Yravam woke up and felt lightheaded.

”Is this what it feels like in the afterlife?” If he has a hand, he would be frowning and rubbing his head but no hands eh so just words and feelings.

but then he found himself invaded by a series of information going to his ‘head’ and he found himself having a headache from the amount of information so he cried not that cry like a child but cry in pain.

’aaaaaaaaaouch, it hurts my head!’ But after some seconds, not even thirty seconds, the pain went away.

Though the pain went away, he still didn’t forget it as it feels like the pain you felt when you bit your nail too deep and the thing covering the flesh opens up then blood begins oozing out, kind of pain but 69 times more painful.

After the memory of pains became vague, he then went to contemplate his existence.

'Where am I? Am I in the afterlife? Am I a ghost?' He thinks to himself as he remembers all the events before he died.

[You are on underground] Yravam was shocked as he suddenly found words appearing in his mind.

'So I'm in the dirt huh, so did I really become a ghost?' as he reminisced that he wanted to ask the words what it was so he put his mind into it and then said.

'What are you?'

[I'm a System that will assist you]

'ohhh that doesn't really answer things but at the same time it does. So it's that System huh, he is not unfamiliar with the word ‘system’, as he is a loner by choice, spends his time reading novels mostly fantasy because it's the most interesting genre of finding imagining unimaginable concepts differ from the real word and how it made sense too.

Since he knows what it is, he then asks it about himself.

'What am I?' he said as he was nervous for the response.

[You are a Dungeon Core] he was shocked and then relieved. Shocked because, Dungeon Core? That's one of the things he frequently reads in novels and books. as he thought about the word Dungeon words like floors, levels, rewards, boss, and mobs etc. appeared on his mind. and also relieved because he does not fear that he will become a ghost that will lure people to get lost and that is tiring!

As he went on and on about his future endeavors as a dungeon, he was struck with realization that with that, came the danger. people wanting to delve into the dungeon to kill its spawn and then conquer the core and make it into ingredients of some sort.

Should I abandon being a Dungeon?' as he went further and further into overthinking that he feels suffocation, he thought of escaping to survive, because a person before he died said that you only have one life so treasure it and ensure your safety do what you loved to do after surviving ,though he kinda want to say he got another life, so he muse about that idea UNTIL an epiphany struck him that as Dungeons were feared and respected for they are terrifying because they are home of thousands of thousands of Creatures of all construct.

He thought as a Dungeon he must have some creatures to spawn.

'I want to see my creatures!' as he commands the system.

[you can say the default command 'view species' to see the collection of species you have.

Current Species; Yeocrant Worm]

'worm? ohh so that's the name of the worm I found. Wait, didn't I throw my bag? ah I put them in my pocket in a hurry to run. thank goodness' He was elated to find that he had a creature that he discovered so he wanted them to spawn but he had a big problem.

'how to spawn creatures?' As a reader, he only had theoretical knowledge and zero real experience so he had to ask.

[think of the species you want to spawn in your mind afterwards will your mana to make it reality]

'I see, though I don't have eyes, no?' then he did what it said, as he thought of the name of Yeocrant Worm really hard and then he saw the appearance of the worm. so he wield the mana, which he thinks it was since it was the vague feeling he got a while ago.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

after a minute pass, he felt the movement of the surrounding as worms began to spread out.

'HAHAHAHAHA, spread and prosper My Children!' he humored himself to be like all those big people who created something and then will say these words.

Not long after that, he felt the worms outside of his senses. And he didn't know, seconds after the worms were gone, the suffocation he felt subsided.

then he felt something go towards him and he finds out that it is mana as it feels the same as earlier.

so he absorbed it, after absorbing it he had an idea. so he brushes his mana onto those walls of dirt outside of his senses. and his experiment was successful as he feels that his range of perception expands.

so he did it, spread his mana everywhere and at that time he thought this must be what those Dungeon Core protagonist felt like when they were expanding.

after a series of expansion he felt that he was slowing down so went to find out what it is. he found out that his expenditure of mana outweighs his absorption of it so it slows down.

knowing this he slows down even more to let him generate mana to do both things.

He did this slow expansion for less than 30 minutes, Then he began to think of his worms that went outside of his domain so he began searching for them. But this time it’s only in a single direction, not spread out equally.

To his surprise, it is much easier to conquer his surroundings if he focuses on one direction. With this motivator soon he found his worm. It was eating dirt vigorously but when his senses touched the worm, it made a slight pause then continued eating. This time, it was slow but the amount is not even less.

