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Dungeon of the Hearth
Chapter 2: A candle in the dark

Chapter 2: A candle in the dark

I've been staring out at the frozen world at the entrance of my dungeon for the last three hours. I wish I could be sitting, would make it more comfy, but I hang their instead, looking out at the wide valley before me. I don't know if it is a valley per say, but mountains surround the local area. Presumably i build into one myself. So far from where I float I can see snow and the skeletons of tree's. Since its mid winter, that's not a surprise. Just as decide to head back in, I see a smoke rising from the plains to the right of the entrance. Far enough the faint trickling of snow and distance make it a grey smudge in the sky. I wonder if I'm not alone here?

In the next minute I head back into my hallways. Back to the central chamber, floating to its centre as I focus on the dungeon in total. Its empty and bare, with only my gem and its thin pedestal filling it. I pull up my states, looking at the skill Create Creature. I know it must be used to create life, but what kind? And from what? Sighing, give it, in my head, I think about the skill and draw it up. As usual now, the red pop up appears, only to be surprised as a second, and louder pop up appears over the first.

Attention!

First use of Skill: Create Creature!

With the first use of this skill, the dungeon is given the choice of what creatures it may create. Due to title Lost Soul, the dungeon is automatically allowed to make Spirits.

You may choose two from the selection below:

Animals

Elementals

Undead

Goblins

Gnomes

Kuo-toa

I read through the options, my mind comparing it to one from a ga-. In the next moment my mind grips the memory, one of me playing with friends during the evening. Rpgs and the like, doing quests or just having silly fun. In the next moment the rest slips through my fingers and the rest of it fading. But I remembered something! And from it I at least know what most of these are. If I'm aiming to protect myself, Elementals are a must. They must be like rock men and living wind. Undead are a straight no, as no one lets them be. Animals are tempting, but what would I need them for? I guess wolves and lions are scary. Goblins... are usually gross and cruel. Gnomes, well they mostly are know for being small and like to tinker. The last I can't even guess what it is. With my options I know elementals are for certain, causing its name to light up. Leaving my last choice, which I decide on Gnomes as they could be useful if my memory is right.

Skill: Create Creature

With this skill, a dungeon can forge life from the pure Mana it produces. These creatures are bound to the dungeon, starting off with some loyalty with their creator. Any life that requires heat to survive will draw the initial heat needed from the dungeon during its creation.

As I read, my mind was feed the knowledge of the three species I could now forge from my Mana. From my choices, I have 4 choices from my creatures, Dungeon Spirits, A willow of the Hearth, lesser Elementals and Dungeon Gnomes. The one that gets my most attention is the the Willow of the Hearth, the name sounding similar to another... From what I do know, is that its a elemental spirit of fire, one what leads intruders to traps and other monsters. The oddest of the bunch is the Dungeon Gnome. Seemingly they aren't that smart, given more then the rest of my creatures. Seemingly they are small magic users, seemingly standing at only 25 – 30 cm. Thinking about it, I start to summon two of them, one male and the other female. I felt as the magic was drawn from me, before coalescing into the rough shape engraved in my mind. Soon two humanoids took shape before me, I could feel how my magic formed their bones, muscles and flesh. Then I felt a cooling around me, as some of it started to fill their little forms. Soon two pairs of chestnut eyes opened and looked around the central chamber. Thankfully they formed with fur tunics. Seeing them, each had long hair, covering most of their head and face with just enough of it parting for their noses and eyes to peak out. They quickly ran off and started to explore. I followed the female, watching her run across the flat stone floor and look around like a lamb in a unfamiliar field. As I watched her wander into the left chamber I think back to my magic, gently pulling on it. In a moment I could feel my reserve of it, seemingly making these two had took a large dent out of it. I focused harder on it, feeling out not just my reserve but how it worked. As I started to grasp it, a red box appeared.

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Skill: Mana Manipulation

The Skill to use, sense and understand the workings of Mana.

