Okay. Uh, “It was not my intention to cause any issues here. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Uh, Sir?”

#Full scan of {Inventory} underway.

#Error resolved. {Inventory} is (1) human body, deceased, poor quality, adult male. (1) Mana Heart, immature. (1) soul, damaged, partially cleansed of {Experience}.

#Evaluating options within established budget.

“Wait… my soul is damaged?” That’s why I can’t remember my life, but I can still feel it? Also, my Mana Heart is immature? That doesn’t sound like a good thing either. Do Dungeon Cores start with ‘immature’ Mana Hearts? Because for something that has a vital task to the planet, sending kids to do that, under threat of being subsumed by the ‘other races’ is really fucked up. Uhh, Sir.

Based on Mana accumulation, limited {Inventory} and established Soul statistics. Seven {Themes} are available.

* {Blood} affinity generates {Disease} theme.

* {Decay} generates {Putrefaction}.

* {Beast} to {Parasite}.

* {Flame} to {Smog}.

* {Slime} to {Aberration}.

* {Plant} to {Corpse Blossom}.

* {Mana} to {Chrysalis}.

*Choose from options above.

Just breathe, &$%?@. In… and Out…

Do not get upset with the higher Authority that is just doing their job. Especially when they have the decency to give you options. Even if you don’t particularly like the options, this is what’s in front of us. Breathe, think, and then choose.

This time, I don’t feel that same instinct about the themes that I did with the mob’s selection. Except for the last one. And considering the alternatives, getting stuck with it when, “Could you tell me about the {Chrysalis} theme, please?”

Chrysalis: You are an incomplete Dungeon Core that awoke too soon in the reincarnation process. Choosing this option will lay you to rest so that your Mana Heart can fully mature, and your soul can be fully scoured of {Experience} and then heal. Once complete, you will begin the initiation again. Perks will be removed but the path to earning them again will be established. This allows for a reset and better start for the Dungeon Core process.

So. Basically, ‘I’ can choose one of the options, all of which are less than ideal, but that I can accept are the only real options available because I broke something when I gave into my rage. Or… I can just choose… Oblivion. To let the burden of life pass me by and be reincarnated with only an echo of what I once was, but with a path planned out for a greater chance at success.

And all I have to do… is give up.

…

It hurts. It aches deep inside me. Because I know that the Chrysalis will take a long time. Far longer than it would take me to develop if I just picked something else.

Oh, but that thought worsens the pain even more. Because if I choose to sleep, to forget… Not only will I have less opportunities to meet them again, but there’s also no way the scoured echo of me could possibly recognize the scoured echo of them.

Love is such a devastating curse. “And I will fight to keep it. I will endure all that I can…”

Disease: The host of cultures and imprints of various afflictions in your corpse allow for a variety of microscopic mobs to be generated. Using various Swarmhosts to act as carriers and plague vectors, you could spread far and wide with ease, except for the {Domain} restrictions in place. Any mob that is outside of your territory will suffer from an impaired ability to channel the Mana that sustains them. As a Dungeon Core, refining Mana is only half of your duty. You must also present options for the transference of this processed Mako to the life in your environment. As a disease theme, you would naturally offer the kind of {Challenge} that allows life to incorporate this refined Mako into their Mana Hearts.

#Choose Disease? Y/Y

Yes, or Yes, eh? I guess I can’t really complain. The only other real option above was {Plant} with {Corpse Blossom}. And now that I know I’m also supposed to {Challenge} life in some way to pass on my magic, I’m not really sure how I would go about doing that. But I’m just wasting time now, I’ve already made my decision.

“Yes. I choose the theme derived from {Blood}.” Because while I really don’t want to just choose disease itself. That’s my only real option.

Disease selected! Now that you have your {Theme} established and an understanding of your task as a Dungeon Core, your starting location can be determined.

#A list of starting locations will be presented to you. As compensation for the cascade of Errors if you choose one of the {Lair} locations an extendable {Contract} will be formed with its Lord for it to not negatively impact your growth, until a specific threshold has been reached. Upon reaching this threshold, the Lord will be required to notify you when your {Contract} will expire.

* |Oceanic Crown Archipelago| Lair of Leviathan

* |Mudbrick Warrens| City of Goblinoids

* |Tranquil Glades| Lair of Arboranshee

* |Unnamed Prairie| Unclaimed Wilderness

* |Thermal Spring Mountain| Lair of Phoenix

* |Midas Volcano| Lair of Dragon

* |Belch Barf Bog| Lair of Hydra

*Choose starting location.

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Doesn’t feel like I can get any additional descriptions about these places or even a full picture about what the creatures are. Though I do have some impressions that feel reasonable. Alright, so, let’s narrow this down. First off, if I’m going to be starting with human based diseases, even if they can infect animals and mythical creatures, trying to do so in a gold volcano seems like a bad idea.

Though it may be safer in unclaimed territory, it could also be far more dangerous, as I wouldn’t have a {Contract} to protect me from possible warring states. Though more significantly, it being unnamed means there aren’t likely people nearby, and I don’t want to be that isolated. Which also crosses off the swamp, because whoever named it that was either being ironic, or deadly serious, and I’m not taking that risk.