Satisfied with what’s happening, Yravam continues to search for other worms. He saw them doing things like digging,eating , and burrowing.

After doing this for hours, he felt the surface for the first time.

There was nothing though but he still made an effort to relinquish this moment as it is the sign that he is growing.

After a minute, he felt a surge of mana going to him. He wants to find out what it is but then an image of a fungus appears on his mind. Using his senses he found out what happened, a worm went out of his domain then took a bite out of the fungus then came back to his domain to digest it causing his senses to observe the DNA imprint of the fungus.

‘So that means to get a species I don’t need to kill the whole just be able to read their DNA imprint? Well yeah that made sense since DNA contains information regarding the being it belongs to.’

This changed everything! as it would be easier for him to collect species to become his creature.

With this newfound knowledge he rewarded his worms with extra on the worm who ate that fungus.

Seeing them eat fungus grown by him makes himself feel accomplished.

He was still happy by this event so he wants to spend his time doing the usual absorb, expand, and grow worms.

But then the earth vibrated in anger.

At that moment he feels like he returned to his last moment before he was alive, the feeling of vibration was felt everywhere around him. The only difference is this vibration is not continuous but rather with timing as if it’s made by stomping on an enormous being.

He felt the tremor getting closer and closer so he instructed the worms to go to his core.

And then at last the foot of the being was above that area he conquered on the surface.

He felt his sense become strange as it becomes compressed probably because the ground can’t contain the mass of the being so it caved in. At this moment he also notes that while he can feel his senses, he cannot move or control them for some reason.

As the full mass of the being unleashed itself above him, he felt the being is closer to his location as his senses that are suppressed are getting closer.

Thankfully, It did not last for a long time.

But even so he does not feel good, he is suffocating!

‘What’s happening?!’ He thought as he went to look for the reason for this suffocating feeling. After seconds, he found the reason and it is.

‘Dungeon is a being of mana that gets their mana from the surface and they need an opening that could deliver that mana to the core. If there is no entrance the core will have their supply of mana cut off and could potentially perish!’

‘I need an Entrance now! My creatures! Dig to the surface!’

After he willed his mind all his worms made their way to the surface to create passage for the core.

As for why he instructed his worms to do that and not himself. He noticed earlier that they could move while that being’s foot is above them as for him he couldn’t even actively absorb mana in that position so he began to plan for his expansion in the future.

While the norms in Dungeon say that they should only have 1 entrance, he feels like that norm is not applicable to him as he has more freedom, ironically, in making his dungeon. He has read many other Novels that some dungeons have multiple entrances to their domain, so he planned on doing that! And he plans his senses to follow his creatures wherever they open a passage. Then his creature would be the one to expand his domain!

Seconds after that command, he felt multiple flows of mana going to him.

He got excited as he is right about it! But that plan is for the future after he can be independent as for now he must be the one who expands his domain!

He let his creatures do their thing as he is not keen on micromanaging everything in his dungeon.

It’s been,I think, 3 days and his domain is now vast. He got different types of fungi so he made all fungi species to become one single species called omnes fungus, by the way means ‘all fungus’ in Latin, in his species interface.

As for what he is doing now, it’s because he found a manure of a species whose size is bigger than his domain!

So he commands his worms to eat some cause worms eat manure and manure contains DNA! So if he analyzes the DNA imprint he could spawn the creature bigger than his domain!

‘Eat that manure and then go back here to digest it!’ It's been seconds after he commands that, he can’t see what is happening because going near that creature makes his control of his senses gone so he could only instruct the worms to do it for him.

He waited for a while and then felt the worm return! He got all excited to dream of knowing that creature.

So he reached into the stomach of the worm to analyze the imprints. He saw the complicated and compact information and pattern in that DNA.

After a while, he realized he can’t analyze the DNA or RNA of the creature.

He was dumbfounded and hurriedly asked the system for the reason as he saw it’s not within his range of knowledge and information could hope for a conclusion.

‘Why can't I analyze the imprint of this being?’

[ insufficient mana and knowledge for you to store the Information of the creature.]

‘Oh i see, well that changes everything! Though it’s sad it made more sense that it would make it balanced. Oh anyway I still have time to analyze it in the future.’

Although this news made him sad, he was now filled with determination to grow even more and discover more!

With motivation, he would now make more efforts in spawning creatures and extending his domain.

But before that happens, he felt a rising level of mana in his domain.

He saw that the worm he instructed to get that being’s manure is getting different.

[ A YEOCRANT WORM (FIRSTBORN) IS UNDERGOING AN EVOLUTION]

Yravam: !?!?