something move.
Well fuck