I suppose starting at the city would give me interaction with sapients, and my swarmhosts should protect me from being subsumed, but… it just doesn’t feel right to me. Which leaves me with just three. Huh. Deja vu…

Anyways, it looks like I’m favoring accepting that {Contract} boon, probably smart. So, do I pick the giant sea serpent, a screaming ghost tree, or the mythical symbol of rebirth. Gosh, when I list them out like that, it’s just so difficult to choose.

|Thermal Spring Mountain| selected! Now that you have your starter location, mission statement, and the style with which your Dungeon will interact with the world, the time of new beginnings has come.

#Good luck. Sorry about the {Name} censor earlier. Earning a {Name} is different for an Entity than just a way to reference someone.

“What? Name censor? What does that me-“

Dungeon Core Base Acquisition complete! Perks are now active.

“-an…”

The convulsions of the Mana Heart settle after a few moments. The wave of nausea and vertigo from being transported from whatever pseudo-space he was at before onto a solid and fully matter aligned reality can be quite jarring.

Now he has to deal with a new set of instincts, ones that aren’t quite compatible with the strong impression that he has of himself as a human. Breathing in Mana to be refined in his Mana Heart is a mostly autonomous process. But finding the right homunculus analog for channeling his ‘Lifestream’ into the manifestation of a {Mob} is a truly alien thing. At least at first.

“Why do I feel so strange? It’s like I’m dreaming about being in a dream… everything is… wrong.”

Timeless Perspective: Sanity Perk. Experience life through your {Mobs}.

The answer to his question came quickly but didn’t help him with his plight. Did that mean that he had succeeded in creating a swarmhost that was pumping out diseases and all of those just lack the capacity to perceive or understand the world in a familiar way? Or is he still helpless, undefended, and vulnerable to being subsumed by any eligible ‘other race’ that might stumble across him. With his perspective neutered because of a Sanity Perk that isn’t making him crazy, but might be killing him, nonetheless.

Assimilate Territory has acquired a New Creature! {Gnat} added to Template Library.

“Oh, thank Authority. Please let me spawn one of those. I can practically hear that annoying whine in my ear, but it’s so much better than this vague nothingness.”

Sparkling Scion manually activated. {Gnat} chosen.

The world explodes into color and scent and sound and motion. In mere moments, the core can once again perceive the world with a method he understands. With the barest thought or desire, the vision shifts around until it settles on two distinct objects on the ground. One looks like an oozing pebble that has a small swarm of gnats buzzing around it, and many dead ones stuck in its goo or otherwise immobile on the ground.

Nearby is another more beautiful piece of art. A brilliant piece of crystal shaped in the form of a human heart in miniature. With tons of intricate details and veins running through and around it. He sighs and both feels and now also sees the heart pulse. The detail of the articulation is beyond the gnat’s sensory capabilities, but it is wonderful all the same, “Thank you, Gnat! Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Name accepted by Scion “Gnat”. Soul imprinted onto |Disease Dungeon, Thermal Spring Mountain|. Reincarnation is available to your imprinted souls.

A wave of weakness dulls his connection to Gnat’s senses while the fragments he does pick up get clearer and more detailed. But as he feels himself slowly recovering from the deluge of Mako that poured forth from his heart, there are several fuzzier, grainier perspectives that add themselves to his perception. These lesser visions seem to spread out, even as high definition continues to stay focused on the slowly beating heart.

When enough of his awareness and cognition returns, the first thing that draws attention is that his field of view has grown tremendously. Most of it is through a low-quality filter, but there is enough overlap from dozens of different sources to make out reasonable details. One thing that is clear is that the field of vision, and scents, are being carried by a dispersed grouping of gnats.

Said gnats are spawning at a decent pace, he thinks, from a much larger and crystal shelled one. One that he knows deep in his soul is Gnat. Now conscious once more, his will causes Gnat to drift down to his heart and gather several of her swarm to get a better look at them both. With the two of them side by side, the details of her exoskeleton are easier to compare with his own body and contrast against the ordinary gnats.

He supposes that the Sparkling Scion perk is responsible for her distinct appearance, having that same crystalline appearance with its pale white-blue color, though hers seems a bit darker except for the outer edges. While for him, the whiter blueness is contrasted by lines of a much darker blue that cycles through with every heartbeat. Though perhaps it is simply a fidelity issue, as the clearness he seems himself is from Gnat’s perspective, while she can only be seen from the patchwork of lesser eyes.

“You’ve been busy while I was resting, eh, Gnat? Also, have I gotten bigger? I know you’re bigger… though I don’t know ‘how’ I know, but I think I might have gotten bigger as well,” he feels a very distant feeling of acknowledgement from Gnat as he praises her. At his question she starts crawling all over him, in an attempt to measure him, perhaps. But she is disrupted when his heart throbs again.

However, as she finishes another pass of walking over him, he realizes something. He can feel the surprising soft and malleable material of himself under her legs, but he can’t actually feel her legs pushing or shifting his body around. Having satisfied whatever drive she had that made her run all over him in the first place she settles on top of him. She then hooks her legs into some of the vein ports and then lifts off into the air, somehow able to support his much larger size.