I smiled to myself, Another skill to help me understand this world. After a moment to pat myself on the back and enjoy it, I focused once more on my first creations. They had both meet up back in the centre chamber, seemingly trying to communicate with gestures and grunting. It was like a silly and crude game of charades! After a few minutes of watching the fervent gesturing they went back off to explore. Watching them I remembered why I first made them. With them being this small, they just might be able to kill a mouse. Thinking over the other three creatures in my repertoire of beasts. It was a quick choice of the elementals. More specifically a earth elemental. Due to their tough stone bodies they could take a beating and deal some of their own.

I then once more floated to the centre of the chamber and focused on where I wanted the elemental to form. I drew on my magic and funnelled it to the area. As I saw strings of mana form, I suddenly saw and felt the stone I had taken from my digging form rockes and pebbles, being drawn to the magic strings. Slowly they started to form short thick legs. I then reached out to my mana and took the creation into my own hands, making its body wider, arms thicker, and head slightly squashed. By the end I had a earth elemental that stood roughly 96 cm tall, looking like a brute ready to beat someone. I watched it once the last of it took shape. It had taken more mana then it needed, seemingly costing more to change them. The more fascinating discovery was that it didn't need heat.

Over the next few minutes of watching my third creation, I caught on that it wasn't the most animate. It slowly wandered the room, slowly and plodding. The gnomes seemingly ran under and around its legs and arms. After another minute of laughing at the display, my laughter stopped and so did the males running. The reason was that the female gnome had vanished. At first I feared my elemental had stepped on her, but their was no sign of that. As me and the last gnome looked for her, the elemental wandered towards the entrance. Soon I caught the male trip on the flo- My mind stops as I remember making the floor perfectly flat. As I focused closer, I was rewarded by noticing mana weaved like a blanket. As the gnome stood up, looking around confused, I pulled on the mana, causing the female gnomes spell to fade away. She quickly stood up, looking sheepish. As I once more sighed in my mind, I was alerted to the entrance to my home. Floating down the sole hallway there, I saw my elemental had reached out of the door. Only to find some of his arm laying against the snow covered ground.

I told it to go back and guard the main chamber. Its arm was half its original size, seemingly torn or falling off after leaving my dungeon. This at least gave me a limitation. None of them could leave. I floated back to where my gem sat, looking at it glimmer gently in the dark. I was close to being drained of mana, something that worried a primal part of myself. I focused once more on my magic, and found it slowly being refilled. Thinking about it, I felt my mind call to rest. Something that I was both over joyed by and worried. I didn't have a body, so why and how could I sleep? As I thought about it, I floated back to the entrance. As I once more looked out, I saw it was still snowing, but more impotently, the smoke raising in the distance looked clearer and flowing wider. Did they build it bigger? Or just more fires? As I watched the smoke and ashes rise, while my mind fluttered with ideas of people I fell asleep.

It was dawn by the time I awoke, the smoke still a black stain in the distance, the snow on the ground a few centimetres thicker. As I checked myself, I realized that I was full on heat and mana once more. Not only full, but with some to spare. As I did the math, I caught on that I had increased mana and heat generation as I slept. At first a boon to me, I realized it was a double edged sword. As I was defenceless and unaware as I slept. As I looked around once more, I noticed the snow had picked up, flowing in a dust cloud of white across the mostly flat plain before my entrance. As my mind thought through how I could harness or copy the effects of sleep, I floated back to my gem. I started to look inwards, my mind trying to calm and fall into the lull of my mana flowing into me. I soon caught it starting to grow faster, almost doubling. I had to be careful about staying in this state, as even feeling accomplish made it dwindle for a moment.

Status

Name: ???

Race: Dungeon Soul

Level: 1

Age: 2 Day

Floors: 1

Denizens: 3

Mana: 60

Heat: 468

Mana Per Hour: 8

Heat Per Hour: 14

Titles: Lost Soul

Skills: Sentience, Dungeon Manipulation, Create Creature, Heat Manipulation, Mana Manipulation